A question for the HO folks

[Bexley]

I am in need of HO scale motorcycles, preferably with riders. Lots of them. Any era, any style. Unpainted is preferred, as they will be heavily modified. I have found a few (Woodland Scenics makes some, though they are painted, and expensive given that I need 30-40 of them. Preiser makes a few, but same deal.) Italeri's 1/72 German motorcycles work, as they are a bit undersized for 1/72, but I'd like some more variety. I tried a few other companies' 1/72 bikes, like Armourfast and HaT, only to discover that while the price is right, they look too large alongside HO scale autos.

I could spend hours looking for small manufacturers and garage kits, but I thought I'd ask here, since many of you probably already know of these small manufacturers, should any exist that make bikes.

[chester]

I think this thread covers the subject pretty well.
http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=1264.0

[Bexley]

*sigh*

Silly me. It should have occurred to me that the topic had come up previously.

[EDIT] Or not. Plenty of links to (somewhat) reasonably priced models, but none with riders.

[Ronald]

The Dutch firm Artitec makes alo kits and ready-to-run models in !:87 of a Harley Liberator and a Triumph:

Ready-to-run: http://www.artitec.nl/index.php/nl/kant-en-klare-modellen/category/h0-militair

Kits: http://www.artitec.nl/index.php/nl/bouwpakketten/category/bouwpakketten-h0-militair

The difference is the price; 15 / 5 euro's. The kits are Resin.


Grtz, Ronald.

[Ken Hamilton]

How 'bout the Woodland Scenics bikers?

[Bexley]

How 'bout the Woodland Scenics bikers?

Already covered in the first post. I might get a set for some variety, but they're spendy.

As for the others: no riders. I'm probably just going to go with the Italeri ones. At $2.50 apiece (a kit is $10 and has four bikes) with riders and sidecars, I doubt I will find anything better. I'll just have to do more conversion work than I'd like to get some variety.

[chester]

There are some cast metal kits out there, one has a rider. That being the one from J.L. Innovative designs, inexpensive and you get two bikes to a package. Elskin is the other manufacturer. Faller has a kit too but it is pretty pricey.
Two more companies not mentioned that offer ready to roll Motorcycles are Busch and Herpa.
The Italeri kit makes a nice bike but I've seen them used with 1/87 scale and they do look quite large.

[Bexley]

They're not that out of scale. Not as much as Armourfast or HaT, at least. I am using them for a miniatures game, not a layout or diorama, so they really only need to be close. But since I need a lot of them, cost is a more important factor than accurate scale. Variety is nice, but when it gets down to it, $2.50 apiece is tough to top. I like the JL ones, and the price is good, but I didn't see any with riders in their catalog.

Anyway. Thanks for the help, everyone.