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Scale accuracy: how much is enough, and why do you care (or not).


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Shane, it made my head hurt thinking that out and typing it. No way i'll ever make a teacher.

You're right about grams & ounces. Lets stick to what we know - tads, smidges, touches, drops and handfulls. B)

This stuf gets even more confusing if you start trying to work out what stuff from one scale would be if used in another.

Like if I use this 1/35 Messerschmitt engine in a 1/25 rat rod what capacity will that make it...

(756 ci based on using a 1/35 Daimler Benx DB601 in a 1/25 build)

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I sent the link of this to a friend of mine who's a physics teacher. She'll have fun reading this.

To answer the original question....

I'll pay for accuracy. To me, and to my budget, as a general rule, $30-40 is about all I'll pay, and less is better. With the advent of modern engineering and design, even if you need a human eye to make some small adjustments or take care of minor details, a kit should not be as expensive to engineer and design as it once was.

I also agree that with the modern design, accuracy should be a given, but only if the initial input is correct; as we have seen repeatedly, we do not have proper geometric or dimensional mensuration in far too many instances. Some are carelessness, some are bad design, some are forced compromises for production.

Regarding old kits: I agree completely with Chuck. While I want to see well-molded kits come out and with good tools, charging $25 for a kit that's been reissued a million times, many times with the extra parts deleted (which cost pennies to make in terms of plastic,) is crazy. I can see charging that much if substantial repair/restoration needs to be made to the mold, or special extras are included.

What's most important to me, whether a kit is $10, $25, $50 or $100 is whether I feel I'm getting value for my expenditure. And yes, accuracy, at least as closer as is possible given the limits of man and machine, are expected, with certain compromises to be expected for assembly and molding. But, as long as the body and interior is right and the engine looks like it should (I REALLY don't fuss that much over metal axles, in fact, I prefer them for a lot of kits because they're much stronger,) I'm happy.

Let's worry about that stuff. We'll get the scaled weights later. :lol:

Charlie Larkin

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I stand corrected, I guess I have my head warped around something being shrunk down, not whittled down. And maybe they are the ssme .... But you guys gota quit using all these fancy terms like grams and ounces

Yeah, remember the good old days? No grams or ounces, just nickle bags, dime bags, or keys!

;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

There have been a number of references to the military builders and how they demand everything to be accurate; whereas, the car guys are not that serious about accuracy.

That's something I don't see. Maybe not the military modelers demanding accuracy, but fully accurate military kits. Flip through a copy of FSM or check out a military modeling forum, and you'll see that quite a few military vehicle kits aren't as accurate as we car guys seem to think they are. Almost every review I've read lately on military models points out at least one or two flaws in the kit with regards to accuracy. Often it is a concession to the scale- something molded out-of-scale for added strength for instance, but there are also a few forehead-slapping 'what were they thinking' issues and omissions mentioned,as well.

Most of the military modelers I've spoken to seem to be in about the same boat is me, get it close- I can fix what's wrong and/or choose to live with any problems the kit might have. But, they also seem to be a bit more vocal about when a kit has a problem with it, more so than most of the car modelers I know. Then again, for the prices they're paying for their kits I guess I can't really blame them for being more likely to pipe up about it when the do find a problem!

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That's something I don't see. Maybe not the military modelers demanding accuracy, but fully accurate military kits. Flip through a copy of FSM or check out a military modeling forum, and you'll see that quite a few military vehicle kits aren't as accurate as we car guys seem to think they are. Almost every review I've read lately on military models points out at least one or two flaws in the kit with regards to accuracy. Often it is a concession to the scale- something molded out-of-scale for added strength for instance, but there are also a few forehead-slapping 'what were they thinking' issues and omissions mentioned,as well.

Most of the military modelers I've spoken to seem to be in about the same boat is me, get it close- I can fix what's wrong and/or choose to live with any problems the kit might have. But, they also seem to be a bit more vocal about when a kit has a problem with it, more so than most of the car modelers I know. Then again, for the prices they're paying for their kits I guess I can't really blame them for being more likely to pipe up about it when the do find a problem!

I made a similar comment but in the following context: Military modelers demand accuracy and at least 2 dozen aftermarket makers jump in to make the correction set and or additional detail. Car modelers don't get that same treatment. Why isn't front suspension more accurate. For that matter, what about the firewall and sidewalls of the engine compartment, can't anybody cast that for us??

We get wheels and decals plenty but that, in my opinion, appeals mostly to the customizers. What about factory fresh guys who want accuracy.

my guess is we do not get this kind of aftermarket attention because not enough will pay for it.

joe.

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