Perspective vs Scale vs Distance

Thank you for your help with my question.  And a second thank you to renarts for reminding me where it was I saw this originally (Shep Paines diorama book).

Thanks again to both of you.

If you use the scale heights of the figures, you have a yardstick..

1/32= is One inch equals 32 inches

1/35= One inch equals 35 inches

1/48= one inch equals 48 inches

etc, etc...

So, a 1/35th scale figure that is one inch in height represents a person 5 feet,10 inches tall, a 1/72 figure is 6 feet tall, etc, etc... (Just don't count those Tamiya 1/48th infantry sets as 1/48... If they're to be believed, all American GIs are 5 feet tall...)

Anyhow, here's a scale calculator

http://www.wwmodelclub.org/extra/sd_scalecalc2.htm

Here's the Google page I started looking on:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Model+scale+dimensions+charts&btnG=Search

Shep Paines book on Dioramas lists it as

That 5" is the closest you can focus on a figure. At that distance  1/15 scale is like viewing a real person at 9'

1/35 is viewing a real person at 20'

1/72 is viewing a real person at 30'.