Dioramas need people doing things, and a motorcycle is one of the best ways to supply them. Kits in 1:32 and 1:35 cover riders with their machines, civilian bikes and even a veteran from the first decade of the twentieth century, at sizes that sit correctly beside 1:35 armour and 1:32 aircraft. Some sets are complete vignettes with figures; others are standalone machines. The parts are small but the return on them is high.
Below you will find how the two scales can be used together and how to settle a motorcycle convincingly into a scene.
This category is not really about display cases; it is about narrative. A pilot with his bike at the end of a runway, a despatch rider outside a headquarters, an elegant Edwardian machine on its own plinth. Many sets include the rider, so one box gives you a complete vignette. A motorcycle is also the ideal piece of scenery: smaller than a car, so it does not dominate the scene, yet it tells the viewer the period and the place immediately.
On a motorcycle the difference between 1:32 and 1:35 amounts to a few millimetres, so the two stand side by side without trouble. The one thing to watch is figures: set them apart from each other, because a direct comparison of two human figures reveals the difference faster than anything else. Terrain helps too, since a machine sunk into grass or leant against a wall blurs the comparison naturally.
1:35 is the home of military vehicle kits, while 1:32 belongs to large-scale aircraft models. A motorcycle beside an aeroplane or next to an armoured vehicle gives the scene both scale and a story, and which you choose depends on the story you want to tell.
There are few parts, but they are tiny; expect tweezers and brush painting rather than spraying. Paint wire wheels and handlebars while they are still on the sprue and you will save yourself a good deal of fiddling. In exchange the build takes only a few evenings, which makes it a pleasant side project next to a larger model in progress.
Standalone machines in the larger sizes, from the standard 1:12 upwards, are in motorcycle model kits.
