Painted model figures

[bob hughes60]

If members could advise me I would be very grateful.

I was thinking about populating my carriages and steam locos and solitary DMU with figures.

Driver,fireman .guard, passengers

But I would prefer to buy ready painted ( non-artistic genes run in my family)

Could I pick members' brains on recommended products especially seated figures?

I have had a rapid look on the internet but many of the figures seem modern image rather than 50s and 60s.

Thanks for any help.

[Kris]

Passengers in coaches tend to be reasonably invisible. Given this I tend to buy the cheap and very nasty figures that you get on ebay from Hong Kong or China. Most of these are not seated, but again given the amount that you can see of the figures in the coaches you can normally get away with chopping off the legs.

 

As a note these figures do need repainting but (spot the theme) as they area quite hidden this can be done quickly and with minimal detail.

 

I do this in 2mm which helps with the invisibility but even in 4mm the view is not great. I would advise using better quality drivers and firemen as these are far more visible.

[HLT 0109]

I have just fitted some figures to my 00 gauge Bachmann Mk1 restaurant car (I had to have the roof off in order to refix loose glazing) and I found there was insufficient room for the lower half of the body so it made no difference whether the figures were standing or sitting! As the coach is not lit, the figures hardly show (so why bother you might think) so I do not think it really matters whether the passengers appear to be dressed correctly. Last year (before I had the courage to take coaches apart) I had seated figures put into a Bachmann class 108 DMU whilst it was having a sound chip fitted. For those, I did as Kris says - used very cheap, ready painted figures from China - they cost me about £6 for 24 at the time, including postage - and I think they look great. They are brightly painted and the class 108 has internal lighting so they do show up but I think only the very fussy would notice whether they are dressed for the correct era.

 

Harold.

 

PS: On reflection, I had my artistic son paint the drivers for me - they were purchased from Aiden Campbell and are white metal so they cast a bit more.

[Darwinian]

Whilst endorsing the comments made above I would encourage you to have a go at painting figures too, especially as has been suggested, the more visible ones. It's not hard to get perfectly acceptable results for layout use with relatively little practice.

 

If using whitemetal / pewter figures I simply do the following:

 

Wash in warm water with a little washing up liquid to remove any oily deposits.

 

Prime with grey acrylic primer from an aeroslol can (Halfords, Holts etc).

 

Paint flesh areas first then work up to them with remaining colours. I prefer acrylics for this and use Games Workshop paints a lot as they cover well (probably because this is what they are developed for). Although i've also used artists acrylics too, but they often come out rather shiny. For a fully matt finish just brush over lightly with an acrylic matt varnish.

 

If you want to know how to really go to town on figure painting ask the Guys (or Girls?) in Games Workshop for a demo or look up their ideas on the internet (Usual disclaimer). The basic techniques of lowlighting and highlighting are all that's needed for layout figures:P .

 

Adrian