Topcat2018 Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 Can anyone recommend a source of reasonably priced seated figures for putting in coaches? I am putting together a rake of six Gresley teak coaches and want to represent a train that is at least a quarter to half full. With 7 compartments per coach I am going to need at least 40 figures (although there will be fewer in the brake composite and sleeper coaches). Apart from cost the problem is that there seems to be a choice of less than 20 different figures. I would also prefer them unpainted as that at least gives the option of giving the same figure different clothing, and I don't see the point of paying for paint that I would be going to over-paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulleidboy Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 Amazon is a source recently recommended to me. I had a look and packs of HO figures (00 can sometimes be to big) can be had in painted and unpainted form. Ten pounds will get you a pack of fifty. Bare in mind that once in the carriage, detail is not as important as a figure in a prominent position. Being slightly smaller (HO - 1/87 scale) you may not have to amputate the legs.Just search "00 gauge seated figures" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sxbiker Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 Wish may also be a place to get them. Painted and unpainted are available. If my memory serves me right they are very cheap and cheerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P-Henny Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 ........and ebay from China. I agree with others, go for HO rather than 00 scale. 00 scale just seem too big when inside a carriage. 00 is fine for platform seating, but just doesn't look right in a carriage. Maybe the thickness of the carriage mouldings end up with interior space dimensions being less than scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 Many thanks for your suggestions. I had a look on Amazon and Wish. Both seem to be selling the same product which appears to be a range of no more than 10 different figures in packs of 50, 60 or 100 ranging in price from around £5 to £25 for what appears to be the same thing. Unfortunately they appear to be very crudely moulded and the painted ones are very crudely painted. If you look at something like Airfix vintage figures they are much more detailed. Here's a suggestion. As Hornby own Airfix why don't they make a range of unpainted railway figures instead of the very limited (and expensive) ones currently in the Hornby range.I shall just have to keep looking.I don't think the carriage mouldings are excessively thick. The partitions between the compartments and the corridor are about 0.84 mm thick, which corresponds to about 2.5 inches full size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 I think the ones I've seen on Ebay - probably the same, weren't really the correct scale either.Need to be very selective I suppose, then think just how closely people are actually going to be looking.Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulleidboy Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 If you want super detail you have to look at the Bachmann seated passengers (£12 for six) or 3D mouldings - although I'm not sure there are many yet of seated passengers. I agree with what has been said, the cheap collections are crudely moulded and painted, but you have to weigh that up with how much of them are you going to see - they will almost be a blob of colour with a head. Also many coaches have very little depth between compartment floor and the seat, so legs usually need trimming. Even the crudely painted passengers can be repainted and toned down a little compared with the colour they appear to come in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 @BulleidboyThe 61 ft Gresley teak coaches (and LMS coaches using the same chassis and interior) certainly have little legroom in over half the floor area of the two end compartments as the floor is raised where the bogie attachment comes up through the chassis. I will have to make sure that passengers in these compartments are children or sit next to the external carriage door. I'm not sure of the original reason for this but it is useful if you want to bring in wires from pickups on the bogie wheels. I drill a 1.8 mm hole through the centre of the bogie spindle and feed through two strands of 1 mm pitch ribbon cable. You can then feed the wires up through the rectangular slot in the floor of each lavatory compartment.I'm not so devoted to detail that I want to spend around £80 equipping my coaches with Bachmann figures - it's more than the entire rake cost. I think I may have found some acceptable unpainted figures at a reasonable cost, more on this later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted February 4, 2023 Author Share Posted February 4, 2023 Further to my search for seated figures, has anyone else come across the following, which appears to be a scam?I found some Chinese-made figures (shipped from China) on Ebay that looked of reasonable quality. These are listed by a large number of suppliers and like many Chinese listings invited "best offer". I had an offer of US$ 8.70 rejected, but then received an email saying they had accepted an offer of £8.81, which I never made. The acceptance email received from the supplier also included "US VAT" of $14.10. This was clearly nonsense as there is no such thing as VAT in the US, even if it was US sales tax they were charging it shouldn't have been more than the price of the goods, and why would items manufactured in and shipped from China attract US sales tax anyway? I've never seen this on items bought from China before, even where they were priced in dollars. I just paid in pounds at the current exchange rate.Even worse, when I looked at my Ebay purchase history the price they were asking was actually $70.80 (no mention of US VAT.Naturally I haven't paid these people anything and have taken up the matter with Ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Matthews Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Have a look at the Evemodel figures. Not as detailed as bachmann but much better than most of the Chinese figures. Think you get 60 figures for around £20 on Amazon, or slightly cheaper on eBay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 @MMThanks for your suggestion. I think that the figures you mention are probably the same as the Chinese ones I have been looking at.The situation gets more bizarre. The Chinese company has now sent me an email saying I owe them $564! I hope Ebay sort them out soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulleidboy Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 @TopcatWatch out for a balloon over your houseopen_mouthI have not purchased any seated people/passengers yet, but will probably go for one of the cheap packs and do a quick repaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Matthews Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Just to confirm the quality, these are the Evemodel figures I speak of. These are ones I’ve bought, literally in front of me now. For me, they’re decent enough to be used inside coaches although maybe not so much in scenes where they’re prominent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 Ha-ha, very funny.I haven't looked at every set of figures on Amazon, but on closer inspection they appear to be different from those direct from China on Ebay - the ones on Amazon don't really appear to have any faces.I've re-ordered from a supplier who isn't trying to charge silly prices and will update when I receive them. Delivery could be over a month but shipments from China are usually quicker than they say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 @TopcatDon't click on anything in that 'email from China'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brew Man Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 They might get even quicker now that restriction/lockdowns seem to be easing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcat2018 Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 @DSI've just ignored the increasingly ridiculous emails from this so-called seller. Ebay really need to do more to root out these scammers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brew Man Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Well of all the ones I've seen, the Bachmann ones, although expensive are by far the best.Also they have no legs so should be easier to fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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