Diecast Vehicles on Your Layout??

I deliberately mix 1:43 cars and trucks with 1:48 and 1:50 trucks, construction, and military.  It looks better.  Scale 1:43 cars look good around scale 1:48 locos - even the smallest locos (i.e., a BEEP) still hulk over them so that looks normal, but the larger scale cars and small trucks - they are roughly 10%larger than they would be in 1:48, makes the cars a bit easier to see and they just look better.  

On the other hand, a 1:43 Peterbilt 18 wheeler (New Ray makes a good one) is monstrous.  It's still smaller than any loco but to me it does not look quite right, too big, so I tend to go with 1:48 or 1:50 scale on BIG trucks and 1:43 onsmaller trucks.

By the way, there are many 1:48 cars out there -more than you might think, but I don';t use many of them, sticking to 1:43 for cars.  Many of the New Ray cars, although listed as 1:43, measure out at anywhere from about 1:53 (their '59 Caddy) to 1:47 ('56 Pontiac and some others) although others (small sparts cars) are 1:43:they seem to have casting molds with only limited length so they vary the scale to fit the mold, not the other way around.  

I am not a hi-railer so I do have a mixture of scales for diecast vehicles. Most of the emergency vehicles are Corgi so they are 1/50th scale. If I like it I put it on the layout. The 1/50th scale Corgi Seagrave Pumper Engine looks great next to the 1/43rd scale Matchbox GMC Rescue Rig. If you like the way it looks in the box, then you will love the way it looks on the layout. 

Clutchguy,

   Man I agree with you, my layout has several different types, if I think it will fit in

the over all scheme the exact size means very little.  My layouts look pretty realistic, but I view these layouts as a childs wonderland.

PCRR/Dave

I just checked my vehicles and I have 1/42, 1/43, 1/47, 1/48, and 1/50.  I have them all together in a box, lined up side by side, and even side by side they don't look bad.

I collect a lot of military vehicles in 1/35 and 1/32 scales and I find that as long as I don't have the exact same model. in each scale, next to each other they are fine.  Now, you may say that those 2 scales are sooo close to each other who can tell?  Well, I can.  If I put 2 models next to each other and they don't look right I just separate them a little.

Just like in real life not all cars are the same size.  Not all trucks are the same size.  So, I think you'll be fine mixing them up a bit.

Rick

I also have a mix of 1/48 and 1/50 diecast vehicles on my layout.  I also run both scale and semi-scale locomotives and consists.

George

I use 1/43-1/50th with no problems, other than finding what I want and the price....

As stated above, the New Ray 18 wheelers are huge...too modern for me, but the

stock trailer I wanted is too big, even without the cab.

"Has anyone ever mixed or currently have 1:43 scale cars with 1:50 scale fire trucks on their layout?"

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Here...you decide how it looks. I only notice when I look hard. Most guests don't seem to care....or if they do, they never mention it.

The thing I hate when doing snow scenes (other than there are a lot of convertibles made) is that they glaze the cars, but neglect to put the front windows in them....as if everyone rides around with the window down summer and winter.

Greg

Yes,

Not that we have that cleared up let's get down to the nitty gritty, using the different scales available allows you to really set the scene.  Bigger vehicles up front smaller vehicles in the back, forced perspective.  This is much the same way many here use HO and N scale buildings on their layouts for forced perspective.  I have also found that there are some models of vehicles that are only avialable in one scale or the other, and as you all know "when ya' gotta' have it, ya' gotta' have it!"    Russ

I mix the 1/50, 1/43 and the classic "who knows what scale it is" vehicles on the layout, but stage them so they blend in with each other so the size differences are not drastically obvious.

In the photo below, which is a couple of years old, the buses are Corgi 1/50 models, the SUV and the the boat (both of which came in one package from Walgreens) appear to be 1/43, but their box was unmarked as to scale, the EMT squad vehicle is of unknown size, but seems to be 1/43 or near that.  These vehicles blend in well since they're on the back of the layout.  If they were up front, they might not blend together so well.  The blue vehicle at the lower left, the yellow pick-up and the yellow Pantera came in a box marked 1/43 that I picked up a few years ago in either Toys-R-Us or Walmart.  The blue pickup in the distance came from a custom decorator on E*ba*y.  It's a model of a Ford Ranger, not that large a vehicle in real life, so the size seems to work okay.

 In the photo below, you can see how staging the buses on the long diagonal boulevard allows them to blend in even if they are 1/50.  Incidentally, the tow truck in the lower right corner was marked as 1/50.  Positioning it a little bit away and perpendicular to the NYC cab on the right side of the photo lets both blend in with each other.  (BTW--that cab is probably closer to 1/40 than 1/43, but since it was a souvenir Sylvia bought me when we visited Times Square, you just know I had to figure out some way to put it on the layout.

Sometimes putting the right sized vehicle next to the right sized building is the trick for making cars and trucks blend in naturally regardless of size.  The 1/43 Pantera and the convertible look good next to this customized Plasticville chapel (cross between O and S scales) even with the 1/50 Corgi bus on the nearby road. 

(And yes, if you read the LOTS Switcher magazine, that's my chapel project that was the subject of a one page article in 2011.  Notice the "stucco" wall covering created by repainting the chapel with Krylon's American Stone pink quartz textured spray paint.)

Rite Aid has 1:43 I think cars now that are $5 a real bargain I think. I got a GTO, a Chevelle, a T Bird a Cadallic, and a early Corvette which were small cars and its actually bigger than the GTO so I wish I haden't got it.

Blue Liner, I tend to keep similarly scaled vehicles in their own neighborhoods or scenes. Most important to me is how the scales of the various cars and trucks I use (all were impulse buys) relate to the figures I use to narrate a scene. These photos will illustrate what I am saying.

For the locomotives, I figure they are so spectacular in and of themselves as they travel around the layout, they command their own unique attention regardless of how nearby figures or vehicles might relate to them, IMHO.

For example, I use Artista figures (1/48) and the Preiser 1/50 figures in and around vehicles that are 1/48 scale, and I utilize Preiser's 1/43 figures and Roy Baker's Railroad Shop figures with vehicles that are 1/43. Also, I have found Artista's seated figures to be particularly adaptable to being seated inside vehicles. If you warm their little arms up with your hands a bit, you can bend them a little to make them appear to take hold of the steering wheels a little better.

And in the last analysis, I trust my instincts concerning what "looks right" and appears to be in the proper proportion.

In this scene, a mixture of 1/43 figures seems properly overwhelmed by the scale trains around them...

Here, I was conscious of how the figures related to the scale of the truck as well as

how they related to the doorway of the building..

In this scene, I used Roy Baker's figures because I felt their scale, as it related to the doorways, details, and farm equipment, and in particular their attitude, suited the narrative of the scene...

In this vignette, it was the narrative, as well as how the figure coming from the red truck related to the truck, in size and purpose, that dictated the ingredients...

The doorway dictated my use of the (1/48) Artista figure...

Here, it was the scale of the building, esp. the door, as well as the details of the narrative element that determined the scale of the figures I used, not the scale of the boxcar nearby (on its hi-rail track.)

And in these two scenes, 1/43 vehicles were used w/ 1/43 figures...

Thanks for the photos Frank. Very helpful planning and orientation tips on how you repeatedly achieve such excellent scenarios.

Unless they are a scale fanatic, most people won't even realize the scale difference.

Gentlemen,

   Real nice stuff, thanks for posting all the great pictures!

PCRR/Dave

One thing I should have mentioned is that the major factor influencing my decisions of what cars look good on my layout and what scale diecast I use why has to do with SuperStreets/EZStreets.  I run a lot of 'Streets cars, buses, and trucks, almost all of them modified vehicles.  I mount diecast bodies on 'Streets vehicles (shortening the chassis as needed) as shown in the first photo below, and 1:43 car bodies are much easier to make work than 1:48 scale car bodies: that 10% or so difference in size makes all the different when trying to fit over the motor and gearbox.   Therefore, I want parked diecast along the streets that look good with those 1:43 'Streets cars and that usually means 1:43 there, too. 

But my most constant runners - always on the layout and moving - are two Corgi buses converted to 'Streets (Photo 2), with custom chassis and reduction gearing so they move at realistic (slow) city bus speeds.  These are around 1:55 I think - a lot smaller scale, but they look good.  Incidently, the Superstreets school bus (Photo three) is, as near as I can determine, scale except for length.  It will give you some idea of how big a real bus is compared to Corgi buses (about 1/2 inch taller). 

My hobbies include cars as well as trains, so I want the vehicles on my layout to be as  prominent as the trains. In my opinion, 1/50, 1/48 and 1/43 scale vehicles are too small, so I predominantly use 1/32 vehicles. There are some 1/43 vehicles on my layout, but they are not near any of the 1/32 vehicles so the size difference is not readily detectable.

The cars at the station are 1/32 and the red pickup truck on the freight dock is 1/43.

All of these vehicles are 1/43 because they look good with the Plasticville structure.

All of the vehicles in this scene are 1/32 except the trolley which is 1/50, the taxi and ice cream truck which are 1/43 scale.

Nice layout - and the 1:32 vehicles look good on it, you are right.  I had never considered that scale, but I will look into it.  Particularly for vehciles that were small in the real world, it might be best.

Lee,

I find the variety of 1/32 vehicles to be greater, and the cost to be less. As a rule of thumb, I do pay $6 - $8 for vehicles of 1930 - 1950 vintage. Thanks for your compliment.

Your modelling with Super Streets is amazing. i have been saving some of photos as idea materials. This year I will be building a mimic of The Big Apple with a Super Streets ape of the Third Avenue Railway street car system.

This looks really good, doesn't it.  Really good.  Mixing scales when done like this makes for a very nice scene, as your photos (and layout work) show.

BTW - I have some 1:43 Galloway cows.  A 1:43 cow is a big animal on a layout.  I like yours more.

That's the same situation I face.  I have, and am always accumulating more, U.S. Army vehicles for my military depot theme layout, and I have to be a bit careful to keep vehicles of the same type/scale together in a given scene.  For example, real-world military Jeeps are all the same size, and the Jeep models placed in a modeled motor pool would also need to be the same scale.  Anything even a bit larger or smaller just doesn't look quite right.

The doesn't preclude me from buying models that are a bit off scale.  If they are smaller, I just place them further in the background.  I do try to avoid models that are significantly larger than 1:48 scale though because at some point they start to look too large when compared with the locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and figures.

I typically get the 1:43 diecast cars and like the way they look on the layout.  We have some trucks that are closer to 1:48 and 1:50....those seem somewhat small.  I read a post a few weeks ago about tractor supply having diecast on sale and they had some beautiful Mack trucks that were 1:43 but they looked huge compared to what I have. 

I have really struggled with the people sizes.....we've used 1:43 up to 1:50 people for the cars but we also have some Homies that only work for certain scenes.  Don't even get me started on the Dept. 56 people that are way too big even for the buildings they come with, those only come out with the Christmas layout. 

The first picture show two 1:43 cars paired with appropriately sized figures.

The second picture shows the same figure paired with a "homie" or smiliar figure.  Just doesn't look right side by side but if I put them in appropriate scenery it works.

Wow.  They both look so worried about something.  Could it be they feel they don't "fit" in the world around them? 

Originally Posted by Mike CT:

That entire bucolic vista, Mike CT, is very nice; it seems like you know what you are talking about, with everything apparently in its proper placement, like using that larger (1/43 ?) red truck in the foreground and the green truck (1/48) further back in the scene. I esp. also appreciate the (wire-and-posts) fence you crafted for the cattle, as well as that stone wall, which I assume you crafted pebble-by-pebble (!!!!) Your patience and skills have produced something worthy of much applause. Congratulations on a job real-ly well done. Everything feels like it is in the right scale and proportion to every other element, and all of it works with the trains to give folks something especially interesting to see and enjoy

Frank M.

Originally stated by Lee Willis:

Wow.  They both look so worried about something.  Could it be they feel they don't "fit" in the world around them? 

Naaaa! I think it's more in the lines of looking out for Da REPO man!

It's REALLY Tough out there!

These are some 1:43 diecast vehicles that Santa brought me this year:

Divco Milk Delivery Truck (undecorated).  I will make my own decals

1950 Ford Yellow cab

1950 Ford "Esso" Pick-up Truck with Tire Load

1950 Studebaker Champion

Matt

Maybe the "Odd Couple" were worried about making their first public appearance.

No worries for this guy....he's always laidback.

Like most of you, I have a mix of scales on my layout. They add so much to the realistic look of any layout.

And how 'bout this guy for laid-back, too? However, I don't remember what scale he and the trailer are in comparison, but they seemd to work, for me,at least.

Frank M.

Blue Liner, Here's a firehouse scene I was assiduous about having the scales of the figures, building, and firetrucks appear well in proportion to each other. Do you think I mixed scales or stayed true to one? Your answer to that question might be one possible answer to your question for this thread...

That is a really nice fire station.  I like it a lot. Looks fantastic.

I agree with those who have said that 1:50 large-type trucks and equipment go all right with 1:48 to 1:43 autos.  The big rigs in 1:48 would just take up so much room.  I'll stick my neck out and say that the fire trucks in Moonson's wonderful firehouse scene are a smaller scale than the figures, but it all works to make a great-looking scene.