First, to get this out of the way: I hope this can be a general topic on the subject. I invite anyone to post insights and/or questions on 1/16 scale tanker figures here.
After finishing my German King Tiger, I knew it needed a crew. I soon found that it is rather difficult to find decent and affordable figures in this scale. The selection is also not great. Where for scale 1/35 there's a plethora of manufacturers, for 1/16 there seem to be just a handful of small companies that make (mostly very expensive) resin figures. I also found that the ones that look really good are very expensive (50 euros, about 60 USD per figure). I also found that recasts (knock-offs) are available from China. So last week my knock-off resin figures came in from Aliexpress.
I bought a couple of figures, with the idea that some would be good, some would be bad, and some to just use the heads from. I'll go through them, and try to do some comparison between them and with the King Tiger.
Comparison
First up are Axel and Rudi, a set of two sporting the standard German crew uniforms. I got two of these sets in the hopes of just using the bodies with head swaps to make four crew in total. These are nice figures, their details are above average, but it's noticeably a recast. They are about the same size as the Heng Long guy (comparison later below). In real life they would be a little over 1.80 meter. Unfortunately this means they are a bit too big, just like the Heng Long guy.
Next up are Hans and Joachim. These came seperate, both sport a coverall which apparently was sometimes worn instead of the regular uniform.
Hans is really large unfortunately, I came to about 1.85 meters. His head is on the smaller side though, so I might use that. A shame actually, as I really like this figure.
Joachim is the only figure that is a correct size. He comes in at about 1.65 meters, which seems right for a person from that time crewing a tank. He is also the only one who can comfortably fit his torso through one of the forward hatches in the King Tiger.
This is Dieter. He's big like most of the others. I bought him mainly because I liked the head. I don't know what uniform this is. It looks like a coverall but a bit different and he has insignia on the front.
Head size comparision:
With Heng Long guy:
Some pictures for scale
Axel and Rudi are too big, just like the Heng Long guy. Maybe I can make it work ik I cut them down some. Be creative.
Joachim fits nicely. Cut him down to use the torso and it'll look nice:
Axel is too big: I might be able to make this work by trimming him a bit:
Here we can clearly see Axel on the left, and how he will never be able to get down that hatch. Same goes for commander Rudi. Joachim in the front feels about right in size.
Poor Hans is way too tall:
Conclusion
While for the most part nicely cast (for recasts that is!), I'm not sure how to feel about these figures. I think I will try to make this work with some creativity, trimming, etc. But I'm disappointed most of the figures are too big. I wonder why that is?
After finishing my German King Tiger, I knew it needed a crew. I soon found that it is rather difficult to find decent and affordable figures in this scale. The selection is also not great. Where for scale 1/35 there's a plethora of manufacturers, for 1/16 there seem to be just a handful of small companies that make (mostly very expensive) resin figures. I also found that the ones that look really good are very expensive (50 euros, about 60 USD per figure). I also found that recasts (knock-offs) are available from China. So last week my knock-off resin figures came in from Aliexpress.
I bought a couple of figures, with the idea that some would be good, some would be bad, and some to just use the heads from. I'll go through them, and try to do some comparison between them and with the King Tiger.
Comparison
First up are Axel and Rudi, a set of two sporting the standard German crew uniforms. I got two of these sets in the hopes of just using the bodies with head swaps to make four crew in total. These are nice figures, their details are above average, but it's noticeably a recast. They are about the same size as the Heng Long guy (comparison later below). In real life they would be a little over 1.80 meter. Unfortunately this means they are a bit too big, just like the Heng Long guy.
Next up are Hans and Joachim. These came seperate, both sport a coverall which apparently was sometimes worn instead of the regular uniform.
Hans is really large unfortunately, I came to about 1.85 meters. His head is on the smaller side though, so I might use that. A shame actually, as I really like this figure.
Joachim is the only figure that is a correct size. He comes in at about 1.65 meters, which seems right for a person from that time crewing a tank. He is also the only one who can comfortably fit his torso through one of the forward hatches in the King Tiger.
This is Dieter. He's big like most of the others. I bought him mainly because I liked the head. I don't know what uniform this is. It looks like a coverall but a bit different and he has insignia on the front.
Head size comparision:
With Heng Long guy:
Some pictures for scale
Axel and Rudi are too big, just like the Heng Long guy. Maybe I can make it work ik I cut them down some. Be creative.
Joachim fits nicely. Cut him down to use the torso and it'll look nice:
Axel is too big: I might be able to make this work by trimming him a bit:
Here we can clearly see Axel on the left, and how he will never be able to get down that hatch. Same goes for commander Rudi. Joachim in the front feels about right in size.
Poor Hans is way too tall:
Conclusion
While for the most part nicely cast (for recasts that is!), I'm not sure how to feel about these figures. I think I will try to make this work with some creativity, trimming, etc. But I'm disappointed most of the figures are too big. I wonder why that is?
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