The Scale Of Halo

[UNSC Leatherneck]

I'm sure many of you have seen the HBO article about the sizes of objects in the universe (Real sizes of objects in Halo). Even with that, the true scale of the universe is mind boggling. The Pillar of Autumn is 1.17 KILOMETERS long. That's 1,279 yards, or over 12 football fields. The same guy who wrote the above article is making a model of Pillar of Autumn. At 1/1000th scale, that is the real thing would be 1000 times larger, the Pillar of Autumn model is nearly four feet long! A Pelican is likewise deceptively large. A Pelican is 100 feet long. For comparison, a Boeing 737-600 airliner is 102 feet long and seats 123 people. A real shock is when you move up to the size of the Halos. With a diameter of 10,000 kilometers, they're huge. To put it in perspective, if you made a model of the Pillar of Autumn in 1:117,000 scale, it would be 1 centimeter long,or just over a third of an inch. If a model of Installation 04 was made in the same scale would be 280 feet (85 meters) across! The Ark is even bigger. With an approximate diameter of 95,000 kilometers (59,000 miles) it is much larger than even the planet Jupiter. A model in the same scale as the 1 cm Pillar of Autumn would be 2,663 feet across (811 meters) or over 8 football fields. Thats the model, folks. That would be a helluva lot of cardstock. Wrap your brains around that.

 

[RedTogusa]

Nice find, very interesting. So here's the deal I'll make the 1cm Pillar of Autumn and you can make the Halo rings.

 

[rowan]

Wow... thats really interesting, i never though of a pelican being that big....
Hmmm, how about the UNSC carriers? Over 1500 meters long
Quote from halo wiki:
"If estimations and theories are accurate, then these ships may be 1.5 kilometers long; near to the length of a Covenant CCS-class Battlecruiser. In Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx, pg. 270, it is mentioned that a Carrier is less than 3km long."

 

[23Magnum]

I don't remember seeing a Floor Juggernault unit in any of the 3 Halo games? Perhaps this is a unit in the Custom Edition...or...Halo Wars?

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

Nice find, very interesting. So here's the deal I'll make the 1cm Pillar of Autumn and you can make the Halo rings.

I was actually thinking about how you'd make a 280 foot wide halo ring. Any way you look at it, it would be an engineering challenge. Now, if we did it at 1:1,170,000th scale, the Pillar of Autumn would be a millimeter long and the ring would be just under 10 meters across (30 ft). That's a little more manageable, but still! Anyone up for making a scale model of the Ark? Talk about bigatures!

 

[Sigma LS]

I don't remember seeing a Flood Juggernault unit in any of the 3 Halo games? Perhaps this is a unit in the Custom Edition...or...Halo Wars?

It's a glitched unit in Halo 2 (no death scene), the precursor to the Combat forms in Halo 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwu_LxJZBcU

 

[23Magnum]

Wow, that thing was a beast.

 

[Spartan 270]

Just got a question, so exactly how big or what would the scale of High Charity be?

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

Just got a question, so exactly how big or what would the scale of High Charity be?

The website has a visual comparison of relative sizes, including High Charity. As for the scales we're working in, here goes. In 1:117,000th scale where the Pillar of Autumn is 1 cm long, High Charity is nearly 3 meters across (nearly 10 feet). Taking the scale to 1:1,170,000th, where the Pillar of Autumn is 1 millimeter long, High Charity is 11.6 inches across. That may seem small, but remember that at that scale a Halo is 30 feet across. I hope that answered your question

 

[Keegan]

...of Autumn is 1.17 KILOMETERS...

THERES THAT NUMBER AGAIN!

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

THERES THAT NUMBER AGAIN!

I know! It keeps showing up everywhere. Here's another number reference for you.

The Revelation of John 1:17- And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.

 

[Spartan 270]

Geez, what is with that number? It turns up everywhere. You think bungie planned to use that number? Or is all of this purely "coincidential".

Anyway, wow, then High Charity must be pretty big in actual size.
(makes me wonder how big the gravemind is)

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

Geez, what is with that number? It turns up everywhere. You think bungie planned to use that number? Or is all of this purely "coincidential".

Anyway, wow, then High Charity must be pretty big in actual size.
(makes me wonder how big the gravemind is)

High Charity is approximately 348 kilometers (216 miles) in diameter. So, yes, it is quite large. The Gravemind is 84 meters (275 feet) tall. Thats as tall as a 27 story building. So, yeah, big.

 

[rowan]

I know! It keeps showing up everywhere. Here's another number reference for you.

The Revelation of John 1:17- And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.

While bungie did make many of the number 7 references on purpose, i think a lot of then are just fans looking so hard into it that they manage to find the ones that are purely incidental.
now i really want to build a scale pillar of autumn!!!

 

[Belakor]

While bungie did make many of the number 7 references on purpose, i think a lot of then are just fans looking so hard into it that they manage to find the ones that are purely incidental.
now i really want to build a scale pillar of autumn!!!

It's weird how often the number seven comes up in my day to day life... a while back my Halo reference pic/video folder was 3.43gb, I'm always waking up at 3:43am, my member number here is 5261 5+2=7 6+1=7 ... it's like The Number 23 but with seven

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

While bungie did make many of the number 7 references on purpose, i think a lot of then are just fans looking so hard into it that they manage to find the ones that are purely incidental.
now i really want to build a scale pillar of autumn!!!

I agree that quite a few of the supposed 7 references are in fact people finding what they are looking for. The bible verse is an excellent example. Now, here's a neat one. 7 cubed, or seven to the third power, is 343. Interesting. As for the PoA model, the guy who did the size comparison article is making just such a model. Check it out here: Pillar of Autumn model.

He is also working on an In Amber Clad model in the same scale as the Pillar of Autumn. In Amber Clad model

Neat stuff. Quite informative too. He's pretty much got the structural aspects of the models figured out, a good thing given their size.

 

[rowan]

I agree that quite a few of the supposed 7 references are in fact people finding what they are looking for. The bible verse is an excellent example. Now, here's a neat one. 7 cubed, or seven to the third power, is 343. Interesting. As for the PoA model, the guy who did the size comparison article is making just such a model. Check it out here: Pillar of Autumn model.

He is also working on an In Amber Clad model in the same scale as the Pillar of Autumn. In Amber Clad model

Neat stuff. Quite informative too. He's pretty much got the structural aspects of the models figured out, a good thing given their size.

sorry to change the subject, but does anyone has any links to tutorials on making models from scratch using styrene?

 

[UNSC Leatherneck]

sorry to change the subject, but does anyone has any links to tutorials on making models from scratch using styrene?

I see your Google-fu is weak. Try these:
Scratchbuilding in Styrene primer
Scratch Building tips
More scratchbuilding
Also, check out some of the plastic modeling magazines out there. There's plenty of them, and the ones from outside the states are often of superior quality.

Please keep any further scratch building and modeling questions in the creation forums. Let's stay somewhat close to on topic. Carry on.

 

[rowan]

Thanks UNSC_leatherneck.
I was just discussing the whole scale thing with a friend, mainly about the pelican and warthog. It seems that the scale is a little "funky". The marines in contrast to the the pelican being the size of a 737, its about 10 marines long and other than the cargo part were the marines sit, theres only the cockpit. So basically each marine is like.. the size of 3 people? thats in comparison to real life though.... everything is bigger in the halo universe
Also, the size of the warthog. i remember reading somewhere that WETA had to make theres a lot smaller than what it was in the game because it was just too big. Which isn't too surprising considering it looks about 1/2 the size of the pelican (737...) when they're dropping it off for you.

 

[Reno]

Well, pulling the reference image from halopedia, only half the length of the pelican is the 'used' segment, whereas the back tail region is mostly going to be engines, fuel, attaching rail, etc.
Comparing to this:


The warthog isn't actually that big(I'd surmise it feels bigger in the games becuase you're always looking up at the monstrosity that is the pelican itself) so comparison-wise, it fits pretty well(that and the 737 isn't that big of a plane, obviously)

That said, the scale in halo is agreeably quite immense, and it's always pretty neat to look at size comparisons of what fits to where.