1:72 and 1:76 what's the deal here?

[Thorbrand]

Hi folks

I've often wondered why is it that armour comes in different scales to aircraft? 1:76 for armour and figures but the aircraft equivalents are 1:72

Then there is also no equivalent scale for 1:35 armour except maybe 1:24 or 1:32 scale aircraft

 

[scottie3158]

I agree you get 1/35 vehicles but 1/32 aircraft

 

[PaulTRose]

you can get plenty of 1/72 armour

but i agree about 1/32 and 1/35.......think Aifix back in the day were the only ones to dabble in 1/32 armour.....didnt catch on for some reasons

you could always try 1/48....plenty in both genres there

i think its more to do with 1/76 being roughly OO scale as used in railways......and since airfix and hornby trains were back in the day (and still are) under one roof as it were i guess there was some 'cross over'

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hi all
Bit of a ramble this.....
As I understand it, 1/72 is the “real” Braille scale. It fits with imperial measurements as a six foot man is one inch high in this scale. This makes it broadly compatible with true 25mm figures.
1/76 was invented to fit with British outline OO railway stock. OO railway really is a child with difficult parentage....it uses 1/87 track with 1/76.2 bodies for those that don’t realise....
God knows what happened with 1/35 and 1/32 though. Neither really fit with anything...I suppose 1/32 fits with imperial measurement as you have one 32nd of an inch to an inch. 1/35 fits with nothing at all.....2 and 6/7ths of a mil to a metre?
1/48th is a good compromise, fitting well with imperial measurements....and I think it is US railway outline O scale as well. UK is different, with O scale being 1/43....
Cheers
Tim

 

[Jakko]

In Britain, 1/72 was an aircraft scale, as Tim says, and in Imperial or American measurements it makes sense: 1 inch = 6 feet. Again, as he says, 1/76 for military vehicles came into use because it fit the dominant British railway scale of OO-gauge — that’s why the only major manufacturers in 1/76 were British: Airfix and Matchbox, primarily. As I recall, 1/72 for vehicles came about when Esci (from Italy) decided to make small-scale vehicles, and fairly naturally picked the scale that they were already making aircraft models in.

1/32 was also a standard British scale, being used for large-scale vehicles and figures by Airfix in the 1970s. Not quite sure why they picked that number rather than, say, 1/36 (2 × 1/72), but they did. 1/35 is — by accounts — the result of Tamiya wanting to release a battery-powered Panther tank: to fit two D-type (I think) batteries side by side in the hull, it turned out it needed to be 1/35 scale. They then made their following military models to the same scale so they fit with the Panther, and soon the scale was so well-established that almost everybody else began using it too.

 

[Jakko]

I agree you get 1/35 vehicles but 1/32 aircraft

For helicopters, 1/35 scale has been used for a decade or more, giving you the opportunity for a nice, small diorama:

(I’ve been wanting to build that in 1/72 ever since I first saw that photograph in Vietnam Tracks 25+ years ago, but don’t really have room for that — 1/35 would be even cooler but also even more unfeasible …)

 

[Thorbrand]

So with regards to dioramas i will have to go with 1:76 armour to match a 1:72 aircraft. I'm making a stuka at the moment in 1:72 and i plan to put it on display next to a 40mm bofors anti aircraft gun in desert camo. I think a 1:35 scale would look too big if ibwas displaying them next to each other so i will have to see if i can find a 1:76 version

 

[Windy]

If you're looking for 1/76 Bofors, Airfix are re-releasing their venerable kit sometime this year. Towards the bottom of the page:

https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/vehicles/military-vehicles.html

Edited to add: Zvezda do one in 1/72.

Cheers,

Windy

 

[Gern]

If you're looking for 1/76 Bofors, Airfix are re-releasing their venerable kit sometime this year. Towards the bottom of the page:

https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/vehicles/military-vehicles.html

Edited to add: Zvezda do one in 1/72.

Cheers,

Windy

There's a quick review here:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2374

The small Zvezda packs are meant for wargames but the quality is generally excellent and they're well worth the money.

 

[Jakko]

So with regards to dioramas i will have to go with 1:76 armour to match a 1:72 aircraft.

It depends on what you want to put next to it. There’s plenty of armour available in 1/72 — more than in 1/76, is my impression. However, not everything is available in both scales, so you may have to go for 1/76 anyway.

I'm making a stuka at the moment in 1:72 and i plan to put it on display next to a 40mm bofors anti aircraft gun in desert camo.

As said, there’s a 40 mm Bofors from Zvezda, and if their 2-pounder anti-tank gun is anything to go by, it’ll be a rather good model.

I think a 1:35 scale would look too big if ibwas displaying them next to each other so i will have to see if i can find a 1:76 version

1/35 only works next to 1/72 if you’re doing a forced-perspective boxed diorama or something similar. Otherwise, the gun is about twice as big as it should be (or the aircraft half the size, of course).

 

[yak face]

As far as I'm aware only Bronco Models have made any aircraft in 1/35, They first released a Piper cub with rockets then a Fieseler Storch and a couple of assault gliders ,the DFS 230 and the Airspeed Horsa (this comes in two boxings -one as a complete aircraft and one with just the rear section and wings for a just landed and split open dio) . They also do a couple of V1's ,normal and piloted and a german anti aircraft missile.

 

[PaulTRose]

didnt revell do a 1/35 Huey?

 

[Jakko]

That was 1/32, also released in a set with an OH-6. Dragon released a 1/35 scale OH-6 about 25 years ago, and then others followed with more helicopters. Scalemates lists 156 full kits of aircraft in 1/35, including several Super Frelon kits by Heller from the 1970s that I wasn’t aware of even existed, so I guess the scale goes back further than I thought