Zombicide Black Plague minis for Frostgrave

[minijunkie]

Hi folks,

The other day I opened up my ZBP set from Kickstarter, reading the rules and loving the minis which include a cool wizard and a necrmancer.

Tonight I bought Frostgrave on Kindle as I've heard good things about it...when I got to the Necromancer it occurred to me the ZBP minis might be great for that! I'm not sure about the scale though - the minis may seem to small. Anyone considered using them or done so?

[Gunner Dunbar]

Why do you think they may be to small? Are they 28mm? The FG figures I have painted for customers don't look like they are Heroic 28mm like GW figs which are really 30mm, I think you should be OK,and I personally would use them if I liked them, however I haven't seen them side by side. 

[Timeshadow]

Considering I have seen tiny mice up to full sized GW Ogres used for a warband it shouldn't make a difference if they are a few mm one way or the other as long as they are cool :-)

[Nord]

Not seen these in close-up, any chance of a review of the minis?

And like others have said, use whatever you like.

[minijunkie]

Technically they are (per google) heroic 28mm. I'm not sure why but they strike me as relatively small/fine detailed which I suppose is ok   They are really flavorful sculpts, and for the Necro obviously the game comes with a lot of zombies (I haven't read far enough to know if he can summon those or whatever).

[Koyote]

Zombicide and ZBP figures are (roughly) 32mm scale minis.  If you do a Google search for the scale you will get many contradictory results. However, if you go to the Zombicide or CMON website you will see that their minis are advertised as 32mm scale.






I received the ZBP core set in December. For mass produced, soft(ish) plastic boardgame game pieces the level and sharpness of detail of the ZBP minis is remarkable.  The quality of the ZBP minis is noticeably higher than the Zombicide minis.

[Xintao]

how about some comparison pics with ZBP and Frostgrave Soldiers? Thanks!

[minijunkie]

how about some comparison pics with ZBP and Frostgrave Soldiers? Thanks!

Unfortunately I don't have the latter (and I'm at work) but maybe someone else does.

[iPaint]

ZBP minis are 32mm scale, the Frostgrave models (metals and plastics) are 28mm. There is a noticeable height difference of 2-4mm between the ranges, so don't expect too much of a close match. That said, nothing is stopping you from using them together.



L to R is Clovis (ZBP), Necromancer (FG), Archer (FG), and zombie (ZBP).

HTH

~iPaint

[minijunkie]

ZBP minis are 32mm scale, the Frostgrave models (metals and plastics) are 28mm. There is a noticeable height difference of 2-4mm between the ranges, so don't expect too much of a close match. That said, nothing is stopping you from using them together.



L to R is Clovis (ZBP), Necromancer (FG), Archer (FG), and zombie (ZBP).

HTH

~iPaint

Interesting! Turns out they are BIGGER, rather than smaller as I suspected. I think that's probably a minor issue, especially given how nice the sculpts are.

Thanks for posting the comparison.

[Koyote]

Scale is a tricky subject. Below is an excerpt from Wiki that does a pretty good job of explaining why.

The use of scale is not uniform and can deviate by as much as 30%. A manufacturer might advertise its figures as 28 mm, but their products may be over 30 mm tall. A contributing factor is the difference in methods used to calculate scale. Some manufacturers measure figure height from the feet to the eyes rather than the top of the head; therefore, a 6-foot (1.83 m) figure in 28 mm scale would be 30 mm tall. As a result, 15 mm figures can be variously interpreted as 1:100 scale or 1:120.

A further complication is differing interpretations of body proportions. Many metal gaming figures are unrealistically bulky for their height, with an over-sized head, hands, and weapons. Some of these exaggerations began as concessions to the limitations of primitive mold-making and sculpting techniques, but they have evolved into stylistic conventions.

Taking both model height and body proportions (heroic scale) into account, I tend to group 28mm models into two categories, those models at the smaller end of the 28mm scale and those models at the larger end of the 28mm scale.  Northstar's Frostgrave minis are on the smaller end of the 28mm scale, along with minis from Otherworld Miniatures, Reaper, Hasslefree Miniatures, Statuesque Miniatures, and many manufactures of historical 28mm miniatures, like Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory.  On the on larger end of the 28mm scale are models from Games Workshop's Fantasy & Mordheim ranges, Mantic Miniatures, Spellcrow Miniatures, Avatars of War, Heresy Miniatures and the historical manufacturer, Fireforge Games.  

To me the difference in size between the smaller and larger ends of 28mm scaled minis is noticeable enough that when I get around to building my cultist warband using Frostgrave's wonderful plastic and metal cultist minis, I doubt that I will include any minis from the larger end of the 28mm scale.  This is perfectly fine with me. My current warband is comprised of models from the larger end of the 28mm scale, so using Frostgrave minis as the core of my next warband will let me explore model lines and manufacturers that I've previously avoided.

[minijunkie]

Scale is a tricky subject. Below is an excerpt from Wiki that does a pretty good job of explaining why.

Taking both model height and body proportions (heroic scale) into account, I tend to group 28mm models into two categories, those models at the smaller end of the 28mm scale and those models at the larger end of the 28mm scale.  Northstar's Frostgrave minis are on the smaller end of the 28mm scale, along with minis from Otherworld Miniatures, Reaper, Hasslefree Miniatures, Statuesque Miniatures, and many manufactures of historical 28mm miniatures, like Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory.  On the on larger end of the 28mm scale are models from Games Workshop's Fantasy & Mordheim ranges, Mantic Miniatures, Spellcrow Miniatures, Avatars of War, Heresy Miniatures and the historical manufacturer, Fireforge Games.  

To me the difference in size between the smaller and larger ends of 28mm scaled minis is noticeable enough that when I get around to building my cultist warband using Frostgrave's wonderful plastic and metal cultist minis, I doubt that I will include any minis from the larger end of the 28mm scale.  This is perfectly fine with me. My current warband is comprised of models from the larger end of the 28mm scale, so using Frostgrave minis as the core of my next warband will let me explore model lines and manufacturers that I've previously avoided.

Nice, that makes sense and sheds more light on the differences. If I'm being honest the Frostgrave sculpts don't quite float my boat for various reasons, so I may go bigger I guess

[Nord]

I am regretting a little not backing this, but I do have stacks of unpainted stuff. The zombicide stuff looks pretty sharp and well detailed, if they are like the Blood Rage minis they are easy to paint too. Funnily enough, though the Frostgrave stuff is hard plastic and theoretically sharper, in that photo it looks less detailed - maybe that's just down to the sculpting.

[iPaint]

I am regretting a little not backing this, but I do have stacks of unpainted stuff. The zombicide stuff looks pretty sharp and well detailed, if they are like the Blood Rage minis they are easy to paint too. Funnily enough, though the Frostgrave stuff is hard plastic and theoretically sharper, in that photo it looks less detailed - maybe that's just down to the sculpting.

It's the lighting. The models are bar-none the best CMON/GG have put out to date for the Zombicide range. The plastic is also a better quality and less bendy than some of the previous modern Zombicide miniatures.

~iPaint

[Koyote]

The Zombicide Black Plague Kickstarter is amazing!  Even if you pledged at the lowest pledge level (Huntsman), in addition to all the zombie and necromancer models you get 40 Survivor models. That's 40 fantasy hero types that include a broad variety of professions and races. If you pledged at the next higher level (Knight), you get the Wulfsburg expansion (lots of wolf and werewolf models) and another 11 Survivor models.

The subject matter of the sculpts is also very cool. Where else are you going to get a David Bowie, Jareth the Goblin King mini?  Or Troy from the Army of Darkness?  Or Connor McCleod from Highlander? And many more familiar fantasy characters from the big (and little) screen?

As I mentioned here and elsewhere, for mass produced board game pieces the quality of these models is amazing. Well painted, they'd compare very favorably to the plastic minis of most tabletop wargames manufacturers.

So even if you value the Survivor models as low as $5 each, at the $150 Knight level you walk away with $250 in Survivor models plus the core game and Wulfsburg expansion plus all the zombie, wolf and necromancer models.

It's such a crazy good deal. It's no wonder that the Kickstarter raised over four million dollars.