Category: 20mm Figures & Models

Custom Moulding: Replicate Your Scratchbuilds!

Fidelis Models USA

A friend just pointed out the following Model Distributor who offers a nice service casting custom models for people who supply an original master. They say “Send us your scratchbuilt master model and we will make an RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) rubber mold of your model. We can then make approximately 75-100 copies of the master before the mold begins to deteriorate.” With a cost of as little as US$8 for each subsequent resin casting of the mould this could well be a fine option for those people wanting to churn out several dozen copies of an original figure or model – although the initial mould creation does cost around US$175. Check it out at the Fidelis Models Website…

When You’ve Stuffed Up Varnishing That Model!

Olive OilTry out the suggestion from the “Nice Manners For A Thief” blog’s “How to save your dipped models from the dreaded Dullcote Frost“. Frosting (or that whitish build-up on model s0 is usually caused by a combination of poorly mixed and/or old varnish and temperature – varnish is quite fussy about the latter and if it’s too cold to too hot when you spray or brush on the varnish in will ‘frost up’… HSHP’s article specifically deals with the issue occurring when using the dipping technique, but the general rule applies for all varnish jobs gone bad… Well with keeping this little tip in the memory banks.

Ryan’s Basing & Painting Techniques

Ryan's Company Commander
Ryan's Company Commander

Ryan Davies is a member of the Crossfire Yahoo Group, and he recently put together a document detailing his techniques for painting and basing his 1/72nd scale figures – as a way to give something back to the wargaming internet community which he believes has helped him a lot over the years with his wargaming efforts. Ryan details how to cut bases from brass with a jewellers saw, his technique for labelling & indentifying his bases, and storing them.

Ryan then moves onto painting, especially soft plastic figures, covering how to paint, shade and seal them. He covers the merits of just brands of commonly available model paint, and the moves on to the actual techniques for basing the figures.

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MMS Classic Models – Listing by Nation

MMS Cromwell VIII F Model
MMS Cromwell VIII F Model

One of the really great Model Manufacturers around is MMS Classic Models – they produce some really high quality World War 2 vehicles and guns for 20mm scale (I believe they are nominally very accurate 1/76th scale on par with Milicast and Cromwell – but don’t quote me on that). Anyway on their site they list all their packs numerically rather than by Nation or any other logical order – this drives me mad!

So I’ve done my own listing sorted by Nation and then logically within each Nation by type of pack.

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Friend or Foe Figures

Friend or Foe Figures Romanian Mountain Trooper
Friend or Foe Figures Romanian Mountain Trooper

Recently I’ve been looking at the Friend or Foe (FoF) figure range from Shell Hole Scenics. However there is a marked lack of photos to compare the figures. Enquires on the web such as at the 20mm Miniatures Yahoo Group generally just resulted in limited feedback and several enquires back about what the figures looked like! I have picked some up indirectly and got the following photos of them for comparison. As it seems the manufacturer has very limited photos on their website (although Peter at Battlescape the Australian distributor does have some) I thought I’d put these images up for the benefit of anyone interested.

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20mm (1/76th & 1/72nd) Figure Comparison

20mm Figure Comparison
20mm World War 2 Figure Comparison

The following is a brief overview of several (but by no means all) of the manufacturers in this scale. Over time I may add more photo comparisons and details for these and other manufacturers. I have also included some plastic figures for completeness. The scale lines in the background are at 10mm, 20mm, and 25mm height.

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