Hi all,

Curious if anyone has abandoned Preiserlinge for a more affordable solution? I am looking to populate the interiors of my HO scale passenger coaches, and simply cannot afford a preiser-esque solution, not can I even fake the interest in painting the cheap, but unpainted, Preiser options.

Which brings me to options such as these below. Has anyone tried any? Or have a good recommendation? I understand they are not going to be perfection, but I'm curious if any are "good enough" for the job if coach interiors?

Thanks for any recommendations!

The dream is these at a fraction of the price:
https://www.ebay.com/itm...D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7yhtvC3Yw

Other options:

https://www.ebay.com/itm...%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMvKG28Ldj

https://www.aliexpress.u...3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

https://www.aliexpress.u...3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

Fantastic- just what I needed to know- thank you! And in the process, you solved two of my LED lighting curiosities as well!

1- The relay/decoder combination works! With a ground spring per car, but current conducting couplings I wasn't sure how to arrange the decoder, and a friend recommended the relay approach, but hadn't tried it.

2- Excellent on the taillight setup! Do the 2.2mm leds fit into the marklin light bar holes, or do you have to drill the holes larger? (or do you just glue them to the back of the light bar?)

I really appreciate the response on the passengers!

Regarding figures, the paint work looks sloppy to me. I bought the 100 count unpainted seated passengers from Amazon. Only $6 or $8. They are actually Preiser figures from the older sets. Old and modern dressed, casual and formal. Even the toruist with binoculars, and you get at least two to three of each per set.

Either Preiser or coach manufacturers have got it wrong. If they say both HO scale why are we removing legs from the wee people to get them to sit on seats. The coach seats should be suitable for the people or the people should be suitable for the seats if both are said to be the same scale. Tried N scale and TT people but they just dont look right. Meanwhile I will continue to use the operating theatre for Preisers.

And here is our faceless crowd! I ended up buying two sets from another vendor, which arrived well ahead of the initial set, which is still MIA. I think they are perfectly fine for carriage interiors. Not nice, but they communicate that the railroad has some revenue ;)

There must be a lot of operating theatres around the world and its done without any anaesthetic but I've noticed there is no blood present in those people, if this would have been the case I would have had a blood bath by now., some of the Chinese manufacturers can't even be bothered to paint the faces, hands and feet in a different colour, if the clothing is blue so are the face, hands and feet., I don't mind red faces

John

Hi all,

Great feedback here and love the article from Ross Stewart, very helpful!

So I’ve recently received an order I placed on Etsy, I bought a set of 100 unpainted seated figurines in HO scale for $23 AUD. You could also buy the painted version but they were really rough, I guess you just get what you pay for.

With painting, I decided to order a desk magnifier with a bright LED light. I’m hoping this will help with the eye strain. On a good note, it’s allowing me to spend time with my mum since she enjoys doing this as well.





Above is the before and after.

PS - for some reason the after photo is upside down in the preview, when clicking on the image it goes the right way round, not sure of the reason since the photo was taken the right way round.

Regards

Eddie

Flash Dave gives them a shot of whisky and a piece of wood to bit on!

Eddie, those are the ones that I bought. If you have any older catalogs or scans, you can tell that they are definitely Preiser. I found them in a 1998Walthers catalog.

Thanks for sharing, you have impressive painting skills.

I first purchased Chinese copy Preiserlings in 2010 or 2011 from Ebay the seller was something like 'We_trust' and I purchased a selection of items such as people, animals, vehicles, streetlights and people. I found most items to be quite suitable for added background to a layout with the exception of the cars, which could be used in garage or in areas where the vehicle could not be seen clearly. The streetlights were very good for me and at a fraction of the usual suppliers offered a good alternative.

I bought some more around 2014 from a different supplier and the detail was again sufficient for use but the painting was quite horrendous and very bright colours.

I recently tried buying again and purchased from a Chinese supplier on Etsy, the prices were not cheap but discounts were available for the more items purchased. I stayed away from the painted figures although I purchased some painted animals and found them to be quite reasonable.

When they arrived they were packaged in Evemodel packaging for sale in Germany and also on back mentioned Apex UK Ltd for sale in UK.

In summary IMHO if you are doing a feature scene or platform you need to buy Preiser or similar, but for background or inside carriages etc, there is a lot of rubbish for sale, and if you are prepared to spend time looking you can reasonable quality but not for rock bottom prices, and never painted.

I will try and post some pictures soon of the recent purchase for comparison I will also see if I can find the invoice

BR

I bought several sets as they are great to fill wagons and crowded stations. Quite satisfied, as i need many people. I use Preiser people for isolated staging.
Ben