Hello, I'm brand new here. Been a scale modeler for several years and am now trying my hand at customizing Joe vehicles. I've got a Cobra Rattler on the way, and had a question about it, which applies to customizing in general. What scale are Joe vehicles in, generally speaking? I'm asking because I want to buy some after-market plane decals for the Rattler and I have no idea what decal scale to look for. I know the Joe toys are somewhat deformed to accommodate the figures so no scaling can be totally exact. In short, I want to put one of those awesome shark mouths on the nose of the Rattler but I don't want to use stickers (I'm aware I can buy the stickers elsewhere) if I don't have to. Decals just look so much better. Thanks!

As far as I know the aircraft (not sure this applies to all) tend to be 1/32 or 1/35 in general. I could be wrong, but I know the Sky Striker which is based on the Tomcat is roughly 1/32 scale. I don't really thing the Hasbro designers really followed any scale range across the board, as there are many things that are over and under from the same class of vehicles. I don't have specifications in front of me, but would be easy enough to figure out the closes scale though to be sure. Maybe someone can give you the length of the Rattler as yours is not in hand yet and you can go from there.

Hope that helps,
momaw nadon

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Yes, that's great! That should be a fairly easy scale to find decals in too. I've got an old A-10 model kit lying around somewhere at home that I believe is 1/35 scale so I can compare it side by side with the Rattler (once it's in hand) and see if the decals would fit it appropriately too.

The vehicles vary fairly widely in scale, with the 'warping' as I call it increasing with the raw size of the vehicle (the bigger the vehicle is in your hands it's got a higher degree of warping around the figure's seat/cockpit/whatnot). Don't kill yourself trying to be exact because you're not really gonna be successful at it so just aim for what looks cool to you, mate.

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one of my first attempts at a scale build was an a-10 from scratch. I never got it finished but one day I will either finish it or start over

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I calculated the scale (based on length) of GI Joe aircraft that have real-world equivalents. The cockpit area is obviously closer to 1/18 to accommodate the figures so the proportions are a bit wonky:

1983 Skystriker (F-14 Tomcat): 1/32
1983 Dragonfly (AH-1 Cobra): 1/26
1984 Rattler (A-10 Thunderbolt II): 1/38
1986 Conquest (Grumman X-29): 1/32
1992 Liquidator (Saab 35 Draken): 1/38
1993 Storm Eagle (Northrop YF-23): 1/50
1993 Ghoststriker (F-16 Fighting Falcon): 1/30
2004 Thunderwing (F-22 Raptor): 1/35

For land vehicles, the number of vehicles with direct real-world equivalents is terribly small. The only two that I can think of are the VAMP (based on the Lamborghini Cheetah) which is about 1/21 scale, and the Hammer (based on the Humvee), but I don't have a length measurement for that toy so I don't know the scale.

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This is outstanding, thanks so much! I have my eye on a Conquest as well so that extra info is perfect.

No problem, I'm just glad someone is able to use that information. I compiled it a while ago and wasn't sure anyone else would ever care...

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