Category Archives: Red Box Games

Beautiful Eivor – Red Box Games

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Beautiful Eivor - Red Box Games

Tre’ Manor is a sculptor who is talented beyond belief, yet he is very much stuck in his own strict perfectionist mentality of how he wants to create his models to their own, slight and slender – and rather tiny scale. Sadly, this means that his models do not scale well with other commercial miniatures, most importantly Reaper and Games Workshop/Citadel – which is a key factor in limiting his success. I can’t fault his personal choice to follow his own artistic vision – but sadly for me as an onlooker, Tre’ seems to constantly be launching Kickstarter projects, some of which fund while others fail, endlessly sculpting and resculpting the same range of barbarians that don’t fit in with anyone else’s models. All while much more financial success sits only a few literal millimetres away with a larger scale that fits in with the big dogs’ ranges.

Beautiful Eivor - Red Box Games

They do fit pretty well with GW’s Lord of the Rings ranges, especially the earlier, more “truescale” models, as I’ve discussed before, but there we’re talking about a limited number of Tre’s models working with a limited aspect of the LotR ranges. Anyway, the purpose of this post is not to grouse on Tre’s choices, especially since he’s genuinely a really nice guy in all of my interactions with him. It’s just frustrating when you see a guy who is so nice and so bloody talented being so recalcitrant to doing some stuff that could make him SO much money and allow him to follow his own vision with a bit more financial security.

Beautiful Eivor - Red Box Games

Beautiful Eivor is an elf-maiden model I picked up quite a few years ago when I did a large order of RBG models, and has was selected slightly fewer years ago to be used as a replacement-PC model for a D&D thief from one of the WotC D&D Boardgames. You know, Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Drizzzztiness of Drizzzzzzzzt and all that lot. Obviously the model would work just as easily (or even more easily) as a ranger, and was probably purchased with that in mind, but the thief role came up, and this figure was available.

Beautiful Eivor - Red Box Games

This particular model appears to be discontinued at this point in time, but with quite a large range for being a one-man, one-woman shop, I can understand how RBG could only keep a limited number of models available at any given moment. You can also see just how thin she is from the “flat” angle. Truth be told, her shortsword is so thin, I’m a bit scared to actually use her in any kind of game where the model might be touched. It feels like it’ll fall off with a sneeze or a solid glance.

Paint-wise, I went with a combination of dark earth tones with a nice dark blue cloak, because those colours say “D&D Thief” to me. I also painted what looked to be designed as sexy bare legs above her sexy thigh-high boots as leggings, because that also says thief to me more than the extra bit of skin, and in turn makes the tunic more sensible adventurers’ “work” clothing than sexy mini-skirt. I went with blonde hair in the end after initially planning on dark hair simply because I wanted her hair to stand out a little, and dark hair just got lost with the dark, mostly muted clothing.

Beautiful Eivor - Red Box Games

Finally, here’s a size comparison. I’m sure that any japesters amongst you would opine that she actually is correctly in-scale with the Space Marine, but the Astartes model does work to show just how slight Eivor is compared to a “normal” GW model. In the end, Eivor is now finished, after quite a few years of being mostly-undercoated white with a messy bit of blue slapped on, sitting on a textured base. Not a neglected model month, but another neglected model finally completed!

Red Box Games: Lesser Undead (Zombies!) Size Comparison.

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So recently I got over enough of my butthurt from the initial RBG Kickstarter campaign enough to fish these Zombies out of the box. I still haven’t QAed the rest of the box or anything, and I can’t recall the rest of what I got, but I’ll worry about that later. (I do recall that I didn’t get any horses, though!)

Anyway, as part of the Undead Army that I’m putting together for Marouda, I decided that some Zombies would be quick and easy enough to paint. So just before I prime them and start with the painting, I thought I’d do a scale post and review of them, since Tre’ still hasn’t done one. In fact, I’ve just added a new category to the page so people can find these things more easily since I still get a lot of hits from people searching out this information, so this way it will be a little easier to find.

First up, let me state that these figures that I have are made of Trollcast, not metal, as the current ones are. The current ones appear to be the exact same sculpts however, and anyone who likes finely sculpted, detailed undead miniatures should be thankful that these things still exist in a form that you can purchase them in. Tre’ was actually so disheartened by the whole KS experience that he didn’t want to remaster any of these figures in metal, since he thought that he’d sold as many as he ever could or would of them via the KS campaign. Luckily several of us over on Dakka managed to talk sense into him, and these and other figures are now available to purchase in metal.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead/Zombies. 20mm round base as supplied on left. 25mm “traditional” slotabase on right.

The next most important thing to point out is that the bases these figures come with, and are pictured with over on RBG’s site are 20mm round bases. They are not the more common 25mm round bases that most Warhammer 40k and other range figures have come with for the past 25 years. Tre’ has explained that he uses the most appropriate bases for the figures, with no attempt or intention to mislead anyone. He’s also said that he’ll re-photograph his various figures and show them next to a ruler, etc. Well, that still hasn’t happened, and so it’s down to blog posts like these and the occasional thread on forums to show the actual sizes of RBG’s various models.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead Zombies on 20mm and 25mm Square bases

As you’ve no doubt already checked out – the figures are finely detailed, beautiful sculpts. They’re really not rotting zombies, nor do they have the distended bellies of the recently departed. They’ve got a shrivelled, almost mummified look to them. The nods to more traditional zombie models are the twisted, distorted poses, and the semi-skeletal faces.

As you can see, they fill out both types of 20mm bases quite well, and have a bit of space on the 25mm ones. Since I’m basing all single models of this size on 25mm rounds these days, that’s what I’ll be doing, but at least you can get a better idea of their size than from the typical pictures of them showing them mounted on 20mm rounds.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead/Zombies mounted on several types of base for comparison. 20mm round, 20mm sqare, 25mm round, 25mm Square

At this point, I’ll provide a bunch of photos comparing them to other manufacturers’ zombies, and a few other undead in the hope of making this useful for those looking to use them in their army building or zombie hordes. I should probably do a few updates for my own painted undead models.

Red Box Games, Citadel/GW, RBG, Citadel/GW

As you can see, the height is comparable to GW/Citadel models, but there’s a huge proportional difference.

Red Box Games, Mantic, RBG, Mantic

The Mantic zombies are slighter than the GW ones, but still of a very different set of proportions to the RBG.

Red Box Games, Zombicide, RBG, Zombicide Fatty

A lot of people interested in this genre have Zombicide these days, so here’s a couple of Guillotine Games/CMoN’s Zombicide figures. Despite the Zombicide models being overall a smidgen taller. and the RBG ones nominally being “fantasy” models, they’re still generic enough to fit in with “moderns” like the Zombicide figures, and are close enough in height and proportion to work alongside the board game’s figures,  Just paint them as though they’re wearing torn jeans and hospital gowns.

Red Box Games, Last Night on Earth, RBG, LNoE

Flying Frog Productions’ Last Night on Earth is also a popular and fun Zombie game. Shame they seem too incompetent to figure out how to ship their Kickstarter products to Australia (though they’ll do it immediately with free shipping if you buy from their webstore!) Anyway, their figures are a little taller than Red Box’ ones, but close enough so that they would fit in together.

Red Box Games, D&D Miniatures, RBG, Harlequin (Black Tree)

Both the D&D Miniature (Wizards of the Coast) and the Harlequin are quite different in proportion to the RBG Zombies. Both are far close to Mantic and Citadel scale.

 

Now for some larger lineups. I had to set up to take several photos since the line got too long. Just be aware to look at not only the head heights but the base heights as well. I can see I forgot to add Mantic’s Zombies in these larger group shots. Ah well, they’re still up the page. C’est la vie!

Zombicide, Red Box Games, Citadel, Studio Miniatures, Last Night on Earth, Harlequin, D&D Miniatures, Reaper (Bones)

Red Box Games, Studio Miniatures, RGB, Zombicide, RBG, Zombicide (Fatty), RBG

Red Box Games, Citadel, RBG, Citadel, D&D, RBG

Red Box Games, Reaper (Bones), RBG, Harlequin, RBG, Mantic Undead Wraith, RBG, Last Night on Earth

 

And now for more of a wider view against other appropriate figures:

Red Box Games, Citadel’s Lord of the Rings Barrow-Wight, RBG, Barrow-Wight

Citadel’s pretty true-scale Barrow-Wights absolutely dwarf the RBG models. This was a surprise to me since these LotR models are quite slight in many ways. I guess they are very much powerful hero-types, though.

Red Box Games, Citadel LotR Army of the Dead (Metal), RBG, Citadel

Again, I was surprised at how large the Army of the Dead figures seem in comparison to the RBG ones. I think an important thing to note here is that even though Citadel’s Lord of the Rings/Hobbit line is nominally “truescale”, there’s still been quite a substantial variety in their sizes between their sculpts over the past 15 years…

Red Box Games, Citadel Warrior of Minas Tirith, RBG, Citadel

…as can be seen from these Warriors of Minas Tirith. Tre’s Zombies are perfectly scaled alongside these guys.

Red Box Games, Wargames Foundry “Greek” Skeleton, RBG, Foundry

Back to the undead. These WIP Wargames Foundry figures are the only fully appropriate ones I have from this company to share the comparison shot with the RBG zombies. As you can see, these are a little smaller than their GW cousins, but still much larger proportionately than the RBG zombies. Nature of the beat when you’re talking about Skeletons in metal, I’m afraid.

Red Box Games, Citadel “Skeleton Horde” Plastic Skeleton, RBG, Citadel

Citadel’s Skeleton Horde came out in 1986 – one of Games Workshop’s first plastic kits. It was used as the mainstay for their Undead range for a solid 25-odd years afterwards. The Zombies shown above have their slightly odd proportions due to being compatible with these skeletons. Like the Foundry Skeletons above, thicker pieces was needed for sturdiness, but makes them wildly disproportionate to the RBG models.

Red Box Games, Citadel Tomb Kings, RBG, Citadel

Citadel’s line of Tomb Kings Undead are also scaled to be compatible with the very old Skeleton Horde figures above. As such, and with their additional armour, they loom hugely over the RBG Zombies. Also note the smaller height of the bases used by the Tomb Kings here.

Red Box Games, Reaper (Bones), RBG, Reaper

Most of Reaper’s Undead (Bones pictured here) are often slighter than GW’s ones, but still much chunkier than the RBG line. Though as an apparent exception, the unpainted Reaper Bones Zombie up the page looks quite compatible with the RBG ones. Reaper’s range is another that’s grown over decades with many dozens of sculptors in that time (including Tre’ Manor), so like the various Citadel ranges, there’s no “true” consistent scale or style.

Red Box Games, Citadel Ghoul (metal), RBG, Citadel

One of my favourite sets of Citadel’s undead ranges through the years has been these metal Ghouls. While they’re quite lithe and thin compared to much of the Warhammer range, they still look far bulkier than the RBG zombies.

Red Box Games, Fireforge Foot Templar, RBG, Fireforge

Since I had these open and partly-assembled, I thought I’d add in some of these as well. Fireforge’s historical figures are typically “truescale” as so many others are, and would scale well with the Lord of the Rings models, but again appear rather “heroic” compared to the Red Box models. Especially in their head size.

Red Box Games, Citadel Plastic Space Marine, RBG

And lastly, both because it appears to be the law when it comes to figure sizing pictures, and because it is actually incredibly useful for many people, a Plastic (Multipart) Citadel Space Marine. This one is on the traditional 25mm base.

 

So…

Should you buy them? Only you can answer that. Hopefully I’ve included enough comparative photos and notes to make some buying choices a little easier. I personally have no regrets on having picked these up in the KS. I’ll mix in a couple of Zombicide’s Zombie Dogs to make a unit for the KoW Undead Army. Since I’ve got a ton of Mantic and Citadel Zombies, it’s doubtful I’ll need to buy more, since having my units all the exact same size isn’t something terribly important as long as each distinct unit looks good (I’m using Historical miniatures and GW ones in these armies, after all). For less than three bucks each though – for metals of this quality, I’ve got no hesitation in recommending them to people on the fence about them. Just be forewarned about their size, and ok with it before ordering them.