People

[Dave]

Only on a model rail forum would I start a topic entitled "People" and think the Scenery board was the right place for it!

Anyway, for those of you that have model people on your layout(s) - do you buy them in pre-painted, or paint your own?

I'm planning on painting some of my own, and buying in just a few pre-paints, and painting people is one of the things that I shall be doing over the winter. In fact, I've already started on a few Dapol railway workers. If you do paint your own, do you worry about how much detail to paint on them, or are they just really part of the blur of scenery as the real point of interest - the train - thunders past?

I did some intricate painting in a challenge this weekend and it made me start thinking about how I might paint some passengers to go on the platforms.

[traingeekboy]

When I did 35 mm miniatures I went to the trouble of painting in eyes and other facial details. On HO/OO i would think that if you used humbrol's skin color and then did a wash over the face to show off details and tone down the pinkness of the humbrol flesh color, you'll get some nice figures.

Figures do get pricey especially if you need a few hundred on a layout. I'd say painting your own is a good move.

[fungus]

I paint my own. The amount of detail depends on what will be seen. I've included an example below:

[IanR]

That figure looks great Fungus!

I paint my own but haven't gone so far as to paint in eyes.

If the figures are to be left outdoors I coat them with "DuraClear" matt varnish. I coat my outdoor buildings with it too.

Ian.

[Dave]

That figure does look really good and complements the loco nicely

Interestingly, I wasn't thinking of adding any figures to locos or carriages at the moment. i was mostly thinking of platform passangers and some livestock for my cattle dock. I shall paint them in the same way as I do for my wargaming figures, which holds up pretty well outside (having accidentally left some wargaming figures in the garden for a few weeks in bad weather, a couple of years ago!). I paint these with acrylics paints. Then when done, I seal with a heavy gloss polyurethene varnish. Then I top this off with Dullcote Lacquer, which removes the shine but it still very hardwearing.

I don't normally paint eyes of 1/72 figures for wargaming, but I was thinking I would for my railway. Also, the intricate painting I refered to, that I did at the weekend, was a tartan - so I feel I've got to have an old lady in a tartan skirt, or perhaps some Scottish soldiers, somewhere in my scenery.