The best horror miniatures are grim and grisly, an excuse for model sculptors to cut loose with the weirdest monsters, most sinister baddies, and plenty of gore besides. Horror can show up in any setting, from fantasy to sci-fi, making it easy for horror miniatures to fit into any wargame or RPG.
Perhaps you’ve read Wargamer’s guide to the best horror wargames and want to get the models together to play one of the games? Just want to add some really nasty monsters to your regular miniature wargames? Well look no further.
These are the best horror miniatures for wargames and RPGs:
Counterspell Miniatures
The best horror miniatures for DnD
The officially licensed WizKids DnD miniatures, scenery, and dungeon maps are all in 25mm scale, slightly smaller than the standard 28mm fantasy minis popularised by Games Workshop. If you want some high-quality horror miniatures that will fit in perfectly with the rest of your DnD mini collection, check out Counterspell Miniatures.
Wargamer received free review samples of the Counterspell miniatures range from their creator, 1985 games. These are highly detailed resin miniatures, even more so for being in the delicate 25mm scale. They’re not kits for beginners: the pieces are small, and require good hand eye coordination and delicate application of superglue to stick together.
If you like painting miniatures, they’re an absolute treat. I painted up the Vampire Lord on flaming steed using traditional paints for miniatures, and the moonlit werewolves using Army Painter speed paints. I had initially intended to knock out the Vampire Lord as fast as I could, but he really was too much fun, which is why I’ve gone full bore with multiple light sources effects.
Beastiarum Miniatures
The best horror miniatures for your 3D printer
There are so many 3D sculptors making horror miniatures that it’s really hard to pick just one choice – we’ve gone with Beastiarum Miniatures because of the range’s high density of jaw-dropping abominations. These miniatures are heavily influenced by the nightmarish monsters of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, blending themes of nobility, decay, and madness.
Beastiarum produces a range of DnD one shots and Forbidden Psalm scenarios starring these monsters, giving you stat blocks and scenarios to bring them into your DnD campaign.
The sculptors take full advantage of 3D printing’s unique capabilities, creating models with delicate parts and complex limbs that would need to be separated into a huge number of pieces if they were conventionally cast. That said, if you’ve just picked up a 3D printer, make sure you check out our guide about how to 3D print miniatures – big, complicated miniatures means there’s more chance for big, painful printing errors.
Ana Polanšćak’s folk horrors
Horror miniatures from European folklore
Independent sculptor and mini painter Ana Polanšćak is a luminary of the Inq28 scene, and her blog Gardens of Hecate is a source of killer horror inspiration. Some of her gnarly conversions feature in the rulebook for 2023’s monster-hunting wargame The Doomed. Folk Horrors are her original creations, inspired by the many and varied European folk customs that involve people dressing up as incomprehensible monsters and parading through town.
These are niche minis, and they’re currently out of stock, but you can contact Meridian Miniatures and request to be added to the waiting list for the next reprint. We’re sure Polanšćak will release a third wave of them at some point, too.
Crooked Dice
The best pulp horror miniatures
Crooked Dice makes 7TV, a wargame inspired by pulp TV and film from the 60s to 80s, complete with a matching miniatures line. If you can think of a horror movie trope – whether its gremlins, pod people, zombies, or walking plants – chances are good that Crooked Dice has a miniature for it.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar
The best undead miniature armies
If you want ghosts or skeletons for a horror wargame, chances are good that you want a lot of them – undead archers implies the existence of an undead army, after all. The ghosts of the Nighthaunt and skeletons of the Soulblight Gravelords Age of Sigmar armies strike an excellent balance between quality and cost.
If you want a cheaper option, or one that isn’t as heavily influenced by the Warhammer Age of Sigmar aesthetic, check out Wargames Atlantic’s Classic Fantasy skeleton warriors.
Cthulhu Wars
The best Call of Cthulhu monster miniatures.
Miniature sculptors love to make Lovecraftian monsters – what could be a better challenge than sculpting something indescribable? If you want to get a great big stack of Lovecraftian horrors in one go, and a truly colossal strategy board game to boot, try Petersen Games’ Cthulhu Wars.
An asymmetrical wargame that sees rival elder gods, outer beings, and unnameable things battle for control of the globe, this is a really solid wargame as well as a package absolutely stuffed with miniatures. It’s created by Sandy Petersen, original author of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and has an absurd number of expansion packs if the specific flavour of nameless horror you want isn’t available in the core box.
Project Z
The best zombie apocalypse miniatures
If you want to play a zombie apocalypse wargame, you’re going to need a lot of zombies. Warlord Games’ Project Z zombie horde is the ideal way to bulk out your shamblers, an affordable box with 22 zombie torsos and a huge selection of interchangeable limbs and heads. The range also has plastic models for civilian survivors, and even a biker gang.
Black Site Studios
The best slasher movie miniatures
Don’t Look Back features on our list of the best horror wargames, and its corresponding miniatures line by Black Site Studios provides a selection of survivors and slashers ripped from the box art of 80s and 90s VHS tapes.
While Don’t Look Back’s characters are all inspired by, rather than directly taken from, classic horror movies, it’s a brilliant first place to look if you want to game with classic movie villains.
Looking for more horror gaming hits? Check out Wargamer’s guides to the best horror board games, and the best horror RPG games.
Source: Wargamer
