# 'Scales' drive me nuts!



## Cap'nBill (Dec 27, 2008)

I see this stuff about the...what appears to be....a dozen scales mentioned and have no perspective as to what looks good. I got a 'Indiana Jones' figure off the sale rack which looks great driving my Bachmann Shay. My Bachmann fireman looks like Quasimodo in the cab! I wish one of you fellows would, or could, line up your different scale figures and a post a pic of what they look like. Perhaps using a Bachmann figure as a point of comparison.....knowing we all love them, right!


----------



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi, 

Richard Smith took some photos, three I think, of various figures, when he posed some on his marvelous layout, in front of one of his buildings.

I would send him a note to see if he still has a copy of it, or can possibly tell you a Link to it. 

Also don't forget that people are all sorts of sizes so there is plenty of variation!


----------



## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Why was this the first thing that came to mind with a post with "Scale" and "Nuts" in the title?


----------



## Cap'nBill (Dec 27, 2008)

Thank You very Much! Now I've wasted my entire afternoon watching cartoons........but a good one! Think I missed that one during my Youth.


----------



## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill, 

This might help... 
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/ForumArchives/tabid/100/Default.aspx?TOPIC_ID=28844


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

You kindof have to settle on a theme, then pick carefully. Small scalers just assume that "HO" means it's accurate 1/87 and don't notice that their 40 ft box cars are only 30 ft long. In G, you have to pay more attention since we all use the same 45mm rail spacing to represent standard or narrow gauge track, even though it's about 5mm too narrow for 1:29 standard gauge. 

I settled on a depression era short line that connects to a main line. "Asylum Valley N&D." I got annoyed that figures cost so much and were 9ft giants in 1:29, so I learned to make my own right here on MLS. 

Now, a friend, Ric Golding, models a narrow gauge short line. Whenever I visit him, my standard gauge equipment fits right in for a weekend of fun.


----------



## Cap'nBill (Dec 27, 2008)

Good link/pics, Richard! Puts them in some kind of perspective. 'Course I guess in real life we come in all sizes....., don't we?


----------



## Fritz (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi,

It´s very easy, if it does not fit in the cab, it is too large, if it can´t look out of the window, it´s too small. In most cases LGB. 

"G" is not a scale. 









1/32 left, 1 : 20,3 right.











Box in 7/8th, 1 : 22,5, 1 : 20,3, 1 : 32

It´s true, we come in different seizes. but believe me I am in 1 : 1 scale. 



Have fun

fritz / Juergen


----------



## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

When you see a figure in the store, pull out your wallet. (And not just because you're going to empty it buying the figure.) Take your credit card out and hold it up to the figure. A 1:20.3 figure will be about as tall as the credit card is long. A 1:32 figure will be about as tall as the credit card is high. (No, I'm not going to figure out what scale a person is who's as tall as the credit card is thick.) A 1:24 figure will be about as tall as a dollar bill folded in half is long. A 1:29 figure will be about as tall as a dollar bill is high. 

Later, 

K


----------



## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Cap,

You have my deepest sympathies. The way I got out of the clutter of confusion, or the slather of scales was, I settled on 1:20.3 with a lot of good-natured help from Them As Knows on the board. I'm sorta simple-minded, so I _had _to simplify. Once I did that, figures became easy: a six-foot guy is right at 3 1/2" in 1:20. My index finger happens to be that long. So I have a built-on gauge for when I find figures in garage sales. At any rate, my wife makes mine. A leg broke off during heating, on one. So she put a fat toothpick on the stump, and when painted, I'll have a peg-legged guy. Which led me to a solution for a minor problem: I want ball signals. Thus I need a shanty. Hence the peg-legged guy.

Les


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Must have been a railroad accident. 

3 1/2 inches in 1:29 is 8 1/2 ft. 

In 1:29, 2 inches is just under 5 ft. 2 1/2 inches is 6ft 1/2 inch. Easy to gauge figures. 

You just have to settle on a scale to match your theme and judge everything else accordingly.


----------



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm lazy about "scale". If it 'fits' visually, it stays. If it doesn't, then I'll trade it off for something that does... or cut it apart to make something else. Most 1:22 figures actually work pretty well with 1:24 houses and vehicles (okay, a few DO look like Lerch), while some supposed 1:24 figures look like midgets (probably are really 1:25) Use the card or bill, or carry a "right sized" figure as a keyfob. If it's on ebay, don't be afraid to ask how tall. Even if it's a 'set' sometimes the scale is all over the place. Those 'suitable for "G"'Amish farm sets for instance? Supposed to be 1:24... Buggy is about right, the farm implements are closer to 1:25, the horses are too small (1:26?). Wife and kids in one set are fairly are close and more 1:26 in the other, dad in both is out of proportion for anything- tall and super skinny with a tiny 1:32ish head in one, might make a starving urchin in 1:29 in the other.


----------



## Cap'nBill (Dec 27, 2008)

Here's a pic of Indiana Jones..from WallyWorld...driving a Climax, his partner, an ex-German soldier, drives a Shay. Then there's 'Hard workin' Henry' who does double duty. He has a magnet on his right boot which operates a reed switch running the smoker and lights. He can grab a hammer and tightened the wedges. Then, the Bob Bachmann the head brakeman (called Quasimodo by his fellow workers).


----------



## Fritz (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi,

In Germany we simply place 1 : 20 Figures in 1 : 20 locos






















Of course, for 1 : 22,5 models, a popular scale over here, we use figures in 1 : 22,5













For 0n30 ( 1 : 48 scale) the 1 : 22,5 figures are much too large










For the red Gn 15 loco ( 1 : 22,5 scale) they are perfect


Have Fun 

Fritz / Juergen


----------



## dawinter (Jan 2, 2008)

All of my buildings and accessories are either 1/29th scale, 1/25th scale or 1/24th scale and I keep them in scenes that don't give away their odd sizes. I do this because I raid the auto modellers arena for most of my figures. They're far more realistic than the 'toy train' stuff I usually find locally. Selected Prieser items are very good and sorry if I offend anyone but Aristo should simply scrap all their figures and start again. Very bad molds used to create very odd people.

Having said that, I really do like some of the home made figures used in conjunction with larger scale models. I always viewed most early NG steam layouts as charactures of themselves anyway. That, and designing and building those figures is a hobby and skill set I could never begin to get right.


----------



## Fritz (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi, 

why do you offend a maker like Aristocraft, without giving evidence what you are talking about. 

OK, most Aristo figures I own are not in 1 : 29 but more in the 124/25 range. But I think, they are well done and real characters. 
http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=134

Have Fun 

Fritz / Juergen


----------



## dawinter (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Fritz on 06/11/2009 8:19 AM


Hi, 

why do you offend a maker like Aristocraft, without giving evidence what you are talking about. 


Fritz / Juergen 



Ok. Here's the deal.

I live in a small town of 5000 people and I just got back from some shopping in Kelowna (about 105,000 + 40,000 in the burbs) and I didn't see one, not one, clown, homely bride, 18 out of 20 men wearing silly hats; no beards, goatees, or cigars. I saw NO service people standing around - at all, and Aristo does at least eight. How many of those do you need in a non-police state? How many would you want for every 100,000 or more civilian figures? No Santa's, no hobos (with or without a campfire) no firemen, no police - at all, and no 'troopers' or the like. And no John Wayne either. What's more, absolutely no fat guy was gobbing down a whole bucket of chicken - or using bonoculers.

I saw real average people dressed like average people, mostly in T's and jeans, standing, walking, talking or jogging and all the things real people do every day just like on the street where you live.

That's why I look to the car and truck modellers for most figures. I have about little 95 people down here and there is one Aristo conductor. At least I think that's what he is. Even then, he's a short, over weight caricature of a figure that little kids like because they've seen him have seen in cartoons. Not on the street.

Anyway, I don't think I offended the maker. He knows what he makes and likes it. I've brought up the subject of more 'modern' people (using new molds) on the Aristo forum, at least twice, and I'm pretty much told they're designed by famous 'artists' and they're the best on the market.

So hey! Good for them. 
Dave


----------



## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking over Fritz's link and reading DA Winters comments...both have their points. 

Around here (small town Alaska, about the same size as DA Winters burg) most of the folks do dress plainly: jeans and solid color t-shirts, but there are also a few suit and tie types, quite a few attractive women wearing shorts and skimpy tops (now that it is summer anyhow), workmen in various forms of coveralls, and the odd cop in full uniform. Aristo has few or none of the 'ordinary' sort of people - the jeans and t-shirt crowd, but does have a fair selection of the rest. Yet, I gotta agree with DA Winter about the other Aristo figures: no hoboes here, and I havn't seen a clown in decades.


----------



## dawinter (Jan 2, 2008)

Right! We got off topic. 

But you can check out my web site and see that figures of various 'close to scale' types will work in a given location. My last What's New and a few recent archives show it best. These are mostly Preiser - thus too big. But.....









Dave


----------



## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Beware the R.O.U.S.  

Later, 

K


----------



## Fritz (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi, 

Just coming back from the railroad track. Did not see any Shays, Moguls, Climaxes, wooden boxcars, logging transports. No steam locos. Only boaring shoe box type locos, mainly painted red and some passenger cars, messed up with graffiti. 
Most people at the station looked as if they are travelling to work, some dressed in tie & suit, some in working men clothing, even a few young soldiers with their sea bags on their shoulder. Many children and youngsters. At least half of the people on the station platform seem to come from other countries. You see Arabs, Indians, Turks, quite many from Africa. Probably because they can´t effort cars, so they have to use the train. Passed the dwelling with tents and corrugated iron huts of te poorer people on the banks of the River Rhine. 

Most of the Aristo figures look as if they fit in the Thirties or Forties. a period very often choosen by model railroaders. I´d expect W.C. Field, Al Capone, Lana Turner, Humphrie Bogart etc to populate the streets, buildings and trains. I would not expect Brad Pit, Madonna, Paris Hilton or Michael Jackson in such a setting. Actually I´d expect a few hoboes around the railroad yards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72hq9kLyUQ 

So this brings us back to the Captain´s initial question. Not only do you need figures of the right seize suitable for your choosen scale, but they should be dressed in the right period clothes for the time you choose. 



















I would not mind to see more pictures in this thread. I am alway looking for new figures, mainly from pre WW II time. 

Have Fun 

Fritz / Juergen


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Fritz, I never get tired of seeing your scenes!


----------



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Fritz on 06/11/2009 2:21 AM

In Germany we simply place 1 : 20 Figures in 1 : 20 locos


Of course, for 1 : 22,5 models, a popular scale over here, we use figures in 1 : 22,5


........ 



Unfortunately, Lemax doesn't say WHAT scale they are, and two figures in the SAME series often aren't even the same scale. Used Prieser figures can be 4 different scales, and last I looked it isn't stamped on their behinds. Bullyland are some weird scale. Woodland Scenics seem to be several scales as well. etc, etc,


----------



## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Apparently the hamster was intimidated by all the firepower in the 'Capone' photo, though...


----------



## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

K, 

> Beware the R.O.U.S. 

I don't believe they exist! Arghhhhhh! 

Best, 
TJ


----------



## Fritz (Jan 11, 2008)

I don't believe they exist! Arghhhhhh! 


Send in the Princess Bride, but don´t offend my hamster. Found some Aristo-figures and mingled them amongst some other makers figures: 












The critics will find them and offer some substitutes. 

Have fun 

Fritz / Juergen


----------



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Cap'nBill on 06/07/2009 7:44 AM
I see this stuff about the...what appears to be....a dozen scales mentioned and have no perspective as to what looks good. I got a 'Indiana Jones' figure off the sale rack which looks great driving my Bachmann Shay. My Bachmann fireman looks like Quasimodo in the cab! I wish one of you fellows would, or could, line up your different scale figures and a post a pic of what they look like. Perhaps using a Bachmann figure as a point of comparison.....knowing we all love them, right! 

I too had this frustration...about how to find figures the right size for my GRR. Last winter I did some research on the height of folks over time. I found this http://www.econ.upf.edu/docs/seminars/baten.pdf . This paper described the height of folks in different societies over time.

I selected the heights of people from the industrial countries and created a spread sheet that scales the height of folks based on the GRR scale you are using and the period that you are modeling. The table of data is below. I then made a series of figure height scale drawings that I can print. That figure is located at http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/mikereilley/Figure%20Scale%20card.pdf . 


I model in the 1920s to 1930s period...and I'm into 1/20.3 scale. I printed these sheets and cut out the drawing for 1/20.3 scale in 1930. I carry that in my wallet and use it whenever I see a figure anywhere to see if it's the right size (more or less). The drawing has a height scale on the edge...so that you can measure a figures height...as not everyone is average. 



Year Avg Male Hgt (cm) Avg Male Hgt (in) Fig Height 1/20.3 (inches) Fig Height 1/22.5 (inches) Fig Height 1/24 (inches) Fig Height 1/29 (inches) Fig Height 1/32 (inches) 1870 167 65.7 3.24 2.92 2.74 2.27 2.05 1900 168 66.1 3.26 2.94 2.76 2.28 2.07 1930 171 67.3 3.32 2.99 2.81 2.32 2.10 1950 174 68.5 3.37 3.04 2.85 2.36 2.14 1980 177 69.7 3.43 3.10 2.90 2.40 2.18 















Year Avg Female Hgt (cm) Avg Female Hgt (in) Fig Height 1/20.3 (inches) Fig Height 1/22.5 (inches) Fig Height 1/24 (inches) Fig Height 1/29 (inches) Fig Height 1/32 (inches) 1870 155 60.9 3.00 2.71 2.54 2.10 1.90 1900 156 61.4 3.02 2.73 2.56 2.12 1.92 1930 159 62.7 3.09 2.78 2.61 2.16 1.96 1950 162 63.9 3.15 2.84 2.66 2.20 2.00 1980 166 65.2 3.21 2.90 2.72 2.25 2.04


----------



## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

I think a bit over much is being made of this. I have a nephew - all of 16 years old - who checks in at close to six and a half feet tall, and my darling daughter barely hits five foot one inch. Down through the years I've worked with a number of guys that check in at seven feet tall, and several full grown adult men and womwn who barely topped five feet talll.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

And who would have expected Susie and I to have tall kids!


----------

