Army & city figures

[Rody]

With all the kaiju figures out there, they need something to stomp & fight other than themselves. This thread is for sharing/discussing information on building and military toys that go well with various kaiju lines.

Unfortunately, I don't have something to share, so I'll start with a question: does anyone know of some good building or army toys that scale with 6" Bandai's?

[Petezilla]

I've also looked for such things for quite some time, but I was never able to find good stuff.
Anybody knows which model railroad tree and building sizes fit best with the 6" figures? There's plenty of sizes/scales out there, but I've no ood idea in which scale to buy such model trees.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

At the 6" monster size, most pre-made modeling scenery is going to be way too large in comparison to the monsters. Soldiers would be the size of a pinprick. For trees, I'd just buy the leaves you find for model railroading dioramas, and glue them to twigs that you have trimmed to your preferred size.

[Rody]

What about buildings, or tanks/planes? Aren't there ANY mini-figures out there?

[Cimmerian Dragon]

If we're dealing with Heisei-size Godzilla figs, then those vehicles would have to be very tiny.

If you've got a 12" figure that's supposed to be around 150 feet tall, you could use N-Gauge vehicles and such. A 10" monster (like a Banpresto Godzilla) would become 133 feet tall when placed with N-Gauge vehicles. Extrapolating this a little, we find that an 8-inch Bandai monster would look 106 feet tall, and a six-inch Bandai would be a mere 79 feet. N-Guage is the smallest commonly manufactured size for model vehicles and scenery, so you see the problem.

There are other, more difficult to find options, though. A six-inch monster that is supposed to be approximately 110 feet could be placed among Z-Gauge scenery. If your 6" monster is supposed to be around 225 feet tall, then you'd have to be working with T-Gauge scenery. T-Scale is a brand new model railroad standard, it debuted in 2006. I have never seen any commercially available T-Gauge buildings or vehicles in this country, though they are gaining popularity in Japan.

Either you'll need bigger monsters, or hand-made vehicles and scenery. Failing that, you could always just shrug and say that Heisei Godzilla and friends are 100 feet tall for the purposes of your display.

[Rody]

I'm okay with scale being slightly off, as long as the figures look relatively good together.
I don't even bother with Heisei scale.

N-Gauge, T-Gauge, Z-Gauge -- I can't say I've heard of these before. Are these company lines, or just general terms?

[Cimmerian Dragon]

General terms. They originated with model railroad lines, but they've been adopted for any sort of model world-building. The terms are also handy because you can look up blueprints online to easily construct your own scale buildings and such. Wargamers and toy-soldier enthusiasts don't really work on the small-scales we're talking about, so model railroad props are among the few pre-made products you can get in such sizes.

[Poe Ghostal]

I believe someone over on Club Tokyo worked out that the 6" scale for Heisei monsters (keeping in mind the Heisei Godzilla was 100 meters after GvKG tall) equates to about 1/600-1/700. There are a few things out there at that scale, primarily submarines/ships from the "Easy Model" line, like this one: http://www.hlj.com/product/ESM37305

There's also the 1/700 Tokyo Sky Tree, if you're fabulously wealthy: http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN971535

For 6" tall Showa monsters (who are usually around 50m), the scale is more like 1/300-1/350, and there's a lot more stuff around that size out there. For example, Bandai's Ultra City stuff.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I was trying to think of stuff that could be readily acquired in a hobby shop setting. I've seen some of those models for sale, but typically import-only. When I've looked them up, the Ultra City releases have always seemed to be out-of-stock, or crazily expensive given how simple the molds are.

P.S. That Sky Tree is awesome! I love the lighting:

[GreenAiden555]

Scale for the showa figures is 1/350, and heisei can sneak by with 1/700.

Good luck. 1/700 is mostly boats and jets; I've yet to see buildings and cars in the same scale.

[Poe Ghostal]

Yeah, honestly you're better off going with papercraft for 1/700. It's a lot cheaper, too - you can print your own.

[GreenAiden555]

FOAM BOARD IS A GODSEND!

Seriously. It's like $3 for a sheet 3-by-3. Not bad at all.

[JVM]

I use the Crumble Zone for smaller figures. Larger figures I don't use anything.

[Creature22]

Ok, so a lot of you are going to bash me with all of this nonsense about scaling, but what I use works for me and looked cool for the home movies I made in the past.

I use model railroad kits! I think they're "N" scale so they can/cannot work depending on how picky you are about accuracy, but with a board with fake grass and a couple of little shrubs and trees, you have a decent set, which is pretty good for standard 6" figures in my opinion, just a little pricey. Then there are the cars and people. You can stick with the same scale and buy civilians and pre-built sets, yes, or get Mirco Machines if you can find any. I know Trendmasters produced some tiny army men to go with those Godzilla 1998 micro playsets as well, and those fit into my scale pretty well.