...I just was reviewing some pics from a recent show and was once again so impressed with the high levels of prowess of the modellers and models but anytime there is a miniart figure adorning a vehicle they always look so out of proportion so oversized for the 1/35 scale vehicles they dwarf. Miniart figures are amongst the best in styrene. don't put them near a proper scale subject. They look absurd on any tank unfortunately, in my humble opinion.
just sayin

Right Dough,

Oversized they are.
1:32 maybe?

Funny, I'm working on converting 6 boxes of Miniart Soviet Naval Infantry into German Marinekorps Flandern. The whole process I've been saying to myself that Miniart figures seem so much smaller than any other brand I have used before and how I won't be using them again.

You are going to have to be more specific as this has not been my experience at all. Which sets are you using? Photos to show what you mean? What is the point of your post, eh?

My point its an opinion
As an observation, Tamiya figures look correct because they were designed for vehicles specifically the BT7 for the Khalkin Ghol campaign .In this instance, when looking at photos of people on their tanks the dimensions look correct.To my eye that is.
I was looking at the recent Monson(sp) show and specifically the cv 33 kit with a massive Italian tanker sitting in the gunner hatch and a Stuart kit with the northern European US tankers stood out as oversized for the respective tanks. I wish this site had a drag and drop function so I could underline my opinion. I will attempt to get a link to the site or you can look it up yourself. Eh.

update... it was on this site...here you
gohttp://www.armorama.co.uk/modules.php?o ... artid=7714

He looks about my size when I sat in an Italian light tank. I felt so out of scale to the tiny thing. I have a series of measuring cards for figures and Miniart guys are at the tall end, whereas Tamiya guys are short with some scaling out as 5'4" which is below average height for a European Male in the 20th Century.

Hi Dough, I consider buying the Bundeswehr tank crew, but before doing that, would really like to see them how they compare to Tamiya figures or resin figures. Do you have photos, showing the size?
Regards
Stephan

Hello Stephan, Im afraid I do not have a measuring device just my eyes and my sense of scale. Im a retired internationally awarded senior art director ( used my eyes for that career a lot)...but get the figures and place them in a vehicle...compare that to any available modern German kit and the results will show immediately. That said Miniart figures are wonderfully sculpt I just got the Russian infantry at rest but I will not place them beside any T26 any time soon.
again this observation is my only opinion.

interesting observation... when I saw that build I thought he would get stuck in that hatch or if he could get inside the CV33 he would not be able to operate anything. I have thought Tamiya and MasterBox figures are bang on. The new Meng modern Russian and Chinese tank crews are flawlessly correct If I could drag and drop photos I would easily demo this by figures in the Aramata tank. it is immediately evident and there are plenty of fotos to back up my opinion.
But again its just my opinion.

If you measure figures with a ruler, average heights for MiniArt is 46.5 mm from ground to eye level; average heights for SOME Dragon figures is 47 mm from ground to eye level, and SOME others at 45.5 mm; Alpine's measured out to 47 mm average. These measurements were obtained from a dozen or so figures I had at hand. I didn't have any standing Tamiya figures handy. MiniArt figures are certainly NOT the tallest, but sometimes they appear more bulky, or "well fed", than other brands. Anyway, you wouldn't necessarily want ALL of the figures the EXACT same height (except for some particular circumstances). There's really no problem in mixing figures with a few mm's difference in height, as long as their equipment is standard and uniform in scale.

Whereas I would put those figures next to a T-26 because the damn thing was tiny. I saw some guys at 6'4" as tank crewmen and another under 5'. One towered out of the loaders hatch standing on the turret floor and the other had to leap off the TC seat to charge the 50 caliber machine gun.

I've won awards for my art too and do a lot of scaling and composition in my work. Plus a lot of real life experience looking at scenes where the whole composition looked wrong and went against all my artistic sense of proportion but it was a group of real soldiers in real life, hanging out on a vehicle. Reality doesn't follow artistic sensibilities or rules of proportion. Real people are all over the place.

Some miniart figures aren't so much well fed as their clothes are baggy and ill-fitting.

When in doubt, remember that a 5'10" man stands exactly two inches tall in 1/35th scale.

Traditional Tamiya figures were often sculpted to traditional Japanese stature, regardless of the nation depicted, so many Tamiya Germans are only 5'6" or less. Not impossible for an individual, but a bit short for a whole unit.

Human heads vary less in size than human bodies, so it's sometimes possible to make an oversize figure blend into a group of other makers' figures by substituting smaller head. just make sure all standardized equipment is the same size as well.

They look oversized,why should that be a problem???

As a 6-footer of stocky build I find most real WWII vehicles to be ridiculously small up-close and personal, and I wouldn't fit inside them. We come in a range of sizes, so get a decent ruler and measure your figures - anything between about 5-6 and 6ft is normal for the mid-20th century, and don't forget to add an inch for boot soles and another for headgear!

My current project is my first exposure to Miniart. I found the styrene to be kind of 'flaky' when sculpted. It doesn't seem to take to Tamiya thin cement or PlasticWeld very well. I also see the details lacking especially the lack of ear detail and weak buckles.

Sadly miniart are the only 1:35 styrene figure company to have released decent Normandy-era US paratroopers in the last few years (the MB ones don't have the correct jump jackets).

Miniart's detailing is patchy- but I'm grateful that they do a variety of figures that can add to my dioramas.

Regarding the Miniart Bundeswehr tank crew:

The dark green figure is from the Tamiya Leopard 2A5 kit.

They did have an issues a few years ago where their plastic suppliers were providing sub-standard material that affected their product. This has since been corrected but the sub-par inventory is still floating around out there. Also, their early stuff is not as good as their current; they have come a long way like Zvezda and ICM.

I have used a lot of Miniart figgs and have never considered them overscale. Some actually seem a bit small. The tanks you are referring to are very small tanks so maybe it's causing that illusion of big figs ?
J

if you want to be really meticulous then a good part of the Italian figures is a bit out of scale, because they along with the Greeks were average among the lowest people in Europe,the average height started to increase in the 50s with the economic boom and the population has finally started to be healthier and well fed, I see it in my family where the generation of my grandparents and great grandparents was of little but still lower than us children and grandchildren, same thing is true for the Japanese figures

The best thing would be if possible to mix figures of various brands to be closer to the reality of things in our compositions

One of the negative examples is set 35011, German rank repair crew.
They are close to 1/32 (54mm) scale.

I've never found them oversized either.The newest US troops at rest,I did find undersized.

Tom

Hi Paul, thank you for the photo. That was exactly what I was looking for. Good compare with the Tamiya figure and have to admit that the MiniArt guys look pretty good - and not oversized at all. And yes, there are people with different sizes also in reality. Someone told me that in German Bundeswehr there was a maximum height for tank crews, but I do not remember how much height was allowed.
Cheers / Stephan

Paul that is absolute evidence...I would hope to assume this is true for all their recent modern releases. Thank you for this and I think my observations were all based on earlier releases.

When you think about it, aren't wartime soldiers usually younger and smaller people, especially in places where whatever nation is defending itself against overwhelming hostile forces?