As I understand it, we have Mr Tamiya to thank for the rather weird scale of 1/35th. The story goes that this scale was adopted so motors would fit in the early tanks kits, the first of which being the Tiger I. Personally I would of thought ther was plenty of room in there!
But why 1/35? One would have though that 1/36 would have been the obvious choice. This would be 1/3 inch to the foot, fitting in nicely with existing scales (1/72nd being half that at 1/6 inch to the foot and 1/48 being 1/4 inch to the foot). There is no direct corolation between ratio and linier conversion, ending up with far from round numbers even if a metric equivilent is applied (8.7mm to the ft) The only equivilent I can find is in reference to figure size being generally accepted to be 50mm.
Even if Mr T had not used 1/36 instead wy on earth did he not just go with 1/32nd and be done with it.
...and I thought model railway scales and gauges could be hard to understand...
Ralph