Crews:
My only concern would be with the crews. Not just for the Flak36/37, but also with the Pak38 and Pak40. If you make them too anatomically correct, they will not blend in well with other 28mm WW2 miniatures (plastic or metal). Also, they will not be popular with gamers. For some reason, gamers hate anatomically correct miniatures. There must be a fine line between anatomically correct and looking "gaming" good.
There are just times that we must make our stance. In the old days of the garage or home-brew foundries, many figures were sculpted anatomically correct; but the final product (the metal figure) was being distorted due to bad rubber mould castings... they got squeezed and deformed. Of course, there are many factors that lead to the horrible "gorilla" style (some called them heroic-scale to make themselves feel better) human proportion. We have seen much better sculpts in 15mm and 20mm, so why cannot 28mm?
Our figures are more or less based on the style of the Perry brothers, only slightly bigger to match the size of other metal figures in the market. Don't think you will notice a big difference between our figures and from other manufacturers when placed on the gaming table.
If you look at the 28mm market right now, many manufacturers had begun to sculpt anatomically correct figures, both plastic and metal, to reflect a change of style because it is just wrong to sculpt these figures incorrectly!
I like the Parry brothers figures very much. They do great work! Their miniatures are a blend of semi-anatomically correct and a gaming look. Still, I know a few gamers that still think their figures are too thin. You can’t please everyone all the time.
Anatomically Correct:It is important to note that while modeling figures tend to have much better anatomically correct proportions, wargames figures tend to have a bit more girth and oversized proportions because wargames sculptors want to put the emphasis on those parts, but also for other possible reasons like durability. While not a very important aspect, but something that is often overlooked by gamers is how their figures will hold up when handled as well as how are they going to paint up. A gamer will spend a small fortune on their miniature collections, and how the figures will stand up to the treatment of gaming as well as how the figures paint up should be a factor to consider. The latter of course all depends on a person’s painting skill level and/or style of painting because one brand of figure might be better to work with than another for a particular miniature painter.
As mentioned earlier, for some reason gamers dislike anatomically correct miniatures. I even remember a time - a long time ago - when CinC Miniatures made some very nice anatomically correct Napoleonic miniatures. However, they didn’t last long because nobody was buying them. I guess it is because they look too thin compared to other figures, or maybe they were too flimsy for the game table. Regardless, there is a trend for gamers to dislike anatomically correct figures. There has to be reason for this, but I do not know what it is.
Figure Height:Normally wargaming figures are measured in height, not scale, but scales have begun to be assigned to figure height. More times than I would like to admit I have gotten drawn into a discussion about the proper height of figures. To me, it seems like a lot of gamers have their own opinions and suggestions about what the true size of a figure should be. My goal here is to cast some light on this subject. Now I’m not going to sit here and convey to the reader that I’m all knowing in this area, and that what I know and consider is correct or to be the absolute truth on the matter, but rather, they are my own opinions based on facts, and this is only my attempt to share them with others.
In the past, manufactures of figures tried more or less to produce figures of the same height. This measurement was from the bottom of the feet to the top of the figure’s head. This was actually beneficial for the gamer because unlike now, the availability and selection of figures in the past were very lean to say the least. In some cases, what one figure manufacture did not have another manufacture attempted to produce. Even though in most cases the different companies produced figures that were visually different in detail and design, they were at least very close to being of the same height which of course made them more compatible with each other on the gaming table. This way you did not have the unpleasant appearance of un-natural giants and/or midgets within the ranks of your miniature army formations.
The manufacturing of gaming figures is not regulated by any official office or convention, which means in essence that there is no true standard or guideline to follow. When companies decided to introduce and produce new figures for the gamer they are free to do as pleased. In the beginning however, some manufactures of gaming figures attempted to establish some sort of a standard size. At the time, the most common sizes were 15mm, 20mm, and 25mm figures, and according to some old literature printed up by some of these pioneer manufactures, the height of a figure was supposed to be the measured distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head. This of course seemed very reasonable since this only takes into account the height of a standing man and the thickness of the base as well as the headgear is irrelevant. Figures that measure 15mm or 25mm from the bottom of their feet to the top of their heads are what I will consider “True 15mm” or “True 25mm” miniatures.
As time progressed, figures had begun to get taller and taller leading to what is commonly known as the scale creep phenomenon. What started this phenomenon in the first place? The answer is not all that simple, but basically it seems to be the cause and effect for control of the figure market. That is, the trend is more about competition and greed than cooperation and teamwork among the figure manufactures. It seemed that one day a manufacture of figures decided to adjust the measurements of their figures to mean that 15mm or 25mm was the distance between the feet and the eyes, or to some other two obscure points. However, it didn’t stop there! Now it seems that this measurement is from the ankle to the nose or chin, which to me seems a bit ridiculous. What’s next, the distance from the knee to the clavical? The reason for all this was so that a manufacture’s figures would not blend in well with other manufactures. The result of this entire scale creep phenomenon was taller figures, but also a much wider range of sizes of non-compatibility. Personally, I see this to be a potential problem in the miniature gaming community as new comers to the hobby will only get confused and uncomfortable as they explore the details in getting started, and as a result might turn away from this wonderful hobby.
When I started there was a notion of true height, but it wasn’t a standard throughout the industry. Originally true size was measured from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head without measuring the base. In cases were a figure had a shako or other headgear making it hard to measure, it was approximately measured. This of course made figures from different manufactures compatible in height even if the details were very significant.
