The hobby really took off as a result of Airfix releasing their first 1/76 plastic armour kits in the early sixties. Meanwhile in Europe, Roco Minitanks had already started their range of 1/87 military vehicles, a scale chosen to fit in with popular model railway scales in Europe. The habits have stuck. Obviously there are enthusiasts for every scale all over the world, but it is still fair to say that UK modellers have a preference for 1/76 and that 1/87 still has a greater following in Europe than in the UK. Elsewhere, and especially in the USA there seems to be a particular liking for 1/72 scale, the small aircraft' scale. While modellers try to stick to one scale or another, many are now prepared to mix their collections, say between 1/76 and 1/72, and others will collect the excellent Minitank range as well. I have also seen many wargames units that mixed vehicles of all three scales, simply in order to field the correctly equipped units. Another problem is caused by manufacturers, both large and small, who sometimes produce a model which actually ends up mixing the scales within one kit. For example, ESCI's M4A3 is far closer to 1/76 than its stated 1/72. Then there is the Nitto M36 Jackson, which has running gear that is noticeably undersize. Well, you could of course compare them with a set of scale drawings and these are something we will look at later. But even they do not always agree with each other. Sometimes this is because measurements are taken from different original vehicles, which themselves differ as production facilities changed.
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