Chas Young reviews Airfix's 1/32 scale figure set of Multi-Pose Japanese Infantry.

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Thanks!

Not too bad. Who knows where I can get 1/35 Japanese figures? I have the Tamiya set but I'm wanting to broaden the amount I have for a certain dio. Any help would nice.

Tony

Good review of these ancient, but quite servoiceable figures. I had both the 8th Army and German infantry sets back in the original release. These both had only 6 figures in each set. I believe all teh sets came with only six figures, not the 12. The original box art may have shown 12 figures to show the possibilities of these true multipose figures. The layout of the psprues also suggest only six.

Tony,

Chas's plan is to review all the 1/35 plastic Japanese infantry sets currently on the market. AFAIK there are only 3 sets, so review could be considered the first of a 3 part series. Look to HF for the others coming shortly.

Rudi

Chas, thanks for an interesting Review.

Couple of additional points. Any of you thinking of getting this set - get them now! Airfix will NOT be producing this set at all this year. Four of the multipose sets (NOT including the Japanese) are being repackaged for younger modellers with paint and a brush in a 'gift set'.

Secondly, I disagree that they could (convincingly) be used with 1/35th scale (unless you play around a lot with perspective) these guys, compared to 1/35th scale, are HUGE.

Versatility with this set is the absolute truth. With these, over the years, i've done British infantry for the Zulu War, WW1 British infantry, and even some U.S. 'Doughboys' - anyone of my age will remember loads of articles in MilMod and Airfix Magazine about converting this set...

Finally, all is NOT so dark regarding Japanese figures in 1/35th - Masterbox have recently announced a set in this scale:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/news/3418

For the Type 94 holster, try this page

http://members.shaw.ca/tju/t94accessories.htm

The rest of the site is a treasure-trove of stuff on Japanese small arms too.

I found the Airfix figures something of a mixed bunch, some (like the officer) are well done, while others like the running figure are hopelessly animated - I couldn't get the right arm to fit naturally at all.

David

As you say, the sets contain six individual figures each, the 90s issue of the set included double the number of sprues giving twelve figures but only the original six poses.

David

Jim thanks for the heads-up. I already have 4 sets in my stash.

Regarding suitability with 1:35, it is basically a never ending argument. I've heard many people say they don't mix, and plenty say they do (and they have results to prove it).

David, thanks for clearing up the holster uncertainty. Comparing those photos to the holster in the kit shows that the part is still very inaccurate.

What you say about the number of figures/poses is correct. It was originally released with enough parts for 6 figures, increasing to 12 in the 90's and now back to 6.



My thanks to Rudi for his great help in publishing the article. You are a dedicated and very hard working staff member. Thanks.

Rgds,
Chas

Hi Chas

The Japanese multipose was the one that didn't get reissued as a 12-figure set. Which was a disappointment to me as I didn't really want to build the original white plastic first issue that I had stashed.

But I built them in the end and they tower over my Tamiya and Dragon figures. Mind you, some of the Fine Molds tank crew figures are even smaller. The two that come with the Type 97 tankette are worth stealing as infantry figures, specially since they're in a more relaxed pose.

David

Nice review, Interesting, this set was never a top seller. When it was originally issued with the 6 figures, the majority could be found at a discount price at the local hobby shop. Amazingly after they were discontinued, and became hard and harder to find, the collector prices rose to ridiculous levels, especially on early Ebay. (I was lucky, a friend GAVE me a set during the period these weren't available) The 12 figure reissues were a bonanza for those looking for these sets, as they were twice the figures, yet the price never doubled, but were molded in a much harder plastic. This reissue, the price remained the same or higher for half the figures. But it was nice to see them return in the original package.

As for the logic of 1/32 scale, since Airfix did not only all their mid-size figures (including the soft plastic ones) in 1/32 scale to go along with their 1/32 scale vehicle kits and play sets, which back then was the normal modeling scale. (1/32 scale aircraft actually fitted together with 1/32 scale vehicles and figures) Plus the connoisseur figures were all done in this scale-54mm, so it made perfectly good and clear sense to do them in 1/32 scale. (You would be amazed how many 54mm figures these were the starting point for, either just for a one shot conversion, but also for the starting point of marketed figures--- look close at some of those older metal, and early resin castings, you'll see plenty of airfix heads used.)

I wonder if there would be a Bill Horan, if there weren't Airfix figures?

Good review Chas, I remember this and the other sets from their first release and like Jim spent a lot of time converting them.
I can't agree that they could be used to represent 1/35 scale figures. Even for 1/32 these guys are big for 1940s Japanese. And whatever about using the figures as extra tall Japanese you would need to use 1/35 weapons and equipment.

I haven't tried them but JapanesArmorKing do a line of resin Japanese WW2 figures and here
http://www.japanesearmorking.com/jak3.htm

I have to say Im a big fan of the Old Airfix Multipose figures, their adoptability and the ease of expression available with these figures was what that got me into figure modelling in the first place back in the early 80’s. I have to agree with the comments above though that they would be unsuitable for 1/35 do to the size issue and the obvious problem as mentioned previously with scale weapons and accessories.

Its got to be remembered when assessing all the Airfix figures that they were produced more with the figure modeller in mind (where the larger scale is a benefit) at a time when 1/35 scale was nor where near as popular as it is now. My preference would always be to produce figures in a scale no smaller than 1/32 if I could.

As for the Japanese figures, a bought a box a couple of years ago when they were reissued and in my opinion they are the worst of the sets with detail being no way near as crisp as in other. This is not all down to the use of softer plastic as the 8th army sets are far crisper and seem to use the same plastic. They also suffer from the same problem as the 8th army set in having far less variety of poses when compared to some of the others, lots of crouching charging figures from my memory.

That aside its great to see these on the marked again and one can only hope that Airfix will reissue the 54mm Napoleonic figures as these are a great source of material not least period weapons and horses.

The most common set of injection molded figures (after your Tamiya ones) are the set by Dragon. They released these in the 1990s and reissued them right after the Nick Cage movie "Windtalkers". The Windtalkers version included the Japanese infantry and DML's Marines and added a resin figure of Nick Cage. This set runs about $10-15 on eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/WINDTALKERS-JAPANESE-INFANTRY-US-MARINES-1-35-scale_W0QQitemZ190201516030QQihZ009

Thanks for the info....

Tony

Hello, not sure if the sets you are talking about are the same but I have 2 sets of airfix british red devils multi pose sets, they are marked as 32 scale and are about 8 scale inches larger that any of my 35th german/us figures. I have used the german airfix muti pose set with 35th scale but in situations where they are not on same levels and makes for a realy good SS soldier, [you know, blonde hair,blue eyes].Hope this helps.

Airfix's multipose figures were all 1/32 scale, so yes, they are of the same range as your British Paratroopers. And yup, 1/32 produces a larger figure than 1/35 - more or less 54mm (1/32) vs 50mm (1/35).

The issue isn't the height per se, as a 54mm figure converts to about 1.74m - just under 6'. It's the comparative scale of the equipment. Unlike humans, military equipment is generally one-size fits all. When weapons and personal equipment are noticeably different sizes, people tend to notice those kind of things....