Pedestrians - HO Scale

The pedestrians without which a street is only a backdrop

What a layout lacks most is ordinary people. Houses, roads and a station read as empty until somebody starts walking along the sidewalk. These six are meant for exactly that: four men and two women caught in moments nobody would call exceptional. Two stand facing each other and talk, one has his head bent over a book or a newspaper, another is just waiting, most likely for a bus that is running late.

It is precisely the everydayness that is the strength here. The figures do nothing dramatic, so they can be set down almost anywhere: in front of a shop window, by a bench in a park, on a corner before a crossing or in the middle of a knot of people on a platform. They do not draw attention to themselves, but they give the space scale and a hint of movement. A visitor notices them only the second time around, and with figures that is a good sign.

The size matches the most widespread railroad standard, that is a reduction of 1:87. An adult comes out at roughly two centimeters in it, and that is why details such as a handbag, a collar or footwear are rendered in paint rather than in shape. The figures come finished and painted, and all they need is a place and a drop of cyanoacrylate or PVA glue under the soles.

It pays to think the placing through before you reach for the glue. The pair in conversation belong together and should be turned to face each other, whereas the reader will take being alone at the edge of the scene. A standing figure that is waiting looks most natural by a post, a traffic sign or a shelter.