Standardized Scales

i liked it when the Marine APC from Aliens was 1/35th and the dropship 1/72nd and the B5 1/72?

I think standardized scales is a great idea, but remarkably difficult to implement. Because of the HUGE variation in size of sci-fi subjects it would be necessary to have several standard scales. To illustrate my point, let's start with some of the largest subjects.

Pretend that a major manufacturer is producing kits of some large scale topics; Super Star Destroyer, Babylon 5 Space Station, and B5 Vorlon Planet Killer. I chose these because they are big but not too big. Assume that the size of the largest model, Vorlon Planet Killer, will be 1 meter long when completed. That would be a BIG kit... The scale would be 1:45,000. Here we already have a problem. At that scale the next largest kit, Super Star Destroyer, would only be 28 cm long (about 11 inches). Everything else becomes miniscule after that.

If we completely discount the Vorlon ship and use the SSD as our starting point and make *it* 1 meter long, then its scale figures out to approx. 1:13,000. We're still okay here because the next largest model, Babylon 5 Station, would come in at around 65 cm (25 inches). We begin to run into problems when we switch to Star Trek ships.

At the same scale of 1:13,000, which worked for the B5 station and the SSD, the Next Generation Enterprise-D would be only 4 cm long, less than two inches. If we use 1:1000 instead for Star Trek then the Ent.-D goes back up to a respectable 64 cm.

I like 1:1000 for Star Trek capital ships, 1:10,000 (approx) for much larger vessels, and 1:72 for anything the size of an AT-AT or smaller. Not that much is available this way, but I'd like to see more...

I concur,

It's not really the scale but how large the final model would be. Obviously, using a single scale for an aircraft carrier and a pt boat would produce a result where one would be entirely too large or too small to really appreciate.

Take Star Trek for example. If one wants to model the entire fleet of available starships in the Trek universe, they would have to use a scale that would allow them to realistically have room in their home to display all of these models. Some ships, like the Defiant, would barely be visible.

If one was only interested in one or two ships, then a much larger scale would work.
Captain Picard had a single starship in his ready room on the series which looked to be approximately 1/350 scale.. To model an entire fleet of a variety of ships, you'd need a scale anywhere from 1/1400 to 1/2500 where most ships would be about 4 to 6 inches in length.

I personally do not want to model the entire fleet. I would be deleriously happy if I could get a 1/350 scale model of just 2 ships. The Enterprise Refit and the Reliant.
These models would be about 20 inches long and really get attention when displayed. Polar lights is currently using the 1/350 scale for their larger models in the upcoming NX-01 which is inline with the currently line of naval ships at 1/350 scale. I'm crossing my fingers that PL will deliver.

how about a 1/48th Tie Fighter or a set of 1/35 stormtroopers

Ertl's Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors are in 1/48.

I agree with memeau, that sounds like a nice range of scales. I just got a couple Enterprise B's and a USS Grissom. I'm glad to get it, but I wish the Grissom was 1/1000 also.

Well, Ertl settled on 1/1400 for their TNG-era ships (with the silly sidestep to 1/1000 for the Excelsior). I personally like 1/1400 scale a lot for the larger ships. Starcraft, a garage company, has added to the fleet by making all the other Enterprises (TOS thru B) plus many other ships in this popular scale. If you hit Federation Models (dot com) you can see them all.

Ertl's triple-kits are 1/2500, and (if the people at Starship Modeler are any barometer) that seems to have emerged as a VERY popular scale. Whole fleets can be built without taking up the whole house. Numerous garage kits have also been made to this scale, but it doesn't seem as prevalent as 1/1400.

There are, of course, a few in 1/537, which scale only exists because Ertl decided to make the TMP Enterprise 22" long, regardless of what scale that turned out to be. It's a nice sized model, but a really odd scale. They released the Reliant in the same scale decades later, but the only others in that scale are a few OOP vacs (Reliant, Stargazer, Grissom) and some resins by Warp (Stargazer, Grissom)

I applaud Polar Lights for starting a whole new lineup (I HOPE!!) in 1/1000 and 1/350. The former will allow us affordable plastic kits of the entire Trek canon in constant, and the latter will give us some huge, detailed models in an established ship scale.