Why are there so many different scales that don’t match? Two things that really bother me are that we have 1:32 scale aircaft and 1:35 scale armor. Think of the possibilities for dioramas if we had 1:35 scale aircraft and crew to use with the gobbs of 1:35 scale kits that are out there.
The other is the fact that there are 1:24 and 1:25 scale cars. This drives me nuts.
Does anyone else agree?
I agree totally!
For the cars… the difference is so small most people would never even notice. The difference in the length of a model of a 15 foot car would be only 1/40th of an inch.
BUT, I too have wondered about why armor is 1/35th scale?.. I am sure there is a good reason why it started that way… but it is unfortunate.
And… there is little we can do about it now. People will want to continue getting models in the scale they are used to… so it’s not likely to change.
armor is in 1/35 because tamiya said so. when monogram and others made 1/32 armor, tamiya made 1/35. italeri also did.
Who really knows why this is? No one, I suspect, because there are too many variables involved.
Back in the day, in certain instances, kits were made to fit a box. Hence the term “box scale”.
One explanation I can think of is that maybe at one point certain manufacturers started releasing kits in certain scales only because of the success of other manufacturers’ kits in those scales. (Aurora may be responsible, in whole or in part, for the advent and resulting popularity of 1/48 aircraft) After a time, those scales became the norm and therefore the “accepted” scales for certain types of models.
In cases like Monogram’s military vehicles, most of the kits we think of (Screamin’ Mimi, Grant/Lee, Panzer IV (or is it III?) and the rest of those BIG boxed kits) are 1/32. Some of their stuff is 1/35, however. Now Monogram already had some aircraft kits out in 1/32 when they brought out the 1/32 armor. This was around the time that Shep Paine was doing a bunch of work for them (remember the “how-to” diorama booklets included in many kits at the time?). Perhaps they had some plans to try and cross market the two genres in the scale of 1/32? I dunno. I don’t know why they did this, it’s just a guess on my part. And there are other guesses in my head, but none so seemingly logical as this one. [:p]
Anyhoo, I used to wonder about all this myself. I don’t do it anymore. I’m no longer a rivet counter and if I’m going to do a large scale diorama which includes an aircraft and a target, er… tank or other military vehicle, then I’ll just use a combo of 32nd aircraft and 35th armor. For me, it’s close enuff.
Or I’ll do it in 1/48. There’s plenty of 48th military stuff around to do something like that.
Fade to Black…
Is there any other use for a tank other than target practice? Not including Shermans…Sorry Robert[:)]
Darren
Also, why are there only 1/144 scale aircraft, but no 1/144 scale ships, armor, or troops? They’d only be half as big as 1/72 scale ones, but they’d still be plenty big for detail, I mean, the miniatures in RPGs are sometimes even smaller, but still show LOTS of detail! And 1/144 scale armor would be great! WHERE’S THE LOVE FOR US 1/144 SCALE MODELERS?!?! MORE 1/144 SCALE!!!
Yeah! Wouldn’t it be cool to do a 1/32 M-1 Abrahms rolling out of the back of a 1/32 C-5 Galaxy?!
There is no why or why not, only do or do not. There is no why!
No more will I teach you today.
A little modeling wisdom from Yoda 
I have built 1:24 and 1:25 scale Pontiac GTOs from ERTL and Monogram and the different scale have looked dramatically different in scale. This could be a problem with ERTL’s kit, but the differnce was pretty bad.
FSM has, over the years, done various articles on scale’s. From memory; The car kits started out in the 50’s as promotional models, Johan is one company that started this way. Other kits, as stated above, started out to fit the box, so the display looked good in the retailers, and it saved buying in different box sizes!, notice how car kit boxes are still narrow & tall?. 1/35 Choppers are now coming onto the market, though, as usual, not without innacuracies!
well 1/25 is 1mm=1 in i think…
Yes, 1 mm = 1 inch is near enough. A few years ago I built a 1/25 GMC stepvan from scratch, I just measured up a real one and used that formula. It turned out (I think) pretty good. As for the Abrams/Galaxy idea above, why not just do the ramp and a bit of the surrounding structure? MDF & filler, a lick of paint, some figures & there you go! If you can imagine it, you can do it, thats the beauty of modelling!
i gotta but no tanking experience
well, “tank you” too.
I like the idea of a partial dio, reminds me of the dio FSM showcased of a Corsair
(only 1/2) with a carrier bridge in the background - like a relief painting. It was very creative.