From 18350ce173cf5a0769389cb5bbd2b3b840c0e82d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Larson <larson.eric.d@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:26:38 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] BUG: Fix issue with Montage.plot (#13494)

Co-authored-by: Christian O'Reilly <christian.oreilly@gmail.com>
---
 doc/changes/dev/13494.bugfix.rst |  1 +
 mne/viz/montage.py               | 14 ++++++++------
 mne/viz/tests/test_montage.py    | 15 +++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 doc/changes/dev/13494.bugfix.rst

diff --git a/doc/changes/dev/13494.bugfix.rst b/doc/changes/dev/13494.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8a685496f48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changes/dev/13494.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix bug where :meth:`mne.channels.DigMontage.plot` would error when ``axes`` was passed by `Christian O'Reilly`_.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mne/viz/montage.py b/mne/viz/montage.py
index 221cc21f7a0..20e644da3c8 100644
--- a/mne/viz/montage.py
+++ b/mne/viz/montage.py
@@ -101,17 +101,19 @@ def plot_montage(
     )
 
     if scale != 1.0:
+        axes = axes if axes else fig.axes[0]
+
         # scale points
-        collection = fig.axes[0].collections[0]
+        collection = axes.collections[0]
         collection.set_sizes([scale * 10])
 
         # scale labels
-        labels = fig.findobj(match=plt.Text)
-        x_label, y_label = fig.axes[0].xaxis.label, fig.axes[0].yaxis.label
-        z_label = fig.axes[0].zaxis.label if kind == "3d" else None
-        tick_labels = fig.axes[0].get_xticklabels() + fig.axes[0].get_yticklabels()
+        labels = axes.findobj(match=plt.Text)
+        x_label, y_label = axes.xaxis.label, axes.yaxis.label
+        z_label = axes.zaxis.label if kind == "3d" else None
+        tick_labels = axes.get_xticklabels() + axes.get_yticklabels()
         if kind == "3d":
-            tick_labels += fig.axes[0].get_zticklabels()
+            tick_labels += axes.get_zticklabels()
         for label in labels:
             if label not in [x_label, y_label, z_label] + tick_labels:
                 label.set_fontsize(label.get_fontsize() * scale)
diff --git a/mne/viz/tests/test_montage.py b/mne/viz/tests/test_montage.py
index c496dd50d32..0bb28b610a8 100644
--- a/mne/viz/tests/test_montage.py
+++ b/mne/viz/tests/test_montage.py
@@ -10,7 +10,9 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
+from mne import create_info
 from mne.channels import make_dig_montage, make_standard_montage, read_dig_fif
+from mne.io import RawArray
 
 p_dir = Path(__file__).parents[2] / "io" / "kit" / "tests" / "data"
 elp = p_dir / "test_elp.txt"
@@ -86,3 +88,16 @@ def test_plot_digmontage():
     )
     montage.plot()
     plt.close("all")
+
+
+def test_plot_montage_scale():
+    """Test montage.plot with non-default scale using subplot axes."""
+    montage = make_standard_montage("GSN-HydroCel-129")
+    ax = plt.subplots(2, 1)[1][1]
+    picks = montage.ch_names
+    info = create_info(montage.ch_names, sfreq=256, ch_types="eeg")
+    raw = RawArray(
+        np.zeros((len(montage.ch_names), 1)), info, copy=None, verbose=False
+    ).set_montage(montage)
+    # test for gh-13438
+    raw.pick(picks).get_montage().plot(axes=ax, show_names=False, scale=0.1)