Old metal miniatures are cool. Let me say it again.

Old metal miniatures are awesome!

Specifically, I’m talking about old metal/pewter minis. There is just something about the sculpts; No, they don’t compare to the detail of today’s Games Workshop or Corvus Belli (Infinity) but they just seem to have more character…know what I mean?

eavy metal catalogue necromunda retromunda miniatures minis painted painting
Old Games Workshop Paint Scheme’s Are Like Cartoons Brought To Life.

I have always shied away from metal miniatures; They seemed to be WAY too much work. You need to drill and pin them so their heavy pieces wouldn’t fall off.

Why add MORE pre-paint steps to miniature painting? We already need to:

  • Cut from sprue and touch up
  • Glue together
  • Remove mould lines
  • Wash
  • Base
  • Prime
Northumbrian Tin Soldier

So you’re wondering how I ended up with my thesis statement that that vintage minis are cool? The answer is:

These bad boy Cthulhu cultists miniatures.

midlam miniatures minis kraken cthulhu cultist
Kraken Cultists; The first metal minis I ever painted. They won’t be the last.

The Kraken Cultists from Midlam Miniatures are just plain awesome!

Quick side note: No, these are not vintage. But, they are metal miniatures! I started getting into the Call of Cthulhu RPG a few months ago (mostly reading through the rulebook) and wanted some Cthulhu-esque cultists.

After painting the cultists, I wanted more metal minis!

I remembered that last year, I had found an original Necromunda (Retromunda for all you hip kids) box set from 1995. I thought the minis that were included were metal, but after digging it out from my closet, I found they were plastic. Off to eBay, it is then.

2002 necromunda retrorumnda metal miniatures minis
Metal Necromunda Models from 2002. Only a small sample of my collection. These needed to be stripped.

I grabbed a bunch of Necromunda metal minis, but most on eBay are overpriced. With patience, you can get definietly get lucky.

Other retro Games Workshop/Citadel lines have some great deals to find. If you’re open to other brands, you can find some dirt-cheap, miniatures with a lot of character.

Just cruising eBay for vintage minis, I would up with some really cool chaos-themed duders. I shot a quick YouTube video on them.

I was able to identify 3 of the minis as Grenadier Models: Julie Guthrie 700 Series Death Lords from 1989.

grenadier 705 death lords

The next two, I was only able to determine that they are RAFM Miniatures. They look to be wearing serpent/snake armor.

chaos serpent men metal miniatures minis
RAFM Serpent Chaos Warriors?

The final two were simply listed as Goatmen/Beastmen. I have no idea what line or brand they are from.

beastmen old metal miniatures minis
These Beastmen minis have great smiles.

If you know what the RAFM or Beastmen minis are, please let me know! Maybe they are Ral Partha?

If you have any vintage Chaos mini recommendations for me, please comment below! I’d love to have a whole chaos warband for games like Frostgrave or Mordheim consisting completely of retro Chaos minis. I already have my eye on some old Citadel Chaos Champions and Realms of Chaos models.

I have quite a few miniature projects in the works, so make sure to follow me on Instagram to follow along.

If you’re interested in retro video games, I’m also working my way through Rule of Rose, a PlayStation 2 horror game. Check out my post and Let’s Play HERE!