How To Not Buy Warhammer 40,000 (a guide to plastic proxies)
Ladies, gentlemen, otherwise, are you sick of GW prices? Tired of 60 USD for three(3) eliminators? Ready to step into… the dark side? And by the dark side, I mean just about any amount of market competition?
Welcome, my friends, to the beautiful and wonderful world of Any Other Manufacturer, where a box of thirty models costs $40, and a whole army can cost less than a combat patrol. Oh, and they’ll look more distinct, paint up easier, and have just as much detail and quality, if not better.
This is a big list of good-to-decent proxies for use in GW games. Some quick notes on the classifications:
- Plastic only. Resin is just hard to manage for a lot of people, and I don’t know enough about it to safely recommend anything.
- No 3D printing. Yes, you could hypothetically print out twelve billion points of anything, but that’s easy enough that I don’t think it needs a dedicated guide.
- Fantasy is generally much easier to find than 40k, but often has some overlap. I’ll include recommended kitbashes as well!
- This guide is going to focus exclusively on infantry, as vehicles are a much different and more complicated beast.
- Use https://minicompare.info/ to check heights.
Space Marines:
Weirdly hard to find plastic proxies of, despite their ubiquity. Some of the best are:
A little more sci-fi leaning
https://wargamesatlantic.com/products/valkir-heavy-troopers
IMO these guys looks like ass and also I hate nazis, but it would be incomplete without them
https://us.warlordgames.com/products/stahltruppen-heavy-infantry
Imperial Guard:
By far the easiest form of proxy. In all honesty you can just throw some lasguns onto just about any human figure and get decent results. However, some clearly intended proxies are:
Death fields range is an absolute classic, with most figures painting up much easier than the average GW one. In particular look to the damned, les grognards, and cannon fodder.
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/death-fields-arena
Other helpful WGA kits and lines
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/marcher-empires-at-war
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/reptilian-overlords/products/spacenam
Stargrave is excellent for fleshing out commanders or making more ragged troops.
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=15452
Aquilons
https://us.warlordgames.com/products/firefly-airborne-infantry
Scions
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/iron-core
Adeptus Mechanicus:
Hard to find direct proxies for. However, you can get your grubby little paws on some EXCELLENT kitbash material.
The stargrave scavengers kit has very skitarii-like heads, as well as a lot of good robed bodies.
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=17359
The badger hardsuits are only a pinch shorter than kastelan robots, and you could easily make up the difference.
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/marcher-empires-at-war/products/marcher-xa19-badger-suits
Literally just servitors lol
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=19256
Sororitas and Custodes:
Unfortunately, I haven’t found any proxies for either. It sucks but it happens. Please let me know if you know of some good ones!
Imperial Agents:
Hard to point at direct proxies, so instead I’ll just give good kits with which to kitbash general imperial weirdos.
Bodies:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/renaissance/products/conquistadors
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/blood-oaths/products/dark-age-irish-warriors
Good sources of knightly bits you can slap on a robot or something:
https://us.warlordgames.com/products/foot-knights-1450-1500
Remember: wires are your friend! Slap them on something and boom, it’s sci-fi now!
Chaos:
Most of what I said regarding normal marines applies here, and you can always spice it up with some classic spikes. However, there are a handful of additions I would like to note:
A full ~1000 point guard army with a traitor aesthetic that also costs less than half a combat patrol in some countries.
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/death-fields-arena/products/the-damned-army-box
Very visually distinct daemon alternatives:
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/nightstalkers/
https://archon-studio.com/shop/products/dungeons-lasers/miniatures
Nauseatingly cheap generic zombies
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/pulp-adventure/products/zombies
Aeldari:
Unfortunately I feel that aeldari have a very particular aesthetic that’s pretty hard to make knockoffs of. However, if you’re just looking for sleek, weird aliens, there’s some decent options.
Mainly robotic, but still have some good stuff
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/asterians/
If you’re a starcraft fan
Drukhari:
Again, few direct proxies.
However, you could easily buy a box or two of GW miniatures, then spread them out using the https://www.manticgames.com/kings-of-war/twilight-kin/ line.
Genestealer Cults:
Ultimately your best option is just to mash up guard and tyranid bits.
However, a good base for bodies is
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/death-fields-arena/products/cannon-fodder
Then add some industrial flair using
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=15450
Votann:
Shockingly, you have several excellent options.
Classic space dwarves
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/death-fields-arena/products/einherjar
High-tech
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/forge-fathers/
Supplement using classic fantasy bits
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=11123
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=13403
Necrons:
Yeah, I got nothing. You can definitely get creative (I’m working on an army made out of greek hoplites carved up into broken statues) but there’s not many direct comparisons. Sorry.
ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS
Hopefully you know how to loot anything remotely vehicular, yes?
DA BOYZ
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/marauders/
sneaky little gits
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=16858
Tau:
A bit funky. There’s no direct 1:1 for their infantry, though you can happily use just about anything as an auxiliary race. However, and this is the fun bit, you can do some insane licks when it comes to battlesuits.
Battletech sells 4-packs of ‘mechs that you can buy just about anywhere and are dirt cheap. Also they’re roughly the same size as a crisis suit.
https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/collections/battletech
Many many gundams are the same size as a riptide
https://www.usagundamstore.com/collections/armored-core-model-kits
Excellent gue’vesa
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/gcps/
Tyranids:
Part of what I love about the old ‘nids is you can use just about anything fleshy and gross as a proxy. But when it comes to slightly more intentional proxies, you can use:
Lumpy flesh freaks:
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/plague/
https://www.manticgames.com/firefight/nightstalkers/
Spidery buggy bastards:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/death-fields-arena/products/harvesters-alien-bugs
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/classic-fantasy/products/giant-spiders (the alt build cracks me up and i wanna see someone use it)
Anyways, this is hopefully a decent resource you can point people to. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or things to add, and I’ll happily do so! Later I will try my best to follow up with a vehicle guide.