Hi all!
Well with GW's ever-increasing prices and now FineCast and the host of discontinuations that will follow, I thought it would be a good idea to have a collection of links to other manufacturers whose minis would be suitable for Lord of the Rings. I'll list the handful that I know of, but anyone else that has a link to add, by all means please do!
Even if a lot of these are already known to those of us who have been in the hobby for a while, I think lists like this are useful for people either new to wargaming in general, or those who haven't really stepped outside the GW sandbox. It's staggering just how much other companies can have to offer!
Lengthy list ahead, be warned:
1st Corp do historical minis from a myriad of time periods. Of particular use to LotR gamers might be some of the Mongols (Khand). Quality doesn't seem to be quite on par with GW, but they're relatively cheap.
Aventine Miniatures are centered around early/republican Roman period. You might be able to find use for them as fiefdom troops or some sort of Numenoreans (who I always thought had a bit of a Roman feel in the movies), and the Italian Hill Tribes chieftain in particular seems like he might make a nice Dunlending hero.
Black Tree Design do a fair few historical ranges as well as some fantasy figures (including a range of very-clearly-LotR-inspired minis). Quality and price aren't bad, although I've heard service leaves something to be desired - you may end up waiting an unreasonably long time for your order to arrive.
Conquest Games do a nice set of plastic Norman cavalry as well as some metal Norman characters and some monks. You can also order their horse sprues separately, if you have riders sans mounts. I can see them being put to use as cavalry from almost any nation, really, although as usual fiefdoms seem like the go-to option for these guys.
Immortal Miniatures specialize in ancient near-east, and while best know for their plastic Greek hoplites (which are probably less useful to LotR gamers), the Persians, Mesopotamians, and Neo-Assyrians would fit with the Harad and Khand (and maybe Easterling) ranges.
Gripping Beast's plastic viking and saxon sets make for great Dunlendings or Rohirrim (and would probably pass for lakemen as well), and there are accompanying ancient, dark ages, and medieval ranges with a wealth of suitable LotR characters. Not bad prices, and most of their medieval/dark ages figures are available through
Architects of War for those of us located in the States.
Wargames Foundry makes almost everything you can imagine, they're good-quality minis, the only major drawback is that they're pretty pricey.
Perry Miniatures do a bunch of historical in 28mm. Most are Napoleonic or ACW, it seems, but they have nice plastic sets of War of the Roses infantry and apparently some upcoming African tribesmen, who might work as mahud.
Warlord Games does a nice ancients range including Imperial Romans and many of their barbarian enemies (lots of Celts, but also Germanic tribesmen and Dacians who are currently getting some attention). The barbarian sets would work well as Dunlendings/Wildmen, and I've also heard of a lot of people using them as barbarians of Carn Dum for WotR (we'll have to wait to get SBG profiles on those, I guess). The Romans, and auxilliaries in particular, I think, could be used for fiefdom troops or Numenoreans of some kind. You can also order Gripping Beast, Immortal, Crusader, and Perry plastics through their webstore.
Newcomers
Fireforge Games have their plastic Teutonic Knights set up for pre-order, and they look like with the right paint job they could make an excellent alternative to either SKoDA or Morgul Knights. At about $30 USD (20 GBP) for 12 models they're roughly half the price of the heavy cavalry from GW.
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And one last note - for those in the States
the War Store carries many of these ranges (as well as a full supply of GW figures), often at discounted prices and with very reasonable shipping. Sometimes for us over here across the pond it's a little harder to get our hands on those British manufacturer's minis, but I've found that they're a pretty good source.
Well, there you have it - hopefully this is helpful to someone!
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