I've recently started trying to add a little scenery around my track, and what I really wanted was a pit lane, complete with figures. 

The first ones I bought were a Scalextric set, which came assembled and painted. They're actually pretty good, but the range is limited and I don't want too much repetition. 

So I had a look through what was available and picked these from SRA, who have the biggest range I've found.

It's been a few years (like a decade or so!) since I last painted any model figures, so I was a little nervous about being able to make a decent job of these, but I'm quite proud of the results. 

The quality of these figures helped enormously. I used to make quite a lot of 1/35th scale military models, including some (quite expensive) pewter figures, as well as Games Workshop and similar fantasy figures. I can quite honestly say that the quality of these pewter figures from SRA is right up there with the best.

A couple of the figures had a little 'flash' (excess material) around the shoulders, and the fuel hose sections needed a little work to fit together cleanly, but otherwise the figures needed very little cleaning up or preparation. Ten or fifteen minutes was all it took.

Then it was time for the serious stuff - painting!

I used Humbrol enamel paints (personal preference) but acrylics should work equally well. I started with a thorough undercoat of matt white which was left to dry overnight. The overalls and helmet visors were painted with satin (semi-gloss) black, the helmets in gloss red. 'Highlights' were added by lightening the black with white and applying this to the raised areas on the model. This step is repeated a few times with slightly more white in the mix each time. 

The technique is called 'dry-brushing'. You get the lighter mixture on the brush, then wipe most of it off on a tissue, so only a tiny amount is left on the brush. When you paint the model the paint only goes on raised areas (there isn't enough on the brush for normal coverage. It's a great technique for bringing out texture and detail on a model.)  

The final stage was to paint some 'badges' on the figures to try to represent sponsor's logos. This didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but hey - nobody's perfect!!

I've included this last photo to show there isn't much difference in size between the Scalextric and SRA figures, so you could confidently use both together.

I'm really pleased with these figures. The quality's great, they're good value and you can mix and match figures from other sets in the range. I'd recommend them to anyone and I'll definitely be getting some more.