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Mixing scales......A new trend???


Artie

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Hi all....!!!

I've been following with great interest some online sites wich show what, IMHO, is a weird trend.

Using diferent scales within the same diorama. For example, combining 1/35 scale vehicles with 1/32 scale airplanes. Despite the great amount of work and detail behind some of those excellent models, there's something that's not so convincing to my eyes...Needless to say, when we talk about figures, you can put a 1/35 scale Tamiya soldier side by side with a 1/32 Airfix Multipose, except for the equipment (helmets, guns, etc..), not all human being are te same size, and that fact can add some interest and colour to the final result, but......vehicles?????? A vehicle has a given size, and a difference in scale can be much noticeable.

This came to my mind after a conversation with a friend who keeps the idea that your eye can't make a difference between a Jeep in 1/35 scale and a B17 in 1/32, but when you know that difference, your brain doesn't leave you alone...!!!

Another friend even talked about "bi-scale" modelling, one eye looks in 1/35 scale, and the other one in 1/32...of course, he was kidding.....

Best regards...

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I wouldn't have any qualms displaying 1/32 aircraft and 1/35 vehicles together (or 1/72 and 1/76)... I'm certainly not "tuned in" enough to the real sizes of things to say much more than "boy, a B-17 is surely a lot bigger than a Jeep...". I don't mind mixing 1/24 and 1/25 cars in the same display case, though probably not of the same car side by side (the Revell 1/25 E-type body shell fits just nicely inside the Gunze 1/24th one...). Usually, though, the 1/25s are American monsters and the 1/24s sophisticated Europeans, so the scale difference is the least of the contrasts...

 

best,

M.

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It should work if its being used in a forced perspective way. The 1/32d closest, the 1/35th behind and slightly further away. The size should appear smaller as the vehicle is further from the observer. This of course only works if the diorama is boxed in so you can only see it from one side ? In real life planes on a flightline are identical in size. However the one your next to appears larger than the next one in line. This is because theres is 30 meters between them. I hope that all makes sense. 

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Not new at all.

There is a museum in Derry/Londonderry which has forced perspective dioramas.

Its been open about 40 years now

In some of the battle scenes the closest figure is 120mm going down to 6mm for the furthest from the viewer, thus it looks to the viewer he/she is looking at a large battle spread over about a mile and yet the diorama scene is no more than about 60cm deep

I mix scales regularly in dioramas

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 1/72nd and HO/OO scale mix is an old thing for me as a boy, ancient thing then ! 76th and 87th . so 32nd and 35th not too much in it  . I've seen so many museum displays with big scales foreground and receding detail and smaller scales by one degree going to the background , Very effective in a small space and really works well . The viewing position is key though .

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The OP is perfectly entitled to his own POV but in a hobby as diverse as scale modelling opinions are inevitably going to be polarized between what works for some and what works for others.

Merriam-Webster defines a hobby as; "A pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation". That definition reflects my own personal point of view, with the emphasis on relaxation, together with the enjoyment to be derived from attempting to depict some kind of story in 3D by means of a diorama or vignette.

 

As mentioned by others in this thread, forced perspective is the key to using different scales in a diorama and it can be an extremely effective technique, especially when there is a general lack of display space - and it can be even more effective when utilized in the photography side of this hobby. In addition, not all items you might want to use in a diorama are available in the same scale, and that restriction definitely applies in the world of white metal or resin figures. This means there are times when compromises have to be made. I tend to believe that whether those compromises are deemed to be acceptable by the individual modeler is entirely up to him or her, although well-meaning and helpful critique is, and should be, always welcome.

Personally speaking, I think I'm inclined to continue on my own merry way of trying this, trying that, and if it doesn't work for me then no harm done and I'll just try something else.

 

Cheers

H

 

 

Edited by Cadman
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Just to demonstrate the point, I cobbled this small vignette together of a chance encounter on the Mean Streets of Mega City One between two characters of 2000AD fame, and then took these photos using a simple bokeh technique to de-focus the background.

The 70mm Judge Dredd and Durham Red figures are not the same scale as the two little girls.

Does the concept work? I'll let the viewer decide.

18. Dredd & Red

 

19. Dredd & Red

 

20. Dredd & Red

 

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Back to the OP and about using different scales side-by-side in the same scene;

I used 1/87, 1/76 and 1/72 in this scene

UVCC%20Test%201%2C%2001cs-XL.jpg

It represents a compressed view of one of my motor club's car trials. Each car and figure represents an actual car or person (I depicted myself x3 in it!)

Its on a base which is about 6.5 inches by 6.25 inches overall

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I haven’t been too fussy about exact scales in dioramas.  Mine is generally 1/48 but it isn’t always possible to pick up everything in exact scale.  Plus I am not convinced that all displayed scales (especially on diecast models) are 100% accurate.  So 1/48 exists alongside 1/43 and 1/50. I have tried some forced perspective with 1/48 in the foreground and 1/72 in the background.  You need to be sure that lines on the ground / concrete flooring lines etc are not square though or they will show you up.

 

J2XgNpk_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&f

 

The Phantom is 1/48, the Landrover 1/43, the Bedford tanker 1/50 and the houchin is something of a guestimate.

 

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  • 2 years later...

I once saw a diorama where there was a flying Hornet in the foreground in 1/72, and in the background in 1/144. It still looked convincing, you have hardly seen the difference in size, but you were fooled into believing that the hornets were far apart.

 

So, if done correctly, it can look good!

 

Alex

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

To me, it matters more how a scene looks then if the scales are different. I suspect, but don't know, that some of Aitor Azkue's dioramas mix scales and you wouldn't know it. 

 

Even items of the supposed same scale don't always work together. Try putting a 1/48 Tamiya figure next to a 1/48 ICM figure and it is pretty obvious something is off.

 

Matt

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Forced perspective has been used for years, probably since the late '60s, in model railway layouts to add depth to long thin layouts.

 

OO (1/76) to the front, HO (1/87) or even 1/100 to the rear. IIRC there was once (late 80's/90's) a layout on the exhibition circuit that depicted two parallel main lines where the front one was modelled in OO & the rear in N, viewing angle was controlled by placing it on tall legs so you looked across it rather than down on it. It showed that when done well it can work.

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This is one of my favorite examples of forced perspective, RAF Habbanaiya in 1941 starting at 1/35 and going back to something like 1/144 (I forget the exact scale).

 

It looks better viewed from a slightly higher angle but this was the first video I found.

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 22/08/2018 at 19:34, Black Knight said:

Not new at all.

There is a museum in Derry/Londonderry which has forced perspective dioramas.

Its been open about 40 years now

In some of the battle scenes the closest figure is 120mm going down to 6mm for the furthest from the viewer, thus it looks to the viewer he/she is looking at a large battle spread over about a mile and yet the diorama scene is no more than about 60cm deep

I mix scales regularly in dioramas

Hey black Knight, I live in Derry/lderry where abouts/what is this museum piece, just I'd like to see it?

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Forced perspective has been a technique of artists for years. But for a diorama it only works if the objects diminish in physical size from front to rear, not from side to side.

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