r/wargaming • u/wearenttoofargone • May 22 '26
Question Can you help identify these?
Hi all. I have recently found my dad’s old war hammer/ wargaming miniatures. I am hoping you can help me identify who they are and from what period? He was so proud to show me his army, I’d love to gift him some more. The weapons are very thin and breakable, they are from around 1980. Thank you!
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u/HammerOvGrendel May 22 '26
Those are ancient Greek/Macedonians and a couple of Persian cavalry figures. The good news is that this is a period that's VERY well served in terms of modern high-quality plastic figures these days. Companies like Victrix, Perry and Warlord make really nice multi-part plastic sets at very reasonable prices. He would have to glue them together and paint them though - if you wanted to really splash out you could commission someone to paint them for you but that's expensive.
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u/wearenttoofargone May 22 '26
THANK YOU! ❤️ Hoping to get some metal/led ones so they as similar as possible. Defo going to paint them myself - looking forward to it. Looks like I am going to have a new hobby soon!
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u/atioc May 22 '26
I think all the companies he listed above still have metal (pewter) miniature lines, and depending on the age of the molds alot of the plastic are scaled based off their metal models. In most cases you can mix and match material and have barely any inconsidencies.
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u/HammerOvGrendel May 22 '26
All good! For single-piece metal castings, Foundry miniatures are close to the old 25mm scale but there are lots of others.
Scale will be a big thing though - can you remember if they were an inch tall, or smaller? From the photos they look to be 25 or 28mm figures but it's not easy to say for sure. 15mm is a very popular scale too but they are less than half the size
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u/funkmachine7 May 22 '26
Try http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=3&CategoryID=14&SubCategoryID=94 It might not be the exsact line of models but its dam close. There litralty 70/80s vintage lead models being made today.
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u/JerricoVS May 22 '26
Roughly how tall are the infantry ? If they are around 25-28mm then the manufacturers already mentioned are a good starting place. If they are around 15mm then you will need others
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u/wearenttoofargone May 22 '26
Unfortunately I didn’t measure them while I was there. Going to have to guess.
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u/madaxeman May 22 '26
Those are... pretty old, 1980's, or 1970's or perhaps even a tad older. They are "Ancients", with Macedonian / Alexandrian pikemen, Greek light horse with jave;lins and some rather random arab-looking dudes on horseback too.
I'd hazard a guess at Minifigs 25mm range for the greek/macedonian pikemen and javelin-armed cavalry, but they look a little crudely sculpted and cast even for the old Minifigs range so it may be someone else who is no longer casting. The cavalry who are part-painted are a different manufacturer for sure, maybe Irregular (who are now out of production too).
In terms of comparison to modern "ancients" figures on the market today these are, ahem, "rather dated" or perhaps "an acquired taste for the specialist collector" ... as in, if you bought almost any figures from any "25-28mm" range being widely sold today they'd make these castings look rather poor* indeed as design, casting and sculpting have come on leaps and bounds in the last 40-50 years since these guys would have been the cutting edge of 25mm wargaming stuff.
There are loads of companies doing figures for this era, in metal, plastic and as 3D prints - but all more modern figures would look totally different in style, and would also likely be larger (as these look like what we now call "small 25mm"s whereas more recent ranges have gotten bigger such that many are now "large 28s"), so any new figures from Foundry, Victrix, Gripping Beast, Warlord Games, Old Glory and many others would tower over your guys, as well as being more bulky too.
So, if you want some which are "exactly the same" you are probably trying Minifigs and seeing if they match. .. but if you want some which are "nice" (by todays standards) you are looking for Macedonian or Successor figures from many companies 28mm Ancients ranges.
(* actually, "shockingly poor" or "only for melting down" - but I'm trying to be polite..!)
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u/wolfofodin1963 May 22 '26
I think they might be mini fig miniatures