28mm Barbarians

Recently there’s been a flurry of 28mm barbarians cropping up on forums, Lead Adventure Forum most notably. I’d never been a huge barbarian fan (beyond watching Conan as a kid of course), but some of the work was so inspiring I had to get me some!

So I decided to put together a warband for Mordheim. And that meant finding some models. Much trawling of the internet has returned quite a few sources, so I thought I’d share.

Grenadier Models (from eM-4-Miniatures)
These sculpts were made the same year I got into the hobby, 1991! But they’ve stood the test of time surprisingly well, crisp and dynamic. The weapons are a tad on the chunky side, but when you look at the cost you can’t complain. They come on integrated bases, which I removed for conformity with the newer models below.
I bought mine from eM-4 but you can also get them from Forlorn Hope and Mirlton. Mirlton carry the largest range of them, Forlorn are the cheapest at £1.28 per model, including delivery!

Heresy
In their Fantasy-Heroes-Barbarians section are 15 barbarians ranging from a halfling to the mighty Thrud. I bought a Big Boris Mk2. In reality he’s a tad large compared to the Grenadier sculpts standing 38mm toe to eye. The Mk1 is a lot shorter, and would probably scale better, but the new sculpt is just that bit more refined.
Worth noting Heresy is cheaper through some resellers. Tritex Games carries a range of Heresy models, including the barbarians (and some old, now oop ogres).

Hasslefree Miniatures
A smaller range of barbarians in the Fantasy Humans section. I’ve bought both standard versions of Wolf, one standing looking at the floor, the other swinging his sword. Like Heresy, lovely sculpts. They’re about 33mm to the eye, I’m going to use them as a pair of larger ‘berserkers’.
As with Heresy HF minis are usually cheaper elsewhere. I got one Wolf from Wayland Games where he’s cheaper AND postage is less, and the other from Tritex with some oop Heresy stuff.

A couple of photographs to show scale comparisons between the above three manufacturers. The pencil line on the background is at 28mm to give a rough idea of scale.

CP Models
CP has a growing collection of barbarians, and whilst I really liked the look of the sculpting at the time I wasn’t sold on the poses so didn’t pick these up. But cheap models and the one with the axe and sword puts me in mind of an Iron Maiden guitarist for some reason..

Alternative Armies
Finally the AA site has had a redesign, so things are easier to find. They are in 28mm High Fantasy – Barbarians. These are 1980’s sculpts, but some nice dynamic poses for about £3.00 per mini.

Black Tree Design
Black Tree do carry quite a few barbarians, including some nice barbarian cavalry from the Harlequin range. To be honest I was tempted, but there’s been so much bad press about Black Tree and order delays I was hesitant. I will say I’ve never ordered from them and it’s all hearsay, but the models didn’t seem worth the effort.

Reaper Miniatures
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Reaper. Their stuff is a wide spectrum of scales, but the ones I’ve bought in the past have been closer to 32mm than 28mm. However in this particular project that wouldn’t matter so much. I was rather taken by Goldar the Barbarian. The reason he’s not on my desk? To order from the Reaper site the model is £3.24. The shipping is £10.03. Erm, no thanks. Buying Reaper in the UK has always been tedious (though Mighty Lancer Games now carry a huge stock, if a little hard to browse)

I’ll keep adding to this list if I find more suppliers of 28mm barbarians, I’m certain there are others out there (I’ve not mentioned GW, and Avatars of War have a single barbarian in their line up), but since I now have a full compliment of barbarians awaiting paintwork I won’t be buying any more for a while.