Eleven centimetres of figure gives detail that smaller scales simply cannot hold, and 1:16 is the size of the biggest tank kits, radio-controlled ones included. A crewman leaning out of a turret therefore does double duty: it animates the machine and demonstrates how large the machine really is.
Beside the armour crews sit standalone pieces made purely to be painted, among them wartime officers and pilots, Czech subjects such as the fighter pilot Josef František, and well-known twentieth-century personalities. The category also carries a surprisingly generous choice of animals, from cats and urban pets to hens, sparrows and pigeons, which populate large dioramas in a way nothing else does.
One sixteenth of life size is the scale of large armour kits and of figures that correspond closely to the 120 mm display standard. That means the painting approach is portrait painting: the face, the flesh transitions and the differences between wool, leather and webbing carry the piece, not the number of parts. The selection ranges from Second World War and present-day crews to parade moments and scenes of rest behind the line, and because many of the vehicles in this scale are built for radio control, a crew figure often has to live with being handled rather than only looked at.
Choose crewmen by nationality and by the period of the vehicle, since winter and summer dress differ as sharply as headgear does. A commander half out of a hatch also solves a composition problem, because it draws the eye to the turret rather than letting it wander along the hull. Machines to populate are listed in 1:16 and 1:18 military vehicle kits.
Treat these as paintings. The face is settled first and separately, while a brush can still reach it; clothing, equipment and base follow. Separate items of kit for conversions and personal variations come from resin figures and equipment.
Cats, dogs, hens and sparrows are the detail a viewer does not expect, which is exactly why the scene becomes credible. The animal sets in this category work as well in a farmyard as in a bombed-out street, and they are a relaxed way to practise soft fur and feather textures before you commit to a face.
Every other figure size sits in the overview at model figures.
