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Why 1/144 and 1/200


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Why do you suppose that the smaller airliners like the 737 and A320 aren't readily available in 1/72? It's not like they would be that large. Even a 737-800 in 1/72 scale would be smaller that say an F-14 in 1/32 - but there is no shortage of the latter. Plus, it's not like the kits are that complex compared to other 1/72 kits. Again, the 1/72 F-14 kit is far more complex than a 737 would be. Anyway, I'm just curious as to why this is.

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One word: money.

If someone thought there was a market, they'd make the kits. One can only assume that they don't, so they don't.

BPK has done the 737-200 (as did Aurora in the 1960s), and Aurora did a DC-9-15 in 1/72. Others are in the pipeline at the moment.

Also don't forget that most "mainstream" manufacturers (which BPK isn't) have to pay not insubstantial licensing fees to the aircraft manufacturers in order to produce kits of their aircraft. Time was when Airbus subsidized Revell's Airbus kits, but that is no longer the case, and they require licensing fees as well.

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Interesting. I wasn't aware that there were licensing fees involved. Still, the scale of the model shouldn't affect the fees. Seeing as how they must already be paying the fees for the 1/444 & 1/200, it just seems odd not to scale the jets up to 1/72. But, I do realize they manufacturers tend to know what they're doing.

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Size does come into play though at some point. Sure a 1/72 737 may be smaller then a 1/32 F-14, but airline modelers will want more then one 737...and a whole list of other airliner models (many much larger then a 737) that in 1/72 eventually would overwhelm many display spaces. I built Hellers 1/72 707 many moons ago and it was a large aircraft that took up a lot of space. 1/144 or 1/200 airliner models allow a builder to amass quite a large collection of airliners in a realistic/do able display space. Heck, most 1/144 airliners are larger then many 1/72 aircraft. I am sure some 1/72 airliners would sell, but probably not as much as 1/144 or 1/200.

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I'm more interessted in this question:

Why 1:144 not 1:150 or why 1:72 not 1:75?

Where is this scale coming from?

The numbers in the "scale" represent a relationship of measurement. 1:144 = 1 inch : 144 inches (12 feet) 1:72 = 1 inch : 72 inches (6 feet) and so on. Admittedly, 1:200 is an odd scale.

C2j

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Thank the British and their ever-popular fractional measurement systems. Early models (WWII ID models) were done to a constant 1/72 scale for the most part, and the 1"=6' made most aircraft a manageable size.

1/200 is a (sort of) metric scale originated by Hasegawa, where they know nothing of feet, inches, and miles.

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1/200 is a (sort of) metric scale originated by Hasegawa, where they know nothing of feet, inches, and miles.

Yes, just what I was thinking. It reminds me that RoG and Heller issued a few kits in 1/100 scale in the 1980s. I still can't believe that Hasegawa finally managed to do their Embraer 170 in 1/144.

BTW, Heller is currently doing airliner kits in 1/125, which appears to be a pseudo "metric" scale, as you really can't work with the numbers.

Edited by Lancer512
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Tamiya tried to 'invent' 1/100 scale in the late 1960s. They also used 1/50 (as did Heller, and several other Japanese manufacturers) in the 1960s. Any of the ones that end in a '0' is a "metric" scale, where the ones that end in other than zero are typically English scales. Then there's the box scale stuff that was made so the finished model, or the sprues themselves fit into a given size box, regardless of the numeric scale.

Heller's 1/125 airliners go back to at least the early 1970s if not earlier. I suspect that was a sort-of metric scale, chosen because it renders nice sized airliner models. Not too big, not too small.

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1/35 came from Japan. I've never heard a good explanation for choosing that seemingly arbitrary scale, other than that it renders armored vehicles a nice manageable size.

1/32 is 150% of 1/48, which is 150% of 1/72. I'll never figure out why 1/32 wasn't done as 1/36 (1" = 3'), which would make it twice 1/72, but then again, we're talking about the Brits (love our British cousins!).

Then you get into cars with 1/43 (a model railroad scale {??} which came from god only knows where), 1/24 (1" = 2'), 1/25 (metric?), 1/16 (twice 1/32), 1/18, etc, etc, etc. There are even 1/8, 1/6 (GI Joe scale), and 1/4 scale kits.

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1/32 makes conversion from actual to scale measurements about as simple as is possible - any normal ruler with 1/32 inch markings is a scale ruler, with each 1/32 being one inch in scale.

1/32 also is 3/8" to 1', like 1/48 is 1/4" to 1'. I think 1/64 makes more sense than 1/72, being 3/16" to 1' rather than 1/6" to 1' - who, other than someone with an Architects' Scale, has a ruler that reads in 6th of an inch?

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1/35 came from Japan. I've never heard a good explanation for choosing that seemingly arbitrary scale, other than that it renders armored vehicles a nice manageable size.

1/32 is 150% of 1/48, which is 150% of 1/72. I'll never figure out why 1/32 wasn't done as 1/36 (1" = 3'), which would make it twice 1/72, but then again, we're talking about the Brits (love our British cousins!).

Then you get into cars with 1/43 (a model railroad scale {??} which came from god only knows where), 1/24 (1" = 2'), 1/25 (metric?), 1/16 (twice 1/32), 1/18, etc, etc, etc. There are even 1/8, 1/6 (GI Joe scale), and 1/4 scale kits.

1/36 would make more sense based on the other common scales. I've heard that 1/35 was basically a box scale used by Tamiya, so they just kept it when uniform scale models became a thing.

Understand the US kit makers standard 1/25 is based on an engineers scale. The first model cars were company promotional models made for the auto industry so the early model companies used the scale the auto engineers provided them with.

Strangely 1/24 was primarily adopted as a non-US automotive scale, Monogram being the exception.

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