There has been a lack of Z gauge quality (avoid the the Chinese rubbish, I was given 200 by a retailer, they are dreadful) pre-painted people for years, especially from Preiser.

I bought a pile of Trafofuchs people which are very good & they also fill in many gaps in creating various scenes which is brilliant.

I bought a pack of Preiser 160 "nude" figures for backup/if I ever get around to painting them, which has about 130 people plus animals, because there was barely any pre-painted figures available.

I don't actually have a shortage of people, still well over 100 people to place on my layout, but a layout looks too "thin" without a good number of people. My recent very small snow scene swallowed 29 people & could do with a couple more.

I bought some acrylic paint, they were out of stock of so many colours & some colours were gloss only, you need mat/flat, but I am pretty good at mixing colours. Bought some empty bottles for my colours.

It is easier to buy the colours you need, they are not expensive in relation to the cost of pre-painted people, but if there are issues, get primary colours, also white, black, & a few half way colours including a light grey if possible.

If mixing colours do a tiny brush size sample before actually mixing in a jar. It is surprising how colours can very easily go wrong very quickly even with one single drop of another colour.



Original colours right, mixed colours centre. The alligator clips were handy, about 8 to 12 would be the go, I only had 4 (they are good for torturing figures, clamping by head or feet to paint other end. The alligator clamps don't damage already painted ends to any obvious degree). I bought primer but didn't use it as I felt the overall thickness of paint would be too much.



Z gauge, you don't heed to be too fussy with detail, the bloody things are so small. Paint bigger areas where you can. I jumped around a bit painting this & that, but you will pick up a feel for painting. You use so little paint don't worry wasting a bit dipping brush in solvent & cleaning on tissue paper, to change colours.

You can buy stainless steel ball bearings to put a couple in each jar to mix paint. I had 1/8" stainless steel wire which I cut off pieces about 15 - 20mm, ground ends smooth, to chuck in each bottle. A stainless steel screw will do, maybe file off the sharp end to avoid damaging lid seal.

The 75mm bits of stainless steel were handy for transferring paint colours (if they weren't cut a whisker shorter could leave them in sealed jar), buy a handful of spare Tamiya jars for mixing colours, the tiny square ones are a touch small but that's all they had, they are cheap enough.



Took a day to paint the figures. Came up pretty well. I have previously only bought painted people, especially for my architectural work, just couldn't afford the time painting people. Now that I have done it, it's not that bad painting figures.

If you don't have one, get a Winsor Newton Series Seven 000 brush. I bought another one $69.50 ($43 a few years ago. Probably gone up because all the Sables (millions) that were put down due to Covid) actually after I painted the figures as this brush was a spare (have about 20 of them all up), but they are worth it.





Learn your skills on the Preiser men with raincoats first. Lastly use your refined skills on the nude girls with G-strings as they are more challenging to get desired results with the fine lines required for successful outcome!

Edited by user 08 June 2023 05:34:04(UTC)  | Reason: Auto correction issues

Biggest problem with a 3D printer will be surface finish, these typically have a ripple surface on them from the way the model is produced as 'slices', so some polishing may be required.

But having said that there are outfits around that will have you 'sit' for a photo session, and then produce a 3D printed version of you in whatever scale you desire - so you can appear on your own layout without being Gulliver.

I also had to resort to the pack of unpainted Preiser figures. Now, I'm terrible at painting but I did find the process very therapeutic and the results are much better than I anticipated they would be. I second Toosmall's urging to invest in quality brushes. Having attempted a few budget offerings, I invested in a set
(5/0, 10/0, 15/0 and 20/0) Da Vinci "Micro-Maestro" brushes and once, I'd recovered from the shock of the price, I was really glad I did!

Cheers


Chris

I enjoy painting the figures. I even re-work the Preiser figures! A good reference is to watch some of the figure painters on You Tube; especially the ones doing 5mm figures - they set a benchmark. The Chinese figures need a lot of work cleaning off flash, etc, but they are cheap enough to chop up and modify - I don't want a hundred figures in exactly the same pose. Another source that we can use is 1:200 scale architectural figures; if you put them in the foreground or don't mix them with true 1:220 scale figures, I find that they work well. I am currently awaiting a few of the new Noch 3-D printed (and coloured) figures - if they turn out to be as good as the photos, they will set a new standard for Z.

Carim

Manufacturing should not be a problem. Games Workshop / Citadel Miniatures produced amazing tabletop gaming figures in 1:285 back in 1989.

The market size propably was roughly the same size as for small scale MRR?

-Eino

The title was a double entendre, but back to the smaller problems of Z gauge!

Also items like Brawa 4823 lights or similar are impossible to get anymore. I bought one decades ago, wanted to buy some more.

Bought another pack of "nude" Preiser figures to torture myself for another day! When in the right mood, a bit like cleaning locos, I'll dress them.

I will try to improve on the Vinnies* look & aim for Pierre Cardin etc!


*Australia - second hand clothes charity

Very good,
Impressed cobber, went to a micro miniature museum in Turkey last month, the guy was using hairs from dead bees, wasp stingers ( Rigid ) spider parts, the place was in Kusadasi, check out their web site, might give results.