What's the Drone

Miniture figures showing the history of the Fort, originally uploaded by danielgohww.

Miniature figures, sometimes called miniatures or minis, are small figures often used in wargames like Mage Knight, Heroclix, Hordes, Warmachine, Warhammer and Spinespur.sideshow collectibles Some role-playing games can be played with them, as miniatures can help players to visualize factors that affect combat, such as which way each character is facing, who's fighting whom, line of sight issues, and so on. Some of these miniatures are intricately crafted and might be considered collector's items in and of themselves.
The hobby of painting, collecting, and gaming with miniatures is descended from the toy soldier hobby. The miniatures need to be painted and the toy soldiers are already painted and this has always been the tradition. Differentiation has become more difficult with the advent of pre-painted figures made of plastic like those found in Clix games.
Materials: Miniatures are usually cast using white metal, an allow of lead and tin, with tiny bits of antimony that helps the alloy show fine detail. Because of the high lead content, minis were sometimes called lead figures.
In 1993, the New York legislature nearly passed a bill outlawing lead in miniatures, citing public health concerns. Prices increased when the manufacturers of these toys began to anticipate more state laws regarding the presence of lead in their miniatures.
After nearly a year of debate, including protests by miniature manufacturers and enthusiasts, Governor Mario Cuomo signed a bill which exempted miniatures from the state's Public Health Law. Still, most American manufacturers continued to use non-lead alloys.
Manufacturers produce miniatures in a variety of materials such as polyethylene, plastic or hard polystyrene, however there are some that will use polyurethane based resin.
Some war games use box miniatures, a simple cuboid made from folded card stock. Each side features artwork on the outside.
Painting: In order to be able to tell characters or units used in role-playing and war games apart on a particular gaming surface such as a battle mat, an unadorned table top, or even on terrain, many gamers paint their miniature figures.
Most wargamers are not fanatics when it comes to the quality of the paint work on their miniatures, however, this is a very popular hobby for many people. The results of skilled mini-painting are quite amazing, but the process can be difficult, precise, and time-consuming.
In Internet painting competitions like Games Workshop's Golden Demon Contest, sometimes one can see the featured painted minis of fantasy, role playing miniatures war gaming conventions.
Professional painting services exist for hobbyist and corporate customers.