"Thinking of starting fantasy 6mm or 10mm?" Topic

I would like an Undead army preferably and I am not familiar with any 6mm or 10mm figure manufacturers. I mainly play 28mm but I like the idea of having huge vast armies to play around with. What companies produce the best looking figures in this size range? Cost isn't so much of an issue unless it is extremely expensive. In your personal opinion should I go for 6mm or 10mm?

10mm Fantasy has some nice stuff, there are Copplestones lovely orcs and humans, and if you can find a set on ebay cheap, the Battle of Five Armies set from GW gives you a good range of Humans, Elves, Dwarfs and Goblins with Wargs.

As to undead, Kallistra used to do a nice range of them in 10mm.

Be wary of Pendraken 10mm as a lot of the figures are huge, almost 15mm.

10mm has more selection than 6mm IMO. Pendraken are excellent. GW's Warmaster undead are excellent as well if you base for Warmaster, which is free. Kailisra is also excellent. You can't go wrong with either. Don't forget that historical armies can work for fantasy armies as well, bringing Old Glory and others into the mix. Check into 15mm as well. After all, you are switching to a new scale so you might as well check out all options, right?

Thanks for the quick replies! As for 15mm I don't want to go there just yet, I want to try to convert some of my gamer friends to the smaller scale. So after doing a bit of research it seems warmaster are the best figures followed by copplestone?

EDIT: Have decided to go with 10mm figures as the time it takes to do 6mm and 10mm should be relatively the same and I notice in 10mm the figures look a lot nicer. Now to choose an army. What are the best looking figures?

If you want to play Warmaster, which is an excellent game, and you like GW armies and money isn't really an issue, then you might as well order them from GW. You can also check into their Battle of the 5 Armies, though not sure if they still sell it. No undead, but a great value especially if you like LotR.

Just a thought: we played our five 6mm ancients game last weekend (not fantasy, I know, but based to be usable for Warmaster).

The individual figures don't look nearly so good as 10mm (obviously). But what was impressive is that the armies looked like armies. We had played the same game a couple of weeks before in 15mm, same based sizes, and the difference was dramatic!

In 28mm, we'd get two figures per based (40mm x 20mm bases). In 15mm, that was four figures on the same base. In 10mm, it would be around 8-12 figures. But in 6mm, it was 24 figures per base! It looked like an army, not an overblown skirmish.

And once play starts, what matters, I think, is the look of the army, not the individual figures. It is a completely different style of painting -- painting to make a unit look like a unit, not the massive individual detail.

The funny thing is that, some years back, I sold off most of my 15mm as my eyes got older, and played in 28mm so I could see the figures better. But now, even as my eyes have gotten worse, I've gone to 10mm for most of my modern stuff and to 6mm for massed battle (ancients and fantasy) because the table looks like a battlefield and even my eyes can see that kind of look.

As to painting time, I had to get a bunch of figures painted up for last week's game. In the space of an afternoon, I added one complete unit, three command stands, and parts of two other units, for a total of 312 figures . . . and the paint jobs looked good, both individually and collectively.

So, I'm now a confirmed 6mm guy, and the Baccus figures are just great for ancients (and fantasy too) and pretty darned sturdy too.

Ok looks good. I will have a look on ebay as to what there is. Then again I am loving the empire figures. I guess I could use them for historics too if I really wanted to….

As for 6mm, I have already ordered some Adler napoleonics! So I have that scale covered :P I just have to sit down and start painting now.

For 6mm have a look at Baccus link for some reason many people skip over this range. No undead but great for that second army.

In my mind they are super figures and well worth hunting them out.

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

Enzedmaster, for 10 mm Empire figures, go without hesitation to GW's Warmaster range. Here you can see some of mine painted:
link
link

The reason I didn't go Baccus over Adler for the napoleonics is that I simply liked the sculpts more. I will be getting some Baccus stuff in the future though they do have awesome figs. But I have so many projects going now: Malifaux, Perry, 28mm French, 6mm Adler and now 10mm Warmaster :P

In your personal opinion should I go for 6mm or 10mm?

Why not paint a few of each, and see what you like?

Also, did you consider 2mm as well?

Didn't consider 2mm, I just feel it is too small. 10mm seems to be the best choice – reasonably cheap and has some good detail.

Don't forget Microworldgames if you are looking at 6mm fantasy. Their line is small but growing. The figures are cast individually instead of in strips like Baccus or Irregular.

The Undead line is excellent –
link

The Woodland line is also pretty cool –

link

The detail on some of these matches 10mm and they paint up really nice.

JMW

Look at 10mmworld.com

They have pictures of 10mm fantasy stuff

I've got some 6mm pictures on my site. The 6mm Irregular Undead figures are very nice and the newr Microworld figures look very good.

6mm.wargaming.info/page1.shtml

Cheers
kieran

That undead stuff from Microworld does look good. The skeletons actually look like skeletons!

Check out my website for a FREE 10mm cardmodel castle,

link

…and Tolkienish shield and banner appliques.

link

I went with 10mm and mostly Pendraken with some GW. The GW stuff is really expensive but finer detail. You're only going to see the detail when you whip out your magnifying glass or camera macro though.

Kallistra = pendraken figures but cast different. So they are exactly the same size.

Bear in mind that warmaster cavalry are cast in a bit of a weird way. They're intended to go in column and the horses of rear ones are often kind of attached to those in front.

If you really want empire, then I highly recommend adding some of Obelisk's conquistadors to the mix:

obeliskminiatures.com

Also, Copplestone are some of the best 10mm around + he has really clear pictures on his Web site.

Thanks! I will definitely pic some of those conquistadors. How does copplestone scale to warmaster and pendraken?

I'd go with 10mm as you can base them for regiments and even do a couple of small skirmish games as well and their are more companies doing them ( not all undead)

GW Warmaster Range nice but can be expensive (come as strips)

Copplestone LOTR range (come as strips)

Pendraken nice a bit biggish but do come as separate figures
Kallistra as Pendraken but come as strips

Eureka some nice beastmen elves, evil dwarves come separate

Also Old Glorys 10mm Grand scale for the likes of Celts/Arabs (come as strips)

Obelisk's conquistadors nice as noraneko pointed out

Steve Barber – gauls & celts very nice figures

there is a lot of stuff out there now :)

'How does copplestone scale to warmaster and pendraken'

Similar in size to GW warmaster, Pendraken is bigger generally than both.

Some of our fantasy stuff is a bit larger than 10mm, maybe more like 12mm. If you're interested, drop us an email and we can send you some samples out.

For the most part the GW stuff is great, but the Skeletons are only so-so.

The Cavalry and the chariots are nice, but the infantry is pretty small (they should have put just six skeletons across on the strip, they went with seven and that hurt the end results). They had a really good sculptor, but they hamstrung him with that design decision.

So I actually think the Pendraken Skeletons and Zombies are nicer as far as the infantry.

I like 6mm for ancients as the mass effect is amazing, and that is part of the ancients experience.

For fantasy, I can see where 10mm might be better. You want to see the figs don't you!

G^is,
JohnG

I use 10mm for fantasy. There is a nice range of figures, they paint up fast and you still get some decent detail.
I was almost swayed by 6mm, but they were just too small for my taste.
Cheers,
Ben.

What is the difference between Kallistra and Pendraken?

From what I can tell Pendraken are all individual bases where the Kallistra ones are arranged in Warmaster Style strips.

From what I can tell Pendraken are all individual bases where the Kallistra ones are arranged in Warmaster Style strips.

Yep.

But they use the same moulds?

They're the same master figures, but Kallistra mould their figures onto strips.