"Best prepaints, CMGs, and Clix for reuse and/or repainting " Topic

Hey folks, I don't dabble over here much, but I thought I'd ask. I'm a gamer and a cheapskate. I've got a set of Combat Zone rulebooks and minis on the way, but I was looking at CMG figs as a possible way to cheaply acquire some new figs. There seem to be alot of sellers selling figs cheaply, but there's also a ton of Games/Factions/Versions to sort through. I'm looking for:

1. Figs with a reasonably good ammount of detail. I'm not expecting GW/Copplestone/Privateer quality here.

2. In -or close to- 28mm scale

3. With paintjobs that are either good enough to use with some work, strippable, or thin enough that I can paint over

4. Fit in one of the following settings.
a) Combat Zone: Post apocalyptic, near future, etc.
b) Necromunda: GW'esque far dark future asthetic
c) Steampunk: figs, robots, Steam powered creations etc.

5. Be Cheap. Preferred a buck or less a fig, unless it's something really cool.

If anyone can point me to certain games, factions, or even particular figs that would be great. Thanks in advance.

I've really enjoyed re-using:

Lobster Johnson from INDY Clix (as a generic handgun toting begoggled thug)

Brass Golem from Mage Knight (the original line… these stubby little spike backed golems have a nifty look to them)

Additionally "The Hulk" makes a great Super-Mutant (a la fallout); the SHIELD Agent makes a good generic assault rifle toting trooper, and Galeshi Berzerker (Mage Knight) as a tribal wastelander.

I don't have time to scrounge for picture links right now, but I'll see about doing that later on.

Just go to e-bay and go to the clix section and have at it. Most have pics of the minis and most are pretty cheap.

Brian

Dreamblade had some good ones for aliens and Cthullu-esque nasties:

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HorroClix Joker makes for a good pshyco for Combat Zone:
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Some DnD figs, like the Ice Devil, make for good aliens, too:
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Some of the Star Wars prepaints from WOTC can do double duty with other sci-fi/futuristic games. I have quite a large number of Fringer humans pressed into service as futuristic human civilians with only minimal conversions needed.

Thanks for the suggestions! There are some pretty cool figs in there. I especially like the Lobster Jonhson, and Turbo Pig has some really professional looking repaints/rebases.

Do most of the figs mentioned scale to 28mm?

Keep the suggestions coming!

No most are quite a bit larger than 28mm. The Star Wars and D&D figs from WotC are probably the closest, but even they are slightly larger. Any of the Wizkids Clix (Heroclix, MageKnight, Horrorclix, MechWarrior, etc..) stuff is much larger. Closer to 35mm I'd say. There's lots of stuff that will work though, especially the non-human/monstrous stuff as it is essentially scale free. That being said I'll be using some of the Horror Clix stuff in my Pathfinder RPG (Paizo's evolution of D&D 3.5) game I'm going to be running. It will be using lots of 28mm figs and I don't worry about scale differences.

That's good to know. I guess that means the mage knight humans are going to be too big. Oh well, leafing through a few pages of star wars figs, there appear to be quite a few figs there that could be of use.

Anyone know what scale this is? link

I did notice some interesting robots (Golems?) from Mage knight. It would actually be good if thse were larger.

Do Comic shops ever sell separate clikies? If they do, maybe I could bring a fig for scale and do some comparing.

All the Star Wars minis are 28mm. So that dude in the carrier is about that.

There's a comic/collectible shop that I go to that has tubs and tubs of Heroclix, Star Wars, and D&D plastics. Most for a buck apiece for small minis and two bucks for huge. They pull the really rares out and sell those seperately.

Good to know about the carrier, that would make a good base for any number of vehicles.

I've got to find a store that sells like that. Anybody know any comic stores in the Chicago area that sell loose clix?

The AT-43 figures are good near future and SF infantry. They also have some nice vehicles to back them up.

Some of the Heroscape figures are useful too – pretty much any genre is in there. MIB, GI's, fantasy, aliens and so on.

The base on the Rebel Troop Cart is 3 inches in diameter. It extends about an inch past the base on each long side. Lots of comic book and game stores sell loose clixs, but your best bet is some place like Troll and Toad online. They have lots of clix and WotC figs for sale at good prices. You will run into the rare expensive figs though, so unless you really want them, stick to the cheaper commons and uncommons and you'll have all you need in no time.

Here's a link.

link

Also search for Horrorclix, they have some cool/cheap mutant/Necromunda types (Braineater, Survivor, etc). They are similar scale to teh Heroclix.

I second AT-43 figures. They are heroic 28mm and the paint jobs are good enough right out of the box to use.

You can acquire some of these boxed sets for very cheap. For example, the Red Blok RPG Unit & Attachment boxes go for $10 USD each (normal price was something like $25-30).

miniaturemarket.com/red_blok

That's 14 pre-painted 28mm+ figures for $20. USD Most of the time, you would be paying $18 USD (normal sale prices) for 6 pre-painted figures. So if $3 USD per figure is not too bad, then half that is really good.

Some boxes are out of stock or hard to get, so they still have higher prices.

Check out the other factions as well. You might find some cool looking figures, pre-painted, cheap enough to lure you in.

Delthos, thanks for the measurements and the link.

Seattle Gamer,
I've seen some cool at43 stuff. However, IIRC, weetoysoldiers used to have comparisons showing that the figs were bigger than 28mm GW stuff.

The russian hardsuits are super-cool though…

I just looked through Toad and Troll's 1 buck or less Star Wars list. WOW! There's an amazing number of figures that would be great for near future and post apocalyptic figures humans. Also alot of aliens that could be made human with a head switch.

One more question:
How big are the bases that they are based on? I'm wondering if I can just stick the base on top of a 25mm round or if I will need to clip them off and reattach.

I have used an assortment of them over the years; Haloclix, heroclix, mageknight, starwars, mechwarrior.

here are a couple of assorted pics with GW figures thrown in for scale.

link

link

link

The rundown on a few of them;

The "ogre" in the back is a mageknight figure with a GW Ork head.

The ithorian is a starwars figure with ork arms and legs added, as well as the tunic resculpted.

The large robot in the back is a mechwarrior mech of some sort. (Tip – pop off the bottom half of the turn base and you have a ready made smaller base right there.)

HALOCLIX grunt was rebased

Assorted heroclix repainted badly and quickly for a one off game of evil genius. They are taller than GW stuff but remember that they do make a great source of parts for stuff if your clever.

The treeman is a rebase from mageknight, and the rest are D&D gnoll, starwars jawa, mechwarrior jumptroopers, and mageknight dwarf mechanic?

I would say troll thru all the different sites and check to see what they have – having done that myself there is a pile of parts to work with cheap.

Here is a few more scale pics from some of the other haloclix

link

The Star Wars and D&D bases on individual man sized figs (called medium size in the RPG terms) are 1" in diameter.

Delthos,
Thanks, that means the bases are already the right size.

Dropzone toe.
Those Pics are super hepfull! Nice job on the Warzone imperial by the way. Also, from leafing through some of the Mage Knight stuff it looks like there are dozens of figures that could become orcs with a head swap.

What fig is the red bearded fellow with a circular saw and primitive power armor?

I have thousands of Heroclix and a few hundred Mage Knight. The thing with them is really that the scale is all over the place. Not every figure is too big.

I rebase my duplicates to use with other lines and for the most part they fit in fine. Especially the older sets. I put them on washers instead of the standard black plastic base most of us use. It helps trick your eye that they are all on the same level too.

The base calls it a "Steam Tinker".

Local hobby store has a tub of mageknight commons and I dug it out ages ago. So I have no clue as to what army it goes to.

Thanks for all your help everyone. I just placed an order to Troll and Toad. Mostly SW miniatures, but I grabbed a couple mage knight and indy clix to see the scale. I managed to find the Steam Tinker and Lobster Johnson!

32 figs for 24 bucks shipped! I tried to pick figs with some good detail but even if a third of them are unusable because of quality or size I'm still looking at a pretty good deal.

I'll post my thoughts when they arrive. I plan on trying to strip one or two as well, so I'll report on that also.

You are better off not trying to strip them. Just paint over them. I've not heard of anyone having luck stripping off the paint they use on these figs. It's some kind of super-paint/industrial adhesive that just doesn't come off.

I would also agree that you would do fine to just repaint over them.

Congrats on the deal and post some pics of what you manage to do with all them, Repaints, conversions whatever.

Delthos,
I'm expecting to just paint over, and I'm actually looking forward to not having to prime and basecoat. However if the paint job is too thick I'm going to give the acetone splash a try. That's the only thing I've read about as having any effect on the fused clix-paint.

Dropzonetoe,
Whatever the results, I'll definitely report back with some size comparisons to GW stuff and to the EM4 stuff that's on the way right now.

If I can get hold of a camera (mine was stolen in a recent break-in) I'll do pics as well.

The figs are here, and I'm quite impressed. New review topic coming soon…

Cannot wait!