You can’t just go and pick up any figure set and expect it to be what you want. However, you can find some really excellent products from both sides of the Atlantic. These figures are all Preiser, and I think they look particularly American. I didn’t modify them in any way, not even paint. With some of these, though, you have to be careful with placement and positioning so that they stand (or sit) naturally in your scenery.
This is a complete Woodland Scenics set. Again, they’re straight out of the package. It’s the “Farmers Market” set, which comes with the tables, fruits and veggies.
I prefer not to use figures if I can avoid it all of them no matter how great the moulding is tend to be doing activities which require movement.
That is an instant spoiler the frozen in mid step particularly. the few figures I do use are doing something that does not require movement it looks a lot better.
Far better to suggest life the bicycle by the signal box steps that sort of thing that implies life without there being a figure
The only figure sets I have seen and liked, was the funeral because it was different and the figures where respectfully still, and the drafts playing figures that come with the Atlas railway hut again you don’t expect a lot of movement from those guys oh and the fishing man.
Other than them not many others I would use except maybe the mermaids but they would be painted stone and put in a garden as a garden statue in the more up market area of the model
I always choose figures that are not moving if I feel a scene needs a figure
John, that’s a good point. The frozen action figures do betray the scene a bit. Before I invest in teeny peeps, I think I’ll take you advice and go for a few standing figures, or ones that aren’t obviously in the midst of a dramatic movement.
My other bug is cars without drivers. How silly is that? Except for a couple of covertibles, there are all these quality scale cars out there, but they have to be parked…or you got to pry open these expensive little things and place drivers, one more pain in the you-know-what. Like we didn’t have other things we could do.
I’m assuming that the manufcturers make these HO (or N) scale cars specifically for the model railroad market, so why not place a few drivers in there? I don’t see their rationale. It’s not like these cars are toys for kids, like souped-up matchbox or hot wheels cars.
I think your figures will look better if you use them in passive poses. Instead of say depicting someone in midstride for instance have them napping, or sitting or resting on their shovels.
Well if you really want to get jiggy with it, make them active.
Last weekend I saw at a trainshow on the large scale Del Oro Pacific modular layout, a kids sandlot game, and EACH figure in the field was attached thru the base to a mechanism that slowly turned each firgure in a unique way, so as you watched each player would turn like they were watching the bases, then added sound recordings of actual sandlot kids screaming and talking, it was very real!
They also have a forest fire module complete with smoke generator, fire truck pumping REAL water onto the fire and a Fire Copter with spinning blades, all complete with crackling fire, sirens and helecoptor noises.
I’ve also seen slot type cars added to layouts, I’ve seen those Dept 56 scenes where the figures are being moved by magnets under them, effectivly added to layouts.
Get creative!
Now if you really want some ugly figures…try Aristocraft large scale figure, Whooo Nelly! are they UGLY! Straight out of Chernobyl Mutants !!!
A lifetime or so ago, John Allen pioneered making figures by applying dental wax over wire armatures, then carving to shape and painting. At about the same time, a friend of mine used the same technique to fill an interurban car with appropriate passengers and crew - reading papers, rummaging in a brief case, mom dealing with junior’s facial sanitation (now, BLOW!)
I’m not quite at the point where I’ll need a bunch of figures, but I’m getting there. When I do, I intend to give the wax-over-wire technique a try.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that Preiser figures all looked like they belonged in North America. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that most Preiser folks do look European. After all, they’re a German company. Some of their “industrial worker” types even look Eastern European, from the Cold War era. Still, by carefully selecting your figures (and at those prices, you can bet I’m being careful) you can populate your cities pretty well.
I just didn’t want some of our newer modellers to ignore Preiser figures, thinking they wouldn’t fit in.
I too have seen animated HO figures. Miniature world in the basement of the Empress hotel in Victoria B.C. has a cool mining scene. With the carts going back and forth being pushed by miners and men swinging picks and shovels. Very cool.
