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Up and Down the ScalesWriting an article on scales for modellers seems rather like teaching grandmother to suck eggs (have you ever seen your grandmother suck an egg incidentally? – mine never did). Nevertheless an introduction to what other modellers may be working in seems a good place to start for a magazine seeking to cross traditional boundaries.
Scales are expressed in a variety of different ways. A particularly confusing area is in railway modelling, where scale and gauge are loosely used interchangeably. This creates a nightmare, especially for newcomers. The “G gauge – scale” issue is particularly complex but the OO/HO/4mm argument runs it a close race.
1/1 The world of film and stage set designers. Not modelling by normal standards but I mention it just for completeness since modelling is about creating illusion. Mention has also to be made here of Michael Landy's "Semi_Detached" exhibited as a work of sculpture at the Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries in 2004. Although giving the outward appearance of a real house, and using some real materials, it was just as much an artificial construction as smaller scale work.
ITake a look at the video of the construction of the exhibit at http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/landy/makingof.htm Keep an eye out for the flexible sheet of roof tiles and the artistic weathering achieved without the help of a real bird. Helping out with the set-build for an amateur show last year I was shown some wonderful plastic sheet reproductions of brick, tile stone etc - which I think were sold by Pinewood studios. A topic for another day maybe. Although they are certainly not to be described as models we could also mention here the world of preservation villages - museums such as Beamish or Weald and Downland, if only as sources of ideas for models. 1/2 We are talking grand garden playhouses here. I did once see a newspaper article about a boy who recreated the Sistine Chapel in a garden shed but I neglected to keep it. Which seems a shame now. While researching links I also came across a reference to a half-size recreation of Stonehenge somewhere in the US. If I find it again I will share it with you. 1/6th Almost unheard of except by toy makers. If you want to make a room for your daughter’s 12” Barbie or Sindy dolls or a bunker for your son's Action Man then you will be working in this huge scale. You are probably on your own since I’m not aware of any commercial materials designed for this scale except a limited range from US firm Houseworks ( does Houseworks have a website?) and some house kits from Real Good Toys who refer to the scale as "Playscale". If this is your enthusiasm feel free to correct me by mailing editor@miniaturebuilder.com . It could be an interesting project allowing reproduction of every detail from full size originals. A complete model house at this scale is, I assume, out of the question in most family houses but in kind climates you might be able to build one in the garden? I have probably upset some military modellers with my reference to toys as there are ranges of figures in this scale clearly designed for adult collectors - but they are not probably not reading this so let's leave them to their particular pleasure.
1/9th As esoteric a scale as you can get. I include it only so I can mention the lovely stone built model village in the garden of the New Inn at Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire. More pictures
1/10th There must be other instances but I am only aware of Godshill Model Village on the Isle of Wight . See also the only recorded model building joke before we move on to the first of the regular modelling scales.
1/12th The mainstream dolls house scale. Also known as 1” scale (i.e. 1” = 1ft) A walk around any dolls house fair or shop says to me that many (most?) enthusiasts consider the dolls house to be little more than a blank canvas for the display of miniature artifacts ( often without any dolls in sight!). What this means for the building enthusiast is that too many of the houses displayed and illustrated are little more than cupboards with serious lapses in scale sizing. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of suppliers of materials designed for this scale and three hard copy magazines in the UK. We will be reviewing the materials, the builders and, in Press Gang, the magazines. For most buildings enthusiasts the size of buildings in this scale makes any sort of collection a practical impossibility within modern houses.
1/12th is also incidentally the scale used for some well known outdoor model villages in the UK such as Bekonscot at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and Babbacombe in Devon There is a lot of really high quality work in the making and fitting out of Dolls Houses ( and, it has to be said, a great heap of out-of-scale tat). Certainly at this scale it is necessary to spend time on interior fittings such as staircases and kitchens. A few years ago I was almost diverted from buildings into miniature furniture - lured by the soothing challenge of producing a mirror finish on tiny tabletops. There is a clear overlap of enthusiasm here and from time to occasional time The Miniature Builder may allow itself a brief diversion into the fitting out and furnishing of its models but be assured we will not cover scale needlepoint or the construction of miniature fruit baskets from Fimo.
1:13.7 Trains ( Two-Foot Gauge on Gauge 1 Track) aka 7/8" Scale. How obscure is it possible to get?
1/16th A rather old fashioned dolls house scale used for some of the commercially produced dolls houses in the forties and fifties. The only supplier I know of who still caters for it is Hobbies. Someone will tell me I'm wrong; I just know. 1/19th One of my favourite suppliers, Richard Stacey, offers miniature bricks and tiles in this scale. Why? Who for? 1/20th included just for Corfe model village in Dorset until someone writes in and tells us otherwise. Which brings us to G scale. Garden railway scale. I have no experience of this particular scale. One of the surprises is the range of scales around this point with little clear standardisation. G scale appears to be simply a generic for all the variants from 1:20.3 up to 1:29. and 16mm to the foot. Construction of a building robust enough to stand in the garden is a rather different discipline to most other modelling techniques. Unless you are a precision addict I guess you will probably choose to make buildings at 1/24th (imperial people) or 1/25th (metric types). For more on this take a look at "In praise of 1/24th". The following explanation of the G gauge or scale question is a short extract from the website of Scale Rules, a supplier of a wide range of scale rulers and cards. So now you know. First a word, taken from a more specialist web site run by ......about the difference between Gauge and Scale. Gauge refers to, and only refers to, the inside distance between the two rails of the track. Even though in real world measurement the inside measurement of “G” track is 45mm, when measured in different scales, the gauge is different! The same real world 45mm in 1:22.5 is 39.37 inches or one meter. In 1:20.3 it measures out to 36 inches. And in 1:32 it measures out to 4 ft 8.5 in. And as a Model Builder you probably don't need to know any more than that . But, just for the record here is a fuller description from the railway guys. "When you're asked what scale do you run, do you answer, "G-gauge." What G-gauge? The problem with the term G-gauge is that, in reality there is no such thing! It refers to the Number 1 gauge track. The oldest existing gauge track in existence. Originally "G-gauge" meant LGB. LGB selected Number 1 gauge as the track width, which is 45mm, for their "narrow gauge" Garden Trains. Number 1 gauge track was around before the turn of the century and readily available. They then selected European O Scale (1:45) and doubled the scale of the locomotives and rolling stock. This made the scale 1:22.5. In doing so they now had a fairly realistic representation of a one meter narrow gauge in Europe. For years they were the standard in "narrow gauge" garden trains. Therefore, LGB is in 1:22.5 SCALE as are Bachmann models. Aristo-Craft and USA Trains are in 1:29 SCALE, Aster and Row & Company are in 1:32 SCALE. They build standard gauge locomotives and rolling stock. There are also a few specialty manufactures that make a 1:20.3 SCALE, a true three-foot narrow gauge, rolling stock. But, they all use the same 45mm track or Number 1 gauge ("G-gauge")!" Since there is such a range of scales I suspect that there is a great deal of fudging when buying or constructing trackside buildings and that in practice 1/24th is often seen as close enough to the majority 1/22.5 scale trains and a tolerable deviation from 1/29th especially if railways are your passion rather than buildings.
1:20.3. Trains (True Three-Foot Gauge on Gauge 1 Track) . Another obscure (American?) scale
1:22.5 Probably the most common of the G scale trains, as used by the major American manufacturers LGB, Bachmann and USA Trains. 1/24th (aka ½” scale i.e. ½” =1ft). One of my personal favourites. Over the last five years this has been the up and coming dolls house scale and fits somewhere in the middle of the G scale railway spectrum. At least one model village can be found in this scale at Clonakilty in Ireland. A fuller article "In praise of 1/24th" appears elsewhere in this issue of The Miniature Builder.
1/25th Used for some professional architectural models and in Europe, it appears, for model villages - see for example Swiss Miniatur and Madurodum. Could you tell the difference by eye from a 1/24th model? Does anyone except the maker care? 1/29th More trains (Aristo-Craft models, standard gauge on #1 gauge). Another of the G scale variants ! 1/30th Included in this list just to enable this link showing a Viking film set. 1/32nd – Popularised by Britains figures, and hence a common scale for models (dare I say toys?) of farms, castles and military subjects. See for example the resin pieces available from 'King n Country'. or the Wild West town illustrated in Toy Hero . It’s also easy of course to work out on a traditional imperial ruler. At least one, indoor, model village, Beech End, at Leyburn in Wensleydale, Yorkshire works in this scale.
54mm – a standard size for military figures - particularly serious metal castings. If 54mm = a 6ft soldier then the scale is just under 1/34th. If it is meant to represent 5’10” it is just under 1/33rd and at 5’8” is just under 1/32nd. Since there is no governing body I guess it means what the manufacturer wants it to mean.
The military scales (1/32nd , 1/35th and 54mm) will be featured soon in a issue of The Miniature Builder since I believe the widespread availability of figures of this size will lead to this becoming the next hot scale in the world of dolls houses and can lead to a much need bridge between those who express their hobby as making models (typically men?) and those who identify themselves as miniaturists (typically women?). If The Miniature Builder can help to break down some gender stereotyping then so much the better.
1/33⅓ - ( i.e.3 in a 100) I am unaware of any commercial production using this scale but it is an easy scale to use in practice as a shortcut for 1/32 , 1/35 54mm and 9mm 9mm 9mm = 1ft ; (=1/34th) Dare I say, an elitist model railway scale. Since it is all about accurately scaled engines it is not likely to be the chosen scale for many reading The Miniature Builder but it fits squarely in the middle of the military scales so there is maybe some scope for some crossover of materials.
1/35th – A military modellers scale dominated by Tamiya and other Japanese figure and military armour manufacturers. There is at least some scenic and building material available. Lots of ruins! 1/43rd A big scale in the model car world. Just as some people build model stables to house their collection of model horses I guess there are opportunities for garages and backdrops in this environment O gauge/scale - Once upon a time it was an important model railway scale but it seems too big for most these days. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_scale it has covered a variety of scales including 1/43 , 1/45 and 1/48 but has ended up meaning 1/43 in the UK and 1/48 in the US. 7mm = 1/43.5! 1/48th - Very much a minority enthusiasm in the dolls house world, though seemingly a bit more popular in the US than in the UK. As more information is supplied by you the reader we can surely add more to this entry. 1/50th Sometimes used by professional modellers, enamoured as they are with metric scales. 1/64th Described in one article as S scale – a seriously minority railway scale which I had not heard of before. Also lots of model cars 20mm See 25mm below 1/72nd The scale many of us, of a certain age, associate with Airfix kits. 1/76th / OO / 4mm 1/76th is as close as you can get to 4mm scale. 4mm = 1 ft which equals 1/76.1975 (whoever dreamt up this astonishing hybrid between imperial and metric measurement?) .OO Railway modellers have got themselves into a bit of a twist about scales because of the conflict between the requirements of miniature engineering and train operation and the desire to be in scale on the other. As I understand it OO scale uses 4mm (1/76th) models and scenery on and around 1/87th scale track while 4mm uses the same 1/76th scale for track as well..
Two buildings from the Wills range of OO buildings . Although the White Horse Inn is marketed as a kit it is only a whisker away from scratch building! Fortunatly if
you're a model builder you can forget all that gauge and track stuff. As
a model builder one of the delights of this scale for me is the superb quality
Wills kits and building materials. 25mm, 1", 20mm, HO/OO A variety of scales of uncertain accuracy used by model soldier and wargaming enthusiasts covering a range of around 1/60th to 1/90th. For the model builder the most interesting seems to be 25mm - which for a 5'10" soldier is around 1/70th. This has ended up as the principal wargaming scale. It came as something of a surprise to me while researching this article how much scenery and how many buildings were on offer at this scale. 3mm i.e 3mm=1ft. A model railway scale for a tiny minority of enthusiasts. I don't even know if there are any commercial building products or whether they have to scratch build everything.
1/87th / HO The other resolution of the railway scale dilemma. Track, trains and scenery are all at the same scale. It's just that it is such a strange and hard to envisage scale. It has never seemed to me (“in my humble opinion”) a particularly useful or sensible scale. Nevertheless there is a great deal of commercial material about thanks to the demands of scenic railway modellers - though not a lot of UK style buildings due to the traditional English attachment to OO. There is certainly a lot of Continental and American railways UK stuff. If you want to build models of Alpine chalets then you will already have the Faller and Preiser catalogues. For some nice looking industrial buildings take a look at the Dutch firm Artitec. If you want to model groups of buildings or entire villages then you are likely to be working at or around this HO scale. For me and many others the highpoint of this is represented by the Pendon project (of which more later) . Lilliput Lane The biggest UK brand name in resin cottages and other picturesque resin models, but scale is not something you will see on their literature. Scale appears to be around 1/90 or 1/100 for the cottages and other smaller buildings although they appear not to make any attempt to stick to a regular scale across their range. 1:96 ..... said by one source to be used for Architecture, Ships and Space Vehicles but not one you will see much of. 1/100th A scale used by logical metric people , usually professional modellers
1/144th A quirky scale used by dolls house modellers (and at least two commercial US suppliers) to produce a 1/12th dolls house model to go inside their 1/12th scale dolls house. If you're interested take a look at North Eastern Scale Models . Not I suspect a scale we will devote a lot of time to!. Also used for some ship and aircraft models but there is not much crossover to model buildings from either of those hobbies.
2mm Model railways again. 2mm to the foot = 1/152 which presumably makes it a variant of : N The second scale in the railway modelling world (if you count HO/OO/4mm as one). 1:160 ? I've often been attracted by some of the displayed layouts at this scale but actually building in it? A bit too small for my eyes these days. If this is your particular enthusiasm do please submit some pictures or an article for a future edition.
Z scale 1/220 There are a few people who make buildings this small to adorn their Z scale railway. Actually there are more than I thought when I first started writing this article and if you are interested I would recommend an article in the online magazine Z-220.com reviewing the various manufactured products. Below this we are, I suggest, off the radar for the modelling of buildings as a hobby. Unless you want to share your miniature miniature interest with other readers? That said, there are certainly architectural and museum models illustrating whole towns or developments in some very small scales indeed though inevitably most of the buildings are just block shapes. At some time in the future The Miniature Builder will try to take at look at this. If you do have any thoughts or additional information on any of the points in this article please do send them to editor@MiniatureBuilder.co.uk for inclusion in later issues.etailed review of what is a model why not spend a few minutes with this site:
If you've made it this far then congratulations - for a d http://www.muellerscience.com/ENGLISH/Theconceptofmodel.definitions.htm
Other features this month in The Miniature Builder
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