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Any love for 1/1200?


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Hi all, I'm mostly an aircraft modeller but have the Airfix Sink the Bismarck set as well as a couple of Revell 1/1200's in the stash. I've never built any ships before and was just wondering how much love there is out there for 1/1200 ships.

Cheers eveyone,

Viv

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I had a Suffolk by Airfix, when I was young. Not bad. Got some other Revell's ten years later on a flea market in a neigbour town, but that was in 1988. There were some other brilliant metal ones by Neptune etc., but out of my pocket money range. I have seen some pimped up with etched parts, who looked beautiful. Good scale for a whole fleet on a desktop. For that, I love them.

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Thanks for the responses guys! Yes, I got the Bismarck set primarily because ai liked the idea of an all in one kind of box and also because I liked the scale. Then I noticed that other maritime modelling scales seemed to be more popular and began to wonder why. I've half started the WW2 USS Enterprise and have enjoyed painting the aircraft, but then I primarily paint small scale white metal miniatures so working at the teeny scale wasn't such a problem...

Anyway, thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated!

Cheers,

Viv

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Hi Viv,

there is quite a following for model ships of this size, however they are less popular in the UK than around the world. There are also two scales which come under this theme; namely 1:1200 and 1:1250 scales. At these sizes there isn't much difference between the two scales but 1:1250 has a much bigger following, especially in Europe and the USA, with the majority of those being of white metal construction.

The subject is also split between naval and merchant ships with possibly the largest 1:1200 merchant ships being produced in UK by Len Jordan. These were produced in resin and were very detailed for their size.

Some of my collection of 1:1200 and 1:1250 ship models - Merchant
P1140043_2_resized.JPG

Some of my 1:1200 and 1:1250 model ships - Naval
P1130953_resized_800.jpg

One of the attractions of collecting and building ships to this scale is that you can build a sizeable diorama, with lots of ships, something usually unattainable with larger scales.

Here are some views of my Falkland's Task Force set
Task_force_models_resized_1.jpg

The QE2 model in the centre is the standard Revell 1:1200 model with flight decks added from styrene sheet. The Canberra alongside is an old Triang toy
Task_force_models_resized_2.jpg

The carriers, Invincible and Hermes, are white metal model kits produced by Skytrex
Task_force_models_resized_3.jpg

Task_force_models_resized_4.jpg

Cheers

Mike

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That's a very impressive collection Mike!

Were the old die-cast Minic ships 1/1200? I used to collect them as a nipper. Not attempted to model anything smaller than 1/700, but the smaller scales done nicely look fascinating.

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Yes, the Triang minic were accurate 1:1200 scale.

I still have a few, photo's below, and I shall have a go at tidying up and detailing a couple of them over the summer.

cheers

Mike

Cunard's Saxonia, Ivernia, Carinthia and Sylvania; plus the royal yacht Britannia

Cunarders_&_Royal_Yacht_1000.jpg

French Line's Antilles and Flandre; the Shell tanker Varicella and Sydhavet's whaling ship TSS Vikingen

Franconia_Antilles_Varicella_and_Vikinge

Royal Mail Line's Amazon, Arlanza and Aragon

Amazon_Arlanza_and_Aragon.jpg

Port Line's Port Brisbane and Port Auckland - showing variations of the white paintwork applied.

Port_Auckland_and_Port_Brisbane.jpg

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Before the Minic there was the Eagle or Eaglewall range of 1/1200 WW2 injected-plastic warships that were on sale in pretty well every newsagents throughout the land. 1/1200 was an established, perhaps the established, scale because of its use in Janes and other ship reference works. Airfix's 1/600 is a clear relative. A few other companies produced 1/1200 plastic kits, of which Pyro is perhaps the best known.

Quite where or why 1/1250 came from I have no idea.

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It is reputed that the 1:1250 scale was established in Europe, the reasoning being their scaling down used metric measurements, unlike ours and the US which used imperial measurements.

Eagle, or Eaglewall, were 1:1200 scale plastic kits; production started at Dorking in Surrey in the late 1950's and were produced in tabletop navy 'Battle' series; such as the Battle of the River Plate and the Sinking of the Bismark etc. Some images are posted below showing some box-arts

cheers

Mike

HMS_Kimberley_Eagle_resized.jpg

Von_Roeder_1_-_Eagle_resized.jpg

HMS_Allington_Castle_&_HMS_Balfour_resiz

Bismark_-_Eagle_resized.jpg

HMS_Victorious_-_Eagle_resized.jpg

HMS_Hardy_-_Eagle_kit_resized.JPG

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Yes, I gather 1/1250 began on the Continent, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in metric units either. I rather doubt that German ship [plans were in 1/1250 - although if they were than that would be an explanation. 1/1000 would make more sense. (And yes, 1/700 doesn't make sense either.)

However, once you've switched over to electronic calculation the logic behind sticking to certain scales, the easily calculable ones, rather goes away.

For those with a further interest in Eagle ships, http://www.shipmodels.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eaglejt1.htm

Edited by Graham Boak
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As there is not much difference in size between 1/1200 and 1/1250, what was the idea of having two scales so close together, and which came first? I have often wondered about this.

Bob

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As Graham says, 1:1200 has been going for over a century.

Here is a quote from the 1:1250 site:

"In the late 1920's Wiking of Germany began producing metal ship models in 1:1250 scale. 1250 was used because of metrics. Wiking quickly became the leader in the field producing models of many contemporary warships and merchant ships. World War II eventually put the company out of business, though it did go through a revival in the 1950's. An excellent source of information about these models is WIKING MODELLE, by Peter Schonfeldt, Koehlers Verslagesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, Germany, 1998"

Mike

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Thanks to Steel Navy (DougKn), I've had a response that explains "why 1/1250" to me. If you use the reciprocal (.0008) then all you have to do is multiply the real dimension in metres by 0.8 to get the scale value in mm. E.g. 300m = 240mm.

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Thanks to Steel Navy (DougKn), I've had a response that explains "why 1/1250" to me. If you use the reciprocal (.0008) then all you have to do is multiply the real dimension in metres by 0.8 to get the scale value in mm. E.g. 300m = 240mm.

Thanks Graham, very helpful.

Mike

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