Other plastic minis compatible with D&D minis

[Kris]

If you don't mind me asking, how'd you convert those mage knight and Dreamblade minis? Mostly, I'm asking how you prepped them to put them on a base. Was it just some very careful cutting or something?

Yeah... just a sharp knife and a little patience

Though I'll admit that some were more of a pain than others.

Though I suppose some (non-human) could be used as Large creatures...

I was actually just thinking something similar - like if the Moria goblins could be used as D&D orcs maybe.

 

[SavageRobby]

FWIW, I had pretty good luck putting Clix minis in the freezer for a day or two before prying them off their bases. Then I used a sharp knife, a careful hand and some patience.

 

[Mark]

Most Mage Knight guys snap right off the base but a knife does help with the troublesome ones. I pick up tons of commons for cheap at local auctions and reuse them for other games, including D&D. If you prefer, you can just pull off the larger clicky piece from the underside of the base and then trim the inner circle to a smaler shape, either glueing it then to another base or just bulking it up with a clipped piece of old dungeon tile or similar cardboard.

 

[rgard]

The LotR pre-painted mini's ('combat hex' I think they are called - or something like it) are a lot larger.

I got hold of a single Haradrim warrior for just such a purpose (i.e. to check the scale) and then tossed it straight in the bin

My kids lost one of their Wraiths from the Harbinger set. I got one of the Ringwraiths from the LotR pre-painted series, whacked him off his base, put him on a 25mm base and he is fine. That said, most of their figs are really too big as you say. I may use some of their orcs for hobgoblins or such at some point.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[rgard]

What other plastic minis are compatible with D&D, specifically in terms of scale?

There are some Heroscape figures that look like they would fit in nicely, but I'm having a hell of a time finding info about their scale.

What about Mage Knight? I know the bases are too large; the figures would have to be moved to smaller bases. But what about scale?

Are there any other prepainted plastic minis available that could work with D&D minis? I know that Reaper has released a few. Any others?

Others have talked about Mage Knight so here's the skinny on Heroscape figs. The bases are larger than 25mm. I was able to cut them off their bases and mount on 25mm bases. If you want a more sturdy connection and you are patient, try to cut the figure off the base, but leave the nub on the bottom of the foot...you have to work at it. Then trim the nub to fit in a slotted 25mm base. I did this with a few and filled the remaining slot with modelling putty (the kind that hardens). Then finished the base.

The scale of the Heroscape figs is fine with D&D minis. It's about the same scale, some looking 25mm and some looking 28mm. I used GW 40mm bases with the mounted figs.

thanks,
Rich

 

[Fifth Element]

Lots of good advice in this thread. Thanks everyone!

 

[frankthedm]

Most Mage Knight guys snap right off the base but a knife does help with the troublesome ones. I pick up tons of commons for cheap at local auctions and reuse them for other games, including D&D. If you prefer, you can just pull off the larger clicky piece from the underside of the base and then trim the inner circle to a smaler shape, either glueing it then to another base or just bulking it up with a clipped piece of old dungeon tile or similar cardboard.

Yep.
[imagel]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/747/safead6.gif[/imagel]
Dreamblade are harder to slice off though it can be done.
Take a normal #11 Xacto blade
hold the Dreamblade against a wall.
Slice into where base meets foot, keeping your finger out of the way at all costs.
Cut the foot flush from the base using as much force as needed.
The blade will cut into the wall due to the required force.

Mind that this really only needs to be done with the smaller dream blade figs. The dreamblade base is a 1.5" square. The proper size for a large critter in a lot of games.



Halloween toys can make good figs[imager]http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8254/crittersza9.th.jpg[/imager]

Most won't be worth painting, but sometimes swelling the ranks of the DM's monster minis means going with the next best thing. This time of year, that gets easier since a good amount of cheap Halloween favors will make decent minis.

Just today a $3 bag at a corner drugstore netted me a lot of bugs including multiples of;

Some iffy looking plastic flies
Very good small sized plastic ants
very good small/medium plastic spiders
Decent medium rubber spider, that would have to have it's feet glued onto the base to fit
Very good, if flat, large red tinged rubber roach. It's antenna almost look like horns
Mediocre rubber centipede. Maybe wrapped around a column it could work.
Decent rubber pincer beetle with an extra set of legs
Decent huge rubber spider

Up at a Party supply store I found a nice bag of Large bats with enough detail to hold a tabletop level repaint along with a bag of just barely large size rubber rats with noticable mold lines. Still the rats would look kinda nice with skaven riding them.


The huge snail is from wally world's toy isle.

[imagel]http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8316/crittersszd4.jpg[/imagel]Other recent finds were a bunch of glow in the dark tiny ants and flies at a Ma' & Pa' drug store. The ants will be used in a swarm base, the flies I want to convert into stirges. Also found a bag of cheap sea critters with some possibly salvageable crabs and stingrays. That store also had a boatload of plastic animals too numerous to note, and in the Halloween section they had two versions of huge rat toys that would work on the battlemat.

 

[frankthedm]

Got the bats based on some home made flight bases

The bases are 1.5" pokechips. a nail with a round bulb head was inseted by drilling into the chip so that the top chip would hold the nail immobile.

First drilled a bit the with of the nail that almost all the way though the chip, just so the other side of the chip beveled slightly.
Second, drilled 3/4th the way though with a bit as wide as the nail head.
Then puch the nail though and glued one chip beneath to hold the nail in place and for weight.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Also Reaper has a new line of pre-painted plastics (non randomized) out called Legendary Encounters. The first batch was just skeletons and such but the planned roll out looks like they are converting some of their best stuff to include brain munching monsters (not mind flayers), and multi-armed demon women (not mariliths).

Check them out Here!

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

The World of Warcraft board game comes with a whole bunch of plastic miniatures that are close enough to scale with D&D minis when I eyeballed them.