I've noticed there is no topic here for making or obtaining meeples for some of the fan-based expansion sets. So since I've been toying with it, I'll start a topic for it. Although many of the expansions that I've seen use tiles from other Carcassonne-type games, there are a few that seem to require special meeple.
While I was in the craft store the other day, I found colored clay that hardens when you bake it. It seemed reasonable so I picked some up for $1.29USD per package Here's a pic:
I'm thinking for each package, you could sculpt somewhere between 12-18 meeples. I've been rolling it into a ball and then pressing down on it with a meeple that I was to copy. Leaving that meeple on top of the clay, I cut around the edges and finally smooth down the sides. It's slightly time consuming, but you could set up to do it while you watch TV or something like that and then it's not so bad.
Some of the expansions that only require a meeple to be made are Jester and Minstral, Leper, Hog Roast, Black Tower, and Dual Dragons. Here are some of the meeples that I've made so far:
This was my first attempt at making them. Here is a comparison of my Minstral and Jester(with cat teeth marks) to regular and big meeples and the Count.
Trading Posts(I should also note that my yellow meeple were spray painted to purple)
From left to right is the pope, white dragon, the grim reaple, the wizard, the leper, a big white meeple, a white builder, and a white pig.
And if you have multiple sets of meeple and want more than 6 colors, I found that spray paints seems to work well with the meeple.