General question, and probably posted already, but what are some things people would like to see in the miniatures community? The gaming community? What models get your goat, and youjust have to leverage the family home to attain? What game system do you want, and it's just not there.
For me, I've always loved powered armor, and many companies and designers are hitting that nail through the board. But what I want- and what every company has failed to give- is a solid alien that breaks conventions and looks legit alien. Not "Like a bug" or some variation of a humanoid form. If you look at all the big players aliens, they all look like variation on the human soldier theme, or like insects.
I can understand why- that stuff sells. But I'm honestly tired of Elf and Orc variations, and todays flavor of insectile alien biotech.
As to rules, I'd really like a rules set that scales well both with miniatures of differing scales, and with regards to force size. Been an ongoing project of mine- still haven't dropped a beta. Everytime I think I have it a new idea pops up and I rehash aspects of it. Can't much release a rules set if the base rules keep changing.
Anyway- what do you guys/gals want?
I'm always up for a decent Alien kit in hard plastic. The current Harvesters look great but I would like something more "high tech" as opponents for my humans. A big passion of mine has always been Steampunk minis, especially with multi-part options.
As for gaming systems I like fast and easy rules. My current go-to set is "Space Weirdos" which is open ended and generic, allowing our group to play with minimal book-keeping in an hour or two. These simpler systems always appeal to me because they are easier to re-jig into other genres without major re-learning of new rules.
I have a need for big Felinoid and smaller Canid aliens for Traveller. I suspect Spacenam with headswaps will fit the bill for the former. Some digitigrade legs in the right size would help (although I have found that GW Skinks fit the bill there for the smaller figures).
Some tentacle style BEMs would be good.
@Paul Mitting I agree on the better tech Alien options. GW's lines are kinda played out. Like I mentioned, everything is humanoid or Bug. I'd like something different. Some stuff I've seen other companies doe comes really close. Warlord Games has their Ghar and the robo-bugs, but even those seem to fall into either trope. Tobe honest, I'd like some Ewok type stuff. One of the major players in my system I'm putting together is much like them physically.
@Mark Dewis Never been a big fan of Felinoid or Canid styled Aliens myself, but I can see how a set of something like that may be kinda neat to have around. Kinda of like the Lizardmen from WGA (not a big fan of those, but I can see the appeal). No idea what a BEM is.
Child soldiers, because the extreme deseperation and fighting to survive instead of win makes for an interesting, if horrifying, force on the tabletop and would be good for conversions into less horrific player characters for various settings. Also, their short height means they'd make good use of cover rules! If I had to pick a specific instance, I'd say Volksturm because they're fairly generic and the sheer amount of weird "toys" they were issued: Captured rifles for all over the world, one-off prototypes, rushed designs, and wonder weapons that came too late to be useful.
On a much, much lighter note: A box of generic women in various types of armor, akin to Perry's "Mercenary" box but female, for classic fantasy
Right now I am rather preoccupied with Quar... so I would love to see the Quar range grow beyond what has already been shown. Particularly civilian models, sailors and aviators. And female Quar as well. And all in plastic. I am not an STL customer.
As for non-Quar, I still think Ottomans, especially Janissaries, of various periods would sell well.
Also, WW2 German and Soviet Naval Infantry as well as “Moongrunt” spacesuit wearing Astronauts (with and without weapons) with big bubble lens helmets.
Oh and Wild West Mexican Banditos.
And I could be convinced to get sidetracked by a good multi-pose plastic set of Tinker Gnomes or some Pulp retro Sci-fi figures. Speaking of sci-fi... a set of “build your own robots” would be popular.
@Mark Dewis Perhaps someone makes 3d Printed or resin/metal cast feline heads that would fit Northstar Frostgrave Gnolls? Or perhaps you could convince WGA to come up with something like this?
@Nanashi Anon When you say “child soldiers” What era/culture are you thinking? Contemporary African? Hitler Youth? Boy Scouts for a Red Dawn setting?
@Battle Specter
BEM = Bug Eyed Monster. Old term for the sort of alien critter you find in 50's science fiction B movies
@Grumpy Gnome
Animal heads are dual purpose for Fantasy too. And horror, at least as far as wolf heads go.
@Grumpy Gnome
As mentioned, Volkssturm at the Battle of Berlin would be one (Technically all the boys would be Hitler Youth members as membership was mandatory to the point even a future pope was part of it, but there's a distinction in dress, inclusion of females etc. between them and a "proper" group of VJ "soldiers"). Modern examples are "too real" and overly speciffic (largely limited to African, Middle Eastern and maybe central/south American in ethnicity and armed mainly with Soviet weapons), but I'd be good with a wide variety of stuff: Jim Hawkins esqe young pirates, Red Dawn resistance, young adventurers, sci-fi soldiers ("In the grim darkness of the future, the lore will mention the Empire has child soldiers, but they will never, ever get a model") etc.
Generic modern child soldiers? Any Zombie apocalypse can be used as an excuse to go there without too many moral issues.
@Nanashi Anon there was also the Balkan War. Anywhere between 3000 to 10,000 child soldiers, mostly Bosnian and Croatian. Charitably, they may have mostly been volunteers. I expect there's been quite a few underage fighters picking up arms in self defense in Ukraine too. Child soldiers do not have to be a policy to exist.
Children's Crusade for that curious gap between Blood Oaths and Renaissance.
True, that had every war crime one could think of, though I internally consider Yugoslav Wars non-"Modern" (rather "late Cold War") since it began before the official fall of Soviet Union (June 27th 1991 vs. December 1991) .
@Battle Specter Big yes from me for feline alien species, especially with digitigrade legs and tails! They are a major trope in many sci-fi tales and would make for a very cool set of minis!
@Grumpy Gnome Build your own robots is something I have asked for previously as well. Lots of different torso and separate lower body options (legs, tracked, wheeled, anti-grav) with various head and arm options would be perfect. That way you could customise your own designs as well as use the parts to kitbash cyborgs of all kinds!
@Nanashi Anon if they were wearing clothing you could walk around in today and were using weapons still in use today it counts as "modern". We are talking plastic miniatures here.
@Battle Specter I`m a big fan of "Falling Skies" and to be totally honest I think it would make a perfect Wargame. It had many variations of combat skirmish through to large conflicts. The rag tag civilian/ semi military was a real after invasion idea. You had motor bikes, horses, military and civilian vehicles, even boats and aircraft, every item went into the list. The opposition in the form of the types of Aliens and the robots were so different and the harrnessed kids and poor Skitters make for a really different game. I bought the rule set Divergent to enjoy styling these style of games for more depth or an RPG element I`d go D20 system all the way. These forms of figures I think have been neglected by main stream companys. I once thought that Mantic Games might buy the licence but as the quality of their figures dereriorated, I was quite glad they didn't. A mixed genre of different alien species working as one army, either enforced or co-eletion as in Halo could be a terrific gaming medium and a good spot for some new rules. Cheers, Geoff.
In descending order my wishlist for plastic sprues goes as follows:
1: "historical looking Shieldmaidens". Yes I know for some reason in a hobby where human sized lasergun wielding spiders, goblins, lizardmen, plant people, elves and dragons exist just mentioning you want female miniatures that can stand and look thematicly appropriate next to a historical mini triggers some people. None the less I want it for fantasy purposes.
2: same dark age era as above armed and armoured children of varying ages.
3: monks/cultists robed figures. in a dream scenario Id want a female (armed nuns) version of this sprue as well.
4: mixed dogs.
5: left handed medieval/dark age weapons.
At the moment, I'm building some servitors for my not-Adeptus Mechanicus force (WA's Cannon Fodder are perfect for this!), so could someone help me out with weird boinic appendages and heads?
Beyond the typical bionic-type arms and legs that are trying to replace a destroyed hand/foot, how about claws (grabbing and cutting types), weapons, sensor equipment; maybe bionics that have a very mass-produced, none state-of-the-art look. More brutal, less sleek.
Modular Tech-priest style backpacks with equipment options would be killer, too!
This one's a pretty niche ask, though; better suited for 3d printing.
@Benjamin Hayward
Heavily mechanized cyborgs seems mainstream enough to me.....
Seems like an easy fit for Death Fields lore as well.
How about near future military astronauts?
Multipart plastic guys looking something like this:
@Andreas Mayrhofer
Ah, the old Space Shuttle Door Gunner:
Admittedly I have not watched the show but yeah, lol. 😉
I mean, you can do a lot with Cannon Fodder for that kind of project. I have to finish off mine, done with Iron Core backpacks and the rifles altered a bit. Orange jumpsuits, white helmets and weapon casings.
But the bulkier look is good too.
@Andreas Mayrhofer OMG, I was waiting yrs for such a figures' set, with only few modifications could pass for an "Expanse" like soldier!😱
Imagine also some power armours such as the martians' marines ones!
@Carsten Ohlsson Left handed weapons for all ranges please! I primarily play Skirmish games and you can never get enough left arms/hands holding something useful.
Always up for a decent Shield Maiden kit too!
Ditto from me for left handed stuff, as well as free hands. You usually get a couple of open hands, fists or pointing ones but rarely enough or enough of the side you want.
@Paul Mitting @Mark Dewis Try Black Cat Bases they do a range of left and right metal hands full of lovely items from Torches to guns. They got J-Tams spirit up when I showed him.
Something thats really needed are Heian/Kamakura period Samurai and retainers as Multipart plastics. There are a ton of Samurai Minis out there but almost all of them are modelled after the typical Sengoku/Edo period Gear.
Well, some pre-Sengoku era samurais & ashigarus could be interesting, expecially if they're placed in a fantasy scenario, with Onis and various demons of japan's legends.
@Alessio De Carolis hell yeah, give me my early Samurai accompanied by Kappa, bakemono, oni, tengu, kitsune.......
honestly, in historicals, i'm not sure. most of my projects there are already covered by existing WGA range or one of the other companies.
from a scifi perspective, i'd love to see a 'stealth specialist scout infantry" set in either deathfields or more likely, Reptilian overlords. skinny, wiry troopers in light armor and camocloaks; using warknives, battle rifles, sniper rifles, portable missilelaunchers, satchel charges, sensor gear (both handheld and as alternate heads with goggles), etc.
basically, if the SpaceNam set is 40k Catachans, i'd love a set that can be used for 40K Guant's Ghosts. which is a style that a lot of scifi army rulesets include option for, but very few actually provide miniatures support for outside of maybe a handful of expensive and limited option resin and/or metal figures.
@Mithril2098 This could be a great idea for sci-fi light/recce troops, after all, with the devastating firepower a single unit can have, it's perfectly logical that such an advanced recce troop would be detached to spot targets or avoid ambushes, it could be a real complement to their "heavier" comrades.👍
one reason i think this would fit best in reptilian overlords is, in addition to giving that setting more stuff, these sorts of lightweight troops probably wouldn't give much entertainment in a gladitorial engagement set up, even if using larger arenas.
@Andreas Mayrhofer @Grumpy Gnome @Alessio De Carolis
Would you settle for retro combat astronauts?
https://blacksitestudio.com/pages/lunar
@JTam I Like These guys but I'm slightly more into the future aspect
I don't think that a war on the Moon would be viable, the hardware is too vulnerable, perhaps a war against some aliens' outpost, with mankind united against an external menace...
@Alessio De Carolis Great fun tough, played it with Airfix Astronauts, way way back such a great scenery game, with a little effort to build the boards. It had a lot of very colour full scenery in the way of buildings only side effect was 1/72 scale. But you had a lot of things you could adapt if I remember cortectly we used a form of "Aftermath Rules a guy printred out at B`ham club.
Lots of gory deaths, with puntured suits sending Astronauts every where any wound if no patch could be glued was usualy a fateillity. Still we had a lot of games , "New Bases, Minning, Water Research, and Hydro Gardens. Lots of different missions that game done by proffesionals could be a real gem. Cheers Geoff.
