em4 Minatures Compared to WizKids D&D and Warhammer 40k Miniatures

I ordered some of the amazingly cheap em4 Miniatures, which shipped from England. With shipping it came to around $30 for 96 minis! Apparently these minis are originally from Grenadier Miniatures, for a Fantasy Battles game they made in the early 90s as a sort of Warhammer Fantasy clone. Grenadier Miniatures went out of business and the European version of the molds are now owned by em4, who still press them.

Here is em4's webpage: https://em4miniatures.com/collections/plastic-fantasy-miniatures

For ~30 cents a mini you can't go wrong. Add in that these are of a rigid plastic and fairly easy to work with is a bonus. So lets cut the crap and get to the real questions: Are they sufficiently detailed, and what exactly is their scale? Yes they are sufficiently detailed. And the scale is improved by setting them on raised bases.

Here's some pictures:

em4 Dwarves and Orcs Miniatures next to WizKid Ranger, 40k Guardsmen

A 40k Imperial Guardsmen, an em4 Dwarf, an em4 Orc, a WizKids Half Elf Ranger

A gigantic 40k Aggressor, WizKids Half Elf Paladin, 40k Imperial Guardsmen, em4 Dwarf, em4 Orc, and a beautiful 40k Primaris Lieutenant behind them

Keep in mind once I put the em4 models on proper bases they will be a bit taller, where I'd expect the top of the Dwarf's head to reach the top of the WizKid Paladin's shoulder, and the top of the 40k Imperial Guardsman's shoulder.


Wide shot of a bunch of minis, Aggressor, WizKids Paladin, 40k Guardsman, em4 Dwarves, WizKids Ranger, 40k Primaris Lieutenant

I'm very satisfied with the purchase. Em4 has provided a great way to populate armies for Dungeons and Dragons and other Fantasy games. In D&D I intend to create the populations of war camps, guards, tense situations where the party is vastly out numbered, and if the party resorted to combat they would reach a grisly end.

How does one paint 96 Miniatures without going insane? I'll document how it goes but my plan is to use some 90s approaches that have fallen out of favor but are wicked quick.

Spray Paint all the Dwarves Silver/metallic; all the Orcs Green or Brown (will have to see which is better)
base coat non metallics, so skin tones, hit some teeth white, wood shafts, fabric
dip them in wood stain
spray with a matte varnish

That's the process. Step 2 looks like it will be the longest.

I am going to glue these em4 miniatures down upon 25mm bases, as I did with the WizKids Miniatures. That gains these minis some extra bonus height and immediately brings them closer inline with the other miniatures for scale.

Here's some edited photos showing the em4 mini's heights as they would be if they were upon the raised bases, which I'll be doing in a similar fashion as to the WizKid ones. What I mean is that I'll be leaving most of their attached base intact, just trimming it to fit the 25mm round bases.

em4 miniatures for scale, 40k guardsmen VS em4 plastic dwarf


em4 miniatures for scale, em4 plastic orc VS WizKid Ranger

I'll add some pictures once I get them on their bases, but I snapped these pics as I was headed out the door and won't be able to for a bit. So, with that in mind -- that I'll be rebasing these minis -- I'd say the purchase got even better. While traditionally I imagine Orcs as bigger than Elves, they aren't that far off and are not relegated to a Goblin army. The Dwarves too are inline with expectations.

I'll post photos of that when I do in a new blog post, but also edit this one to include some pics because I know how hard it is to find this information in Google, so wayward searchers can all see it on one page. So that will be a canary in the coal mine -- when I have pics of these models standing on 25mm rounded bases those pics will be right here::::::(DRUM ROLL):::::::.........