Small Scale Military Headquarters

With all the 1/18th planes we are seeing hitting the market these days I think its time that 21st and BBI start producing 1/18th ground crew figs. Anyone here agree with me on this? I know for a fact that I would buy alot of them. I can imagin the diorama scenes I could make. I would take my favorite planes and make a diorama scene with each of them.

I wonder if BBI or 21st would ever think about doing this? Make them and sell them seperatly? I think they would sell very well.


What do you guys think?

A ground crew figure with the coveralls and tools would be neat, but one can also customize some fairly decent ones as well. The BoB Jeep driver or the basic BoB figure with the sweater and the BoB driver head would make decent WWII ETO Groundcrew figures. You could probably pop the same head on the body of a USMC figure to make a PTO ground crew. I just made a custom crew chief figure for my 21c F-86 using the body of one of the non-RC M-113 figures and the BoB Jeep driver's head



The Build-a-Rama and Marauder companies have made some accessories that work perfectly for a ground crew, save the smaller tools like wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. Nonetheless, there is a better selection of 1:18 tool accessories than one might expect.

What about German Luftwaffe ground crews?

As sad as it sounds, I am afraid that 21st and bbi wouldn't see a lot of sales potential there, since they aren't "soldiers". On the other hand, include a cool weapon, even if us hard-core enthusiasts would never put it in their hands (a few wrenches would be cool, though), it just might work. I still wonder that we have never seen a medic or ambulance vehicle.

I bet a torque wrench for an aircraft would make a great weapon in hand to hand combat

That or a nice 3/4" or 1" ratchet. I helped a friend of my dad's work on a big International tractor one time using a 1" ratchet with a 4 inch socket--the ratchet handle was almost 3 feet long, and the thing must have weighed 30 pounds! Talk about a club!

FieroDude wrote:That or a nice 3/4" or 1" ratchet. I helped a friend of my dad's work on a big International tractor one time using a 1" ratchet with a 4 inch socket--the ratchet handle was almost 3 feet long, and the thing must have weighed 30 pounds! Talk about a club!

I used to help a friend of mine work on diesel tractors also, those diesel get even bigger

The one I worked on was a 1066. here on the "mini-farm", I have a German-built International 633 and a 1947 Ford 8N Bombardier, but I think the biggest bolt I have come across on them is a 3" for the loader on the International... Rusted tight as hell, of course

I think it would be great to have some ground crew figures. Wasn't there going to be some added to the "Legends" series? When will those be coming out?

I will agree that the ground crew may have limited appeal. But if we were have some general purpose figures......ground crew, motor pool, kitchen etc. The ground crew/motor pool you could match up with a clip board, tool box, welding torch + tank, crates, oil/fuel drums, generator and other tools and machines.

Cheers

We are in desperate need of groundcrew. I forget the exact numbers, but its something like for every combat pilot, it takes 12 additional men to keep the aircraft in operational condition. tmanthegreat did an awesome job on your crew chief, I would honestly never have thought about using that body but it fits perfectly. Im working on some ground personnel now, both RAF and Luft, and finding it's harder than it needs to be. There is very little 'base' material out there to work from, so unless you're wiling to sculpt from scratch there's not a lot to build on.

This has probably been mentioned before, but anywhere dollhouses are sold often have ~1/18 dio items.

For example, I picked up an awesome ~1/18 real metal tool kit (wrench, hammer, saws, screwdriver) from my local Hobby Lobby. A real metal kitchen set (pots and pans with removable lids) was great as well. I wish I could take pics - they fit the bill perfectly.

They also had some food sacks, barrels, boxes of food, foot stools, tables, cabinets, etc. The scales are anywhere from too big to too small (I guess dollhouses don't have consistent scale standards ?), but many of the items are "just right"