"Sword Fodder?" Topic

I was re-reading S. M. Stirling's "Shikari in Galveston." (Highly recommended for Howard fans, by the way.) If you haven't read it, at one point Our Heroes meet the local primitives--shambling, sloping-browed cannibals, armed with a mix of clubs, spears, hatchets and bows. There are, of course, hundreds of them. And it hit me that THIS is what I need to go with the odd "adventurer" figures I keep picking up--huge numbers and no need to feel overly guilty about winning, rather like zombies. In fact, if I painted a bunch reddish, they'd do for Barsoomian synthetic men.

But does anyone make something like this cheap in 28mm, more or less? Not the sort of project I want to drop serious money on, or spend a month assembling.

Thanks.

What about plastic cave men figures from the 99 cent store?
Not cave men but how about these?

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TimMee's bag'o'cavemen figures come in red and tan, but at 40mm scale.

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The ninja that show up on Bashytubits' link could be fun.

I had much bigger versions of some of the Tim Mee cavemen when I was a lad in the 1960s. They were about 6" tall, as I recall. At 40mm, they would work well as giants facing 28mm figures.

Robert, maybe Brigade Games?

Bag o' Zombies? link

Steve Barber models has a 28mm Prehistoric Settlement line; packs are 4 figures for 6 pounds, which is about $2 USD per figure. Or there is a tribe pack of 18 figures + 1 chief and 2 plants for 24 pounds.

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Reaper made a Swamp Hag figure that looked very much like my old lieutenant colonel. Bought and painted her. I was at one of the local game store's semi-annual auctions a few years ago, when a bunch of GW skinks came up for bid (I think GW had just changed the weapons skinks could carry, so these were cheap and nobody wanted to buy them), and I found myself creating a swamp army for her to lead against my heroes. Over the years, I've added more cheap skinks, a few secondhand lizardmen, a toad warrior (he was free), and a Schleich Komodo dragon (need to build a howdah to go on it). The original hag remains the only new, metal figure in the collection.
The point is you may want to look around for a source of cheap figures near you and see what you can get. Also, be flexible. If I'd plotted out a swamp army before the auction, I would have concentrated on frogs and never thought of skinks at all, in part because I'm not a GW gamer (not a brag or insult, just the way it is).

Grelber

Thank you all. Several good ideas.

Grelber, I had a TAC officer who bore a remarkable resemblance to the Dino de Laurentis King Kong in features. In scale--well, if we were 28mm, he might have been a 32.

You know, the plastic Picts issued for the Conan boardgame might work. Not sure if they are as cheap as you are wanting, but they are plastic, and so there might be some deals on e-bay.

While these aren't cheap at all, you might be able to find some from a Hobbit boxed set:
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I think they look the part of a bunch of degenerates.

But I just looked at ebay, and they aren't cheap there, either.

andy

Warlord Games have some of the orc sprues from the old Wargames Factory at $5.00 USD each sprue, 3 on a sprue.

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