Question about scale

This might sound weird but is there a breaking point to scale lets say for instance can you use cars that are 1:72 scale and 1;87 ?

Thanks Carl…

It’s your railroad, you can do anything that you wish. There are no rules.

Bob Boudreau

I use those on my HO scale layout. They look just fine. Also nice pic of CNW.

Waltersrails

http://ztrainman.tripod.com/

If you mix 1/72 people and vehicles with true HO vehicles the two scales will become obvious. If I was going to mix the two I would choose vehicles that don’t have an absolute size, such as tractors or some trucks. Another strategy would be to put the 1/72 vehicles and people in the foreground, and the true HO stuff toward the back.

Dave H.

I think it all depends upon how close the “out of scale” items are from other scale items. You just have to play with it and just see if it looks right.
I’ve intentionally used smaller scale items in the far corner of my first layout to make the layout appear deeper, which it defintely did. With drastic changes in scale, it is important to have a “scaleless” transition, such as brush or trees between the two items and always have the smaller scale item behind the larger scale item.
In a book by Dave Frary, he put an O scale figure, car, and tree at the front of his layout with a “scaleless” scrub brush filled ravine between the O scale and HO scale areas for a transition.

Ok Heres an example the mustang is 1;67 i found this dodge magnum r/t its 1:72
does this look close ? i found alot of modern cars police ect this scale cheep paid $1.49 for it

Carl…

are you familiar with Disneyland? their main street stretch was designed with
perspective, if you looked down it it looked like a long distance.
You could find N scale cars and lay them in the background just for perspective.
1/72 is kinda midway between ho/S. S is 1/64. OO scale is about 1/80 ish, but runs on HO track.

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]

ICMR

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

OO is 1/76 (4mm/ft). The British version runs on HO track. This is well supported in Britain.

The US version used a more correct gauge of .750 inches. There was commercial support for it in the late 40’s and 50’s, but I don’t think there is much now. There is SIG for it and their page http://www.getnet.com/~dickg/nmra/sigs/AmericanOO/AmericanOO.html has some historical information.
Enjoy
Paul

One has to use a bit of caution when mixing scales, even those as seemingly close as 1:72 and 1:87, if you want of attain realism in a modeled scene . While a close mix will almost always photograph correctly (assuming the larger item is in the foreground) because the scene has been reduced to two dimensional, in person the effect often fails, especially if the scene is viewed roughly along its length rather than straight on.

Likewise, the illusion works much better if the particular layout section has significant depth, like a deep city scene, so the different vehicles end up well separated and the difference in scales is lost to the domination of the scene by large structures.

CNJ831

label your scene of mixed scale vehicles “pimp my ride”

A lot may depend on your sensitivity to the items modelled. I have few problems with cars and trucks since I have no felling for how big they should be (generally, I often think scale vehicles are too big). People and doors are critical, but many other items come in varied sizes in real life.
Remember that toy items used to be sold for O and S scales.

The two scales you mention 1/72 and 1/87, are not really that close together. A model in 1/72 is going to be oversize by 21 % when compared to an HO (1/87) model.

So if you use an auto in 1/72 anywhere near a person or building, the car will be noticeably out of scale when compared to its surroundings. Comparing a figure in 1/72 to one in 1/87, the 1/72 figure would be nearly 7 feet tall compared to the 1/87 5 foot 9 inch figure, if both were designed to be 5 foot 9 inches in their proper scale.

In O scale, for instance, the autos tend to be 1/43 while everything else is 1/48. That’s a discrepancy of about 12 % too large for the autos, and if you’re not careful there, the difference can be noticed. So, with a difference about twice what the Oscalers are working with, the chances of running into trouble are magnified significantly. [:D]

-Ed

I have done that…just keep the 1/72s in a different area from the 1/87s. 1/72 to 1/87 isn’t as noticeable as 1/32 to 1/24.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

Oh yeah…I’ve even used some 1/64 vehicles with 1/87. Placement is key.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

Not only placement, but also what type of car. If you’ve got yourself a big 4 wheel drive in 1/72, and a mini in 1/87 then the difference is greater. And as for the people hight difference between scales, l’m almost 7 foot, and have met people shorter that 5’9"!!! I’m sure everyone has. So that would only be modeling real life. Also, if the scale that is the larger happens to be a one of a kind object on a layout, like maybe a lambogini, then it would stand out worse. DD ;-D

If anybody makes them 1:100 scale vehicles would probably mix well with 1:87.1 scale.

Bob DeWoody