Source for 1:64 seated figures

There was a thread a while back about some Chinese figures that were nominally a very small size, either HO or 1:100, but were actually a bit bigger than 1:64. This was when the discussion was going on about We Honest, but it wasn't those guys, it was another Chinese firm. The seller was on eBay, and he put the actual metric size of the figures in the ad, which was way different from the claimed scale. As I recall the figures were around 25mm, something like that. You might try searching for the thread, or just check out the Chinese figures on eBay. 

Rail King sells a big bag of passenger figures that are about the right size for a pretty cheap price, but you have to paint them yourself. 

I don't think I want to launch into painting 150 or more figures!

I looked and couldn't find any of the proper sized figures, I'll have to look again for that thread here.

Try the bee people by RMT. They have seated people 48 of them should be around 40. bucks or so..

The BEEP people are way too big, they're bigger than the large Chinese one in the pictures, and he's too big.  Obviously, these are coach airplane seats that they put into the Railking cars!

Chop 'em below the waist.

They fit in my railking cars maby  they make them differnt now  but when Kline was selling them they were fine...

I may chop my Chinese ones at the waist and see if they look OK, that's another option.  I hate the look where the guy's head is not visible, really looks stupid!

John, Arttista makes S scale figures.

Pete

Yep, and they're pretty proud of them too, they're out of my price range.

I was trying to avoid the work of painting the figures, but finding painted ones seems pretty difficult it would seem.

Any chance of seeing what these look like in RailKing cars?

John,

I used the bag of unpainted MTH figures to populate my RK passenger cars.  As small as they are I still needed to lop off the feet.  I also used some figures from Circus Craft but they were way too big.  Used them anyways.  In the photos below, you might see some bigger and some smaller figures.  Bigger = Circus Craft.  Smaller = MTH.

On my Aerotrain set I used ones from RMT that I picked up at the October York meet.  I had to trim off from the waist down but since you have to strain and make a very conscious effort to see the seats I didn't really care.

- walt

Here's a few images that you requested:

John,

Here's a picture of an RMT BEEP person in my Aerotrain.  Now you can see why I had to chop them off at the waist!

Have you tried either the Lionel or MTH parts department. They may sell the figures separately.

Never thought of going to the manufacturers, I'll have to look into that.

Thanks for the pictures Walt, I'm going to do some experiments with modifying the larger passengers, maybe that's the ticket.

didn't see 1:64 but theses are 1:75;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-New-Scale-1-75-OO-Scale-Painted-Model-People-Standing-Painted-Figures-/121083013553?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item1c311c29b1

Those are the standing figures, but I'm going to order a similar batch of 1:75 seated and see what they look like.

Good point on the paint, but then all our trains come from China too!

Just watching/subscribing with great interest.  Like John I'd prefer not to have to paint a 120 figures, but Walt's pics at least give one hope for the MTH people fitting properly in RK cars.

I have some 1:75 people coming, we'll see how they work out.  Looks like the conversion to LED lighting on those will have to wait, I did one, but I'd rather take them all apart once for the whole shooting match.

I really appreciate this thread.  My Lionel Super-Baby Madison Cars (with the detailed interiors) have Chinese people in them right now with amputated legs, and they're just too big.

Jon

We're going to get to the bottom of this if it kills us.

I haven't tried the 1:50 figures in the MTH Premier cars yet, I think I should open one of those and see if they fit better or are the same scale as the Amtrak Railking cars I'm currently working with.  I have 19 of the Premier cars that need passengers, so I'm going to need a lot of them!  I thought I'd attack the Railking cars first and see what issues I ran into.

The 120-piece figure set by RailKing (#30-11043) is mostly but not entirely seated figures. Also, they are considerably smaller figures than those in RMT's BEEPeople (RMT-99417) 48 seated figures set. In fact they're also slightly smaller than RailKing's own Locomotive Cab Figure set #30-11067).

BTW, the packaging on neither of these three figure sets specifically mentions them being o scale. However the packaging on the unpainted RailKing figures does have a fine print disclaimer saying:

The passengers in our 120-piece figure set are designed to fit into almost any of our passenger car interiors. There are a few exceptions, however. To insure that your passengers are able to get where they're going without broken legs, we've compiled a list (below) of the passenger car interiors they do not fit into.

RailKing: Madison Diner, Streamlined Diner, Superliner Diner, Budd Car.

Premier: Streamlined Diner

The Brill Semi-Convertible Trolley and PCC Electric Street Cars do not have interiors and therefore will not accommodate passengers.

All future M.T.H. passenger car interiors will be designed so that these passengers will fit.

Unfortunately the MTH packaging isn't dated and therefore it's a guess the exact year their fit guarantee was made.

Why can't these manufacturers stop playing games with our consumer spending dollars and indicate sizes of their figures on packaging so we wouldn't have to continue playing such senseless and frustrating time and money wasting games of Russian roulette - will these figures fit? Manufacturers, it's time you make your figures and labeling standardized!

As far as I can see, the painted MTH sitting figures are the same as the unpainted ones, but a LOT more expensive (I think they come 6 to a pack). To be honest, I think the ones I painted look better in terms of care as well as color. The painted MTH ones look like everyone has a deep tan.

Kenn, the number you posted if for the 8 piece Engineer's set.  The undecorated 120 piece figure set is: 30-11043.

In addition, they say that they'll fit the interiors, but they don't say if they'll look good in the seats!  The 1:50 ones are too big, I had to cut the feet off and the head projects far beyond the window.

Aw, come on John - it can be fun!!!!

- walt

Circus Craft ones:

MTH ones:

Joe, the unpainted are indeed the same size as the painted figures and yes, the painted are per figure much more expensive. The RailKing painted 12-piece Passenger Figure Set #3 (#30-11067) features 7 seated adults, 2 seated children, 2 standing adults and 1 standing child.

Thanks, gunrunnerjohn, for correcting my error on the unpainted figures order number, I've revised my post with the correct number.

If someone has the MTH figures, how about some measurements?

John,

    Have you tried http://www.modelleisenbahn-figuren.com/

A standing man MTH figure is 1 3/16, a Arttista "S" is 1 1/16, and a Arttista "O" is 1 1/2.  So MTH is closer to "S" than "O".

In any event, the MTH figures look perfect as seen through my RailKing windows.

I'd have looked at your blog post David, but I can't find it there.

John H.  I have the same issue with those, no dimensions.  I've got about 1,000 figures of various sizes, and still none that actually work in my cars!  I'd like to have a better aim this time.

so, what does fit best in the cars without all of them looking like 8 feet tall or small 3 year old children??!!    amputation is not a good thing!

I'm still working that out.

Forget the ratios, mm, x/64 of an inch, etc, it looks like a great opportunity for someone willing to make people who actually fit!.

John, how did those 1:75 people work out for your passenger cars???

They looked good in my test, I just stuck a few with double-sided tape and checked with the car lighted and on the tracks.  I haven't gotten back to the project of installing them, but those are the ones I'm going to use.

I use K-Line figures which are the same as RMT figures. I perform a "butt-decttomey", my term, with sprue cutters in order to allow them to sit lower in the seats and shorten the feet and legs as necessary, I use a hot-glue gun to attach the figures and I find that they stay in place, but are easily removed if you don't like the results.

Eric Hofberg

TCA, LCCA

I have a couple of sets of the RMT figures, I may try some alterations on them in the future.  I have cut many legs off, that seems to be a common issue getting figures to fit.

I was "sanding" their butts off on the bench top belt/disc sander, but when you have 100+ butts to sand off....it would just be easier to buy smaller people. I don't mind cutting legs off and sanding butts, but when they are up in the dome, most of those mods are visible.

John did you buy the "mixed" people or did you find 100 seated people?