D&D 5E Miniature Collecting/Use and D&D

[Warpiglet-7]

Hello fellow travelers,

just interested to hear about any fellow miniature collectors/users out there and how you use and collect.

I have a healthy collection of minis but have focused on miniatures that can be or rather will be used in game.

I have been pruning preening and trading to get to this point. For example I have perhaps 15 kobolds but have traded off a neoghi to get there.

I have supplemented some groups with miniature that I have painted myself but have largely focused on icons of the realms minis.

what about you?

my group uses minis a fair amount though terrain and building vary by the DM. My pal uses minis and dry erase grid while I have buildings, mountains and trees.

I am interested to hear about others’ use of terrain as well.

last year I made a modular foam dungeon. It took forever and was hard work.

I bought pink Foam insulation Sheets, cut them, used a roller to texture them and then painted. Will add a pic if I can fine one...

here! Foam dungeon! Sadly all those hours and never used thanks to the pandemic...

and here is a part of the minis!

this is becoming a new hobby with the gaming. Perhaps telling (regarding the gaming hobby) is the fact that when we had nothing but dice and a few metal figures I had no less fun. This collecting bit has helped me stay immersed though when life prevents playing.

happy gaming!

 

[Warpiglet-7]

 

[Warpiglet-7]

 

[tommybahama]

That is a very impressive collection!

I don't DM but I have a drawer full of minis to paint for characters I hope to play some day. The rest I'll give away to DMs that I play with as I don't have the storage space to keep them all. I'm only a little above average in the painting department. I pretty much stick to base coat, dry brush, wash, and done. It's good enough for TTRP.

 

[Stormonu]

I've had miniatures for D&D mere days after I got the rules for Christmas back around '80. They used to be all metal and I'd try and get the ones I'd use in game, but I started migrating over to plastic when the prepainted figures started coming out.

Before the random boxings of the prepainted, I specifically bought miniatures for use in the game - mostly monsters. Now, I try to collect any and all that I can get my hands on - especially ones I've used in the past or have a fondness for. If a player's character survived long enough, I'd usually buy a mini and paint it to represent them.

I also have quite a bit of dwarven forge and used to love breaking it out to map the dungeon. It's a bit too unwieldy these days though, so it's mostly collecting dust now. Did pull it out recently to have a little fun with the new Wizkid Warlock tiles...

 

[dave2008]

We I started playing D&D I had more time with my miniatures than actually playing. I built an elaborate set with a forest, a swamp, a grassland, a graveyard, and a mountain w/ removable top and dungeon inside (I was trying to get as many different terrains as possible I think). The whole thing as approx. 6 feet by 12 feet and populated with dozens (hundred+) metal minis that I painted. Alas, that was way back in the '80s and I have not photos only my memories. However, I do still have most of those minis.

We neve used the set in play, but we almost always used minis to at lest show group position.

PS. I really like the idea of using rigid insulation to make dungeon (castle) walls and floors. That is a fantastic idea.

 

[briggart]

I was heavily into the D&D miniature skirmish game that came out with 3.x. I think I have a few thousands of those, plus several others from various boardgames (Conan, Cthulhu Death, Kingdom Death, and others I can't remember right now) and from a couple of Reapers Kickstarters. However, most of them are in storage, so when we played live we ended up using the same 50 or so minis I keep on hand to proxy almost everything.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

That is a very impressive collection!

I don't DM but I have a drawer full of minis to paint for characters I hope to play some day. The rest I'll give away to DMs that I play with as I don't have the storage space to keep them all. I'm only a little above average in the painting department. I pretty much stick to base coat, dry brush, wash, and done. It's good enough for TTRP.

Thanks! I started buying prepainted minis in the mid 2000s. Miniature market has a buyback program so over the years I have been selling them back and buying more suitable (singles) ones.... think most or all of my first sets have since been “converted” one mini at a time

 

[jgsugden]

I've played since the 70s and began collecting minis in the 80s. I had a small collection of metal miniatures, then added more and more metal minis slowly through the 1990s. When the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures (DDM) collectible mini game / D&D mini product was released, I collected heavily. I really enjoyed the DDM game, and being able to construct a massive D&D figure collection for RPG was a great additional benefit. I bought between 1 and 6 cases of each of those sets, and was nearly set complete for every set. Since that game ended production, I've added the occasional mini that fills a gap in my collection, sometimes buying a case of a new Wizkids release that has a bunch of uncommon or common figures that would augment my collection meaningfully, but usually just buying singles.

I have about 11,000 minis (6 fully packed floor to ceiling bookshelves, with over a hundred shoe boxes filled with certain types of minim (skeletal undead pt 1, skeletal undead pt 2, zombies, ghouls/ghasts/wights, ghosts/specters, tribal orcs, civilized orcs, leader orcs, etc...) , and enough terrain to fill up a 5 by 5 pub table several times over. I also have my prized minis on display on separate shelves (either my favorite hand painted ones, or expensive ones from over the years). In addition, I have several board games I bought because the minis for it would make great augmentations for my mini collection (I make heavy use of the Far Realms and want to have a wide variety of nightmare creatures the players will have never seen).

The one thing I do not have enough of is dungeon dressing and features, such as bushes, graves, tables, stalagmites, etc... I have some, but I find I always want a bit more, but never enough to pay the prices I see charged. I really need to get into some 3D printing.

I have way too many of certain types of figures, but I also have two sons and I someday hope they'll enjoy D&D and that they'll enjoy using my collection (and eventually splitting it up). They're 1 and 5 right now - the 5 year old is already playing some story telling games, but is not quite ready to really dive in... although I was just barely 6 when I did.

 

[Retreater]

I have a lot of minis, collected from the pre-painted blind boxes, hobbled together from board games, stuff I've gathered from miniature wargames like 40K, etc. I have gotten to the point where my painting is significantly better than any mass produced pre-painted figures. (And for my tastes, better than many "pro painters" online.) Plus it's a fun hobby.

My terrain collection includes MDF terrain for wargames that I've painted: villages, castles, sci-fi scenes, ruins. I have also created tiles of foam dungeon in a similar scheme as the OP. (However, I don't use walls - they just get in the way.) I also have some heavy plaster Hirst Arts dungeon tiles that I don't use often.

It's been a long time since I've gamed F2F, and likely won't be doing that in the near future. So my minis and terrain are collecting dust as we play on VTTs.