1/72 vs 1/76

[Geoff Winnington-Ball]

Hi guys, just curious, when did the transition come, and why? How widespread is 1/76 now? When I was a kid in the sixties, I grew up with Airfix 1/72 kits coming out my ying-yang, mostly tanks and larger aircraft.

 

And when did all my old Monogram and Revell 1/48 kits get "upgraded" to 1/35? Not that I can complain, of course, bigger is better at least in terms of detail. Is 1/35 a standard now, or are they trending even bigger?

 

About the time my interest shifted to large-breasted blondes and motorcycles, the Japanese kits had just started coming in, but I had little exposure to them (I recall the early ones were gawdawful quality).

 

Mike, I haven't yet built that Priest Kangaroo you sent me , but I WILL... where do I find early bogies, decent tracks and a three-piece final drive unit?

 

For that matter, someone is going to have to teach this old dawg how to use an airbrush... I never got into that way back when...

[Armored Marine]

I believe the overall trend in models has been that larger scales are more desireable. A small increase makes modelling more pleasurable without the associated increase in cost. Years ago I had built several car models. Most came in 1/25th scale, however those offered by Monogram came in 1/24th. There was a slight but noticable difference in size if I had similar models displayed next to each other, but I came to the conclusion that the 1/24th scale looked better.

In armor 1/35th became the most common standard, however there is a small but growing trend for armor in larger scales, like 1/24th and 1/16th.

Ships and aircraft have had the greatest rate of change in scales. Larger scales look nice and provide additional challenges, and unmatched details.

Ed

[Michael Eastes]

Geoff,I might have some spare bogies and a final drive cover,let me check my spares box. Track can be purchased from decent hobby shops; I would suggest Roll Models or the SquadronShop,both of whom should have online catalogs.

[Gennady I. Beregovoy]

Probably the 'clamor' to make 1/35 dioramas of an MBT trampling over an F-16 resulted to the birth of 1/35 scale aircraft. But really, my theory is that there is a demand out there for modelers who want to build stuff along the same scale so that they could mock them up together (like the abovementioned example). I have seen several 1/35 Black Hawk kits - would be nice to make a diorama of that landing alongside an M113 or a towed 105mm.

 

As for the airbrush, nice to start with single-action airbrushes. The experts say that a single-action airbrush is easier to control as it lets you adjust the air pressure and the paint flow precisely since you have to adjust two knobs/controls whereas a double-action airbrush is 'harder' to use because it has only one button for both air pressure and paint flow - which is kinda tricky if you want to paint straight, narrow lines and the hands are a weeee bit jerky. I use a double-action badger model 175 (Crescendo) and I haven't mastered the thing - yet. But it's waaaaaaay better than a spray can or hand painting.

[DougRichards]

Geoff

 

Aifix started coming out with their 1/72 about the same time that Major Dennis Blodnok was cashiered out of the army. The old one inch to six feet scale. Frog went along with this scale, then the rest of the world.

 

1/48 was more an American scale - as American supposedly had bigger houses and more space to store their aircraft models.

 

Airfix's 1/76 (and hence Matchbox) vehicles seem to have been scaled to be use next to Airfix (and probably Triange / Hornby) HO/OO railway buildings and accessories.

 

When Airfix moved into larger vehicles they manufactured 1/32 kits. These were to be the same scale as 54mm figures. I do not know the origin of 1/35, but this scale has certainly taken over. Some Monogram AFVs were built in 1/32.

 

I remember 1/24 scale WW2 fighters being released by Airfix back in the late 1970s. I would venture to say that 1/32 has been a standard scale for aircraft for a long while. Tamiya started coming out with 1/25 scale AFVs in the 1970s, but these are not widely available now. The scale did not take off. 1/48 AFVs would seem to have been a good option - big enough for detail, but the right size to display with 1/48 scale aircraft and easy to store. The main obstacle would have been that 1/48 had not been a widely used scale for military figures.

 

The ship scale situation is even worse than the mixed up scale situation for aircraft and AFVs.

 

Airfix: 1/600

Frog: 1/500

Italeri: 1/720

Revell: Both 1/720 and 1/700

Japanese waterline 1/700

Bigger kits: Heller 1/400, Some Monogram 1/400, Tamiya 1/350, Hasagawa 1/450 (I think)

[Archie Pellagio]

Well for aircraft 1/48 is often regarded as the best scale around, though in the last decade or so a lot of 1/32 aircraft have come about, but the detail is often not really as good as they should be, 1/24 aircraft have been around for a while, but most of them are nowhere near detailed enough for their size.

 

Tamiya is still king of the hill for aircraft since they started their new production methods in 1997 for 1:48 kits, and so far I've yet to see another company challege their quality in terms of both detail and ease of building...

 

Armour has been 1:35 and 1:72 for years now, with 1:16 kits being the newer comers, and they are becoming quite popular.

 

Ships are a debacle as mentioned before, but a few things to add to that list, revell also make 1:500 and something, for their Bismarck, tirpitz, titanic and mabey one or two others.

 

With regards to 1:48 AFV's, zhendefu still manufactures a number of the older tamiya kits, or at least use pictures of tamiya 1:35 kits on their boxes for their 1:48 AFV's.

 

BTW, whatever happened to 1:100 scale planes?

They were a good favourite of mine for jets when I was a kid, revell made a series of them in the 80's where there would be the plane, ground crew, weapons on all the little trolleyes etc, quite good value.

There were a whole heap of WWII fighters released by some company about fifteen years back as well, *superbly* detailed, better than most 1:72 scale kits, absolute marvells, I wish I knew who made them...

 

How 1:144 managed to stay around amazes me, absolutely uselessly small scale, almost no good kits out there...

[Jason]

Originally posted by Luke_Yaxley:

....absolutely uselessly small scale, almost no good kits out there...

Pardon me for saying so, but this statement is absolute hogwash.

 

DML makes excellent 1/144 scale kits, as does Revell/Germany, and Hobbycraft (Hobbycraft makes mostly larger planes, such as the B-47, B-58, C-97, and the B-36) in addition to a few others. And, if you're a single guy, living in an apartment (like myself), these kits are perfectly scaled. I have room for them when they're built up, I can get a decent variety of them, and they aren't going to set me back the GNP of a small nation (such as those 1/48 scale Tamiya kits you're piping about, hell I could by a whole 1/144 scale air force for the price of Tamiya's 1/48 Swordfish).

 

In short, different scales appeal to different modelers for different reasons.

[Jason]

Just to give you a small idea of what's out there for 1/144 scale aircraft, check out this site.

 

Squadron.com

[Archie Pellagio]

err, expensive?

I buy them at Big W for $24.95aud, thats only $12.50 usd...

The bigger kits in the series (beaufighter etc) $35.95aud, $17usd

 

Not too sure about DML, Revell's (german, not revell/monogram kits) aren't anything to write home about, hobbycrafts are reasonably good for the limitations of the scale, mind you the last one I built was the B-29 about seven years back.

 

But every man to his own I guess...

[Jason]

Originally posted by Luke_Yaxley:

err, expensive?

I buy them at Big W for $24.95aud, thats only $12.50 usd...

The bigger kits in the series (beaufighter etc) $35.95aud, $17usd

 

Not too sure about DML, Revell's (german, not revell/monogram kits) aren't anything to write home about, hobbycrafts are reasonably good for the limitations of the scale, mind you the last one I built was the B-29 about seven years back.

 

But every man to his own I guess...

Yes, expensive.

 

The newer 1/48 aircraft kits that Tamiya has released (to include the F-84G, F-117A, AD6 Skyraider, He-219 Uhu, F4D1 Skyray, Fairey Swordfish, Bristol Beaufighter, DeHavilland Mosquito, Gloster Meteor, Dornier Do-335 Pfiel etc. ) all retail above $25 USD each, and some are in the $40-$50 USD price range.

 

The older Tamiya molds (Me-109, Zero, etc.) retail in the $10-$15 USD price range.

 

I have several of the Tamiya 1/48 kits, and they are excellent, but Tamiya's newer stuff is over priced in the US.

 

Hobbycraft's newer 1/144 stuff (B-58, B-47, C-97 etc.) is really nice stuff.

 

Incidentally, I work part time for a hobby store in the US, so I'm somewhat familiar with the US retail price ranges of the new releases for most companies. Some mail order companies have lower prices, but generally speaking, retail prices are a bit extreme for new Tamiya releases in the US (IMHO). You can get similar quality out of other manufacturers, for less. A lot of companies have come a long way in the last 5 years, and the quality of most manufacturers has improved dramatically.

 

Not saying that Tamiya kits aren't excellent, just that they're over priced a bit.

[DougRichards]

When I compare Tamiya prices on line with what I pay in stores I am amazed just how expensive Tamiya kits are in the USA.

 

DML in 1/144 have as much detail as older 1/72 scale Airfix kits. They also have potential for detailing. I particularly like the DML carrier deck sets in 1/144, with wonderful little figures and vehicles.

[Archie Pellagio]

The newer 1/48 aircraft kits that Tamiya has released (to include the F-84G, F-117A, AD6 Skyraider, He-219 Uhu, F4D1 Skyray, Fairey Swordfish, Bristol Beaufighter, DeHavilland Mosquito, Gloster Meteor, Dornier Do-335 Pfiel etc. ) all retail above $25 USD each, and some are in the $40-$50 USD price range.

 

WOW! I feel for you poor bastards!

Fifty yankee bucks for a model, wow, the most expensive model I ever did was a 1:72 B-52H, and that was $74.95aud, about $37us, but for a 1:48 kit, jeese, now I understand why you would dislike the price.

Even when I worked part time at toyworld, (more that double the cost of everywhere else) the most expensive of the new tamiya kits was $59au, $30us for the he-219 uhu (but it is worth every last penny even at that outrageous price)

 

The tamiya uhu has to be one of the models I've enjoyed the most...

[DougRichards]

[/i]

 

WOW! I feel for you poor bastards!

 

[/i]

 

Luke

 

The use of language in the USA is very different to that in Australia. Whereas in Australia you can call your best mate a bastard and no offence will be taken, in fact it is a term of affection, in the USA the use of that word is vey much proscribed.

 

Australian language is quite colourful in comparison with the rest of the English speaking world, so cobber, I would suggest that you don't go the raw prawn, instead pull your head in or London to a brick these guys will consider you to be as classy as a hat full of fundecals.

[Jason]

While I agree with you Doug on some level (regarding the differences in phrases between different countries etc.) I must say I took absolutely no offense whatsoever at Luke's comment. I call some of my friends "bastards" in a joking manner also. In my country, it can be a joke or an insult, depending on the tone you use.

[Archie Pellagio]

Originally posted by DougRichards:

The use of language in the USA is very different to that in Australia.  Whereas in Australia you can call your best mate a bastard and no offence will be taken, in fact it is a term of affection, in the USA the use of that word is vey much proscribed.

 

Australian language is quite colourful in comparison with the rest of the English speaking world, so cobber, I would suggest that you don't go the raw prawn, instead pull your head in or London to a brick these guys will consider you to be as classy as a hat full of fundecals.

 

 

eh, sorry

 

BTW, what did you say in that second paragraph? I lost you on so...

[Gennady I. Beregovoy]

1/144 is a nice scale for the occassional quick build - fun to 'superdetail' too (like make your own 1/144 cockpit crew of a F-14D). Currently doing that, modifying a DML 1/144 Tomcat into 'Bombcat' configuration. Nice thing with such kits of small scale is the price - low enough to buy several, cannibalizing several to superdetail one. Not all 1/144 are equal, though. DML's are great IMO but Academy's suck - really suck. Oftentimes, Academy's nose/forward fuselage is way too big for the scale - a lot of wrong shapes and no crew!

 

1/144 is nice too when one is just 'burned out' building a large model (which I often do - which explains several 1/48, 1/350, and 1/35 kits of planes, ships, and tanks respectively that have yet to be completed to some respectable degree).

 

Originally posted by Luke_Yaxley:

There were a whole heap of WWII fighters released by some company about fifteen years back as well, *superbly* detailed, better than most 1:72 scale kits, absolute marvells, I wish I knew who made them...

 

Probably Hasegawa. They still sell a lot of WW2 fighters on that scale and 1/48 in the hobby shops nearby me home. Excellent detail indeed. Yet a bit too pricey for my wallet - more expensive than Tamiya kits really. They're 1/48 FW-190D would almost the same for a 1/35 Tamiya M-41 Bulldog or FlakPanzerGepard IIRC.

[Archie Pellagio]

Probably Hasegawa.  They still sell a lot of WW2 fighters on that scale and 1/48 in the hobby shops nearby me home.  Excellent detail indeed.  Yet a bit too pricey for my wallet - more expensive than Tamiya kits really.  They're 1/48 FW-190D would almost the same for a 1/35 Tamiya M-41 Bulldog or FlakPanzerGepard IIRC.[/i]

 

No, I was referring to 1:100 scale.

The older hasegawa kits vary from pretty poor to quite good, some of the newer ones, especially a series of 1:32 scale WWII fighters made limited edition in 1998 were superb, and for the scale, quite cheap, IIRC the series was an Emil, Spit Mk.Vb, Hayabusa, zero, FW109A (A-5 I *think) hellcat and the obligatory mustang and an absolutely ASTOUNDING Fiesler storch. In terms of improvment over the last decade, Hasegawa has to be #1 in my books, easily my second favourite company, and probably the ones most of the kits I build are.