"15mm Dinos" Topic

Can anyone recommend a source for these?

Preferably someone selling here in the States…?

I 2nd that. I have a few plastic kid-toy dinos, but have been thinking about getting something better. My little dudes (and dudettes) are getting tired of shooting at each other. Shooting other peaople is terribly taxing and they have worked up a powerful hunger for some dino-burgers, dino-kabobs, dino-scampi, and my favorite dino-tempura.

Cheers!
~OD

Dollar store, pack of six. Throw out the one with wings (!?), clean the flash, prime them.

Paint them in the dino-scheme of yor choice and no one will know they're not tin.

Mine have lizardmen riding in howdahs and all sorts of things. I may have one pulling a war cart soon.

Andrew

Let's see . . .

First and foremost, save Steve Pugh's link:
link

You can always get other ideas here:

link
TMP link
link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
link
link
TMP link
link

Hope this helps.

CC
link

Thanks for the links CC. Particularly the first one to Steve Pugh's. Very helpful. Dinosaurs were going to be my next project after… well after the ton of other stuff I have on the list.

But I want a Gumbosaurus…they're spicy!

Technically, ours are pre-dino.

Geoff
link

"Dollar store, pack of six. Throw out the one with wings (!?), clean the flash, prime them."

*Weeps for humanity*

What is it about historical minis and games where any old thing will do? I mean, I'm biased (no, really), but sometimes it seems fricking ridiculous with complacent gamers and lazy sculptors both keeping the vicious circle turning. It especially frustrates me when prehistoric animals are involved.
Yeah, gameplay's important, but is it too much to ask that the game looks presentable too?
My resolve is strengthened. The putty comes out tomorrow. I'll work for years if necessary until no-one feels the need to mention dollar-store toys or Tin Soldier dinosaurs…

Get busy Vermis! And, while you're at it, try to make a few for 28mm gaming.

Thanks.

CC

I use to be a little sceptical about how good some of these cheap $2 USD toys could look until I saw some fine examples of well painted plastic toys from both the 'dollar stores' and Early learning Centres. Even though I had liked what I had seen from manufacturers, funds were and are tight, so I caved in and bought some to use for Gaslight. Overall, I'm pleased with the result:
picture

Vermis, good luck with the sculpts and please keep us updated with your work.

Cheers,

Barry
link

krentzpresentz.com

This fellow does some really nice 1/72 scale dinos. I bet they would still look good next to some 15mm figures. The prices give me pause, wish he did them in white metal.

In the cold light of day I'd just like to say that I blame the flu and the late hour. ;) But I still think we need more David Krentzes.

"Technically, ours are pre-dino."

Technically, Geoff, two of yours actually are dinosaurs, and the rest are contemporary with early dinos. ;-)

In all seriousness, some dollar store stuff is laughable. I have a F/A-18 Hornet around here somewhere with USAF on the wing. Go team!

The dinosaur with wings, is great, since its in a package labelled "dinosaurs" not "fantastic creatures" and the other dinos are real (though not particularly good).

But some is usable, if you just repaint it. I have Dinosaurs are the only thing I've ever used, personally, and I'm satisfied with them. I've got a 2" spider that looked like a plastic spider until I covered it with black primer, now its terrifying. But I haven't used the spider yet.

Really, if I paid $5-10 for a tin dinosaur, how much better would it have been?

Andrew

Post pics somewhere and I might be able to judge. ;)

And while I'm at it… to a lot of people – fantasy/sci-fi gamers more so than historical, to reiterate one of my points – miniatures are important in gaming. Some people are even only in it for the miniatures! Painting, converting, dioramas, etc. I expect they're a small minority compared to gamers, but they're still there.
To those people, well-made miniatures are a lot more highly prized than sloppy ones. Speaking personally, if I wanted a carnivorous dinosaur for a game, I would probably try for Reaper's Carnotaurus first. I wouldn't even entertain the idea of purchasing e.g. the Tin Soldiers 'Tyranasaurus' (sic) linked above. If I did, well… I hate to trot out the old 'might as well play with paper counters' chestnut, but it's a decent illustration. I think others would feel the same way.

I am one of those people Michael Crichton's novels refer to as dinosaur nuts. Have been for as long as I can remember, long before the idea of rolling dice and pushing tiny fighting men across a table was introduced to me. In particular I'm interested in palaeoart (a posh term for drawing dinosaurs and other dead critters). I've also seen the general progress of that, on and off, since the eighties. In that field accuracy (accurate to the latest findings and generally-accepted theories, at least) is prized above all else. Sometimes I think it comes at the expense of expression and aestheticism, but I digress. The drive to 'get it right', to emulate favourite palaeoartists and to 'wow' peers is strong among amateur palaeoartists. I've seen a few online amateur galleries with a strong and steady improvement from earliest works to current, sometimes from near-doodles to pieces that wouldn't look out of place in publication (and are often a lot better than some of the cheaply-illustrated dino books that continually circulate).

When I look from that area to dinosaurian gaming miniatures, to Steve Pugh's list, it's small wonder I despair. Too many are painfully outdated: plodding tail-dragging lizards from a perspective that is decades old. Others are warped and cartoony (what is up with that WotC Fiendish Tyrannosaur?), or just plain innacurate. The Jeff Valent tyrannosaur that I recently criticised comes to mind. I expect most here would snort 'what's wrong with it?'. Then maybe I am asking too much, being too pedantic; but I'm willing to bet that if accurate, well-sculpted tyrannosaur miniatures were available to gamers, a much larger part of the community would share my criticisms.

So why aren't there more well-sculpted dinos? Why do most sculptors shy away from the standards of David Krentz or the late Dennis Mize (whose old beastmaster velociraptors and Reaper carnotaurus are the best I've seen in the hobby)? I don't know. Maybe demand is too low for new sculpts, and companies simply continue or reissue old, crappy minis. Maybe the 'it'll do' mentality of gamers (the mentality that drives me up the wall, makes _me_ mental) keeps demand for updates and improvement low. Maybe that mindest reaches sculptors too, and maybe something keeps them back from easily researching or making an effort or even giving a crap. Maybe it's a subtle blend of all that and other matters.

I don't know; but I'm going to try to do something about it. It might take years, it might come to nothing, but hopefully it'll create a situation where people would rather pay $5-10 for a tin dinosaur.

I forgot about the poses.

Dollar store dinosaurs are okay for ceratopsians and stegasauruses and other creatures whose posture we haven't changed our understanding of. I'm sure the theropods are wrong, though. Not sure about the hadrosaurs and sauropods, they look okay to me.

So I withdraw my protest. If dinosaur accuracy is important to you, $5-10 is clearly a fair price. I would pay extra for accurate Egyptians, I suppose.

But considering my dinosaurs are mounts for lizardmen, well, I'm not going to fault myself for an improperly posed theropod.

Actually, it turns out the lancer (he's a Behemoth General for HotT) is riding a parasauropholus which is probably posed wrong, and the howdah with archer and spearman is on a sauropod which is probably much too small.

Andrew

I second everything Vermis said. And I'll raise a glass tonight to the late, lamented Dennis Mize. His prehistoric beasties are still among the best in the business, and well worth searching for. In particular, he sculpted *very* realistic prehistoric mammals for RP when other companies couldn't even be bothered to sculpt accurate minis of "popular" dinos like T-rex and triceratops. Case in point, the Grenadier/Pinnacle dinos from 1982. While some of the sculpts are okay, all of the dinos are tail-draggers.

Andrew: considering the Magister Militum announcement (currently) on the front page, I guess that's one of the reasons you're happy with dollar-store toys. :) And I don't blame you.

That mini is a travesty, nothing less. The other mini forums I visit would call for someone to be lynched if that photo was posted there. The sculpt and paintjob make it look like some child's first try with plasticene.
Seriously though, this is what makes me think companies couldn't care less. Even if it wasn't a dinosaur I'd wonder if MM could make it any _less_ presentable.

Although… if that's a 2 pence piece it's based on, then…

It's still a travesty. I'm only a beginning sculptor, but I've sculpted 6mm characters with more and cleaner detail than that.

JPattern: I hadn't heard of his prehistoric mammals. I'll have to check that out. Is SOL a good starting point?

Vermis, look for Dennis's Beastmaster line, 01-700 to 01-714. Dennis sculpted beautiful true-25mm minis of Megalictis, Cave Lion, Chasmaporthetes, Machairoidus (Sabertooth), Hyaenodon, Giant Tiger, Cave Hyena, Giant Cheetah, Osteoborus, Daphoenus, Phorhusracos, Smilodon (Sabertooth), and Dire Wolf.

He also did some other nice true-25mm prehistoric mammal sculpts in the Children of the Night line from the early 80s:

13-019 Brontotherium and Rider (rider is separate, and no saddle on the bronto)

13-026 Diatryma and Phororhachus (not mammals, but not dinos, either; Phororhachus is different from Phorhusracos above)

13-029 Gorgonopsian War Dog (Lycaenops – mammal-like reptile – with collar, leash and human handler)

13-032 Therapsid Carnivores (Lycaenops from above, minus collar, leash, and handler, plus Cynoganthus – another mammal-like reptile)

13-101 Atlantean War Mastodon (with howdah and human warriors)

There are photos of some of these on the Dinosaur Collector's Ral Partha page: link

Jpattern2,

I've been looking for that Ral Partha link for some time now. I knew it was buried in one of our TMP topics.

Thanks.

CC