gregh
electronics, computers and scratchbuilding

I’ve bought quite a few of these ‘cheap’ people from ebay suppliers such as this one.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/20-Painted-Model-Train-Passenger-People-Figures-standing-sitting-poses-Scale-G-/330718377959?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:3160
You really can’t beat the 50c price, but you do only get a limited number of poses and all just standing or sitting – no walking ones.
This is a sample of the standing male figures I got this time:

I’ve done a few bits of surgery previously, cutting off arms and moving them and superglueing back on.
But today I experimented with boiling them and it works! The paint even survived.
I put them in a saucepan of water and boiled for a couple of minutes then gently bent the limbs. I broke one limb with excessive force but the others are reasonable.
Here’s 2 men who had their legs bent to look like they are walking:

A lady with her leg crossed, compared to the original

And a lady with her arm moved slightly.

OOPS! right arm is crossed, not left as in caption
Now I just need to get some of those hands out of pockets – I guess I’ll have to cut the arm at the coat and make a new hand from ??
Next test is to put a figure in the oven at 120C and see if it melts. If not I can make hands etc from polyclay and bake the whole thing.
Watch for the next exciting episode….
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/20-Painted-Model-Train-Passenger-People-Figures-standing-sitting-poses-Scale-G-/330718377959?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:3160
You really can’t beat the 50c price, but you do only get a limited number of poses and all just standing or sitting – no walking ones.
This is a sample of the standing male figures I got this time:

I’ve done a few bits of surgery previously, cutting off arms and moving them and superglueing back on.
But today I experimented with boiling them and it works! The paint even survived.
I put them in a saucepan of water and boiled for a couple of minutes then gently bent the limbs. I broke one limb with excessive force but the others are reasonable.
Here’s 2 men who had their legs bent to look like they are walking:

A lady with her leg crossed, compared to the original

And a lady with her arm moved slightly.

OOPS! right arm is crossed, not left as in caption
Now I just need to get some of those hands out of pockets – I guess I’ll have to cut the arm at the coat and make a new hand from ??
Next test is to put a figure in the oven at 120C and see if it melts. If not I can make hands etc from polyclay and bake the whole thing.
Watch for the next exciting episode….