Pilot figures included in aircraft kits

I have also found this to be the case. After market figures generally don't fit in the cockpit without major surgery.  I like to include the human element in all my builds, because I like a little story or background to go with my kits.  As an example, I am going to build an F6F-3 as flown by ace David McCampbell, the WW2 naval ace.  Then I want to do George H.W. Bush's Avenger.  It makes it more interesting for me.

yeah, im one of those who like to show off cockpit detail, so I dont normally add the pilots.

The exeption to this rule is when a kit has lackluster detail, so I add the pilot to help busy things up! 

I was looking at doing a dio with the Trumpeter A-4M and bought a Master detail pilot figure only to find it does not fit into the cockpit unless I were to saw off the lower half of the figure. The seat bucket was way too narrow for the figure and the head extended over the headrest. Hopefully he will fit into either the Intruder or Phantom when I get around to those.

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

I never use pilots because I hate painting them. LOL! I'm not too good at figure painting no matter how hard I tried. Either I chuck them or save them depending on what kit they came out of. Now if there is a crew set, I usually hold onto them in case anyone was looking for spare figures.

 

If they're from an armor kit, I definitely would hold onto them.

I'm the same way, I'm TERRIBLE at painting figures (even "easy" ones, like pilots); I'm okay at painting the models themselves, but forget about figures. I'm currently attempting a couple of late-War SS figures in the "pea pattern" camouflage, but I'm not expecting very much. 

The kits that cry out for pilot figures are the really early planes, pre-WW1.  Not much of a cockpit to obscure, so building these with pilots in them has always been popular.  Fortunately, the repop Lindberg kits of the early birds does include pilot figures, even if those are ones that may indeed take some surgery to fit well.

Most of the 1/48 HSG, Revell and Mngrm kits I have built had the pilots come with them and are not bad in detail.  I like to paint them just for the practice because i have a few armor kits to build that need figures ,but I'm no good at it yet.

All of the 1/72 kits that I have had pilots in the kit are really bad blobs of plastic.

Since I restarted modeling 2 years ago, I only put 1 pilot in the cockpit and that's the 1/48 Hsg, F-86 I'm doing now with the John Glen's" Mig Mad Marine " subject. He is really detailed nice and came with a seperate arm and head so you could position him in the seat.

LIke others have stated, it depends on how I display the kit. If wheels down and parked, no pilot. If wheels up, closed canopy and flying, I add the pilot. But like Blacksheep stated, I hate painting them.

BK

I never use pilots because I hate painting them. LOL! I'm not too good at figure painting no matter how hard I tried. Either I chuck them or save them depending on what kit they came out of. Now if there is a crew set, I usually hold onto them in case anyone was looking for spare figures.

If they're from an armor kit, I definitely would hold onto them.

Monogram/Revell has some great 1/48 pilot figures. Not blob like at all. Especially some of the later Promodeller releases. And there are some good resin AM ones out there too. Nowadays I prefer the standing pilot figure that can be positioned by his mount on a base, ready for the next sortie, or just back from the last...

Tamiys has OK out of the box pilots.  Just ok.  With good paintwork, headset wire, o2 hose, etc can really bring them to life

Most people like to pimp out the cockpit detail, and sticking a pilot in there just obscures their handi work.  For display too, it's usually wheels and flaps down, so no pilot required.  Maybe most model brands picked up on this, and decided why bother including a pilot?

The other problem is the wheels up position.  More often than not, the wheels don't fit in the bay, or just don't sit deep enough to look right.  Same problem can happen with the landing covers/doors.

There is probably more hobbyists with pilots in the spare bin than actually use them.  Can always ask around to see if anyone wants to unload a handful of them.

regards,

Jack