North Star Models

North Star Models (not to be confused with North Star Military Figures) is a Latvian/Ukrainian company that produces various 3D modeled figures and kits in a wide variety of scales.

1/72

1/43

I first became aware of their existence from their eBay store, where I could scarcely believe that the picture of their Girl Mechanic model was actually 1/72 scale.

To see if the picture was too good to be true, I decided to purchase a few models directly from North Star and have a look. Flat rate shipping to North America runs €16, and takes over three months to arrive at the moment.

The first picture is a set of printed models entitled Naked Girls 3D (F-72018). It seems to be one of their most popular sets for some reason, so I bought them purely for evaluation purposes.

I think that the painted catalog images for this particular set are actually their 1/43 models, and not their 1/72 models. My initial impression was that there was something off about the head to body proportion, or length of neck, but I think it's actually because they have realistically modeled hair (which makes their heads look undersized at 1/72).

The next models are all cast resin. The resin is a bit on the hard side, but it is not overly brittle. The models had some minor flash that is easily cleaned up.

The first model is the Girl Mechanic (F-72017). She comes in three pieces, and has huge mold lines up and down the sides of her legs.

Next is Frau Lili (F-72015) who I presume is a representation of Marlene_Dietrich.

The next figure is a WWII IJN Fighter Pilot (F-72012). The pilot is a single piece model with a separate sword. I think they actually use a 3D printed sword for the model in their catalog image, because the resin version is pretty sad. I don't know if its because of his bulky flight suit, but his body looks oddly proportioned to me.

The last figures are Despots of [the] 20th Century (F-72003). Hilter is a single piece model, while Uncle Joe comes in four pieces. They are nicely cast with no seams, but the fit on parts is not great without some carving. I don't really have a use for these two, but they were on sale.

With regard to scale, the resin models lean toward the small, thin side. The 3D printed models look tall, but they are still on rafts that are the equivalent of 4" platform shoes. The mechanic is really tall and all legs, but her proportions aren't totally off if we think of her as a gravure model rather than a mechanic.

The despots look undersized as well (Stalin in particular). I think this may be due to one of the major issues that I see with 3D mastered models. The sculptors start with some standard sized model, and then just scale proportionally up or down to the height that they want for the figure.

The problem however is that the proportions for people of different heights is not a linear relationship. Thus we have Stalin who should be short and stocky, but instead looks like a 1/76 figure instead of a 1/72 figure.

In any event, the models lean towards the expensive side, particularly with shipping. I'd rate the sculpting as excellent, and overall, I'd say the figures are suited for diorama purposes, or for use as objective markers. However, some of their catalog listings only show 3D renders of the figures, so it's hard to judge what they will look like in real life.