How do You Say 1:1?

[Rob Hall]

Excellent point.

"Prototype" is and has been just about forever the term of choice in the model railroad community to mean "full scale" "1:1" and "real".

Yes, as a model (be it a car/plane/train/etc) is a replica of the prototype in a reduced scale...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yes, as a model (be it a car/plane/train/etc) is a replica of the prototype in a reduced scale...

There was a point when I was confused as a young modeler of trains, planes and cars due to the conflicting usages of "prototype".

As you already noted, "prototype" in cars generally means "experimental" or "one off" or "development mule" or "first generation" or "concept car", etc.

"Prototype" referring to aircraft is similar, generally X-planes, etc.

It took me a while to understand that these definitions had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the way the model railroad guys used the term simply to mean "real".  

[Jon Cole]

I always said "OneOne scale".

[#1 model citizen]

Years ago we used to refer to 1:1 vehicles as "real" when discussing models but then some people got offended and claimed that models are real too so that is when the 1:1 thing started. I don't agree with it and feel it's needlessly pedantic but it seems to keep the peace.

I just can not understand what the argument is about. Far as I can tell, there are no language police trying to force anyone to call anything either "real" or"full scale" or "1:1".

We all know what the terms mean. so use whatever you're comfortable with.  

I tend to use them all pretty much interchangeably, somewhat dependent on context, and somewhat dependent on what flows well in the sentence or phrase.

Why, oh why, should there be any need for peacekeeping?   

And sometimes I refer to models as "little cars" and their real 1:1 full-scale counterparts as "big cars". So far, everybody seems to have understood the difference. 

Peace keeping? Argument? Geez! Really?I just thought this would be a fun & friendly topic.

Guess I should have looked it up in my Funk & Wagnalls! 

 

Edited October 27, 2017 by #1 model citizen

[Art Anderson]

Uh, "Mountain out of a Molehill", or akin to debating just how many teeth are in the mouth of a horse.   1 to 1 (1:1 or even 1/1) is correct.

Art

[zenrat]

There was a point when I was confused as a young modeler of trains, planes and cars due to the conflicting usages of "prototype".

As you already noted, "prototype" in cars generally means "experimental" or "one off" or "development mule" or "first generation" or "concept car", etc.

"Prototype" referring to aircraft is similar, generally X-planes, etc.

It took me a while to understand that these definitions had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the way the model railroad guys used the term simply to mean "real".  

Make sense to me.  Surely full size/real/1:1 (delete as applicable) vehicles are built with the sole purpose of providing prototypes to enable generations of modellers will create replicas and then argue over detail, colour, weathering...

<sarc. mode off>