Townsfolk

I bought a batch of O scale people, cheap, direct from China. 130 figures, 13 different poses, prepainted, for $12.99 plus about two bucks for shipping. I liked this particular set for a few reasons. 

From left to right: Out of the box, painted, and with a Sable Wash.

• 13 different poses is more that you get in most assortments.
• Two of the 13 poses are seated; most sets are all one or the other. I wanted a couple of seated people for inside the station; I can use some in passenger cars as well.
• The figures seemed pretty well detailed, as far as I could tell from pictures online.
• Very importantly, they nearly all are dressed in clothing that could pass for the 1920s-30s era that I'm modeling. In many sets, most of the women are in pants or even shorts, which were not typical attire in that era. Most women 100 years ago wore dresses or skirts. There's only one woman in pants here. Some of the men are in suits, a couple in shirtsleeves, either of which works for townsfolk of my period.

I certainly don't need 130 figures on my 30 x 60 mini layout, but other sets I looked at that had fewer figures also had fewer poses, looked more poorly detailed, or were too modern in costume. I figure I can use 6 or 8 each of the 2 seated figures, mostly in passenger cars or inside buildings where it won't be too noticeable that they're all the same. Maybe 2 or 3 of each of the others; again, some of them inside buildings, passenger cars, or cabooses. So something like 30 or 40 total. That works out to about 40 to 50 cents per figure. That's cheap compared to, say, Woodland Scenics figure sets at $20 or $25 for 6 people.

I may turn around and sell or barter the rest, or give them away. If you're reading this and want some, send me a message and we'll figure something out.

The figures in this set are painted better than a lot of these cheap sets, but still needed improvement.

I've been painting them (a couple dozen so far) using Vallejo paints. I like to put a drop or two of a couple of different colors on a piece of aluminum foil and mix them in different proportions to get a variety of different shades. I'll sometimes dry brush the clothing with a slightly darker shade to add some texture. Faces and other exposed skin are painted with Vallejo Flat Flesh. I add a little brown or red to some. After the paint is dry, I give them a wash of Vallejo Sable Wash, which brings out the detail, especially in the faces, and helps to hide any painting errors.

For clothing, more muted colors, mostly browns and greys, seem to look best. Folks in those days didn't dress in bright colors, especially working class folks in a small town like Amargosa.

The picture above shows a few of my favorites so far. On the left are the figures as the came from China; in the center are repainted versions of the same figures. On the right is what they look like with the wash applied.

Below are close ups of a couple of figures, before and after. The women are actually more interesting and more detailed than the men. The one below has styled hair, a pleated skirt, a purse, and a jacket or sweater over her arm. There's not nearly so much going on with the guy.