---
title: "Wizkids Frameworks Miniatures"
subtitle: "Product Review"
author: Seth Kenlon
publish_date: 2025-02-04 08:00
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hero_image: wizkids-miniatures-1600x800.jpg
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category: blog
tag: [ gaming, tools, rpg, 5e, pathfinder, dnd, wargame ]
---
About 6 years ago, [I bought a set of hero miniatures by Wizkids](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_wizkids-painted-miniatures-review).
They weren't the first miniatures I'd ever bought, but at the time they were the nicest, partly because they were already painted in the box (I didn't think I was capable of painting miniatures back then, and to be fair didn't really have the space for it anyway).
After discovering Citadel miniatures (and becoming less interested in supporting anything adjacent to Wizards of the Coast, even if it is just a license), I more or less forgot about Wizkids.
Recently though, I wanted a gorgon and mummy for [Broken Legions](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_review-broken-legions), and the only figures I could find were by Wizkids, so I bought some more.
Specifically, I bought several miniatures in the Wizkid **Frameworks** line, which provides miniatures on sprues that you assemble, prime, and paint yourself, and this is my review.
## Frameworks and bundles
I'm a big fan of gorgons, and have been since **Clash of the Titans (1980)**.
Back when **Magic: The Gathering** still had consistently good art, I would buy pretty much any card (within reason) with Vraska or any gorgon on it.
I wanted a gorgon for my **Broken Legions** games, and because I'm a fan of gorgons I decided that a proxy just wouldn't do.
I wanted a miniature designed to be a proper Hellenic gorgon, not just a lady in robes, not a lamia, not a yuan-ti.
It seems that the miniature world doesn't think much about gorgons, because the only gorgon I was able to find was a Wizkids kit.
_But wait, Wizkids doesn't make kits._
_They make mono-pose miniatures, many of which are kindly pre-painted._
Yeah, I know, that's what I thought, too.
Apparently, in 2021 Wizkids [launched the Frameworks line of miniatures](https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/49023/wizkids-launches-d-d-frameworks), with various body parts and weapons included on a plastic frame.
You cut out the pieces, choose which ones you want to use, and then glue it all together.
Give it a base coat with some spray paint, and then paint it.
It's the kind of miniature experience a wargamer would expect, but with RPG miniatures.
(I'm superficially differentiating between wargame and RPG miniatures based on marketing.
There's generally no difference between an RPG and a wargame miniature, and I use Wizkid minis for both.)
Because I was ordering the kit from the USA, I wanted to maximize my shipping cost, so I ended up buying the Undead Horde bundle, which got me a few pre-built skeletons (amazingly, I'd owned no skeletons previously), some pre-built and Frameworks ghouls, a lich, a Frameworks wight, and most importantly a mummy (which I also want for **Broken Legion**).
For me, there are three nice things about Wizkids Frameworks.
First, you get to build your own miniature.
That does take time, and you don't always want to have to build and paint a miniature when you could be preparing an adventure for your gaming group instead.
Bit if you do want to, now you can.
Secondly, Wizkids sculpts are top quality.
No complaints.
And finally, Wizkids includes a bunch of cool extras on the sprue for no good reason.
In addition to all the required body parts and weapons, you also get useful scatter terrain like gravestones, a skull with a raven perched on it, a cadaver, a severed head, a petrified body part, and so on.
They're non-essential bits and pieces that you can paint and add to your scenery, and it was totally unexpected, and very appreciated.
## Easy to build
A Frameworks model is basically the equivalent of a Citadel miniature sold in a blister pack.
It's a single figure (or two, in the case of the ghouls I got), and each miniature is on one single sprue.
As kits go, these were relatively easy to build, and I think it could be good for a new model builder.
There are some caveats, though.
The first caveat is that push-fit miniatures from Citadel are even easier.
You cut them out, maybe clean off mold lines, push them together, and you're done.
Frameworks requires modeling glue (for instance, [Tamiyo](https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/finishing/extra-thin-cement/) or [Citadel](https://www.warhammer.com/en-NZ/shop/Citadel-Plastic-Glue-2016-Global)), and you have to hold pieces togbether while they set.
The second caveat is that Wizkids hasn't yet learned to design around slices.
(Citadel only just started doing this in earnest, from what I understand, and I can imagine that's really hard to do.)
When you glue together a model, it's hard to conceal the joins, so you end up getting little crevice between the two pieces.
Sometimes that crevice looks natural, like when you glue a pauldron onto a shoulder.
Not only does the crevice look natural, it would look unnatural for there not to be a crevice.
But when you glue two halves of, say, somebody's head together, it would look strange for there to be a crease down the middle of it.
For the most part, Wizkids disguises creases really well, but there are some places on models that I feel either have a crease where one shouldn't exist, or else don't have a crease where I think one could have existed.
My gorgon's legs, for example, blur a little into her dress, but her arms and head are perfect.
One of my ghouls has a join through the middle of its hair, and it's against the flow of the hair so I can't even argue that it's a part.
None of this is a deal breaker, by any means.
In fact, it's less critique than observation.
The models look great, and they're fun to build, and a pleasure to paint.
## Conversion
The coolest thing about Frameworks is that it opens your build up to customisation.
Not only are there different options of arms and heads on the sprue for the miniature you're building, but because there are so many extra pieces you can hack the miniature (called a kit "conversion" in hobbyist lingo).
For my wight, there are two options.
The wight can be armed with scary jazz hands or with a sword.
I like the scary jazz hands because they look spooky, but for wargames I usually play WYSIWYG so I really wanted to arm the wight with a sword.
The "wrong" hand was wielding the sword, though, and I thought it would look strange for the wight to be casually holding a sword in one hand and bearing his claws with the other.
I wanted the sword to be the focus of his action.
So I clipped the sword from one arm, and replaced the hand from another with the hand and sword.
Now the wight looks like he's swinging his sword, and technically I have a one-of-a-kind version of that miniature.
Not everyone wants to customise every miniature, but when you want to make a change, it's nice to have the option.
## Good miniature monsters for RPG and wargaming
I'm impressed and pleased with Wizkid miniatures.
If you're playing a dungeon-like RPG, then these miniatures are conveniently almost exactly what you see in the 5th Edition **Monster Manual** (but really, consider switching to **Tales of the Valiant** because you can't trust Wizards of the Coast).
If you're playing a wargame, these miniatures are of a good size and quality, and are likely to fit right in.
I happened to get a good deal on these miniatures, because apparently Wizkids has been offering [bundles of miniatures](https://www.dndmini.com/collections/bundles) at a steep discount.
I don't know how long they intend for those deals to run, but I'm happy to have stumbled onto a horde of undead for a lot less than the street price.
Regardless of what kinds of deals available at any given time, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Wizkids miniatures, or to buy more myself as needed.