There is a seller on ebay, that sells cheap N & Z scale people. I paid less than $8 for 100 assorted people. There are 8 or so differnt people, but they are all painted individually, so no two are exactly alike. However, they are cheap, and not the best quality, but for the money, you can populate towns, train stations, etc very cheaply. I use the better WS and other quality figured for scenes and such where I want people to look closer, but for populous, this guy works great. The paint and colors they use are VERY crapy, with very bright, shinny, unrealistic colors, but, very easily can be toned down by using a dark wash, or a simply repaint to more realistic tones. Here is a picture of some that I have painted, before and after shot. Again, not the best quality, but for large populous scenes, works great. he sells these in 100, 300, 500 people lots, so he is a good cheap source for cheap figures. I am in no way afiliated with this guy. I just thought I would share my experiances with his figures. These are sold as 1:1:150, which is close enough. I measured them, and scale heights fall between 5'6" to 6'1". In my bunch there were a couple Z scale in it, but even those can be used for small people, or kids. There is one, looks like maybe an HO size child,because he has a huge head compared to the others, lol.. But, those are just a couple in the 100 lot. Ebay screen name of this seller is: "everydaygoodz". This stuff is shipped out of japan, but it still only took about 2 weeks to come in. Worth trying out.
Those figures will be great as background "fillers" while using the better WS,Model Power and Preiser figures for the close up scenes. I agree the figures appears to be wearing some rather "flashy" clothes.
Yep... a very good value for bulk quantity of scale people. They are best suited for background use because the detail is not very good. The paint is a bit 'loud'... and should be toned down or repainted in many cases. Woodland Scenics are far better for the foreground. I wish these 'inexpensive people' would come in bulk packs of only sitting people to put into passenger trains. I'm going to have to cut hundreds of them at the waist to 'sit' them in my passenger cars. I bought 1700 people from Everydaygoodz. Only about $.054 per person including EMS shipping (5 days). Now I fell like some wealthy Southern Plantation owner from South Carolina in the early 1800's... except my ship of N scale servants came from China. mg:
:thumbs_up:BTW... Tudor... you did a great job modifying the look of the people to be clothed in more typical WESTERN looking attire.
Has anyone tried their trees? http://cgi.ebay.com/t12045-60pcs-Sc...ameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting http://cgi.ebay.com/t050-20pcs-Scal...goryZ486QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/tG03-20pcs-Scal...ryZ11648QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem They're interesting. Some are obviously plastic, but I wonder if they could be made to look good. .
I buy their people, and stick lots of them in my structures. Also, to fill passenger cars, you can't beat the price. The trees are not good though. I bought 1000, and they are all the same vivid bright green. Not very convincing, so I have not used any yet.
I've got 300 of those little guys sitting in a box. Can't beat the price. Now I just need to finish a scene so I can plant a few of 'em!! Brian
Ya might try and communicate with them, because they do have seated figures. there are a few in the lot I got. maybe they will sell ya a huge batch of just seated figures. I find ya have to cut even seated ones, because they dont always fit right in passenger seating. I also have a bunch of seated figures made by Model Power I think. Those are not the best quality either, and not as cheap as these, but still alot cheaper than the high quality ones. I think I paid $4 or so for a pack of 10 of the model power ones on ebay. I got 2 or three packs of those a year or so back. I also painted faces on these in assorted skin tones for ethnic diversity. besides, I have not seem many people with skin that is a shiny, bright pink color, hahha.. You can also buy them unpainted, but I just get them painted and tone down colors with wash, and repaint colors I dont like. I don't see many who wear purple pants with a pink, or yellow jacket. hehheh
As far as the trees, the larger tree's are pretty nice but brightly colored. A quick dusting with a darker color flocking will fix them. The smaller trees are not as nice looking. I bought a batch of the trees for a friend of mine for his HO layout and they sure beat the heck out of the bulk Woodland Scenics trees at half the price.
About a month ago we had fairly long thread on this vendor. It's at: Cheap people via eBay - opinions? - TrainBoard.com I should probably merge the two threads. Or I can just let this thread go on as a continuation of the earlier thread. I think I'll just let it go on for now. I bought 1300 of them. Great for background and, as I pointed out on the earlier thread, easy enough to tone down with a light mist of black or gray.
I posed a few on this Atlas H16-44 just for a railroad reference shot. They really need to be painted in more toned-down colors... but... this is right out of the box. I got a redhead in my batch... looks like she's wearing a slicker (yellow raincoat). I noticed that the paint is sort-of sticky... and many of these Everyday-folk were stuck together. Some paint chips were transfered between pieces.
There is also the eBay seller "wehonest" which is selling similar if not identical figures. In the thread Pete mentioned, I posted photos of some of the figures in place on my layout. For "non-featured" scenes and perhaps even some upfront work, I think it would be difficult to beat the price per figure. They aren't "specialized" like the WS offerings or even some Model Power sets, but then, most people are not conducting special activities at any given time (playing horseshoes, rescuing cat from tree, etc.)
With the comment about Disco Era, the dude on the left just needs some gold chains. (and some facial features) Bob in IDaho
Might be for real! Having spent a total of three years in South Asia, I can attest that scenes such as the following are for real. Typically, they follow a pilgrimage in which tens of thousands of people with very little cash need a way to get home. - Bryan
Another deployment of the cheapo people on my layout: Hmm, must be "break time" over at the Roebson Process Company.
