O Scale vs. 32mm? or 28mm?

@Mannyrock, this is a great article detailing our railroad scales and the miniature gaming model scales you are inquiring about: https://alkony.enerla.net/engl...size-miniature-scale

28mm is 1:56 scale and 15mm is 1:100 scale.

@A. Wells posted:

28mm is 1:56 scale and 15mm is 1:100 scale.

Not always given context - it depends upon reference point. While "top of the head" is likely preferable, it is not the only or guaranteed reference point.

Imagine a human figure that was 32mm tall and relate that to size of the building you are looking at.

32mm tall figures would equate to a 5' person.  I'd say for average male figures, you'd want around 5' 9", or 36.5mm figures.  So anything in the 36mm to maybe 38mm would be true O-scale male figures.

Great answers.

My research shows that the average height of a U.S. male 100 years ago was around 5 ft 7 inches.  So, 32mm buildings may look a little too small.

But, the 3D printed plastic ones are pretty cheap, so I think I'll get one and just see how it looks.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

Great answers.

My research shows that the average height of a U.S. male 100 years ago was around 5 ft 7 inches.  So, 32mm buildings may look a little too small.

But, the 3D printed plastic ones are pretty cheap, so I think I'll get one and just see how it looks.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

Getting a sample sounds like a good idea.  If it is a bit small - you could consider placing it toward the back of the layout aka forced perspective to give the illusion of the scene having more depth than it actually does.

- Luther

the context is very important.    British O scale is 7 MM to the foot, see the quote below.    note that is is twice the size of HO which is 1:87, or 3.5 MM to the foot.

"7 mm scale, also known as British 0 scale is a model railway scale of 1:43.5 (or 7 mm to 1 ft; hence its name)"

So if the scale is 28 MM to the foot, these things are much much larger than O Scale.