Scale figures????

[Majortomski]

Hi all, this is my first post on the wet side of the house. Do any of you know of a source of figures that are in the right scale and uniforms for both the Lindberg 1/32nd PT-109 and the Blue Devil Destroyer?

TIA
Tom

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I think your best bet is to get some 1/32nd scale tank figures and modify or paint them to look good on your PT boat.

For the Blue Devil, I would look into 1/72nd scale figures, or HO railroad figures.

Good luck,
Post us some Pics.:D

[Tony Oliver]

For the Blue Devil - at 1/125 scale - I found 1/72 figures much too large so bought unpainted 'OO' gauge figures of railway personnel. The scale was 1/150 but when measured and scaled up to real size, the figures would have been 6ft 9in to 7ft tall!

All I did was warm them and stretch the legs, arms and necks a little and bend them to a suitable shape before painting.

I think the effect worked - here's a pic of the front end of my boat - figures on the deck and bridge don't look wrong to me.

You have my sympathy for taking on the Lindberg Blue Devil - I thought it a lousy kit, but a lot of work makes it look good in the water.

Tony

[Dan Schneider]

On my PT I bought Airfix (I think they were) posable WWII Marines. Then I used modeling putty to add bell bottoms and life vests to them. The Navy crewmen and Marines used the same helmets, canteens, etc. so the gear is interchangable. Also, the posable thing is nice.

[Tony Oliver]

Very impressive and realistic effects - figure is superb, and the weathering is nicely understated and subtle.

I don't build enough boats to build up much expertise in doing that sort of thing through experience, so thanks for the info..

Any chance of a few more pics?

Tony

[leccyflyer]

Originally posted by tonyo
For the Blue Devil - at 1/125 scale - I found 1/72 figures much too large so bought unpainted 'OO' gauge figures of railway personnel. The scale was 1/150 but when measured and scaled up to real size, the figures would have been 6ft 9in to 7ft tall!



Tony

Your Blue Devil looks very smart there- I picked up an incomplete hull and topsides for one of these for a fiver at a swapmeet not long ago and hope to one day have her sailing. Just to clear something up though, are you sure that those figures weren't "N" gauge rather than "00" gauge? I thought that "OO" guage approximates to something close to 1/76th scale?

Brian

[Tony Oliver]

Hello Brian ! I got the 'OO = 1/150th' from an OO-gauge website and just accepted it - I think if you compare an OO loco with a 1/72 aeroplane that 1/150th seems about right.

The figures were supplied in a bubble pack, labelled as OO, on a plastic sprue frame. Unpainted, as I said before.

Stockton Modeller has them if you want some. You have my commiserations on acquiring the model!

I like it now, but I didn't enjoy the building one bit.

[Tony Oliver]

Brian, forget that load of rubbish I just posted.

I wasn't happy about it so I rang the shop. Apparently the 'OO' figures are, as you suggested, N gauge. The advice I was originally given wasn't exactly right(reinforced by the wrong info from the lad I saw, and the sticker on the pack).

For anyone interested, the European standard size for railways was originally around 1/43 scale ('O' gauge). This was too large for the UK generally so 'HO' was introduced at 1/86 (Half 'O'). The UK manufacturers wanted something larger so brought in 'OO' at around 1/72.

Providing you can trust the labelling, that's a good range to convert from for most smaller boats.

Tony

[leccyflyer]

Tony

Thanks, that makes sense. I seemed to recall that when Airfix sold their boxes of soldiers they were variously labelled as OO (1/76th) and HO (1/87th) scale. Then I realised that my boy and I were making an Airfix kit with figures yesterday and on looking at the box (it's a very old kit) see that it too is labelled HO/OO scale and matches the 1/72nd scale aeroplanes on his airfield reasonably well.

I'll hunt down some of those N gauge figures to inhabit the Blue Devil, have still to figure out how I'm going to replace the missing turrets..........not looking for a super scale job, just an approximation of a destroyer for my son.

Another source of civilian figures, in a nice hard plastic, at OO gauge would be the crowd figures from Subbuteo football sets, plus the cricketers (which still occaisionally show up at swapmeets) would make good figures for sweater clad sailormen.

White metal nautical figures - like the little chap in the long coat featured below- are available from some of the specialist boat suppliers. I picked some up at the Ellesmere Port boat show last year that are approximately 1/32th scale and there are lots of readily adaptable 1/32nd and 1/35th scale military figures by Tamiya and the other plastic kit manufacturers.

Brian

[Tony Oliver]

No problem with the turrets, I can photograph them and post or send direct as email. Tell me what you want, and I'll do it.

Meanwhile, here are two photos of the original (Cassin-Young - the only survivor, I believe).

Note that the barrel of the gun is actually off-centre in the real thing, and not picked up on the model.

Cheers

[Tony Oliver]

Here's the other