Σου αντιγράφω από το rec.models.scale FAQ:
[Q] Why are there so many different scales? Where did they all come from?
Lots of different scales are used for models because the real objects
being modeled come in a lot of sizes, while model boxes and display shelves
are all more or less the same size. A scale is chosen so that the model
is a reasonable size regardless of how big the real object was. A number
of standard scales have evolved that manufacturers tend to use for consistency.
Many modelers like to specialize in a particular scale so that the
models in their collections look right when displayed together.
Most modeling scales trace their way back to scales used for
architectural drawings and models. The most commonly used scales tend
to be ratios that make it easy to use standard rulers to do conversions.
For example, 1/12 scale is 1 inch = 1 foot, a scale that works great
for drawing a house floor plan on a desk sized sheet of paper. 1/16
scale is even "nicer", since the 1/16th inch tick marks on a standard
(English) ruler scale out to 1 scale-inch. These two scales (and
their integer submultiples) form the basis of most modeling scales:
1/12 (big scale autos)
1/24 (most autos, *really* big scale planes)
1/48 (big scale planes)
1/72 (common scale for planes)
1/96 (not very common, typically spacecraft)
1/144 (also not very common, spacecraft, airliners)
1/16 (big but not huge autos)
1/32 (another really big scale for planes)
1/64 (S gauge railroad, Matchbox/Hot Wheels sized diecast cars)
Then there are "odd balls" that turn out to be "marriages of convenience"
between odd units or sizes:
1/25th is used by many US model manufacturers as an alternative to 1/24 for
autos. Some cynics feel this is a scheme to save a few cents on the
plastic in each kit, but I think the original motivation was to make
1 mm = 1 inch, so that you could use a standard metric ruler as a
"scale" ruler (for the numerically retentive, that means the scale is
really 1/25.4). An alternative explanation for 1/25th scale is a
scale inch is 0.04 real inches - which is easy to measure using an
engineer's decimal-inch ruler with 0.02 inch tick-marks.
1/43rd, a very common European scale for auto models, is derived from
model railroad practice. 19th century "live steamers" - folks who
build working model steam locomotives and rolling stock - settled on
a nice round 5 inches as the standard gauge (distance between rails)
for their models. The gauge of real railroad tracks is 4'8", so this
scaled out to 1/11.2. As technology allowed model trains to be built
smaller, smaller scales were adopted by the tried and true practice of
using integer sub-multiples. The original 1/11.2 was named "gauge 2",
"gauge 1" was 1/22.4 - still used for big scale (LGB) model railroads,
and "gauge 0" was 1/44.8 (over time "gauge 0" turned into "O gauge").
However someone with too much time on their hands noticed that 1/44.8
was awfully close to the ratio of 7 mm = 1 ft. Why they thought this
was a useful ratio is beyond me - it doesn't allow for any easy
measuring conversion that I can think - but it works out to a scale of
1/43.5. Eventually models trains got to be even smaller, and HO - for
"half O" was born, at a scale of 3.5mm = 1 ft, or 1/87.1.
1/35th, a common scale for military vehicles and armour, has its origins
in figure modeling (lead soldiers). Long before injection molded models
existed, soldier figures were commonly made to a nice round 50mm (2 inches)
tall - which works out to 1/35th assuming a typical 5' 10" human.
Finally, many kits, especially older kits of "odd" subjects are "box scale",
meaning whatever scale allowed them to fill up a standard size model box.
The early AMT Star Trek models tend to fall into this category.
[Q] But what about ship scales? Where did they all come from?
1/500 scale was apparently used for idenitification models in World War II.
Several plastic model companies followed this trend, including Frog,
Renwal, and Nichimo. Many Revells come close to this scale. (1/480,
1/535, 1/542, 1/509, etc) Sadly, there are few (if any) new models
being made in this scale. Nichimo kits are difficult to find, Frog is out
of business, (although the molds survive in Russia) and Renwal was bought
out by Revell (which only rarely re-issues the old Renwal kits).
Monogram used to be notorious for their box scale. All their hulls were
16" (406mm) long, regardless of the size of the actual ship. In some
cases though, it worked out. Monogram's lovely Albany class CGs are
almost exactly 1/500 scale. Their Leahy class CG is almost exactly 1/400.
1/600 is obviously 1" = 50'. In fact, Airfix's boxes used to be marked
exactly that way. Manufacturers of 1/600 ships included Aurora, Airfix
and for battleships only, ARII.
1/720 is obviously 1" = 60'. Italeri and Revell are the primary
manufacturers of ships in this scale.
1/350 is one tenth of 1/35, so I can only assume that it is because
in scale, an average 5'10" man is 5mm tall. For injection molded kits,
Tamiya and DML (Dragon) are the leading manufacturers. This scale is
also increasingly popular for resin kits, like those from Gulfstream or
Mike Bishop's "Blue Water Navy." Even Revell is getting into the act
now, with its 1/350 scale Emden.
1/700 is half of 1/350. About 25 years ago, several Japanese companies
(including Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasegawa, and Tamiya) agreed to make
waterline models of the entire WWII Japanese Navy in 1/700 scale.
This scale is now a standard, and DML (Dragon) Skywave, and to a
lesser extent, ARII use this scale.
1/400 is used almost exclusively by Heller. They are French. They
had to be different. Heller manufactures and excellent and extensive
line of French warships, including all the last generation French
battleships and battlecruisers. Tauro's Italian cruisers are also 1/400,
and occasionally box scale kits work out to be 1/400.
Arii makes aircraft carriers in 1/800 scale. Nobody knows why.
There are also 1/1200 and 1/2400 scale standards for gaming miniatures.
[Q] But what about model railroad scales - what do all those letters mean?
As hinted to previously, model railroad scales evolved from
standardizing the gauge (between the rail distance) of the model
track at some convenient dimension. Gauge tends to be more important
than scale to a model railroader, since it affects whether or not two
models can be operated together on the same trackage. The gauge of
standard railroad track is 4 feet 8.5 inches (another long story),
which makes for rather odd numerical scales if you use a reasonable
round number for the gauge of the model track. So rather than refer
to odd scales such as 1:43.5, model railroaders initially assigned
numbers to each scale/gauge, eg. "gauge 1" was 1:11.2 scale, "gauge 2"
was 1:22.4 scale and "gauge 0" was 1:44.8 scale. Eventually, "gauge 0"
turned into "gauge O" and the scale changed to 1:43.5 to better match
the width of commercially available track. As manufacturing
technology made it possible to build ever smaller working models
(1:11.2 makes for a *big* and *heavy* model locomotive when the full
sized loco is 60+ feet long!) new letters were used to designate these
scales. Sometimes these were "odd ball" scales derived much like
"gauge O", sometimes they were round number scales with odd-ball track
gauges. Here is a probably incomplete listing of letter designators
and scales:
G - 1:22.5 (original "gauge 2" re-popularized by the LGB company)
O - 1:43.5 (traditional)
P48 - 1:48 (attempt to rationalize "O" to a round scale with oddball
track gauge)
S - 1:64 (popularized by American Flyer brand trains)
HO - 1:87.2 (HO is "half O")
OO - 1:76 ?? (OO was a British derived alternative to HO)
N - 1:160
Z - 1:220
The current convention is that these letters actually designate the
scale, and a suffix is added to describe models that represent
non-standard gauge railroad cars. So, you might see a model rail car
or locomotive described as HOn3, which means a model built to 1:87
scale, but meant to run on track that is a scale 3 feet wide (real
railroads that were tight on space, such as those supporting mining
and logging operations, used equipment built for closer spaced track).
Finally, many model railroaders tend to be a little lax about scales,
so its common for models marked with a particular railroad scale to be
a little "off" if you were to actually check with a micrometer.
[Q] But what about figures, what do all those XXmm measures mean?
Figures use yet another convention to specify scale - they are classified
by the height in millimeters that a "typical" man would stand. Discrepancies
in the actual scale creep in due to the definition of "typical" - if
you assume a "typical" man is 6 feet tall, a 50mm figure corresponds to
1:36 scale, if you assume "typical" is morel ike 5 feet 8 inches, the scale
is more like 1:34. All of the figures in a particular series intended to
be to the same scale will not be the same height - a "50mm" school girl
standing 5 feet 2 inches tall will be (assuming 1:36 scale) an actual 43.7mm,
while a 7 foot tall basketball player in the same series would be an
actual 59mm tall.
