Hey guys–reading through some of these posts here, you often come across old models in weird scales;(Rob Grovonius’ pair of oldies in Manny’s “What?” thread prompted this) and I was wondering;
does anybody know what year the “standard” 1/35 scale was really decided upon, and what manufacturer started it? How did it come to be chosen?
Could it be that it was just enough “between” the 1/32 and 1/40 scales that it was a “compromise solution”?
1/35 was standardized by Tamiya in the early '70s with their motorized tanks. They found this scale to be just right to fit the motors and batteries inside the hull. The other companies followed suite with the same scale.
Wow Gino! I didn’t expect to get such a quick and perfectly concise answer after like…30 seconds! LOL!
I am duly impressed! Thanks for that info! [:D]
I didn’t know either so, I Googled and got this extensive piece from WIKIPEDIA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_model
I’m still not sure! Although, the TAMIYA scale to fit the motor description makes sense.
Al
WOW! A huge anount of info there to read! Good find, al!
I agree that Gino’s explanation still makes the best sense right now…it’ll be interesting if they even give a reason for it in this page?
Actually, Monogram’s 1/35 scale armor kits pre-date Tamiya’s kits. The Monogram M48A2 Patton tank was made around 1966 before Tamiya’s 1970 era motorized kits. Monogram made kits in 1/35 then switched to 1/32 to follow the scale that Renwal (1950s) and Airfix (1976) were using.
There’s a good Monogram book by Bob Reder that lays out the dates of when kits were released. Early armor kits were 1/35 and later kits like the German vehicles and M3 Grant/Lee switched to 1/32. Unfortunately, when Monogram switched to 1/32, the rest of the industry adopted 1/35. http://modelingmadness.com/others/books/flukemono.htm
Tamiya probably chose 1/35 because some Japanese model companies (Nitto) made motorized copies of Monogram kits, thus becoming the standard in Japan. I’ve got a few early motorized copies of Monogram’s halftrack and M34 deuce that borrowed heavily from the standard Monogram kits.
Tamiya’s original armor kits were 1/50 scale (T92, Crusader) that were boxed by Hawk in the US.
I’ve read the Wikipedia article, but anyone of us could write an article there. I’m not saying it isn’t true, but that there are other armor kits that pre-date Tamiya 1/35 scale kits. I don’t have my Monogram book with me at work, but I think one of their earliest 1/35 armor kits has a 1956 release date.
As to odd scale, who knows. Revell made theirs in 1/40; Renwal 1/32; Lindberg 1/64, 1/32; Aurora 1/48; Airfix 1/76, 1/32; Tamiya 1/50, 1/35; Monogram 1/32, 1/35.
The only one that really makes sense in the imperial measurement world would be 1/48 or 1 inch equals 4 feet.
OK, so now I’m wondering why and how MONOGRAM arrived at and choose 1:35th scale.
The resolution of this really doesn’t impact my modelling…just curious, is all.
Thanks
ps I don’t have the BOB REDER book and if the explanation is in that, then I apologize for not reading it there myself.
Didnt one of the Japanese companies make 1/30 kits in the early 70’s? I seem to vaguely recall a Panther and M60 in that scale.
I believe it was Nichimo that did the 1/30 scale kits. Tamiya even did 1/21 scale kits, I think they did a Long Tom.
The large M60 was a 1/24 scale kit by Bandai (did they do the 1/30 scale kits?).
I believe the scale origin was based on box scale of the early armor kits. This 1/35 kind of stuck.
Wow…I look at Heavy’s response and then this and it would appear as the senior officer has shown why he is the senior officer [bow]
Or is it just a matter that Rob has every one of these scales in his stash…[swg]
Either way…looks good to me.
PS…How do you explain all the missles made in the 60’s by Renwal, Revell, etc. which have scales all over the lot and all odd ball??? (missiles are considered artillery and by modeling terms armor??) [:-^]
Rounds Complete!!
So one inch would almost equal 3 scale feet in 35th scale terms…
In metric measuring societies 1/35 has no big issue vs English measurement societies when feet/inches are scaled out. Then scales like 1/48, 1/96, 1/24, make more sense.
It’s just because he is old and was around at the time they originally made them. [:-^]
There may have been others that made 1/35 kits first, but I still think Tamiya’s 1/35 motorized kits are what forced the 1/35 armor market that we know today.
OK…Rob, don’t feel bad, if you are old then I am ancient. Then I think the first weapon system I would have been on was a catapult…[:-^] LOL
Rounds Complete!!
First encounter I had with 1:35 was Tamiya in the spring of '67,also had a Nichimo Pzr IV with rubber tracks and a Bandai Puma that was a little rough in the same time frame,IIRC. Ibuilt ALL the Nichimo 1:30 German armor and multiples of their Panther G,etc Still have a few of them in storage.It was my hope at the time(1970) that the industry would go 1:30th,its just bigger enough to be more impressive,and Nichimo,at the time,despite a few accuracy flaws,had it all over Tamiya !!! Regards, Mike
Okay, here’s another interesting question: Why is 1/48th scale also refereed to as “quarter scale”?
I believe it’s in reference to one quarter of an inch being equal to one scale foot.
OK, according to my Monogram book, they released the 1/32 scale Jeep & 37mm in 1957 and the M3 halftrack and Amphibious Weasel, but these two were in 1/35. The M34, Patton and Little John missile system came in 1958 and were 1/35 as well.
I whole heartedly agree that Tamiya was the moving force behind making the scale the standard, but they chose the scale based on other manufacturers making copies of Monogram kits. I do not know why Monogram chose the scale and the book does not go into it.
I still think (just my opinion) that Monogram chose the scale based on box size. The Jeep was slightly larger because it is a smaller vehicle that had to fit in the same size box.
Monogram’s 1/32 Panzer IV based kits (Strumpanzer, Flakpanzer and Panzer IV) show up in 1970. The 1/32 Grant and Lee show up in 1973 and the SdKfz 232 8-wheeled armored car in 1974. The 1/32 scale M4 and M4A1 Screamin’ Mimi come in 1975.
In 1976 they release the M8 Greyhound and 1977 the M20 armored car. These appear to be the last military vehicle kits they do (excluding reissues). Post Vietnam, military vehicle models sort of fall out of favor with US manufacturers.
As for being old, well, at least I’m on my time and can retire whenever I wish. The old Army saying is that I’m working for half pay, because if I retire tomorrow, I would receive half my base pay the next day for the rest of my life. And for a lieutenant colonel with over 24 years in service, the pay’s not too bad.
But, I grew up building the 1/48 scale Aurora tank kits. Only the big kids had the super detailed, really neat 1/32 scale Renwal and 1/32-1/35 scale Monogram kits.
Actually, it was first marketed as 1"=4’ or 1/4, but was more correctly denoted as 1"=48" or 1/48 today.
The 1 inch equals 4 feet was seen as 1/4 or quarter scale.
Missed this question. Renwal did missiles in 1/32 scale just like their armor kits. The Mace Missile with Terracruiser was a real cool kit. I built the Revell History Maker’s release of it in the 80s.
Revell made their missiles in their standard armor vehicle scale of 1/40. When Revell gained Renwal’s molds, they had some missile sets in both scales.
Monogram did their missile sets in box scale meaning they scaled the kits based on them fitting into a standard sized box. This lead to small missiles being a large scale and big missiles being a smaller scale.