Paint Edwardian figures

Peter Marriott prepares to liven up his four and six-wheel coaches with some suitable figures in period attire.

Peter Marriott livens up his fourwheel coaches with figures in period attire.

Iwas excited when Hattons revealed its Genesis project and Hornby followed with its own range of four and six-wheel coaches. It also left me thinking about suitable figures to populate them, as although the model railway hobby is expanding exponentially and there is almost a model for everything, Edwardian figures aren’t as common. Thankfully, Osborn’s Models of Bideford has produced a pack of six Edwardian figures designed for the aforementioned four and six-wheel period coaches, together with ‘OO9’ carriages from Peco’s and Osborn’s own range. Contained within the pack are three seated figures and three standing figures, two of the gentlemen using walking canes.

The figures have been designed freehand (not scanned) by Osborn’s Models and are made in-house at Bideford from 3D resin. The figures come unpainted but both acrylic and enamel paints will be suitable. I used the

finest brushes I had to hand, especially for details such as the hands and faces. It’s important not to rush painting the figures and I spread the work over three days, building up the various layers of paint and leaving each layer to dry fully before moving on to the next step. For the finest details such as the ties and patterns on the dresses, I used a Woodland Scenics Foam Nail.

I took photographs of my finished figures before planting them on the layout and looked at each one on my computer screen. This proved to be invaluable as the screen magnified the figure and showed me where there were any imperfections. I made fine adjustments to them once I saw the figures up close.

7 There are a number of flesh paints on the market to choose from. I used Tamiya Flat Flesh paint for the faces and hands using my size OO Humbrol paintbrush for this task. I covered around the necks and would paint over the excess paint at the next stage.

6 To aid the painting process, I made a holding support for the figures from spare pieces of mounting cardboard. The figures were attached with a tiny blob of glue. This is much better than trying to hold the figures while painting them as you’ll end up with finger marks on them.

2 I examined each of the figures carefully and removed a couple of pimples using Tamiya Modelling Paper. A grit flexi sander would have done a similar job, but whichever method you use make sure you don’t press too hard or you’ll risk snapping the cane.

1 These are the three standing Edwardian figures you get in the Osborn’s pack. As with almost all figures, they may need a bit of cleaning up before you begin work on them. Note the small amount of excess resin material on the walking stick of the gentlemen to the right.

3 After cleaning up the figures I painted them all with Surface Primer from Vallejo. This gives a good surface for the layers of paint to adhere to and significantly reduces the risk of getting streaks, or the paint coming off as you handle the figures.

4 Make sure you choose a suitable brush. I looked through my collection of brushes to see which would be the most suitable, and found that the Humbrol Detail Brushes with sable hair gave me more control over the paint than my micro brushes with nylon hair and fibre pom pom.

5 It doesn’t matter what type of paint you use for painting the figures but I selected the acrylic ones for no reason other than most of those I had in stock were matt rather than gloss, which works better on figures.

10 The standing man in brown was painted using Woodland Scenics Brown Earth Colour. You don’t have to have specific paints to paint great-looking clothes. The rest of the figures were painted in Tamiya acrylic paints.

9 To add the small details to each figure, such as the white necklace detail on this seated figure, I used a little white acrylic paint on the end of the Foam Nail – a sewing needle or cocktail stick would work just as well.

8 I used the smallest paintbrushes I had to hand when painting the smaller parts, and even then the brushes I had were not totally suitable. I will buy some more, even smaller, finer brushes for next time. You may find that some of the areas need two coats of paint.

11 Two days later I took this test picture to see what further work was needed on the figures. For example, on the seated lady in red I had not picked up that there was a small blob of red on her face. I remedied this and found that taking test photos of the figures was a good way to ensure I was happier with the final results.