Little Passengers?

I'll watch this post with interest as I would like some better looking passengers for a bunch of passenger cars as well.  I have the Chinese ones, the S-scale ones seem to look best for me in the MTH cars, but they're only a few poses.

Golden gate depot has them in packs of 36. Within the pack all are different 1930-1950 styles. $25. 

Unfortunately, no.

I was able to purchase some steam-era "little people" from Caboose Hobbies, but forget the manufacturer's names. They were not from the mainstream suppliers, though, and they were standing, not seated for passenger cars.

 

As far as I know, there is nothing available in O-scale.

RMT sells 48 packs of painted, seated people for O Gauge trains. They are out of stock at the moment but expected to be available any time this fall. Just search Ready Made Toys on google.

they are not the most detailed or super precise scale figures but they work well for me.

 

Jay in Ottawa

Golden gate's are well detailed. 

The RMT people are far too large for the MTH Premier passenger cars.  I don't know about GGD, what size are their passengers?

They fit fine in every make on passenger car I have. 

Any chance we can see a picture of them in an MTH Premier car?  Since I have tons of people that don't look good in the cars, I'd rather not spend the money if these are too big.  I want to see the person's head through the windows, not their chest.

The O scale "Little People" I purchased were not to my liking. Detail was poor as was coloring. They didn't even sit straight. The RMT people are ok but no real variety or detail and colors too bright for me. Looks like you filled your car with identical mannequins. For quality IMO MTH has by far the best product. They fit very nicely in all of my short MTH and Lionel cars EXCEPT at the tables in the dining car. So out comes the drill. Go in at an angle between the table and the chair and the legs on the seated passengers fit nicely. Also there is little evidence that the hole was drilled. Alternative is to cut the legs off of the passengers. I tried that and the end result was passengers that looked like their legs were cut off. If you want more variety than the limited number of figure sets offer you can buy try the 100 person unpainted sets that MTH sells and paint those yourself. Have not looked at S scale figures but those seem like a good option if you can get the quality you like.

Like GRJohn, notes, the RMT figures are way too large.The MTH colored ones (package of 12) are much too expensive, over $2.00 each (!), and of course very limited in variety. Their bag of 120 are OK, especially for smaller or traditional cars, but inpainted, and I don't have the time or patience to paint dozens of passenger figures.

 

Not sure about the GGD figures as to size, but there's not much variety in the figures shown at their web site, and none of the figures have faces, so you'd have to paint eyes, mouths, etc.

 

I'll also be eager to hear about alternatives - there don't seem to be many good choices on the market right now.

The GGD people do not sit right in the seats, and they are too big so their legs usually have to be cut off. I have tried just about everything there is, and usually use a combination of different ones for a variety. I found that the 1/75 people work the best, but they have limited positions, and I usually re paint them for more realistic colored clothing.

i have well over 100 GGD people in my Lionel, K-Line, and RK cars and i have not had to cut the legs off of one of them.  they sit fine in the tables in dining cars.  there are about six figure types in each pack of 36, but they are all painted differently.  while they don't have faces painted on, they have have facial features (i.e. eyes, noses, mouths, chins).  you could paint those if you want to, but i cannot believe anyone would ever see that inside the cars. those would be pinpoints of paint.

I found that the GGD people have to have their bottoms sanded flat. Sometimes I even have to cut the feet off to get them to sit right in some of the passenger cars, like Rail King!

The K-Line people, I had to do the same to get them to sit right.

I have had to sand some bottoms, too. Hardly a big deal.

I love passenger cars and have quite a few. Something that I have never figured out is why nearly no companies make car with passengers cast into the interiors of their passenger cars. when I started researching old vintage trains I found that the company Dorfan (the American wing of Fandor) in the 1920's did this they made their passenger cars with passengers cast into the seats. Amazing that they did this in the the 1920's nearly 100 years ago. What happened that companies don't do this today?

I have used RMT people in all of my MTH cars. Some fit with no surgery. Some lose their feet and some lose their lower legs.

 

 

Pete

My LHS told me Weaver makes them in bags on 75 or 100 and they are garbed in pre-WWII clothing, but that they are pricey. Hadn't heard this before and don't know if they would fit right in the seats and at tables. 

Back in the day, Circus Craft made sets of seated people-men, women, children- that had separate arms to be positioned by the builder. Unpainted. They show up  on the 'Bay from time to time.

Painting a bunch of figures is a pain but painted figures that I've seen look pretty crummy and they are costly.

We shouldn't be after the level of painted detail found on military modeling figures (as a 1:54 modeler I've suffered way too many hours painting to the finest detail). Spray them dark gray or black, dry brush a few appropriate colors-not everyone's face is pink- and they'll look fine in your passenger cars. Unless you have harsh, overly bright lighting.

My GGD P70 caches come with a few figures who look really lonely. Of course, if you're modeling PRR after the mid-fifties, sparsely populated passenger cars are reasonably authentic.

PJB said:

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My LHS told me Weaver makes them in bags on 75 or 100 and they are garbed in pre-WWII clothing, but that they are pricey.

Can't find them on the Website. Perhaps your LHS can give you more info...

I have a bunch of the wehonest people, I use the S-scale ones for my cars.  As stated, there are limited variations, I try to space them around and also give them some facial features.

 

What about RailKing 30-11043 unpainted passengers?

 

 

Have fun painting those I have 50 people alone in an 18" dome car.

GRJohn - where do you get wehonest S scale figures?  Checked his 'Bay web store and he sells everything but S scale. Thanks. 

I have no interest in doing a total painting of all the figures I need.  A little touch-up maybe, but not a total paint job.

 

I haven't seen the S-scale ones lately, when they were around, I bought a bunch of them, and I'm still working my way through that stack.

 

I bought a bunch of the cheap Ebay figures and touched them up.  I would pour them out and then do one color at a time such as Red.  I'd paint a red had on one lady, red shirt on a guy, red pants on another, and a red coat on a woman and just repeat this until I had a good bit of red on them.  Then once that dried I'd do blue, green, grey, black, etc.....  I admit I don't do awesome work for close examination but for the inside of rail cars it certainly made the cheap wehonest characters more realistic and got rid of the pastel color chart they used!  

 

If you do one color at a time and just one part of a person on each it is fast and easy!  

Still seems very tedious to me.   I've looked at those unpainted figures, but then realized that it would be too much work vs. finding painted ones.

 

With the talk of "pricey" & "costly", what would you consider to be a fair price for seated figures painted to a level of detail somewhere close to the old K-line or GGD figures currently offered. $.50 each, $.75 each, $1.00 each?

 

Asking because I have been working on getting these produced by one of our suppliers who is more than able to make fine detailed figures but they are not cheap, they could reduce the detail and perhaps get these to a reasonable price point, depending upon what most of you would consider reasonable.

 

I'd like to see them in the 50-60 cent range.  I don't need amazing detail, just something a cut above the Chinese one pose fits all figures.  Personally, I'd like them about 1:75 scale, those work great in my MTH and Lionel passenger cars.  I think a larger variety of colors is a key factor, that would make a big difference.

 

This is a good choice if you like painting your own.  The package has both standing and seated passengers.  Of the seated , there are eight poses.  Here they are...

 

 

Kinda look like pastel zombies.

Besides, no purple pants are allowed.  

Well, that's my big laugh for the day. Thanks Matt.

Great hats! 

Yeah but will they fit in the dome? Lol

These

http://www.peoplescale.com/Pai...-METRIC-100-005D.htm

look nice, at $2 a pop plus shipping.

These

http://www.peoplescale.com/Unp...-METRIC-100-005C.htm

are a buck and a half per and you have to paint them.

My approach is to get them from a variety of sources to get figure variation. Put the really spiffy ones next to car windows (you guys with Astrodomes are outa luck) and less good/barely painted away from view.

I'm too cheap to spend $2/ea!

 

Those people are waaay too big for my applications (1 1/2 in. tall); really, too big for anything but maybe 19" heavyweights, I'd guess.

 

As for expense, much too much. Put 20 of those people per car in a 5 car train = $200.00!

These guys are kind of small, found on ebay made for the Lledo cars & trucks.

They are between O and OO. James