Warlord Miniatures By Reaper

Reaper in my mind has been one of the best miniatures makers of all time.  Their selection of figures has always been great, especially with a lean towards characters and a lean away from monsters.  The quality and price have always been very good with their primary product line Dark Heaven.  But how does their Warlord line compare?  Generally better, but not with out issue either. 

Sundry

I decided to review the entire line, much as I would have liked to review each figure it would have required more time/energy than I can offer up for a review paid for out of my own pocket.:).  As well a number of snarky trolls from the peanut gallery don’t like product lines broken up, so I thought I would throw them a bone here and see what happens. 

Bang For The Buck

Warlord figures are about a 75 cents to a dollar more expensive than Reaper’s Dark Heaven line.  They are worth it.  Each figure comes with a 1 inch square metal base, tops off at 28mm, and is usually sculpted slightly better than the less expensive line.  If you are trying to decide between two figures, the Warlord line is probably going to be better.  Sometimes too much detail is a bad thing.  This line can be a handful to paint, and is probably not great for someone who is a casual painter or does not like a ton of detail.  Depending on the sculptor, some of the figs are loaded with a ton of buckles, studs and other details that require a steady brush and patience.

Miscasting, Good Sculpting

I thought it is ironic that given this is a more prestigious line from Reaper that the casting would be better.  I have painted and prepped about twenty percent of the figures in this line so far and have found that the casting is worse than their cheaper figure line.  The casting lines for the most part have been very distinct and the figures have required an overt of filing to prepare.  Also there has been a lot of flash on the figures as well, about three have required much more work than I would have liked.   

Once the figures were ready to be primed and the painting to get started they were very well sculpted and worth the extra time to prepare and buck out of my wallet.  There is generally a copious amount of equipment on each figure to paint, which is great it gives a much better feel for an adventurer than the less detailed Dark Heaven Line.  Given there are less figures for the Warlord line, there may not be a figure that works perfect for your PC, villain or encounter.  The figures themselves are somewhat generic in theme, so there is likely something close available in the Warlord line. 

Even with great sculpting, I would have just liked to have seen the same casting quality that Reaper has done on their other product lines.  Especially since Warlord is a slightly higher echelon of figures.

Overall

Warlord  is a solid line from Reaper that has a lot of well sculpted figures.  The price delta is negligible and should not even be a consideration given the metal base and sculpting quality.  The casting could be better and hopefully will improve over time, but it is mostly more work to prepare the figure than any serious flaw to the sculpting.