I have been dabbling in 15mm wargaming of late, maybe you have seen the other posts on my 15mm Orcs, in any case I always wanted to build two armies for wargaming in this scale. I have completely given up fantasy wargaming in 28mm for a few years now, migrating to 10mm, but now I want to do a few Dwarf-Orc campaigns in 15mm. I have started painting up the armies, but I wanted to make a quick review of the Dwarf ranges out there for anyone who would be interested.
The picture below shows four 15mm dwarf ranges currently available, and which I think are the best on the market.
The first four minis starting from the left are samples from the Alternative Armies and the Old Grenadier range now produced by Mirliton miniatures respectively. I have grouped these two ranges together because they have similar qualities. Both ranges excel in proportion over detail and are slightly larger than the following two ranges. Both companies offer several poses within each weapon category which offers a nice variety for 15mm.
The second four minis belong to the Demonworld range and the old Ral Partha range. These two companies produce slightly smaller dwarfs but with more detail than the previous two companies. The old Ral Partha dwarfs are hard to get a hold of, but the Demonworld minis are now being produced by Ral Partha Europe. Unfortunately, for reasons I am not sure of, they no longer hold the rights to their old range. These companies do not have a wide variety per weapon category, but their quality and detail are slightly superior to the previous two companies.
The last two minis are from the Blood Dawn range sold by Magister Militum. They are lovely minis but unfortunately their scale is way too large to be compatible with other 15mm ranges. I would only recommend these if you were intend on building a whole army with them.
Personally my army is a mix of the first four brands, that is : Alternative, Grenadier, Demonworld and Ral Partha. By combing all four I can simulate every unit type in several fantasy settings. The height descrepancy can be easily overcome by placing the Demonworld and Ral Partha minis on slightly higher bases. I will be showing examples in the near future.
Overall I recommend theses ranges, regardless if one mixes them or builds an army from just one range. If you do decide to build from one range then I would choose from either the Grenadier or Demonworld sets since they offer the most choice in weapon & unit catergories. Please check out my miniatures page on this blog for links to the respective sites.
Well that's all for today, and as always -
Farewell and good health,
