"I am new to 15mm fantasy HELP!" Topic

I am new to 15mm fantasy HELP!
I am new to 15mm fantasy. I just bought my first couple of character packs from Copplestones awesome fantasy range and some 10mm trolls that look spot on with the 15mm barbarians and Northman. I have got out a load of old dwarven forge bits and am going to convert them to 15mm. So what I wanted to ask is:
1. Do you play small scale skirmish in 15mm rather than armies battling it out?
2. Do you use dungeons, villages or have both?
3. How would you convert 28mm dungeons to 15mm?
4. What is the best match for elves and orcs/goblins with Copplestone in both size and quality (I know the Barbarians are ment to be bigger)?
5. Do you have any sexy pics of your 15mm skirmish terrain/figures or games?
6. I am looking at Eureka, Splintered light and Demonworld. Are there any others I should be considering?
Cheers

Pendraken do a small range through their Minibits website and are nice

Magister Militum carry the Blood Dawn range which if I remember rightly are nice as well

I've bought some of the "Chariot" brand in the past, and they're quite nice.

They might be a bit thinner than Copplestone, but still very nice models.

link

Splintered Light and Demonworld are the best in my experience.

Here are my 15mm Dark Elves from Splintered Light.

I've got some pictures of various 15mm fantasy on my blog. Warning: I'm not the best photographer.

link

Splintered light looks really good. The Dark elves look amazing. Cool blog cfielitz.

15MM works great for both small skirmishes/Dungeon crawls, and mass battles.

Can't answer all those questions, but
- I've been basing my 15mm minis on washers so that they can be assembled for mass battles or seperated out for skirmishes. The scale is good for either (I suppose the same could be said for 28mm, but at 5x – 10x the cost)
- Khurasan has a growing 15mm fantasy line; I would also consider Black Raven Foundry – although largish they are very nice. link

Hordes of the Things is popular for 15mm fantasy. there are lots of pictures and advice on the yahoo group.

link

here are some elves from the Chariot range against some 'space demons' and some frogs

some galaries of my picutres

link

Zardoz

pictures form the Berkeley HotT tournament

link

and skeletons v Napolion, the skellies are chariot and the dragon is form Reaper

link

some of the pictures in the gallaries are of 28mm (60mm frontage) armies

Stealth1000,
1. I do both. I have been working on some skirmish/rpg rules for smaller scale but also have loads of armies for mass combat, using Pride of Lions for longer games and Mighty Armies for 30 minute games. The great thing about 15mm is that it is not expensive to do both.
2. I have both dungeons and villages. I have taken part in both Dwarven Forge Kickstarters and the dungeon pieces work great with 15mm. The doors might be a bit large but the overall look is great despite that. The Blue Moon buildings, forts and castles offer some great settings for outdoor/village adventures.
3. I am eventually planning to have some 15mm furniture done up but may look around to see what is available in either the doll house world or model train world until I get my own done.
4. As far as elves go, it depends on what size you see your elves. If shorter than humans, I think my Splintered Light ones or the old Grenadier ones (Mirliton) are great options. If desiring large/bulkier, then the Mighty Armies, Demonworld or Black Raven Foundry are your best bet.
As to orcs, the great thing is that there is great opportunity to mix and match. The Splintered Light ones come in right at 15mm but the Rebel Minis, Black Raven Foundry, Eureka, Grenadier/Mirliton, and Demonworld are all very nice and I have some of all those lines. I have not seen the Khurasan in person but am guessing they are nice as well.
5. Here are three battle reports from the Splintered Light Miniatures blog I wrote up.
link
link
link
6. Rebel Minis link
Grenadier/Mirliton link
Black Raven Foundry link
Chariot Miniatures link

One thing to keep in mind is that if used in different armies or units, differences in size/bulk are not very noticeable in my opinion once painted and on the table in a game.

I am happy to send you a sample of the Splintered Light Miniatures fantasy ranges since actually having some in hand is the best way to see what you need.

Please feel free to email me at splinteredlightminis[at]gmail[dot]com with the ranges you might be interested in and your address and I can pop some samples in the mail to you.

David
splinteredlightminis.com

We've got a small range of Dwarves, Goblins and Lizardmen: link

Dwarves:

Goblins:

Lizardmen:

Leon,
Very nice!

Another option for nice figures is Lone Gunman Games, who have some monsters, wolfen, amazons, demons and snakemen.

link

Once upon a time 15mm fantasy was the poor stepsister of miniatures gaming. In recent years this has changed in a very big way. A search of related threads in here should paint a pretty clear picture. To summarize you may want to Google some or all of:

Jacobite/Simtac/Stronghold
Mick Yarrow
Chariot
Tin Soldier
Irregular Miniatures
Ral Partha/Iron Wind
Essex
Demonworld/Hobby Products/Brookhurst
Grenadier/Miriliton
Lonegunman Games – poke around, some if their stuff is hard to find on their website at first. Click – products
Eureka
Splintered Light
Pendraken
Black Raven Foundry
15mm.co.uk/Alternative Armies/Tabletop
Magister Militum
Reaper
Copplestone
Khurasan

and I know I'm forgetting some more. Hope this helps.

link

First I'll plug Ganesha's Battlesworn rules.

Here's some I made earlier, please note use of Pendraken 10mm happily cavorting with other 15mm.
link

Have fun!

David and everyone thanks for the input. I and going to put an order in for a good few of the ranges shown above. Splintered light for the most part but just have to get some of those orcs above too. There are a good few companies I had never seen to so thanks for that as well guys. Right time to sort out an order. :-)

Splintered Light and 15mm.co.uk will be great matches for Copplestone (which are 15mm to the top of the head) Khurasan and Eureka should be a good match (don't own these lines but that is my surmise from having seen other figures of theirs)

Old Ral Partha Battlesystem figures (if you can find them).
I do like Demonworld but think they are closer to true 15mm in size?

Black Raven Foundry have some nice figures (I don't care of the helmets on their Elves though)

Essex will be smaller but should work.

In fantasy, I don't' think size differences are as much of a problem as uniformity of sizes really shouldn't matter.

15mm Elite Wargames and Models ( Ex Jacobite Miniatures)
auction

glynrr.blogspot.co.uk

Does anyone have any pictures of the Tin Soldier fantasy figures?

I'm a huge fan of the Chariot range of fantasy figures; very detailed and nicely proportioned. I'm about to order some more Lizardmen actually as they've added to the range since I picked these up. I'm about to order some of the Rebel stuff imminently (can't pass up a good sale lol) and Splintered Light are also on the horizon for an order of some sort.

Here's some pics of my Chariot Lizardmen and Undead HOTT armies, hope they come out okay:

WOW! That is a great looking army Bob!

RebelMike
Rebelminis.com

Thanks Mike! Got some of your stuff on order, can't wait to get stuck into those too :)

Steath1000,

I use my miniatures mostly for role playing, although I am branching into skirmish and large battles.

I think KPinder hit most of the sources I know of with the exception of Blue Moon Manufacturing which does't really have a 15/18mm fantasy range per se, but they do have a lot of items in that size.

I've been bombarding the folks at Splintered Light, Copplestone, Irregular Minaitures and Blue Moon for the past several weeks regarding the size (height and bulk) of their various lines. I'm surprised none of them have blocked my email….

It seems to me that "15mm" today means "1/100 scale", in which a 6-foot tall figure comes in at 18mm head to toe, or 3mm to the foot. So, in 18mm scale a "true" 15mm figure would come in at a scale 5 feet. Just something to think about.

I have a lot of Splinter Light products and they are a consistent 18mm range. I recently purchased some Copplestone Castings' Barbarian Heroes and Northlander Characters. Just as Mark Copplestone told me, there are just ever so slightly larger than Splinter Light's comparable miniatures, coming it at about 19mm for the men and 18mm for the women.

Black Raven Foundry has some nice miniatures, but for the most part they are too tall and bulky for my taste. The Amazons that I purchased come it at nearly 20mm head to toe (even taller with their helmets) and are much bulkier than either Splintered Light's or Copplestones'. Same for BRF's Wizards and Wraiths. I like their Lizardmen and Minotaurs as they fit the scale size and "feel" I have of those creatures.

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Hey, post up a picture of the Minotaurs if you can please. I was wondering what some of their stuff without pictures looks like, including the Giants.

Finding stuff that looks good together can be challenging. I am finding that out as I collect figures from Khurasan, Splintered Light, & Baueda (so far) for a SAGA project i'm going to do.

Blood Dawn Undead

Ignore the bone giant, he's a Reaper, which btw the Blood Dawn are former Reaper Shadow Corps.

I like those Blood Dawn undead, BG! Very nice! These are the ones available from Magister Militum, right? How do they compare scale wise to the Chariot Miniatures undead range, any idea?

Blood Dawn is generally too large to match most other 15mm ranges.

I have a list of ranges and some comparison pics here.

link

Be warned the site is 5 years out of date as real life has interferred with gaming.

Good to know, thanks. And damn that whole real life thing! Lol

Private Snafu,

Sorry, but I've been on the road for a bit and away from my miniatures.

Here are some pictures of the Black Raven Foundry Minotaurs I have. Following the posting FAQ, I was unable to embed the pictures as anything larger than a thumbnail (help?!), so I included links instead. They are obviously unpainted and my camera is not the best. The graph paper is 1/4 inch grid. For size comparison, the figure on the far left is a Splintered Light Northman with a Copplestone Castings Barbarian next to him.

link

link

link

link

The set also came with a "Minitaur":

link

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Thanks, I appreciate the pictures.

I've been collecting 15mm for a long time ditching 28mm. As above, great for large and small games. Personally, I happily mix in with 28mm terrain and some monster types – just makes everything a bit more heroic!
All the manufactures mentioned are really good – personal favourites are demonworld, splintered light and copplestone (please expand range!).
My blog has a good mixture of minis from those mentioned:
blog.warchest.co.uk
Welcome to 15mm.