Why is it so hard to find modern era figures? Every company that produces figures for model railroads seems firmly planted in the 40s/50s era. Men in suits and fedoras. Women in prim dresses and purses. Workers in overalls. Police with caps. Firemen in vintage gear.
We need someone to produce figures that would fit a layout set in the last 20-30 years:
Modern clothing, including ball caps, hoodies, jeans, and sneakers
Women in pants! But also in any of the roles that we see men in.
Workers in modern working gear, like hard hats, high viz vests, and Carhartt-style clothing.
Emergency responders in modern uniforms. When was the last time you saw a police officer wearing a hat in their everyday uniform? Or without the bulky utility belt? Let’s see some firefighters in regular uniforms and in protective gear. Modern EMTs! With modern gurneys!
Commuters that look like the people on today’s railway platforms: backpacks, messenger/laptop bags, and casual clothes.
And focus on the activities that we would see near the railroad. The abundance of figures designed for interior scenes blows me away. Are we really putting that much effort into detailing building interiors to the detriment of the more easily visible outdoor scenes on our layouts?
Am I the only one who thinks the market needs to catch up?
There are numerous railroad workers in modern clothing/PPE available.
There’s no American-style modern firefighters in HO scale that I’m aware of, but you can source Euro-style firefighters modern turnout gear. The only real difference is their helmet style, which isn’t that apparent from a distance.
Noch makes a set of police officers in tactical gear that are just a repaint away from standing in as American police officers, although only about half the set would make sense for anything other than a serious situation that requires heavy weapons.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a modern heavy duty gurney, but it had UK style figures associated with it.
Just got to dig around.
Preiser are another company who have modern day figures albeit European.
David
Here in Maryland the State Police still wear hats, light tan western style lightweight hats. After they pull you over it is the first thing they do as they get out of their car - put the hat on.
Never paid any attention to this, but I model 1954 and have lots of HO figures my father bought in the early 60’s.
Sounds like a business opportunity.
Sheldon
I’m modeling the modern era in the US, so European emergency responder figures are generally useless to me. The accident scene I’m working on is less than six inches from the front of the layout; differences will be readily apparent.
One of the big issues I run into is that too many figures depict very niche scenes. Woodland Scenics has a set of firefighters rescuing a cat from a tree. Very cute, but not appropriate for my needs. We need poses of people doing everyday activities.
Believe me, I’ve been digging for years.
Hard or impossible?
I decided to do a search on Google. Could not find any modern figures.
Rich
The problem here is tooling investment in an item that is likely in less demand.
Let me explain.
Look at the number of people building shelf layouts today vs years ago when lots of modelers built layouts with deeper scenes and more non railroad scenic content.
Sure, shelf layouts often have their little “non railroad” scenes, but it is not like the old days were many modelers tried to capture the flavor of the whole town.
Maybe it is lucky for me that I have lots of figures from 40-50 years ago, and that figures that depict the 50’s are still available.
And if I might say, as I look at layouts in the various publications, and on facebook and other places on the web, the more modern the locos and rolling stock, the less non railroad scenery I see.
Sound like the OP is the opposite of that trend - good for him.
Hope finds what he needs.
I suppose some like modeling action scenes like fires or car crashes, on my layout the fireman are all busy washing the equipment and the police are at the doughnut shop…
I remember someone wanting to model a bank robbery - my reaction was that the only way I would model a bank robbery was to have the robbers laying dead in the street at the hands of the SWAT team.
Sheldon
Seek and ye shall find. Check out miniaturizm on evil bay expensive but very good quality and some really crazy stuff too
Check out Miniprints.
Dan
Agreed. I have a shelf layout that basically models the ROW and building along it. I don’t model city streets, parks, etc., and if I did, it would be the boring back side of those buildings and not the funner front side with the people. Many “non railroad” figures are not needed (and even with railroad figures, I hate the little railroad guy in the safety vest riding on the front of the locomotive, or even the crew inside the cab that come with some. Just my taste). Even when I detail the layout more, it won’t have many humans on it.
Having said that, more figures like warehouse/dock workers or any type of “blue collar” figures would be appreciated. No space for many figures wearing Tshirts and shorts on shelf layouts, JMO. So any new tooling should be properly targeted if its going to sell.
Full disclosure, I’m a Z scaler… 1:220
My current layout I’m working on is a ski hill and town. I wanted various figures to fill the hill. I’ve finally had to resort to getting a 3D resin printer. But the work doesn’t stop there, I first had to learn a free program called MakeHuman where I can dress and pose people just the way I want them in 3D… hard hats, long hair etc. Then I port the file into another free app called Blender and there I can tweak the pose and then transform the file into a printable 3D image. And then it’s off to the printer. Painting 1:220 is also a trick, but my skiers are going so fast that you won’t notice the. Plus now that I have the 3D printer, I found snow machines, groomers, ski lifts… pretty much anything I need to add the printable files are available for free on the web. Pallets, forklifts, oil barrels… all the little stuff.
Some people go to the extreme and even do their own scanning of people and objects to get all the fine details.
I also wanted EMT’s and firefighters for my ski hill. So they may be next.
I’ll have to look at MakeHuman. I’ve been trying to learn Daz3D, but it’s an uphill battle and I can’t find the accessories I need for the figures I need.
The layout I’m working on is a modular layout that goes to our local county fair and train shows. It’s two-foot depth is not much larger than many shelf layouts. For visual appeal, we need more than just right-by-the-rails scenes. The accident scene I’m working on has been there for years, but desperately needs an update. Modern figures and flashing lights will make it a more compelling scene. I have the LEDs for the lights, but as I’ve noted, the figures are pretty much impossible to source unless I design and print them myself and, honestly, I just have too much else to do on the layout.
I have looked at Miniprints, but their selection is too limited right now.
Another part of it that’s kind of annoying is we don’t see a lot of figures of female train crew members, police officers, truck drivers, or what have you. It’s like they’re stuck in a Leave It To Beaver version of the world.
LOL. So true.
Right! It often feels like the only women that exist in the HO scale world are housewives in prim dresses.
I don’t know about that. Going way back, WESTON FIGURES, latter owned and sold by Campbell Scale Models had the “Lady in the Lake”, a rather voluptuous young woman who had just returned to shore after an improto swim. She even had an optional accessory, a small pile of clothes…
She was available as a blonde, brunette or redhead.
I could go to the layout room and find her, but it might not be so good to post a picture.
She can be found still available on Ebay.
Sheldon
Do it, Sheldon!
Rich
Find the blonde. 
David
If that is entirely true, it would seem to present a marketing opportunity to rectify an unintended wrong.
Rich
Sounds amazing z scale Ben toying with the idea Sean some cool stuff still can’t get over how small that is