| Chips88 | 03 Feb 2010 5:14 p.m. PST |
Hi Guys - I'm working away on my WWII 1/76 & 1/72 vehicles but most of all my older Matchbox, Nitto, ESCI (you name it) models, do not have drivers nor do my tanks have commanders. I will need, U.S., Brit, German, Italian and Russian figs. Where do you guys get your figs and are there any where I can just replace the heads with the appropiate headgear? Thanks for the suggestions. |
 Extra Crispy  | 03 Feb 2010 5:24 p.m. PST |
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| LawOfTheGun mk2 | 03 Feb 2010 5:24 p.m. PST |
SHQ Miniatures have vehicle crews and tank commanders in 1:76 for the major powers, AB Figures are another fine option.
For 1:72, you might want to consider Warmodelling. |
| Top Gun Ace | 03 Feb 2010 6:39 p.m. PST |
AB have some great looking options. Some of the best WWII minis made for 1/76th scale. |
| nickinsomerset | 04 Feb 2010 12:33 a.m. PST |
AB are superb, Warmodelling are very nice -1:72, SHQ are also very nice and will fit better at the smaller end – 1:76, Tally Ho! |
| dwight shrute | 04 Feb 2010 3:19 a.m. PST |
had a similar problem some yrs ago … I splashed out on AB which covered both drivers and cmdrs for most nations . |
| NigelM | 04 Feb 2010 5:29 a.m. PST |
MMS produce some at the smaller end of the range too link |
| Frothers Did It Anyway | 04 Feb 2010 6:02 a.m. PST |
Milicast do very nice resin ones. SHQ are good. Both of these are nominally 1/76 so will suit Matchbox and Fujimi vehicles well. |
| Martin Rapier | 04 Feb 2010 6:27 a.m. PST |
I use SHQ in the main, plus various carved up Airfix figures! |
| christot | 04 Feb 2010 10:38 a.m. PST |
AB are brilliant (esp their Brits) Fantassin/Warmoddeling whoever they are are nice, SHQ are fine (but definetly 1/76th). Also check out the Elhiem site for their stuff and the Lammercraft range. If you are feeling really "modelly" then have a look at the Milicast range of crew figures, brilliant but fiddly as %&*&, (seperate heads and arms in resin). Prieser do a few Germans too some pics knocking around here: link and here: link |
| Ditto Tango 2 1 | 04 Feb 2010 1:43 p.m. PST |
Goodness, I thought I made a response on this topic last night from home! I must have forgot to press "submit"…. Kimball, I also agree with the comments here on AB and Fantassin/Warmodeling. However, I wonder why bother with drivers unless you are modeling vehicles on parade or in rear areas. Even with, say the Matchbox Hanomag, you can get away without a driver, by putting someone manning the machine gun: picture (These are converted to Ausf C). Another company to check might be Milicast. I have some of their gun and open top AFV crews. They are resin and as good as AB, in my opinion. However, my recommendation would be to use plastic where you can. Why? Because I find that one has to really butcher the figures to get them to fit in the hatches and plastic, especially soft plastic, is easier to cut that metal or resin. Italeri (formerly ESCI) has some kits with crew in them that form a large number of my tank crew commanders picture (this guy's arm is reformed). Some Dragon kits seem to have extra crew in them (I haven't made any Dragon models, yt), so if you were to buy a kit like this one: link (Squadron is an excellent vendor of plastic kits, BTW) you'd have a few extra crew you could use for crewing other tanks. Good luck,
--
Tim |
| Chips88 | 05 Feb 2010 2:49 p.m. PST |
ALLLL RIGGGHHHTTTT!!!! Your recommendations are just what I needed and will fill up quite a bit of my time getting my forces together. I will be sending out a couple of orders and, like Tim suggested, going back thru my old plastic/rubber figs I have stuffed in storage to find animated ones I can "butcher" up to fit in the hatches and such. Tim – some of my vehicles are open like my recon jeeps, 1/2 tracks and 2-1/2s and I need figs in them to "liven" them up. I, too, have put a few gunners in them like you suggested and they are ok but I just have too many that are vehicles without humans – errrr – figures. I do use Squadron, too. :-) christot – I throughly enjoyed your pictures and seeing all those extra figures on the vehicles is what I'm talking about. You might have a bit more than what I envisioned but that's my general idea. Thanks. Looks like I'll be pouring over the Warmodeling, SHQ, AB, Milcast, MMS, Elhiem and Lammercraft websites and catalogs. Thanks Guys!!! Kimball |
| Horrocks | 06 Feb 2010 4:32 a.m. PST |
well for seated Brits and Germans you can't beat AB, however that being said I highly recommend you check out the Kelly's Heroes range for seated Italian,s Germans including jeep crews and seated FJ, as well as Russians, Brits and Americans |
| spontoon | 06 Feb 2010 7:29 a.m. PST |
Best and cheapest are from Reiver at Under the Bed Enterprises. |
| Chips88 | 06 Feb 2010 7:41 a.m. PST |
Thanks Horrocks, I didn't know about the range. I will check them out, too. Spontoon – I had forgotten about Reiver. I bought all my Chinese and North Korean figures from them a couple of years ago. "Under the Bed Enterprises" did a great job of supplying me. Will check them out again. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Kimball |
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