Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
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- 43rdRecceReg
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Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
Having had a whinge lately about Tamiya providing a piece of (quality?) string lately, in several Full-Option kits (Panther, Pz IV etc.,) to simulated metal tow cables/hawsers, I thought I'd have a whinge at some crew offerings from rival manufacturers. Given that a £900 kit from Tamiya can provide string as a substitute for a metal cable, perhaps it's no surprise that a £400-500 top end Torro, Taigen and £ 300 Heng long can provide these misfits:-
This chunky Heng Long character owes more to Chairman Mao statues, than to WW2 german crewmen: It's not simply the lack of detail in these figures that irks, but it's also the case that they're not in the scale they claim to be. After all, you don't want an 8ft tall crewman on top of your prize Tamiya Or Taigen, do you?
Just take a look at Heng Long's Huge Hans. There's just no way someone with his proportions could even get through the cupola into the turret or casemate. Thwarted, Hans has an animated discussion here with a Lamb's a*rse. Here he is making the Tamiya Pz IV hatch look weeny... Ok, Hans is meant to be holding a pet dog..the Abteilung's mascot, I expect. But it could be the Invisible woman..
Painless and his 'Crazy Joe' have slipped into legend. However, with a £200-300 tank from Taigen, you could get to meet his German cousin, 'Verrückte Josef'. The point is, however, for a considerable outlay of cash, you should be able to expect better figures than these. If you have seen Tom's Cromwell commander, you'll know what I mean.
The question is, then,who makes the best 1/16 scale tank crew figures? By best, I mean in kit form, or pre-painted and complete?
This chunky Heng Long character owes more to Chairman Mao statues, than to WW2 german crewmen: It's not simply the lack of detail in these figures that irks, but it's also the case that they're not in the scale they claim to be. After all, you don't want an 8ft tall crewman on top of your prize Tamiya Or Taigen, do you?
Just take a look at Heng Long's Huge Hans. There's just no way someone with his proportions could even get through the cupola into the turret or casemate. Thwarted, Hans has an animated discussion here with a Lamb's a*rse. Here he is making the Tamiya Pz IV hatch look weeny... Ok, Hans is meant to be holding a pet dog..the Abteilung's mascot, I expect. But it could be the Invisible woman..
Painless and his 'Crazy Joe' have slipped into legend. However, with a £200-300 tank from Taigen, you could get to meet his German cousin, 'Verrückte Josef'. The point is, however, for a considerable outlay of cash, you should be able to expect better figures than these. If you have seen Tom's Cromwell commander, you'll know what I mean.
The question is, then,who makes the best 1/16 scale tank crew figures? By best, I mean in kit form, or pre-painted and complete?
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
- PainlessWolf
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Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
Good morning,
Wait til' you see what I can do with a 1/6 scale figure.! Hah! Hah! I say. ( I completely agree. I have a lot more fun painting Tamiya figures and usually wind up with a passable looking Commander or crewman. If I am being forced to tart up a HL or Taigen figure, I concentrate on the uniform and adding headset wires, etc. Not much I can do with those faces...)
regards,
Painless
Wait til' you see what I can do with a 1/6 scale figure.! Hah! Hah! I say. ( I completely agree. I have a lot more fun painting Tamiya figures and usually wind up with a passable looking Commander or crewman. If I am being forced to tart up a HL or Taigen figure, I concentrate on the uniform and adding headset wires, etc. Not much I can do with those faces...)
regards,
Painless
...Here for the Dawn...
- 43rdRecceReg
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Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
I've not begun to tart these freebies up yet, Painless. They're not exactly a great basis for model painting in the first place. Models with credible facial features, and anatomical dimensions don't seem to appear in 1/16th scale.PainlessWolf wrote:Good morning,
Wait til' you see what I can do with a 1/6 scale figure.! Hah! Hah! I say. ( I completely agree. I have a lot more fun painting Tamiya figures and usually wind up with a passable looking Commander or crewman. If I am being forced to tart up a HL or Taigen figure, I concentrate on the uniform and adding headset wires, etc. Not much I can do with those faces...)
regards,
Painless
I have a Tamiya freebie, and began to paint his uniform with what they described as 'flat black'. I took 'flat' to mean 'matt'; but it's anything but matt. In fact his tunic is so shiny it could have been worn by Liberace.
For the present, then, that commander is back in his box. At least his facial features look human. Tom's Cromwell commander looks good, but I believe he was fairly expansive and bespoke..
The image of 'Crazy Joe' in 1:6 scale really doesn't bear thinking about..
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
The first time I laid my eyes on the tank commander with no legs that came with my tiger 1, I had only one thought...
Good lord.. The Germans are getting so desperate, they're sending double amputees into the war now!
Good lord.. The Germans are getting so desperate, they're sending double amputees into the war now!
I used to be indecisive. Now, I'm not sure..
Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
Hey Roy,
My Cromwell commander was from forgebear and is a dgs (dgskirk on here) creation, he also does a driver figure. Price is about £20 for the commander and slightly less for the crewman. My others were from twmodelltechnik sadly no longer in business.
For general (read german) figuees alpine miniatures are the best, koleso884 (seller on eBay) has some fantastic figures at reasonable prices, heikes modellbaugasse has some lovely German and russian crew (I used the shouty one on my panther), sol models do American, IDF and German crew, their sculpts are excellent.
If you can find them the verlinden crews were ok although would represent a taller person being 120mm.
My Cromwell commander was from forgebear and is a dgs (dgskirk on here) creation, he also does a driver figure. Price is about £20 for the commander and slightly less for the crewman. My others were from twmodelltechnik sadly no longer in business.
For general (read german) figuees alpine miniatures are the best, koleso884 (seller on eBay) has some fantastic figures at reasonable prices, heikes modellbaugasse has some lovely German and russian crew (I used the shouty one on my panther), sol models do American, IDF and German crew, their sculpts are excellent.
If you can find them the verlinden crews were ok although would represent a taller person being 120mm.
Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
Some are some are 1/16, they do a Sherman crew in both scalesSon of a gun-ner wrote:Tom, aren't Sol 120mm too?
- 43rdRecceReg
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Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
Thanks, Tom for the detailed info, and I do recall a discussion now on Dean's figures. I'll certainly check Koleso884 on Ebay, as well as the other links.tomhugill wrote:Hey Roy,
My Cromwell commander was from forgebear and is a dgs (dgskirk on here) creation, he also does a driver figure. Price is about £20 for the commander and slightly less for the crewman. My others were from twmodelltechnik sadly no longer in business.
For general (read german) figuees alpine miniatures are the best, koleso884 (seller on eBay) has some fantastic figures at reasonable prices, heikes modellbaugasse has some lovely German and russian crew (I used the shouty one on my panther), sol models do American, IDF and German crew, their sculpts are excellent.
If you can find them the verlinden crews were ok although would represent a taller person being 120mm.
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
- 43rdRecceReg
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- Location: North West Highlands, Scotland
Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
I'll post a few images from the links that Tom suggested, as well as others that may emerge, so we can have a rough idea of what's around.
These are from Licmas in Germany and available on Ebay here as well.( https://heng-long-panzer.de/en/advanced ... words=long ) All of these are a class apart from Crazy Joe and Freaky Fritz, and seem reasonable priced in around the £20+ mark, I think. The Tankriders are from Koleso884 in the Russian Federation.
These are from Licmas in Germany and available on Ebay here as well.( https://heng-long-panzer.de/en/advanced ... words=long ) All of these are a class apart from Crazy Joe and Freaky Fritz, and seem reasonable priced in around the £20+ mark, I think. The Tankriders are from Koleso884 in the Russian Federation.
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
- silversurfer1947
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Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
There is quite a range of figures to be found on Aliexpress though you need to trawl through. https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ca ... sin+figure
Richard
Tamiya Tiger 1, Taigen FlakPanzer IV,Torro M16 half-track, Tamiya Panther,WSN/Torro T34,Taigen M41 Bulldog,H/l/Taigen Sherman M4A3,H/L T90, Haya M3 Grant, Metal Origins 234/2 Puma, Nashorn by Alwyn. I was only going to have one tank - honest!
Tamiya Tiger 1, Taigen FlakPanzer IV,Torro M16 half-track, Tamiya Panther,WSN/Torro T34,Taigen M41 Bulldog,H/l/Taigen Sherman M4A3,H/L T90, Haya M3 Grant, Metal Origins 234/2 Puma, Nashorn by Alwyn. I was only going to have one tank - honest!
- Rad_Schuhart
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Re: Best scale tank crew figures and torsos?
I was going to write this link too.silversurfer1947 wrote:There is quite a range of figures to be found on Aliexpress though you need to trawl through. https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ca ... sin+figure
the only thing I dont buy at aliexpress is the food, lol.
My RC tanks website, loads of free info for everybody:
https://radindustries.wordpress.com/
https://radindustries.wordpress.com/