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A miniature figure -- also known as a miniature or just a mini -- is a small figurine commonly used in role playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons. Minis help visualize where characters are during combat, such as which way each character is facing, who's fighting who, line of sight, etc. They are also used in tabletop wargames such as Heroclix, Mage Knight, and Warhammer. Some minis are superbly sculpted, and are collectable in their own right.

1 Materials

These minis were most commonly cast in white metal (an alloy of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony, which improves the alloys ability to take fine detail). Because of the high lead content, minis were sometimes called lead figures.

Following some (unfounded) concerns about the safety of white metal, many manufacturers now cast minis exclusively in a more-expensive lead-free pewter (an alloy of tin, copper, and antimony).

Some manufacturers offers plastic ( polyethylenePolyethylene or polyethene is one of the simplest and most inexpensive polymers. It is a waxy, chemically inert plastic. It is named thus because it is obtained by the polymerization of ethylene ( ethene). It is also known as polythene [Chiefly British] a or hard styreneStyrene (also vinyl benzene, ethenylbenzene, phenethylene, cinnamene, diarex HF 77, styrolene, styrol, styropol) is a colourless, oily, toxic, flammable organic liquid that occurs in very small amounts in some plants, but is produced in industrial quantit) minis; others offer resinResin is a hydrocarbon secretion formed in special resin canals of many plants, from many of which (for example, coniferous trees) it is exuded in soft drops from wounds, hardening into solid masses in the air. It may be obtained by making incisions in th minis.

2 Scales

Mini scales are commonly expressed as the height of a six-foot figure. So 28 mm minis of human men are around 28 mm high. Women, children, dwarves, hobbits, etc. will be typically shorter than this; ogres, trolls, etc. taller.

Minis are available in various scales. 25 mm, 28 mm, 30 mm, and 35 mm are the most common for RPGs and other popular table-top games. Smaller minis – 10 mm, 15 mm, and sometimes 20 mm – are also made for table-top wargaming, rather than RPGs. Mithril Miniatures uses an idiosyncratic 32 mm scale for its main range. And larger minis – 54 mm and more – are made specifically for painters and collectors.

‘25 mm’ figures can range up to 33 mm or more (a 33% deviation). When some manufacturers began using a ‘28 mm’ designation, many of their own figures were already well over 30 mm tall.

Some manufacturers take the proper measurement of figure height to be to the level of its eyes rather than the top of its head. Using this interpretation, a 6 ft (1.83 m) figure in 28 mm-scale would be 30 mm tall (if the eyes are about half-way up the head, and if the head is about two fifteenths of the height, then the height to the eyes is fourteen fifteenths of the full height).

Scale	Scale foot	Ratio	Comments
10 mm	1.667 mm	1:182.88	Seldom used for RPGs.
15 mm	2.5 mm	1:121.92	The most popular scale in use by historical wargamers. Seldom used for RPGs.
20 mm	3.333 mm	1:91.44	Highly popular for WWII wargaming, as the figures are of the same scale (more or less) of 1:76 or 1:72 models. Seldom used for RPGs.
25 mm	4.167 mm	1:73.152	Effectively a match for 1:76 ( 4 mm scale4 mm scale is the most popular model railway scale used in the United Kingdom. The term refers to the use of 4 millimeters on the model equating to a distance of 1 foot (305 mm) on the prototype (1:76. It is also used for military modelling For historical/ OO gaugeOO gauge model railways are the most popular standard in the United Kingdom, being one of several 4 mm scale standards (4 mm to the foot (305 mm), or 1:76. 2) in use, but the only one served by mass market manufacturers. OO uses 16. 5 mm gauge track, whic) and 1:72 models, but there is a wide upwards variation in figure height, even when not described as 'Heroic 25 mm' or 28 mm.
30 mm	5 mm	1:60.96	Common for pre-1970s wargaming figures; modern minis may really be up to 35 mm.
32 mm	5.333 mm	1:57.15	Idiosyncratic to Mithril: genuine 32 mm
35 mm	5.833 mm	1:52.251	Where the manufacturer is being honest about how big its '30 mm' minis really are!
54 mm	9 mm	1:33.867	Collectable figures, a good match for 1:35 models, but oversize 54 mm figures would fit better with 1:32 models.

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