Does anyone have any thoughts on the best on-line store to browse and purchase quality figures?
1/35
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Hi Ronald. May I ask if you’re looking for resin, plastic or 3d printed figures as that will help refine the query.
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great question , Im willing to purchase the highest quality with great detail if Im gonna spend my time painting them the best I can
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so I dont know if resin, plastic or 3d printed ? which is best , ill go in any direction
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Best for detail are cast resin or 3D printed resin figures (the latter have an edge in my opinion), although there are some nice plastic figures also.
Checkout Hobbyeasy and Super-hobby shops.
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Cool! There will be a variety of answers to this but I’ll throw in some points early.
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plastic are great in terms of price point and the quality is improving all the time (for some producers!) but they can have variables that impact the end product. Something simple like small changes in plastic composition or production settings can mean the end product is not as ‘sharp’ as it should be, or there is lots of ‘flash’ or thick seams, none of which helps the modeller. Plastic figures are great to practice on and get to an acceptable level.
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resin figures are more expensive and need a bit more preparation than plastic figures. It’s important to clean the figures properly or else the painting phase will not work as well as it should. There aren’t seams to worry about although there is often some ‘flash’ but I find that is easier to clean up than for plastic figures. The resin figure features are usually ‘sharp’ and ‘clean’ which usually gives the painting phase a better result than plastic. The 3d printed resin figures are probably the best quality in terms of ‘sharp’ features.
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3d printed figures can be very good or dire. Again clean up is important to ensure the painting works ok. If you buy from a reputable provider, or can print your own from high quality downloads, then you should get a good quality figure to paint. Features are usually ‘sharp’ and good quality figures can be of recognisable individuals. The material used in the printing process can also impact quality.
Scale is also a consideration. I like 1/35 as it’s a balance between larger scales like 1/16 which take up more space but the results can be amazingly life like. 1/76 might be too small for high quality painted figures.
Of course this is all irrelevant if you’re someone like Calvin Tan or one of the many genius figure painters on this site, who can produce magic looking figures from a stale loaf of bread!
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There is 1:48th, especially in resin, but these are often just as accessories for aircraft dioramas. There’s also 1:24th, but these are often plastic and aimed at car modellers. But it’s worth taking a look at 1:56th too; for what can be done with that scale just search “Golden Demon”…
Cheers,
M
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if you’re looking fof some good cheap copies to practice on, try etsy.
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Styrene figures are the cheapest and easiest to modify, but are the least detailed (compared to cast resin, or 3D). Cast resin are certainly more expensive and are more difficult to rework or modify, but the resin used is usually user friendly. 3D printed figures are ultimately the best detailed figures, but the resin used is usually very brittle and very difficult to modify.
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thanks for all the advice , I purchased the new Tamyia figures and they are 100x better than their old ones , but i just purchased trumpeter figures and they don’t match the quality of the new Tamyia figures , Im sure it has something to do with the year the original molds were made.
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Yes, true. I can’t think of any recent Trumpeter figure releases and I don’t see anything on Scalemates after 2009. My Dragon Leopold crew look much better than the Trumpeter Karl-Gerat crew.
That being said, Dragon figures are generally better than those older figures; especially the Gen 2 sets. However, you might not find everything you need and some sets are pricey. MiniArt does a lot of figures. Just a couple of suggestions of brands to look for while shopping. Both of these companies have an extensive back catalog of figures.
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I don’t mind paying extra, how can you tell on line what are the latest versions? its all mixed together , for example how can i know if the dragon kit is Gen 2 sets?
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They usually say on the box.
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Look at the instructions on the back of the box; if there’s 100 pieces per figure, then it’s Gen ll 
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I bought some resin figs at the end of the year. Having shopped around I found a good selection and prices at bnamodelworld. I’m in the States and the order was here 8 days after I placed it. If you are interested in resin figures, it might be worth checking them out. (I’ve also bought direct from Alpine here in the States.)
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If you fancy a crack at those pesky little 28mm/1:56th guys, there’s a quartet of Caesarean-Era Roman Legionaries with the current March issue of Wargames Illustrated (WI447), £5.99 in W H Smith. But check out this, maybe more to your taste:
Wi - Wi444, December 2024
Cheers,
M
so generally what is considered the best 1/35 figure company ?
There is really no definitive answer to that question.
Sorry mate it is a tough question to answer definitively. I can say that for 1/35 scale ( my preference) if I could afford them I’d get Alpine figures as they have a great range with really good quality. You can also get things like Hornet brand heads and hands to really make the end product shine but that’s getting expensive. A step down but still really good are the latest Tamiya figures or some Dragon kits. There’s others that are really good but the fortunate thing, or unfortunate if we’re answering your question with a simple answer, is we’re in a sort of a golden age for modellers where we’re spoilt for choice.