Hello everyone...I am in the planning/ budgeting phase of a Vietnam diorama. I am looking at using a mix of MasterBox, Bravo 6 and maybe Legend figures.

My question is on the size....can any one tell me if they are close enough in size to work together? I have come to learn that not every "1/35" figure is similar in size to look natural together.

Thank you in advance for your help!!

Eric

Put the larger ones in the front, smaller ones in the back. It's called forced perspective, and I've seen it used quite effectively using 1/72, 1/76, and 1/87 figures and vehicles. That is, if you can plan your diorama to have a main viewing angle.
I'm working on a long term project involving 1/35, 1/87, and 1/144 scales that should look pretty cool when complete.
So yes, use those different sized figures - at least they're nominally the same scale.

IMHO, I think you can mix them as long as their equipment (helmets, cartridge bandoleers, canteens, weapons...) is from the same manufacturer to keep a constant size.

H.P.

From different "manufacturers", different sizes of uniforms:


Same with these figures but their equipment items matches in size:






Consider a tall person like me, 6'4", compared to a smaller guy at maybe 5'7", that's 9 inches in difference which comes to more than a quarter inch in 1/35th scale. Just saying ...

I wasn't even the tallest guy in my unit (conscript, 1 year) and there were a few down at 5'4" - 5'5".
Kind of nice though, being able to look down my nose at officers when standing at attention ...

We had one guy which was around 6'6", weighing in at around 260 pounds, all muscle, he was a discus thrower. He looked short and stocky until I got close and realised he was taller than me. Big fellow .....

/ Robin

Hi Eric, if you follow what Robert and Henri suggest you will be fine with the figures you use in general. Verlinden is notorious for thin figures but mixing them witk MasterBox and Dragon figures you would have a good assortment of sized figures like the pic's show. Just using those manufacturers as an example. The key as they both said was equipment size consistency. But beware, some times with a manufacturer different sets of figures have the same weapons but the sizing is not the same. Example, some of Tamiya and dragons sets. When I was painting the M-1s from Dragons U.S.M.C. sets (4 different kits) I found a very slight difference in size. It was not enough to notice in a crowded hand to hand in your face battle and so far I'm the only one to notice. Just line up the rifles and equipment you plan to use and eyeball them. In general, the older the kit release the chunkier and longer the weapons. But there is always the exception. I hope all these coments help you on your project. bob d.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I've got one like that. The guy on on the left is of dubious origin, if you can believe my DNA results anyway, but mainly Scottish and Far East. Then we have German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, German again, and Australian.
But the one thing that remains fairly consistent is head size.



If you think that the problem in 1/35th scale is bad, check out 1/48th. From right to left: Monogram 1/48 from the 70's. Allowing for his soles and helmet, he scales out to just about 6 feet tall. That seems fitting for a corn fed US paratrooper. The middle German is Tamiya, circa 2006, and scales out to just over five feet tall. Clearly not the genetic Uebermensch we might expect. And the US infantryman on the left, while not standing, is still childlike in comparison. He is circa 2005. Perhaps his parents were vegan.



And yet, when we look at equipment, the Bandai M1 and Tamiya M1 are virtually identical in size, although Tamiya wins slightly in detail. Since the Bandai figures are larger than Tamiya, you'd expect their helmets to be larger, but they are not. Tamiya's is ever so slightly larger than Bandia's, especially width wise.



So what's it all mean? The kneeling figure definitely gets posted farther back than the standing Monogram figures, as I alluded to earlier. The Bandai figures are just donor figures for body parts. The child sized bareheaded German figures face the guillotine - not much else is useful on them. They'll receive Mohawks.
But as for mixing the equipment, the Tamiya equipment looks about right on the Monogram figures, except obviously the helmets. But from three inches away (twelve scale feet) even the helmet belonging to the helmetless paratrooper looks fine.

So just be careful in your arrangement, and it'll all work out.

A lot of tamiya 1/48 figures are undersized- my elefant in the stash looks like it's crewed by children!

Are you sure it's not a recent recruit to the Girls und Panzer team? . Seems every Japanese school has a tank vs tank combat team to go with the usual volleyball, football, and netball teams...

Possibly...although for a loader manhandling 88mm shells into the breech hockey maybe isn't the ideal sport; running around bent over a stick is murder for your back!

The VC AND NVA were generally were smaller and more slightly built . I saw some that looked like kids ! women were also among their ranks . while size varied ,generally, none were anywhere as big as we were .

Absolutely!