Scale Question

[ValiantWagon]

It seems as if the target builders opted for 1/35 as their predominant scale whereas LSPers opted for 1/32.

 

Does anyone know whether there is an historical reason for this dislocation - why didnt both opt for the same scale? Or is it something that just evolved and there is no reason for the slight difference.

[Guest LSP_Jay L]

At one time it was the same. Monogram and Airfix made 32nd scale armour as well as a few others then came Tamiya with 35th scale tanks and changed the whole thing.

 

 

Cheers mate,

 

Jay

[MikeMaben]

I remember Monogram's range of armor kits from the early '60s, Patton tank, half-track, jeep w/cannon, etc,

were 1/35 scale.

M

M

...it goes back a long way...don't know the reason for the disparity

[Klaus H]

i have heared that this is a kind of "inch & cm" problem. dont ask me for an explaination.

 

its kind of silly and i think it will never change again.

 

cheers klaus

[05OP]

IIRC it was a budget concern for Tamiya efforts at motorizing armor subjects.Shrink the scale to fit economical electric motors of the time.

Rick

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Now Tamiya changes the thing into 48th scale....

[Derek B]

You'll need to get some armour-heads to confirm this, but my understanding is that the 1/35th scale AFV relates directly to the original (and traditional) scale of soldier figures (54mm figures spring to mind, which is pretty close to 1/32). The vehicles were scaled to match the figure size. Any takers?...

 

Cheers

 

Derek

[LSP_Matt]

i have heared that this is a kind of "inch & cm" problem. dont ask me for an explaination.

 

its kind of silly and i think it will never change again.

 

Cough HUBBLE cough

 

Well said Klaus.

 

Good question though Val...not dumb at all

[Edgar Brooks]

We were told 1/35th was the best size for fitting electric motors, so Tamiya went with that; 1/32nd scale is gauge 1, in railway modelling.

Edgar

[LSP_Ray]

According to Mr. Tamiya in his book, 1/35th was picked so that a motor would best fit in their armor line.

 

I do not know if I totally believe that was the true reason. For one, their first tank kit was a Panther. IF the kit needed to be 1/35th to fit a motor, what about 90% of all the other tanks that are smaller than a Panther? Also, 1/35th is so close to 1/32nd why not add the extra little bit and match the other 1/32nd stuff out there? Battery would obviously fit in a 1/32nd tank if it fit in a 1/35th.

 

Tamiya got their start making wood ship kits for the Japanese crowd that were box scale. It was only later they started to keep to a scale with ships. I am wondering if that first armor kit was sort of a box scale issue also and they stuck with it. Or an error in calculations with their early molds and they refuse to face up to it. Whatever, it sure is a pain for that 1% off. Wish they would have stuck with 1/32nd.

 

BTW: 1/32 is really based on an architectural scale: 3/8" = 1'- 0", just as 1/48th is 1/4" = 1'- 0" . Not sure where they came up with 1/72nd however.

[LSP_Ray]

1/72nd scale is the next natural mathematical regression.

 

I guess....

 

I meant as to Architectural scales. 1/72 would 1/6" = 1'-0" . There is no such scale, at least not a standard one. Closest I guess would be 3/16" = 1'-0" which would be 1/64 scale.