I just saw the new pre-painted miniatures for Rackham's AT-43 game and I'm very impressed.  I used to paint a lot of Warhammer 40K miniatures, as well as Warhammer figures for use with D&D -- and I didn't think pre-painted could come even close to the results you'd get by painting them yourself.

Just look at this:
http://www.at-43.com/img/planning/UNEL01.jpg

Those 6 figures are $25 Euros... $38 Can / $33 US

A bit pricey, but if you consider how much Games Workshop metal costs, and how much time you'd spend on painting (and if you're not good at painting... getting worse results) these aren't that bad at all.

I'm really hoping to see some pre-painted medieval figures of this quality.

Does anyone know of any companies making pre-painted Fantasy miniatures?  What are the WOTC D&D Miniatures like?  The pictures I've seen aren't all that hot, but I've heard they're getting better.

Have you tried the now gradually out-of-print MageKnight figures?
If you ignore the combat dial rules - they work pretty good as adversaries in a typical fantasy game.
 
 The D&D figures from WOTC are mostly good. Compared to two years ago, their sculpting and paintjobs have much improved.

- E.W.C.

Those are some damn fine prepainteds.  I know it's not really what you're looking for, but there are painting services that work dirt cheap and might get you what you're looking for.

They're based overseas and pass the savings on to you!

there are some good miniatures for Kryomek.

THere are, basically, two kinds of "pre-painted miniatures".

One, is like the one you linked, or the Dwarven Forge or em-4 stuff:  Normal moetal or plastic minis that someone has hand painted.

The other is stuff like WizKids and WOTC's stuff.  Soft plastic/rubbery stuff, machine painted, and of widely varying quality.  The most recent D&D stuff doesn't look to bad, but a lot of WizKids stuff, and the earlier D&D stuff, just looks plain horrid.    

The former type tends to be reallly expensive, while the latter type appears to be cheaper, but is ocften just as expensive once you factor in the random packaging and realize you'll have to spend as much as the handpainted stuff if you're looking for specifics.

A lot of early Wizkids stuff, especially females, look like they were shot with Homer Simpson's makeup gun. They've vastly improved, though there are throwbacks occasionally, in both molding and paintjob. And of course they don't hold a candle to hand-painted figs.

Damn, I wish I had the time to learn to paint. i've mastered the first step, which is "buy lots of miniatures." But it always breaks down from there.

Peace,
-Joel

Quote from: MelinglorDamn, I wish I had the time to learn to paint. i've mastered the first step, which is "buy lots of miniatures." But it always breaks down from there.

I used do that - quite a few unpainted metal figs around the house.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Heroscape yet.  I used a mix of MageKnight, D&D, and Heroscape figures for my D&D games.  The Heroscape bases are slightly larger than D&D bases, but no worse than MageKnight.  The paint jobs are generally as good or better than most D&D figures and much better than most of my MageKnight.

Quote from: MelinglorDamn, I wish I had the time to learn to paint. i've mastered the first step, which is "buy lots of miniatures." But it always breaks down from there.

Yeah.  I've done that more than once.  I'm trying again though.  I've got some figs I got free from a relative that I'm resolved to paint up before I buy anything more metal.

Quote from: jrientsI'm surprised no one has mentioned Heroscape yet.  I used a mix of MageKnight, D&D, and Heroscape figures for my D&D games.  The Heroscape bases are slightly larger than D&D bases, but no worse than MageKnight.  The paint jobs are generally as good or better than most D&D figures and much better than most of my MageKnight.

Some of them look really cool.  You can also buy the expansion sets of 5-6 figs for $9 or so (don't remember exact price) where you can see exactly what you're getting with no randomization.

Reaper Prepainted Plastic Miniatures!

QuoteReaper Miniatures is proud to announce the release of its first series of prepainted plastic miniatures.

This new product line will be released under the brand name Legendary Encounters™.

Offered in an open, non-blind, non-random format, Legendary Encounters™ prepainted plastic miniatures will be packaged using Reaper's standard blister card. Both single and multiple piece packs will be offered.

Unlike the several existing blind-sale prepainted plastic miniature lines currently available, Legendary Encounters™ will not be produced on a limited edition basis and will be available at any time.

Drawing on Reaper's vast experience in miniatures and a catalog of 1000's of metal models to design Legendary Encounters, Legendary Encounters will quickly become the most popular prepainted plastic miniatures line on the market.

Reaper has always focused on the creation of evergreen product lines and Legendary Encounters™ is the first product line of Reaper's new "Ready to Fight™"(RTF) series of games and gaming products.

Available this June Legendary Encounters™ initial release will include: Undead and Orc warriors of various types, an Ogre, Troll and Minotaur. Like our Dark Heaven Legends miniature line, future releases into Legendary Encounters™ will include every type of creature imaginable.

Sweet.

Quote from: J ArcaneOne, is like the one you linked, or the Dwarven Forge or em-4 stuff:  Normal moetal or plastic minis that someone has hand painted.

Speaking of which, EM-4's line does include some fantasy prepaints.  Their stuff is pretty nice - I bought some of the aliens packs a few months ago (they were on sale) and they look great.

EM-4's line of fantasy stuff is fairly limited, but what they have is good.

That painting service fonkaygarray mentioned looks at least mildly interesting, and I live about a half hour from the US drop point...

Its also worth knowing: the plastic miniatures? Can be repainted easily. The paint that's already on there acts as a base-coat, and you can just drybrush or add details.

There are also:

Battlefield Evo ( they wull also be doing a Starship Troopers prepainted line)

Fantasy Flight has a Mutant Chronicles CMG in the works.

Heroscape

A little digging on the AT-43 site reveals that the paintjob on the models is much plainer than presented above.  They come to market sans the highlights and such.

We modelers are tough.  We'll survive this disappointment.

Prices for Reaper's new minis:

20001_____ Skeleton Swordsmen (3) $ 5.79
20002_____ Skeleton Archers (3) $ 5.79
20003_____ Skeleton Spearmen (3) $ 5.79
20004_____ Skeleton Swordsman $ 1.99
20005_____ Skeleton Archer $ 1.99
20006_____ Skeleton Spearman $ 1.99
20007_____ Orc Warriors with Scimitars (3) $ 6.99
20008_____ Orc Archers (3) $ 6.99
20009_____ Orc Spearmen (3) $ 6.99
20010_____ Orc Warrior with Scimitar $ 2.49
20011_____ Orc Archer $ 2.49
20012_____ Orc Spearman $ 2.49
20013_____ Cave Troll $ 3.99
20014_____ Ogre Chieftain $ 4.99
20015_____ Minotaur of the Maze $ 5.99