Anyone care to offer up opinions on the best 1/48 WW II era Japanese pilot and /or ground crew figures ? I'd prefer resin but would consider injection molded. Most reviews of the CMK figures indicate the heads are disproportionately small. I only need one so I'm willing to pay to a degree. If Reedoak offered one in 3 d print I'd buy one in a heartbeat. Thanks in advance for any help - Richard

Eduard makes a set.

I don't know about the quality other than website photos but ModelKasten makes this set: http://www.amazon.com/pilot-body-Rabaul-Fighter-japan/dp/B00B67PGJ6

Fine Molds makes a white metal "Lae" type.

Jaguar made a very good looking set.

Thanks for the response guys- I'll check these options out. Cheers Richard

The pilot figures in the new(ish) Tamiya 1/48 Zero kit were very nice if you can get a set of those from someone who will not be using them. Resin wise and whilst no actual groundcrew, some years ago 'Legend' did a very nice resin set of pilots and an officer drinking saki as a 'last flight' ceremony before a Kamakazi mission.

It turns up quite often on eBay so they must have sold quite a few!

Gary

Update - Looked into Eduard set including review here on Aeroscale. Sounded interesting but soon discovered it it is OOP. Lucked into one on eBay so it's on the way to me. For little more than the cost of most of the resin and injection figure offerings I bought the Hasegawa Tony kit which comes with a Kurogane vehicle AND a resin pilot figure. It arrived today and the figure is really good - I'm a very happy guy at the moment - beer in hand and corned beef and cabbage in a few while the modeling leprechauns continue to dump pots of gold on me ! Thanks to all for the input. Cheers and Happy St Paddy's Day to all ! Richard

Hi Richard.

I have this kit buried deep in the stash so I couldn't drag it out just now, but I recall the figures being quite good and the kit was a good price. Might be worth checking out if you need some extra items for a diorama.


Cheers, D

Damien - Thanks for the reply. I am currently working on this very kit . The figures are nice and I may use some of them. I am attempting to convert this kit along with components from the sister kit cargo truck into a Hucks type starter truck and posting my progress here as a build log under General aircraft . I initially envisioned a pilot standing alongside the truck to give it a sense of scale but it may grow beyond that. Cheers , Richard

Richard, that looks like a great little project. I'm not sure how I managed to miss it in my regular daily trawling through the Latest Posts pages.

I will be following along for sure.

Cheers, D