Really? Miniart figures are some of the best I've seen in injection molded plastic. If you want better you'll probably have to go with resin or metal ones. 

I would go with resin, their casting holds better detail than the average plastic injected ones.  You should check out Alpine figures, here is their latest release:

regards,

Jack

I am also surprised you are disapointed with the Mini art. You might want to try Master box or Dragon, there more recent figures are very good and Tamiya more recent releases are as well. But as the others have said, if you want top quality, resin is hard to beat, but you will pay for it. I can echo jack, those Alpine figures are about the best i have seen.

You must have picked up an early Miniart set, because their later ones are really top notch for injection molded plastic. The last few that I have built have turned out very nice. And as some better figure modelers here than I have said, have a look at some of the various resin offerings. Where to look depends upon your interest areas of nationality and era.

Yeah, I have to go with Jack, the Alpine figures are probably about the best there are. And yes the price on them is pretty steep, I have a few I've picked up on sale here and there.

BTW: If you don't like the face sculpts on the MiniArt figures Hornet makes a complete line of replacement heads. They're pretty easy to replace the kit ones with the Hornet ones and they make a great deal of difference.

MiniArt still has possibilities to keep in consideration, as they do some rare subjects, along with some uniques poses too.   Of course, as has been mentioned, you get a lot more figures compared to the price of a single resin offering.

Alpine also provides two head choices per figure, either different cap styles or one being helmeted.  So you immediately get a spare that can be used towards another project.

regards,

Jack

thanks everyone... i have been painting 1/9th scale busts a figures for a couple of years and i guess the jump to 1/35 has been a bit of a shock... i am building a panzerwerke factor dio and need a good selection of figures. i'll have a look through the resin manufactures but the price is a killer for some. cheers, marc

I recently picked up some Master Box figure sets and I was really impressed with the quality of these figures. They come designed as small vignettes which makes them quite friendly for diorama use - highly recommended!

I think the ICM figures from Ukraine are very good quality for the price. They have great subject matter that no one else produces as well. WW1, Winter War, eclectic WW2, Franco Prussian war. Plus they have some nice weapons sets.

If you're mainly working on WW2 stuff, I would recommend checking out Dragon's line - very extensive, especially the German figures, and detail is good (as well as the price). I have had issues with some figures not holding weapons as they should (especially firing rifles), but I know that they did re-tool a number of their sets and may have corrected this.

Agree - Dragon's kits are nice

Dragon's more recent figure sets are quite nice. But they really lean heavily towards German WWII subjects and leave other national subjects areas far less well covered. Not to mention they have not touched any Vietnam, Korean, Cold War or other similar figure subject areas in years. Which is a bit ironic as their first figure sets were all contemporary late Cold War stuff in the late 80s. They have been doing several AFV kits from those subject areas lately, but not crew figures or accompanying other figure types to go with them.

You could look at the various offerings from Verlinden, too, though, since the firm is now closed, you'll only find their figure kits on the secondary market (eg, eBay, at shows), or in remaining stocks at some retailer.

the Baron

You could look at the various offerings from Verlinden, too, though, since the firm is now closed, you'll only find their figure kits on the secondary market (eg, eBay, at shows), or in remaining stocks at some retailer.

 

I am not sure i would label Verlinden as amongst the best. There older figures don't have the same crisp detail and the newer ones are more like 32nd scale. I have gone off then quite a bit and now only use what i have and when i have nothing else. If you want to spend that sort of money on resin, you can't go wrong with Alpine figures.

I agree that Verlinden is hit-or-miss.  I have Verlinden's General Schwarzkopf figure on the bench, and yes, the facial details could be better.  But I wouldn't dismiss Verlinden out of hand.  Was it you, or someone else, or several respondents, who mentioned using Hornet heads?  I would recommend keeping that in mind, too.  A builder can make quite a Frankenstein's monster of mixed-and-matched parts from several makers, too, in a kit bash.

I don't think I've bought any really bad Velinden figures. My main issue with them is yes the scale, many are closer to 1/32nd. A six foot plus/ two metre World War II Japanese soldier is ok by himself but looks funny with figures molded to a more accurate size.

And well the Alpine stuff is beautiful, it puts everything else not just Velinden to shame.  

Hi Bucksco ;

 I specifically like Master Box females . I have found them to be a pleasure to build and detail .Well molded and lively faces and poses .  T.B.   P.S  .Especially the 1/25 scale ones .

From left to right: Verlinden, Airfix, Bronco, and Tamiya... aside from the size of some equipment on the left two compared to the right two, they could easily be used together...

But as mentioned above, when you compare Asian figures, the scale difference become quite noticeable. 

From left to right, IJA tankers: Tamiya, Miniart, Verlinden