Why does the modeling industry call 'production" vehicles/equipment the prototype?

"It's not prototypical" "I'm modeling the prototype"

A prototype is suppose to be a pre - production stage,

What's the skinny on the how the term is used here?

tomustang Wrote:Why does the modeling industry call 'production" vehicles/equipment the prototype?

"It's not prototypical" "I'm modeling the prototype"

A prototype is suppose to be a pre - production stage,

What's the skinny on the how the term is used here?

It means the original; therefore, what the industry was actually using is the prototype for the modeler. I suspect the term is used because every group cherishes its insider slang and terminology.

• Prototype:
  1. Full-scale working model of something built for study, testing or display
  
  2. A standard or typical example

There is a few ways to look at the definition of a prototype. The one most of us are use to using is the first one, that being a full-size model built specifically as the first example of what the others will be like. The one that I think applies to how we look at it is the second one, that being a standard or example that we use to model by. So we can use any object and try to make a model true to that example, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the same size.

As the widely used exampe of the term it's more of a test, rough draft, idea, etc.

Even the origins of the word mean primitive form.

There are two stages here, prototype and production. In the vehicle world those aren't interchangeable.

I think MountainMan hit it on the head with it being insider slang. I've been in enough industries to know terminologies were widely used for a lot of things.

That is an interesting discussion for me. I did always wonder why you use the word "prototype" to describe the 1:1 scale real thing. The German word for that is "Vorbild" while the word Prototype is use for the first preproduction samples used for testing etc.

The online dictionary lists for "Vorbild" : Example, Ideal, Paradigm, Antitype, Archetype, Example, Guide, Paragon, Prototype, Role Model, Standard, Model, Pattern.

What word would you use to describe
a. a famous person your son tries to be like
b. if a small startup company tries to build sport cars like Porsche

Are Jordan and Porsche prototypes?

To me modeling the "prototype" means to model the real thing .For example the EMD SD40-2 is the prototype of all those SD40-2 models made in all the different scales.The same goes for all the rest of the trains.The real locomotive ,freight car,passenger car is the prototype of that Z,N,HO,S,O ,or G gauge railroad item.OOPS forgot TT scale. :mrgreen:

What the prototype is depends on where you are in the process. There were, IIRC, 2 prototype PCCs -- one of which looked nothing like the rest of them. These were followed by the production PCCs. [PCC = streamlined street car developed in the 1930s].
For the modeller, the car that he is basing his model on is the prototype.
If some idiot wants to make a model of me, I'll sit still and be the model.

pro-to-type
[proh-tuh-tahyp]

noun
1.
the original or model on which something is based or formed. (Hence, prototype modeling)

2.
someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar:
"She is the prototype of a student activist."

3.
something analogous to another thing of a later period:
"a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing."

4.
Biology. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group.
verb (used with object), prototyped, prototyping.
5.
to create the prototype or an experimental model of:
"to prototype a solar-power car."

faraway Wrote:That is an interesting discussion for me. I did always wonder why you use the word "prototype" to describe the 1:1 scale real thing. The German word for that is "Vorbild" while the word Prototype is use for the first preproduction samples used for testing etc.

The online dictionary lists for "Vorbild" : Example, Ideal, Paradigm, Antitype, Archetype, Example, Guide, Paragon, Prototype, Role Model, Standard, Model, Pattern.

What word would you use to describe
a. a famous person your son tries to be like
b. if a small startup company tries to build sport cars like Porsche

Are Jordan and Porsche prototypes?

1. "role model"

2. "emulate"