Enter the World of Plastic Model Building

The miniature world of models can spark your imagination and indulge your sense of history.  Building models is a skill almost anyone can develop.  There are plastic kits for modelers of every experience level and interest.  Choose from a wide selection of plastic kits of model cars, trucks, semi tractors and trailers, airplanes, tanks and armor, boats, ships, spaceships, and miniature figures and just about any other type of model you can imagine.

A scale model is a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object being represented. Very often the scale model is smaller than the original and used as a guide to making the object in full size. Scale models are built or collected for many reasons.

Professional model makers often create models for the below professions:

• For engineers who require scale models to test the likely performance of a particular design at an early stage of development without incurring the full expense of a full-sized prototype.
• For architects who require architectural models to evaluate and sell the look of a new construction before it is built.
• For filmmakers who require scale models of objects or sets that cannot be built in full size.
• For salesmen who require scale models to promote new products such as heavy equipment and automobiles and other vehicles.

Hobbyists or amateur model makers make die-cast models, injection molded, model railroads, remote control vehicles, wargaming and fantasy collectibles, model ships and ships in bottles for their own enjoyment.

Scale models can also be objects of art, either being created by artists or being rediscovered and transformed into art by artists.

Some modelers build and collect models made from a certain medium (wood, plastic, paper, etc). Others build and collect models based on the types of object being modeled.

Flying models are usually what is meant by the term aeromodelling. Most flying model aircraft can be placed in one of three groups: free flight, control line and radio controlled. Some flying models are realistic representation of full-sized aircraft, while others are built with no intention of looking like piloted aircraft. Flying models are often constructed like vintage full-sized aircraft. They can be built from scratch or from kits. Some kits take many hours to put together and some kits are almost ready to fly or ready to fly

Most hobbyist who build models of buildings do so as part of a diorama to enhance their other models such as a model railroad or model war machines. As a stand-alone hobby, building models are probably most popular among enthusiasts of construction toys such as Erector, Lego and K'nex. Famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Big Ben and the White House are common subjects. Standard scales have not emerged in this hobby. Model railroaders use railroad scales for their buildings: HO scale (1:87), N scale (1:160), and O scale (1:43). Lego builders use miniland scale (1:20) and minifig scale (1:48) and micro scale (1:192) Generally, the larger the building, the smaller the scale. Model buildings are made from plastic, foam, balsa wood or paper. Card models are published in the form of a book, and some models are manufactured like 3-D puzzles. Professionally, building models are used by architects and salesmen.

A model construction vehicle (or engineering vehicle) is a scale model or Die-cast toy that represents a construction vehicle such as an excavator, crane, concrete pump, backhoe, etc.

Construction vehicle models are almost always made in 1:50 scale, particularly because the cranes at this scale are often three to four feet tall when extended and larger scales would be unsuited for display on a desk or table. These models are popular as children's toys in Germany. In the US they are commonly sold as promotional models for new construction equipment, commissioned by the manufacturer of the prototype real-world equipment. The major manufacturers in Germany are Conrad and NZG, with some competition from Chinese firms that have been entering the market.

In the first half of the twentieth century, navies used hand-made models of warships for identification and instruction in a variety of scales. That of 1:500 was called "teacher scale." Besides models made in 1:1200 and 1:2400 scales, there were also ones made to 1:2000 and 1:5000. Some, made in Britain, were labeled "1 inch to 110 feet," which would be 1:1320 scale, but aren't necessarily accurate.

Just before the Second World War, the American naval historian (and science fiction author) Fletcher Pratt published a book on naval wargaming as could be done by civilians using ship models cut off at the waterline to be moved on the floors of basketball courts and similar locales. The scale he used was non-standard (reported as 1:666), and may have been influenced by toy ships then available, but as the hobby progressed, and other rule sets came into use, it was progressively supplemented by the series 1:600, 1:1200, and 1:2400. In Britain, 1:3000 became popular and these models also have come into use in the USA. These had the advantage of approximating the nautical mile as 120 inches, 60 inches, and 30 inches, respectively. As the knot is based on this mile and a 60-minute hour, this was quite handy.

After the war, firms emerged to produce models from the same white metal used to make toy soldiers. One British firm offered a tremendously wide line of merchant ships and dockyard equipment in the scale 1:1200. In the US, at least one manufacturer, of the wartime 1:1200 recognition models, Comet, made them available for the civilian market postwar, which also drove the change to this scale. In addition, continental European manufacturers and European ship book publishers had adopted the 1:1250 drawing scale because of its similar convenience in size for both models and comparison drawings in books.

A prestige scale for boats, comparable to that of 1:32 for fighter planes, is 1:72, producing huge models, but there are very few kits marketed in this scale. For the smaller ships, plank-on-frame or other wood construction kits are offered in the traditional shipyard scales of 1:96, 1:108, or 1:192 (half of 1:96). In injection-molded plastic kits, Airfix makes full-hull models in the scale which the Royal Navy has used to compare the relative sizes of ships: 1:600. Revell makes some kits to half the scale of the US Army standard: 1:570. Some American and foreign firms have made models in a proportion from the Engineer's scale: "one-sixtieth-of-an-inch-to-the-foot", or 1:720.

But the continental Europeans have an on-going project of getting rid of all conversions and measurements which they consider non-standard. As they saw how four Japanese model-making firms (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima, and Fujimi) formed a cartel to apportion out the project of putting out waterline kits of the whole fleet of Japanese warships of the Second World War on the market in a proportion that no firm from any other country did - 1:700, the Europeans are attempting to have the scale of 1:400 standardized for full-hull model ships, even though some Japanese firms have produced larger ships in the luxury scale of 1:350. On the other hand, the rise of the resin kit industry in the 1990s led to the introduction of companies around the world producing kits in the 1:350 and 1:700 scales to match pre-existing injection molded kits, creating in limited production a large variety of kits of subjects which traditional injection-molding makers have not invested resources to produce, due to the expense of creating a large injection mold. In scales more conducive to wargaming, continental Europeans have long marketed waterline kits in the scales 1:1250 and more recently 1:2500 to supplement the British and American lines. The Chinese are joining them. Such trends toward standardization has not affected the Japanese firm Nichimo, which still produces fit-in-the-box sizes from old molds, and 1:450 size models.

Just before the twentieth century, the British historian (and science fiction author and forgotten mainstream novelist) H. G. Wells published a book, Little Wars, on how to play at battles in miniature. His books use 54 mm lead figures, particularly those manufactured by Britains. His fighting system employed spring-loaded model guns which shot matchsticks.

This use of physical mechanisms was echoed in the later games of Fred Jane, whose rules required throwing darts at ship silhouettes; his collection of data on the world's fleets was later published and became renowned. Dice have largely replaced this toy mayhem for consumers.

For over a century, toy soldiers were made of white metal, a lead-based alloy, often in architect's scale-based ratios in the English-speaking countries, and called tin soldiers. After the Second World War, such toys were on the market for children but now made of a safe plastic softer than styrene. American children called these "army men". Many sets were made in the new scale of 1:40. A few styrene model kits of land equipment were offered in this and in 1:48 and 1:32 scales. However, these were swept away by the number of kits in the scale of 1:35.

Those who continued to develop miniature wargaming preferred smaller scale models, the soldiers still made of soft plastic. Airfix particularly wanted people to buy 1:76 scale soldiers and tanks to go with "00" gauge train equipment. Roco offered 1:87 scale styrene military vehicles to go with "H0" gauge model houses. However, although there is no 1:72 scale model railroad, more toy soldiers are now offered in this scale because it is the same as the popular aircraft scale. The number of fighting vehicles in this scale is also increasing, although the number of auxiliary vehicles available is far fewer than in 1:87 scale.

A more recent development, especially in wargaming of land battles is 15 mm white metal miniatures, often referred to as 1:100, though this is not a correct conversion of scale. 15 mm scale actually is very close to railroad TT scale or 1:120. The use of 15 mm scale metals has grown quickly since the early 1990s as they allow a more affordable option over 28 mm if large battles are to be re-fought, or a large number of vehicles represented. The rapid rise in the detail and quality of castings at 15 mm scale has also helped to fuel their uptake by the wargaming community.

Armies use smaller scales still. The US Army specifies models of the scale 1:285 for its sand table wargaming. There are metal ground vehicles and helicopters in this scale, which is a near "one-quarter-inch-to-six-feet" scale. The continental powers of NATO have developed the similar scale of 1:300, even though metric standardizers really don't like any divisors other than factors of 10, 5, and 2, so maps are not commonly offered in Europe in scales with a "3" in the denominator.

Consumer wargaming has since expanded into fantasy realms, employing scales large enough to be painted in imaginative detail - so called "heroic" 28 mm figures, (roughly 1:64, or S scale). Firms which produce these do so in so small production lots that they are necessarily made of white metal. One successful company in this field is British firm Games Workshop, which offers white metal and plastic war machines and soldiers for its Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Following the cinematic release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a third miniature-based gaming line was created.

Hobbyists' scale models derive from those used by the firms which made the full-sized products. Originally, a "scale" was a physical measuring instrument, a notion which survives as concerns weight. First among scales are the rulers that are triangular in cross-section and called architect's scales or engineer's scales. The terminology used was of this manner: "scale size to full size", or the reverse. An architect's scale was used to make the first affordable models: doll houses and their furniture. Its popular scales for these miniatures were "one inch to the foot" and "one-half inch to the foot"; there is also "three-quarters inch to the foot".

The proportion of the model to the prototype was originally called "size", as in "full-sized" or "half-sized", as used on a blueprint for making something that would fit on a workbench.

Shipyards were the first to use the scales to make models of things larger than a house. The scales they used were expressed in a different manner: "one-foot-to-the-inch" through "six-feet-to-the-inch" were common. During the Second World War, battleship models were made "eight-foot-to-the-inch", in the later phrasing, "one-eighth-inch to the foot"; you will find these models, used for training workers, in maritime museums. The model ship would be referred to as "one-ninety-sixth size", or "1/96th", but rarely, as there were few scales commonly used; it couldn't possibly be "1/98th scale", for example.

There were also rotary instruments in which one would line up marks on two dials to be able to translate measurements from units on the prototype to units on the model. After the production of kits to make plastic models became an industry, there were developed rulers marked in the model units and which are called scales.

Phrases used are those of "larger" and "smaller" scales. The scale of 1/8"-to-the-foot is a larger scale than 1/16"-to-the-foot, even though the denominator is smaller. So a larger model is made to a larger scale. You can remember this in that a full-size, or full-scale, model is larger than a half-size model.

For aircraft recognition in the Second World War, the RAF selected models to the scale of "one-sixth inch to the foot" (which was two British lines, a legal division of length which didn't make it to America, besides being a standard shipyard scale). Although some consumer models were sold pre-war in Britain to this scale, the Airmens' models were pressed out of ground-up old rubber tires. This is of course the still-popular "one-seventy-second size". It wasn't predestined to succeed; there were competitors.

The US Navy, in contrast, had metal models made to the proportion 1:432, which is "nine-feet-to-the-quarter-inch". At this scale, a model six feet is about half a statute mile; and seven feet about half a nautical mile.

After the war, firms that molded models from polystyrene entered the consumer marketplace, the American firm Revell notably offering a model of the Royal Coach around the time of the 1953 coronation. In the early years, firms offered models of aircraft and ships in "fit-the-box" size. A box that would make an impressive gift was specified, and a mould was crafted to make a model that wouldn't ludicrously slide around inside. Modelers could not compare models, nor switch parts from one kit to another. It was the British firm Airfix that brought the idea of the constant scale to the marketplace, and they picked the RAF's scale.

In the 1960s, the company Monogram offered an aircraft actually labeled as ¼" scale, which may have been a common contraction in factories. They meant "one-quarter-inch to the foot", or "one-forty-eighth size". Shortly thereafter, hobbyists lost the ability to distinguish the two, and now the proportion is referred to as scale.

The nominal height of a man is simple in the inch-based system: six feet. Many traditional scales are derived so that a figure of such a height against the model can be readily imagined as a simple relation to an inch. Although the metric system has specified a limited series of scales for blueprints and maps, when it comes to models, there may be a problem with these scales for a readily imagined person of 180 centimeters. Model railways have the additional difficulty of having to present the rail gauge as a simple number, the height of a person being secondary. Trade authorities in metric countries are attempting to specify scales that are simple multiples of 2 and 5, but neither tracks nor people seem to fit. In such cases, rationalization may actually be invoked for competitive advantage, to prevent interoperability with products from another manufacturing country.

On the other hand, wargaming scales have traditionally been traced to metric system, where the number of millimeters relate to the relative height of the human figure based on 180 cm standard man. Therefore 25 mm scale (popular in historical and fantasy wargaming) refers to 1:72 scale, whilst the 15 mm scale (nowadays the most popular scale in ancient, medieval and Renaissance wargaming) refers to 1:120 scale (Many manufacturers refer to 15 mm as 1:100 scale). Likewise, 50 mm scale is the same as 1:35 military model scale, and 5 mm equals 1:350 naval scale.

Miniatures in Contemporary Art

References

In the Lego community, micro scale can refer to anything smaller than minifig scale (1:48), but 1:192 is occasionally set as a standard micro scale. This ratio is arrived at by scaling a person (6 feet) to the height of a Lego brick (3/8 inches). See The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide by Alan Bedford, No Starch Press, 2005.

• Diecast House - Huge collection of die-cast Vehicles
• Photos of toy steam engines
• The Scale Firehouse - Emergency Vehicle Scale Models
• KitMaker Network - An online community of scale model builders from around the world.
• glue-it.com - a model making site for all forms of models.
• Models of Horse-Drawn Carriages.
• Clayton's model ship page Features many model links and practicums
• Aircraft Resource Center Daily galleries of aircraft models.
• Historic ship models Webpage devoted to scale ship model building, with more than 2000 high resolution photos of ship models of all ages