SCALES

[Yug]

I have been reading with interest all your views about ther new ' Battle of the Somme ' diorama and the debate about 1/72 aircraft mixed with 1/76 tanks and figures . First question , Why have 2 scales so close ? and why cant they all be the same scale ? Okay there so close you can get away with mixing them as they look alright but ideally they should all be 1/72 as there are more aircraft than military vehicles .

[Russ1707821018]

I have been reading with interest all your views about ther new ' Battle of the Somme ' diorama and the debate about 1/72 aircraft mixed with 1/76 tanks and figures . First question , Why have 2 scales so close ? and why cant they all be the same scale ? Okay there so close you can get away with mixing them as they look alright but ideally they should all be 1/72 as there are more aircraft than military vehicles .

1/76 is the same as the railway OO scale. I think when Airfix started doing vehicles and figures it was thought that the best scale would be on that was compatible with one of the popular model railway scales. In the UK, that was OO/HO, which basically means OO scale locomotives and rolling stock on HO (1/87 scale) track. HO stands for 'half O scale' and O scale is 1/43.5. This is why 1/43 is a popular scale for cars and other civilian vehicles. But, circling back a bit, 1/72 scale was the standard for WWII aircraft ID models. It is a convenient scale because 1 inch is equal to 6 feet. Well, it used to be convenient before everybody (except the USA) converted to metric. So the two scales came into being quite independently for what seemed like rational reasons and it was only when people started wanting vehicles and figures to display with their aircraft or vice versa that it became a problem.

[Ratch]

Before globalisation (pre 1980s) the accepted scales in the UK for figures and AFVs were 1/76 and 1/32. Airfix and Matchbox produced them in these scales being UK based and UK Market centred businesses. Then along came the Japanese and flooded the market with 1/72 and 1/35. At least 1/32 ties up with 1/32 aircraft, 1/35 doesn't match anything.

[Simon Norton1707820138]

From what I recall it was Esci who introduced 1/72 small scale AFVs to the UK. The Japanese were spilt between Nitto and Fujimi doing 1/76 and Hasegawa doing 1/72.

Figures were 1:32 as that was the equivalent of the traditional 54mm. For AFVs, Airfix only had the Crusader and M3 Lee and Grant tanks, Momty's Humber and Rommels Half track and later  the 17pdr AT gun. They had more 1:35 vehicles in the range even if they were reboxings.

[Ratch]

Weren't they the Max-Peerless kts issued between 1976 to 1978

[Simon Norton1707820138]

Weren't they the Max-Peerless kts issued between 1976 to 1978

I thought they were around longer than that but I expect you're right.

I've been trying to think of another manufacturer who went down the 1:32 route for AFVs. I can only think of Renwal who did some early cold war US stuff, which I think were also released by Monogram and Revell.

As I said previously 54mm was a long established scale for figures and many more manufacturers went down the 1:32 figures route.

[Jonathan Mock]

Weren't they the Max-Peerless kts issued between 1976 to 1978

I thought they were around longer than that but I expect you're right.

I've been trying to think of another manufacturer who went down the 1:32 route for AFVs. I can only think of Renwal who did some early cold war US stuff, which I think were also released by Monogram and Revell.

As I said previously 54mm was a long established scale for figures and many more manufacturers went down the 1:32 figures route.

 

The short-lived Airfix 1/35 range was the Max/Peerless tooling, even down to using the same box art.

[Ratch]

 They revived 1/35 with the Trumpeter Challenger II in 2004.

[Ratch]

The coarse modeller will not be bothered with the difference in scales whereas  the purist will find the difference annoying.

[Dad Paul B]

This was mainly due to Airfix driving the whole 'Constant Scale' way backin the 1950s. A lot of manufacturers went for whatever fit in a standard sized box. 1/76 is railway OO scale (European) while the US HO is 1/87 - and a lot of stuff was classed as HO/OO. I have seen a lot of scale purists on these forums. I am more flexible - wargamers are used to scale variability (15 mm (~1/100) figures can be anything up to 18 or even 20 mm these days so there is quite a discrepancy between modern and 'classic' figures - but we 'soldier on' 25 mm is even more variable with some Citadel and Foundry stuff being around 35 or even 40 mm.

For the Somme diorama it shouldn't be too jarring given the different classes in the mismatched scales (1/72 planes/1/76 ground) and a reasonable vertical offset - the planes are larger since they will be close looking from above soshouldn't look too bad.

It really depends how 'pure' your approach is and what your requirements are for constant scale.

Personally, I wouldn't sweat it.