Height of Human Figures?

By my calculations, human figures 6' tall would be 8.3 mm or about .3". Is this correct? I've got an idea to see if I make a few special figures for my diorama and I'm pretty sure the 100+ year old style I need are not available anywhere. Sculpting media will be Sculpy, which is what I have on hand. Wish me luck on my attempt to make a figure in this tiny scale

Beverly, Your measures are close enough. Let me ask you to inspect "Preiser" figures. Many times on the Z sites we find the lamentation that they are not North American enough so they may be what you are looking for. They are made in Germany and are recognized as the over all leader in figures in Z. If you check their figures out you may find that some may be able to be repainted to your era. Other than that I don't know what Sculpy is, but it sounds intriquing. If you go that route please post photos explaining the 'steps'. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

Hi Beverly and welcome to the forum. I admire your resolve to sculpt figures of that size, and what is Sculpy? Will you post photos of the results? You might also like to look at Merten figures - I've got a couple of sets and they look OK to me, but then again I have to take my glasses off to see anything that small up close

Jim,

I've seen the Preiser figures on eBay and other figures elsewhere. They all look quite modern compared to where I think I want to go, such as long skirts for women and old style European menswear for lack of a better description for the men. I'm sort of thinking the people will be for a fantasy castle diorama, but not fantasy as it typically known in online computer games.

Sculpey (oops, spelled it wrong before) is a pliable polymer clay that can be sculpted or molded, then baked in a home oven to harden it. You can find it in craft stores such as Michael's. It's often used in dollhouse miniatures to make food, among other things. Another manufacturer of polymer clay is Fimo, which I think is a better product than Sculpey. Here is an example of Fimo in action.

Beverly

Gary,

Thanks for the suggestion about Merten. I did a Google search for them and I think I hit the motherlode of figures which will take me awhile to go through. Buying figures is a lot easier than making them, especially when they're .3" high
Thanks again

The thing about Preiser they come out with a series and make a batch and then stop. There were painted Preiser figures of turn of the century people..(well turn of last century) that would go good. Look up Trafofuchs and see what they have too.(Look for Epoch 1) www.trafofuchs.de Sometimes its just a matter of a bit of paint. Sometimes you have to cheat and go for the 1/200 scale too. (Here is a clue, the turn of the century European people look really good in cowboy/western/logging type layouts. Kaiser Wilhelm II loved those Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows!) German Sheepherder by Preiser looks funky on a US layout, but he would look good as one of my Hobos, or maybe a Wizard at a fantasy castle, or walking around Dizzyland? Add my Trekkie figures and some others and you have a Sci-fi,fantasy,comic book convention 1980's to the present. (do they still have those in the States?)
Those German conductors can get their hats trimmed up a bit so they look more like something on the Zephyr than the Rheingold. Just because figures are "European" don't mean they can't be painted otherwise.
Sculpty in Germany is called Femo and is in all kinds of colors, even glow in the dark. I have made all kinds of stuff with it but mostly in G scale. I would not even know how to use it in Z for figures but there is tons of other stuff one could make with it.

I just wish that Preiser would EXPAND their line a little more. They obviously have the talent for creating Z figures but instead of making new, and affordable, styles they are just repainting the old ones in modern era. Construction guys have very much improved but wish they came out with poses we can use more, European or not. They would sell. Did their sculptors die off or something???

Well at the train fair I told them just sculpture me.. I was in my engineer outfit..they declined..They had some models doing some pantomime stuff but I couldn't figure out what they were doing.. They are there mostly because German trade fairs always have hottie models to attract the attention of those grumpy old dudes..Anyway I told them they should make more Z figures..I did get their attention when I reminded them that the 100 year mark of the start of WW1 was just around the corner.. They were like what? Wow! oh yea we didn't think of that. I probably just made them a couple thousand euro for that.

I'm thinking of buying the Prieser unpainted 100 figure set, but would like to know how to paint these little things. I've got a 3x magnifier with light, some basic colours of Testors figure paint, and some small brushes that are probably way too big to paint figures. I'm thinking I'm going to need some kind of tiny clamp to hold the figures while applying colour, but really, I don't see how folks paint anything so small. And, no, I NEVER intend to sculpt my own figures now that I've actually seen figures in person

Beverly the figures come with painting instructions printed on the inside of the box. I picked up a clamping stand at The Source for 99 cents on a special, I find it both helpful and annoying because the screws won't stay tight. I simple hold the figure and paint, lets say all the shoes one time, and the next time, all the pants, etc. I only do 10 figures at a time, it can be stressing, so relay and enjoy it. I use #1 to #3 brushes.

The figures I have are attatched to a base sprue. Paint them Before cutting them off. It's so easy to looze those little critters. That double edge sticky tape comes in handy when painting small detailed parts ( Not Figures )
Fred

What I do is..I remove the figures from the sprue.. I then glue them to scraps of wood or toothpicks cut off at an angle. I use a gel superglue. Now you have a handle that you can hold on to when you pain, and you can turn it at all kinds of angles in relation to the brush. So if you are say, painting a different color shirt than the pants, you can touch the point of paint on the place you need it and move the paint in the direction you need it to go. I constantly touch up spots on the figure where I over paint, and when the figure is mounted on a scrap piece of wood it makes it easier to control. If you look at the pictures of my figures you will see them on the scrap. You will also see spots of different colors on the scrap wood, as I use this to brush off the excess paint and kind of make sure there is a sharp point of the brush with just enough paint on it. The paint is right there on the scrap and if I need one more little dot I can take some from the scrap before it dries. This is all done under the magnifying lens I am wearing, so everything is in perspective and the right amounts.

Again with the enamels I get a big glob of paint from the bottom of the bottle without shaking or stirring, and put it on a piece of paper or cardboard, and add turpentine to make a very fine and very flat paint. It dries out fast and I just add a bit more turpentine. I use a number 00000 brush for most of my work. I also use acrylics. Make sure whatever you are using you clean the brushes with the proper stuff. Acrylics I use alcohol, with enamels I use brush cleaner. I get a bit on some tissue and clean it dthat way.

A gentleman whose name escapes me at the moment made some of the most exceptional looking figures I've ever seen by starting with a Preiser unpainted set. He left them on the sprues to make it easier to work on them. Sometimes he swapped out arms and legs to get the exact pose he wanted. Then he applied tiny amounts of Squadron Putty (a filler material made for plastics that comes in a tube) to add bulk where he needed it, and when it was dry he gently carved the putty with the tip of a sharp knife. Finally he painted the figures, and they looked better than Preiser's own pre-painted ones--and they tend to be the best in the business. He made a set of early-era baseball players, and their clothing looked totally authentic.

I've worked with Sculpty and similar materials, and it's nearly impossible to get the fine control you need for such tiny, detailed items. My recommendation is to use the above technique, since it gets you 80% of the way there right off the bat, and Squadron Puttty will get you the rest of the way there with a little practice.

Thank you all for the excellent tips

My Preiser figures finally arrived yesterday. I now have two packages of unpainted figures. I must be a glutton for punishment when I look at the figures through my magnifier

I'm not as impressed with the figures as I thought I'd be. Some have club feet, others have extra plastic on them. Any tips for these problems? TIA

I've got a small vise to hold the sprues while painting them as well as the finest artist brushes I could find. I'll wait for a day when I'm sharp to begin work on figures for the micro diorama plus some for my Z PBL Challenge dioramas. Today, I'm tired from pulling a few back-to-back all day kit building sessions.

Beverly, I have 5 boxes of those little critters. Read the instructions printed on the inside of the box, they are pretty good. You can remove the excess plastic with a small file rather then an Xacto blade. I add bits and pieces to them as needed. I haven't tried heating and bending them yet.

Bev,
Karin found these little gadgets at Office Depot and I'm sure you can find them at other office supply stores.
Cost about a buck or more and they are very handy for painting. The cube holds the extra clip hand up nicely unless the object is real heavy and I think these would be perfect for holding your lilliputian figures for heavy make up.......ie, paint job.

Excuse the poor lighting......I couldn't afford Cecil B Demille.

Loren

Oops again,
I always take high res pictures and forget that this site can't handle man sized photos so I had to resize it.
Try again.......

Oops again,
I always take high res pictures and forget that this site can't handle man sized photos so I had to resize it.
Try again.......

Bev,
Karin found these little gadgets at Office Depot and I'm sure you can find them at other office supply stores.
Cost about a buck or more and they are very handy for painting. The cube holds the extra clip hand up nicely unless the object is real heavy and I think these would be perfect for holding your lilliputian figures for heavy make up.......ie, paint job.

Excuse the poor lighting......I couldn't afford Cecil B Demille.

Loren