I’ve been getting back into scale mode building in a big way recently, having not build one in… 35 years!
I’m hoping someone can tell me the best place to buy decent 1/35, 1/32 or 1/48 scale figures that are not stock standard combat poses etc. I’m looking for, mechanics, airfield crew,crew at relaxing etc. Anything to enchance my dioramas. I’ve seen some great example in videos and photos.
Where can I buy them? I have looked at the usual commercial kit makers and some are ok buy id like to be more creative. Is it possible to download 3D printing files for figures?
There are a lot of figures available for model railroaders, in 1:48 scale, which is O gauge to a model RR. Figures are indeed lacking for other scales, except you may find a few civilians, and lots of soldiers in 1:35 used for dioramas. Google is your friend. One big MRR source is Walthers.
Miniart has many pages of 1/35 scale figures. You can peruse their website to see all the casual poses of soldiers from different eras. There’s a diorama of dinner on the front where a bunch of Soviet soldiers are eating in a cabin.
There are French, German, American, Soviet and Afghan civilians (click Miniatures 1:35).
Is there anything specific you’re looking for? Miniart has quickly become one of my favorite companies. Masterbox is generally quite good as well. And yes, you might try a web-search for whatever you need like - 1/48th USN deck crew for example.
And then there’s a lot more options if you want to swap heads, arms, etc around between figures. And you can modify them even more if you want to go deeper. I’ve looked at 3D printed stuff but you need a really good quality printer to get the kind of detail you need for small scale figures.
ICM is another company that has sets of ground crew. I think Revell of Germany also sold ICM sets under license. They’re pretty good sets. Their website is here: http://www.icm.com.ua/index.php
Ultracast is another good maker, though they don’t make sets or ground crew. Their pilot figures are in 1/48, 1/32, and 1/24.
Tamiya has a set of WW II US Navy aircraft maintenance crew, as well as a set of pilots having an impromptu briefing on the flight deck before mounting up, and a moto-tug kit. Those are all in 1/48.
Verlinden made a lot of figures in 1/35 and in 1/48, that also work. But you have to look for them on the secondary market, eg, at shows or on eBay, since Verlinded closed.
CMK out of the Czech Republic is another company with a good catalog of aviation figures, in 1/48 and 1/32: https://www.cmkkits.com/en/figures/
Preiser has a large variety of figures in what would be 1/72 and 1/48 scale. You can also get many figures from Woodland Scenics. In both cases you can get both painted and unpainted figures - the painted ones are expensive; but I prefer to paint my own - it’s fun and not too difficult. Alan