1/35th scale figures

Aside from the great variation in human anatomy with the additional variables of era and race thrown in, over scale and underscale in figures is quite hard to call. BUT, equipment is a given constant size. I would bet that the cab may be molded a bit undersize. And of course, any cushions on seats are molded "unweighted". 

I've found Miniart figures to be among the best scaled ones out there in injection plastic. Tamiya's older figures  tended to be on the larger end of the spectrum scalewise, but their newer ones are certainly more small statured. 

I often have trouble fitting figures in 251 halftracks. Apart from what Stik said about the cushions, it should also be remebered that real people are not hard plastic. A persons butt and the soft cushion will mold to each other, but the plastic won't. I think most figures are based on an average. The only way to really know if they are to scale would be to measure the equipment.

stikpusher

...any cushions on seats are molded "unweighted".

This is the biggest issue with getting figures to fit into a cab.  Unless the figures and seats are made to fit together, you will usually have this problem.  Sit on your couch and notice how much you sink in.  The same is true for your car or any military vehicle.  Also, your butt actually flattens out a bit too when you sit on the seat.  Usually, neither of these areas (seat compression or *** flattening) is accurately molded into the seat cusions nor the figures. 

For the feet of the soldiers in the back, again, unless they are specifically molded to sit on the seats of a specific truck (plus *** flattening again), they may not fit properly as different trucks have different seat heights as well.

Hello!

Squeezing people in the equipment is almost always hard in scale. One thing is all the walls are usually overscale in order for the model to remain structurally stable. The other thing is, like Stik just wrote, all the cushions are "unweighted", and the poses of the figs need adjusting too. And every millimeter you leave out give you real live inches, and two or three inches most of the time make a difference between a "spacy" and a "crowded" seat.

My advice would be to always "frankenstein" the figs to the space they are to occupy. Instead of cutting a piece of helmet off, it would be much better to cot a piece of their behind off, to show weighted cushions - and frankly most of the butts also deform some under load. In a pinch it's best to cut a millimeter or two from the lower torso - a slice along the belt usually can be made very easily. Makes the fig instantly shorter. Cutting a fig at the jonts and wiring them also helps a lot to exactly pose the figures.

Recently I'm working on something like that, but in 1:72:

Notice how big the gunner is? And the pilot's helmet was first three millimeters above the canopy surface, but I managed to squeeze him in by cutting down his pants, shortening the torso, shortening the neck and fitting all the parts precisely.

In 1:35 I've done this, too. Here's what I got:

How I got there:

More on that here:

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/M42mod6en.htm

I hope it helps - good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks for the input. I did remove some hiney as well as some back from the figures. But in hindsight I guess I was just too timid.

Great subject,I bought some beautiful figures from Masterclub,modern Russians for my BTR-80 and a driver for my T-34.The modern ones were so big,I wouldn't be able to put the cover on the BTR.Same thing with T-34 driver,even with drastic filing and surgery,he was too wide for the drivers seat,and to high for the upper hull to close.They cost quite a bit as they were well sculpted and I was quite aggrevated.

I could understand a little cutting,shaving and sanding,I have done that to get commanders in the hatch,but should we really have to go thru major surgery to make them fit 

Best case scenario, figures are molded to match a particular kit. Tamiya has done some nice work in the past with figures included with thei kits. Although some of their figures are not up to current molding standards. AM figures though are hit or miss. I picked up a Verlinden IJA tank commander to replace the kit figure on my Type 97 Chi Ha.... No Way!!! He was way over scale. Then I picked up a Mini Art set... like baby bear in Goldylocks, that one was "just right". I have some other Verlinden and Warriors crew figures that seem a bit oversized for their kits. While Miniart, Tri Star, and Master Box really seem to be nailing their figure to vehicle match ups in my experience. Dragon and Zvezda are pretty good also.