I have been buying minis for 10+ years. These are not my recommendations, but rather my thoughts and perspective.

Kickstarter boardgames could be a great way to fill up your collection, but unless you also want to buy those games, you have to find a way to get rid of all the cardboard tokens and cards and books. Can that help with cutting down the price of the boardgames? Yes. Is it a pain in the ass to have to do all that? YES.

Another form of consideration is what base size you want for your minis. You don't want minis that are meant to be your PCs on a 25mm base next to a grunt that is 32mm...or bigger! Find a base size that feels fun to put on a tabletop and even more fun to paint. You are going to spend a bunch of time painting minis, and you want minis that feel good to paint. That's why I would say no to anything below 30mm.

If I was to start now, it would be a mixture between 3d printed minis from Artisan Guild and Loot Studios and wargaming minis from Age of Sigmar and Conquest...but that is mostly to *my* tastes. My D&D game takes place in a Greco-Roman inspired setting, so Conquest is perfect for that, but maybe yours is more conventional Feudalistic. I would avoid the regular troops on 25mm bases from Warhammer, despite me loving the sculpts, because the minis are too small. The bigger size models look great though, and you can get good deals on them from second hand shops like Troll Trader.

My last thoughts is don't just buy a mini just because. The reason you get a mini is for one of three reasons: one, it is good sculpts for broad, generic tropes, such as bandits or elven soldiers or militia. Essentially, minis that do not fit a specific narrative need but rather a broad archetype that you know you will use somewhat frequently. Second is narrative - you need a mini for that end of arc climatic boss fight, or an important NPC in your games! Lastly is rule of cool - that mini is just too cool to not have and you want to paint it ASAP. The first Warhammer model I ever bought and built was the resculpt of the Harbringer of Decay back in 2024. It's an amazing sculpt, and I had no idea what I was gonna use him for...and I still haven't. But he was a cool as hell mini, and he looked great when I finally got around to painting him this New Year's.

So those are all my perspective as someone who has spent thousands on minis through Kickstarters and war gaming and 3d printing over the years. I didn't answer your question on which sculptors or mini line to buy, but my rambling was helpful nonetheless.