Hi all,

I've decided to think small and join the Braille Scale crowd.

I am really impressed with the quality of Dragon's new releases. I like the idea that I will be able to build some hopefully impressive to scale dioramas - being a former HO scale train modeler who enjoyed scratchbuilding structures and scenery my old skills should translate well.

I also like wingy-things, and the sheer variety in 1/72 vs. most other scales has me fairly giddy - along with the fact I like the larger multi-engined craft so actually displaying them will be a little easier.

And then there are figures...
I currently am interested in WWII, although that may change at any time.
I see that most of the figures available in 1/72 appear to be geared to the war-gamers, or are very old sets such as Airfix that I remember playing war with when I was a youngster.

Any general advice on brands to look for as being better quality, which ones to avoid? Any sets better than others for figures not in uber-animated combat poses?

Advice on painting the soft plastics to allow reasonable paint adhesion?

Thanks for reading and any replies.
David

Hello David and welcome to the Braille scale community.

High quality 1/72 figures do exist, I will mention some that I use. Cheapest but one of the best, is Preiser. Next I recommend Lamecraft Figures and AB Figures from England.
Solfig, Milicast, Orion, Mig, Warriors, CMK, Dragon, Caesar some more that come in mind. Of course there are many more around I am sure that follow modelers will add to this post.

Also Google and visit Plastic Soldier Review and Benno's Figures which are top sites for 1/72 Figures.

As for painting, hands down I use Vallejo acrylic primer and Vallejo paints. Just a matter of personal taste though, as there are many products in the market which will do the job.

Welcome to Braille scale, I hope we'll see some of your work soon.

P.A.

Hello David

I can't comprehensively answer your question, but I can tell you what I have found to be good.

I don't do many figures, to date has been all WW2, germans, civilians, partisans, & russians.

I agree with Alexander that Preiser is hard to beat. Hard plastic, and the figures come in pieces with choice of heads, helmets, field caps, weapons etc, and great poses. Many sets have no action poses at all, though having separate arms, legs and torsos its possible to create many differing figures.

Another good brand is Caesar. I have only bought a couple of sets and they were well moulded, and entirely flash free. They are soft plastic, but not uber soft like the old Airfix. Caesar is also well priced , though depends on what country you live in for exchange rates, and whether you buy online or retail.

Zebrano and Orion make good resin figures that come in sets of 3 or 4 figures but these are not very cheap considering the sets have only a few figures, but in some ways are better value than a whole box of soldiers with all lousy poses with lots of flash, poor moulding etc.

Valiant make great looking hard plastic figures, but they are a little on the large side

The below link has lists of most figure makers and their sets, which includes all periods from ancient to modern. The reviewer also has pictures of the figures in many of the sets and how many of each type you get, and rates them on scale size, poses, casting etc - this is the best guide I know of to help you decide what to buy

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx

HTH
Neil

There are a lot of figures in 1/72 with the vast majority being made of polyvinyl styrene. Next would be white metal then resin and lastly styrene (hard plastic) those made of pvs and white metal are geared primarily for wargamers while the resin and styrene are geared towards modelers. Milicast and CMK have a large selection of figures made in resin while Mig and Warriors have just a handfull made in Resin while Preiser and Dragon produce figures made of styrene. Preiser has a large selection and then Dragon have only five different sets that come with a tank/halftrack/artillery piece included. On a personnal note, I find Dragons to be the most detailed and with a lot of extra equipment included while Preisers tends to be the most versatile but, slow to be released once announces.
Charlie

Howdy,

while searching for modern figures in braille scale, I stumbled across under fire miniatures (They have WWII too!). They are white metal and thus easy to paint and with very sharp details. These must be some of the best braille figures I have ever seen. Might be a bit on the large side (as CMSC used to be), but they work for me.

Here is a link:

http://www.underfireminiatures.com/

I ordered directly from their website and recieved my package shortly after with no probs! Oh, I have no affiliation whatsoever, just a happy customer...

Cheers!