Preiser are the most relistic, espesialy if you give them a shade treatment. Weston are a bit of a caricture type and a bit out of scale but I use a couple because of the type and pose. You can buy Preiser unpainted also which I have used on some modifyed poses, you can pick up sets for cheap sometimes on e-bay, especialy sets that are partialy used.
I picked a few figures out of one of those bags of little people.
With a bit of plastic putty, some limb rerrangement and craft paint, they ended up on the Yellow Brick Road.
Also, I model the Transition Era so women and girls in dresses don't bother me. They fit right in.
Well, my model lady didn't get beady little eyes.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
gmpullman chutton01 As for Woodland Scenics figures, while IMO they seem to be molded a little 'cartoony', Yep! WS_figure by Edmund, on Flickr Did these ladies forget to remove their oven mitts? Or are those white baseball gloves? Just sayin' Regards, Ed
chutton01 As for Woodland Scenics figures, while IMO they seem to be molded a little 'cartoony',
Yep!
WS_figure by Edmund, on Flickr
Did these ladies forget to remove their oven mitts? Or are those white baseball gloves?
Just sayin'
Regards, Ed
Yeah I feel the same way about the WS figures.
There are lots of unpainted sets. In addition to preiser, there are Lytler and Lytler metal figures, Musket miniatures (crude but they do clean up well), SS Limited, shape ways and others. If you can be OK with commonly seen figures, the Campbells Weston figures are very nice along with the hundreds of painted Prieser sets that have come out over the years.
One of the issues that some modelers have with figures in motion is that they can look " frozen in mid stride"- the person swinging the axe is forever in mid chop etc. To avoid this, these modelers choose to have stationary figures that could plausibly be motionless for a period of time. People standing or seated etc....
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Maybe in the kitchen with a pan of muffins.
To the OP. Check out train shows. About twenty years ago, I bought a bag of unpainted figures of different makes for a couple bucks. Had to be about 200 figures. I've painted a couple dozen and the rest are still in storage.
Pete
Naw, looks to me like a fist-fight about to happen...maybe a wandering hubby or maybe a stolen recipe.
Wayne
OvermodEd, you know they burned their hands—
Could be carpal tunnel? Or Moffat tunnel?
Cheers, Ed
gmpullman WS_figure by Edmund, on Flickr
gmpullmanDid these ladies forget to remove their oven mitts? Or are those white baseball gloves?
gmpullman WS_figure by Edmund, on Flickr Did these ladies forget to remove their oven mitts? Or are those white baseball gloves?
Rich
Alton Junction
chutton01As for Woodland Scenics figures, while IMO they seem to be molded a little 'cartoony',
xboxtravis7992The easiest way to build up figures cheap is with unpainted figure pacts. They are a bit basic, but you can get sometimes a hundred or more figures in one purchase. Just look up unpainted figure pacts up on eBay or Amazon. Woodland Scenics is the most common at a hobby shop, but they are pre-painted and very pricey.
Woodland Scenics is the most common at a hobby shop, but they are pre-painted and very pricey.
As for Woodland Scenics figures, while IMO they seem to be molded a little 'cartoony', as for the paint jobs (I brought a few sets over the years hoping to repaint them to make them more 'realistic' - but from an email I sent to Woodland several years ago I got this response:
Thank you for your purchase of Woodland Scenics Products. We have not had the need to strip the paint off our Accent Models, so we have not tested a method for removal. Our suggestion would be to paint the figures white and then paint as you desire.
This very same topic was the subject of a recent July thread.
https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/292803.aspx
Mel made his figures using Alumilite resin casting materials. First, he made the molds using using commercially available figures as masters. Then, he made dozens of the same figures in these molds.
There is really nothing to license here.
The easiest way to build up figures cheap is with unpainted figure pacts. They are a bit basic, but you can get sometimes a hundred or more figures in one purchase. Just look up unpainted figure pacts up on eBay or Amazon.Woodland Scenics is the most common at a hobby shop, but they are pre-painted and very pricey.As for how many figures you need, it really depends on a location. At a busy urban center, yeah you need massive crowds. But an industrial district? A couple people heading out to their cars at the end of their shift, a few taking a break outside, etc. is all you really need. Rural areas? A single farmer or two standing in their field, etc. The human mind is great at imagining what is not seen, and showing a couple people about is often enough to convince the viewer that there is life happening "elsewhere" beyond their vision. Empty cars, empty bikes, and all that give visual eye tricks to suggest people who were there but are currently unseen.
OvermodPlease, somebody who knows Mel Perry's family, have them save everything related to his figures, and license them to be made.
RR_Mel - Sept 2020I started out making molds of Preiser figures then chopping off and reposition heads, arms and legs. I then make molds of the repositioned figures. I wanted to have some nice looking ladies and there just isn’t many in HO scale so I bought a few bald female HO figures off Shapewasy (very pricy) and did the same with them.
Please, somebody who knows Mel Perry's family, have them save everything related to his figures, and license them to be made.
I don't know anyone who built out that combination of wit and skill better.
What gets me about most model railroads is the lack of people, I mean think about it somebody has the do all the work and eat and consume on these little empires..