I bought some Revelle 1/72 scale German paratroopers with the intent of making a diorama. I thought using 1/72 scale would allow me to include more terrain, vehicles, action etc. However, I found the 1/72 scale figures to be of pretty poor quality. The heads look more like watermelons! Then, I bought some 1/35 scale Italeri German paratroopers. The detail is fantastic! It had made me re-think my plans to build 1/72 dioramas. I was wondering if anybody has had good luck with 1/72 scale products and 1/72 scale dioramas in general.

G'day mate, i have done a few 1:72 dioramas and they turn out great, takes a bit of practice but they are good if you wanna have alot of terrain and vehicles as you said, Italeri make very good quality 1:72 figs, cheers

Because of the small scale and soft plastic;I agree the quality and detailing of 1/72 figures are not good as 1/35 . As LWF told the italeri small scales are better than the old ones, but if you stikk think to build 1/72 dioramas,I suggest you to check PREISER FIGURES

I have several dozen packs of 1/72 figures from different companys so I can mix and match for whatever situation I want to model. You might have gotten a bad batch, with excess flash, but Revell is usually pretty good. I have 1 pack of Siberian Russians that has quite a bit of flash on some of the figures, and 1 pack of German horse artillery that had the same problem. I bought another pack, and it had hardly any.

Nope, I am staying in 1/35. Thank you! Too darn small for me!
capnjock

Hmmmmmmm..! 1:72 Figures tend to be of a poor quality. (Or maybe thats just me!) The vehicles and Tanks tend to include more detail................Smaller bits to lose aswell!

I recently purchased two Shermans, a German 37mm AA halftrack, and a passle of figures for a diorama, all in 1/72. One of the Shermans was from Italieri, and I'm very displeased with it. The same goes with the Italieri figures; they give 50 different figures in a total of 4 poses, so you don't get much variety. However, the other Shermie, the AA gun, and the other figures were from Hasegawa, and they are spectacular! The detail is very good, and I haven't found any flash on the material. The only problem I have had is that enamel paint doesn't adhere to the plastic very well, so it requires numerous coatings, ever after being cleaned.

Problem with most 1/72 figures is that they''re made of polyethylene, so there's not much room for conversions (try to glue it!). As mentioned before, the poses are rather limited.
I remember Hasegawa produced a set of each German and US troops made of polystyrene (good quality). And the german manufacturor PREISER does some uncommon [german] stuff in 1/72 (also polystyrene).

@chuckster

I have had that set ,too. This is truly the best example for bad quality. Try to find ESCI's german paras, they're much better.

Cheers

Frank

With Revell 1/72 figures I had problems, too. But with a little bit patience and practice you can realize some excelent dioramas using these figures.

I've used ESCI for my 1/72 dio's an AC and a WWI diorama. I think overall they both turned out well. The Flight crew was a new batch and was nicer as far as detail goes. The WWI was Ok, but not great.
You do have to consider how a viewer looks at that scale, you simply don't get the chance to 'get in and close' to a 1/72 dio the same way you do with a 1/35 scale.

Have to agree with previous comments - the rubbery plastic used in 1/72 does make conversions a real challenge. It can be done, but you have to be more creative and more patient. Small wire is a big help.

hi chuckster
i mainly build 1/72 i think your right about revell german paratroops heads lookin like watermelons!!! i have airfix 1/72 german paratroops they good aswell and ive done a diorama with them and used some british paras aswell,if you cant paint 1/72 figures well use a magnifier class it helps me and my figures turn out well ,so i definately have good luck with 1/72.
rhys

I recently did 2 of 1/72 scale dios with airplanes and figs, thewy were Heller's

They're just fine... some extra molds to clear but not too hard

u can viev pics on my website (click on picture below...)

greets

Czech Masters

"Czech Master's Kits offers high quality cast resin products. Their figure sets have detached arms, heads, etc to allow custom poses."

See these, though I haven't tried them yet.

The best figures for 72nd scale are Preiser, or some of the resin/metal figures. A lot of these are used for wargaming and come in 20mm or 25mm. Check out the Figure section in On the Way for some good reviews http://www.ontheway.us/kitlists/manufacturers.htm
also, Tracks and Troops out of Belguim has a very good selection and I have heard good things about their delivery and customer service http://www.tracks-n-troops.com/1-72%20figures.htm
A lot of these are also available from other distributors like Squadron, Great Models, VLS, etc.

Was at our local IPMS meeting tonight and a guy sells aftermarket stuff brings along all his latest dtuff to show and sell. Its a great chance to inspect all these new releases up close and get temptedinto buying them. I saw a set of warrior german tank riders (4) and they were cheap so I inspected them... they were 1/72. Resin 1/72 figures???
The detail on these was great .. almost tempting. As this scale gets more and more popular there are going to be better figures. MIG has also some russian resin figures.
Pity its early days at the moment, but there might be hope for the future!

MIG has several packs of figures which are out of this world I'll let the pics speak for themselves:

Ist Pic are Modern German:



German Tank Crew, WWII:



German MPs:



German Paras:



More Germans:



These are from a new company called PEGASUS:



Now I don't know who said that the quality of 1/72nd scale figure was poor... These images are good, but I could equally post another 20 from the files... There is hardly a week goes by in which I don't find a load of excellent Small-Scale figures, the stuff that is getting produced these days is beyond belief....Jim

try fujimi 72nd figures, they are good quality.

I would also suggest that you check out Tracks-n-Troops on Scalemodelindex.com. There you will find a whole, lots, mucho, ton-of, plethora, a**-load, of stuff, for 1/76-1/72 kits, figures, accessories, etc. Huge selection. HTH "Q"

I have some Airfix WWII US Marines. Great details, but no variations in poses etc.

Hi

May I suggest that the Revell German Paratroops are... well, they must have got past Qualty Control on a bad day, as they certainly are not good figures and are not at all representative of the very best Revell figures out there. Apparently this was the first set of WW2 figures Revell commissioned, which makes sense of their mediocrity.

That great site Plastic Soldier Review has this to say of this set:
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=289

To me, for diorama purposes, the best WW2 German Paratroops in 1:72 are:-
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=111

Your opinion may differ....

Theres also Ceasar miniatures plastic figures in 1/72 which are very nice when you get rid of the rather big pour plugs.
I have the WWII german panzer crew set which have some great poses of crews at rest.

There is also resin miniatures on the Milicast website which are brilliant although closer to 1/76.

i feel your pain! i would love to make some 1/72 vietnam war dioramas, but i have a really hard time to buy any quality figures (or vehicles, which makes the situation even worse )

CMK makes several sets of Vietname era figures. 2 different sets of US figures and one set of VC figures.

Charlie

Dragon has reproduced a few of their 1/35 figure sets in 1/72 and are available packaged with some vehicle kits - 8 Fallschirmjager with Tiger ll; A/T gun crew with Pak 7.5cm AT gun; Panzer crew ("Achtung Jabo!" set) with Panther; and Panzer Grenadiers ("Ambush at Poteau" set) with halftrack. The figs are multi-part with all equipment and weapons separate - almost as many parts as their 1/35 counterparts. These kit combinations are a bit rare but are well worth buying when found. With the exception of resin, these are absolutely the best injected plastic figures, and for the price of 4 resin figures you get 4 Dragon PLUS a vehicle kit!

Hi Chuck,

At the moment some of the best plastic figures are the ones you get from Dragon and best of all there is a free tank with them as well!

I also use these figures by Elheim, AB, MMS and Milicraft excellent figures and worth looking at...

http://elhiemfigures.com/24.html
http://www.abfigures.co.uk/
http://www.mms-models.co.uk/accessory/index.php
http://www.milicast.com/shop/home.php?cat=144

The last three firms are dedicated to 1/76, but with scale creep and the fact people are different sizes they are more than acceptable.

As other people have said the quality of figures in 1/72 is improving all the time and the set you got probably dates from the 1970's, which explains the quality. As a dedicated Braille Scale modeller the biggest complaint at the moment is this very topic, lack of good figures. Hope this helps.

All the best,

Paul