Scale model

They are used for several purposes in many fields, including: Most hobbyist's models are built for static display, but some have operational features, such as railroad trains that roll, and airplanes and rockets that fly.

Flying airplane models may be simple unpowered gliders, or have sophisticated features such as radio control powered by miniature methanol/nitromethane engines.

Children can build and race their own gravity-powered, uncontrolled cars carved out of a wood such as pine, with plastic wheels on metal axles, which run on inclined tracks.

Before the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI), visual effects of vehicles such as marine ships and spaceships were created by filming "miniature" models.

These were considerably larger scale than hobby versions to allow inclusion of a high degree of surface detail, and electrical features such as interior lighting and animation.

For Star Trek: The Original Series, a 33-inch (0.84 m) pre-production model of the Starship Enterprise was created in December 1964, mostly of pine, with Plexiglass and brass details, at a cost of $600.

These models are traditionally hand-made, but advances in technology have turned the industry into a very high tech process than can involve Class IV laser cutters, five-axis CNC machines as well as rapid prototyping or 3D printing.

Manned models are used for research (e.g. ship behaviour), engineering (e.g. port layout) and for training in shiphandling (e.g. maritime pilots, masters and officers).

Models, and their constituent parts, can be built out of a variety of materials, such as: This includes injection molded or extruded plastics such as polystyrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), butyrate, and clear acrylic and copolyester (PETG).

Some beginner's level kits avoid the necessity to paint the model by adding pigments and chrome plating to the plastic.

The most popular scale to go with a given gauge was often arrived at through the following roundabout process: German artisans would take strips of metal of standard metric size to construct their products from blueprints dimensioned in inches.

Later, the European authority of model railroad firms MOROP declared that the "O" gauge (still 32 mm) must use the scale of 1:45, to allow wheel, tire, and splasher clearance for smaller than realistic curved sections.

This theme stems from the idea of modeling German secret projects that never saw the light of day due to the close of World War II.

In America, a series of cars was developed from at first cast metal and later styrene models ("promos") offered at new-car dealerships to drum up interest.

Except in rare occasions, Johnny Lightning and Ertl-made die-cast cars were sold as kits for buyers to assemble.

The most prolific manufacturer of mecha models is Bandai, whose Gundam kit lines were a strong influence in the genre in the 1980s.

Due to the fantasy nature of most anime robots, and the necessary simplicity of cel-animated designs, mecha models lend themselves well to stylized work, improvisations, and simple scratchbuilds.

One type of assembly kit sold as educational features skeletons and anatomical structure of humans and animals.

Michele Morciano says small scale ship models were produced in about 1905 linked to the wargaming rules and other publications of Fred T. Jane.

The British Admiralty subsequently contracted with Bassett-Lowke and other companies and individual craftsmen to produce large numbers of recognition models, to this scale, in 1914–18.

Lines Bros. Ltd, a British firm, offered a tremendously wide range of waterline merchant and naval ships as well as dockyard equipment in the scale 1:1200 which were die-cast in Zamak.

In the US, at least one manufacturer, of the wartime 1:1200 recognition models, Comet, made them available for the civilian market postwar, which also drove the change to this scale.

There are now several clubs around the world for those who choose to scratch-build radio-controlled model ships and submarines in 1:72, which is often done because of the compatibility with naval aircraft kits.

In injection-molded plastic kits, Airfix makes full-hull models in the scale the Royal Navy has used to compare the relative sizes of ships: 1:600.

Early in the 20th century, the British historian and science fiction author H. G. Wells published a book, Little Wars, on how to play at battles in miniature.

This use of physical mechanisms was echoed in the later games of Fred Jane, whose rules required throwing darts at ship silhouettes; his collection of data on the world's fleets was later published and became renowned.

Those who continued to develop miniature wargaming preferred smaller scale models, the soldiers still made of soft plastic.

The rapid rise in the detail and quality of castings at 15 mm scale has also helped to fuel their uptake by the wargaming community.

The role of the artist in this type of miniature is not necessarily to re-create an historical event or achieve naturalist realism, but rather to use scale as a mode of articulation in generating conceptual or theoretical exploration.

Political, conceptual, and architectural examples are provided by noted artists such as Bodys Isek Kingelez, Jake and Dinos Chapman (otherwise known as the Chapman Brothers), Ricky Swallow, Shaun Wilson, Sven Christoffersen, or the Psikhelekedana artists from Mozambique, James Casebere, Oliver Boberg, and Daniel Dorall.