Been looking at getting some pilots and ground crew figures to add a human element to some diorama's I have planned and came across the Orion set (72003). They sound like a good buy compared with some of the resin and WM offerings, which are a bit thin on the ground. 48 figures for roughly the same price as a couple of resins.
So my question is , are they any good or am I best off looking elsewhere?
Haven't been able to find much except shots of the boxtops.

Cheers
Stephen

Just carried out a bit of research as these sound quite interesting. Found a review of them on a toy soldier review website under the title of "Dark Dream Studio Set 72003 Pilots of the First World War" I don't know whether the molds have changed hands to another manufaturer. The figures look a little chunky and not the most realistic faces but then again in 72 scale they look like they will do the job just fine.

The figures are the same. They have a bit of flash to clean off and some of the poses are not as usable as others but I recommend the set





Three aircrew in this shot are from the Orion set

I was able to find a few reviews of them under the Dark Dream Studio boxing. They must have changed hands fairly recently.
They look a very useful set so I'll order me a box.
Thanks.

James, those builds are brilliant. I especially like the Taube, that's just stunning!

Just came to me that I should have asked this earlier, but sort of plastic are they made from? Hard styrene or that soft stuff?

Soft stuff, I'm afraid, but quite usable figures anyway. Their style is naivism rather than realism and many of them are quite funny. I haven't used them yet, since I don't build much in 1/72. My Finnish fellow modeler Ami Hassinen has used them nicely with his scratch build Thulin LA:



Mikko

From what I see I would be happy to buy these.

James, I agree about your awesome models.

Also, I no longer avoid soft plastic figures; many people don't like them because they are hard to paint - rather, difficult to make paint stick to.

No more! Stephen, do you have Krylon brand paint in UK? If so, buy their Fusion product, formulated for plastics. I have been using them to prime soft figures for a decade or so - even posted examples here back in 2005 (1/72 Heller and 1/32 Airfix):




Fusion sticks. Thus my enamels and acrylics stick to Fusion. Nice paint-worthy soft models!

I've heard of Krylon but never seen it on sale anywhere near where I live. Most DIY and craft stores tend to stock Plasti-Kote or budget brand sprays (which I won't touch with a ten foot pole). I use Plasti-Kote primer and find it does a decent job. I think I'll give it a go on some of my many poly figures I have in the stash and see how it works.
I also have a box of those 1/72 Afrika Korps. They're great figures given the age of the tooling!
Mikko, that Thulin is fantastic. I'm astounded by what some people can achieve when modelling early aircraft. I'm only just starting to attempt my first rig.