A QUESTION OF SCALE

Here at SMN Towers, we’re always discussing the importance (or not) of scale, a subject that’s hardly surprising bearing in mind the title of the website. But it really can be a trying issue - back in the early days of plastic kits, when manufacturers were in fit-the-box mode, it was hard sometimes to get any two models to match up, let alone assemble an entire collection.

Happily things have changed dramatically since then, and few new releases these days are in anything but one of the popular scales. However, scale mismatches do still go on, and not only in plastic kits, as the examples above show. The red Cheetah car is from the Gerry Anderson TV series ‘Captain Scarlet’ as is the grey Rhino pursuit vehicle. They are both diecast releases from Corgi and are pretty fine castings, with working parts that add to the sci-fi qualities of the popular show. The Cheetah has flip-out spoiler and wings, while the Rhino features extending front and rear rams, with a pop-up door revealing the good Captain himself. So far so good...

However, the two vehicles are to different scales - the Cheetah is about 1:43 scale, while the Rhino is half that size at roughly 1:87. Grrr! So it boils down to the Cheetah being able to sit with a collection of model cars, while the Rhino can do its work in an H0 gauge model rail setting. The locomotive here btw is a fairly elderly custom-painted US diesel made by AHM from the former Yugoslavia. The pity with the two road vehicles is that the manufacturer, in this case Corgi, could have improved things by perhaps releasing the Rhino as a pair with a matching-scale Cheetah.

On the plus side, these models are attractively made and need little in the way of tweaking to make them suitable for display. The Rhino had its rather garish metallized badge taken off and was treated to a coat of satin-spray, plus grey weathering to give it a calmer, used look, in keeping with its chase-the-bad-guys TV role. The Cheetah still awaits something of the same treatment, though the badges look better with the red paintwork. In both cases, the driver figure is well done.

A range of Captain Scarlet merchandise is available here.