People Going Places - HO Scale

People who are on their way

A platform without people looks like a model; a platform with people looks like a place. The difference is not made by the number of figures but by their direction: as soon as the figures are each going somewhere different, the eye fills in that some have arrived and others are leaving. The set is built for exactly this task, because all the figures are modeled in motion and none of them is waiting on the spot.

Six figures walking

The group is made up of three men, an older woman and a mother with a child, which together comes to six separate figures. The composition is deliberately mixed, so that the group does not look like a party or a work crew. The color finish is done, so the set calls for nothing but placing, and a ratio of 1:87 ties it to the most common scale of layouts, for which the largest number of buildings and vehicles exist.

An arrangement that gives the scene direction

Dividing the figures into two streams proves itself: some toward the exit, some the other way toward the train. The mother with the child belongs in a quieter place, by a bench or against the wall of the concourse, where nobody is streaming past. It pays to put one man right at the edge of the platform, because a lone figure at the edge of a scene visually extends the space beyond the boundary of the module. When a layout shows a small halt, three figures from the package are enough and the rest can be left for another scene, otherwise the halt looks busier than the main station a little way off. The remaining figures can be put away and brought out later, once the module gets another building or a lengthened platform.