I see great photos of scenes and layouts which I can’t distinguish between models and real scenes, these scenes are magnificent, but for some strange reason the addition of figures completely changes the scene to a toy scene? it seems the figures used are the most unrealistic additions to a layout, are they the wrong scale? they all seem too chunky(thick legs and arms),hats too big etc. dogs the size of small horses, they remind me of lego toys. maybe it’s the positioning of these figures, they seem to be dumped everywhere on the layout in unreal poses. This has created a problem, I now do not know if I will add figures to a layout, if so, does anyone make very realistic figures and are they painted or unpainted, the cost of some not very good figures seems unreasonable (injection plastic), I would imagine if realistic figures are available they will cost and arm and leg (not too chunky) I guess my problem is looking at a precisely detailed locomotive in every detail and looking in the cab and seeing something resembling "gumby’ at the controls. I need some help on this, thanks.
I think the problem is they paint them with gloss paints. what if we tried flat paints and maybe (this may seem weired) we should weather them to tone down the new paint. also they should try to cut back on “chunky” figures if possible.
Preiser figures are pretty nice, I have quite a bunch of them. Painted they can be expensive, but many of them come in packages of 100 or more that are unpainted. A fair amount of work, but you can personalize them your way. Check out the Walthers website that probably shows them. I know their catalog does.
Power to the (little) people!
Bob Boudreau
I have recently purchased two packs of 120figures that Bob mentions, they are un painted,but, at around$1 to $1.50 for the ‘basic’ painted figures I would rather do them myself, they dont really take too long and I usually sit and paint a few while my wife watches American Idol or some other reality crap. At least I’m sitting next to her and can respond with a well timed “uh huh” or some other none descript response to give the appearance I am not neglecting her in favour of my trains.[:D]
They look well proportioed and as cheese says, painted with duller flat colours and some minor weathering they do look good.
If the figures are posed in a state of rest or near inactivity, ie sitting down or standing chatting this also I feel increases the realism. A figure frozen in a full action pose that never actually moves will never look natural or realistic in my opinion, exept maybe in a photo where they are expected to be frozen.
However a layout with no figures would look equally unrealistic I think, if there are no people why would there be any need for trains in the first place?
If they are modeled and placed well, figures, human or otherwise can only enhance a railroad, its just another of the many facets of the hobby that needs to be researched, practiced and hopefully perfected.
just my 2c, although reading back more likely my $1
Be safe and have fun.
Karl.
Pretty much the key points were covered
1.) Flat paint (or at least spray flat clear-coat (dullcoat) when you are done with the basic paint job
2.) Get bulk unpainted figures (yes, Presier), sand and file off mold lines and odd flash/molding marks (and fill and sand the ‘molding’ depressions often found in the back
3.) Poses at ease (sitting, just standing, leaning against a wall) are more realistic than super-action poses (like some figure mid-way through lifting a heavy object).
Now, from some article of yore, you don’t so much want to ‘weather’ the figure as much as brush a dilute black wash over the figure and (if the clothes are wrinkled, them too) in order to accenuate the facial features and the wrinkles (particular on well-detailed figure like Preiser offers) - do not paint eyes or lips on any figure (at least HO scale and smaller), as they tend to look ‘clownlike’.
And only do a few figures at a time (between 5 and 10 in my case), as you can reuse the colors (one figure a red shirt, another a red skirt and so on) - try to use several sets of colors over these figures, so in the end they don’t all have the same coloration.
There are many more tips on painting figures on-line and in the magazines, so have fun…
Preiser has a 98 page catalog of HO people figures.
To see it go to www.http://www.rocousa.com/preiser.asp and scroll down to Preiser data base.
Prices are 1/3 off Walthers
Thanks for the responses, they explain a lot and great tips also. I went to a website and the packs 120 of unpainted figures was @ $20.00 u.s. they seemed quite realistic in detail and poses, many figures are strictly European but can be painted any description, now I can paint a bunch of Canadians, all I have to do is give these hosers winter boots and plaid shirts eh? thanks.
Shading and highlighting the folds of clothes and shadowed areas is really important for a good look, clothing and faces never appear as a single solid colour in real life. Putting people inside stores and automobiles is huge improvement too – and these figs don’t need detailed painting since they’ll be blurred behind the plastic windows.
Hmmm. Excellent modeling tip, paint figures while the CEO of the finance commitee is watching stupid TV. Would be just as easy to stop for awhile when she leaves and I flip back to the History channel.
In dat video Great Model Railroads vol 21, Ron Kuykendall demostrates human weathering buy lightly washing a cowboy figure with Testor flat black. The shadows created add tremendous depth.
Preiser is the best I think… though I have used a few WS’s. Another way to weather is to apply a wash of Alcohol and black india ink. I ususally place the figures with super glue and then go back when dried and apply the wash. Once it dries, it high-lites that creases and what not.
Cletus
tatans; Don’t forget the toques!
Tatans,
Prieser is good. The only problem is that they have the same figures over and over in the sets and you see the same ones on every ones’ layout (many are decidedly Europen looking as well). For more unique stuff to add into the Prieser mix, look for white metal figures from Musket Minatures, Campbell, Lytler and Lytler to spice stuff up.
ditto on people being at rest.
A bunch of months ago in MR, there was a featured layout where the builder used only people at rest. I have done the same on my little layout, and I really notice the difference.
I have people doing stuff, but they are at rest at that particular moment in time … a deer hunter sitting in a tree stand, duck hunters sitting in a boat (with a dead body floating face down in the water nearby, which I remove/add as my mood goes, lol), welders with their equipment studying their project, two guys sitting around a barrel with a checker board on it , etc …
Jim
When I get to scenery mode I have plans for one certain “action” scene. My brother-in-law is a UPS driver and I have purchased both a UPS big brown truck and a white FedEx van. I’ll have to paint two figures in brown and have them heading back to their ride (packages in hand) leaving the “up on blocks” white van in ther wake.
Gawd, I can already hear Denny laughing. [:D]
Dave (dwRavenstar)
My April MR just came today, and the photos on the opening pages of the Turtle Creek layout provide a nice example for discussion. This is not at all to knock the Turtle Creek – its a nice quick introductory layout, and super-detailing the people is beyond its design scope. However, the photos happen to make a nice illustration for this discussion.
The workers in the photo on page 66 fit pretty well into the scene. They could be improved a bit (see the note on poses below), but don’t jump out as somehow being ‘wrong’.
By contrast, the figures on page 67 just scream plastic figure, and paint alone will never cure them. However, these are plastic figures, and a quick bit of ‘kitbashing’ work with an X-Acto knife and glue, and then some painting, would make a huge improvement.
The two figures on the porch are staring off into space for no discernable reason. Slice them at the neck and/or waist and reposition them so they are looking at each other, or at the guy walking down the road and they would look much more natural. The women is in a very odd pose for where she is standing. If there was a railing that she was leaning on with one elbow and holding with the other hand, her pose would fit the scene.
The guy walking down the road does not have a natural stride, the feet are too close together. The figure is in more of a standing pose – note that the arms are not in opposition to the legs. He should be positioned in a natrual place to stand, by the open hood of the car for example. Or if he’s walking down the road, reposition a leg for an actual stride, and reposition one or both arms. for this type of repositioning, a bit of cheap Testor’s Contour Putty is really handy for filling any gaps in the joints that are cut and reglued.
The guy watching the checkers game is the only one who fits right in. The two checkers players aren’t quite convincing. They would be beter repositioned so they were actually leaning on their game table, and loo
Yet another kink from an old MR: Use artist’s colored pencils to add details to miniatures. Dark brown or black color pencil can be used to gently add highlights to a figure, even in HO (for eyebrows and eye detail) and even lips (use a medium brown, not bright red unless painting a clown miniature) in finer detail than a brush.
Woodland Scenics HO folks are pretty nicely painted right out of the box–here is a figure shot of WS miniatures in a “non-action” pose. I added a wash of dark brown paint to grime up the outfits and add a little depth but they are otherwise straight out of the box.
And yeah, my lighting in this shot isn’t very good.
I’m still toying with adding an “action shot”–one of the buildings I want to model is the local ASPCA, which was located right next to the railroad tracks. I plan on modeling a “jailbreak” by several dogs–although, considering that static figures look better than motion shots, I might have several dogcatchers with nets peering around while standing, as a number of dogs hide behind a bush (visible from the foreground, but not from the dogcatcher’s perspective) nearby.
Preiser is my first choice
Woodland Scenics did a great job on the BeeKeepers figures, and hiveboxes. I bought them immediately upon sight - my father-in-law is the guy in the blue jeans… been looking for something realistic for the past two years. Into the hills they go, above the pastures
As I recall, long ago John Allen did outstanding work creating figures on the Gorre and Daphetid. Might look into his techniques, if you have a lot of time and patience.
John Allen’s miniatures were longer on charm than realism–the fat conductor and crew chief, the notorious Sorfeetz brothers, the hanged diesel-electric salesman, and the O scale yard-worker/fill-in switch engine may not have looked photographically perfect, but they all had style.