So, the CEO wants to discontinue passenger service on our line because of a lack of ridership. Onle two of the current fleet of passenger cars ever have passengers. Thus it has fallen to me to increase ridership. But a quick check of the Woodland Scenics catalogue shows that it wll cost me about $1000 to put ten passengers in each car. That is a difficult pill to swallow. Does anyone out there have a source of HO scale passengers that is a bit more affordable?
Under the gun,
The GN goat kid
I used these seated figures (OO scale, I think) that I found at my LHS…
While a bit oversize, they were cheap and once painted (with amputations to suit seating arrangements) looked not too bad in my doodlebug…
I also order some Model Power figures from Toy Train Heaven, but have not yet seen them - they were very reasonably-priced. Also, check out We Honest - they offer a number of pre-painted figures, which would fill several passenger cars at a reasonable price:
Wayne
I fully equipped my 11 car passenger train using Unpainted Preiser Figurers, they come 120 per set for $27 to $30 plus S&H on eBay.
I use Crafters acrylic paints and a Winsor & Newton Kolanski Sable 000 brush to paint my figures. They are a bit pricy but over time they are actually cheaper than using cheap brushes that don’t last very long. The W&N brush I’m using is 5 years old and I’ve painted hundereds of figures with it.
I find that 1:87 figures don’t fit in some passenger seats, for those I go with 1:100 figures of eBay. Most come painted but they also need to be hand painted so they don’t look like 1¢ cheapo figures.
I’ve done a number of cars with unpainted figures. Through the windows it’s hard to tell that I painted them myself. I populate restaurants the same way, if they’ve got big windows that visitors can look in.
The Model Power ones are very reasonable and actually look quite good when painted.
If you do not mind painting figures, the Preiser unpainetd figure set is the way to go.
Merten also has a set of 60 unpainted passengers for $16.99, presently out of stock at Walthers, but may be available elsewhere
https://www.walthers.com/unpainted-seated-people-pkg-60
As mentioned above, 1/87 figures may have to be cut to fit passenger car seats.
Which is why I went with those supercheap 1:100 scale sitting figure sets from some company via Amazon. Yes, there are only 10 or so poses out of a 100 figures, and yes the colour choices are often garish, but no problem: I clean/wash the figures I need, spray with light grey primer, and then paint in more reasonable hues.
These figures I use for vehicles and locations where they will be obscured to some degree (behind thick model vehicle ‘glass’, inside passenger cars which don’t have interiors meant to be viewed directly, and so on).
Situations where the figures can be directly observed in vehicles/rolling stock is a bit tougher, as I want to use scale 1/87 but would rather not chop up the figures bodies to fit what will be easily viewable locations (also why I never just “peg” a figure (cut off at the waist) to squeeze in a tight fitting area, such as a driver’s seat - always leave a lap, even if you need to glue a thin painted sheet of styrene to the bottom of the figure’s waist to suggest a lap
Regular people not constrained by fitting into vehicles or passenger cars are the usual mixes of Preiser, Model Power, Merten, Bachman, Lifelike and so on. Alert - most of the large Preiser unpainted sets seem mostly to have been molded in the 1970s (maybe early 1980s), as the men figures often have suits and ties and the women often wear skirts/dresses. Not sure if their more recent figures have migrated into big unpainted sets yet.
I prefer the Preiser figures, but the Walthers Scenemaster passengers are pretty good too. The undec ones are often on sale at Walthers or through other online stores.
What I do is spray an entire sprue’s worth of people at a time, before removing them from the sprues. I like Tamiya spray can paint, it has a good nozzle that produces a fine spray. Often a set of say 72 figures will have four sprues with 18 people each, so you get four versions of each person. I spray one sprue’s worth gray, one pale blue, one pale green, and one tan. Paint fleshtones on the face and hands, remove them from the sprue and paint the hair, and that’s all you really have to do. Of course, I usually do paint them some more, add colors etc. but for passengers you don’t really need to do a lot to make it look good. BTW, spraying them first makes it a lot easier to brush paint them compared to raw plastic. I use Acrylicos Vallejo paint for brushpainting, with a couple of very fine brushes.
BTW don’t add too many people to each car!! Unless you’re modelling a commuter train, you don’t need 80 people for an 80 car coach. First, most HO coach seat-pairs are too small for two HO adults, so figure on one person per pair. That brings you down to 40. Not every seat should be occupied, even on a ‘full’ train. People go to the restroom, club car, diner, etc. Leaving some seats unoccupied, you maybe only need 20-25 people to make a car look like it’s well patronized.
To put the number of people needed in perspective, Pullman required that a railroad ensure that there would be at least 12 passengers for each sleeping car. If the car Pullman provided was the common 12-1 sleeper, it meant the car only had to be slightly under half-full to meet the requirement.
To help in painting the individual figures I attach them to the head of a straight pin with CA then stick it pin in a pencil eraser. The pencil can be easily rotated for easy access to the figures.
I use a larger eraser or small strip of Balsa to store the figures until I’m finished painting them.
I also leave the figures that I want easily removable glued to a pin and drill a #68 hole in the surface where they to be placed.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid
Scan ebay, you might find a deal on HO figures.
Don’t cut service just yet…
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The Windsor and Newton Series 7 Kolinski Sable brushes are the best… period. They make two different size 000 brushes. One is a detail spotter and the other is a tapered brush. The tapered brush is the one I use. The detail spotter does not hold enough paint.
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Unfortunately a few sellers are refusing to carry natural animal hair brushes, and this is driving up prices. I paid over $30.00 for my last W&N S7 brush.
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-Kevin
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How many cars are in your train?
Kevin
I paid $7.50 each for the last W&N brushes from Dick Blick for the 3/0 brushes about 5 years ago. I was smart that time, I bought three 3/0 and three #1. They have doubled in price since then.
They are great brushes, after five years they still hold their original shape. If you suspend the brushes and don’t let them rest on the bottom of the brush cleaner they last for years.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfiel
Usually the improbable name of the Chinese Ebay Seller WE HONEST comes up. I have not bought from them, but several people have and have been happy. You can buy various quantities of people for around 19 cents a person.
How long has revenue and ridership been dropping?
For painting figures, don’t forget about the “Brifayle” method. [;)] Easy to use and effective. Here’s a link that covers it for O and HO scales:
I don’t have any decent pictures, but I added figures to a few dome cars on my Christmas train set-up.
I think I used Atlas figures, maybe Model power, I know they were cheap enough, hand painted in flat acrylics hobby and craft paint, but I also had to cut off the legs to get them into the seats.
I did the same with a Rapido lounge car, and still had to cut off the legs.
I still have to finish a station project, with lots of travelers and communters milling around.
Mike.
I have the same problem. My commuter trains are ghost trains and my excursion has just a handful of people on board. Nice figures from Preiser and Walthers are available but very pricy. The unpainted figures from Preiser are a better bargain. I have gotten pretty good at painting figures so I use them. Since the seats in the cars are modeled to be empty and the cushions don’t absorb the weight of the people you have to give them butt reduction surgery with an x-acto knife.
In the future I plan on ordering the cheapo figures from China but I refuse to buy the ones which are already painted. I mean, wow, who dresses those figures. The fashion police should arrest them. I will buy the unfinished versions and paint them myself. I believe the figures are rip offs of the Preiser figures. I will know for sure when I get some.
Someone suggested getting the 1/100 scale figures so they fit into the seats better. I’m afraid they might look like children however.
If I could make my own line of figures I would make them to fit in the seats of passenger cars. I would make them so two people are the same figure seated together and already have the butt reductions done so the fit perfectly.
My plan is to have a limited number of riders on the commuter trains but the excursion has to be sold out like the real thing.
[quote user=“RR_Mel”]
This is one of my passenger cars under construction (Kitbashed).
This is a Athearn fulldome kitbashed to a SP ¾ dome, the Athearn seats on the upper deck are too mall for 1:87 figures. The lower deck (lounge) has 1:87 Preiser figures.
As you can see I use #8 birdshot to add weight to my rolling stock.
Thanks
If anyone is interested here is a link to a post on my blog of the kitbash.
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2015/07/july-7-2015-fourth-sp-dome-lounge.html
I have painted aproximately 400 figures, most are the Preiser figures some Atlas and Model Power. It takes a bit of umph to get me started painting figures but when I get going I paint between 70 and 100 at a shot.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
I am glad to see Dick Blick is carrrying them again at 40% off! This is great news. My set is just about worn out. I think I have had the current set of brushes about 4 years, and I paint LOTS of military miniatures with them.
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Thank you for the tip.
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-Kevin
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