A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions (the scale factor) of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in full size. Scale models are built or collected for many reasons.
Professional modelmakers often create models for many professions:
- Engineers who require scale models to test the likely performance of a particular design at an early stage of development without incurring the full expense of a full-sized prototype.
- Architects who require architectural models to evaluate and sell the look of a new construction before it is built.
- Filmmakers who require scale models of objects or sets that cannot be built in full size.
- Salesmen who require scale models to promote new products such as heavy equipment and automobiles and other vehicles.
Hobbyists or amateur modelmakers make die-cast models, injection molded, model railroads, remote control vehicles, wargaming and fantasy collectibles, model ships and ships in bottles for their own enjoyment.
Scale models can also be objects of art, either being created by artists or being rediscovered and transformed into art by artists.
Read more about Scale Model: Types of Scale Models, Scales, Cultural References
Famous quotes containing the words scale and/or model:
“I own I never really warmed
To the reformer or reformed.
And yet conversion has its place
Not halfway down the scale of grace.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Research shows clearly that parents who have modeled nurturant, reassuring responses to infants’ fears and distress by soothing words and stroking gentleness have toddlers who already can stroke a crying child’s hair. Toddlers whose special adults model kindliness will even pick up a cookie dropped from a peer’s high chair and return it to the crying peer rather than eat it themselves!”
—Alice Sterling Honig (20th century)