New Release of Commercial Cars and Taxis from Kato

[cfritschle]

Earlier this month, Kato announced new paint schemes for a set of "commercial cars" and a set of taxis.  Here are the links to the two sets:
 
https://www.katomodels.com/product/n/company_car_set_1a and https://www.katomodels.com/product/n/taxi_set_1a
 
The commercial cars set consists of two Toyota Vitz sub-compacts (1:160 scale) and two Toyota Probox small vans (1:150 scale).  The taxis are Nissan Cedrics (1:150 scale) that were originally released in 2020 in the 1990s Nissan set. I don't have a comparison photo of the Vitz (aka Echo in Canada) because it is 1:160 scale.  However, here is a photo of the vehicles in Kato's 1990s Toyota set. 
From left to right: Toyota Noah, Toyota Vitz (Toyota Echo), Toyota Harrier (Lexus RX 300), Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS 300), Toyota Estima (Toyota Previa) and Toyota Crown (almost a Lexus LS 400).


Here is a comparison photo of the Nissan Cedric with an Atlas Ford Fairmont.


And here is a photo that compares several 1:160 scale vehicle models with 1:150 scale vehicle models. 
From left to right: River Point Station Ford F-250, TomyTec Nissan X-Trail (1:150), Atlas Ford F-150, TomyTec Nissan AD (1:150), Busch Mercedes M Series, Kato Probox (1:150), and Atlas Ford Taurus.


I am not sure if anyone will find these models useful, but the Toyota Probox and Nissan Cedric do seem to "blend" well with 1:160 scale model vehicles.

[brill27mcb]

I run model trains and trolleys from around the world, made in 1:160 (America, Europe, etc.), 1:150 (Japan, Hong Kong, etc.) and 1:148 (Great Britain) scales. I frequently hear and read people worrying about how bad the scale mismatch might be if they mix these models together. It turns out that the prototypes of most 1:150 rail models are of narrow gauge prototypes and the 1:148 rail models are of the small British "outline" (clearance envelope) prototypes, so those factors tend to visually compensate for the differences in scale.

What I rarely hear from these worriers is whether they have actually gone to the bother to check the models against prototype dimensions. Many people (not talking about rivet counters here) just assume that the model manufacturer has done the scaling accurately. I think this is especially true in models of automobiles and trucks. I have a friend who is a serious "O" scale modeler and he modifies diecast vehicle models in order to populate his streets. He measures them all, and the amount of liberties taken by the manufacturers is unbelievable. He finds "1/43" collector scale models that actually scale out to his desired 1:48. He finds "1/48" models that are not really 1:48 when he checks them. He finds models that are off from the stated scale by different percentages in the X, Y and Z axes. He ends up having to slice and dice many models to get a result that meets his high standards, but for him it is still easier than scratchbuilding them. So I recommend to people that if they are really worried about mixing scales, they should to take the time to measure the models against prototype dimensions themselves, and not just take a manufacturer's stated scale as gospel truth.

Rich K.

[cfritschle]

Rich,

One of the reasons for creating the N Scale Vehicle Association 20 years ago was to see if any of the vehicle models in which the stated scale was not 1:160 (primarily Tomix, Kato, and TomyTec vehicle models) might be usable with 1:160 scale models.  Here is a link to the web page with links to photo comparisons of some of the "Nearly N Scale" models.  https://nscalevehicles.org/n_gauge_models.php  This section of the NSVA website was last updated around 10 years or so ago, so it is a little out of date.

And, if it looks like the model might work, I will create an Excel spreadsheet where I enter the actual model dimensions and convert those dimensions to 1:160 scale inches.  Here are the actual measured dimensions for the Kato Nissan Cedric, and the conversion of those dimensions to 1:160 scale inches:

Length = 1.2235 (actual inches) or 195.8 (1:160 inches)
Width = 0.4440 (actual inches) or 71.0 (1:160 inches)
Height = 0.3630 (actual inches) or 58.1 (1:160 inches)

When I purchased the Kato 1990s Nissan set in 2020, I thought the Cedric might be usable as a stand-in for a 1990-92 Dodge Monaco.  Prototype photo is from Wikepedia


Here are the 1:1 dimensions for the 1990-92 Dodge Monaco:

Length = 192.8 inches
Width = 70.0 inches
Height = 54.7 inches

Only 30,607 Dodge Monacos were produced for those three model years, so it probably won't matter much if the dimensions of Kato's model are slightly smaller larger than what a 1:160 scale model of a 1990-92 Dodge Monaco would be. 

[brill27mcb]

Carter, it's great that you are doing this this level of research for N-scalers. Most probably do not focus on autos and trucks as much as they do on rolling stock details, so your work in this area is very valuable.

Rich K.

[Howard1975]

I think it's always good when we get more models of cars and trucks, motorcycles and bicycles, farm equipment, and other types of vehicles. 

I also choose to model N scale with American, Japanese, British and European trains. I personally don't mind the slight scale differences for the trains themselves, or vehicles and buildings. I don't mind when it's not the correct length, width or height. As long as it looks good enough to me, that is all I care about.