I don't know how many people here build/use 1/87 scale HO model railroad accessories. But I thought I'd ask the following.
Has anyone ever used 1/87 scale HO scale railroad figures in a 1/72 scale model diorama/display?
How did that work out? Good or bad?

I've never tried that but, looking at the scale image below, I don't think it would really work because the 1/72 figures are, quite literally, head & shoulders taller than 1/87 figures.

Where's OO (1/76) on that chart?

You'll get away with it if you don't mix the figures.  Or if you do but you stand the HO ones at the back to give some false perspective.
OO & HO sitting raIlway figures are ideal for sitting inside 1/72 passenger aircraft where there is never scale head or legroom due to the thickness of the plastic the fuselage is made of.

I tried it and do not recommend it, IMHO the scale difference is too big/visible. Even OO (1:76) figures or vehicles look diminuitive next to an 1:72 item. However, there can be dramatic size differences between figures of the same scale, depending on the manufacturer. Preiser figures, for instance, tend to be quite tall.

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on February 26, 2023, 05:04:06 AMHowever, there can be dramatic size differences between figures of the same scale, depending on the manufacturer. Preiser figures, for instance, tend to be quite tall.

Even worse with wargames figures.

There was an interesting piece in one of the recent Hornby programmes on the Yesterday tv channel where one of the railway clubs was building this magnificent layout (for the last 40 years and still not finished  ) of North London in the early 1900's and they used different scale buildings and figures to show perspective. Worked very well.

if you want to force perspective, it will work well,, or if you have several firms and want mixed children, possible, otherwise you are going to have a lot of problems.

Quote from: zenrat on February 26, 2023, 03:06:06 AMWhere's OO (1/76) on that chart?

In between 3/4 inch and H0, but the track in 00 is the same gauge as H0 track to confuse things even more.

They call out 1/148 as 000 but no-one here uses that term any more, we use the same N Gauge term as the 1/160 N Gauge crew do.

Let me give you guys an example of what I am trying to do.
I built a 1/72 scale USS Iowa 16" gun turret for a memorial to honor the 47 sailors who died during the April 1989 turret explosion.
The turret and base are nice when I finished them, but they still look kinda plain and boring in my mind.
I commissioned a modeling person to make a special raised wood base for my gun turret model. The plastic model kit turret base will sit on top of and fit over the raised portion on top of the wood base as shown in the picture below.
But I want something more for my model turret. I need people to look at the turret and not focus all their attention on the raised wood base.
So here's my idea: Create a small scene showing the model turret as it is on the real USS Iowa museum battleship. Picture below.
The small stairs, the black stanchions, and the memorial plaques under the rangefinder hood have all been built, but not added to the plastic model base yet.
What I was thinking of was maybe having some civilian figures in front of the stairs and memorial plaques paying their respects.
So that's why I'm wondering if I can maybe get away with using 1/87 HO scale figures for my display or should I just forget about it?
As people have said, it will or won't work depending on "perspective".

Most viewers or your model won't have direct experience of seeing the Iowa's turret itself, and those that have will just remember that it's BIG!

That being the case they won't have any direct 'scale memory' of how big they were relative to the turret, so I'd go right ahead and use HO scale figures.

Some 00 scale obtained from a friendly Whiffer in the UK might be a better idea of course.......................   

If you want 1/72 civilian figures, I'd recommend finding one of the Preiser sets, they're pretty good.



https://www.walthers.com/figures-1-72-scale-standing-people

1/72nd is not 3/4" scale. 

3/4" scale is 1/16th scale. 

Quote from: jcf on March 01, 2023, 12:24:59 AM1/72nd is not 3/4" scale. 

3/4" scale is 1/16th scale.

Doesn't 3/4" refer to how far standard gauge rails are apart when represented in 1/72 scale?
I haven't done the exact calcs but rough sums show it's close.