How to Choose 28mm Miniatures for Your Campaign

A goblin ambush lands differently when every raider looks like it belongs to the same tribe. A necromancer feels like a real threat when skeletal guards flank the throne. That is the real answer to how to choose 28mm miniatures: do not start with a random pile of figures. Start with the scene you want your players to remember.

For Dungeon Masters, players, painters, and collectors, 28mm miniatures sit in a sweet spot. They are large enough to show personality, gear, armor, and expressive sculpting, while remaining compact enough for a crowded dungeon map or a full warband on a display shelf. But “28mm” is not a universal guarantee. Scale, proportions, bases, materials, and theme all affect whether a miniature feels right at your table.

Start With the Encounter, Not the Individual Miniature

The fastest way to build a useful collection is to think in encounters. Before choosing a figure, ask what role it needs to play in the campaign: a player character, a recurring villain, a rank-and-file monster, a townsperson, or a dramatic boss.

A single imposing vampire can be a great centerpiece, but it needs victims, servants, rivals, or a haunted location around it to make the story feel complete. Likewise, a party may only fight one bugbear chieftain, but that chieftain becomes more memorable when it is backed by goblins, hobgoblins, or a pair of brutal guards.

Themed collections make this easier because they give you visual consistency from the start. A pack of kobolds creates an instant tunnel encounter. Zombies, skeletons, and a necromancer can populate a crypt without making every enemy look like it wandered in from another game. For campaign preparation, buying a group with a purpose is usually more useful than buying five unrelated “cool” sculpts.

Understand What 28mm Scale Actually Means

In tabletop gaming, 28mm generally refers to the approximate height of a human-sized figure, often measured from the feet to eye level. The complication is that different sculptors and manufacturers interpret the standard differently. One 28mm human might look slender and realistically proportioned; another may be broader, taller, and more heroic in style.

This is not necessarily a problem. Fantasy gaming has room for bold proportions. A heavily armored dwarf, a hulking bugbear, or a broad-shouldered barbarian should take up visual space. The key is knowing what you are mixing.

When comparing miniatures, look at three things: the figure’s stated scale, its base size, and photos showing it beside other miniatures or terrain. If your existing party has a heroic, chunky look, an extremely realistic and slender figure may appear undersized even if both are labeled 28mm. If you prefer a classic fantasy table with larger weapons and readable details, heroic-scale sculpts will often suit you well.

Creature size should also make sense at a glance. Goblins and kobolds should read as smaller threats. Bugbears, ogres, and large undead should command more space. Your players should be able to see the stakes before initiative is rolled.

Check Base Sizes Before You Buy

Bases matter as much as the sculpt because they determine how a miniature functions on a battle map. A standard human-sized adventurer commonly fits on a 25mm or 1-inch base, while larger monsters need wider footprints. If you use gridded maps, that footprint affects movement, positioning, flanking, and whether the miniature can physically fit through a doorway on the terrain.

There is also a visual reason to pay attention to bases. A carefully sculpted figure on an oversized base can look lost. A wide-stance warrior forced onto a tiny base may tip over or crowd adjacent squares. For a clean, playable collection, choose figures whose base sizes match their intended game roles.

Choose Resin or Metal Based on How You Play

Premium resin and metal miniatures both belong on a fantasy gaming table, but they bring different strengths.

Resin is prized for crisp surface detail. Fine hair, chain mail, facial expressions, spell effects, and intricate weapons can read beautifully under paint. It is an excellent choice for character miniatures, elite villains, centerpiece monsters, and collectors who want the sculpting to shine. Resin can be more delicate than metal, especially around thin parts such as staffs, swords, horns, or wings, so it rewards careful storage and transport.

Metal miniatures have a reassuring weight and classic tabletop character. They are durable in many everyday gaming situations and feel especially satisfying as hero figures or long-running campaign NPCs. The trade-off is weight: a metal miniature can chip paint if it falls, and a heavy figure may need a stable base to prevent tipping.

Neither material is automatically better. Choose resin when intricate detail and paint potential are your top priorities. Choose metal when you love that traditional collectible feel and want a substantial figure in hand. Many hobbyists enjoy both, using each material where it best serves the miniature’s job.

Let the Sculpt Do Some of the Storytelling

The best miniature is not always the one with the most detail. It is the one that communicates a clear idea from across the table.

For player characters, look for a pose that fits the personality you will play for months or years. A ranger scanning the horizon tells a different story than a ranger drawing a bow. A paladin holding a shield line feels different from one raising a sword in triumph. Consider equipment, stance, clothing, and expression. Those details help other players recognize your character even before you speak in character.

For Dungeon Masters, readability is even more valuable. A cultist with a ritual dagger, a dark elf with a cruel blade, and a witch with a raised hand should be immediately distinguishable in a chaotic combat. Miniatures do not need to match a rulebook illustration exactly. They need to make the encounter easier to understand and more exciting to picture.

Avoid choosing every figure in the same aggressive pose. A faction becomes more believable when it includes scouts, standard bearers, spellcasters, warriors, leaders, and a few figures that look like they are guarding a door or carrying out a grim task. Variation gives you narrative options without breaking the faction’s visual identity.

Build Depth Before You Chase Every Monster

New collectors often begin with one of everything. It is tempting, especially in fantasy gaming, where there is always another dragon, demon, troll, or strange dungeon creature to add. But a deep collection of commonly used enemies will serve more sessions than a shelf full of single-use monsters.

Start with the threats your campaign is likely to revisit. Goblins, kobolds, skeletons, zombies, cultists, guards, civilians, and humanoid factions can appear in countless adventures. Add enough duplicates to run a real encounter, then choose leaders and specialty figures to make each group distinct.

A useful early collection might include several small humanoid enemies, a handful of undead, a few fantasy civilians, a party of heroes, and one or two memorable villains. From there, follow your campaign. A mountain expedition calls for dwarves, dark elves, and cave threats. A gothic horror arc calls for vampires, zombies, skeletons, and sinister cultists. A city campaign benefits from merchants, guards, nobles, and suspicious alleyway characters.

This approach saves money, storage space, and prep time. More importantly, it means your miniatures are ready when the story takes an unexpected turn.

Match Detail Level to Your Painting Plans

A highly detailed sculpt can be a joy to paint, but it can also demand patience. If you are new to painting, begin with figures that have clear, separated surfaces: large cloaks, armor plates, weapons, belts, and faces that are easy to reach with a brush. Strong sculpted detail supports simple techniques such as basecoating, washing, and dry brushing.

If you are an experienced painter or collector, intricate resin sculpts offer more room for layered color, weathering, freehand work, and dramatic lighting. A lich’s robes, a vampire’s armor, or a witch’s spell effects can become a small display project rather than just another game piece.

Think about quantity, too. Painting twelve skeletons to a solid tabletop standard is very different from spending ten hours on one character. Both are rewarding, but they call for different goals. Save the showcase treatment for heroes, bosses, and figures that will return throughout the campaign. Give rank-and-file enemies a cohesive color scheme that looks great in a group.

How to Choose 28mm Miniatures That Work Together

A collection feels intentional when its figures share a visual language. That does not mean every miniature must come from the same release or use identical bases. It means the scale, mood, detail level, and faction design should support the same world.

For example, a dark elf warband can include warriors, sorcerers, assassins, and captives, as long as their armor, weapons, and silhouettes point toward the same sinister culture. An undead crypt can mix skeletons and zombies, but a matching necromancer, grave markers, and a larger centerpiece make the scene feel planned rather than accidental.

This is where curated packs earn their place. They remove some guesswork while leaving room to personalize. A Tomb Guardians collection can give a DM a ready-made faction foundation, then individual heroes or specialty monsters can be added when the campaign calls for them.

Do not overlook civilians and neutral characters. A tavern keeper, prisoner, merchant, scholar, or nervous villager can turn a map into a living location. They also give you useful stand-ins when players surprise you by questioning the guard, rescuing the hostage, or starting trouble in a market square.

Buy for the Table You Want to Run

The right 28mm miniature is more than a beautiful object. It is a prompt for adventure: the dwarf hero at the sealed mine door, the witch sisters around a cauldron, the cultists beneath a ruined temple, the lone vampire waiting at the end of the hall.

Choose the figures that make you want to set the next encounter on the table. When a collection gives you heroes to root for, enemies to fear, and factions with a story of their own, your campaign is already one step closer to feeling legendary.