G Scale Passenger Appearance

[OERM306]

Are 1:22.5 passenger figurines way out of scale for a 1:20.3 passenger car?  I can't find 1:20.3 passenger figurines.

[Skarloey Railway]

Look at what the math says.

Take a 6' person in both scales. I'll use metric because it's much easier to calculate.

6' = 1.8 metres or 1800 millimetres.
So,
1800 over 22.5 = 80 mm.
1800 over 20.3 = 88.6 mm.

On average you can see that any 1.22.5 figure is going to be significantly shorter than it's 1.20.3 equivalent.

But given most large scale RRs operate in a garden setting full of 1.1 scale scenery the majority of modellers probably wouldn't be bothered by the difference between 1.22.5 and 1.20.3 figures.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi OERM,

Have you checked Garden Railways Magazine advertising.   There are several sellers of 1:20.3 figures.  Since real people vary in size, you can mix some 1:22.5 figures in with the 1:20.3 figures and they will look OK.  Also some seated 1:22.5 figures will look fine in the larger car.  A friend glues a little piece of thick cardboard to the buttocks of them to raise them up, and you can't really see it because he paints the cardboard with acrylic paint to match the seat color.  I never even realized what he had done til one day he told me his method.

Have fun!

Loco Bill

[OERM306]

Thanks guys.  I guess I'd better subscribe to the magazine.

[Kevin Strong]

Rule of thumb (or, rather, "rule of wallet"), pull out your credit card. You're gonna need it to pay for the figures anyway... The long edge of your credit card is a typical height for a figure in 1:20.3. The short edge is a typical height for a figure in 1:32.

Now, seated figures are harder to measure, and often, seated figures are difficult to actually sit in passenger car seats, so smaller may be a bit advantageous. What I do is look at standing figures, then compare the seated ones to them in overall proportions. It's not too difficult to tell when they're definitely different scales. But also know that inside passenger cars, you can get away with a little more "fudging" since you can't really see them clearly enough to get a full sense of scale.

Later,

K