Mageknight and Dreamblade minis for D&D?

Resurrecting this thread with this video:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y89hs7Fyfc]YouTube - How to Make a Dreamblade D&D Mini[/ame]

You're welcome!

I'm in the process of making myself a bunch of minatures for a Pathfinder game I volunteered to run. Not wanting to spend ludicrous amounts of money, I decided I'd do this with cheap Mage Knight, Dreamblade, and Warcraft grab bags. I knew that I'd have to rebase to 1", and I tried my best to read up and prepare, but I was still surprised at a few things.









A Rebasing Guide for Newbies by a Newbie

• Econo bases from Gale Force 9 are really, really good. However, you probably don't need the quart size. Pint size is plenty.

• Shop for minis at Troll and Toad. Technically, EBay has the best miniature selection. However, if you want to buy 20 minis, you're probably going to have to deal with 17 sellers and the shipping adds up quick. Troll and Toad has a very good but not quite as extensive selection, but it's all in one place and the shipping is way cheaper.

• D&D bases are 25mm (~1 inch). Large creatures are 50mm (~2 inch). Star Wars minis are 25mm, with large creatures also being 50mm. Mage Knight and Heroclix figures are 1.25 inch. Warcraft minis are 1.5 inch. This is probably very basic for everyone else, but it's tough info to find written down anywhere.

• Most Mage Knight minis work well for D&D. Most MK minis will fit on a 25mm base and they have a fantasy look to them. A few do not fit, especially if they're particularly squat and wide, and some are kind of steampunk and not very D&D-looking.

• Heroclix minis are really hit-or-miss. Mechanically, they rebase to 25mm pretty well since they're almost all human-shaped, so you don't have the extra-wide MK problem. However, they're really hit-or-miss when it comes to looking D&D-ish. A few guys are rocking the medieval weaponry, but most of them are in spandex with laser guns.

• Most Warcraft minis do NOT work well as medium sized creatures. There are a few that do, but for the most part, they're too big and have wide, senator-in-a-men's-room type stances that do not fit on 25mm bases. Even if they do they're much taller than D&D or MK minis. The exception to this is gnomes, who are pretty reasonably halfling/gnome sized.

• Some of the larger Warcraft figures look pretty badass as large creatures. Specifically, elementals, orcs, tauren, and draenei. A Warcraft orc looks almost like an armoured D&D ogre. A draenei looks like a pit fiend. A tauren looks like a minotaur.

• Star Wars minis don't generally work well as D&D figures, despite the common sizing. There are a few aliens that look good as demons or dopplegangers or other weird humanoids, and there are a few droids that might work as warforged. For the most part, the figures are carrying firearms or are immediately recognizable from the cantina scene. Overall, not recommended.

• If you're not sure whether a figurine will work size-wise, look at the picture. Specifically, look at the feet compared to the base. If it's a Mage Knight mini, does it look like it would fit on a base 80% of the size? If it's Warcraft mini, would it fit on a base 2/3 the size? Yeah this one is dumb, but it was something that didn't occur to me until after the fact.

• Don't go overboard on grab bags. Yes, they're cheap, but if you buy 50 figures, 30 of them will be comprised of six sets of quintuplets, and half of them will be unworkable as D&D figures, either for size or looks. You're better off finding cheapie singles than buying grab bags and throwing half of them away.

• Square bases are more forgiving than circles. Personally, I like the look of circles, but if you've got a cool-looking mini whose feet are 30mm apart, you can't make him fit on a circle. You can make him fit on a square 25mm base if you orient him corner to corner.

• Cut resistant gloves are your friend. Seriously. I have couple of fingerprints that don't line up anymore due to some failed whittling experiments in junior high. Kevlar gloves are $10 at a local hardware store. Get some.

I haven't gotten my Dreamblades in yet. I'll add more info once I do.

Systole said:

Shop for minis at Troll and Toad. Technically, EBay has the best miniature selection. However, if you want to buy 20 minis, you're probably going to have to deal with 17 sellers and the shipping adds up quick. Troll and Toad has a very good but not quite as extensive selection, but it's all in one place and the shipping is way cheaper.

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I'll definitely agree with this. I've had good experience shopping with them for miniatures.

Most Mage Knight minis work well for D&D. Most MK minis will fit on a 25mm base and they have a fantasy look to them. A few do not fit, especially if they're particularly squat and wide, and some are kind of steampunk and not very D&D-looking.

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Mage Knight minis work great for D&D. That's actually most of what I use. When MK first came out, I bought them up for use in D&D games, transplanting them to 1-inch bases. By the time DDM came out, I was pretty satisfied with what I already had.

Yeah, they do have a certain amount of steampunk that's not useful, and no gnomes or halflings, but it's a pretty good selection overall.

Heroclix minis are really hit-or-miss. Mechanically, they rebase to 25mm pretty well since they're almost all human-shaped, so you don't have the extra-wide MK problem. However, they're really hit-or-miss when it comes to looking D&D-ish. A few guys are rocking the medieval weaponry, but most of them are in spandex with laser guns.

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If you hunt and pick and choose, you can find some really nice ones. Silver Samurai is easy to repaint into a samurai of your choice. The Hand Ninjas are good for ninja mooks. Several minis make good monks. Definitely shop around and pick and choose and you can get ones for character types you wouldn't find with Mage Knight minis.

Star Wars minis don't generally work well as D&D figures, despite the common sizing. There are a few aliens that look good as demons or dopplegangers or other weird humanoids, and there are a few droids that might work as warforged. For the most part, the figures are carrying firearms or are immediately recognizable from the cantina scene. Overall, not recommended.

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I'll also agree with this. Some gamorrean thug miniatures are workable as orcs, but yeah, too easily recognizable or iconic to Star Wars. Unless you're running Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, you probably won't need many Star Wars minis.

Don't go overboard on grab bags. Yes, they're cheap, but if you buy 50 figures, 30 of them will be comprised of six sets of quintuplets, and half of them will be unworkable as D&D figures, either for size or looks. You're better off finding cheapie singles than buying grab bags and throwing half of them away.

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Also agree, grab bags from vendors are that way because they are the unsalable stuff nobody wanted. You likely won't want them either. Maybe one just for some variety and stuff you might not buy otherwise, but don't count on them to fill out your collection.

Thread necro!

Systole said:

• Shop for minis at Troll and Toad. Technically, EBay has the best miniature selection. However, if you want to buy 20 minis, you're probably going to have to deal with 17 sellers and the shipping adds up quick. Troll and Toad has a very good but not quite as extensive selection, but it's all in one place and the shipping is way cheaper.

Click to expand...

If you're in Australia, a good alternative to Troll & Toad is Games Empire. On the ones that I was looking at, their price beats eBay. Though you'll need to buy a bunch at once to avoid overpaying on postage (they have a $10 per-order postage fee, plus a 1.9% insurance fee).

• Star Wars minis don't generally work well as D&D figures, despite the common sizing. There are a few aliens that look good as demons or dopplegangers or other weird humanoids, and there are a few droids that might work as warforged. For the most part, the figures are carrying firearms or are immediately recognizable from the cantina scene. Overall, not recommended.

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There's some reptilian aliens (could pass as Lizardmen or Dragonborn). Some characters wielding metal swords. Some of the Mandalorians can pass as knights. And force-users (with staffs instead of lightsabers) that can pass as magic users. But yeah, you need to pick & choose.