Pages

Monday, April 13, 2009

Airfix / HaT vs B&B, FPW Bavarian foot


The photo above compares three Bavarian artillery figures from B&B Miniatures (second, third, fifth and seventh from the left) with several World War One Airfix figures (re-released by HaT) converted to represent Bavarian infantry of the Franco-Prussian war. Click on the image for a larger version.

Manufacturers’ designations:

The Airfix figures are conversions which started out as box 01726: “WW1 German Infantry.” They were reissued by HaT as set 7001, with the same name.

The B & B figures come from their Franco-Prussian range, and are listed as FPGA-11 “Bavarian 6 pdr gun & crew.”

Height compatibility (measured from sole of foot to eyes):
Airfix/HaT – 21mm
B&B – 20mm

Body Build compatibility (from 5 categories):
Airfix/HaT – C (average)
B&B – E (exaggerated)

Overall conclusions:
While some poses from the Airfix set do match tolerably well with the B&B figures, the examples illustrated are not very compatible. The metal figures are sculpted in a very heavy style, while the Airfix/HaT figures are more realistic. This means that the heads on the B&B figures, for instance, are twice the size of those on the plastic models. However, the close height does compensate somewhat, especially as the sculpting on the shorter metal figures makes them seem to be a bit taller than they really are.

No comments: