I am an occaisonal 'brailler' and prefer to make dios rather than static model displays. Dios without figures are pretty pointless. Maybe I'm too choosey but I find Revell, Italeri and Airfix, etc, too toy-like for my liking. Dragon has a very limited release of scaled-down figures which are the best injected plastic figs on the market. Does Dragon have any good reason for not producing more scaled-down figures? After all, 1/72 is an established and well respected scale.
BTW I compared the US figs from the LCVP/Sherman kit to the Fallschimjager figs from the Ardennes Tiger ll kit, and the US figs are rather over scale, or maybe the Germans are underscale. Anyway, there's a large scale discrepency between the two fig sets. I hope they resolve this and decide on the proper scale for any possible future releases.

I find Dragons US figures to be overscale and Their LAH Panzergrenadiers, Falschirmjaegers, Pak 40 crew and Achtung Jabo figures to be better scaled. I seriously doubt that Dragon will produce any more figures in 1/72nd Scale. Zvezda is producing some very nice figures in 1/72nd scale
Charlie

Hi,

Why not try to find Preiser, they have great figures. They come in parts and you can mix the different legs/arms/torsos and heads. Also a lot of separate equipment.
Also AB figures and Milicast are very good. They are resin and 1/76 but they work perfectly in 1/72 as they are slightly overscale. Furthermore people in real life differ in height as well. They only restriction would be not to mix 1/76 with 1/72 figures as this will be noticeble. Steve Zaloga and Alex Clark regurlarly use 1/76 figures from AB and Milicast and they are well respected names in the field.
Examples:
Preiser:
http://henk.fox3000.com/preiser.htm
1/76 with 1/72 vehicles
http://missing-lynx.com/gallery/small/falaise_szaloga.html

Small scale galery
http://missing-lynx.com/gallery/gallery_smscale.htm

More reviews on plastic figures
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx

Regards,
Pascal

There's some beautiful resin figures out there as well. The new Kharkov figures from Mantis are the best I've seen, on par with Heron/Orion ( i think) that were recently announced

You can also try some metal figures brands:

http://www.elhiemfigures.com/
http://www.underfireminiatures.com/
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page12.htm

just to name a few

Cunha

I would definitely check out the Elhiem figures, they produce some fine figures that can be used for most situations. I have several of their sets, unfortunately they don't do the Lammercraft figures any more,they were a wonderful range and included some gems such as a British Tommy in the weatherproof overalls escorting some German Prisoners in various types of gear. I can find out who he sold the range to if you want.

All the best,

Paul

I think you can find the lamecraft figures here:
http://www.cpmodelsminiatures.co.uk/

These are also very good (in metal)

Cunha

Hello Biggles2

I agree that most of those '40 to a box' soft plastic figures are not worthy of a diorama.

I'd rather spend the same amount of money on a few quality resin figures.

Depending what era and nationality you are after makes it easier (or harder) to get good figures.

I agree that Preiser are hard to beat. I do find the fact that heads, arms, headgear, weapons, waterbottles, etc being separate very useful to make unique figures.

Some Pegasus sets are a tad better than the standard Revell, Italeri etc, with separate arms, etc.

I've found the best 'soft plastic' sets are Caesar brand, at least the ones I've bought.

And pictures of new Zvedza sets seem to indicate good quality

The link to Plastic Soldier Review is very useful, (posted by Pascal above) has photos and reviews of much of whats out there. I think the site is slightly overgenerous in the ratings given, but you can see the photos and judge for yourself. What might be important to you is the ratings mention heights of the figures in the box, and how in scale the sets are.

I've recently bought some Orion figures and also found them to be very good.

cheers
Neil

I've gotten a few of the Zvezda figures and I must say, they are very nicely detailed however, they're not as nicely detailed as Dragons or Preisers figures. I highly recommend the Zvezda figures as they are really producing some highly needes kits. A good example is the British Mortar team with 4 figures and the British QR 2pdr anti tank with 2 figures for their Blitzkreig Art of Tactic game which was recently announced by Zvezda. So far they have released a German 105mm Howitzer, Pak 35/36, German 2 cm Flak, German Flak 36, German 81mm mortar team, German MG42 team, Soviet 122mm Howitzer, 85mm Flak, 37mm Flak, 82mm mortar team, Soviet MG team and have a Soviet 76mm pack howitzer, German 75mm pack howitzer, British 40mm Bofors set (yet to be announce).

Charlie