One hundred and forty-fourth scale is where two modelling disciplines meet: smaller aircraft kits on one side, medium-sized ships and submarines on the other. The figures made for it are correspondingly practical, running from sets of fifty sailors with their captains, in boater caps or berets, to work teams in overalls, groups of labouring men and civilian subjects, with a few closely related 1:100 pieces that sit happily beside them in a free-standing scene.
A body stands around twelve millimetres tall and sets range from a pair of figures to a dozen, so you can populate a bridge or a whole working deck. The guide below covers both uses and a fast painting routine.
At 1:144 the same figure can stand on an apron or a forecastle, which is why the sets are built around generic activity rather than one specific type. Two naval crew sets carry the figure count — fifty-two figures each, enough for a whole deck — and alongside them come working parties and civilians useful anywhere a scene needs occupants. Several sets offer pose variants so a group looks natural instead of cloned. The counts are worth checking before you buy, because the difference between a two-figure set and a fifty-figure set is the difference between a vignette and a fully manned ship, and both have their place.
A figure seated in a cockpit or a pair of technicians at a nose leg gives an aircraft its measure instantly. Airframes are listed in 1:144 aircraft model kits and rotary subjects in 1:144 helicopter model kits.
A captain with his crew on the bridge, or ratings drawn up along a deck, turns a bare hull into a working vessel. Choose from 1:144 ship model kits and 1:144 submarine model kits.
Paint the figures while they are still on the sprue or support raft: primer, clothing areas, a dot of flesh and a dark wash. Do not paint detail, only imply it; at ordinary viewing distance the scale and the contrast of the wash do the work for you. One deliberate exception is worth making: a slightly lighter tone on the head reads as a face from much further away than any attempt at features.
Larger figures and other genres are gathered under model figures.
