The whole point of the 1/50 project is to mess about with ideas.

Magnets have always fascinated me. When I was very young I had a home made toy,  a fishing rod with a horseshoe magnet on a bit of string and some cardboard fish with a paper clip on the nose which could be caught in a bucket of shredded paper. These days I suspect 4 year olds would consider that a bit naff, but it kept me quiet for hours.

So, as suggested by Mikkel this is a bit of an experiment to see whether using people with magnetic feet would be feasible in places other than loco cabs. One of those cheap 1/50 figures with 1mm dia 2mm long magnets glued into holes in the feet.

A bit of ply with 2 strips of 0.25 mm tinplate from a paper fastener and matching card each side. to the rear is a drawing pin, actually steel though brass coloured.

Some test surfaces. L to R 0.15 mm emery as tarmac, 0.25 embossed card setts, 1.25 cardboard flagstones and paper with some flock grass approx 0.3 thick. The drawing pin is covered with some fine sand.

Tests show that with the emery , setts or the fine sand the figure is secure but will still move easily if knocked sideways by a hand. It resists small amounts of shaking of the board but a violent movement sideways will  cause the figure to fall off.   The magnetic effect is negligible through the flagstones, and about half that of the emery through the grass.

Just for interest;

I think that the force of attraction between a magnet and a magnetic material varies approximately with the inverse cube of the separation. I learned that a long time ago, subsequent internet searches suggests that is still so for the near field. Clearly distance is the key. For magnetic feet the distance between the feet and the tinplate substrate needs to be kept to a minimum, particularly for small magnets .

Other improvements would be larger magnets in the legs if possible or burying a magnet in the board if only a few standing spots are needed. Naturally with bigger scales this would be easier.

Overall I feel that I would incorporate something similar into any sort of 1/50 layout, if I ever find room for one.