Why? Oh, why, don't figures fit in AFV's?

[Old Wombat]

Seriously! It's driving me barmy! ......... OK, barmier.

I'm trying to get some figures into my BRDM-2. The gunner is OK, I've chopped him down from about 195cm in height to 175cm & he fits in reasonably well (if you don't mind leaning to the left & hunching over a bit to get your head down to the sights).

The figure I'm using for the driver, though, already scales out to 175cm tall (175cm = 5' 9", so not exactly tall). Legs & body are proportionate (legs are about 77cm) but to get them to fit under the dash I'd have to chop at least a cm out of them ... which'd make his legs about 40cm long in real life!

Now, since I put the interior together as per instructions I've looked at some pic's of the interior of BRDM's & where the kit has a flat floor forward of the seat IRL there is a drop-down there. I'm pretty sure that even with the drop-down there won't be enough leg room for a non-midget but I guess I'll have to try because 1cm is just a stupid amount to remove just to get a figure to fit.

And, of course, I've already painted it all.

[PR19_Kit]

If he's inside the vehicle you won't be able to see his missing legs though, will you?

I had the same problem putting a pilot into an LS 1/72 scale BD-5J, and I had to take maybe 1.5 mm off his back to get him in there. But when you think about it, styrene seat cushions don't squash down and the wall thicknesses are probably much thicker than real world.

[Old Wombat]

All done! Just the tidying up & re-painting to go.

Still, if they'd planned the kit properly & stuck closer to the real lay-out, there'd be no need.

[JayBee]

I had the same problem putting a pilot into an LS 1/72 scale BD-5J, and I had to take maybe 1.5 mm off his back to get him in there.

Ha! I did it slightly differently. I used a 1/72 head on a 1/100 body. Worked a treat. 

[kitnut617]

I had the same problem putting a pilot into an LS 1/72 scale BD-5J, and I had to take maybe 1.5 mm off his back to get him in there.

Ha! I did it slightly differently. I used a 1/72 head on a 1/100 body. Worked a treat. 

For my Bede's, I happen to have enough of these really under scale pilot figures that they fit in perfectly. Can't remember what kit they came from now, but I have to have a few of them. No, wait a minute, I do remember --- out of a Hobbycraft Avro Arrow. Which is 1/75 scale not 1/72 ---

[Nick]

If you recall the 2nd Prize winner in the Ship Diorama category at SMW 2017, it was of SS Induna sinking after a U-Boat attack. Next to her in the water is a lifeboat .

The real one held 32 people at once during the sinking. The model builder, Alan, complained to me he could only squeeze 22 figures into the model. This model is about the size of a thumbnail.

[Gondor]

The easy answer is that Humans and their bodies are flexible, model representations of Humans are not!

Gondor

[Old Wombat]

BTW, the inflexibility of styrene/resin isn't a problem for me, as I'm quite happy to hack the bejeezuss out of it out of it to replicate flexibility & compressibility, etc.

Which I've now done on this subject, as well as dropping the floor (actually a bit too much but I'm leaving it that way, now).


However, my main contention, that models with interiors should be built to allow at least a close approximation of an in-scale representation of a real human to fit, still holds.

[Snowtrooper]

Well, the Soviet AFV crews were always selected from the shortest 5-10% among the recruits, and the AFV's were designed with that in mind...

Visited a "tank safari" in a friend's bachelor party, and while driving a proper tank would have required a separate booking and be much more expensive (driving ATS-59, Bandvagn 206, and a ZIL truck by yourself was inclusive of the price though), we at least got to try to sit in the interior of a T-55 (hey, they gotta try to sell those premium packages somehow), and that was the textbook definition of "cramped". Merely fitting through the hatch was an achievement (I'm 179 cm and still within limits of normal weight), and sitting in any position basically required knees in the mouth and head compressed between shoulders.

So 175 cm scaled plastic figures not fitting inside a BRDM sounds about right.

[NARSES2]

However, my main contention, that models with interiors should be built to allow at least a close approximation of an in-scale representation of a real human to fit, still holds.

Haven't fitted a figure in a kit for years, but one of the reasons for undersized interiors is often the thickness of the plastic. To get the interior sized right you'd screw the overall dimensions because of the limitations of the moulding process. However a way around it would be to produce the figures intended for the interior to a slightly smaller scale ? As said I've not tried it for years so can't really comment. My peeve is when you build a cockpit "insert" and that doesn't fit because they've forgotten to allow for the thickness of the plastic  . Mind you if they did some reviewer would probably have a go for an undersized cockpit 

[Old Wombat]

I did say "... models with interiors should be built to allow at least a close approximation of an in-scale representation of a real human to fit ...", Chris.

[NARSES2]

I did say "... models with interiors should be built to allow at least a close approximation of an in-scale representation of a real human to fit ...", Chris.

I appreciate that mate, as said haven't tried it for a long time. Maybe I should ? There's some interesting armour kits out there nowadays

[rickshaw]

Back when I first joined the Australian Army I asked if I could be a tank crewman.  The recruiter took one look at me, standing at 178cm tall and quite beefy and said, "Errr, no, sorry, you're too big."  Later I got the chance to sit in the drivers seat of a Leopard AS1.   I was informed that the driver had to be 175cm tall - and no taller!  Otherwise the hatch would not close.   They were right.  I could not sit in the seat and close the hatch.   Just as well I had by then long given up any hopes of being a "Turret Top"...

[PR19_Kit]

Don't tank designers look at the sizes of humans when figuring out the dimensions of a tank? Why make them that small?

Having said that, I once had the opportunity to sit in the front cockpit of a 617 Sqdn. Tornado GR4. If I'd been a real pilot I could not have ejected from the aircraft without losing my kneecaps and lower legs as they were under the rear edge of the instrument panel with me in a normal seating position, and I'm 6'1". (No idea what that is in cms.  )

And yes, I know about the straps that haul your ankles back when the seat fires, it would have made little difference.