Dusting off this old thread to add some new infographics...
Since we've been having these discussions recently about Zeta Gundam, I've been thinking again about the ships from that series. In the case of this series, we started off with a pretty straightforward size comparison chart:
http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/imag ... ison01.jpg
The Salamis Kai is basically the same length as the original Salamis, with the addition of protruding antennas on the end of its catapult deck. According to the EX Model Argama, the AEUG flagship is 341.7 meters overall, which seems to have been computed using this comparison chart and the assumption that the original Salamis is 288 meters long.
Based on this chart, the Alexandria seems to be just over 330 meters long, and quite massive compared to the Argama. But this chart also indicates that the Alexandria's main gun turrets are considerably bigger than the identical-looking turrets on the Salamis Kai, which seems odd. We also have the example of the Gaunland from Victory Gundam, which is 354 meters long including protruding forward antennas and a rear catapult deck. By the looks of it, these features might account for as much as 50 meters of the Gaunland's overall length.
So here's a wacky experiment:
http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/imag ... ison02.jpg
In this chart, I've scaled various ships from Zeta and ZZ based on their common features. The Alexandria is scaled to match the turrets of the Salamis Kai, and ends up being about 300 meters long. Since the original Dogosse Gier line art includes a comparison with the Alexandria, we can add it to the lineup as well, and it looks to be just over 600 meters (the same length that the Gundam Unicorn novel claims for the General Revil). This makes the Alexandria about as massive as the Argama and Radish, which seems appropriate.
Moving up the chart, we go from cruisers to battleships. The Magellan, at 327 meters, is thus longer than the Alexandria. I've scaled the Radish to 323 meters, the length given in the recent "Ship & Aerospace Plane Encyclopedia," which makes it just about as long as the Magellan. Its rear gun turret (marked in green) is thus the same size as that of the 380-meter Nagel Argama.
On the right, we have some Axis ships. The overall length of the Gwanban is 415 meters, and I've scaled the Endra to try and match the sizes of the gun turrets, mega particle cannons, and Komusai. As a result, the Endra becomes tiny - only about 270 meters, two-thirds of the 410 meter figure that's sometimes cited. The mobile suits that Nagano drew into the original line art seem way too small, and based on these, the 410 meter figure seems more appropriate. In this case, we may as well scale up both ships by 50 percent.
I have mixed feelings about that idea, though. On the one hand, it makes the Gwanban much more impressive. On the other hand, it makes the Endra absolutely huge - about as a big as the old Gwazine class, which is amazing given how many of these ships Axis produces, and far too large for a mere cruiser. I think I prefer the Musai-esque dimensions shown here.
Speaking of Axis ships, and scaling based on shared features:
http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/images/gwadan640.jpg
Here, I've scaled the Gwadan so that its external fuel tanks are the same size as those of the original Gwazine. This makes the Gwadan about 640 meters long, which seems fairly plausible, but the catapult decks and launcher turret seem too small for its mobile suits. Its gun turrets also look quite puny compared to those of the Gwazine. On the other hand, if we scale it up by 50 percent, it's just ridiculous:
http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/images/gwadan960.jpg
As a compromise option, here's the Gwadan scaled up by 25 percent (in other words, so that its fuel tanks are 25 percent large than those of the Gwazine). This seems like a reasonable compromise; we can now imagine mobile suits fitting in its catapults, and it's somewhat larger than the Dogosse Gier, as the animation suggests:
http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/images/gwadan800.jpg
In this scenario, the Gwadan would be about 800 meters long. That's still pretty humongous, and it makes the Gwazine and Gwanban look dwarfish by comparison.
-- Mark