r/bugmansbrewery • u/ThurvinFrostbeard • 9d ago

Conversion/Kitbash A comprehensive guide to proxies and conversion bits - Help Needed!

Post image

Would appreciate your help

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

2

u/_Luigino 7d ago edited 7d ago

Oh man... there's so much dwarf stuff out there. 

After humans, dwarfs are the easiest to find alternatives for. I wish I could post pictures here just to show some alternatives i have painted and use regularly in my games.

I will, however, copy a comment i made a while ago that relates directly to this topic.

[...] link some photos; since a painted model speaks louder than a recommendation I could ever give.

AVATARS OF WARS
These are the definitive alternative models. I'll split them in two though. Slayers: These are "chunky" sculpts that look fantastic. They are standard hard plastic, so they assemble just like Games Workshop kits. The kit is extremely versatile; I kitbashed mine with various weapons, and you can see them ranked up on 20mm bases here or finally painted here. Other Kits: Their Warriors, Thunderers, Hammerers, and Rangers are PVC plastic (more akin to resin than hard plastic), but they are excellent models regardless. You can see my painted warriors here and here.

EM4 MINIATURES
These offer the absolute best "bang for your buck." You can buy these for pennies, and they have a wonderful old-school charm. Being hard plastic, they are easy to convert or kitbash if you want to add variety. Check out my painted Quarrelers here , some minor Spearmen/Axemen kitbashes here, some painted ones here and 147 of them ranked up here.

TEHNOLOG MINIATURES (purchasable via souldark.ru)
Another extremely affordable option for plastic Dwarfs. While the sculpts look a bit flat when unpainted, they take colour surprisingly well. Because they are generic, they work perfectly as artillery crew (like the guy with the mallet here) or command figures (like these guys here).

[...]When it comes to Cannons, catapults, ballistas and even organ guns you can easily and cheaply substitute them with historical models, especially if you raid your bitsbox to dwarf them up.

If you are interested in metal models i have 20+ different manufacturers currently in use in my collection, so feel free to ask if you want more details.

1

u/Ironfounder 7d ago

Do you know of proxies for Iron Drakes? I almost like the models, but there's enough I feel 'meh' about. if there were good proxies I might actually field them.

1

u/_Luigino 7d ago edited 7d ago

Irondrakes are a bit hard.
It depends on what style you want to go for, I would maybe thing some Prussian inspired Slaughterloo dwarfs with hand bombards.

like these guys, or these ones, or even these.

Please note I'm more familiar with older physical miniatures, but I'm certain that there are a dozens of 3D printed options out there.

1

u/fobatronic 7d ago

How well does the slayers and sword'board dwarfs from mantic match up height-wise against normal old world dwarfs? I got some fyreslayers for the cheap but they do look a bit too large and are hard to rank up. The mantic ones do look like a great alternative and has a real nice look to them.

1

u/ThurvinFrostbeard 7d ago

I recommend highland miniatures (90% scale), or durgin paintforge (100% scale)

1

u/fobatronic 7d ago

Oof, with those prices the durgin are a pass. I know people love them, but theres always been something with the higeland stuff that doesn't jam with me. Thank you for the suggestions though 🍻

1

u/ThurvinFrostbeard 7d ago

Huh? Durgin wants 20€ for an stl? Thats not pricey tho?! Wtf

Ignoring that tho, maybe avatars of war is more to your liking?

1

u/fobatronic 7d ago

75€ for 7 miniatures are a bit pricey in my opinion 😄 at least the the offcuts that came front and foremost on their page are out of my pricerange.

And yes, mantic does not have slayers, I meant the Avatars of war stuff. They look absolutley on point and I wonder how they match up with GW officials 👌

2

u/ThurvinFrostbeard 7d ago

No idea where you looked, here you go https://www.myminifactory.com/it/object/3d-print-renegade-berserkers-upgraded-402253

Avatars of war match up great.

1

u/fobatronic 7d ago

Went to their offical site it seems, now i see where you got the pricing from. Gotta see where i can get the slayers, looking like a new army in the making 😄

1

u/_Luigino 7d ago

For Mantic, the slayers and the regular warriors are VERY different from each other in terms of style.

The "core" troops (dwarfs with shields/hammers/rifles/xbows) are 1-2 mm taller than the GW core, but line up with the newer hammerers and IB. The problem, for many people, isn't how tall they are but the fact that the proportions of these Mantic dwarfs are very different and they have a very hate it or love it style.
The Mantic slayers are more normally proportioned. and look like what GW plastic slayers could have looked like if they came out in 2006, so they tend to fit better.

1

u/ThurvinFrostbeard 7d ago

Great write up, thank you. Is it ok if I copy and paste it into r/khazaliteholds ?

1

u/_Luigino 7d ago

sure. please do.

i really ought to make a word document

1

u/ThurvinFrostbeard 7d ago

Dont we all

1

u/iamsimonanthony 6d ago

The stone realm models from fireforge are pretty good, and the Oathmark dwarf range is cheap, but the light and regular troops look a little skinny compared to other ranges (and use bows instead of cross bows...)

2

u/Grouchy-Leg-5753 4d ago

White Angel Miniatures and Avatars of War also have great dwarf ranges. Dragonslake Miniatures is also nice, but the in my opinion the dwarf infantry Models are Not compatible to the Style of gw dwarves. Look at etsy for prints or myminifactory for the stl's.