Bomber crews

[Richard-368268]

Hi,

Airfix make all sorts of kits containing soldiers and ground crew etc. I would love it if they made a similar kit for heavy bombers, one for the crew to populate the bomber. I've searched the internet everywhere and there is a huge hole in the market. Heavy and medium bombers used to come with crews but I guess that has gone out of fashion. If Airfix was to make a British one that would fit all the positions in a Lanc and could be used for a Halifax or Wellington or Stirling etc too that would be brilliant. I'm sure it would sell well for nobody makes them apart from obscure companies in lands far away for extortionate prices. 1.72 would be the best scale to start with, then if that did well you could try others.

Then you could have a multi purpose American crew that could fit B-17s or Liberators or Mitchells or Marauders etc, some of them you might not need all of the figures but I doubt people would mind. You could make medium bomber crews too. The possibilities are endless. It wouldn't be expensive to develop and if it could be made so that it fit other companies' planes (which I doubt would be difficult, the scale should mean it should anyway), be almost universal, for different types and makes etc then I'm sure such kits would sell really well in all markets. Nobody makes them.

You could even have variants to mix and match. I'm sure I can't be the only person that wants to populate my planes with crews and there is nothing on the market at all. To me it's a no-brainer. A seated pilot mixed set would be good too, with different RAF pilots. Even a mixed bag of bomb aimers and gunners and navigators lying down for Mosquitoes etc, the permutations are endless. I spend so much time trawling the internet for crew and so much costs far more than it should do. Nobody makes anything like this. To me it's an open goal.

All the best,

Richard :)

[Ratch]

I'm sorry this isn't really feasible because of the differences in uniforms. Also, Airfix have not made a new figure set since 2010 (they were not well received) and that was a one-off with 1978 being the previous figure release. It's a shame (I'm into figures) but there are plenty of other manufacturers who make decent figures. Take a look here.

Plastic Soldier Review - Home

[Richard-368268]

Hi Ratch,

thank you, that's a shame, it's hard to cobble together a bomber crew, can cost a fair bit of money. Thank for the site. They're all ones I've seen before. Most kits are ground crew or pilots standing around or sitting down for dioramas, not for crewing planes, manning turrets or the other roles. I can cobble together crews, even convert some, but the selection (and I've searched everywhere on the Internet) is rubbish. Hannants sell a good selection of two packs of pilots, then some faraway companies make full crews but they cost a fortune and then the postage costs a fortune. I've only found one dedicated Lancaster crew and one or two B-17 crews from such places, but they cost the earth apart from one B-17 crew that you can sometimes get on ebay for £25ish. Another good one is a Japanese bomber crew that is quite cheap (around twenty pounds with about twelve men) so I might buy that and convert them if the paint job doesn't convince.

And that's it. Every option available to make up heavy bomber crews available (and only three are designed for that purpose and plane-specific). Sometimes you can find old crews on ebay (also resin packs of 7 RAF WW2 pilots that are cheap) so mixing and matching helps to diversify the group. But you'd think somebody somewhere would make one or two in Europe that are affordable and then sold in shops/websites over here. Pilots too. You can buy multiple sets of figures of types of soldier from throughout history from many companies yet not any of these.

Anyway, such is life, thanks for your answer. Sorry for not replying to your replies to my duplicates post, I've only just discovered it, you see I had an email to say it had been deleted by the mods so wasn't looking for it, I guess what happened was it was moved to the correct section, thanks for your replies to that (sorry, I think I was in a bit of a grump when I wrote it) I'll respond soon. Thanks for all your help and responses Ratch, kindness and patience, very much appreciated, all the best,

Richard :)

[Ratch]

In an ideal world, crew figures would fit where we want them to. But compromises are made in models. Old kits (with their lack of detail - pegs for seats) can accommodate most figures. As kit cockpits have become more sophisticated, it has reduced the available space. I've had aftermarket figures that are too big to fit (despite measuring to the right size). I've also built a Harrier (IIRC) where a pilot was included, he was midget sized to fit in to the detailed cockpit. Think about turrets, where the space is even more restricted. Back in the day when Airfix kits had a full crew, these gunners had no legs to fit inside and their 'hands' were part of the gun mechanism. Imagine how fiddly it would be for the average modeller to assemble a highly detailed manned turret - much better that the experienced (or more demanding modeller) has an aftermarket option, like the etched or resin detail that is available.

[SD45elect2000]

Yup, they don't fit.

I am building this SBD for the sole purpose of using these figures to build Richard Best and Murray from the Movie Midway. I guess I'm outta luck .

Randall

[Richard-368268]

Hi Ratch ad Randall, thanks :)

Yes I've realised it can be quite hard getting them to fit, especially into turrets. I bought two packets of 7 resin RAF WW2 pilots off ebay for just over a tenner, plus several packets of various PJ models figures too. The latter were originally for my Swordfish which I'm getting for Christmas, but like your picture Randall, I think I might have a hard time getting them to fit exactly, that's where having plenty of options comes in useful - and I don't mind chopping pieces off. I just had to do that for my Airfix Handley Page Halifax. The pilot it comes with doesn't fit unless you chop one of his legs off at the knee. Two of the figures that come with that would fit nicely in a ball turret for they are all curled up, so I might see if I can swap one and use it to crew my Avenger turret. I'll measure it all up and see.

I think the key, as you both say, is having plenty of options and mixing and matching to make it all work. I think I can do every position, the only difficult one is the lying down bomb aimer on heavies or Mosquito, for that I'm either going to use a Ju 88 belly gunner or buy a soldier pack and convert one that is lying down and shooting. Every other position is doable if you have enough options and measure up carefully beforehand, maybe cut the odd piece off. It just annoys me, for you can buy 20 soldiers for 5 quid on here, so a bomber crew, even if it didn't fit everything (though you could convert), or a selection of pilots just seems like a no-brainer and would be so much cheaper. But never mind, that's the way it is, so PJ models will be getting my custom (and a very few others) and I will crew all of my bombers and planes no matter what it takes, although to be fair I prefer a kit that comes with the right armaments (the relevant rockets, bombs, torpedo, or preferably all ;) ). To one with men and eventually I'll have built up such a collection that I'll be able to find the right ones for everything. It's just another unneeded cost that could be reduced. The amount of time I've spent looking for rockets and little men... well I could have built several more planes in it.

Thanks for the replies, all the best, Richard :)