Odd question of scale?

[IainMackayDall]

I've always been bothered as to why 1/32 scale was applied the standard for large scale aircraft models but 1/35 was only used for military vehicles.
Why the slight difference?

[BlrwestSiR]

1/35 was the creation of Tamiya. Their early armour kits were motorized and they found the batteries would fit in a 1/35 tank so that's what they went with. 

So not quite box scale but more like battery scale. 

 

[Bomber_County]

Didn’t Tamiya also do a 1/25th armour range as well? I’m talking early 70’s.....

[BlrwestSiR]

They did 1/25 as well. I think a couple have been reissued in the last while.  

[HubertB]

Tamiya’s first tank kit, a Tiger (of course, some Nazi stuff, what else ?) was more like battery- and box-sized. 
Later, they found out that the scale was close to 1/35, so they carried on with it for the following kits, and it became a (frustrating) standard 

At least 1/32 was based on the weird Imperial fraction ratios...
 

To compound the nightmare, they then « invented » 1/350 scale - 10 times smaller, in one dimension, so 1000 times smaller volume-wise - for ship models. And now, some smart @#&&es thought helicopters should be 1/35 to be consistent with armor kits, although I have yet to see a diorama mixing a helo with some armor or even soft-skinned vehicles 

As you can guess, I am a great fan of Tamiya San’s abomination 

Hubert

[GrahamF@Iconicair]

A similar thing happened with model railways, Hornby in the early years couldn't get the electric motors to fit in the British locomotives at HO 1/87 scale because they are smaller than European counterparts, so they tweaked the scale up to 1/76 called it OO but not the track, so now we have trains running on track that is too narrow and you can imagine there are lots of off shoot societies that model it correctly to differing degrees of accuracy. One manufacturer bucked the trend the Italian company Lima but then they were bullied into scaling up to OO in the 1980's and at one point were supplying the same model in two different scales.

Graham

 

[GazzaS]

1 hour ago, HubertB said:

To compound the nightmare, they then « invented » 1/350 scale - 10 times smaller, in one dimension, so 1000 times smaller volume-wise - for ship models.

Hubert

So Hubert, what else for ships was there available?  I think 1/700 is way too small for my enjoyment, but 1/200 too big for larger vessels.  What was in that scale area before 1/350 came about?

 

Gaz

[[CAT]CplSlade]

1 hour ago, HubertB said:

Tamiya’s first tank kit, a Tiger (of course, some Nazi stuff, what else ?) was more like battery- and box-sized.

Their first tank kit was the Panther in 1961, which was also their third plastic kit with a race car being the second. Technically, their first plastic kit was a model of the Yamato (1959) but they were not able to compete successfully with the other companies on price point and they went back to wood kits for a couple of years before giving in to the change in fashion which was plastic not wood.

Tamiya started as a sawmill and lumber supply company  (1905) and they got into making wooden boats and planes to eat up some of their on-hand wood reserves. That business became very profitable and they left the lumber business in 1953.

[HubertB]

Airfix had 1/600, Heller 1/400, Hasegawa 1/450, Revell had anything between 1/96 and 1/540, and there were the odds and ends of Lindberg, Aurora , Renwall. I remember a friend of my father had scratchbuilt a fleet in 1/500. His  son is today a respected (French) author of historical books on ships.

So, yes there was no standard at the time, as far as plastic models were concerned. But paper models had already standardised on 1/250 for the largest battlewagons, and sometimes 1/200 for ships like destroyers.
 

The  «  historic » scales by Airfix and Heller were wiped out by Tamiya’s 1/350, and their subsequent followers. And 1/700, half of 1/350, overtook 1/600. All arithmetically linked to a box-size tank kit. Good marketing by Tamiya and a testament of their strength on the market. But they  could have done 1/300 just as easily.

I personally believe the « right  » scale for big  ships is 1/200. They have a real presence. Trumpeter revived 1/32, and they are also getting it right for ships now IMHO.

Just my two cents, of course

Hubert

[HubertB]

3 minutes ago, [CAT]CplSlade said:

Their first tank kit was the Panther in 1961, which was also their third plastic kit with a race car being the second. Technically, their first plastic kit was a model of the Yamato (1959) but they were not able to compete successfully with the other companies on price point and they went back to wood kits for a couple of years before giving in to the change in fashion which was plastic not wood.

Tamiya started as a sawmill and lumber supply company  (1905) and they got into making wooden boats and planes to eat up some of their on-hand wood reserves. That business became very profitable and they left the lumber business in 1953.

Ok. I stand corrected on the tank type. My apologies for the wrong information.

Hubert

[IainMackayDall]

Great source of information form all your replies !! Thanks  I also note that there is a crossover with flying equipment with this 1/35 scale Viper http://hyperscale.com/2020/features/ah1z48sp_1.htm

So is it taboo to mix 1/32 scale craft with 1/35 scale ground equipment.. what about all those dioramas with Lancasters and Mossies with refuelling trucks?

[Bomber_County]

Unless the guys up scaled them, then I think it’s called smoke and mirrors with a lot of perspective thrown in.....

[HubertB]

It depends wether you think a 10 % difference is important. I know some people for whom size matters

Hubert

[Wumm]

5 hours ago, HubertB said:

I know some people for whom size matters.

That entirely depends on whether you're being compared to the next man who comes along!

Speaking of which...

A direct size comparison between a 1/35 scale figure on the left, and the 1/32 H.J. Marseille figure from the Hasegawa '109F kit. And as is often the case, it's much bigger when you take the head into consideration!

Speaking of that Bf109 kit... The difference between 1/32 and 1/35 sizes is almost an inch, at 2.4 centimetres.

S

[HubertB]

2 hours ago, Wumm said:

That entirely depends on whether you're being compared to the next man who comes along!

Speaking of which...

A direct size comparison between a 1/35 scale figure on the left, and the 1/32 H.J. Marseille figure from the Hasegawa '109F kit. And as is often the case, it's much bigger when you take the head into consideration!

Speaking of that Bf109 kit... The difference between 1/32 and 1/35 sizes is almost an inch, at 2.4 centimetres.

S

That’s exactly my point, and the difference is just too big to pass, at least IMHO, for hardware. 
On the other hand, for figures, it’s not so much of an issue. It even makes for a more interesting and realistic rendering, again IMHO, if you mix 1/32 (54 mm) and 1/35 scale figures around a 1/32 plane.

Hubert