wingman777 Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 Lets say a 1/1 scale P-47 weighs about 13,500 lbs. How much would a 1/32 scale p-47 weigh if it were true to scale? Is there a formula that somebody has worked out for this already? Hope the IPMS judges don't get wind of this and start wanting us to enter "weighted" aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oletcherfred Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Divide by 32,768 to get an approximate weight for 1/32 scale. (This is 32 x 32 x 32, BTW). Yeah - used to teach math. Can't win 'em all! Fred(the ol' etcher from Fotocut) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Great! If scale weight is going to be a criteria, the only thing that will get you close to scale is a vac! As for resin--- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t.valdez Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Fueled or unfueled, with weapons loaded and stores hung. Fat pilots or skinny pilots. NMF finish or camouflage, razorback or bubbletop. See, it gets complicated........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris/Germany Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Hm, funny......seems, if this gets a criteria, I´ll be in front of you all. My birds are a bit heavier than most of you can imagine, including the lots of alumine i´m using and, not to forget, electrical components and the motor. Havent weightend one of them, but I think for example the Hellcat is somwhere between 500 -700 gramms. Anyway, nice question, would be interested how much the "scaled" weight would be? the ripper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t.valdez Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Lessee here, 13,500x454=6129000 grams per P-47. And (6129000/700)=8755 or 1/8755 the weight of a P-47. Now 1/32 scale suggest that we divide by 32 cubed. I'm getting a headache here, couldn't we just count the dancing angels on the head of a pin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingman777 Posted May 25, 2005 Author Share Posted May 25, 2005 This is interesting to me...not intended to be nit picky. We try hard to make these scale models look as realistic as possible...why not give them the "feel" as though they were genuine aircraft that were shrunk down? For many kits that have tricycle landing gear like P-38's you have to add weight to the nose anyway. Picking one of them up just has a better feel to it, makes your mind believe its made of metal instaed of hollow plastic parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 OK, I'll admit it -- this is something I wondered about now and then. Fred, I thank you for sharing your wisdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwolf80 Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 If you go with the fact that a 1/32nd scale model would be 1/32nd of the weight it would have to be 421 lbs in 1/32nd scale right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oletcherfred Posted May 26, 2005 Share Posted May 26, 2005 Well, it's 1/32 as long, yes. Also 1/32 as wide, and 1/32 as high. Hence the 1/32 x 1/32 x 1/32 to get the "scale" weight. I keep running into this problem with model RR stuff, too. Fred(the ol' etcher from Erieville) close enough to multiply by .00003, so the 13,500 lbs would "scale out" to be just under half a pound. Thin out that plastic, guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwolf80 Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Are you telling me a holow plastic model in 1/32 would weigh more then a real aircraft with a motor guns and all, in scale? I don't get it. weight is weight cubed or no cube. Please explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwolf80 Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Don't you cube the dimentions to get it's mass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwolf80 Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Never mind I get it it has to do with volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Nice idea guys, but, as the saying goes...'It will never fly!'. Unless you can scale all the components to the same thickness and weight as the actual material used on the full size aircraft, you'll find that, material for material, polystyrene plastic will always be heavier than the actual thing (even when ballast is taken into account). You would have to start with something like expanded polystyrene foam to stand half a chance, and then not add too much more weight, to come close to a scale AUW figure (even flying scale models are generally overweight compared to the full size aircraft...and also generally overpowered). Although a fully armed and fuelled up aircraft, such as a P-38, may seem to be quite heavy in pure weight terms, it is, relatively speaking, still quite light from a purely structural and engineering point of view, and it would be almost impossible to reproduce this in 1/32 scale with the materials we currently use for modelling. Phew...I think that I will take a pill and have a lie down now . Cheers Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KOTR Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 To get the weight down to scale, one needs to thin out the material to scale thickness. I remember the aircraft skin to be made from about 1.5 to 2 mm aluminium sheet. If someone thins it down to scale thickness that would be about 0.047 to 0.063 mm "thick". So I wish you good look in constructing your next model from the kind of aluminium foil I use to wrap up my butterbread every day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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