How hard can it be for makers of scale automobiles to make them to the correct scale? Most of my HO autos are CMW and Woodland Scenics but I also scored 5 nice looking Model Power 1955 Chevys a few years ago. All seem to be made to about the same scale. Recently, I ordered 4 autos from Historic Rail. Often they do not state the manufacturer in the catalog so I knew I was taking a chance. Yesterday they arrived, 2 1949 Mercurys, an Edsel, and a T-Bird. It turns out they were made by Oxford, a company in England. They were beautifully made and solidly built. Just one problem. I could instantly see that they were too big. I had nothing to compare the Edsel to but I do have other Mercurys and T-Birds. Comparing them side by side, the Oxfords appear to be about 10% bigger than the others. I suppose it’s possible Oxford scaled theirs correctly and the rest of my autos are too small, but odds are it is the Oxfords which are the outliers.
I’ve tried to avoid buying any of the European brands because my experience is these seem to be scaled too small. Just the opposite with the Oxfords. I know they use the metric system across the pond but 1/87th is 1/87th no matter how you are measuring. They only have to get this right once when they are tooling up to make these autos. How hard can it be to get it right. Do they think it’s not that important? Do they think it is not noticeable? If so, they are wrong on both counts. Because these vehicles are so nice looking I will find a place for them on my layout but it won’t be next to any of my other cars because they would stick out like a sore thumb. With the too small Euro cars, I’ve placed them near the backdrop. The Oxfords I will probably put near the front of the layout away from any other vehicles. Sort of an unplanned forced perspective. These Oxfords are very nice looking but unfortunately, I won’t be buying any more because of their size.
Just My observation, so take it for what it’s worth: I have quite a few vehicles that I have collected over the year’s and have been comparing them, ( I belong to a 1/87 scale truck club) what I found is that the Classic Metal Works newer plastic auto vehicles are slightly smaller than their cast metal counter parts. I just received a number of the Oxford Models and last nite I took them all apart and have quite a few Preiser sitting people and wanted to see if any would fit in, without cutting the legs off. Anyway one sitting guy fit nicely in a 49 Merc, after moving the steering wheel some, ( I believe if anything…the wheel is oversize) that same guy would not even come close to fitting in a CMW 55 Plastic Ford that I have. So are Preiser figures off scale too? A standing figure next to the door on the CMW Ford looks oversize too, but not when standing next to the Oxford 49 Merc.
Who know’s, where evil’s lurk…I surely will not loose any sleep over it. Now if it was an oversize Match box car…it would not even be on the layout. [swg]
On the side in front on the Oxford plastic case that the Autos come in, states that: Scale 1:87. so that is a lie then, is what some are saying??? The 1/76 scale figure that I have on my sailing ship is two head’s taller than the roof line on the car, so I guess the figure is seven ft tall??
This is an Oxford model of the 1958 Edsel I just got last week. The spec for this car say it is 218.3 inches long, or about 18.2 feet.
This is the 1956 T-Bird from Oxford. Spec is 197.5 inches, or 16.45 feet.
EDIT: I re-took the pictures. They are pretty close to their specs in HO scale.
EDIT again: This is tricky. I had to tape the ruler to the deck of the cars. With the ruler on the table and the car above it, the close-up camera angle adds an apparant foot or more of length.
Just got the Yellow Edsel last nite. Three white walls and one black wall on the left side of car. LOL,LOL. Actually, I think it would look pretty good with black walls.[swg]
Most peoples perception of the actual size and comparative size of real objects is subjective and with few exceptions usually wrong.
Comparing two models is not adequate unless you know the scale of one of them and also accurately perceive the differences in dimensions of the prototypes.
The only way to tell the actual scale of a model car is to measure the pertinent dimensions (length, width, height , wheelbase, track) and compare them to the actual car. It may be found that the scale varies depending on the dimension compared.
Measuring with a scale ruler is good for a rough comparison, but to be really accurate a caliper should be used.
In the recent Oxford Models thread, I posted links to three automobile specification sites.
Edsels were big cars, much bigger than the 56 Chevy BelAirs most of us have on our layouts. The Oxford Edsels may look large by comparison, but back in 1958 they were large by comparison.
Actually, I just took a closer look with the magnifier and it’s not only a blackwall…the hubcap is different…the other three have a silver spinner in the center, with the Yellow paint in a ring around it. The blackwall has a all silver hubcap, with spinner in the center.
Wow!!! That’s what I get for buying a new car at nite, off the showroom floor. LOL. [:-^]
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
EDIT: I think I’ll put this one on WPF…for a do you notice the difference question. [(-D]
I suppose to really settle this, one would have to know the actual dimensions of the prototype. The arithmetic would be fairly easy. Then it would be no problem to know which cars are out of scale and by how much. I’m more inclined to believe the explanation that these cars are OO scale rather than HO. A shame if they are not HO because other than scale, they are really well made.
OK, this page has dimensions of the various 1958 models, (possibly where Mr. Beasley got his dimensions from): 1958 Edsel Page
There are actually different sizes of Edsel - it was supposed to be a brand like Mercury or Lincoln, with different models (Citation, Ranger, Pacer, Corsair)
Apparently the Oxford Model is a 1958 Edsel Citation 2 Door Hardtop:
Dimensions & other key info from the above linked page
Total Production: 2,532
Original Base Price: $3,500
Curb Weight (lbs): 4,136
Wheelbase (in.): 124.0
Length (in.): 218.8
Width (in.): 79.8
Height (in.): 56.8
Mr. Beasley, time to get out those cheap Chinese made digital calipers (at least mine are cheap Chinese ones, I think Chicago brand via Harbor Freight), and re-measure the Length, Width and Height of your model. Give us (my imaginary fan club) the readout in decimal inches, and we’ll multiply by 87.1. Via the magic of (very) fuzzy logic we’ll take the weighed delta of the differences LxWxH, and decide how relatively ugly the scaling is compared to HO (for example the old Matchbox TopKick truck cab was like this - the Length and Height of the truck cab were fairly close to HO, but the width was way too wide, so it went in the close-but-no-cigar category since I was not insane enough to try to cut out the middle and JB Weld the sides of that pot-metal shell together).
Hopefully this Oxford question can finally be put to bed…
Oxford’s own website is careful to distinguish between the vehicles they offer in 1:76 and those they offer as 1:87 - and the American prototypes we are debating are clearly listed by them as 1:87. It is of course possible they were working off erroneous information or drawings or master parts. I am also aware that the modelmaking process can introduce slight size errors fairly easily.
