"D&D figures" Topic

One of my grandsons is in a D&D club at school. For his birthday I want to put together an adventuring party for him consisting of a male human fighter, a dwarf fighter, a cleric/fighter, a female mage and a halfling thief. I've looked around for a set that resembles what I want with no luck. I would like them to be crisp figures not ill formed blobs and if from different makers to be size compatible. Any help would be much appreciated. I've never painted figures before so this should be interesting.

Wiz Kids Deep Cuts D&D figures.

wizkids.com/wizkids-deep-cuts

Thank you very much, found everything I wanted there.

Glad I could help.

I thought he said crisp.

I find the white D&D figures, like bones, very soft in detail.

Faces blur and proportions are more "realistic" ie. a pain to paint.

Cheap on the price side, but you get what you pay for.

Best option is metal.

Reaper's worth a look.

Dark sword are also look great. I have only recently picked one up, have not painted any. Moulded on bases may present a small modelling challenge.

GW LOTR could work also. Terrific figures in metal or catch penny resin rubbish (best avoid that). Plastics have been good, less blurring detail. New Rohan's just look like a night mare (I see Mantics going the same way, will this madness ever end?).

I'd say late 90s, early 2000s for the win. Great quality metal around then, before many started going cheap with resin and too much plastic.

The Wiz-Kids figures are far better sculpted figures than the D&D pre-painted, vinyl figures, as well as being far better than Mage Knight (long OOP) and Hero Clix figures.

Metal is the most defined, but plastic and resin have come a very long way in the past 20 years. The injection molded Red Box Alliance series are very well sculpted, almost as good as metal figures of the same scale. They are 1/72 scale, so smaller than 28mm-32mm, which are more popular, today. Cheers!

I don't have any issue with the quality of the unpainted Wiz Kids figures, and they paint up quite well in my opinion.

I been looking at your problem for days but have not been doing well. I think I might have what you want. I would have liked to gotten a picture of some I have and would have posted it. My figures are from 1981 and haven't done anything since 1983. If they had a good home I would be happy.
So not sure your time constraints

"The Wiz-Kids figures are far better sculpted figures than the D&D pre-painted, vinyl figures, as well as being far better than Mage Knight (long OOP) and Hero Clix figures."

True, but its not saying much.

"I don't have any issue with the quality of the unpainted Wiz Kids figures, and they paint up quite well in my opinion."

They have gone in for the modern realistic proportion thing.

Not so bad at 54+mm but for 28mm it does not fare well, especially when you add mould lines and mass production.

For a start you have lines and flash to remove, scraping off the primer.

And that's before trying to paint faces.

Perhaps that's why they sell them showing CGI images as opposed to painted ones.

They are just mass produced "look mum, I can paint" products.

They look nice in the packet, at arms length, but are no real fun to paint.

No, there are definitely better figures out there.

The H Man, here is what he said:

I would like them to be crisp figures not ill formed blobs and if from different makers to be size compatible. Any help would be much appreciated. I've never painted figures before so this should be interesting.

Emphasis mine.

For someone who has never painted figures before, I would say that "crisp" sculpting is not exactly a hard requirement. If the OP were a veteran painter, with high standards, then yes.

Most modern RPG'ers use pogs, or tokens, especially if they are gaming online, in a virtual tabletop -- 3D online figures are just now coming of age with the new D&D online tabletop system Hasbro-WotC is pushing out.

I can surpass the quality of the Wiz Kids/Pathfinder pre-painted figures by doing simple block painting, followed by brushing on Minwax Polyshades urethane stain, with a final matte clear coat. Brushing Minwax onto any pre-painted figures will elevate it above what it was, out of the box. RPG'ers typically have low standards for painted figures as they are completely new to the idea, the art, and the hobby of figure collecting. His grandson will likely be wow'ed no matter what the quality of the paint job he is gifted with.

As to painting details on faces of 28mm figures… It may not be worth the time and trouble as you can only see that level of detail when the figure is a few inches from your orbits. On the tabletop, some 3+ feet away, eyes are not very easy to see the details of. Personal preference. I paint, and game with, 54mm Army Men figures, without painting their eyes. I also use 60mm Viking figures in my 28mm fantasy games, as giants -- I don't paint their eyes, either. During game play, those details really don't matter much, and they add time to painting the figures -- I go for mass quantities of painted figures on my tabletop, not small numbers of highly detailed miniatures. If painting eyes is your preference, power to you. If not, push on with what is your preference in style and painting. Cheers!

The eM4 prepainted set Elfsera – The Adventurers doesn't have all your character types, but saves you painting time:
link

Actually GWs LOTR would fit the bill.

Aragon/boromer-male human fighter.

Gimli-a dwarf fighter.

Gandalf -a cleric/fighter.

Legalas-a female mage.

Hobbitsx4-a halfling thief.

Available in plastic or metal on a box set.

I 3d print a lot of my miniatures, but for player characters, I like metal best! slightly more durable, and they just have that heft. I have been buying reaper miniatures lately when I buy metal, better then the bones, but if you dont want to extra cost of metal, there reaper bones are still plenty fine, and they will likely never ever break.

I only have a couple wizkid minis, so I am not the best to ask about them.

Size compatibility is a tough one, even within the same line. even with my 3d printer I have almost given up on that aspect, and recently if its presupported, usually, not always just print as it is, although I sure wish things scaled right. 2 figs, supposed to be the same height, lets say 6 feet tall, can both the the same measured height, but be readically different looking do to heroic, non heroic scaling also. ARG………….