I dont claim to be the best figure painter or anything, but i do like the way mine come out (when i actually finish them, that is). Resin vs plastic? Depends on the kit, age, and the order of the planets. Verlinden figures vs Dragon Gen. 2? Dragon hands down. Verlinden figures arent even sized right. But 1970's tamiya to an Alpine or Bravo 6? are you blind? Tamiya's faces look like monkeys, and that is being generous. They are just too plain thick- and their mold lines are just plain depressing. However, if you think you suck at figure painting, i see no better way to practice than on crappy Tamiyas. In fact, thats incredibly smart. But in terms of detail, quality, research, short run resin figures are the cream of the crop, and no one can deny that.

Price wise, its personal preference. Why does someone spend so much on one figure? why does someone put premium gas in their car? Possibly because buying expensive things make them feel happy. Possibly because they know you get what you pay for. I mean, just look at some of Alpines figures, and then compare them to crappy Tamiya.



Notice the facial detail, the pockets, and the folds. Even the poses- they look like they aremade of wood.

Alec I can understand your stance and I would agree with you.
I would also agree with what else has been said on this great thread.

I have spent some 8 odd hours playing around with an ancient Heller body, grafted on a pair of horrible Tamiya arms and a Tamiya grinning head from the cyclist set modified to wear an equaly horrible Academy kepi. Am I having fun , sure am and I think, for me, that is the fun in the hobby. I had to put to one side my Des/MK-35/Hornet et all as none of them were suitable for what I wanted.
Yes I buy resin when i can afford it and look for bargins as well. An example being, on the local auction site in Kiwiland I picked up three Warriors figures landed at my front door for a total of nz$24.00 [nz$8.00 each] yet the latest Dragon plastics are going for nz$26.00 a box in local model shops. These figures were in poses that I wanted so who was I to resist a bargin.
I find tanks and things have gone way out of reach so I buy those horrible Tamiya and Italeri thingies. Search out bargin basements. Yesterday I picked up two boxes of SOL civies for nz$36.00 yet the normal retail was nz$34.00 each, so I got four figs at a bargin price.

Recently I finished converting a box of Italeri Bersagleri to go with my AB41, I used Model Victoria heads and putty. I had a ball.
My modelling dollar is going down as I cannot buy the way I used to, the Churchill from AFV is hitting nz$140.00 on the shelve. As it is I have two Tamiya still waiting attention. Yes the AFV variety is streets ahead however tell that to she who must be obeyed. More so when she has seen me having fun scratchbuilding figures et all. Hay guys and gals some of my stuff must be okay as I received commission work from two military museums to make stuff for them which include a lot of conversion and scratch work.

Alec, I gained these skills from playing around with fantastic plastic, using the tools in front of me and making something that is unique to my collection with not a bit of resin in sight, two part putty and tube putty yes. Mind you these were the days when Tamiya produced figgies that were, for want of another expression, plain awful and Italeri was yet to be seen. So one had to either make do or make their own or learn how to convert etc. This forum is great for help in this area. a person also had to learn how to use their paintbrush to enhance detail, to paint in detail that wasn't there, to shade and counter shade etc.

I think that I have waffled on enough however I would like this considered. Regardless of the view a person has [plastic or resin] a person can detail, convert, paint a lousy plastic figure very well, if fact so well that Mr/Mrs Average would not be able to tell the difference unless of course they were in the know. Impression does count as they say in art circles.
Prepare your canvass and it will work for you.
Alec, and the rest of you people have fun, fun, fun.............
Power to your paint brush.

Thank you Frank for the missing links, the painting guide and finished figures are out of this world, if only I could be half as good as that, I guess everyone starts somewhere, I still have a lot of reading to do, and from what I've seen so far, a very high standard can be achieved.

Hi Jon. I´d have to repectfully disagree with this statement totally. Because of the lack of details, the old Tamiya and Italeri figures are actually harder to paint ... and to learn from ... than the better class resin figures. One can paint the same figure over and over, to get it right. Beats painting those detail-less figures each time.
You can´t work with highlights and shadows, when they are not there to work with, in the first place.


Exactly .. and that cannot be forgotten. You should have seen my first figures ... not that Im a master now either ... but they will get better with time.

Alec ... some more sites for info/tips and as importantly ... inspiration.

Planet figure .. see the vbench

Time Lines Forum

Juame Ortiz - Figures

And last but not least ... check out the articles on Armorama and Historicus Forma (the figure painting section of Armorama).

Good luck.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3349/3335701609_42309f11f2.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3570/3335701607_bac447ec98.jpg
A few people had suggested that I paint the resin figure (don't glue the head on) this is what I have done, obviously different colour paint, but I used enamel on both figures, the American being the dirt cheep Italeri figure, and the headless German the resin. What did I think of them both not painted ? The resin wins hands down, it holds paint far better than the plastic, and basically resin is plastic (a bit of head scratching here then) the resin also glues beautifully - could I honestly use several of these resin figures within a diorama ? Only if I won the lottery, the sheer amount of money for something looking this good, does not in my opinon weigh up the pounds it would cost, using a maximum of 3 figures, then yes every time, this alpine figure being my first, I believe is fantastic but not worth its money.

Hi Alec. You need a primer ... and then all your figures will have the same painting surface. Check out your local auto shop, and see if they have an auto primer for repairing cars. Or if you have a local hobby shop, they should have hobby primers. Spray outdoors though, as they can be quite powerful. This is usually good stuff and affordable.
There are more types of plastic than you have had hot dinners ... and they all have their own charcteristics and properties. These figures are made from plastics suitable for gluing and painting, although brush painting directly on the plastic can be difficult for most hobby paints, and especially as they have to be thinned. This is where the airbrush comes in handy. They would also benifit from being washed with washing up liquid and warm water, rinsed well and let dry. When you are assembling them, oils and fats from your hands remain on the surface and can be a problem for paint also. There can also be oils from the moulding process, that helps removal of the plastic parts, to contend with.
What glue are you using to fix your tamiya figures? Hobby cement would be more suitable. Use super glue or epoxy for the resin figure though.

Hi

I think when people where suggesting you paint the figure it wasn't a case of applying coats of paint on to see how it looked.

It was to look at the various references, links that had been posted by Frank etc. and try to improve your paint application and depiction of light and shade, contrast etc. How the sculptor of the Alpine figure would help you in achieving this goal through its finer detail and better representation of such detail.

Alan

This is my little way of saying thnk you for such a huge response on the subject of resin Vs plastic 1-35 figures, the following pix were tken by myself in the U.K in a place called Duxford, the dio are 1-72 up to full 1-1 size once again, thank you all.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3303/3337947454_0b8c8def0a.jpg?v=0
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3581/3337947434_ee37460017.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3416/3337961020_8d08123152.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3310/3337961014_ed69f20c76.jpg
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And finally one last one
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3563/3337947460_3682025b17.jpg

I have been debating over figures for quite some time. I have never painted a figure before but after ALOT of reading I will buy either alpine or tank. Colorado miniatures has an excellent list of paints and techniques. I believe you get what you pay for and the extra price includes an easier assembly and/or painting approach. They are right, there are more folds/details thus bringing more life to the figure. I will give you a comparison: When I worked on heating and AC equipment I would cring at the sight of an old POS furnace. Much harder to work on and cant find the parts anymore. Newer equipment has all of the kinks worked out because they pay for more research and talk to those in the field and you dont cut your hands up as much working on it. A crazy analogy maybe but you get the point. You need to spend more time reading, spend a good week reading through this site alone. Everyone on here has been very helpful to me even when I ask the dumbest question but as you have heard the dumbest question is the one you dont ask.

Hello there, I feel that people on this site have been nothing but 100% helpful, and I can't knock them for that, obvious questions (seemingly obvious to some) have had me cringing and wondering what sore of response I'll recieve, and its a good feeling when someone give you an answer and understands where you're coming from, ie painting plastic or resin figurs - under-coat - people even tell you what type of under-coat to use, glue, gel, paint, its crazy to think there's no such thing as a silly question, because there's not, and like you've said, the only silly thing is when you don't ask.

I got some resin figures the other day and will hopefully keep the same opinion...

Hello Alec
Have you taken your figure any further?
Bought more resin figures since?

You pay for what you get, I feel resin figures are absolute quality. However I still use a lot of dragon figures. Mainly the newer sets coming out. simple reason the figures are nice and up to date in the production world in detail and poses. most of the time I have not enough $ just to get that resin fig. However you will NOT beat ALPINE. Since getting the job I will be using resin figures more often.

Hi Martyn. Mostly .. but not an exact science either. Thankfully a lot of those companies who produced tat in resin have dissapeared. The longer serving companies are generally good, as reputations are not earned easily. I always treat newer companies with a little care until I see reviews and comments. Then there are the recasters ... resin doesn´t equal quality. Injected figures should not be put down because they are not resin either. The quantity and quality today is amazing and the gap is getting smaller.

But this is why sites like Armorama have an important role to play ... you get the insider info .. the reviews .. etc .. so you can make an informed choice.

Thanks Frank, the cooment was at the resin figure companies that I have used, not a general, should have put that in the previous post, I blame my tiredness. I still have not tried Alpine, I only said that they are good quality figures because like you said from Armorama because of the reviews. ANd I have seen them up close.


I will give Alpine a go when it is my next pay day!

i think Evolution are giving alpine a fighting challenge, with subject matter and quality of the sculpt/cast

At the moment i have been using only plastic figure sets, as this is what my current budget allows for. I recently bought Tamiyas 1/35 russian army assualt infantry. 12 figures for £9.99. Now i'm sure resin figures would be a lot more detailed, but i think they're pretty good and i'd hate to think what 12 resin figures would have cost! So for me, a lot depends on how many figures i am using. for a small scene with 1 or 2 figures i might consider resin but for someone on a low end budget it's hard to beat plastic.

Well, yes and no. The reason I say this is because the sculptor and owner of Evolution figures Sergey Traviansky-Menelay has, according to Taesung Harmms, just completed a commision of two Russian figures for his Alpine Miniatures range. I think there is a friendly rivalry, but Taesung uses other sculptors who also "do there own thing" and I think its nice to see in this day and age.

Alan

i didnt know of the comission, but both great sculptors, and makes a lot of sence for alpine to bring in Sergey, good plan all round methinks!