Allright, I like this kind of trend.
In Plastic, N°1 is Miniart, n°2 Masterbox (just behind Miniart). Third would be Zvezda.
Why ?
Miniart developped a very interesting range of figures, buildings and vehicles/guns/tanks/soft. They are at an affordable price. They do believe, and they are right, that something else than german kit can sell, and they are damn right.
Their figures are soft plastic, but with some talent you can make them as little jewels. Their soviet sailor set was amazing in this respect, like thgeir Bantam series. the faces of their figure is frankly to the level of resin manufacturer, and the best faces you could find in 1/35 plastic. Their wodeen barrel and furniture sets is really welcomed (only preiser were doing one in plastic before), like their cart, and shells.
They keep their price low
And they release a LOT of Kits, very regularly, each of them being a surprise, something original. Don't you have seen, there is a new kit of German panzer crew on their site. Regarding another post I answered on Dragon figure, this panzer crew set really blows those loosy Dragon figure. This Miniart set IS original (accordeon, open jacket, poses, uniform).
Masterbox. I love their range of figures, they really bring 1/35 plastic figures as a category itself, which doesn't need any AFV and which could compete with white metal or resin 54mm. They really explore in any possible way action poses and diorama sets. But they also fill gaps that has never been treated before (except by Preiser, again) like civilian sets and farm animals like cows. I think I've never seen so imaginative sets in 1/35 before. Although three things pushed me to place them second. First they should improve a little the quality of their castings/sculpting. For me this is a fact that figures head are not to the level of Miniart ones. Secondly, some of their set are innacurate. I've bought their last set on US paratroopers in Normandy. The subject/interaction between figure is marvellous. But there are innacurracies in the uniform (sort of lace under paratrooper boots that I've never seen before) and it lacks details/equipments. Paratroopers in Normandy were geared with heavy and complex equipments, whereas masterbox figures are a little too much simple. Last thing, Masterbox tends to make false advertising : at the back of the set they represent enhanced figures with photoshop, and the bowart sometimes does not correspond to the content of the set. Sometimes it's in consumer favor (for example in the paratrooper set mentioned above, you get additional sprue coming from previous cart set), but usually consumers doesn't like to be fooled. Beware of this trend Masterbox.
Zvezda. The quality of Zvezda is irregular, but they do have excellent 1/35 figure set. Usually their russian soldiers set are tremendous, and their equivalent german one are just crappy. I don't know why,, nationalism maybe ?
. Some of their very good sets are soviet snipers, soviet moutain troops, soviet tank hunter.
The other companies are far behind.
In resin, my ranking is n°1 Bravo 6, n°2 Minisoldiers n°3 Alpine.
Bravo 6 : for the moment Vladimir D. only concentrates on Vietnam area. But just around that he came out with super figures, full of action, sometimes humour, a very nice casting and a lot of details. His figures can be used on a stand alone basis, in figure diorama, or along with AFV. Keep Vlad, you're mastering the business !
Minisoldier : I must say the quality of sculpting is breathtaking. The WW2 paratrooper serie set up their gear before boarding is just waouh.. Those figure doesn't interact although.
Alpine : alpine figure design is just really sweat. Ther are not thousands of details, but everything is extremely well proportionated, and the casting is the best resin I've seen. But Hey Taesung, make us more action poses, for a change. I know You don't like that, but why not give it a try ?
Voilà voilà
