Miniature

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What happens when you try to blend Starcraft with Warhammer (as if Starcraft wasn't a ripoff already)

A Miniature or mini is a small-scale figurine used to represent the relative position of a character or unit, mostly in gaming. Early miniatures were made of cheap plastic and lead. After a while, somebody decided that lead was bad, and manufacturers began switching to a low-lead pewter, and finally "Rallidium", a lead-free pewter substitute. The plastic ones wouldn't get you sick if you ate them, so the materials weren't changed much there although there are polyethylene, polystyrene and polyurethane resin figures from various manufacturers.

Most miniatures are on a 25-28mm scale (that is, a 25 [or 28 or whatever] millimeter figure represents a six-foot-tall person) -- which is about 1/76th scale, or 00 gauge (4mm to the scale foot) -- but they come in many other scales as well.

Weeaboos and other animu fans have miniatures as well, but we could care less about those god-awful things.

Minis in RPGs

The mini shows your relative position with regards to the other player characters, and potentially monsters. The main use for minis is to avoid arguments when someone sets off a trap and the DM says "Now who was in front?" with the minis, marching order was provable, and many a dickish player finally fell into the spiky pits they so richly deserved. RPG scales are usually kept in the 25-28mm range. Except in the Dark Dungeons tract, where the figures are of fucking epic proportions, similar to the Mazes and Monsters movie figures.

Minis in Wargames

Minis here are used in a similar fashion, showing a unit's relative position to other units, only there tend to be a fuckton more figures on the table. Where minis aren't required in RPGs to play (unless you play 4e where many powers are movement based) in wargames they are a must. Determining line of sight, squad size, and movement patterns is essential to the typical wargame, and so too are the figures. Wargames use a number of different scales depending on the system. For instance, Warhammer uses 28mm, and most historical wargames use a 15 or 20 millimeter scale. They can be as small as 2mm.

What does the scale mean?

When the scale is in millimeters, it's generally referring to millimeters in reference to an average height man. Basically, a six foot tall warrior (or 185cm tall if you don't know what feet are) is the baseline. If your model of that warrior is 28mm tall, congrats, you have a 28mm scale figure. It's a little over 4.1mm to the scale foot. Same goes for all the other scales in miniatures, they're all based on that 'average man' baseline. They all fluctuate some, but the convention has held for a number of years.

Metal or Plastic

Some people have a difficult time deciding what kind of minis to buy based on material. To the player, the only major difference in materials are weight (metals are obviously heavier than plastic or resin), ease of work (metals take more work to remove mold lines or convert), and what tools to use (one type of glue may not bond different materials, either to themselves or each other). Advances in engineering over the last few decades have made it easier for plastic models to carry more detail and have more dynamic poses, while metal and resin models still require less money for initial production. If you're buying prepainted figures, then get which ever ones look better to you.

A Figurine Hobbyist?

This many minis may overall sometimes cost more than a decent factory-new car, seriously.

Yup. Some people (especially on /tg/) get a massive erection from customizing scale figurines. They often mix and match parts from various models and sometimes mold and make their own. It's not uncommon for a hobbyist to have a few thousand dollars in material from saws, brushes, paints, magnifying glasses on positionable frames, etc. Some people take that shit seriously, making sure that every bit of detail is 110% perfect at all times. To be fair, 80% of the time the figures look REALLY good, and the other 20% of the time you get to laugh at the asshole who wasted the time, money and effort to build his model that he should have probably sticked to buying ones that are already done for him. So in the 4chan universe, it's all good.

Miniature manufacturing

Many companies make figures for gaming. Here is a short list:

• Battlefront - Flames of War, DUST Tactics (after getting the license from FFG, currently in a legal battle with DUST Studio)
• ChapterHouse Studios - Produces bits and accessories intended for use with Warhammer 40,000. The subject of a protracted legal battle with Games Workshop wherein GW demonstrated a laughable understanding of copyright laws and contempt for its customers.
• Citadel Miniatures (Games Workshop) - figures for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000, Battlefleet Gothic, Epic 40K, War of the Ring, and a bunch of other stuff that lays in a comatose fanbase.
• Corvus Belli - Infinity. The shapely bums that their female models have gets the company the nickname "Corvus Booty."
• Dreamforge Games - They have a game in development and are currently producing miniatures for the game's first faction, the Eisenkern (space Nazis).
• Fantasy Flight Games - While not a miniatures producer principally, they make a lot of miniatures-based games like Twilight Imperium and Star Wars Armada.
• Forge World (also Games Workshop) - expensive figures for Fantasy, 40K, Aeronautica Imperialis, and Apocalypse.
• Hasslefree - British company that produces the work of Kev White. Mainly fantasy and sci-fi with lots of lovely ladies.
• Hawk Wargames - Dropzone Commander.
• Kingdom Death - "Boutique Nightmare Horror," which means a bunch of bizarre monsters and the humans that fight them.
• Knight Models - Comic book properties, produces the Batman: Arkham City miniatures game.
• Mantic Games - Kings of War (fantasy), Warpath (sci-fi), Deadzone (future zombies) Dreadball (sci-fi analogue of Blood Bowl), Mars Attacks! (licensed property)
• Mithril Miniatures - The Lord of the Rings minis.
• Perry Miniatures - The company that produces the independent work of Alan and Michael Perry. Historical miniatures, mainly European conflicts and the American Civil War.
• Privateer Press - Figures for Warmachine, Hordes, and Iron Kingdoms.
• Ral Partha - Produced fantasy and historical miniatures beginning in 1975. They eventually acquired licenses for D&D, Battletech, and White Wolf miniatures; losing those signaled the end for the company. WizKids acquired Ral Partha and spun it off into Iron Wind Metals in 2001.
• Reaper Miniatures - Dark Heaven Legends (generic fantasy), Warlord (their own skirmish game), Chronoscope (generic speculative fiction/historical), and official licensed Pathfinder and Savage Worlds figures. The Bones line encompasses all their other lines and is produced in a new plastic material.
• Wargames Factory - Primarily a manufacturer of other company's products, notably Dreamforge Games.
• Warlord Games - Mostly historical lines with accompanying game systems; Hail Caesar (Roman Republic), Pike & Shotte (16th to 18th century conflicts), Black Powder (18th and 19th century conflicts), and Bolt Action (WWII). Speculative fiction lines include Judge Dredd and Beyond the Gates of Antares.
• WizKids (owned by NECA) - Heroclix (many lines of licensed material, mostly Marvel and DC comics) and Attack Wing (Star Trek and D&D).
• Wizards of the Coast - Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game. Produced the Star Wars Miniatures Game when they had the license.
• Wyrd Miniatures - Malifaux.
• Zenit Miniatures - Nemesis, Kensei.