Hello all, I am working on a theatre model project and was wondering if anybody has any tips on figures…I see they can be rather expensive!
Since I am modeling a theater I will need many people - does anybody know of a manufacturer that sells (cheap) bulk sitting figures, or is there any way to create your own?
For example: any suggestions on the best way to recreate a scene like this:
(Photo Miniatur-Wunderland)
Also I am recreating Cirque Du Soleil’s “O” Theatre at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Has anybody ever come across any miniature figures that resemble clowns, pirates, or colonial figures?
Here is an example of the figures I am looking for:
(Photo from Cirque Du Soliel)
Walthers catalog and/or website is your friend. They have in the past carried unpainted sets of seating figures by Preiser. A fair amount of work to paint, but a whole lot cheaper than buying the prepainted ones. A friend of mine has a circus tent on his HO scale modules, and has used these figures to populate the grandstands. He has over 900 seating figures in the tent.
Another source is Micro-Mark (www.micromark.com). They sell unpainted sets of figures in HO and O scale. The O-scale sets come with 36 figures, the HO with 72. And one of their HO sets includes nothing but seated figures. I hope you have a lot of time on your hands!
Depending on your viewing angle, you might get away with a lot of figures which are only visible from the front. You can take advantage of this by buying one set of figures and then making a mold from them. A one-sided casting (using resin) is much easier than a full three-dimensional mold.
Preiser is generally recognized as making the best model figures. If you shop around thru Walthers, online, and on Ebay you can usually find their unpainted sets for a decent price. Their undedcorated seated passengers set would probably be a good start for your needs. IIRC I worked out once that painted Preiser HO figures tend to be about one dollar per figure, the unpainted ones are about 5 cents per person.
The ones Micro-Mark has in their catalogue are the Model Power figures. They’re not bad especially for a crowd scene, but are perhaps a little oversized and a little coarse compared to the Preiser figures. The Model Power figures come in a flesh-tone plastic so you only have to paint the clothes. Preiser figures come in white plastic, which does allow you to use different shades of skin tone. Plus of course makes it easier to have people like men wearing suits with white shirts…or figures with white face makeup!!
Preiser does make a few clown figures and also makes military and historical figures that you may be able to adapt to your needs with a little filing and sanding.
That’s a great idea MisterBeasley. Unfortunately though, the viewing perspective needs to be from the side, but for another project will have to try that.
I suppose there is no easy way around it but just biting the bullet and painting them. I estimate I would need about 500 figures or so to give it the right effect.
The Preiser figures are very nice and detailed - it’s just they cost a fortune! I won’t need them for a while yet and will just shop around.
In a mvoie or video game when they need to recreate a ass amount of people they have a few models then recreate the same models over and over saving them a bunch of work. With that in mind I was thinking of how you could do something similair. The best way is to have your stage so you only get a good view of part of it, which would have all miniatures, the rest could have a cardstock background with a crowd printed on it. If that is not feasable or doesn’t loook right I guess you’ll have to bite the bullet and buy and paint all those guys.
Keep in mind in a crowd scene, many of the figures would need only a fairly basic paint job. Use a small brush and take your time, it works best I find if you paint several at one time - paint the flesh color on say 5 figures and let it dry etc.
It does look like current list price is around 25 c. per undec figure, but that’s still a lot cheaper than painted figures, which now can run over $2 per figure. The Model Power undec/seated figure set work out at list for around 18c. per figure, and again you could probably find a better deal on them if you shop around. I’ve used Model Power figures and they’re not bad, but they’re not as good as Preiser.
Get lots of help painting the figures. They don’t have to be perfectly painted. Got any children or grandchildren who like to paint and draw? When my eldest granddaughter was about 8 y.o. or so she painted a bunch of N scale figures for me. I had a hard enough time doing it using an Optivisor but with her young perfect vision eyes she just held the figures up in front of her face and painted away. She got quite creative with the clothing going so far as to mix shades of blue to get different kinds of jeans and different skin colours to represent different races. Too bad her family moved away and I seldom see her now. But she’s 16 now and into boys and cars and fashions and sports. She was a great help with my layout when she lived here.
I was on eBay last night and there was a listing for 60 1/87 scale sitting figures. thought of you but the auction was ending in minutes. You might do a search from time to time. Who knows you might luck out.
There is a seller on ebay (or maybe more than one) that sells various scale, including 1:87 and 1:100 painted figures in 100, 500, 1000+ quantities for cheap. Don’t recall offhand the exact price but I’ve got around 3000 painted figures that way and it didn’t break the bank. The one caveat is the figures are dressed in asian-style clothing and all of them have black hair. A quick repaint would solve both issues i think and would do well for building a crowd. Myself, I am planning to use them to populate passenger trains and downtown building interiors, and anywhere I need people that won’t be viewed directly.
I have seen several articles about this in back issues of both MR and RMC. I don’t have a handy reference to tell you which ones specifically, but you could always look here:
You could take a few figures apart and resin cast their individual arms,legs and torsos,then cast those parts en mass and assemble themfor what you need. BILL
Looking at the top photo, my first reaction was that you are in for a very LONG and rather expensive challenge! But here are a couple of ideas. First, you said that you are looking to create a theatre scene, so with the exception of the first few rows, most of the space will be either dimly lit or dark. If you can control the viewing angle (presumably the scene is to be viewed from the stage out to the audience), then keep the stage and actors well lit and detailed, as well as the first few rows. The further you go back the less detailed the people and space need to be. Maybe paint the figures in shades of gray. Also, make molds of one or two rows of seats/people as a unit and cast as many as you need. You need only cast the fronts for the reasons stated above. The effect is similar to the final fight scene in the first “Rocky” movie. There was no budget for a cast of thousands so director Jon Avildsen hired only enough people for the first few rows, and backlit them with spotlights. Everything else was in total darkness. Whenever he changed angles and shots, he moved the extras to fill the rows directly behind the action. As for recreating the Cirque du Soleil “O” characters, Preiser seems to have a character for almost any era and occupation, but since you are asking for help, I think Campbell or Weston offered clown figures back in the 70’s/80’s. But why not try sculpting them a la John Allen (there are several articles in back issues of MR on this subject)? A wire armature with some Sculpey clay and you have a custom figure. Since they will be highly expressive with equally expressive costumes and in whiteface, they can be a little quirky looking without looking unrealistic. Cheers.
I did a search and found some back issues that maybe I’ll order.
Jeff that is very interesting. Unfortunately for me, it needs to be a side-profile…but I’m thinking about experimenting with some molds like you and others suggested. I checked with Preiser’s seemingly endless possibilities, and found a clown or two that look accurate, but the rest I think I’ll try making somehow on my own first…if it’s a complete disaster I’ll look again, but as you mentioned, I probably could get away with a lot and still create a realistic effect. Thanks.
