The Ship Model Forum

A good few years ago now when in Germany I purchased a lovely 1/1200 or 1/1250 plastic model by Wiking of the 'Bremen' (Ex-Pasteur) which sadly went missing in a subsequent house move. I recently spotted another one on EBay and I snapped it up. I also noticed at that time on EBay plastic kits for sale made under the name of Revell Miniships which it states are 1:1200 scale of a couple of Cunard Liners and the 'Titanic' and I felt I would enjoy building a small collection of ocean liners so I purchased a kit of the 'Titanic'. To my great surprise when built it is obvioous this model will be far larger than the 'Bremen' so I am totally confused as it is claimed they are both 1:1200 scale.
Can a member very kindly explain how they can be different sizes when it is claimed they are both to the same scale.
Thank you.

Because the real ships were different in sizes? Bremen was 212.4m long, Titanic was 269.1m, so when both are in the same scale (which is merely the ratio of the model to the size of their respective real-life counterparts), the Titanic will be noticeably longer than the Bremen by around 27%.

There could also be errors in either model's scaling calculations on the part of the manufacturers, but to determine that you'd need to provide us with the measured lengths of the models.

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Many thanks for that Timmy.

The LOA for the Bremen ex-'Pasteur' is 6.1/2"
The LOA for the Titanic is 8.3/4"

Little Fred

The Bremen should be 6.97" long in 1/1200 scale or 6.69" in 1/1250 (you'll notice this is a substantial difference despite the similarity in scale), while Titanic should be 8.82" long in 1/1200. Looking up other Wiking kits, they seem to be in 1/1250. This means your Bremen is a bit short by .19", but otherwise is about accurate.

So your models appear reasonably accurate and well within the tolerances and measuring techniques available. I wouldn't worry about it.

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