The O Scale Figure Dilemma

One of the problems I am encountering in this project relates to the "O" scale civil war era figures. While there is a pretty good selection of 40mm civil war era figures available, such as from the Sash and Saber, and the Honorable Lead and Boiler Suit (HLBS) company, they are intended for wargaming. Thus they are built robustly to take abuse from handling during games. Hence the overscale swords, and other weapons. They also tend to have "war-like" poses, charging, shooting etc. I expect that I will be converting many of them for use on the more sedate operation of running the railroad. For example, I'll probably have to grind off the swords, weapons and adjust the poses. I'll also have to remove the cast on bases and introduce pins so they can be installed on the layout.

I find that I am ordering artillery men, and officers more for use on the layout. Most of the infantry figures have weapons and battle rattle (canteens, packs, mussette bags, cartridges boxes etc.) inappropriate for figures that would be hanging around the RR. However, I do plan to use some of them for at least one scene where a long line of troops are marching off to their camp.

There are a few manufactures that make civilians appropriate for this era and I have a bunch on order, mostly from the UK. Woodland scenics makes a line of O figures that are good, especially their railroad crew. But, they will need to be converted to 1860's attire. The Sash and Saber figures have separate heads, so swaping heads with the Woodland Scenics figures will be easy. (They are shown at the lower right of the photo). Since I am modeling winter, adding frock coats will not be hard. The Woodland Scenics figures need to be repainted, as their existing paint jobs are too cartoonish.

Another problem I encountered is that what constitutes an O scale figure varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Compare the figures in the prototype photo of the locomotive Haupt to the model figures. For reference, the locomotive has 60 inch drivers.

The 28mm wargame figures are in general too small, but will work in background scenes, especially the Old Glory figures. Most 28mm figures are notorious for being over-scale to allow the sculptor more room to model detail. However, the over-scale size helps in my application. They are also more affordable, especially the mounted troops.

The Tamiya 1:48th scale figure tends to be a good 25 percent smaller than the Woodland Scenics guys. The Woodland Scenics are about the same size as the Sash and Sabre. I purchased some 1:43 figures from the UK and these are slightly smaller than the Woodland Scenics, which should go the other way if one believe the nominal scale. Dave Emery painted the 1/43rd Stadden figure.

As can be expected, the Tamiya figures are probably closest to scale. This Tamiya figure is a German soldier from their WWII line. They do not currently offer a ACW era figure. Being styrene, it should be easy to modify.

The trick is to mix and match the figures while remaining aware of the size differences. I enjoy figure modeling, so this will just add more play/build value to the layout.