# Too bad there aren't more inexpensive figures



## FlagstaffLGB (Jul 15, 2012)

Morning from Arizona,

Once in awhile I find a good G-scale figure (I think I'm more in the 1:24 to 1:25 scale) at a swap meet or something that can be modified from a toy store or Walmart...but when you are looking for quantity of figures, it seems difficult to get enough people for the crowd scenes. I can understand paying $5-9 per figure for a speciality casting....that one figure that draws a persons eye to that area of your garden railway that you want them to concentrate on, but if you are trying to create a people populated street scene, carnaval area or workers in a mill atmosphere, then when you start adding 30-100 people, you quickly get into some serious cash. I did visit the Justplainfolks site in New Jersey....and they seem to have a lot of good figures in the bargain store for $3-5 a piece, but I was wondering if anyone has located a good source(s) for either painted or unpainted figures that can help build a crowd? Thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions.

Ed


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

Ed- I'm almost certain that you already know this, but there are some cheapie Chinese import figures on ebay all the time. They are about 1/24- 1/25ish. Not many posses to chose from and they generally need to be repainted (unless you want all of your people to have black hair!). I have been the "G gauge mafia" and broken some arms, legs and necks in order to 'pose' them the way I want. Just a thought. BTW- if you run across some affordable factory workers, firemen, or construction workers in 1/24- 1/25, let us know. 


-Kevin.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

The old "Elastolin" line is now carried on the "bay. You can get them unpainted or painted, and of course painted cost more. But even then they are under $1 each in quantities.

Here's 16 painted for


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

There is a very well established market in Europe of 1:22 scale figures. You can even get ones having sex in public. Ha ha!
Check out: http://www.ebay.de/sch/Modelleisenb...&rt=nc 

Andrew


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Don't forget to raid the Lemax displays at Christmas...(or on fleabay) some are 1/29-ish, others 1/24-ish. average price is $2-4 per figure. The only caveat is that the paints aren't UV stable, and they tend to get get really brittle after a couple summers outside.


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Regarding Lemax and other Christmas village figures, for a bunch of years I have looked forward to Christmas as a time to score some figures for the RR at a good price. But for the last couple of years the selection has been a wasteland. Seems the Lemax selection I have seen has been much smaller than usual and for Lemax and other figures seems the size of the figures have gotten too small to be useful. I suspect with our booming economy (like a boom of destruction) that companies lower cost by reducing selection and also reducing figure sizes. So sad. 

Doug


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

You gents may be interested in a three-part class created for this forum many years ago (around the early 2000's) demonstrating how to make your own figures. The PDF files for this online class can be found in the *MasterClass and Articles Index and Downloads* in the _MasterClass and Articles_ forum.

I would guess that hundreds of figures have been created from this article over the years.


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## seadawg (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Dwight, I've been looking for that MasterClass! The indexed pdf's are awesome. Chapter three has a topic called "Really Quick "Filler" Figures" specifically for filling passenger cars!


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank SteveC too Dawg. He came up with the PDF files.


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