"Best 28mm SCI FI figures?" Topic

I've been reading through the Stargrunt rules which look very interesting. I'll need some figures to play with (mainly infantry). Since I'm not using GW rules I'm not tied to using their figures.

Are there any other 28mm figures out there to rival GW?

GZG's figures are nice, but they are 25mm not 28mm (definitely smaller than GW-sized figures).

I like the Copplestone Future Wars figures and their little brothers, the old Grenadier Future Warriors line, now sold by eM4 (also sculpted by Copplestone). I have about a reinforced platoon of the old figures. Their opposing force is about a company of the metal Cadians.

You may also consider the GZG 25s or, even better, their 15s.

If you want non-humans, then the Regiment Games Drantakhs, available from Scale Creep Miniatures, are quite nice.

You can see many SF ranges compared here:
link

Just look at the links on the right.

Me, I use Copplestone Neo-soviets and Partisans.

Urban War / VOID stuff is very nice..

It depends a lot on the style you want. There are a lot of good lines. I have a good number of GW's Cadians because I like their "regular grunt" feel, prefer plastic to metal when doing conversions, and they are cheap. Probably my next favorite human troops are the Pig Iron troops (although I don't have any… yet).

The old VOID figures are very nice. I personally don't care for the new ones as much, but it is a question more of style than quality.

Oh, and the AT-83 human troops are good, too. I really like the Russian ones.

The Pig Iron troops are great. I have some of both the Kolony Militia and the Assault Troops (which need to be painted, but still…). Definitely recommended. Urban War Viridians are also excellent for both standard and elite troops.

Have a look at Corvus Belli's anime-influenced Infinity range, and at Aberrant Games' Rezolution. Neither are much like the Tuffleyverse in style, but they might give you some inspiration.

Some others in the "Imperial Guard"/ Aliens marines style, not so far mentioned:
1st Corps
Woodbine Design Company (Gripping Beast)
Kryomek (Scotia/Grendel)
em-4 Combat Zone plastic guards

Have you considered 15mm? GZGs makes a nice line of figures.

You might look at Iron Wind Metals, the VOR line of minis. I like the grizzled look of the Union. Every time I think about Stargrunt rules I think of VOR Union troops. I have several dozen, primed only, I swear I'm gonna paint'em and play'em with these rules.

Not sure about your budget, these run about $4.00 USD a figure.

Left hand miniatures has a range of Sci Fi Cops.
They are NOT like GW's but certainly serviceable.

Check e-bay for Warzone figures.. nice, and easy to paint..

I've been using the AT-43 UNA and Red Blok figures for Stargrunt, as well as All Things Zombie and Chain Reaction 2 (since I haven't picked up 5150 yet).

The main advantage is they are already painted, and painted decently enough for gaming.
They have a range of different troop types, and some battlesuit figs, plus mech/walker types.

These guys are new, they only have two figures at the moment but they are very compatible in size with Infinity.

mercsminis.com

All the other ranges I know about are mentioned above and, as others have said, you need to decide on a style. Compare the Pig Iron with the Infinity, for example.

"Have you considered 15mm? GZGs makes a nice line of figures."

IMHO, Stargrunt II actually works better with 15mm than it does with 25/28mm.

I don't recommend playing Stargrunt with Infinity models, unless you've got DEEP pockets. Unfortunately, it seems that the going rate for single 28mm scifi minis is at least $10 USD these days, and some of the Infinity minis are higher than that. Makes it expensive to build up even a platoon of troops. Also, Infinity doesn't have a full line (at least if you're talking about support weapons), so you'll need to convert some of those $10-$17 minis.

Don't get me wrong, I've got way too many Infinity minis (I play PanO and Yu Jing), but I don't have enough of any one 'unit' to play a SG platoon. Not even my Zanshi. Only have 15 of them.

The Pig Iron minis look anime-inspired to me: they look like Appleseed ORC suits. hlj.com/product/ALP32014-2 It's just a different kind of anime. Appleseed (anything Shirow does, really) is known for being physically possible. It's also really gritty.

I'm a big fan of the gzg 15mm for Stargrunt. There's also plenty of modern and historical 15mm that will work. There's also plenty of other folks in the UK who make sci fi 15mm.

Now if I can just find some 15mm snipers for my NAC.

i'm working on a 25mm army for stargrunt – Hasslefree miniatures Grymn (space dwarfs – but thinner and beardless!! :-) )

link

Brandlin
brandlin.blogspot.com

I would agree with Steve Flanagan's advice on the Corvus Belli Infinity figs. They really are the best out there. But Lion in the Stars is correct, they are pricey. I think you can get regular infantry for about $5 USD a figure or so, but the heavy weapon troops are about $10 USD each. Not bad if you are playing infinity as you only need about 10 models or so a side.

But if you are looking for the best, those are the figures you want.

there are a LOT of Star Wars clix that are dirt cheap and perfect for Sci-fi gaming.

Thanks,

John

If you want to look at Clix, the Halo figures are good for SF games.

GZG's won range for Stargrunt are excellent for the game; there is a huge range of them and if you want to play "canon" then the core troops are there and all the ranges (15 plus different types of nation/troop type) are available. In each range there is enormous variety and little need to customise… the New Anglian Marines has over 50 different figures!

As mentioned though, Pig Iron and the Grenadier/EM4/Copplestone are all really good for Stargrunt as are the GW Cadians.

Personally I have something like 7 different platoons worth of GZG minis, unashamedly the OUDF (future Aussies) are my favourites and I do have a full Company worth of them….

"I have several dozen, primed only, I swear I'm gonna paint'em and play'em with these rules."

The Vor union troops are really easy to paint. All I did was paint them catachin(sp?) green-I inked them heavily with the GW dark green ink-and then I dry brushed catachin green. (then I painted the guns and the faces-and they looked really great.

When Stargrunt hooked me, I too went looking for 28mm scifi minis and found most of the ones mentioned already (all very good recommendations I must say). Pig Iron is a clear favorite with me (I've got two platoons worth) but running close second would be the old Vor Union minis, and the EM4/Copplestone stuff. I am also quite partial to the stuff Urban Mammoth puts out for their Urban War and Metropolis games.

Nothing much to add expect my opionions on some of the lines mentioned…

Firstly, I have to agree on Infinity figs being the top of the line, qualitywise, especially if you like cleanline futuristic stuff. On the downside, their aliens aren't that hot generally and also some of their human designs are too over-the-top-animeish for my taste, and you can expect to pay through the nose for their quality. Also, these are ca. 32mm scale and thinnish of build so don't mix extremely well with GW minis.

Secondly, for gritty and/or future gothic, Urban War/Metropolis is a good alternative to GW although they aren't massively cheap either (being all metal). They are close to "true 28mm" and quite compatible with GW, although I find they have a bit better body proportions so they look slighter. The same goes for old VOID stuff although they are quite a bit more cleanline futuristic in style.

In the case of AT-43 prepaints, the rule of the thumb would be "the bigger the better": larger models, be they infantry or vehicles, are rather competetively priced and have better paint jobs than human sized. These latter are something like 35mm and thus clearly bigger than similar GW stuff.

For a couple of wild cards…

Firstly, I urge all of you to pester Bob Naismith to actually re-release his Cobalt minis:
bobnaismith.com/page10.html
Nice retrofuturistic metal minis at a fairly sensible cost, but unfortunately very few of them are actually for sale the last time I asked. IIRC there was just some Ar-Men (them's the dog boyz) and Cobalt Mercs in stock at the time.

Secondly, Dark Age Games has stuff for a really post-apocalyptic/gothic gaming. They are nice technically, but a bit pricey, about compatible with Infinity in size and probably won't work too well with Stargrunt as the armaments are mostly very primitive:
dark-age.com/main.php

Thirdly, for a fairly priced "realistic" power armour types scaled at ca. 30mm, you could try Defiance Assault Troops. There's only 6 poses and 3 weapon types (although some are easy to convert) and they aren't sterling sculpts (better in the "flesh" than in the pix tho), but they can add an odd specialist unit or two to your more standard infantry based force:
link

tnjrp: Ooh! Didn't know about those Bob Naismith figures. Very nice!

brambledeamon…..I'm gonna try that on a couple. Thanks.

Well…

To answer the question, I think the best 28mm Sci Fi figures out there right now are Hasselfree Grymns (sci-fi dwarves). They have, IMHO, the kewlest weapons, armor and helmets.

Very nice sculpting, good prices and, even more important to me at least, quite a varied and growing line.

Got to see these in person at Salute 2008 and was very impressed. As a matter of fact didn't realize they were suppose to be dwarves. Ha.. I'm stupid.. maybe.

I have a bunch of Copplestone/em4 troopers and they are quite nice. But if and when I get the urge to do some more Sci Fi troops I will be heading directly to Hasselfree.

I'm using mix of Copplestone Neo-sovs and troopers GW metal cadians and various copplestone and GW odds and ends for irregulars. All seem pretty compatible when painted and on the table and plenty of choice. Have my eye on some Pig Iron to add.

There still seems to be a distinct lack of more 'hi-tech' stuff out there though to represent the various power armour types. GZG still do the widest range, but they really do stand out against most other ranges size wise. Shame…

Void and Em4 go well together.

I'm finalising my old Future Warriors squads. Same series of figs, but different factions.
i.e. generic urban camo platoon (U.S.?): Grenadier/Em4 troopers with berets, lasers and sniper supported by a Void women with heavy laser (mecha-hunter) and a three-man squad of void viridian powered armour guys and girl.

Colonial Marines: same line but the guys with bare heads mostly, supported by VOR union power armour squad (look good together.

the Ejercito Mexicano: the FW troops with helmets and sunglasses, NBC anti zombie assault squad, supported by FW powered armour that look more primitive, so well suited for a poorer nation.

Eureka Miniatures has some very nice ultra modern Germans and Australian SAS.

QUAR!!! (zombiesmith)and Grymn (hasslefree)The Old Void have some nice humans.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Prior to posting I thought there wasn't much of an alternative to GW. But there are some fantastic figures out there. I love the Pig Iron, Copplestone, Hasslefree, and Urban Mammoth figures.

Chortle – you might also like to look at the Hydrassians from alpha forge games if something a little wierd is your cup of tea.
link

or perhaps the mephalians from the same company
link

If you don't mind ordering from Europe, Prince August has the old Warzone plastics.

These are ideal for cheap volume. They work out to about $.50 USD a figure.

For about 20 Euros ($30) you can get 80 plastic guys(two different full platoons of four ten man squads each)!, 40 of which are Imperial "doughboy in gas mask" looking guys and 40 of which are Bauhaus Ducal Militia which are sort of like "Doom Space marines in gas masks who have WWI Pickel Haube style helmets" looking guys.

Both groups have sargeant and heavy gunner variants.

link

If you are in the US they will deduct VAT but shipping is quite high. It totals out to about $40 USD US for 80 guys.

The only problem is you might need to buy something else because they have a minimum order of 30 Euros butthe item is only 19.99 Euros. Prince August has lots of resin pieces at 1 Euro or less so you can cover the difference easily. There is a resin pillar for .50 Euros that brings the total up to $40.80 USD US with standard shipping to the US and the VAT removed.

That's a pretty good deal I think.

If you want orks and marine there is the new Black Reach box set.

Grymn…the best 28mm scale sci-fi minitures by far.

There are also the Greys from Griffin Miniatures (they are pretty cool as well).

Black Scorpion sell aliens as well and they are the dogs danglies too.

Copplestone castings has greys and some ultra modern/near future stuff that would be great for Imperial Guard.