Why so many ship model scales?

[Aimee'sDad]

Hi all, I've Dipped my toe in the world of ship modelling! Bought myself the Tamiya 1.350 Bismark and it looks amazing!.

The question I want to know is why is there so many different ship scales?

Whilst perusing the shelves I noticed 1.200, 1,350, 1,400, 1,570, 1,600, 1,700, 1,1200 and several others! Why so many?

Anyone got any advice for a newbie ship modeller regarding my Bismark?

[Jessica]

Most manufacturers established their own scales way back in the mists of time. When models were new, some companies made a standard box size, and scaled their kits to "fit the box", resulting in chaos. Then others scaled the model so that it would be a "reasonable size" when finished, regardless of the subject, again resulting in chaos. In the late 1960s and early '70s, constant scale became established in the aircraft and armour genres and slowly bled over into the ship world, but again the manufacturers didn't reach any kind of agreement between themselves about what this scale might be. Heller fixed on 1/400, while the Japanese manufacturers chose 1/700. Then 1/350 appeared (twice the size of 1/700), Airfix decided that 1/600 would be good and 1/1200 is popular with war gamers ... Chaos again.

1/350 is slowly becoming established as a standard scale for all but the smallest and largest ships, but still 1/200 is not fading away, and the legacy kits (especially the ones owned by Revell) still clutter up the shelves so the idea of a standard scale is still very much an ideal as opposed to a reality.

There are many excellent builds of Bismark archived online. Take your time, enjoy yourself and build to please yourself; it's your model after all

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

Stick to 1/350 and 1/700 (if you want to build a collection) as these are by a long way, globally the most common and popular scales, with many aftermarket enhancements available. My scale is 1/700 as it's cheaper and easier to build up a collection, I'm currently working on Trumpeter's late war USS Colorado and USS California.

thanks

Mike

[Graham Boak]

The original scale for ship kits, if any single scale can be described as such, was 1/1200 (or 100ft to the inch) as used in the recognition drawings for the world's navies. Airfix was set at twice this, at 1/600, whereas those at 1/400 can be seen as three times it. Similarly 1/200. Those nations with metric units thought that 1/500 should be used, with 1/1250 as the smaller scale. These were established before the four largest Japanese manufacturers got together to model the Japanese Navy between them, and for some reason chose 1/700. This was very odd, because the use of a 7 meant that it did not fall neatly into the Imperial or the Metric measuring system, making scaling difficult before the days of the electronic calculator. Despite this, because of the sheer number of ships produced in this scale it became the de-facto standard (despite a few attempts at 1/720), and 1/350 fell into place later as twice this. This perhaps wouldn't happen in any sensible world, but this is the only one we've got.

I agree that for the sheer number of kits available, only 1/1250, 1/700 and 1/350 should be considered for a collection.

[Aimee'sDad]

Thanks for the replys, A collection is indeed what I'm after. There seems to be quite a number of 1.350 available and the good thing about large ships as opposed to large aircraft is they are long and not wide, they will fit in narrow display cabinet's.

[VMA131Marine]

This discussion would not be complete without noting that many older kits, particularly those by Revell, were scaled to fit a particular size of box (hence "box scale"). Many of these kits are still available including the 1/535 USS Missouri which perhaps holds the record for the plastic kit with the longest continuous availability. It was released in about 1953 and is still in the Revell catalogue. The Revell Midway class carriers are in 1/547 scale. There are also a number of kits in 1/570, which is so ridiculously close to 1/600 you wonder why they didn't just do them in that scale. These include: RMS Titanic, Scharnhorst and Gneisnau, Bismarck and Tirpitz, Prince of Wales and King George V.

We are also seeing a number of smaller ship types in 1/144: Revell Fletcher destroyer, Revell LSM, the upcoming Revell Flower-class corvette, and a range of 1/144 subs from Revell and Trumpeter.

[Jessica]

The original scale for ship kits, if any single scale can be described as such, was 1/1200 (or 100ft to the inch) as used in the recognition drawings for the world's navies. Airfix was set at twice this, at 1/600, whereas those at 1/400 can be seen as three times it. Similarly 1/200. Those nations with metric units thought that 1/500 should be used, with 1/1250 as the smaller scale. These were established before the four largest Japanese manufacturers got together to model the Japanese Navy between them, and for some reason chose 1/700. This was very odd, because the use of a 7 meant that it did not fall neatly into the Imperial or the Metric measuring system, making scaling difficult before the days of the electronic calculator. Despite this, because of the sheer number of ships produced in this scale it became the de-facto standard (despite a few attempts at 1/720), and 1/350 fell into place later as twice this. This perhaps wouldn't happen in any sensible world, but this is the only one we've got.

I agree that for the sheer number of kits available, only 1/1250, 1/700 and 1/350 should be considered for a collection.

The Japanese 1/700 scale was the result of the Japanese manufacturers making a nod to the stereotypically small Japanese dwelling space while still allowing the modellers to buy as many ship models as possible, and manage to fit them all on their display shelves. Why 1/700? I think it had something to do with a model of Yamato ending up at 36 cm, which is a reasonable size without overwhelming a small display shelf.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Jessica

[Jockster]

As you're doing Bismarck, it may be worth noting that Haynes have just brought out a workshop manual for it!

[Silver Fox]

Anyone remember the Eagle(?) 1/1200 scale ships from the 50's and 60's. Grouped by action, e.g. Battle of the River Plate, Narvik etc. My dear departed Dad had quite a few and I got some for him under another label a few year after they had disappeared.

[Chango]

Stick to 1/350 and 1/700 (if you want to build a collection) as these are by a long way, globally the most common and popular scales, with many aftermarket enhancements available. My scale is 1/700 as it's cheaper and easier to build up a collection, I'm currently working on Trumpeter's late war USS Colorado and USS California.

thanks

Mike

Bah! Be a modeling hipster and build in non-mainstream scales.