azdiane
Member
My hubby and I thought it would be cute to have a little HO military convoy, and so ordered from e-bay five military trucks very clearly identified as "1:87 scale" and "HO scale." They were Roco and Herpa offerings, apparently period accurate, nicely molded, crisp, clean, attractive unpainted models.
But our initial enjoyment faded when I set one of these next to an HO bus. Come on folks, Army trucks are pretty big things, but they aren't bigger than a bus!
The trusty HO scale rule came out, and dimensions were carefully taken from the models. Official US Army dimensions for the vehicles were obtained from the internet. Consistently, in all directions, these vehicles all scale out just a scudge less than eight percent oversize.
Are they OO scale? Using the definitions that HO is 3.5 mm to the foot and OO is 4 mm to the foot, that is a very nearly fifteen percent difference. So, no, they aren't big enough to be OO.
And then my hubby had the epiphany. These models are precisely halfway between the two scales. The product is marketed as HO to us and as OO to the Brits, and is out of scale for us both. Modelers in either of those scales get hosed, but from the manufacturer's point of view it's profitable.
Color me PO'ed!
Hugs,
Diane
But our initial enjoyment faded when I set one of these next to an HO bus. Come on folks, Army trucks are pretty big things, but they aren't bigger than a bus!
The trusty HO scale rule came out, and dimensions were carefully taken from the models. Official US Army dimensions for the vehicles were obtained from the internet. Consistently, in all directions, these vehicles all scale out just a scudge less than eight percent oversize.
Are they OO scale? Using the definitions that HO is 3.5 mm to the foot and OO is 4 mm to the foot, that is a very nearly fifteen percent difference. So, no, they aren't big enough to be OO.
And then my hubby had the epiphany. These models are precisely halfway between the two scales. The product is marketed as HO to us and as OO to the Brits, and is out of scale for us both. Modelers in either of those scales get hosed, but from the manufacturer's point of view it's profitable.
Color me PO'ed!
Hugs,
Diane