Valk009 Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Just a thought which came across my mind. Why do most model kits come in the scale of 1/72, 1/48 etc... Would it not be better to make them like in 1/50 instead of 1/48 or say 1/70 instead of 1/72 Anyone, whoc might be able to shed some lights or thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight26 Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Hmm maybe because 1/48: 1 inch = 4 feet, 1/72: 1 inch = ft, etc... This probably comes from most early models being made of the US and English market. Later on when model kite became more popular in the east you started getting the smaller scales, the 1:100 and 1:200, etc... Prior to that only model ships would have metric scales in the US. After that it has just become tradition, besides they are great scales, and there is no reason to change until everyone goes metric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrhino Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) I am going to make some educated guesses as to reason for the scales. 1/72 is kind of easy. It translates into 1 scale inch is equal to 72 actual inches, and I will assume 72" was chosen as the average height of a man (72 inches = 6 feet). As for 1/48 scale, 1/4 inch = 1 foot (hence the reason it is often called quarter scale by the old timers in my modeling club ). I suppose it was originally chosen as a nice, easy division. AZRhino Edited September 8, 2004 by azrhino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobywan Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Not divisionas much as redefining the marks on a ruler. Metric scales are usually nice round numbers. You want to know about a strange scale? Just ask how HO is based off of a horses ass. Really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson72 Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Not divisionas much as redefining the marks on a ruler.Metric scales are usually nice round numbers. You want to know about a strange scale? Just ask how HO is based off of a horses ass. Really. I assume you mean because HO is based on the original British railroad gauges that were based on the width of roman chariots, two horse widths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerwalker Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Interesting discusion. As far as I remember the original scale models were not for modellers but for military training and they represent the size of the real thing when sighted from a certain distance when holding the model with your arm fully extended. Be aware that I'm not 100% sure about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewilen Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 One set of explanations: http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/rms_tips/rmsfaq.3.html Look down the page a bit to Why are there so many different scales? Where did they all come from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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