Pre-made scale figures always make your model look like a Barbie doll house (especially at 1/2 scale). I had a kid in my freshman studio class that glued a bunch of figure skating figures into his model. The prof. promptly ripped them out during the crit. go with the photocopies

lets see...5 1/2' to 6' tall figures in 1/2" scale would make them about 3" tall or 72mm...in Model Railroading parlance thats OO scale...try these:

http://reynaulds.com/preiser/p_1-72_figures.asp?item=lngNumericSort

why, oh, why do i know this information???

oh...and just spray paint them white to avoid inevitable ribbing from classmates and model destruction as brian mentioned. the single-color figures come off ok if you use them sparingly in large scale "bay models".

Thanks. I ordered some of the "unpainted."

Never used them in school, but they're actually very helpful when showing models to clients - scale is important! Just be sure to use them in places where understanding the scale is particularly important. If you are doing a presentation with 2d images as well, you could leave them out of the model but put some people in the renderings for scale. Depends what you want to focus on in the middle , for example if it's materials or details adding people might be distracting.

So what is the railroad equivilent for 1/4" or 1/8"? They have some cool stuff on that page, but I need it smaller than 1/2". I'm only asking because I really want to know, not just to make fun of you.

since most of these little scale type 'dollhouse' accesories are best found in railroading and model shops...here are some links:

http://www.thortrains.net/scale2.html

use that info and onlineconversion.com to figure out the scale figure you need...then try a google search for that scale figurine...the link from reynaulds can help you find what scale you need: for example.

1/4" people would be about 1.5" tall or 38mm. although nothing is precisely right, you couldn't go wrong with a 1/40 scale or even a 1:35. try this link for just about anything you'd need once you've done the metric conversion:

http://reynaulds.com/preiser/preiser.html

thanks. I'm off to spend the rest of my project budget on mechanics and scale farm animals.

instrumentOFaction,
these figures will ignite any project. thanks for the generous refer.

thats cool, guys, point...laugh, whatever...waterhouse asked, i answered...i don't remember recommending farm animals or the cast from All My Children....at least not today.