The magazine in general

     I don't know what you guys did but now I can click on the bulls eyes and go right to the websites.

This is wonderful. Great job guys!!!

Thanks

steveverte

Make up

This is great> Exactly the kind of thing I need.

Other Suggestions

I've had a lot of experience with figure painting (slightly different scale and purpose), and there are a couple of other simple tricks to really help when painting these little guys.

Washes

Once your base colors are down, a simple wash, either black/brown based, over the entire figure will add some depth as the wash settles into the recesses, creating shadows.  Washes are really easy and fast to apply, just make sure you wipe it off the high spots (like the figures forehead) if it pools.

If you really want to paint some fancy pants, using a wash of a much darker shade of the same base color over just specific areas can really do wonders (but this may be lost on the smaller scales).

Drybrushing

Mix up a color one (or even two) steps lighter than the base, and drybrush this on after a dark wash. It will make the edges of the model pop a little bit more, as now you've basically added three different tones to the area.  I think this "pop" is needed due to our normal viewing angle, as  what can look garish up close and personal, will look a lot better from three feet away.

Base Colors

If you are interested in color layering in any way, make note of your base color. For instance, if you're painting a white shirt, it's often better to use a light tan or gray as the main color, and than drybrush a white on top of that, building it up so the base color works in the shadows.

Hope this helps!

Painting

Painting figures for the inside of a railroad carriage might not be that useful visually, but when you know that there are REAL people in there, individuals with green jackets and brown shoes, it does make a difference

My brother had model soldiers, and had the loveliest colours for their uniforms.  On one occasion I joined in, and getting a little fed up with just painting the belts and boots.  These were the sort of thing you find on a HO layout, so pretty small.  Getting fed up with the repetition, I decided to paint a moustache on one of them.  Oliver saw this and couldn't believe it, so I painted the eyes and eyebrows on the next one!   After that all his sergeants had mutton chop side whiskers. 

It always makes something livelier when there is some individuality.

Washes

You don't have to restrict yourself to brown washes, for colored skirts and trousers, you can do them in a darker shade of the same color.  This especially so for passengers who aren't likely to be getting dirty around the switching yards!

If the base color is lighter than the intended finish color, then you don't have to do the dry brushing afterwards - unless they got into a dust fight!

Very important to have interiors and people in dome cars.

Painting figures for the inside of a railroad carriage might not be that useful visually, but when you know that there are REAL people in there, individuals with green jackets and brown shoes, it does make a difference

The little people might not show up in a coach or sleeper, but dome cars without interiors and people really look odd!

Nice article.  You may want

Nice article.  You may want to try some of the bottled craft paints at Wal-Mart.  I apply about a dozen different colors using a 10/0 brush.  In particular peach, tan, and burnt umber make great flesh tones.

Applying Makeup - painting HO figures

I use a slightly different technique.  First I remove the figures from the sprue and wash them in soapy water, rinse them, and let them dry over night.  Then I apply double sided tape to a piece of scrap wood and put the figures on the tape.  I use an inexpensive can of gray spray primer, holding the can far enough away so that the spray does not hit the figures with so much force that they go flying!  Once the primer has dried I use either Testors enamels or more recently I have been using acrylic craft paints (much cheaper than artist's acrylic paints in a tube. The final step is a light coat of Testors Dullcoat.  With this technique I can do fairly large batches - a dozen or more figures in a short time.

Up With People!

People use the railroad. Without people there is no railroad. The people come first. Therefore it's extremely important to have realistic believable people. Citadel/Games Workshop has made an entire art out of painting S Scale (25/28mm) figures. Their book; How to Paint Citadel Miniatures ISBN 9-781841-548715 as well as the paints and washes they produce are extraordinary. These techniques also work at HO scale. People have personality and interactions that form dynamics within communities. These are obvious when we look at people on the street or in shops. I see far too many layouts designed around technical details of trains and how trains operate and far too few where people are the reason for the layout. Some layouts have no people at all. Passenger cars have passengers. Engines have Engineers and Brakemen. RailKing makes some good people. These can also be cut up easily and modified. Build the person doing what you want him to do and looking like you want him to look rather than just breaking him out of the blister pack and gluing him down. If people don't use the railroad there will be no railroad. Thank you. Chris Myers San Angelo Texas.  

My experience

I believe washing may be a very good first step - there may be mold release residue on the figures and, with those I recently bought, the artist's acrylics do no take well until washed. The quality of those I bought may not be the best, but the price was right - $12.00 for 50 unpainted pieces ( http://www.peoplescale.com/TRAIN_c106.htm). They are available unpainted in a variety of scales. The quality problem was the heads seem small in proportion to the bodies and there was a good bit of flash. The flash is easily removed with an X-acto #11 blade. Another thing to trim is the head (apparently the mold sprue is attached to the head, rather than the feet).

My people are N scale, so painting is much more difficult than the HO Charlie shows.

Yes, the railroads served people, so a layout without people is stagnant.

My attempt

Well, I model in N scale, so the figures I have are barely 1/2" tall. To paint them I need an Opti-visor type aid, a very fine brush, a lot of patience and steady hands. In an earlier comment to this thread I mentioned I bought mine from:

http://peoplescale.com

My previous comment stated I thought the head size was a little small in proportion, but, after doing some painting, I have decided that was an erroneous perception. I have so far painted just five of the figures, but with a variety of color and style. Here is a picture of them:

Please excuse the focus, the objects are so tiny that selecting macro mode on the camera and using much light did not succeed in getting crisp focus. The white balance was not good either (yes, CC, I did try your method from your clinic presentation) - the background was blue tinted even though the background was a white foam board (I did a little editing to compensate). The figures are held upright by my newly acquired Woodland Scenics Hob-e-tac (really fantastic stuff for the intended applications). I used the 6 basic set of Liquitex artists acrylics as referenced in Charlie's article.

Five done - forty-five or so to go.