Oddball Scales

I believe it is from whatever company first started producing models in that scale.  Revell had the 1/32 market in the 60's with their line of WWII fighters.  I think Airfix came out with 1/24 fighters.  With armor showing up in 1/48 and the conversion from 1/76 to 1/72, there is commonality with the different facets of modeling. Cars are either 1/24 or 1/25.  Railroad scales are easy as they came out decades before scale modeling of planes, ships, cars, and military equipment besides toy soldiers.  N is 1/160, HO is 1/87 (half O scale), S is 1/64, and O is 1/48. 

I don't know if the search works here yet, but there have been some interesting discussions about model scales in the past.

Scale compatibility is a relatively new idea (the 1970s seems to be when most of our current scales got hammered out). In the beginning models were scaled to fit a standard sized box, so you would see a fighter in 1/42 scale, a medium bomber in 1/77 and a 4 engine prop airliner in 1/122 (not that they actually put these scales on the box at the time. 

Cars (1/32, 1/25, 1/24, 1/16), armor (1/72, 1/48, 1/35) and aircraft (1/200, 1/144, 1/72, 1/48, 1/35) seem to have pretty well settled on their scales although helicopters have split using both the aircraft 1/32 and armor's 1/35 for the large scale stuff.

Railroading "scales" are weird, technically they are gauges because they are based on the gauge of the track (distance between the rails), so you will find some variability in the actual scale. I occasionally buy G gauge stuff to use with car models and it varies from 1/18 on the large end to 1/24 on the small end. You are starting to see some odd narrow gauge scales using a smaller gauge of track with a large train (I think HO track with O gauge trains is one of them).

Ship modelers seem to have it the worst for building in one scale, 1/700 and 1/350 have definitely become strong scales, but you still run into 1/400, 1/500, 1/600, and 1/720. Sailing ships seem to still be using box scales, although that could be because most of the kits were first made when that was the standard.

in addition to those odd scales when you get into spacecraft scales it gets really crazy.

I love standardized sci fi on 1/72 or 1/100 scale. the manufacturers have been producing high end goods in these two scales for years and it allows us to have high quality goods in a decent space.

Just waiting for my Moebius 1/6 scale Cylon! Bust out the Alclad!

Not sure who was first in the 1/35th Helicopter movement, but I'm pretty sure it was done in order to spread into the 1/35th scale figure and armor market for diorama builders... I know it hooked me into buying a number of 1/35th sling-wings that I would have ignored in 1/48th or 1/32...

There's the "Box-scale" kits from the 50s & 60's too... The kits were designed to fit the box rather than the other way around... Speaking of odd scales, I recently scored a SMER 1/50th scale Swordfish offa Ebay for 10.00... Bagged kit, no decals, and it's a floatplane version..

so why not start making 35th scale planes? i know theres a storch in 35th to go with tanks. but why not standardize it across all platforms? it would make dioramas alot easier and it would bring more people into the diorama scene

Hans von Hammer

Speaking of odd scales, I recently scored a SMER 1/50th scale Swordfish offa Ebay for 10.00... Bagged kit, no decals, and it's a floatplane version..

That is interesting, I built a float version of the Swordfish when I was a kid, but I've never seen a kit with that option as an adult.

Scorpiomikey

so why not start making 35th scale planes? i know theres a storch in 35th to go with tanks. but why not standardize it across all platforms? it would make dioramas alot easier and it would bring more people into the diorama scene

I think the issue there is it would impact the sales being an odd scale for the subject. If there is a solid cross over it is probably seen as worth taking a gamble.

Han's has a good point with helicopters being able to take advantage of all the 1/35 armor supplies / figures which was probably why we have started to see 1/35 instead of 1/32. Helicopters also have a much closer connection to ground forces than most aircraft. The same could be said of many transports but these are not common in 1/32 anyway (a C47 in that scale would be huge and I really can't imagine many people having the room for a C-130). For most aircraft it really isn't an issue, a 1/35 Jeep parked next to a 1/32 Hellcat is less likely to disturb someone sense of scale fidelity than a 1/35 Hellcat parked next to a 1/32 Wildcat.