Just My observation, so take it for what it's worth: I have quite a few vehicles that I have collected over the year's and have been comparing them, ( I belong to a 1/87 scale truck club) what I found is that the Classic Metal Works newer plastic auto vehicles are slightly smaller than their cast metal counter parts. I just received a number of the Oxford Models and last nite I took them all apart and have quite a few Preiser sitting people and wanted to see if any would fit in, without cutting the legs off. Anyway one sitting guy fit nicely in a 49 Merc, after moving the steering wheel some, ( I believe if anything....the wheel is oversize) that same guy would not even come close to fitting in a CMW 55 Plastic Ford that I have. So are Preiser figures off scale too? A standing figure next to the door on the CMW Ford looks oversize too, but not when standing next to the Oxford 49 Merc.
Who know's, where evil's lurk.....I surely will not loose any sleep over it. Now if it was an oversize Match box car....it would not even be on the layout.
Take Care!
Frank
How hard can it be for makers of scale automobiles to make them to the correct scale? Most of my HO autos are CMW and Woodland Scenics but I also scored 5 nice looking Model Power 1955 Chevys a few years ago. All seem to be made to about the same scale. Recently, I ordered 4 autos from Historic Rail. Often they do not state the manufacturer in the catalog so I knew I was taking a chance. Yesterday they arrived, 2 1949 Mercurys, an Edsel, and a T-Bird. It turns out they were made by Oxford, a company in England. They were beautifully made and solidly built. Just one problem. I could instantly see that they were too big. I had nothing to compare the Edsel to but I do have other Mercurys and T-Birds. Comparing them side by side, the Oxfords appear to be about 10% bigger than the others. I suppose it’s possible Oxford scaled theirs correctly and the rest of my autos are too small, but odds are it is the Oxfords which are the outliers.
I’ve tried to avoid buying any of the European brands because my experience is these seem to be scaled too small. Just the opposite with the Oxfords. I know they use the metric system across the pond but 1/87th is 1/87th no matter how you are measuring. They only have to get this right once when they are tooling up to make these autos. How hard can it be to get it right. Do they think it’s not that important? Do they think it is not noticeable? If so, they are wrong on both counts. Because these vehicles are so nice looking I will find a place for them on my layout but it won’t be next to any of my other cars because they would stick out like a sore thumb. With the too small Euro cars, I’ve placed them near the backdrop. The Oxfords I will probably put near the front of the layout away from any other vehicles. Sort of an unplanned forced perspective. These Oxfords are very nice looking but unfortunately, I won’t be buying any more because of their size.