Tank Crew and Tank Scales

It is taking some major surgery on the poor guy that has to do into the driver's seat. Before assembling I was able to shorten the torso some by sanding where it glues to the lower legs down. Also, did what was suggested and sanded their bottoms quite a bit. Drive had to have his legs sliced above and below the knees. Once I get his torso and legs to fit so he is in the driver's seat I will have to see what I can do with the arms. Also pulled the tank steering wheel out so I could shorten it if I can't get the arms right. Thanks, for suggestions. Trying quite a few of them and hoping when I get to the turret crew there is more room for them.

Pawel Is absolutely correct. When dealing with AM figures you do have to modify them in some realistic, and some interesting ways to get them to fit. I frequently find myself shaving the bottom of feet to get them to fit right.

I have run across few figures that didn't need modifications to "fit" into a position and look like they belong.

Each figure will need to be modified like any other AM part. Just take your time to make it look as natural as possible. Sometimes that means modifying the vehicle parts like the seats, which can get fairly involved, but it's the end game you're going for, so keep that in mind.

Hello!

It's important to modify all the "cushions" the boys are sitting on to "compressed" state. At the same time their butts should also be "compressed". This alone can give you about 4mm headroom. Next milimeter or two can be won by cutting out a slice of the torso, just above the belt. In many figures the forearms are too long. Now if you bend your elbow all the way, you see that the distance from the shoulder to the elbow is much longer than the distance from the elbow to the wrist. So in many figs you can safely and conviniently take out a few mm just above the wrist. Same for the legs - you can take out a few mm above the boots - minimum of cutting and sanding, maximum height reduction! Plus any time the fig touches a part of the machinery, you have to "compress" the clothing, gear and flesh - that's the way it works. So it can be tedious, but those figs can be made to fit those darn vehicles! Good luck with your modelling projects and have a nice day

Paweł

OK, so the figures are not from the kit, but are from another maker.  Yes, this is a frequent issue.  The interpretation of a scale can vary from one maker to the next.  As the others have mentioned, you may wind up getting some experience in modifying figures, and, you may also take the variation in size from one person to the next into account when you work with your figures.  Proportion becomes important-you might take figures from different makers, all listed as the same scale, find that they are not all the same size, but if they are proportioned well, the variation in size won't matter so much.  Normal proportion is for a person to be eight "heads" tall, and if everything is in proportion, it'll look right.

True,unless the figures belong to the kit,it could be an adventure.I bought some beautiful Live Resin Figures,one was a T-34 driver for my AFV T-34,I just about shaved off his entire ass and legs,and he barely fit on the seat,but still sat too tall for the hull to close,same thing with figures for my Trumpeter BTR-80,wouldnt fit in the seats and benches,couldnt close the hull.

I'm 5'2" and served with another LT who was 6'2" and another that was an average 5'9". Our XO was a rather largish razorback who looked kinda fat. Standing together, we'd look out of scale to one another.

One set is from MiniArt (35167) but also have some I know longer know the source since I separated them for storage until needed. I did grind one figure down to the point he could at least fit into the space for the machine gunner but he is still rather obviously over size for the space he is in. Looks like I tried to get a 1:35 scale Incredible Hulk to squeeze into it. Based on just measuring the figures which for the ones standing comes out 52 mm they chose to make all the figures equivalent to a six foot tall man at 1:35 scale. It is hard to say whether the Tank interior was made to correct scale since most of the positions require a seated figure. But for whatever reason they didn't give much room. Of course a real person is much more flexible at slipping into a tight spot than a plastic person. For example, with these figures if I want to place on in the drivers seat I am going to have to cut the steering wheel out and shorten it to allow room enough between the seat's back and the wheel for the chest not to be crushed. Might have to also shorten the legs by a scale foot so that they will fit between the body and pedals. It would help considerably to find a tank crew at either a slightly smaller scale or one at 1:35 that used shorter people (5 footers).

Hello!

You get it constantly, every time you try to fit figures to a model they are not designed to fit. Which doesn't mean that it can't be done. You just have to have some praxis at modifying figs, check the scale often and take into account that humans are, well, soft.

I would like to show you two of my builds wher I fit the figures. Here's one:

The build thred for it is here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/146938.aspx?page=4

I have also done it in smaller scale:

The build for it is here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/16/p/173369/1964991.aspx

So as you see with some trimming and some careful fitting you can fit those babies in. Provided, of course, that the figs are not overscale (you can always measure yourself and compare the dimensions after scaling), and that the model is right (you can verify it too - try to measure the hatch and drawing it on paper - then imagine fitting yourself through that). Sometimes you have to reposition some equipment, ore remove it altogether, provided the figures make it invisible anyhow.

Good luck with your build - be sure to post some pictures! - and have a nice day

Paweł

I find a lot of figures seem to be slightly over scale. What are the ones you have tried.