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Author Topic: Ideas for cheap giants? (first converted hill giant finished)  (Read 10134 times)

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #30 on: November 25, 2020, 06:08:40 PM »
I've picked up some of the Hate monsters and they're nice sculpts but can seem a little flat sometimes. Obviously the LAF does not condone the selling of unauthorised copies of miniatures so please do not post ebay links to such items. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure Gallahad meant "copies of the game" (as in "my copy has a misprint in the rulebook") rather than "counterfeited miniatures" - at least that's how I read it!


Offline Elbows

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #32 on: November 25, 2020, 09:45:56 PM »
Another thing I just thought of - have you looked into big toy miniatures from Russia?  I picked up some Ogre/Troll/Orc miniatures that were pretty substantial for really dirt cheap...standby, I'll see if I can find them.

Here is a picture - the "Orc" or whatever is on the far right of your screen.


Basically eBay search "Technolog 54mm"

Sample thing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mountain-Orcs-Fantasy-big-toy-soldiers-Technolog-for-54-mm/273791074507?hash=item3fbf3840cb:g:F~kAAOSwQUdfGXki

Assuming you find combined shipping, they're big and relatively cheap.  They seem to have a heap of types of fantasy miniatures in 54mm scale.
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Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #33 on: November 25, 2020, 09:59:08 PM »
Have you seen these?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/satanicpanic/satanic-panic-miniatures-28mm-old-school-multi-part-giants?ref=recommendation-projectpage-footer-2

Yes - and they do look amazing! But they're £20 a pop, so 29 of them would be a bit on the expensive side. And they won't be delivered until next year, I think; I'm planning to run the G1 module during the Christmas holidays at the very latest.

I've been musing a bit more on the hill-giant conundrum. For the rank and file - and I count 71 giants occupying the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief - I want figures that are giant (of course!), easily identifiable as hill giants and not ogres (because the place is crawling with ogres too), and cohesive in some way. Now, hill giants are tribal and fairly primitive, so 'tribal' historicals - whether that's Gauls, Ancient Germans or Zulus with their guns removed - are a good start. But besides the tribal peoples of history, there's another touchstone: the American gothic of 70s horror films. I looked at these Pegasus gladiators and immediately thought "Leatherface!":



They have the advantage of mostly looking downwards, and I reckon they could easily be painted up with woad or tattoos and verdigrised bronze armour to look like a sort of primitive, giant version of slasher-movie villains. Masked, grunting giants should make for fairly terrifying opponents. And the contrast with their slightly more civilised kin, who can actually speak (albeit slowly) would add some variety and interest to the encounters. The local model shop appears to have them in stock, online at least, so I'll see if I can pick them up tomorrow.

Elbows" yes, thanks - see the discussion on the previous page (there are some brilliant Tehnolog 'giants' there - now ordered!). And this guy might well end up as one of the beefier hill giants - he's already featured as a wizard's giant bodyguard earlier in the campaign:


Offline Elbows

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #34 on: November 25, 2020, 10:29:42 PM »
Doh, I didn't see the other page after my first response...well...there ya go. :D

Online Elk101

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #35 on: November 25, 2020, 10:36:12 PM »
I'm pretty sure Gallahad meant "copies of the game" (as in "my copy has a misprint in the rulebook") rather than "counterfeited miniatures" - at least that's how I read it!

Yeah, you're probably right looking at it again. I was surprised at how many 'rip off' copies of gaming figures there are on Ebay though.

Those Russian figures look good. I have the orcs and really like them. The barbarians and vikings do look the part for mid height giants

Offline Sunjester

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #36 on: November 25, 2020, 10:49:44 PM »
Yeah, you're probably right looking at it again. I was surprised at how many 'rip off' copies of gaming figures there are on Ebay though.

Those Russian figures look good. I have the orcs and really like them. The barbarians and vikings do look the part for mid height giants
Yes, there is a whole load of useful miniatures for bigger monsters in the Russian 1/32 toy "soldiers".

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #37 on: November 25, 2020, 11:17:31 PM »
Now that I'm heading down the gladiator/Leatherface route for hill giants, the Tehnolog gladiators look a natural complement to the historicals - as the bigger, meaner sort of giant:



Gallingly, the excellent Italieri gladiators (which I have in 1/72) used to be available in 1/32. That kit even included a bear, which would have been perfect for the cave bear in The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #38 on: November 26, 2020, 12:08:46 AM »
Just found this great thread by Papa Midnight. That seals the deal on the Pegasus gladiators. And those might enable me to do the prep in plain view of some of the players. "Why these? These gladiators? I thought a bigger scale might work well for Melee - and for testing out the new Runequest rules ...".


Offline manic _miner

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #39 on: November 26, 2020, 09:34:40 AM »
 I think that i might have the Italieri 1/32 Gladiators some place.

 Papa Midnight does some great stuff.His Inferno figure collection is amazing.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #40 on: November 26, 2020, 10:23:44 AM »
I think that i might have the Italieri 1/32 Gladiators some place.

If you could be tempted to sell one or both of the sprues (there are two identical ones, I think), just let me know!

Papa Midnight does some great stuff.His Inferno figure collection is amazing.

I must check that out. His gladiators are brilliant - and the conversions of the more ostensibly useless ones are inspiring.

The fact that the Pegasus set offers gladiatrices (giantesses!) and dwarfs (immature giants!) makes it especially handy.


Offline fastolfrus

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #41 on: November 26, 2020, 07:00:46 PM »
We had someone at the local club used to field a giant army that he mainly picked up from Poundland, they had cheap copies of Papo/Schleich fantasy figures also some slightly larger ones, so his giants varied in size from 3 - 8 inches tall.
Made an impressive army, but usually got shot to bits
Gary, Glynis, and Alasdair (there are three of us, but we are too mean to have more than one login)

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #42 on: November 26, 2020, 09:44:53 PM »
We had someone at the local club used to field a giant army that he mainly picked up from Poundland, they had cheap copies of Papo/Schleich fantasy figures also some slightly larger ones, so his giants varied in size from 3 - 8 inches tall.

That's one thing about giants - there's no need for any particular consistency in their sizes (as long as the leaders are the biggest around).

The repurposing of toys is a great gaming tradition - going back at least as far as Chainmail and probably much further. The kids and I are gradually basing and painting up some of their old dinosaurs and the like. Some of the Papo and Schleich animals are at least as well designed as most miniatures.

By the way, in buying up some 1/32 stuff online today, I noticed that Hannants had this hard-plastic 1/24 troll going cheap. I'm guessing it's about 10cm high (in another set, a human is about chest high against it). Not a bad price for a sizeable giant, I thought; I've got one ordered. I reckon he might make a decent giant for Oathmark and the like.

Online AKULA

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #43 on: November 26, 2020, 10:54:10 PM »
A good spot...just ordered one myself  :D

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Ideas for cheap giants? (now with an 1/32 experiment)
« Reply #44 on: November 26, 2020, 10:57:37 PM »
Looks like you might have got the last! They seem to have gone now.

 

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