Artur Miniszewski, the owner of Mantis Miniatures, starts a new company which will cover figures from modern day conflicts. Check out the first releases!
They look nice but calling them modern is a bit of a stretch from a 1993 conflict….
The figures look great for the Cold War period, so yes, I agree that they’re not really considered modern to 2025 standards, but they are welcome. I personally don’t build anything that far back as the technology isn’t there…I move my interests with the years.
Honestly, the 2015-2025 modern military figure market collapsed because many Russian figure companies ceased production with the War in Ukraine (sanctions) such as Assault Models and others (Yes, some of the best US modern military figures were made in Russia). Asia mostly ceased production of modern figures because a Russian 3D CAD sculptor used to work for an Asian company and stopped for reasons I won’t disclose here. The modern US military figures you find on eBay and ESTY are often cheap copycats made in China.
Airborne Miniatures in Poland remains the leader and perhaps the only one left making modern US military figures to 2025 appearances, and even Maciek has slowed in his production.
Live-Resin in Russia mainly now produces modern Russian figures. Live-Resin is considered the epitome of modern military figures in 1/35 to 1/16 scale, 3D printed-to-order, because Live-Resin is generous the often accurate in their technology and appearances–their figures are crisp and high-tech.
HobbyFan, Magic Factory, and others in Asia occasionally produces 1/35 modern figures, but they haven’t gone above that scale, unfortunately.
So Conflict Miniatures is indeed welcome; however, the window is wide open for a revitalization of modern NATO figures, and honestly, it doesn’t have to be past conflicts. There are plenty of photos of NATO military exercises to draw soldier and Marine photo references from.
Here is a photo of what the US Army soldier of tomorrow will look like. https://www.joint-forces.com/defence-equipment-news/53099-us-army-selects-sig-sauer-ngws
If Conflict Miniatures can make figures like the ones below, Conflict Miniatures will “blow away the competition by far.”
Photo: Joint-Forces.com on the Next-Generation Squad Weapon 6.8mm machine gun, photo by SIG Sauer
Photo: SIG MCX-SPEAR Rifle (XM5) [© SIG SAUER]
This is a welcome addition to the range of 1/35 scale figures. The Cold War period is under represented and offers great opportunity for modeling. I’m looking forward to seeing this range of figures grow. Include some figures wearing “pickle suits” from the post Vietnam period into the early 80’s. Then add some figures wearing BDU’s / DCU’s (with and without Body Armor and LCE) through the early 2000’s before the GWOT uniforms and gear replaced everything from 2003 onward.
Very Verlinden, both in poses and painting style. That’ s not a compliment.