"British Life Guards - 1/72" Topic

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Lovely!

Now I misidentified these and was puzzled that your figures are so much better looking than I expected. I really thought these were the new Warlord plastics in 28mm.

These are far better, even in a smaller scale

Wow.

Very nice work!

Fabulous. Just shows how good 1/72 plastic can look once painted with the same care that is typically lavished on metal figures.

How true

But just imagine if skill like this was directed onto proper metal figures……

VW used to run an advert for a Golf. Dealers for other makes would say that various features of their car were just like a Golf. The couple purchasing would suddenly twig and head off to VW…..

I am only kidding…just hope Marc the Plastics Fan is reading this.

Excellent!

Mateus! Ausgezeichnet!
Those really do not look like 1/72 to my eyes!

I'd pay good money for that quality of painting in 1/72. And probably not just me :-)

Much better figures than any metal ones I have seen in any scale. I mean proper human proportions- it'll never catch on.

Concur

Liam… you naughty boy. Go and see the nurse immediately!

Yes, they are nice. Having painted these myself I know how hard they are, as the basic raw sculpts are very finely detailed, and actually rather small. So the painting needs to be done well to look good

Mateus. I salute you, from one painter to another

And paying attention to other people's comments reminds me how often people can be surprised how nice plastics can be painted up. 1/72 figures are often stunningly good sculpts in close to real proportions, so if one cares to, then they can look really good. To me, the only metal figures of a different scale I am ever tempted to replace them with would be Mr Barton's exquisite 18mm. If only he had done 1/72 Naps.

Marc, at work but always a plastics fan

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

As some have mentioned, 1/72 tends to have more realistic human proportions than any other scale, and this is one of the main reasons I like this scale so much.

Really nice… I love them all together. You have captured such energy and movement with the painting.

Wow, it looks like a battlefield. I'm really enjoying the photos…

Love em. Just wish someone would release peninsular bicorne cavalry. HAT messed up and they probably won't see light of day. Figures out of stock or only halfway to market kills it for me in plastic. I do ACW in 1/72 but not Nappy.

Yes, it was a shame about the HaT cavalry, but they admitted it, released them as 28s and are meant to be remastering them, so there is hope.

And Mateus has it right re proportions – ask Liam about some metal 28s,,,

It takes the Germans and metal to make the very best animated/proportioned figures (in 1/72 without a doubt).

15/18mm (well AB anyway) are amazing castings, with minute detail and sensibly posed.

28mm are so variable. They can be both spindly- and bandy- legged. They can be enormously stout, with arms thicker than their legs and just as long. They can need far more filing of ejection pins and mould lines. Faces can be bizarre at times, with some bizarre syndromal features. Above all, one man's 28mm is another man's 25mm or 30+mm.

The Household Cavalry above are inspiring indeed. Be sure to see the picture that also includes the RHG in Blue.

"My Household Cavalry are complete" he cried….which is strictly speaking true, and no harm in including RHG, as is indeed now the case, if not back then.

All that is perhaps missing is the KDG. They always get forgotten, as too like Line Dragoons I know……but if you want to finish Somerset's Brigade….not strictly Household Cavalry, yet in the "Household Brigade" on the big day!

Hmmm, don't forget the Russians (or Ukrainians). Zvezda probably make/made the finest 1/72 figures ever.

Where the metal guys score (and I am a BIG fan of Francesco's work at Franznap) is that they are working in 1/72, whereas the Zvezda sculptor would have worked 3-up – 1/24 maybe? But Zvezda are sorely missed by us plastics fans – their Russian cavalry, Saxons, artillery sets, Russian infantry, Imperial Guard – marvellous sets each and every one. So sad when they stopped.

Metal 28s. Hmmmm. I know Perry's get a lot of positivity but I am not 100% convinced on proportions still. I liked the Minden figures – I know to a lot of people they looked too thin/spindly, and the poses were too rigid, but they were well proportioned. Some of PG's Connoisseur figures were good (although his final technical execution let them down IMHO). Any better suggestions?

I do wish some kind soul could tell me what ratios equate to 15mm, 18mm, 20mm,25mm and 28mm. Saying something is 1/72 leaves me little the wiser.

Tell me about it…..in any scale.

If we think a figure is proportioned according to real Napoleonic military human anatomy…and we then recall he was, at most, likely to be 5'6"-5'10" tall in our days of interest, he had very narrow shoulders, to judge by extant uniforms…he had tiny feet…….

Then no two manufacturers work to the same "style". Chunky arms and legs, heads too big (even some too small), too slender in the sagittal plane, even if all are the same height.

Now, I then want artillery, wagons, limbers, caissons, buildings, even horses (esp horses actually), and, in my case, carriages, that I can make to the same "scale".

1/72 works for "things". It means your tank will be one inch equals six foot. 1/350 battleship…easy. If it is still in a museum get out your tape measure.

I think 28mm is 1/56 scale. Every Napoleonic carriage (Boney's at Genappe, the Malmaison one, The Waterloo Dispatch, The Tsar's etc) was to 1/56

Sorry. But 1/72 is the perfect way to describe something. If you need a size it is around 23mm. But metal manufacturers went to sizes rather than scales as it allowed (allows) them to take liberties with the size of fixed/known length objects like rifles. Scale modellers use scales, Wargamers use size.

I thought 1/100 was 15mm ish, 1/144 was 12mm. No idea for 18mm. Some bastardised non-regular scale – 1/90 or some such

Much discussion some time ago when I asked about scale. I was making various carriages to go with AB figures, a scale I have not often tackled. I was advised, straight from the horse's mouth, that AB figures (whether 15 or 18mm) use equipment (Guns, caissons, carts etc) that is 1/100 scale.

But I agree with Marc and went just slightly larger to look right

I am definitely with Mateus and Marc on this, in my opinion 1/72 rule.

I will gladly play any scale but I only collect 1/72, and I have some WWII lead (real lead) Soldiers from my dad he played with them during WWII.

Age of Eagles in 1/72. Yes please

superb work