With a few exceptions (mostly RPG miniature lines and futuristic gang warfare rules), civilian figures are somewhat hard to find. Digging up alien civilians can be even more of a challenge. Most SF miniatures tend to be soldiers, and heavily armed to boot. Still, a little searching (and perhaps a bit of conversion work) can turn up a number of possibilities.

The nature of the universe you're populating will have a lot of effect on what to look for. The suggestions below are ones I've used for a 28mm universe with a lot of alien races, where humans dress in a lot of different fashions (as opposed to "Romans in Spaa-aace!", for example). I like the crowds to have the appearance of the Mos Eisley cantina patrons - a mixture of humans and "what-the-heck-is-that?" aliens. If the latter aren't represented with actual military forces in my figure collection, no sweat - he/she/it is simply a tourist or something.

A brief note on disarming figures before we start: not surprisingly, it's much easier to find gun-toting minis than unarmed figures. That's fine for smugglers, space pirates, explorers, rebels, etc. but a bit of a nuisance when you're putting together a group of colonists for an evacuation scenario or crowds of innocent bystanders. Sometimes it's easy to just cut the weapon away (pistols are usually the easiest for this), but often the pose looks odd without *something* in the figure's hands. Try replacing the gun with other objects: communicators or cell phones, scanning devices (tricorders or that PKE widget from Ghostbusters), bags or briefcases, notepads, pens, candy canes (made from paperclips), tools, weird alien artifacts of unknown purpose, books, bottles, fish, mugs and glasses, sandwiches or whatever else looks reasonable.

• Black Tree's Dr Who line has a number of useful humans and aliens. A number of these are unarmed; some of the armed ones have odd weapons that could be passed off as other sorts of devices. Go ahead; try to resist slipping a Dalek into a crowd scene :)



• RPG minis are a goldmine of interesting sculpts. The most useful sorts to look for are those for Superhero, Spy, Science Fiction (that's a shock), Post-Apocalypse and Cyberpunk games.



• Fantasy lines usually have assorted non-humans (lizard men, fish people, etc.) that can be converted. Some of the human figures may work as well (generally the unarmored types).



• Historical lines might be a source, depending on what sort of clothing your human culture(s) wears. Old West, Pulp and Victorian minis are good bets. Changing the shape of hats and painting the clothes in non-period colors can make a big difference here.



• Offbeat figure lines like Faery Meat or Critter Commandos are worth looking at. The "Beat Pixie" (slightly converted) from the former shows up in Martian Joe's Bar as part of the musical entertainment.



• Digging through various SF lines can turn up some interesting minis. I've got some Warzone "Children of Ilian" that are going to be converted into alien kids - their skull maces will be turned into lollipops, slingshots, etc.



• Stray figures of the "cargo pants and T-shirt marines" type may just need repainting (and gun removal).



• Distopian/Near-Future gang war figures, with weaponry removed. Like Cyberpunk lines, these also tend to have unarmed minis (reporters, bands, etc.).



• Parroom Station has some Cephalids that might be of use.



• Discount Hobby had been re-releasing the old Archive/R-Kiiv range, which had a lot of really useful figures. Apparently they weren't selling well enough to justify keeping them on the market, though. Definitely worth picking up if you can find them. The The Stuff of Legends has a listing.



• BADDAWG tells me that Heroclix figures have a number of possibilities. If it's like most other collectible games, you can probably find players willing to part with common figures for little or no money. I've got a few Mage Knight golems that work well as robots.



• Later Note: I've been working with a few of the Heroclix figures. There's some variation on size, but most should work with 28mm figures. This is a conversion of an AIM agent into an SF policeman. The head was removed and replaced with a helmet made from a 6mm bead and green stuff. His rocket pack and belt pouch are also from green stuff.



• Failing all else, paint human figures blue (it worked for Admiral Thrawn, anyway), green (harem dancers make good Green Orion slave girls), etc.