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Re: [GZG] Mini scale (Was: (Minis) I'm Baaaaaaack.......)

From: Robert Bryett <rbryett@m...>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 11:48:19 +1000
Subject: Re: [GZG] Mini scale (Was: (Minis) I'm Baaaaaaack.......)

> 1/72 is about 20mm, hence the many WW2 (etc.) wargamers who mix  
> 20mm minatures with 1/72 scale plastic kits.
>
> Based purely on the height 25mm would be about 1/64 but as wargames  
> minis tend to be 'chunky' the often look better with slightly  
> larger scale vehicles.

I'm a bit puzzled by some of the maths here. At 1/64 scale 25mm would  
represent 1.6m (about 5'3").... That's pretty short for a guy.

Once upon a pre-metric time, I was very heavily into 1/72 scale  
plastic modelling, and especially into dioramas combining figures,  
vehicles and aircraft. I was also playing WW2 infantry/armour  
wargames with a mixture of Airfix 1/72 AFVs and HO (1/87) scale,  
plastic non-kit AFVs from another maker  (German I think) whose name  
escapes me now (Rocco?). Scale was a bit of a mess then, and doesn't  
seem to have got any better, but muddling up 1/72 and 1/87 was	
widespread. Airfix plastic figures were often described as HO, when  
they were really a nominal 1/72 for example, and they certainly  
looked "big" next to HO scale vehicles.

Back then we thought of 1/72 as "one inch equals six feet", and we  
were naive enough to measure figures from boot heel to top of head/ 
helmet.
That would imply that a 25mm tall figure was about 5'11" (1.8m) tall,  
and a 20mm figure would be around 4'10" (1.47m). That's a wide range,  
but not outside possibility in a multi-ethnic, multi-gender army (I'm  
sure that petite Chinese cutie would make a dandy powered-armour  
trooper...).

In 1/87 six feet is just over 21mm, so a 20mm figure would be about  
5'9" (1.75m - pretty average for a European male), and a 25mm figure  
would be about 7'2" (2.18m)! Still, maybe a big man in powered armour?

In the end you just have to mix and match by eye. Personally I feel  
that 20mm (HO, 1/87) figs fit better into a 25mm (1/72) world than  
vice versa, but your mileage may vary.

Best regards, Robert Bryett
rbryett@mail.com
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