Best 1/35 Scale WWII Figures for Beginners

Starting Out in Scale Modelling: Why 1/35 is the Perfect First Scale

Every scale modeller remembers their first kit. Maybe it was a gift, maybe it was an impulse buy at a hobby shop — and maybe the instructions looked intimidating the moment you cracked the box. If you haven't bought your first kit yet, you have the advantage of choosing deliberately. This guide is for that person: the curious newcomer who wants to know where to start, what to buy, and how to avoid the mistakes that make beginners quit before the glue dries.

The short answer to "what scale?" is 1/35 scale. Here's why — and here's everything else you need to know to get a finished model on your shelf.

Why 1/35 is the Right Scale for New Builders

Scale modelling has a bewildering range of size conventions, from tiny 1/72 aircraft to imposing 1/6 busts. For infantry figures and vehicle crew, 1/35 hits a sweet spot that no other scale matches.

Size that rewards your work

A standing 1/35 infantryman stands roughly 50 mm tall — large enough to see and paint real facial detail, folds in clothing, and equipment texture, but compact enough to fit comfortably on a standard painting handle. You can hold the figure steady, see what you're doing, and correct mistakes. At 1/72 you're squinting; at 1/16 you need a very steady hand and a lot of paint just to cover a single figure.

The largest community in the hobby

More tutorials, more reference photos, more forum posts, and more YouTube walkthroughs exist for 1/35 than any other figure scale. When you inevitably have a question at 11 pm about how to thin your wash, someone has already answered it for 1/35. That support network is genuinely valuable when you're learning.

Affordable mistakes

Because the scale is so common, individual figures and small crew sets cost far less than their larger counterparts. A two-figure set lets you practice a technique, ruin one, and still have a second attempt in the same box. Mistakes in this hobby are tuition — 1/35 keeps that tuition affordable.

Five WWII Subjects Perfect for Your First Build

Grey resin figures reward subjects with interesting textures, varied equipment, and faces worth painting. The WWII range is the richest vein in 1/35 for exactly those qualities. Here are five subjects that are forgiving to assemble, photogenic when finished, and endlessly referenced online.

1. German Panzer Crew, 1943–45

Black or field-grey uniforms, padded jackets, and soft side caps make panzer crew one of the most painted subjects in the hobby for good reason. Flat, unified colours mean you can focus entirely on learning shading and highlighting without worrying about complex camouflage patterns. The peaked cap and goggles give faces strong focal points.

2. US Army Infantry, Normandy 1944

The M1 helmet, M1 Garand, and olive-drab uniform are iconic shapes that read clearly even at small size. Olive drab is a forgiving basecoat colour — it accepts almost any brown or green wash without looking wrong — making this one of the most error-tolerant paint jobs in the hobby.

3. Soviet Tankers, Eastern Front

Padded tanker helmets, simple overalls, and often a fur-collared jacket give Soviet crew enormous visual interest with relatively few separate parts. The leather and canvas textures on their kit are excellent for practising different sheen levels in your varnish work.

4. British Airborne, Market Garden 1944

Denison smocks with their distinctive brushed-on camouflage pattern look complicated but are actually one of the best first camouflage exercises: the pattern is intentionally irregular, so imprecision reads as authenticity. Red beret figures are also striking display pieces.

5. German Field Kitchen Crew

Non-combat subjects — cooks, medics, mechanics in working poses — are underappreciated first builds. The relaxed poses mean fewer fiddly weapons to assemble, and the worn, dirty clothing gives you full permission to make the weathering look rough and still call it intentional.

The Tools You Actually Need

Hobby shops and YouTube channels love to sell tools. Most of them are not necessary at the start. This is a realistic list for assembling and painting grey resin figures.

Tool	What it does	Notes
Sharp hobby knife	Removes pour stubs and mould lines	Change blades often — dull blades tear resin
Fine-grit sanding sticks (400–800)	Smooths cuts and surface imperfections	Wet-sand resin to control dust
Super glue (CA) and accelerator	Bonds resin parts	Avoid plastic cement — it only works on styrene
Painting handle or cork	Holds figure while you paint	A wine cork and a blob of blu-tack works fine
Size 0 and size 1 round brushes	All your basecoating and detail work	Cheap synthetic brushes are fine to start
Rattle-can grey primer	Keys paint to resin surface	Do not skip this — paint peels from unprimed resin

That's the honest list. You can add an airbrush later if the hobby sticks. You do not need one to finish a good-looking figure.

Assembling Grey Resin: What's Different from Plastic

Unpainted grey resin behaves differently from the injection-moulded plastic kits you may have built as a child. Knowing the differences prevents most of the frustration beginners encounter.

• Resin is brittle. Thin parts — rifle barrels, antenna, fingers — snap cleanly rather than bending. Handle them carefully and cut sprue connections with a sharp blade, never snippers.
• Mould release is real. Resin parts are cast with a release agent that makes paint and glue bond poorly. Wash every part in warm water with a drop of dish soap, scrub lightly with an old toothbrush, rinse thoroughly, and let them dry completely before you do anything else.
• Resin dust is hazardous. Always wet-sand. If you use a knife dry, wear a dust mask. This is the one safety step that actually matters.
• CA glue is your adhesive. Apply a tiny amount to one surface, hold the join for twenty seconds, then hit it with a spritz of accelerator if needed. Avoid flooding joins — the glue will fog the surface.
• Fill before you prime. Any gaps at joins are easier to see and fill after a coat of primer. Use a small amount of sprue goo, Milliput, or even CA glue mixed with resin dust to fill, then sand smooth.

Painting Basics: Getting a Finished Figure from a Grey Block

The process that works for nearly every 1/35 figure follows the same sequence, regardless of the subject.

Prime everything

Spray a thin, even coat of grey or black primer over the assembled, washed figure. Hold the can 25–30 cm away and use short passes. Let it cure for at least an hour before touching it. This single step is responsible for more failed paint jobs than any other mistake — skipping it means paint will chip off the first time you handle the piece.

Block in basecoats

Apply flat, un-thinned basecoat colours to each area of the figure with a size 1 brush. Accuracy here is less important than coverage. Don't worry about neat edges — you'll clean them up in the next step. For a German uniform start with a medium field grey; for US infantry start with a flat olive drab.

Wash for shadows

A pre-made panel liner or figure wash (brown for warm subjects, dark grey or black for cool ones) thinned with water and flowed into all the recesses of the figure will immediately define folds, equipment pouches, and facial features. Let it dry fully — usually 30 minutes — then move on.

Highlight up from the wash

Mix a small amount of white or light tan into your basecoat colour and apply it to the raised edges and highest surfaces of folds and details. This is the step that takes grey resin from flat to three-dimensional. Work in two or three progressively lighter, smaller applications rather than one dramatic jump.

Seal and done

A coat of flat or satin varnish protects the paint and unifies the finish. Matte varnish knocks down any shine from the washes and gives the figure the non-reflective look that photographs well and reads correctly under display lighting.

The whole sequence, including drying time, fits into a weekend. That's the honest timeline for a first figure done properly — not the rushed frustration of trying to finish in an evening, and not the months-long project that makes people abandon the hobby before they see results.

Browse the full 1/35 scale range to find your first subject, or filter by era in the WWII collection if you already know where you want to start. Either way: buy the kit, wash the parts, and prime before you do anything else. The rest follows.