General Public - HO Scale

Briefcases, coats and hats

The six figures look as if they had just come out of an office or off a train. The clothing is urban and formal, which makes this set one of the most usable at a station and in a business district.

Six figures

A woman stands in a coat with a hat matched to the same coat. The man beside her has thrown an overcoat over his forearm. Another man wears glasses and clutches a briefcase under his arm. One of the women is waving a greeting, another walks briskly and carries a briefcase too. The last man walks slowly and carries his briefcase loosely in his hand.

Why three briefcases are no problem

The repetition of the same object on several figures is an advantage here, not a fault. The morning and afternoon rush at a station really did look like that, and a viewer notices it as a pattern rather than as a shortcoming. More interesting is the difference in pace: two figures are hurrying, two are standing and two are walking slowly.

Placing them and the scale

A reduction of 1:87 puts the figures in HO size. The group stands out best in a station concourse, on a platform, at the entrance to an office building or near a stop. Figures with a briefcase in hand are also easy to place in doorways and passages, because the way they hold themselves suggests the direction of walking by itself and the scene thus gains movement.

Matching the color range

With formally dressed figures a subdued palette reads most convincingly: gray, brown, dark blue and beige. A single more pronounced piece, for example the lighter coat of one of the women, then works as a focus the eye returns to. If several figures get a saturated color at once, on the other hand, the group falls apart into individuals and stops reading as a stream of people heading for one goal.