"15mm ship crew figures (sci-fi or naval)?" Topic

With a new (hopefully awesome) Star Blazers movie out in Japan, and with me finally taking the plunge into 15mm sci-fi, I'm wondering if anyone makes minis that would work for the crew of the Yamato/Argo, with or without helmets:

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Anyone make minis that would work for the crew? GZG's are cool but seem to have a lot of bulky equipment and baggy suits (unless I'm missing some).

Any WWII or similar naval crew minis? I thought that could also be an option, but I have no clue if anyone makes those.

Any help or suggestions?

About the closest I've seen to my view of a futuristic spaceship crew are the Rebel Minis Infiltrators:

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They have helmets on, but GZG does a heads sprue, which might work for some modifications, if you want some figures without helmets on.

RAFM do a "crewman" pack. figures are really quite nice.

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Regards

Chris

Star Blazers?

Is this the stuff you mean?

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Dan

Hmm …

Not many Asians in the original, are there (compare that to the mostly Asian cast seen in the trailers for the new film):

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Are Japanese allowed to play with nukes in the future?

And what are the red arrows pointing to?

Dan

How do the Rafm figures compare in size to my 15mm figures from GZG?

Thanks

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I think they are a little smaller – going through some old stuff the other day I found an original Citadel figure (the same ones that RAFM are now selling) of a Traveller civilian businessman with a briefcase, coat over his arm and a large brimmed hat, an excellent figure but almost a head shorter than one of our civilians. Having said that, real people come in different heights (just look at Tom Cruise….) so it's really not that much of a problem!

Jon (GZG)

The problem with most existing civilian or crew types is their baggy clothes & bulky gear and overall pudginess.

Does anyone make WW2 or similar sailors? Their bellbottoms would be perfect. :)

Rebel Minis figures tend to have the right proportions, so maybe your suggestion is the closest out there, Top Gun Ace.

I found some threads on Star Trek-type crews in 15mm (which would work perfectly well for Star Blazers/Yamato) but I guess no enterprising (heh!) folks have come out with any.

What about model railroad civilians? Would any of them blend in well with GZG's newer lines or Khurasan's Federals troops?

And what are the red arrows pointing to?

I think the message is clear to their Gamilon enemies.

Having said that, real people come in different heights (just look at Tom Cruise….)

Is he a real person?

LOL

Dan

Jon,
It really isn't the height that makes the difference. It is the meatiness that goes with the size difference. That's why I love the GZG scale 15mm. They can be painted to a very high level, rivaling 28mm.

hoganandherr.com/minis

15mm ww1 russin navel gun crew by Peter pig?

Dan, not all asians need to look like this in cartoon form
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Though for some reason they went down that direction for the weird headed guy with the glasses in the front row.

There has to be a recognizable and realistic middle ground. All you really need to do is just look at how Asians depicted Asians for centuries in their own tapestries, panels and scrolls.

I just think it's funny that the cartoon characters in Star Blazers were meant to be Asians all this time!!!

Same goes for most other Japanese cartoons since then. from the way they are drawn, the average person on this side of the planet could easily conclude that the average anime characters were all meant to be Caucasians, no matter where in the world the story is meant to take place.

I think it says more about weird esthetic ideals and values among the artists and creators of that cartoon genre.

Dan

Actually up until the the last few decades, Asians in Asian animation were rare overall.

15mm ww1 russin navel gun crew by Peter pig?

Ooooh that's an interesting idea. I'll check those out – thanks.

Old Glory 15s also make armed sailors in their Boxer Rebellion line, which in turn is part of their Colonial Wars range. AFAIK they are dressed the same as any other sailors, but I could be wrong -- they are not shown on the website, but you might be able to find pics of them on colonial era wargamer sites.

This is originally what the Karks were going to be -- sharkmen in sailor suits.

Saner heads prevailed though and they wear a suit inspired by some concept art (not used in the end) for a sci fi movie made in the 80s, which I thought captured the idea of the Karks really well.

Old Glory 15s also make armed sailors in their Boxer Rebellion line, which in turn is part of their Colonial Wars range.

Fantastic – I'll hunt those down! Thanks!

I wonder if they'll be compatible in size with your Federal troops. I'm thinking they'd make awesome Earth Defense Force Marines…especially if you'll release the Command and Heavy Weapon teams. :D

This is originally what the Karks were going to be -- sharkmen in sailor suits.

Hahahah crazy!

Your Karks need this as a construct:

YouTube link

Dan- it probably comes from Tezuka Osamu (generally regarded as the Godfather of manga and anime) being blown away by Disney productions at an early age. At this time as I recall Japan had a strong American influence, and so it seemed natural that inspiration would be derived from very influencial American animated features, and I guess it just took off from there- Big eyes being a staple in modern anime and manga. Not sure if that's totally correct but it's at least what I recall from what I've read.

When I did a report on Japanese animation back in the day, I also found that it was the early Disney influence that later became a stylistic preference. Also, in interviewing Japanese exchange students and people in Japan there was expressed a sort of wierd cultural disatisfaction or humility regarding the Japanese appearance, leading to a predominance of non-asian character appearances in animation. Even in stories that took place in Japan, you would still see few obviously Japanese people.

That being said, the stylistic elements of anime also make it nearly impossible to determine proper ethnicity of a character based on appearance. The size and proportion of features is more determined by character archetype than by their ethnicity. Add to this the tendency of anime characters reflecting popular pop culture fads and styles and it really gets muddy.

It's really only in the last decade or so that you have seen any real effort to make characters appear Japanese and even that is still the minority case.

-Eli