100 people - anyone bought these plastic figures?

Can you repost thelink, please?

It's been corrupted.

Thanks

I have bought them...even repainted some. They are noticeably smaller than many manufacturers, but they can be used in a lot of places that the others cannot. I use a lot of these for inside buildings and passenger cars. Just do not place them next to other figures of many other makes, but that is true of many figures. I took this from another member long ago and thought it helpful:

Rick

I use them.  One draw back as mentioned is that they are slightly smaller.  Also, they all have black hair.  I mixed them in with other figures.  The same vendors also sell bulk G scale figures which are also slightly smaller and work well in Department 56 scenes.

same here, I use them as fillers....inside stations, inside cars, and what not.....they look real good standing in lines at ticket counters.....

I filled my Atlas Zephyr cars with 200 figures from China. They 1/50th in size. Most of them had surgery and lost legs so size was fine. Did some repainting, etc. For figures in the foreground I will use Artista figures.

Dick

MaxSouthOz posted:

Can you repost thelink, please?

It's been corrupted.

Thanks

I'm having trouble copying and pasting the link.  If you do a search for "1:50 Scale O Gauge Hand Painted Layout Model Train People Figure", you'll see a large variety of offers.  Some painted bold colours, some pastels, some standing, some seated etc. etc.  If you play around with the search words, you'll see some different ones.

Thank you.

Totally depends on your quest for realism, I think. Yes, they are slightly smaller but to me the real drawback is the lack of facial features and the unrealistic colors of the clothes. With some painting and dullcote they can be useful in background, crowd and interior scenes but aren't even close to the quality of Arttista, Woodland Scenic's Scenic Accents or even MTH. So, yes, you get what you pay for. 

The standing people are small for O scale and probably worth it if you're modeling a depot and need a crowd inside.

But they make a bag of seated people and those work great for passenger cars! All my passenger coaches have mostly filled seats with these Chinese figures (with their legs cut off just below the knees to fit in the seats).

As others have said, they are great for the interiors of buildings or passenger cars. Save your Artista, Preiser and Woodland figures for where they can be seen. Look for a seller called "We Honest" (might be all one word-can't remember).  I have dealt with them many times as have other forum members. They have decent looking park benches too. Be aware it will take about 2-3 weeks after you order to receive the product.

If you really care about realism, you should avoid human figures altogether. It is basically impossible to get past the "uncanny valley". Many of the well-known hyper-realistic modelers refuse to use figures because they always spoil an otherwise perfect scene. 

For those of us who aspire to the merely interesting, figures can bring a lot of life and interest to many scenes. Even then, IMO they should be kept away from the center of focus and stay in the background. For this purpose, the cheapie figures are often just fine. 

Avanti posted:

If you really care about realism, you should avoid human figures altogether. It is basically impossible to get past the "uncanny valley". Many of the well-known hyper-realistic modelers refuse to use figures because they always spoil an otherwise perfect scene. 

For those of us who aspire to the merely interesting, figures can bring a lot of life and interest to many scenes. Even then, IMO they should be kept away from the center of focus and stay in the background. For this purpose, the cheapie figures are often just fine. 

I disagree strongly with this. I've seen plenty of layouts with very well-done figures which made the scenes, not detracting from them.

Everyone who looks at a layout will immediately notice a lack of people if you model that without them.

Avoid cheap figures for other than filler, sure, but most (if not all) of the best-known modelers ever used plenty of figures! Your theory dies quickly upon seeing the Franklin and South Manchester layout...

Those shots are like the famous "50-50" antique car restorations: they look great at 50 feet or 50 mph. Close ups are a different matter. 

And, it isn't my theory. Your statement about "the best-known modelers" is simply false. 

Avanti posted:

Those shots are like the famous "50-50" antique car restorations: they look great at 50 feet or 50 mph. Close ups are a different matter. 

And, it isn't my theory. Your statement about "the best-known modelers" is simply false. 

Puh-lease...

I can provide names. John Allen, George Sellios, Bruce Chubb, Lorell Joiner, Frank Ellison and could go on and on with the modelers that people generally consider the top of their field, all used plenty of figures. Even Pele Soeberg who dominates Model Railroader magazine these days and is generally considered at the top of the game of making realistic layouts, uses plenty of them. The smaller they get, the less 'real' they look, but the same can be said for any element of any model.

While I agree that the Chinese figures in this thread would hardly make for a realistic scene and could indeed detract from one, the very idea that any figures doing so is laughable.

Seriously, this figure detracts from this scene? Really?

I have to ask who are these "well-known hyper-realistic modelers" you speak of who won't use figures? Do any of them work with model trains? A great deal of very respected military modelers love/loved figures and use/used to them to great impact, like Shep Payne back in the day.

Here is a commercial figure set. This is 50/50 and would spoil a scene? If you think so, then I'm dying to see the hyper-realistic layout you surely must have (to make such ridiculous statements) that this would ruin with it's presence!

If this thread is going to turn rude, then I am out. 

Avanti posted:

If this thread is going to turn rude, then I am out. 

Well, if so:

You lost the right to act all insulted when you pretty much stated that every model railroader is substandard for using figures at all. You turned it rude and I called you on how silly that statement was.

And I'm still waiting for these names of these so-called "well-known hyper-realistic modelers" you mentioned.

I bought these for our layout. My son wanted some people on it and this was the least expensive option.  Granted we are running a more toy/kid friendly layout so realism isn't too important.

She's a real bombshell... get it? I glued a lot of them to little wood squared so that they would stand, made them out of Popsicle sticks

1

1613 pulling into Henryville

I bought like 250 for the layout. The painting is quite poor and they all have a distinctly Chinese or Asian look to them with black hair and yellow skin tone but they're awesome for crowd filler and for background scenes further that 3 feet away. You won't beat in that respect

Matt Makens posted:

I bought like 250 for the layout. The painting is quite poor and they all have a distinctly Chinese or Asian look to them with black hair and yellow skin tone but they're awesome for crowd filler and for background scenes further that 3 feet away. You won't beat in that respect

Yep, they make for great background crowd fillers and the seated ones make for great passengers in cars where you can't see much detail.

It would be great to populate your layout with all Preiser or Arttista figures that are unique and very nicely done. But, like all of the finer items, price goes up and you could end up spending a heck of a lot of money on figures, many of which would garner little attention. I agree with Lee that figures add "life" to scenes. I believe that the key to some of the finest layouts have great vignettes that tell a story. When I get visitors, they have much more fun looking at the stories that are being told throughout the layout than the trains themselves. Or they can do a search for all of the different dogs on the layout, or the wildlife. 

Quite a few years ago, there was a terrific young lady that you could send photographs of people who you might like to have on your layout.  She would find figures that had the basic body shape of the people in the photographs and then paint them with the clothes that they had on in the picture. She did a great job and they definitely look like the people in the photographs. So on my layout, I have my daughters, my son and his wife, my two sisters, my one brother-in-law, my two nieces, myself, and my golden retriever, Ranger. I had to add a baby carriage this year since my son and daughter-in-law gave me my first grandchild January 1. 

Rick

SouthernMike posted:

As others have said, they are great for the interiors of buildings or passenger cars. Save your Artista, Preiser and Woodland figures for where they can be seen. Look for a seller called "We Honest" (might be all one word-can't remember).  I have dealt with them many times as have other forum members. They have decent looking park benches too. Be aware it will take about 2-3 weeks after you order to receive the product.

I've checked out "wehonest" and they have good items. Thanks for the tip. If the tallest male figures are 36mm tall, that equates to 1.73m or 5 feet 8 in tall - so yes a little short, but not too bad.

Park benches are available in a single colour or a mixed lot. Has anyone bought the park benches on the left in the photo with black ends and orange/brown slats? In the photo the slats look very orange and not very realistic. Has anyone painted them?

I have used the Chinese figures as well as Artista and Woodland on my layout.  The Chinese figures work well in scenes where a crowd or line of people  is appropriate.  They also work well in park scenes with people sitting on benches, jogging riding bicycles  and utilizing playground equipment.

A layout without figures including cats,dogs, birds, etc. is, in my view, very boring.  Causes a scene to look like "The Twilight Zone".  

recently bought a small set of construction workers from Wehonest. They are OK for the price. Basically you get what you pay for. Expect a long wait for shipping. I actually gave them a negative rating for the shipping but the owner emailed me right away and explained that once he processes your order, its out of his hands. I revised my feedback and was satisfied with the explanation.

RSJB18 posted:

recently bought a small set of construction workers from Wehonest. They are OK for the price. Basically you get what you pay for. Expect a long wait for shipping. I actually gave them a negative rating for the shipping but the owner emailed me right away and explained that once he processes your order, its out of his hands. I revised my feedback and was satisfied with the explanation.

Yes it's frustrating eagerly waiting for an item to arrive. I'm in Australia and I have the same issue with the USA where it usually takes 3 - 4 weeks to arrive. However items from Europe and China take only 1 - 2 weeks. I guess it all depends on the geography of where you live. That was good customer service that the owner of wehonest followed up your negative rating. I didn't know you could change feedback.

Ranger Rick posted:

It would be great to populate your layout with all Preiser or Arttista figures  and you could end up spending a heck of a lot of money on figures

The way I look at it, 10 Arttista figures equals the price of one new box car. I'll take the figures for maximun "layout improvement".

Wehonest is my go to guy for figures.  I've bought hundreds of them and hot glued most to a paint stick and with a little help from my grand daughter we have given them faces and repainted certain clothing that was a ridicules color.  They help make the layout come alive.  I like most folks mix them with the more expensive figures but my pocket book does not allow me to have only Arttista figures at an average of $5. a person.  If the math is right 200 figures would run you $1,000.  So using WEhonest is right in my price range.  As you can see I mixed older Plasticville people with Wehonest people.

Thanks for the post, Larry.

My challenge is to find "workers" in O scale.  Bachmann are the best so far, but they only have a couple of sets.

I have the benches with the black ends and the "wood" slats. Mine have a more tan wood looking color, not the orange tint that is in the picture. I have only bought the benches once, the actual color may vary between production runs. Or it may just be the lighting in the picture, who knows? You can always paint them.

SouthernMike posted:

I have the benches with the black ends and the "wood" slats. Mine have a more tan wood looking color, not the orange tint that is in the picture. I have only bought the benches once, the actual color may vary between production runs. Or it may just be the lighting in the picture, who knows? You can always paint them.

Thanks. That helps. I suspect the orange-looking timber might be the color balance in the photo.

I use figures on my layout because I repeat I like them I don't really care what other people think if the scene makes me happy I'm in. Some scenes have lots others have very few I like the Arttista brand for scenes close to the edge of the layout I will probably use cheaper figures in the Steel Mill when I get around to it because I will have to modify and repaint them see paragraph below. I am aware to many figures can look silly and I don't get to carried away it's a personal thing. I just snapped a few photos right now have a look the station is 'peak hour" the loco depot is the start of the shift with the foreman relaying some orders, the freight house is at a busy time, the factory blokes are having a morning tea break, the bloke with the dog is taking his dog for a walk around a rather dismal area you gotta have imagination!

I am using some Chinese figures for my "Remote Control" Engineers standing on the Steel mill locomotives in the Steel mill because they are cheap and I have to modify them otherwise I use most brands all over the layout. Roo.

I like the bald guy with the beard, Roo.

Do you remember what brand he is?

Cheers

Caution,  i dont put people on my layout because they come alive at night and change things.  not for the better!!

I could be wrong, but I think Eric Siegel from Eric's Trains did a video not that long ago on these figures from China.  The video was a "how to" on populating passenger cars with figures.  He randomly used the figures he ordered from China along with more realistic figures he had purchased to incorporate into the passenger cars.

I'm pushing my luck here.

Looking after my wife while she is recovering from her "wounds" it's hard to get involved in any long term projects so just to fill in some time, here are some more "figure" photos and one photo of a closed factory with NO figures you be the judge don't be to hard on me.  Roo.

I have a bunch of the chinese figures as well and they are a great cheap alternative.  Even repainted they lack detail (with my skills at least), but they work fine for me.  

Does anyone know where I can find hockey players?  

-Nick

Thanks Mark,  I'll check those out.