I don't know much about what's available for figures in 1/48, nor what their quality is. I'm looking for any opinions and/or insight on what's good, what's not, and where good sources are to find them in North America.

Thanks in advance!
Jeremy H

Hi Jeremy,

it's not really an easy question. They come in different sizes by different manufacturers, and even the same manufacturer sometimes has different sizes within their range. I will look for an opportunity to photograph and label some of the figures I have to give you an idea of them side by side.

The usual shopping places I go to are Track48, Quarter-kit, Greatmodels, Military Miniatures Warehouse. Shipping costs are incredible everywhere these days so never hurts to do a big order when you can.

For good detail and price, the winner is probably the Gasoline brand figures. Look them over carefully as some are better then others.

Is there a certain vehicle/scene you were planning? I can give you better ideas. If for the GMC, Gasoline again is probably the brand to look through.

Those pictures will really help out, the pictures I've seen online are usually too small to really see any details on the figures.

I am mostly looking for softskin figures, Sherman crews, Panzer crews, and US and German soldiers. Here is a quick overview of vehicles I will be trying to gather figures for:

Various Shermans and variants including Firefly and M10
Pz III, Sturmgeschutz, Tiger variants
GMC, Opel, German halftracks
Staff cars, US/German/French/Japanese

With one exception, I am not planning any large scenes like yours for the time being. Mostly the builds will be stand alone with either just driver/crew figure(s) or with crew interacting with soldier(s).

These are not bad:

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/32513army_giset/index.htm

I bought them to combine some of their body parts and equipment with the Monogram figures in their old C-47 kit for a "Night of Nights" dio with the new Trumpeter C-47. They're very well done, but do not match the Monogram figures well.

I normally try to stay away from Tamiya figures, especially because of the heads. These don't look too bad and may be a good solution if I need to populate a scene. I would like to see some pictures of what you've been doing with the Monogram and Timiya figures if you don't mind sharing?

I still plan to take pics but here's my top 5 recommendations:


gasoline US tank crew


Rest Models Germans


Art of war (Squad48) DAK crew


Evolution winter Germans



Warriors German Tank crew

Great, thanks Greg! Those all look like solid choices, it's nice to see larger pictures of these kits. Look forward to seeing what else you have to show

Here you go Jeremy. The last pic kinda illustrates well. I hate the Tamiya figure detail, but their weapons and gear go well with all these figures



Alpine, 2 Gasoline, Rest Models are all about the same size and compare with Taimya figures (Tamiya are definitely skinnier/smaller still - not shown)


Propaganda Kompany, Dartmoor, Total War Miniatures, Art of War (&ICM not shown) are on the larger side but still look good next to vehicles, but not other figures.


Warrior crewman sitting

Thanks Greg, that was very helpful!
So in essence what I need to do is figure out what I need for a scene, and then match up accordingly so that I keep the figures in the same size ratio?

Yep, that's the challenge. I forgot to stick a Evolution figure in the line up but they match the gasoline/alpine/warriors/Tamiya/Rest Models crowd

Copy, thanks!

One thing to be wary of with Tamiya figs is that they are scaled down copies of their not-so-great 1/35 figs. In a box of 1/48 figs you might find 2 or 3 useable figs (height and detail) and a whole bunch of poorly detailed and undersized figs. This is especially true of their German troop sets. ICM and Dragon make much better proportioned figs, but are for model aircraft. If you are prepared to do some uniform modifications some of their Luftwaffe and ground crew figs could be used as panzer crew.