I recently bought the two Trumpeter PMC figure kits (00419 -Armed Assault team and 00420 - VIP Security guards).
Some reviews mentioned the odd figure proportions, but I liked the poses and concept, as well as the weapons set. How off could the figures be?

When I got the kits, the first thing that struck me were the grossly oversized (clown sized!) feet. In the VIP kit, everyone, including the VIP figure has shoes or boots that are at least 10mm long - which works out to close to 14", full scale. Most of the other figures I measured had boots 8mm - 9mm long.
A millimeter doesn't sound like a lot, but compared to other 1/35 figure kits I have (DML, ICM and some old Tamiya figures) the feet on the PMC figures stand out; there's no hiding the out of scale footware.

The VIP feet were fairly easy to trim to size. On the F figure (with the handgun) I removed the feet and attached normal sized feet from an old DML figure; both operations improved the appearance of both figures.

Then I noticed a second issue - some of the figures are too short. I tacked together the unmodified and largest of the PMC figures (figure G, with the M4 in his left hand) and posed it with a figure from the Trumpeter Modern US Army Armor crewman & Infantry set as well as with two DML and one Tamiya figure.
I printed up a "lineup" and photographed them together.



Left to right, - Trump. Modern US Army Armor crewman "A", PMC VIP, PMC figure G, DML Modern US tank crew, Tamiya and a DML WWII German figure. The steel ruler is to show that the scale is offset by a little over 1mm. The first Trumpeter figure is a little tall, but the proportions look natural. The VIP figure is not only very short, the head is a tad too big. The "large" PMC figure is still slightly shorter than the DML tank crewman, even though there's an almost 1mm gap in the waist and another gap between the cap and the top of the head. The boots don't stand out as much as they do from other angles in this picture.
Also noticeable are the hands, which are a little too big, but they're gloved and fairly easy to trim to size. The main problem is with the feet. In most of the figures in the PMC kit, the boots can be reshaped or replaced. The boots in the Armed Assault team will be much harder to modify, since they're flexed on most of the figures. The figure height can be fixed by adding a spacer along the waist joint and using putty to blend it in and the heads can be replaced by other heads... but having to replace or modify large part of most of the figures in the kits is annoying. Maybe "PMC" actually stands for Plastic Munchkin Clowns?


I haven't looked at the weapons and gear in both kits closely, but they seem OK.

Frank

Frank I did notice the problem with the feet and mentioned it in a review I did of Trumpeter's Modern US armour crewman, as for height what does the differance in height scale out to in this other set you mention? I ask as depending on the heights it would to my mind be more realistic than everyone being 5'8'' for example.

Darren,
The VIP works out to around 5'6"/1.65m. One of the other PMC in that set is about the same size.

The figures in the other PMC set are running, kneeling or in an "action pose" for the most part, so it's hard to get a good comparison. They do look undersized as well, with huge feet.
I agree that having a slight height difference is OK, but the proportions (feet, head, hands and upper body) in these two sets is just off - either by a lot (feet, head) or just a bit, but enough to make the figures look less realistic. The face sculpts are also not up to modern standards, for the most part.

Hi Frank,

That is a very helpful comparison. I think the overall proportion of the PMC figures is simply unnatural with odd postures. I would pass on these two PMC kits.

Regards
Paul

I can't comment on the close protection unit, but I am happy with the Armour crew. I do think Trumpeter tried to hard to release multi part figures, and just over did it which resulted in the issues described.

It's a shame that these two figure sets have so many issues, because they're an unusual subject. I'm going to fix the problems on at least two of the PMC figures. The VIP I'll finish as a shorter than average guy.

As Darren mentioned, their Armored Crew set figures have much better proportions, although imo, all the Trumpeter figure sets that I've seen just aren't as well sculpted or detailed as even older DML figure sets (as an example, the DML M1 crew set - I have one in the lineup above).

Frank

As I said in other posts, those PMC guys are just goofy looking. There are others who may disagree (go ahead) but these don't compare to resin figures or other plastic manufacturers out there. Heck, even Zvedas newest offerings are alot better sculpted and detailed. The PMC sets are only good for the equipment and firearms. Nuff said...

It's been a while, but I'm almost finished with two of the Trumpeter PMC figures; the VIP and one of the guards. Here's a lineup with two of the non-Trumpeter figures from the first lineup:


The two figures have been extensively modified:

Both had their heights increased by adding a styrene spacer at their waist and by modifying their new feet.

The VIP has a Warriors bald head, with Magic-Sculp hair. His arms were also slightly modified and shortened to remove the ape arm appearance. The feet were made smaller and lengthened slightly.

The guard (not the one pictured in the first lineup) has a DML head and boots. The left hand was modified by increasing the finger length (they were too short). This mod can't be seen in the picture.

My paint job on these figures isn't the best. I still need to add some dust and fix some painting mishaps.

I've seen this figure set built and painted out of the box and they look OK in isolation, but would look ridiculous next to figures from other manufacturers.

The modified figures (other than my paint job)look "normal" next to other figures, but it took a lot of work to bring them up to average standards.

Frank

Looking at the bare plastic shots, they look pretty deformed and oddly shaped.
But when i see it after you have them painted they actually look a whole heap better!
Reckon you can post pics of all of them after you have them painted for us to see?

Frank3K ,just be careful on how much spacer that you use on the waist . on most people if you fold them in half the middle would be at the pubis synthesis , basically the bottom of the crotchal area . if you add too much it will throw off the waist area proportion . chopping and filling just below the knees and hips would be better proportionately but more work .
just throwing it out there , putting some of my art degree to use .

Thanks - I hadn't considered that. I think what saved me with these figures is that I compared body parts between them and well proportioned figures. The torso, from the neck to the waist is between normal and slightly short in most of the figures in this set. The waist to knee distance is OK as well. The knee to foot distance is very small on the three figures I've measured. Since the feet are out of proportion anyways, I've been cutting them off and adjusting the length by adding new feet and extending the pants cuff with putty. I've been adjusting the overall height with the waist spacer.

One other issue (that Arnold noted in his post above) is that some of the poses are awkward; that's much harder to adjust.

Dave - I'll finish this set and move on to the second PMC set. They are - at least - good practice in figure painting and correcting!

Frank

I've finished modifying the third figure in this set, the PMC with the M4 in his left hand, cautioning the VIP.
I still need to do some weathering, but it's mostly complete:



This shows the figure before, during the mods and finished:



The original figure is not only too short, but the proportions are wrong. I replaced the oversized boots with resin copies from other figures, which I then modified. This also added some height and fixed the issue of the distance from the knees to feet being too short. I also added a small styrene plate at the waist to fine tune the height and proportions.
While trimming some of the excess material from the shirt, I noticed that the elbow-wrist distance on the right arm was too short (even compared to the left) I fixed this by adding a styrene plug, which I trimmed to length. It's too long in the middle image, but correct in the last.
I also changed the stance a bit; the right leg was splayed out too far.
Finally, I replaced the non-human Trumpeter head with a Warriors resin bald head. When I trimmed it off the pour spot, it looked like the head was sporting a mohawk, so I trimmed it slightly to reflect this.

One thing I did not fix properly (and should have) was the way he's holding the weapon. The kit instructions suggest having the figure hold the weapon as if he was balancing it with his left arm; I have him holding the front grip, with the stock against his chest, as if ready to bring it to a firing position.

The final picture is of all three figures so far:



I've used this figure set as a test on modifying and painting figures. It's not hard to tell that the VIP was the first one I finished; I've learned a lot since then.

Thanks to scimitar67 and Trisaw for their suggestions.

Frank

much better , great job !