A Matter of Scale

If you're into collecting model ships then scale is an important consideration. When I first started out collecting little model ships I was living in England and the scale that was readily available to me was 1:1250 from the German manufacturers. These were very well detailed and generally already painted, which was fine with me because at the time I was not painting models myself. But over the years the price of 1:1250 and even the near-scale 1:1200 got increasingly expensive. So I mostly converted over to 1:2400, but there are a few other choices. In the picture I've shown models of Titanic as an example of scale. The one at top is 1:2400, available from a number of manufacturers and there is a fairly nice range of models. Next is 1:3000, which are mostly only available from England, although they have a nice selection of models. Generally speaking the 1:3000 are not very well detailed but now and then they surprise me. There's even a few that are actually closer to 1:2400 so they fit in with my collection quite nicely. Next up is 1:4800, or half the size of 1:2400, which are also available from a couple of manufacturers, but some of them are pretty nicely detailed. And finally there is 1:6000, which is half the size of 1:3000 - see how that works - and they are mostly available from one source. They are fairly nice and come with bases, which I've excluded from this model, but they would probably help some people to better keep track of their identities. I've mixed scales when a particular ship is produced in one scale and not in another. You can fill out a convoy more cheaply that way. But the choice is individual. If you're wondering why I didn't have a 1:1250 Titanic it's because it would have cost me about $100 and I just didn't want to spend the money. You can call me cheap.