In the 1/35 scale, is the dragon models soldiers considered the best?

how are the detail/quality for the tamiya figures compared to dragon?

is there another company that makes great figures that are just as good or better then dragon?

i am very new to military modelling, but i have been in car modeling for 20 years, and tamiya has by far the best car models available.

sorry for the dumb post, i am just trying to learn

Dragon figures seem to be generally more detailed, especially the Gen 2 kits. The set I have, Iwo Jima Marines, is very nice although there are no instructions for the photoetch. Ledgend, Verlinden and Warriors, to name a few, make figure kits but I have no experience with them. Most of the more experienced modelers on this site seem to prefer those figures for detail and variety of poses but they are more expensive. Hope this helps.

Among the two choices you give, Dragon is the better figure. However, many folks doing figure modeling go for resin, I have a number of Warrior and Custom Dioramic figures that are better than my Dragon figures.

John

Dragon has a bigger range and better figures than Tamiya. Period. Tamiya are pretty good as you say when coming from cars, but military figures, nope
A happy medium for the plastic versus resin comparison is to jazz up the stock plastic dragon figures with resin heads or hands, thus not incurring the full cost of resin figures, which generally have better poses and variety, but as mentioned are quite expensive when compared to plastic figure sets.
Brad

Hello,

Welcome in the figurine world
If you go resin, which is more expensive than plastic, but with better detail, I advise you for the best on the market : Alpine, Tank, Hornet, Royal Model, to name a few. For Plastic, it depends which area you want (modern, ww2, etc) but Dragon has the broader choice, but for quality I vote Miniart, definitively. Last, each kit is different from a same manufacturer because they use different sculptor (unlike car where the creator touch is less visible) : tamiya US sets are excllent where the last french one is awfull. Same with Zvezda Sovet Sniper (excellent set) and German snipers (real crap).
Don't hesitate to ask if you have a specific set/period you want (I've nearly all of them )

Best,
Julien

Hi Mike, if your just starting out into figure modeling (depending on which period you wish to model eg WW2,modern,ancient) Dragon cover WW2 German well and some allied kits they also do Vietnam area and present day stuff but its limited others you might consider are Masterbox and Miniart who also make some exellent figure kits.Use the big A as a guidline you will see all the kits mentioned in dios or as vignettes and painted and construct ed to high standards.Visit the various manufacturers sites and you will see the range of figures that they produce.As a guide stick with Dragon,Masterbox and Miniart but thats only my opinion you sound like a Tamyia man and they do make some exellent kits but the figures in most cases leave a lot to be desired hope this helps
Regards Phil

Hi Mike

Good time to be getting into figures with some great choices out there. Dealing with injection moulded figures.....

Firstly as regards Tamiya. They still have on the market figures that date back over twenty years, and it shows. They are truly awful by todays standards. I should know I've got sets dating back that far and was surprised to see them still being sold so beware. Apart from the soft or complete absence of fine detail they are completely undersized and look like dwarfs compared to the other makers figures.

I've not purchased any of their recent offerings apart from sets which have figures included such as the Engine Maintenance Set, Motorcycle Orderly and Bicycle set and these are much better. So if you do decide on Tamiya make sure you are looking at the more up to date releases. Web searching will get you images of the actual figures rather than the nice box art.

Having said that some of Dragons sets are not as good as others. Again some are quite old.

The sets marked Gen2 are bang up to date with excellent detail and usually lots of spare equipment to put in the spares box. I'd recommend these without hesitation.

They also do some Premium branded sets. These are older figure sets with enhancements such as better detailed weapons, equipment etc.

I've some older Dragon sets which whilst not as bad as the early Tamiya do show how Dragon have improved on their sculpting and moulding.

The thing that I hear most in criticism of Dragon is their lack of imagination in the sets they bring out of late. Having said that if the set fits into your concept of what you want to create then there is no problem is there.

Then you have other makers like Masterbox, Miniart and Tristar.

I was disappointed with a very early set of Russian soldier figures I got from Miniart but purchasing a set of German mechanics working these are fine, and as with all newer sets from them well sculpted and great animation to the poses. So again I'd steer clear of the early stuff and you'll be fine.

Masterbox is the same really, marked improvement on early stuff. I've recently got the German set playing cards and thought them very well done. Went together fine with little or no filling whatsoever and minimal cleaning of mould lines.

Tristar make some nice sets but they are not as well stocked in shops etc as the others. Of the sets I've brought they are as good as the above I've mentioned.

One company that does figures but gets little mention is ICM. They do some nice figures and you'll find these have been used and reboxed by others such as Revell, Alanger and even Tamiya in Japan to go with their vehicles as diorama sets.

All of the above despite being good would look even better with replacement heads. Its either the lack of fine facial detail, or similarity of persons faces in sets that usually mark them down compared to resin figures. Look at the Hornet heads by Roger Saunders to see a wonderful range of replacements available.

As regards resin I've not much experience with these figures yet, only replacement heads and the odd one found in AFV kits, but again Hornet are great, along with Alpine, Tank, Warriors, and many many others. Verlinden make a large range but I've heard people say they are too big. More 1/32 in scale than 1/35 and stood next to figures from other makers they look like giants but I've no personal experience.

Happy modelling

Alan

I have a few Verlinden figures, almost all US WW2 and on mine (maybe they are older figures) its not so much size as a lack of detail on the faces, as well as a sort of "squished appearance". I replaced them with Hornet, but at the cost Dragon plastics are better. Again, my experience with Verlinden is limited, but I have decided to shy away from them.

John

Dragon USED to be considered the best - they certainly have some amazingly good sets in their lists. Nowadays, two companies are doing all the running, getting all the headlines and getting all the (deserved) plaudits - Masterbox and Miniart.

Tamiya, in figures is a tired old joke (and a more recent one with their French Infantry), Verlinden have gone for quantity rather than quality.

In resin (and I DON'T recommend them until you have more experience) best are Alpine followed closely by 'Think-One-Eighty' (now owned by Mig Productions) and Tank (superb figures). lots of good figures out there - very much depends on what area you want to model..

Hey all,
My vote is for Dragon. They come with extras and much better detail. They have the drawback, however, of being mostly in winter garb when it comes to Germans, and most of the kits are not in combat. They don't have a great balance of poses either. Miniart is a fantastic company in my opinion. Masterbox is also great. I use them quite often, but sometimes you need to add some extra $$ to add kit and such.

Mike

thanks for your help guys. i have been doing a ton of research, trying to find the figures i like the best.

i did finally decide on my first resin figure, from alpine. i dont know if it is a quality figure, but i like the stance he has.
this is the one i got

http://www.alpineminiatures.com/imagepages/35061.html

i also noticed it comes with 2 different heads, so i can swipe one of them for another model.

for plastic i have been sticking with dragon, i just picked up 2 tanks
http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6352
and
http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6439

I also picked up verlinden's rathaus as my building for my scene. i will be a busy guy for the next year
http://www.verlinden-productions.com/vp_htm_0001_0600/0103.html

i also picked up this dragon set of figures. this was the first thing i bought
http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA6273

i hjave had some luck wih tamiya, check out my PANZER 4 THREAD ON afv's

The few Dragon Gen II figures Ive worked on are nothing short of excellent. But there´s a lot of parts to make up each figure, so some experience is probably needed to get the best out of them. For standard figures (head, torso, 2 x arms and 2 x legs), the nicest to paint IMO are definately Tristar. Their details are so fine and are easy to paint. I recently completed some Miniart as well, and although nice, some folds were somewhat awkward and made painting a little more stressfull. They are slightly bigger as well, than Tristar.
Avoid old Tamiya and and Italeri figures like the plague. Soft details make painting difficult. Some of the later Tamiya figures are decent enough, but its best to ask for advise if you´re not sure. You wont be dissapointed with the Alpine figures ... outstanding.

On the subject of 'Tank' figures, can I ask a newby question and ask if there's a US distributor for them? They make a DAK panzer crew that I am looking at, or if anyone has any other suggestions it would be appreciated.
Thanks

-keith

i found this place. i havent ordered from them though
http://www.modelpoint.us/s.nl/sc.2/category.137/.f

Thanks, I'll give them a try.

-keith

the old tamiya figs arent v good agree. the one wht the swimwagen is pretty decent tho .
some are pretty crisp for starter people

Hi Mike,
I have built most of the Dragon figure sets over the last five years and they are far superior to the Tamyia range. Fewer clean up demands with Dragon, wider selection of figures sets, Tamyia figures have club feet for the most part, something they haven't mastered yet. The excellent Dragon Gen 2 figures have much more detail than their standard figure kits.
Resin figures are more expensive as others have mentioned, but you usually get what you pay for. Dragon kits are inexpensive for the quality you get. Add some Hornet heads (the best) and presto, you have some nice figs going. Verlinden, Master Box (they have some great kits) and MiniArt are others that have some very nice figures but the last two need more attention to their hands and heads in many cases.
Welcome to the figure world, MIke, it is soothing on the nerves and lots of fun and you are only hampered by your imagination. Have fun, buddy.
Mike

Funnily enough today I received some Tamiya figures I'd won on ebay. I wouldn't normally bother but these were from the "two figures in a box" range they do in 1/35 scale.

They appear to be scaled down versions of the 1/16th figures, and these are really good.

Lots of nice detail, and the equipment sprue has extras, all of which very nicely moulded.

So they are capable of producing figures in 1/35 the equal of Dragon, just they don't seem to want to in main figure sets these days.

Alan

They are capable to even do better IMO, when they want. But its quite obvious, they dont want !
The figures that come with their Wespe and the late Tiger (8000 nr) are some of the finest injected figures on the market. These are the only two sets I have had personally, and there may be others.

I thought I struck a bargin a few years ago, when I bought the Lufwaffe captain with lifevest and the the soldier with great coat and machine gun, in a box together, for less than the price of one normally.
I was a "little" dissapointed when the box came home ... and maybe a triffle embarrassed. . I discretly sold them on

Mike, a word of advice. Personally, i'd buy a stack of good, plastic figure sets, build and paint them to try out various different approaches and techniques rather than starting with resin.

As a rule of thumb:

DML - Huge number of sets covering every variation of German uniforms imaginable. Their GEN II series are, complex to build but, in most cases, superb figures.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showmaker&makerid=40&rid=1

Masterbox - The most active poses of any manufacturer. The sets in the last year or two are superlative although do need attention in both hands and heads.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showmaker&makerid=231

MiniArt - superb figures covering principally Soviet & German subjects:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showmaker&makerid=236