"Other uses for Games Workshop figures" Topic

Dunno, I've never bought any GW figures.

Same here. Don't own any although I do play other rule sets with other people's GW figures.

Jim

Galactic Heroes
Grimdark Future

I put smokestacks on plastic Rhinos and used them in GASLIGHT.

Dragon Rampant
Hoards of the Things
Tomorrow's War

also:
paper weights, dust gatherers, and clutter!
LOL

Besides several Hordes of the Things armies and monsters for dungeon raids, let's see…

Used some goblin types along with a bag of Dollar Store Amazonian frogs to make a "frog herding" game, where goblins try to drive their particular frog around a distant goal and back to the village, while dodging the rocks and clubs of their competitors (and chomps from giant frogs);

Nicked some GW rats for use in the boardgame "Notre Dame" (in which each player tracks the likelihood of plague in their city district on a "rat meter");

Zombies and skellies for all sorts of games where I needed zombies and skellies…

Black-primed and florescent green dry-brushed various Undead types as ghostly apparitions;

Used various bits of WH Empire militia to add variety to my Wars of the Roses levy troops;

and employed various WH40k terrain bits in WW2 and modern games.

Another vote for GrimDark – the grandkids love 'em

Also use some of their figs for Hail Caesar

"A Fantastic SAGA"
"Pirates!"

Generic SF and fantasy. Dragon Rampant, and still scrounging for an SF set.

wobbly tables. Tire weights. Fill a sock and defend myself with them….

Games Workshop figures are designed to go with their games. They are also periodically rendered obsolete by a new codex. Many of them are, however, well sculpted figures.

I have three companies of skink archers (painted to match the three species of skink native to Colorado) for a fantasy swamp army for Saga. I got them at an auction for $1.00 USD for a bag of 20-30 after the codex changed.

What sort of things have others come up with to repurpose unwanted GW figures?

Grelber

I rebased my WH skeletons and my 40K Imperial Army to use for Hordes of the Things.

I used parts of some Epic 40K stuff to kitbash non-canon Ogre/GEV bits. The carriages from Orc Big Gunz with an Ogre secondary glued on make awesome wheeled howitzers. The missiles from a couple Manticore kits became cruise missiles on Scotia chassis.

My Lizardmen have been to Venus for "1889 Soldier's Companion", and the Kroots have been to Mars.

I have a number of fantasy/historical figures, mainly used for D&D RPG or Frostgrave.

I have a very large collection of GW fantasy and sci-figures. They have never been "unwanted." They have also never been in a GW game. I purchased them all after I had developed my own rules for fantasy and sci-fi, which I continue to use.

Frogs in Space, Dragon Rampant anything but Warhammer or 40K

I don;t buy over priced figures from a stuckup company.

+1 LaserGrenadier

Used a couple for a D&D campaign once.

off the top of my head…

Dragon Rampant.
Song of Blades and Heroes.
Nightwatch. (one of mine)
Saga Age of Magic.

I have used my Empire figures for Hail Caesar and the Orks for GrimDark

Empire fantasy figures for Medieval games of Lion Rampant, and eventually for Renaissance games as well.

The plan is also to use Dragon Rampant as soon as nephew finishes his Lizard army, and I finish some terrain to go with these … building a 24"x24" step pyramid that can even be traverse through it at ground level, and the next level up.

Page One Rules.

Our group uses GW figures with our futuristic rules "Frogs in Space!" that posits a French Imperium in the 23rd Century across the stars.

Jim

P.S. Rules are available from Sergeants Three link

Jim

Kings of War

I use GW figs for Hordes of the Things…

Joe Collins

Sword and spear Fantasy

I've used Necromunda figures for gang fights with Two Hour Wargames "Chain Reaction" rules. I think that some of my SciFi & Mordheim cardstock buildings were published by GW decades ago & I've used them for non-GW games also.

Tomorrows War, Stargrave, D&D

I've used Mordheim & Warhammer minis in a Romero & Juliet convention scenario & for zombie games with Two Hour Wargame rules.

I have hundreds of Lord of the Rings figures, but play with my own rules.

I have a box of troopers with two APC type thingies that I use as generic Sci Fi power armored guys.

I have some GW figures filling out a Sword Worlds platoon for games in the Traveller universe.

I have good number of still unpainted beak-helmet Space Marines that will eventually get painted as something useful for Traveller.

Also some Eldar who will of course become Darrians in due course.

Picked up a few individuals off of the internet auction sites and at show bring and buy's:
Plastic Dwarf Blood Bowl Linemen as Behemoths for 15mm HOTT dwarf and mythical Norse armies.

Plastic Tyranid Rippers and Genestealers as beasts for HOTT and as generic monsters for sci-fi, fantasy and post apoc. Especially effective in appearance against 15 or 20mm humans. Similarly for the old plastic Cold Ones, which also serve for Valley of Gwangi style adventures.

A single metal Ork as a giant for 20mm HOTT greenskins (Caesar figures)

I once converted a Bretonnian Sorceress into a version of the Angel of Mons for a 28mm WW1 game we took around the shows one year. She had wings, the flag of St George and stood upon an 18" clear perspex tube to float above the battlefield. Her appearance caused the dastardly Hun to retreat one full move. She only appeared if a certain card was drawn, and did that just once in about a dozen games, but was worth it for the comments she drew either on table or in the wings waiting.

I once used a mixture of their Slann and space Slann together to represent a race reduced from hitech to primitive weapons by a nuclear war where the rank and file carried stone axes etc while the elite and their bodyguards still had a few functioning rifles and pistols.

Kings of War – especially if we're talking the older WHFB figures. Many of the army lists (especially in the Uncharted Empires supplement) mirror the GW lists, and Mantic doesn't have a problem with you using non-Mantic figures in a tournament.

Kings of War for Fantasy
Grimdark Future (from One Page Rules) for sci-fi

HOTT
Dragon Rampant
Song of Blades and Heroes
SJG Melee

Fishing sinkers

GW makes awesome scifi and fantasy figures, especially their "line troops" and less baroque sculpts.

Some figures are harder to use: Space Marines are so instantly recognizable as part of the 40K universe I really can't use them elsewhere.

But take ghouls, zombies, skellies, Skaven, Empire troops, some monsters, Imperial Guard troopers, vampires -- all have their use in so many games from several authors I cannot even begin to count them…

i use my old empire fantasy stuff for italian wars Pike and Shotte.

I have never had difficulty using GW miniatures in any number of different games. No idea why anyone would find that difficult?

"GW miniatures are designed to be used with GW games."

What on earth does that even MEAN???

That's like saying a Honda Civic was meant to driven on one type of road but never on the highway. Makes no sense.

Are Mantic's miniatures only designed for Mantic's games? Are Warlord Games' miniatures only designed for Warlord Games rules?

I've got six Warhammer armies that I've used in The 9th Age, Kings of War, Fantasy Warriors, etc.

I've got dozens more GW minis. on round bases that I've used in Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep, etc.

I also really don't understand the ire towards their miniatures overall. I'll be the first one to agree that GW has turned into a shady corporate money-grabber that preys on fear of missing out with their fabricated shortages, etc.

But the company wasn't always that way. Rick Priestly, Jervis Johnson, Richard Haliwell and others were real visionaries, and true lovers of miniatures and the spectacle of massed fantasy battle. They were all gamers who loved painting and collecting huge armies for the visual aesthetic of it. And along the way their games have told compelling narratives, with miniatures that have always had a lot of character. Their plastic sprue advances have been very impressive.

Just don't understand the derision. You can not like GW and at the same time acknowledge they've made some pretty cool miniatures.

…and not to be Capt. Obvious here – but in case you haven't heard, GW's models are on round and square bases. Bases that can be used in a hundred different rulesets.

Well said, Baranovich!

Baranovich….you are in fact being " Capt. Obvious" but that is exactly what is called for to properly answer the OP. :)

My favorite 'in-house' use is Kill Team so I don't have to be a slave to army lists.