Splintered Light Miniatures 15mm goblins and kobolds

So since we're all trapped in isolation for this wretched plague, I don't get to play my usual wargames with friends. That means Warhammer 40,000, Infinity, and my potential third attempt to make Necromunda stick are on hold. As a way to keep my hand in (and to keep myself from going insane) I've been accumulating the bits and bobs needed to play some cooperative Sellswords & Spellslingers with my lovely partner. SS & SS is a co-op/solo play fantasy wargame from Ganesha Games, designed for any scale or miniature line. The base scale, of course, is 28mm, because that's the most common scale for minis of any kind. However, we're dealing with limited space; the 28mm scale variant calls for a 3 foot square play area, but our dining room table simply won't fit that. As a result, I've been building a collection of 15mm/18mm models and terrain, which will fit nicely in our limited play space and take up much less storage.

Since I'm of limited means and nigh-unlimited time, I've been churning out minis and terrain on my 3D printer. However, there are some things that my little Ender 3 just can't handle. Tiny minis like goblins, kobolds, halflings, etc. are all a bit beyond my current printing ability; I could probably pull it off at 28mm scale, but cutting it down to almost half size really limits what I can do. Enter the fine folks at Splintered Light Miniatures! There are a decent number of companies that make 15mm scale fantasy miniatures out there, but not very many here in the United States. After perusing their catalog, I decided to roll the dice on some models to supplement my collection of antagonists. I ordered a kobold warband, a set of goblin warriors, and a set of goblin archers. I placed the order on May 8th, I think, and they arrived today, the 14th. Pretty good turnaround time, for a small business during a global pandemic! 

The models arrived well packed, in double layered bubble wrap inside of a bubble mailer. Everything is as advertised so far. Time to dig in and see what we've got!

I started with the kobolds. The kobold warband is $18 USD for 25 kobolds in a variety of styles. You get a little champion fellow, a shaman, a couple of crossbows, and a variety of spears, axes, clubs, and other implements of destruction. The detail on these little buggers is pretty damn good for the size (I busted out the digital caliper and measured the wee shaman, and he came out to a positively lilliputian 8.2mm tall!) and there was very little flash to remove. The spear hafts are a little fragile, but they're pieces of white metal the size of a sewing needle, so that's to be expected; part and parcel of working with the medium. Pardon the intrusion of the great white hand, but it provided a far better contrast than the dark table behind it. 

Obviously, that's not all of them; those are just the unique sculpts. Most of them I got two or three of, but the shaman, champion dude, and a couple of the spearmen I think were all unique. 

After satisfying myself with the kobolds, I opened the bag of goblin archers. $8 USD nets you 12 figures, four each of three different poses. These guys are substantially bulkier than the kobolds, averaging around 10mm tall to the top of their little hunched backs. Again, detail is very good for the size - I highly doubt my shaky hands and slowly deteriorating eyesight will be able to make use of it all! I was pleased to see how thick and healthy the bowstaves were, as a lot of archer miniatures tend to think about the aesthetics of the piece first and the longevity of the sticky-outy bits second. These little buggers are substantial and well designed, and should stand up to considerable table time.

Finally, I came to the goblin warriors. Once again, you get 12 models for $8 USD, two each of six different poses with various hand weapons. These guys are a bit more of a motley than their archer pals. They're not quite as chunky, and they're flailing all over the place (which, let's be honest, is what one would expect goblins to do.) That's a good thing, though. It can be hard to capture movement and dynamism at this scale, and Splintered Light did a good job with it.

All told, I'm very impressed with these minis. The detail is superb, the casting is excellent, shipping turnaround was very quick (and would likely be quicker were it not for this blasted virus) and the prices can't be beat. If a model breaks or gets lost, I don't feel terribly bad about paying for "reinforcements" at the rates Splintered Light charges. I have no doubt I'll buy more models from them as I continue to find the limitations of my 3D printer. I am going to have to find some bigger bases to mount them on, however. Those little nubbins they're sitting on now just aren't going to cut it.

Finally, for a sense of scale, here's a kobold with an axe and a goblin archer next to a human sorceress* I made on my printer - from the bottom of her base to the top of her head, she's just over 21mm tall.  

I'm going to prime some of them tonight and see if I can slap some paint on them this weekend. With any luck, this will allow me to focus a little more on using my printer for scenery, rather than churning out bad guys one at a time. It's hard to build up a good collection in a timely manner when you only have one printer working on everything at once, and I think these guys are going to help with that immensely.

* Credit to Arian Croft of Ill-Gotten Games for the sorceress - he gives away thousands of printable model files in both 15/18mm and 28mm for free on Thingiverse. If you need terrain, minis, or even an entire game system or two, check out his stuff.