# Ships...Most Abundant Scale?



## geekchris (May 9, 2016)

Hello!
As the summer comes to an end, I'm getting back to modeling. For a long time I've wanted to build some WWII era ships. I would like to have them all in the same scale to provide, well, a sense of scale between them. I was wondering which scale has the largest variety of ships, both in their classes and the nations who operated them. 
Thank you in advanced!
-geekchris


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

1/700 - "The Divine Scale"... Tons of variety in eras, nations and types. Available in plastic, resin and some even in metal.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

1/700, in particular the "waterline" stuff, is by far the most abundant. Still, for some types or nationalities of ships, you may find more in a different scale. US ships are still somewhat spottily represented in 1/700 but there have been a lot added in 1/350 over the last few years. There are very few 1/700 Italian ships done in plastic (if any?) but you can get pretty much every Japanese and German ship.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Another advantage of 1/700 scale, even the largest capital ships don't take up THAT much room, so if one wanted to model a complete task force it's reasonably easy to do.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

But DDs are so _teeny_!


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The annoying thing with ship models is that even today there are a lot of proprietary scales. Airfix does ships in 1/600, while Heller chose 1/400. Revell went with 1/720, while, back in the early 70s, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Tamiya, and Aoshima worked out that 1/700 would be a good scale for their cooperative Waterline series. In more recent years, you have seen more 1/350 scale kits, and also renewed interest in 1/200 which Nichimo pioneered back in the early 70s. You also find kits in 1/250, 1/500, 1/550, as well as Revell's famous or infamous box scale models. To some degree what ships you want to build will still influence the scale you pick. For example, small boats like PT boats, E boats etc are best done in 1/72 or 1/35 since the real things are so small. Or, there may only be one kit of a particular ship in one scale. If you want to model the Russian Cruiser Aurora or Battleship Potemkin, the old Heller 1/400 kits are the only ones around even after 50 years.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Then you get into 'shipbuilding' in wood with brass and zinc diecast (and turned, machined) details, the real old school stuff, and scale is all over the place in that world. It seems that to some that's the only way to properly re-create the days of sail.

I suspect that's not at all what the original poster is interested in but it's probably the only way one can make the earliest version of 'Ships named Enterprise'


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

Ok - the scale thing...

Some of the old scales were based on feet to the inch conversions - 1/720 being similar to 1/72 in aircraft. Some scales were based on those already in use in another market - like 1/76 armor kits from Airfix and Matchbox, which worked well with "OO" scale trains in the UK (which is 1/76, instead of HO's 1/87).

Box scale was NOT just restricted to ships. Many early aircraft kits were actually in odd box scales as well. Since real ships tend to be VERY large objects, you do what you got to do...


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## jartzh (May 20, 2013)

where is the best source for 1/700 WWII battleships?


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

jartzh said:


> where is the best source for 1/700 WWII battleships?



I'd say check at:
www.squadron.com
and
www.megahobby.com


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