Accuracy of 1:8 scale models

While some of the detail on them is very good and accurate, there are other places that are totally different from the real thing. There are areas that are in the "not to be seen" catagory. With this, I mean that some parts are totally structural for the model but are in places that you will normally not see from the outer view or under bonnet view. The engine is very detailed but I would not think it is good enough to use as a test bed for product development on a real car.

 

A pocher modell is no comparisson to a 1:1 TR.
Its constructed entirely different, and when you resize the parts, it won't be accurate.

The modell has the dimensions and appearance of a car, but thats the case with virtually every modell.

Hans

 

I hope you are not thinking about trying to reverse engineer from a model kit. Assuming that the kit has parts produced from either original items, and laser scanned, or parts reproduced from solid drawings and thence exported for a 3D printer; there will be losses from shrinkage, and various other reasons during the process. Now if you were to laser scan each kit part and then scale them up, you would find that losses, or indeed some additions would give you a wonderful set of parts but an awful headache trying to make each part 'speak' to its neighbour. The end result would be a wonderful piece of sculpture, admired by passing motorists, but it wouldn't run. I suppose you could sit inside the creation and play pre recorded Columbo engine noises via cunningly hidden speakers. Just think of all those envious glances, you would have as they say 'arrived'; but I suppose that would be a tad difficult because you could never have left in the first place, if you see what I mean.

 

no its a model and it is not exact.

 

I scratch build in one eighth, with full detail to a lot of the bits you don't see. To build a model like this you have to be as accurate as possible, because of the complexity of parts. Get one item out of scale and usually everything else becomes a fit problem. I would assume that the model that you are looking at is well scaled, after all the parent company have a very good reputation. Many kerbside models suffer from artistic license, with more than a few that I have examined being quite wrong in shape, because there was no need to fit internals. When it comes to small models such as one forty third scale, the eye will often perceive the model to be out of proportion, when its dimensions are correct. Some models in this scale have a slice taken out longitudinally to avoid this visual conflict. The whole secret of good model making is to make the finished article look real. Gerald Wingrove is a master of this art, when he takes a photograph of one of his models against a full sized background, the car looks just like the real thing. It would be interesting to take measuring equipment to a Pocher engine and then compare the dimensions to the real thing. Has anyone done that?

 

The Pocher is not really that good of a kit.

For one thing, the door/panel opening lines are impossibly crude - they would be about an inch in full scale.

 

James, I haven't looked at a Pocher kit for a long time, but if they are manufactured to the same standards, then you are correct in saying the panel fit, and door fit lines are huge when scaled up. Also the thickness of the panels would be incorrect when scaled up. The secret of a good model is to deceive, and please, the eye all at the same time.