1:20.3 Airplanes

[Snoq. Pass RR]

I am looking to add some 1:20.3 scale, or similar size, american fighters to my layout.  I have looked around, but they all seem to go from Oscale straight up to the rideable trains scale, not sure what their scale is.  I am modeling the 1940s, so prop fighters would be great, but any era or informoration would help.

p.s. Are model fighters even made in 1:20.3 scale?

[GearDrivenSteam]

Try 1/18 scale. It's way more popular, and close enough to fly. he he Here's a P 51 on Ebay. It ain't cheap, but it will certainly work.  

http://cgi.ebay.com/bbi-1-18-Scale-WWII-Plane-P-51D-Mustang-Old-Crow-MIB_W0QQitemZ150056493691QQihZ005QQcategoryZ2468QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[ttrigg]

If you are willing to go off scale, try Toys-R-Us for some vintage WWII planes, tanks, gun crews, and more in 1:24. 

[Snoq. Pass RR]

How much bigger is 1:18 scale going to look next to a 1:20.3 person/train?  I would like it to be as close to 1:20.3 as possible.

[Anonymous]

1/24 is the common commercial aircraft scale . Bearing in mind that prop fighters from the latter part of WW2 are big ,32 ft long 37 ft wide and 8 ft high ,they will still look fairly large in 1/24.

one option is to scratch build in wood , not as hard as it might sound for a non flying replica. The plastic kits in this scale are highly detailed and fairly fragile , also likely to suffer badly with weather and UV.

Balsa  wood if sealed and painted is pretty durable or if you have power sanders ply for wings and  maybe  a good softwood for fusalage.  Thunderbolts , Mustangs and similar are fairly simple ., I have built Triplanes and Biplanes from ply and timber and was suprised at the result when painted . It also means you could look at  aircraft that are not available in kit form like DC3, DC4  Boing peashooter ,and even bombers.

 

[Snoq. Pass RR]

First, Thanks for everyones help.

one option is to scratch build in wood , not as hard as it might sound for a non flying replica. The plastic kits in this scale are highly detailed and fairly fragile , also likely to suffer badly with weather and UV.

Second, On the idea of scratch building, I found a guy who has made plans for various aircraft from WWII Wildcats to Modern Cessnas.  Still not sure what scale his plans are in though.

http://www.theplanpage.com/esp.htm

 

[Anonymous]

As a guide the following are the overall wingspans of some typical planes

corsair  - 40 ft 
P35   - 36 ft
thunderbolt -  40 ft
B26  - 65 ft
B10 -  70 ft

A28 - 65 ft
F3F-2 - 32 ft
 B17 fortress - 103 ft
B29  -  141 ft

Some are huge !!  Trainers and the late 1930,s planes are easier and smaller to construct

[Anonymous]

My older brother was a co-pilot on a B26 during WWII.  A couple years ago, I built a 1:48 (O scale) model of one for his birthday.  It was HUGE, wingspan more than a foot across, (see davenour's post about wingspans); I hand carried it to Joliet on an airplane, fittingly.  And a 1:24 model would have had a wingspan of over 30 inches. A 1:18 model would be 12 percent larger than a 1:20.3 model and 33 percent larger than a 1:24 model (one third larger in EACH dimension).

You'd need an acre for an airport!

Art

[markn]

My two cents is..presceptive.  The P47 had a 40' wing span-measure what you consider a 40' box car and see if you can get a cheap model with that span (try KayBee Toys-they carry alot of die cast vehicles or mock one up from cardboard) and see how it looks in presceptive, disregard scale -then go up or down from there.