Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Over the past few months I've been looking at some of the Future Wars Miniature sets and considering buying some for use in various zombie games, however I was interested in knowing if anyone might have any info on how the "size up" in comparison to other companies miniatures ( Reaper,WGF and such).
Any info would be greatly apprecitated.


Example of Future Wars Minis.

They are sculpted by Mark Copplestone, one of the first (and best) GW sculptors. The look perfect in games of Necromunda and scale extremely well with Raper miniatures as well.

In fact, take a look at this battle-report I put up a while ago. It features Necromunda, Future Wars and Reaper miniatures all in the one place. It'll give you a nice idea of how perfectly they scale.

http://terminusomegamass.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/40k-rogue-trader-bat-rep-part-ii.html

Much thanks LeadLegion, looks as if I'll be ordering a couple sets in the near future.
Cool Bat Rep BTW.

If you like the Copplestone Future Warriors figures, you should also check out the EM4 "Future Skirmish". They are also by Mark Copplestone in the exact same style. Some are almost the same figure but with head/weapon/gear swaps and some reworking.
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Future_Skirmish.html
Mark Copplestone sculpted them for Grenadier before they folded (then EM4 picked up the rights) and he went off to start his own company. It's a nice way to fill out your forces with figures that fit well together.

They also scale up well with Necromunda and most other brands of 28mm figures. I have to disagree about Reaper though. Reaper Chronoscope figures are larger even than current 40k humans! I still like them and use them, but Reaper Chronoscope figures are more on par with 30mm+ figure lines such as Malifaux and others. Know only that because they are slottas, the EM4 figures will seem a touch shorter than the Copplestone Castings figures that have a cast-on integral base.

Here's some of my EM4 bikers. Look familiar?....

The figure on the far left is from Mega Miniatures "Salvage Crew" line and was originally from Alpha Forge games. You can see that line here:
http://freeboardgamesnow.com/sciencefictionsalvagecrew.aspx
More EM4 Scavengers. Note the similarities between them and "Copplestone Castings" figs.



Lastly, here's not-Mad-Max from EM4 vs one from Reaper. Don't let this scare you away from Copplestone and EM4, just be aware of what the size difference is between Reaper and everyone else.


Besides Mega Minis, GW and EM4, other brands that will scale pretty well with Copplestone Castings include Wargames Foundry, East Riding Miniatures (the slick figs are a bit tall, but cool), Kalistra, Hasslefree (though some of the female figs will seem a bit short), Lead Adventure and Lead Bones (sold by Recreational conflict. also a touch tall,)

What rules are you using for your Zombie games? We used a modified version of "Blasters and Bulkheads" (Shares mechanics with Supersystem) for our Haloween Zombie game and ended up liking it even more than "All Things Zombie":
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/10/carnage-in-new-chicago-our-2nd-annual.html
Also,
Lead Legion, That's an awesome report you've got there! I love skirmish games and seeing different lines of figures mixed on the tabletop to good effect. Here's a Mad Max style game we ran at a local con that had reaper, EM4, GW, MegaMini, Mage Knight (repainted), and one other brand (name escapes me) on the same table!
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/05/atomic-highway-little-wars-battle.html

 LeadLegion wrote:
They are sculpted by Mark Copplestone, one of the first (and best) GW sculptors. The look perfect in games of Necromunda and scale extremely well with Raper miniatures as well.

+1 to this.

The eM-4 set of his are on slottabases (Grenadier) thus proving that GW were not the only company making slottabased minis at the time (and there was a legal challenge orchestrated by GW at the time. That other companies STILL make slottabases indicated that effort was so much smoke blown up someone's arse.).

I have about 50 of them collected over the years (including "band on the run" and the "media crew" - they tend to get used as "civvies" in my games of infinity.

Very nice Minis Eilif, I wasn't aware of the connection between the EM4 sculpts and Future Wars, but they look great and I'll be looking into them as well.
I also love your vehicles, mind if I ask what you used tto make them? I've been using various " dime store" toy cars in my games, but yours blow what I have away.
The rules systems I've been using vary, I'm trying All Flesh Must be Eaten for campain type games, Undead States of America for quick one offs, plus I've got a " home brew" system I'm toying with as well that is a bit of a mish mash of Mordhiem and Necromunda plus stuff I made up.
I've also got ATZ on order along with " No more room in Hell", really still searching for various games systems to try out.
I've also found these and absolutely plan to add them to my growing groups of survivors.

Seems as though, size wise they'll match up with the future wars sets.
What actually prompted the OP is how much size's vary ( obviously) and a purchase I made ( A dozen or so Chronoscope Minis and a batch of Hassle Free Minis) in which the size difference was a tad disapointing ( Though painted and on the table they look fine) I ended up having to use some of the Hassle Free ( great sculpts btw) Minis as "kids" due to their diminutive size, so ...as I didn't want " tiny" bikers ( Sqauts?)...I figured I'd ask.

Thanks for the comments on the Bat-Rep. Lovely miniatures and terrain by the way guys. Thanks for the links Eilif.

FITZZ wrote: Very nice Minis Eilif, I wasn't aware of the connection between the EM4 sculpts and Future Wars, but they look great and I'll be looking into them as well.
I also love your vehicles, mind if I ask what you used tto make them? I've been using various " dime store" toy cars in my games, but yours blow what I have away.

My cars and those of my clubmates are almost all 1/43 diecast cars for cars and 1/48 for trucks. Though technically larger than 28mm, they scale up well with the heroic proportions slotta bases.

The bigger vehicles are 1/32 but I've since replaced them(SUV with cuttoff rear, VW bus, Yellow pickup) with more scale appropriate 1/43 scale vehicles. I did keep the 1/32 VW which has been converted into a monster truck and the 1/32 Jada Battle Machines Chevy Silverado Dually (should still be available online though they change the paint every year). Suffice to say, I recommend sticking with vehicles between 1/43 and 1/48

The brands for 1/43 cars I use now are:
-Bburago: $2.50 each and seem to be available only at Dollar General stores. (see my review below)
-Road Signature by Yat Ming: ($5-7 each) Mostly old pickups, vintage american and muscle cars. Currently available at Menards (only durring holiday time), also online. Their Camaro is the basis for the black Mad Max car above.
-New Ray Toys: Used to be at Dollar General, now mostly online. Sometimes they appear at Toys R Us in boxes marked with the house brand "Fast Lane" You can find New Ray 1/48 trucks and Big riggs. at Toys R Us, Hobby Lobby and many others. The tanker truck in the Mad Max battle report is New Ray. These are probably New Ray http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11773778 A search for "Fast Lane" at Toys R Us will show alot of 1/48 big rigs actually made by New Ray.
-Maisto. Not as common in stores but really common on Ebay and online. Nice and affordable. The light SUV and Police cruiser with Mesh over the front windows are Maisto
-Kinsmart: Mostly 1/32, but they also make 1/43 police cruisers (as seen in the mad max pic above). Very common at places like grocery stores (Jewel sometimes) hobby shops and online.
-Other Brands such as Welly, Motormax, etc can be found by searching for 1/43 and 1/48 on ebay. 1/43 seems to be the norm for cars and 1/48 for trucks for some reason.

A few usefull links.
-Bburago and Hot Wheels bikes review: http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/06/post-apocalyptic-cars-and-motorcycles.html
-Process for post-apocifying my vehicles: http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2011/12/28mm-on-cheap-toy-cars-as-wargames.html
-Before and after for some of my better conversions: http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/01/28mm-on-cheap-post-apocalyptic-vehicles.html
-Step by step instructions for converting your own Mad Max Interceptor: http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/04/last-v8-interceptor.html

What actually prompted the OP is how much size's vary ( obviously) and a purchase I made ( A dozen or so Chronoscope Minis and a batch of Hassle Free Minis) in which the size difference was a tad disapointing ( Though painted and on the table they look fine) I ended up having to use some of the Hassle Free ( great sculpts btw) Minis as "kids" due to their diminutive size, so ...as I didn't want " tiny" bikers ( Sqauts?)...I figured I'd ask.

Unfortunately the two brands you picked are at opposite ends of the spectrum in both height and girth (Heroic'ness). Figures like EM4, Copplestone, and the others I mentioned above are about midway between those two brands. However, after acquiring some mid-size figs, you may find that the overall effect (between HF and Reaper) is not so bad. Also, the lines I listed in my first post all cost half or less per-fig when compared to HF or Reaper.

LeadLegion wrote:Thanks for the comments on the Bat-Rep. Lovely miniatures and terrain by the way guys. Thanks for the links Eilif.

Not a problem. Happy to spread the word.

 LeadLegion wrote:
They are sculpted by Mark Copplestone, one of the first (and best) GW sculptors. The look perfect in games of Necromunda and scale extremely well with Raper miniatures as well.

In fact, take a look at this battle-report I put up a while ago. It features Necromunda, Future Wars and Reaper miniatures all in the one place. It'll give you a nice idea of how perfectly they scale.

http://terminusomegamass.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/40k-rogue-trader-bat-rep-part-ii.html

Raper Miniatures don't sound very appealing...

On the contrary, they're gorgeous. I've never had the scale issues that have been reported myself, but I have to admit that Reaper sculpts (even in the same line) do tend to vary in height by a few mm here and there.

I think he's responding to the alternate spelling of Reaper.

There's no doubt that Reaper figs are great looking, and when mixing figures it's nothing so dramatic that creative basing or careful mixing within a unit can't overcome.

Here's a pic of Reaper fig (rosie in the middle pointing upwards) amongst a group of Mega Minis Salvage Crew figs. Without the base, she's nearly a head taller than the Mega figs which are all about the same height as EM4 or Necromunda figs. However with her on the lowest base and the other figs are mostly on taller bases and it really helps her to fit in and the difference isn't immediately apparent.



More pics of these figs here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/09/two-reviews-inkwell-industries-and-mega.html

Thanks for all the info you've provided Eilif, gathered a great deal of very useful stuff through your links and really enjoyed seeing your Halloween Zombie game.
I noticed that there were some WGF zombies on the table and they seemed to size up well, had heard they were a bit on the small side but it appears that painted up they work nicely, may pick up a box just to add to the horde.
Was wondering if you,or anyone else, might have any recomendations for "unarmed" modern civilians...I've seen a few through Reaper and plan on picking them up, but wonder if they're more that I've missed in my searches.

Glad you found it useful!

As for Zombies, when dealing with zombie hordes, size really matters little. It's more important to have alot of them. The WGF zombies are good sized. The "Zombies!" game single pose plastic-vinyl zombie figures that come in a bag are small, but they come on thick bases and look fine in a horde. Mega Minis zombies are also a bit small, but again, look good in a horde and are cheap (40 metal zombies for 50 bucks!).

For affordable civilians/survivors/Zombies, check out::

Mega Miniatures The minis that are pictured painted are closer to 25mm, the ones pictured unpainted are former Alpha forge figs and are 28mm.
Civies: http://freeboardgamesnow.com/moderncivilians.aspx
Zombies:
http://freeboardgamesnow.com/modernzombies.aspx

Lead Bones by Recreational Conflict. These are pretty cool in that many of them come with two sets of arms, one armed and one unarmed. These are all solidly 28-30mm.
Workmen: http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/toemerica.html
Packs of civies, etc. http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/leadbones.html
Individual civies
http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/lbscivilsingle.html
The rest of the site is worth exploring for cops, hazmat figs, zombies, etc.
http://www.recreationalconflict.com/

*Sigh* My crappy typing strikes again.

Very unappealing indeed.......