Portal:Scale models
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
A scale model is most generally a physical representation of an object, which maintains accurate relationships between all important aspects of the model, although absolute values of the original properties need not be preserved. This enables it to demonstrate some behavior or property of the original object without examining the original object itself. The most familiar scale models represent the physical appearance of an object in miniature, but there are many other kinds.
Scale models are used in many fields including engineering, architecture, film making, military command, salesmanship, and hobby model building. While each field may use a scale model for a different purpose, all scale models are based on the same principles and must meet the same general requirements to be functional. The detail requirements vary depending on the needs of the modeler.
Selected general articles
Railway modelling (UK, Australia and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale.
The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, tracks, signalling and landscapes including: countryside, roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, urban landscape, model figures, lights, and features such as rivers, hills, tunnels, and canyons. Read more...
The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method of putting molten lead or zinc alloy in a mold to produce a particular shape. Such toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber, glass, or other machined metal parts. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two methods are distinct because of the properties of the materials. Read more...- Near life-size diorama of the Monpa people at the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India
The word diorama /ˌdaɪəˈrɑːmə/ can either refer to a 19th-century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle modeling, miniature figure modeling, or aircraft modeling. Read more...
An architectural model is a type of scale model - a physical representation of a structure - built to study aspects of an architectural design or to communicate design ideas.
Depending on the purpose, models can be made from a variety of materials, including blocks, paper, and wood, and at a variety of scales. Read more...- Brass models, made of brass or similar alloys, are scale models typically of railroad equipment, bridges and occasionally, of buildings. Although die-cast or plastic models have made considerable advances in late 1990s and continue to improve, brass models offer finer details. Brass models, considered to be collector's pieces and museum quality finish, are often used for display purposes rather than model railroad operations. However, these can be made fully operational and many railroaders do use them on their model railroads. They are generally considerably more expensive than other types of models due to limited production quantities and the "handmade" nature of the product itself. Read more...
- Model military vehicles range in size and complexity; from simplified small-scale models for wargaming, to large, super-detailed renditions of specific real-life vehicles. Read more...
Model horses are scale replicas of real horses. They originated simultaneously—but independently—in the USA, Canada, and the UK, followed later by Sweden (UK-influenced), Germany (US-influenced), Australia. They encompass a wide variety of fanbase activities, from those who simply like to collect, to those who enthusiastically show their models at model horse shows. Unlike model cars or trains, model horse collectibles do not need to be assembled from kits, although they can be altered to the collector's liking. Read more...
One of the 68 Thorne Rooms, elaborate room boxes designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne in the 1930s and 40s
A room box is a display box used for three-dimensional miniature scale environments, or scale models. Although the name would suggest room boxes generally only represent typical rooms such as those found in houses or other buildings (bedrooms, kitchens, offices, etc.), room boxes are used for all sorts of environments – exterior views as well as interior ones, realistic ones as well as fantastical ones. While some miniaturists concentrate their efforts specifically on room boxes, many use them to take a break from larger projects, such as dollhouses or miniature villages, to create a smaller environment on a different theme. A room box can be tailored to one’s interests or mirror an important step in life - for example, a bakery or restaurant scene might be created by or for a baker or cook, and a wedding dress storefront might be created for a bride to be or as a reminiscence of one's wedding. Making a room box is often a first step to learning new techniques in miniature making; such projects are popular at miniaturists' events where attendees have only 1–2 days to make and finish a project. Once techniques are perfected in these smaller settings, craftspersons and hobbyists often reapply them to larger projects.
Room boxes are a cost- and time-effective way to make miniature settings without attempting larger setups such as a dollhouse or train set. Commercially bought room boxes tend to be made of wood, pressed wood products or plywood, with the top and front window made of removable clear acrylic that lets in light and enables access and viewing from two perspectives. Dimensions usually meet standard dollhouse proportions ("1:12 scale" in dollhouse speak means that 1" in the dollhouse world represents 1' in the real world), but anyone can make a room box from a leftover shoebox, orange crate, etc. and adapt an idea to suit the box's scale. Since any material can be used, whether leftover or new, people of all economic classes express themselves through this craft. Read more...
A die cast Boeing 747-400 model
A model aircraft is a small sized unmanned aircraft or, in the case of a scale model, a replica of an existing or imaginary aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models.
Flying models range from simple toy gliders made of card stock or foam polystyrene to powered scale models made from materials such as balsa wood, bamboo, plastic, styrofoam, carbon fiber, or fiberglass and are skinned with tissue paper or mylar covering. Some can be very large, especially when used to research the flight properties of a proposed full scale design. Read more...
A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes (e.g., 100–500 m (330–1,640 ft) for 30 g (1.1 oz) model) and be recovered by a variety of means.
According to the United States National Association of Rocketry (nar) Safety Code, model rockets are constructed of paper, wood, plastic and other lightweight materials. The code also provides guidelines for motor use, launch site selection, launch methods, launcher placement, recovery system design and deployment and more. Since the early 1960s, a copy of the Model Rocket Safety Code has been provided with most model rocket kits and motors. Despite its inherent association with extremely flammable substances and objects with a pointed tip traveling at high speeds, model rocketry historically has proven to be a very safe hobby and has been credited as a significant source of inspiration for children who eventually become scientists and engineers. Read more...
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which players simulate battles between opposing military forces using miniature models of soldiers, artillery, and vehicles on a model of a battlefield. This is in contrast to other wargames which use abstract pieces such as counters or blocks to represent military units. The visual and tactile satisfaction of fully painted models moving around a beautiful model battlefield has a great appeal to fans of this genre, and players celebrate their artistry as much as their skill at play. Read more...
A Norev model car made in France - a miniature representation of a real Renault 4CV and would have been sold as a children's toy.
A model vehicle or toy vehicle is a miniature representation of an automobile. Other miniature motor vehicles, such as trucks, buses, or even ATVs, etc. are often included in this general category. Because many miniature vehicles were originally aimed at children as playthings, there is no precise difference between a model car and a toy car, yet the word 'model' implies either assembly required or the accurate rendering of an actual vehicle at smaller scale. The kit building hobby became popular through the 1950s, while the collecting of miniatures by adults started to pick up momentum around 1970. Precision-detailed miniatures made specifically for adults are a significant part of the market since the mid-1980s (Gibson 1970, p. 9; Harvey 1974; Johnson 1998, p. 5). Read more...
Model of a 19th-century vessel in the Bishop Museum, Hawaii
Ship models or model ships are scale models of ships. They can range in size from 1/6000 scale wargaming miniatures to large vessels capable of holding people.
Ship modeling is a craft as old as shipbuilding itself, stretching back to ancient times when water transport was first developed. Read more...- This list is arranged by the main material of manufacture.
Where a manufacturer has produced different kits in different materials, they are duplicated under each material. Read more... - Miniature art or painting in little is a genre that focuses on art (especially painting, engraving and sculpture) with a long history that dates back to the scribes of the medieval ages. Miniature art societies, such as the World Federation of Miniaturists (WFM), provide applicable definitions of the term. An often-used definition is that a piece of miniature art can be held in the palm of the hand, or that it covers less than 25 square inches or 100 cm². Subjects are depicted in 1/6 actual size, and in all paintings the spirit of miniaturisation should be maintained.
Miniature art has been made for over 1000 years and is prized by collectors. The U.S. White House, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Astolat Dollhouse Castle, and museums around the world have collections of miniature paintings, drawings, original prints and etchings, and sculpture. Read more... - A model figure is a scale model representing a human, monster or other creature. Human figures may be either a generic figure of a type (such as "World War II Luftwaffe pilot"), a historical personage (such as "King Henry VIII"), or a fictional character (such as "Conan").
Model figures are sold both as kits for enthusiast to construct and paint and as pre-built, pre-painted collectable figurines. Model kits may be made in plastic (usually polystyrene), polyurethane resin, or metal (including white metal); collectables are usually made of plastic, porcelain, or (rarely) bronze. Read more...
A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is used commonly in the United States and Canada. In the UK (United Kingdom) the term dolls' house or dollshouse is used.
Today's dollhouses trace their history back about four hundred years to the baby house display cases of Europe, which showed idealized interiors. Smaller dollhouses with more realistic exteriors appeared in Europe in the 18th century. Early dollhouses were all handmade, but following the Industrial Revolution and World War II, they were increasingly mass-produced and became more standardized and affordable. Dollhouses can range from simple boxes stacked together used as rooms for play, up to multimillion-dollar structures displayed in museums. Read more...
1:64 scale diecast trucks
A model commercial vehicle is a scale model or die-cast toy that represents a commercial vehicle: truck (lorry), bus, etc. Read more...
Gundam models are model kits depicting the vehicles and characters of the fictional Gundam multiverse by Bandai. These kits have become popular among mecha anime fans and model enthusiasts in Japan and in other nearby Asian countries since the 1980s. Gundam modeling spread in the 1990s with North America and Europe being exposed to Gundam through television, video and manga. Gundam models, as well as the hobby of assembling and painting them, is known in Japan as Gunpla (ガンプラ, Ganpura), a portmanteau of "Gundam plastic model", plastic being the most common material for the retail kits.
By 2002, Bandai had sold over 320 million units worldwide. As of 2015, Bandai has sold an estimate 450 million units, with nearly 2,000 different Gundam plastic models. Read more...
1:6 scale modeling, a.k.a. Playscale Miniaturism, is a hobby focusing on the collecting and/or customization of commercially produced 1:6 scale action figures and accessories.
The term "Playscale" originally represented the domestic, urban or civilian expressions of the scale, especially when coed, and not, usually, exterior genres, like military and adventure themes. As such, it came to represent cross-genre miniaturism, as well, which routinely includes elements from the former. Miniaturists who focus exclusively on exterior themes tend to prefer the protologism sixthscale. Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that the Wirral Model Engineering Society operates a raised railway track for fine scale models of full-size steam locomotives at Royden Park?
- ... that you can fly model airplanes or ride model trains behind a flood control dam in Phoenix, Arizona's Deer Valley urban village?
- ... that a scale model of the Castle of La Mota in the Mudéjar theme park is built with 2,500,000 miniature bricks—approximately the same number as the original?
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