Figures are a lovehate thing for me. Personally, I think that an AFV looks odd without figures no matter how well finished and weathered. The flip side is that I'm not very good at painting figures and in some ways my tanks look better without.

But what really niggles me is that often there is little choice. Model kits have become very expensive and usually lack any figures even a commander popping his head out.

I have to give some credit to Tamiya here because I think in most (if not all) they do provide a commanderdriver at least.

Okay, so including figures is an extra expense (is it really?) or more likely, the company wants you to buy the figures seperately from them - more sales.

But now my second niggle. Quite often appropriate figures just aren't available. German vehicles are pretty well covered but other nations (even US) can be poor to non-existent. It is possible to find crew but usually restricted to commanders or 'at rest poses'.

When I have enquired I have often be directed towards really speciallist sculpts costing twice as much as the tank kit.

Worst I find is trying to populate open top vehicles - tank destroyers, artillary etc. Crews for these simply aren't available.

Even Tamiya fail here. I have a Marder that Tamiya thoughtfully included a commander looking through his binoculars. I guess the designer pictured him looking for targets - I like to think that he his looking for his crew who have failed to turn up after a particular heavy drinking session the night before.

And if you are looking to populate that British Archer or Acillies then forget it.

I'd like to see a law passed that box art can only show the crew that are included in the kit - the thought of lifeless boxart might prompt the manufacturers to do something about it.

Cheers,

Nigel

So these guys are no good?

Looks like I figured something out for you.

I'll take a beer whenever you fly across the pond, please.

Cheers,
Tom

Don't know what you are referring to because your link just goes to the home page.

Or are you referring to MiniArt in general.

If the latter, then I am aware of them and have a few of their figure sets - there the ones that I alluded to in my OP as 'at rest'.

This is because most of their figures are depicted draped over their tanks like 'car show models' rather than at their stations.

Also they don't address tank destroyers or artillary compartments very well (if at all).

With a tank you can get away with just a commander or at worst buttoned up, but empty open tops look really strange.

Cheers,

Nigel

I agree with Nigel insofar as 'in action' crews for open top AFV's (TD's, SP's, etc) are lacking, although Tristar make an excellent German crew suitable for just about any TD from a Marder ll to a Hornisse www.thebarrelstore.com/Tristar/TRI007.jpg. I believe most manufacturers produce generic figures because they are more universally usable rather than vehicle-specific figs which have a more limited use. Making stock figures fit into cramped interior spaces require a lot of cutting and figure bashing for appropriate poses and fit.

Looks like the link won't work. At least the manufacturer and kit no. are there.

I suspect part of the issue is that with open tops especially the figure set has to be fit to that particular model and will have very limited wide-spread use (and thus sales). A generic draping figure set can be used on many different builds, a Wespe crew that properly fits inside the vehicle will be useful only for that kit and then only be bought by people who want multiple figures (and there's a reason so many finished models either have no figures or only one "for scale"). Even in resin its rare, Hobby Fan is the only one that comes to mind for integrated vehicle specific crews.

I guess what I'm saying is that it is probably unlikely that we'll see much in the way of plastic crew figures that are more integrated than Dragon's German SPG crew. Which is, I agree, a pity.

Matt

The link has a period at the end of it.... remove the period and it works.

This kit would be amazing if it came with the figures included:


Dragon has released a few figure kits that are specific to their AFV kits though, so I'll cut them some slack there. But I agree, box art is deceiving sometimes

You can always go with Cyber Hobby's Orange Box kits. I agree with you that figures are limited. I expect to pay about $20-40 for the figures, in my builds. But, these are businesses and they are always looking to make more money. Also, you can buy figures similar to the era and pose you need and modify them from there. It really is not too difficult. Just cut part of the way through the joint, on both sides. Heat, bend, and putty the gap you have created.

The Orange Box kits typically don't come with 'crew' sets, always random other figure sets.

HobbyFan is probably you're best bet. They have a number of Allied crew sets that are actually 'doing something'.

A search on LuckyModel.com for 1/35 figures made by HobbyFan would net some decent results.

examples...

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=HF%20521

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=HF%20528

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=HF%20554

I'm with you on the lack of inbox figures for afv kits. I always include at least one crew figure not only for a sense of scale but also for me a model without one seems so lifeless. I'm also with you on open topped vehicles, heck even an early T34 will still need a loader figure and early war Soviet tank crews in 1/35 are not that common. Also surprisingly hard to find are WW2 US tankers dressed appropriately for summer campaigning. Then if you need something like a Romanian or Slovak tanker what then? Though I doubt sales for either of those would be strong.

Masterbox, Miniart and Bronco are your best bets for getting any figures. The first two have actually shown some responsiveness to what modelers want, as well as a willingness to go oustide the norms. Bronco has some surprising figure releases with their allied subjects. I would certainly love a plastic crew for the M8 armored car, M7 priest, M10 tank destroyer, or some good infantry to go alongside a tank. Dragon pay great attention to German subjects, but their allied subjects have suffered for lack of detail and concern.

And for early Russian tankers, Italeri/Zvezda has Kit #350 if you can find it. Four figure set that with some tlc would fit nice. And Masterbox will be releasing a U.S. artillery set of figures with no web gear (finally) which with some re-fitting should work for S.P.G. and open top A.F.V.'s

Was tried many years ago. Hence the era of boring box tops with mundane and often enough dreadfull models on display.