Next month Tamiya is re-releasing their old 1/25 scale Jagdpanther kit. This in itself isn’t that exciting as the kit itself, along with the Academy clone, isn’t an overly inspiring kit by today’s standard, but then it is almost 30 years old now. But it did get me to thinking, these 1/25 scale kits have long since fallen by the wayside but when they were new out 1/35 was hardly the dominant scale amongst military models that it is today. Tamiya made other 1/25 scale kits and metal figures and Airfix and Monogram made their kits in 1/32 for instance.
Whatever the reason 1/35 became the dominant scale and now we’ve pretty much settled on it as the preeminent scale for plastic military kitsets. But it does make you wonder where we would be today if 1/25 had become the standard instead. Just that 40% increase in volume adds so much more to a kit. When you consider the level of detail we’re now seeing in 1/35 imagine just how much more we’d be seeing in 1/25.
I imagine PE manufacturers turning out AM rifle bolts for Kar 98K rifles, separate mags with brass 9mm shells for MP40s and Thompsons. MG42s with PE barrel changing locks and brass barrels hollow all the way through. Working catches on tank cupola hatches, working hinges on Sd.Kfz.251 doors. It sounds extreme but look at some of the seriously extreme AM stuff we have now such as individual link and round ammo belts for .50cal MGs. Imagine how much more anal the average AMS sufferer could get.
No doubt the kits would be more expensive so maybe that would impact more on the range that is available, but then again maybe not. Resin kit manufacturers stay in business despite the high relative cost, 1/35 kit prices creep ever upwards but still they sell. So I suspect we would still pay the prices, and manufacturers would still turn out stuff as long as it was selling.
It will never be of course, that ship has sailed and it’s too late now for a renaisance of 1/25. If a new scale were to take off I suspect it would be more likely to be 1/16 or possibly even 1/6 which has a thriving niche market centred around the 1/6 action figures by manufacturers like Dragon and Bluebox. Though most of us have neither the space, the money, nor the resources to do full justice to a 1/6 scale tank. Would be fun though.
It just makes me wonder what might have been if 1/25 had taken more of a hold and had become the dominant scale instead of 1/35. I know the failing eyesight and fat fingers certainly would have enjoyed it more … well maybe not, afterall, it’s bad enough just replacing a rifle bolt handle without getting into drilling out sights and adding sight posts just because it would then be just a tad easier than it is now.
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