1/32 railway figures

Thirtysecond

Western Thunderer
Getting realistic looking, realistically posed, model figures for Gauge One has always been something of a problem. Until now I have tended to use Preiser 1/32 injection moulded figures. The 15 piece seated passenger set and the 12 piece standing passenger set can be hacked and adjusted to be footplate crew, signalmen and sundry railway workers as well as passengers. But not all of the set can be used; some are too modern and others just not suitable. Also hacking the figures to get natural poses is not easy and very time consuming. The final straw is that Preiser supply is famously very iffy and none seem to be available from any suppliers at the moment.

Some of you may be aware of a firm called Modelu (pronounced model-ee according to my welsh wife!). They produce 3D printed figures in a multitude of scales using real people in suitable attire and poses as models. So they are to all intents and purpose perfect representations in miniature.

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According to their website the largest scale available at present in 7mm. I contacted Alan at Modelu (the owner I believe) and made a plea for 1/32 figures and was surprised when he told me that 1/32 could be done to special order. They are not cheap but when you consider that Preiser figures work out to over £5 each (when you discount the unusable figures in the set) then £10 for a 1/32 Modelu figure of that quality is not bad.

Anyway, worth a try I thought. I have just ordered a guard to lean on my BR guards van verandah! Alan at Modelu told me they will eventually be extending the range to include seated and standing passengers.

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Richard Spoors

Western Thunderer
The German company KM1 has a large range of 1/32 figures on its website. Crews and railway workers are obviously incorrect for the UK, but passengers look good value. Here's the link - Reisende

Richard
 

Simon

Flying Squad
I have a few of Modelu's G1 figures but haven't painted them yet, the poses are very good.

Another source of figures are Masterbox 1/35 figures, search for them on eBay and quite a few civilian options come up. There are quite a few other bespoke-ish figure making companies about, Industria Mechanika do a few steampunkish things, Cynric came up with "Sasha the Welder" in an earlier conversation and now they have "Bella" who is equally "diverting"....

I have also bought some nice French made resin figures, the website for them is MK35.com and I purchased them off the website with no problem. They arrived very nicely packed and the quality of the sculpting and resin casting is very good.

Simon
 
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