The 1/24 Scale History Story?

[JPolli]

This is a historical question concerning the model industry.  I am not a big fan of 1/24 drag scale model cars.  1/25 scale is my preference.  Why did the model companies adopt  a 1/24 scale?  As you car modelers know, the difference is small, but drastic (if you know what I mean).  WHAT IS THE STORY?  Would love to hear the "scoop" from you drag car model historians. Thanks

[Dragline]

My limited knowledge is that 1/24 is standard outside of the US, and 1/25 is an American thing. I have no preference and display them together. There are other who feel it is asthetically unpleasent. Then, there are scale bigots who will not buy 1/24 in some sort of protest or solidarity. I see no other reasons why they would boycott the scale. Perhaps they will chime in with their particular reasons. 1/24 offers a wider world in kits so why limit yourself since the size difference [for me] is negligable. Although parts don't usually swap between the scales, it can be done if you are clever.

 

 

Then there is the whole Monogram/Revell thing. Which I'm not sure really is a thing, but there are examples of the dislike here and there.

 

Hope this confuses it more.

 

 

 

[W-409]

Yeah I see no difference between these two scales either. I build both, 1/24 and 1/25, display them together and mix the parts too, the difference is so small that no one can really see it. Bigger problem in my opinion is that some kits have a lot undersized or oversized parts no matter which scale the kit is. For example AMT's "Twister Vega" kit has a tiny engine compared to the rest of the kit parts.

 

[hambone]

The only model I have an objection to in 1/24 is the Revell/Monogram 1970 Boss Mustang.  The features appear "blunted" and the body itself just doesn't "cut it".  I see a lot of Dyno Don and Bob Glidden '70 Mustang Pro Stock renditions based on this 1/24th body.  It just doesn't portray the real car lines of the actual cars.  I am in the process of using an AMT 1970 Mustang body(1/25) from their Funny Car kit as it has better lines with a "sharper" profile.  It is  part of the stuff I've accumulated to make a "Dyno Don" tribute car.

 

[NYLIBUD]

Actually,for me,the worst scale,is by far 1/20th.Lindberg used to do that.There are hardly,if any,parts for those cars,Eg,engines,tires,wheels,etc...However,I can't tell much of a difference between 1/24th,and 1/25th scale models.But that's just me.

[Brutalform]

If there is something that interests me in 1/24, I'll buy and build it. It doesn't matter to me. Many times, using 1/24 wheels and tires on a 1/25 car works out pretty good. Just a tad bigger in size, really fills out a wheel well better, if you get a kit with tires that look too small.

[Brett Barrow]

1/24 is an architectural scale (1/2" = 1 foot). 1/25 is an engineering scale.  1/24 gives you a lot of repeating decimals, so 1/25 works better when working in decimal.  1/24 gives you better fractions.  I think the why is nothing more than one company preferred working with fractions and others with decimals.  I have no idea why 1/24 caught on outside the US where they use metric, 1/25 would have made more sense there. 

[Force]

I don't care much if the model is 24 times or 25 times smaller than the real car, the difference isn't that bad if the parts aren't oversized and if the object I want to build only is in 1:24th scale I buy it.
In metric you have millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, meter and kilometer and everything is divisible with 10, 100, 1000 and so forth so it's easy to divide and multiply to whatever measure you want, and the scale doesn't matter much when you use the metric system.
As I'm a construction worker I work with scales every day, mostly 1:10 to 1:500 scale, so I'm quite used to it.

[Jantrix]

Yeah I see no difference between these two scales either. I build both, 1/24 and 1/25, display them together and mix the parts too, the difference is so small that no one can really see it. Bigger problem in my opinion is that some kits have a lot undersized or oversized parts no matter which scale the kit is. For example AMT's "Twister Vega" kit has a tiny engine compared to the rest of the kit parts.

 

The Monogram kit's did run kinda hot and cold on engines. The Badman '55 is awful that way, so is the Bad Actor '60 Chevy panel. But the '39 Chevy's and '37 Fords have really great engines so there's ways to make them work.

As for 1/24's personally I kinda like them. Generally they have a low parts count but good molding and fitment. There's a lot you can do with them if you try. Great slump busters IMHO.

I did a thread on them a while back. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/112812-monogram-124s-post-em-up/

Edited March 12, 2017 by Jantrix

[Reegs]

This is a historical question concerning the model industry.  I am not a big fan of 1/24 drag scale model cars.  1/25 scale is my preference.  Why did the model companies adopt  a 1/24 scale?  As you car modelers know, the difference is small, but drastic (if you know what I mean).  WHAT IS THE STORY?  Would love to hear the "scoop" from you drag car model historians. Thanks

So Jim, did you ever get an answer to your question?

[crowe-t]

It seems 1/24 came from Military vehicles and aircraft models.  Since 1/24 was a popular scale all the model companies should have used it for car kits as well to keep things more uniform.  However for me both 1/24 and 1/25 are fine.  The difference isn't that much so on a shelf 1/24 and 1/25 go together well.

[64Comet404]

From what I recall, 1/24 was a scale which was easy to convert (1inch=2feet), and fit in well with the other common scales like 1/48 and 1/72. It wasn't really a metric scale. 1/25 scale came about because of factory engineering drawings, which were scaled to 1:10. Reducing the drawings by two and a half times gave a scale of 1/25. Companies such as AMT, MPC and Jo-Han, with the contracts to create promotional models, were more likely to stick with 1/25.

[Brett Barrow]

It seems 1/24 came from Military vehicles and aircraft models.  Since 1/24 was a popular scale all the model companies should have used it for car kits as well to keep things more uniform.  However for me both 1/24 and 1/25 are fine.  The difference isn't that much so on a shelf 1/24 and 1/25 go together well.

1/25 was far more common than 1/24 in the early days of car models, especially with promos.  I think just Monogram and Hubley used 24th. 

From what I recall, 1/24 was a scale which was easy to convert (1inch=2feet), and fit in well with the other common scales like 1/48 and 1/72. It wasn't really a metric scale. 1/25 scale came about because of factory engineering drawings, which were scaled to 1:10. Reducing the drawings by two and a half times gave a scale of 1/25. Companies such as AMT, MPC and Jo-Han, with the contracts to create promotional models, were more likely to stick with 1/25.

The real question is why 1/25th and this explanation makes a lot of sense.   

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

From what I recall, 1/24 was a scale which was easy to convert (1inch=2feet), and fit in well with the other common scales like 1/48 and 1/72. It wasn't really a metric scale. 1/25 scale came about because of factory engineering drawings, which were scaled to 1:10. Reducing the drawings by two and a half times gave a scale of 1/25. Companies such as AMT, MPC and Jo-Han, with the contracts to create promotional models, were more likely to stick with 1/25.

Correct, and essentially the same answer I've been unable to post due to site problems for several weeks.

I had explained this in more depth, but every attempt to post resulted in the 404 can't find the page you're looking for message.

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy