Why are scales different for planes and tanks?

I don't get it either?

Yes, it does seem rather odd, yet you can often find a few scales at which things match up. But then it may be difficult to find what you want, seeing as though there are relativly little number of kits available depending upon scale.

There have been a lot of different scales used over the years. In the early days of plastic kits there used to be "Box Scale" kits. The kits were scaled to fit a standard box size. For aircraft, 1/72 scale was the standard for many years, primarily because of the dominance of Airfix. Then 1/48 & 1/32 & 1/24 began to show up. Armor was mostly 1/35 but then 1/72 & 1/76 became popular as well. Autos were mostly 1/24 or 1/25 but there is also the International 1/43 scale and the slot car craze made 1/32 popular for a while. With the millions of kits produced, I doubt that any manufacturer would dare to do 1/32 Armor or 1/35 Aircraft. There have been some 1/48 Armor kits produced but I don't think they enjoyed huge commercial success. As an Aircraft modeler, I always thought 1/60 would be an ideal scale. Big enough for decent detail & small enough to display a large collection without owning a barn. Never gonna happen though.

Monogram had a pretty popular and sizeable line of 1/32 scale armor. You can still pick up the kits at shows or from estate collections or the shops that buy collections. I think e-bay carries some.

They'd make a nice match-up for some of the 1/32 aircraft out there.

I am not sure my explaination is 100% correct and it is base on the information I believe is probably correct.

The scale of 1/72, 1/48, 1/32 and 1/24 is base on old standard units(or British units) that is foot/inches. In fact these are sometimes used in architecture scale drawings. The reason is that in the pass, most vehicles were designed in a size with feet/inches as units. Now 1 foot equals to 12 inches( when you get 1/72, 1/48, 1/24 scale, 1 inche equals to 6ft, 4ft or 2ft respectively). On the other hand, 1 inch can be divided into 16 or 32 sections(see your ruler) and thus you get 1/16 or 1/32 or 1/96.

Scale like 1/50 and 1/100 are base on metric. That is the vehicle si measured in meters/cm etc. Obviously they are not popular.

The 1/35 scale is unique. I read an article from a model magazine 25 years ago in which the editor claimed he had an interview with Mr. Tamiya. Here is how the 1/35 comes from:

Sometime in the 1960's, Tamiya(?) wanted to developed a scale for it's FIGURES. Instead of selecting a scale, they first determine the end product of the figure should be 50mm(1.96 inche or 1&15/16 inch) tall. Tamiya then assumed the average man to be 5feet and 8.5 inches(1.74meter) tall. So, in order for a 1.74 meter tall man to become 50mm tall(or convert a 5' 8.5" man to 1.96 in.) we have to shrink him into 35 times(actually it's 34.8, but round up). This result the 1/35 scale. If you have some very old Tamiya figures, measure their height, they are very closed to 50mm. Therefore, the 1/35 scale for AFV is actually originally design for figures.

Well, this is what I head of, and I can't guarantee it's right but it seems convincing.

Wow thats pretty intresting Anthony, Mr. Tamiya got something right though.

I'm doing a dio of a P-47 and halftrack in 1/72 scale. 1/72 scale in both armor and a/c are the same, although sometimes finding kits can be hard.

From the above posts, especially from those members that have been modeling for a while, it seems that this 'standard' has been around for a while. I know it has been as long as I've been modeling. I don't see that changing anytime soon, as such a paradigm shift is not a common occurance in any industry. Well established guidelines of the 'norm' are what most companies will stick to, as they are too afraid of a commercial failure.
As Rick pointed out, there have been a few (very few) 1/48 armour kits, and no, they were not a terrible success. I bought a few, but to be honest, I found them to be greatly lacking compared to their 1/35 scale brethren. On the other hand, if 1/35 were the norm for aircraft models, I don't think I'd have one tenth of A/Cs that I do. The size would have made them a) very expensive, as is evidenced by current 1/32 or larger offerings and b) their size would have greatly decreased the numbers which most of us could realistically hope to display.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ddayomaha I would love to make a dio of a p-51 knocking out a Tiger...

ddayomaha:
perfectly doable in 1/72 scale, w/ the excellent Revell Tiger
& plenty of P-51s 2 choose from ( Academy & Hasegawa come 2 mind...)
1/72 is perfect if u like doing both armor & a/c
& the dio wouldn't take up a whole shelf !
there r a few items in 1/48 4 armor, but that seems 2 b mainly an a/c scale...
and as 4 the choice of 1/35 as the major armor scale, i read the Tamiya story
somewhere in the modeling press also...
2 zokissima's point b above... 1/32 a/c r huge !!!

frosty

Thanks frostygirl I completely forgot about 1/72, I think i'll do it.

glad i could help !
never forget about 1/72 !!!!

frosty

I think it's just a matter of what size the models look best in, and are most easily displayed. A 1/35th scale tank fits ok on a shelf, but a 1/35th scale aircraft is kind of an investment in display space.

That said, lots of model planes used to be in 1/32, because people often hung their plane models up.

with regard to the modles being the same size:
as said before, you can get 1/48 planes and a few armour
you can get alot of models in1/72 armour, planes helos.
trumpeter has released a 1/35 hind, and a 1/35 hip
and who knows what the recent craze in 1/144 tanks will bring us? think of the dios you could make!!

it seems recently that manufactures are seeing that people want to have cars, armour, or planes in a similar scale.

Hi all,

Here's one more vote for 1/72 scale. I've seen some beautiful armor models in that scale, and there seems to be a relatively good variety. One can also get ships, figures, and planes in 1/72, so it's possible to have one heck of a constant scale display.

I'm interested in WWI, and there's a lot of armor, artillery, (many, many) planes, many figures, and a ship or two all available in 1/72 scale. One could make one heck of a diorama with those kits.

Regards,