Andalusian light infantry

For the second and third chapters of Lost Mine of Phandelver, several humanoid figures will be required.  The most cost-effective way to get 28 mm scale figures is to go with wargaming miniatures rather than fantasy minis. These tend to be cheaper because they are molded as multiple figures on a plastic tree (a rack) rather than individually. The ones I got were the 28mm Hat 28006 Andalusian Light Infantry  (Amazon link). The 28 mm Hat 28002 Spanish Light Infantry  (Amazon link) look pretty good too, if not better, but were more expensive on Amazon for some reason. If you're having trouble finding either in stock search for Hat + the model number on multiple hobby websites.

This is one of 4 trees that I got in a box that cost $10. All four trees have the same 8 model poses, but I plan to modify some of the models extensively to make them distinct characters.

To prepare the figures for painting, I first washed them in warm soapy water, rinsed them well, and allowed them to dry thoroughly. I then spray-primed one tree with white primer and will spray prime another tree with gray primer.

Once the primer was on, I noticed the prominent lines from the molding process. I used a hobby knife and sanding stick to remove these lines.

The figure poses are as follows:

Left to right from the top:
1. Short bow, robe, no head covering, full beard
2. Javelin held upright, socket in hand for holding second javelin horizontally, robe, turban, no beard (spear is molded separately but was broken in 3 out of 4 trees)
3. Sling, robe, no head covering, no beard
4.Crossbow, chainmail, helmet and turban, face covered (crossbow and hand are molded separately and glued on)

Going back right to left on the bottom:
5. Short bow, chainmail, no head covering, no beard
6. Two javelins (second arm and javelin are molded separately and glued on), running, robe, turban and beard.
7. Spear facing down, small shield (molded separately and glued onto peg on arm), robe, turban, and beard.
8. Crossbow, robe, turban and beard (hand, arm and crossbow are molded separately and glued on.

I'm pretty happy with my purchase. I got a total of 32 figures for what would usually buy between 2 and 5 D&D figures. One downside is that these figures are true 28mm scale. I had assumed that D&D figures were also 28mm, but measuring the ones I got from WizKids and a few others that I have from another campaign, they are typically 30-35mm. The difference makes these figures look out of scale when placed right next to the larger D&D figures. However, since these will mostly be baddies, I'm okay with letting my PCs be literal Big Damn Heroes.

There goes my hero

For my player characters, I bought the WizKids D&D Icons of the Realm Starter Set. The minis are okay. The paint jobs are a bit sloppy in places, the rubbery plastic that they're sculpted in makes some parts bent, and at around $15 for 6 they're on the higher end of what I was wanting to pay per mini (for the cheapskate minis blog, I'm trying to stay under $2 per figure).

The wizard, the cleric, and the bow fighter or ranger

The druid, the rogue and the axe fighter.

However I'm happy with my purchase for three reasons:

1. Five of the characters depicted in the minis line up exactly with the described pre-generated characters in the Lost Mines adventure. If you're DM'ing for newbies, it's easier to ask, "Hey you want to be this guy with the axe or this lady with the fire?" rather than jumping into class jargon right away. The sixth mini, the druid, isn't one of the PC options, but there's a NPC druid later in the adventure that is calling his name.
2. The minis are made out of a rubbery plastic that seems very durable. These guys are something you could let a kid or clumsy adult play with and not have to worry about your precious paint job.
3. As I'm crafting my own minis for this adventure, it's good to have some ready-made minis to judge size and proportion. This set gives a few human-sized characters along with a dwarf and a halfling, so I can more easily judge how big to make, for example, the head of a goblin.