AFAIK In 1:35, they should be .5 inch in diameter. So, about 17.5 inches or 44.45cm.

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AFAIK In 1:35, they should be .5 inch in diameter. So, about 17.5 inches or 44.45cm.

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I'm certainly no expert, but that sounds rather large to me. The unditching beam on my SAM-6 is only approx 5-6mm. Upscaled that comes out to around 17-20 cm. From photos, it looks like crews would fashion beams out of whatever they could find, so there's potential for lots of variation in the diameter, bigger logs being harder to find.

Somewhere on this site someone posted a link to a video of a tank crew demounting and installing a beam. It gave a really good visual perspective and an idea of how big the beam was, but alas I can't find it now.

Well, guys, as You know, in any Army/Navy/Air Force each step of each soldier is regulated with mass of different Instructions, Orders, Rules, Requirements, etc, etc.

And Russian Instructions are the same, of course.

One of Russian Instructions for the evacuation of armoured vehicles says: "For unditching of medium tank with log the attached log (from this tank inventory) should be used, or any other log with length of 3,5—4 meters and diameter of 25—30 centimeters. The unditching of lighter vehicle - like IFV (BMP) - should be performed in same way, with one difference: the unditching log should be sized 3—3,5 meters in length and 20—25 centimeters in diameter".

Other Instruction (from the "Set of lectures for basic military training for students of civilian colleges and institutes") says: "For unditching of tank with log should be used the log of 4-4,5 meters long and 30-35 centimeters in diameter". These lectures describes the using of tanks like T62, T64, T72, and BMP2 IFVs.
In other words, "this is law".

Thus, I feel sure, I have answered Your question.
And You even have choice of the log's diameters - but this choice is confirmed with original documents !