"Why do you choose a certain scale?" Topic

I just can't seem to be able to do small scales. I admit to being biased about the aesthetics of small scales. However, I also go crosseyed trying to paint them. They give me headaches just looking at them. I can't bring myself to doing it.

I note that many people choose scale in accordance with cost. I've never really understood this. I suppose if you want the aesthetic look of a large scale army and don't like the DBA style representation of troops, then you might opt for small scales. However, with plastics, cheap metals and the amount of time it takes to build a hand-painted army, I see so many arguments against this.

I guess storage could be an issue, but an army can fit in a standard-sized file box quite easily. Does it really take up that much room? Maybe if you have 12 it does.

i've always stuck with 28mm (well originally 25mm) since i bought my first citadel miniatures in 1982. I didn't know anything else existed then, and ever since have resisted buying figures i couldn't use with the ones i have…

Its a shame because i prefer large massed battles to small skirmishes… which makes any new project expensive!

I play 28mm. I fantasize about 15mm romans, and 10mm warmaster dwarfs.

I love the look of them, I just can't get myself to get them as I know they will never be anything more than display armies.

Oh and to spring board off Brandlin's comment. I prefer skirmish over large massed battles. RPGer in me likes to have the background stories for each figure.

For WWII, I find the ration of figure size to range offputting at anything over 10mm. I'm tempted by 1:600, but I like to be able to see my infantry.

For earlier periods, I enjoy playing with my friend's 42mm C19 and Renaissance, but they are just to large on my small table. You do need, say, enough lads in the pike block to look like something – much less then the 81 I am targeting (9 stands, 3x3 on each stand) is too few IMHO YMMV. I can do that at 15mm and balance between having figures that look good individually and will fit on the table in something like masses.

I tried 6mm FPW, but the figures did not talk to me.

I try 15mm for most things, largely for the reasons stated: economy and the ability to store in a small space. I even play Inquisitor (GW's 54mm 40K skirmish game) in 15mmm.

I was big on Space Marines. I jut really liked the clash of gigantic war-machines and huge armies. I never got into Warmaster, but I was mostly interested in using the stands as counters for a campaign scale game, my own version of Mighty Empires, which for the record, I really liked and so did everyone I played it with. Simplistic it might have been, but we had a good time.

I started out with 6mm Napoleonics and Micro Armour. Later I joined a group which plays mostly 20 or 25/28mm. Everything I've bought in the last 15 years has been in these scales. When in Rome…

I use 28mm for skirmish gaming, 15 mm for anything that is "big battles" like a tank company or an ACW brigade.

25mm Napoleonics -- really the ONLY scale when I started the period.

15mm ACW -- bought 1300 figs to get started. Didn't seem to make any sense to change.

1/72 WWI aircraft. "Store front effect". I wanted to get the publics attention. This is my "hook" game.

mjc

10/12mm is my preferred scale for WWII and Fantasy -- the main reasons being lots of infantry to make up a unit, but you can still see (and paint) the detail on the infantry. And tanks are a good size, while not being giant.

Like most people I suspect, I chose the scale that the majority were gaming at the club. No point having a 20mm army when everyone else has 15mm :-D

15mm for just about everything, although I do have a collection of 20mm moderns for skirmish, and some 1:300 for those small table games…

…used to have a Space Marine Company…

I think it depends on what I'm trying to to 'do'. One example that comes to mind for me is a 30 Years War project I started on a number of years ago:

I started out thinking I'd use 1" scale figures (think 28mm). We cutout a few bases and gathered some figures – mocked up a few stands…

Well now, first I must say they were an impressive sight! BUT each stand had a 6" frontage – an artillery stand was 6" x 6". Next we cutout a bunch more stands (cardboard this time) and mocked up an entire army and set it out as if ready fro a war game. Stepped back again, and said WOW this looks really cool. BUT then we figured out that in order to play even a small game we would need to have a very large surface in order to play a game (minimum, for a cramped game would have been 12' x 12' – much larger for a comfortable game).

I have not even touched upon time factors – painting large figures, even the ones were were going to use would have taken quite some time (even at our fasted pace of 1,000 30mm figures in just over 2 months). In this case, figure cost was not an issue, as we were going to cast them ourselves.

So, Here we are looking at what would be an impressive war game. 28mm-ish figures, lots of figures on large bases; BUT it was just too big! Cool yes, playable no. What to do?

Clear the table and start again – cutout new bases and gather up some figures – 10mm this time. Still an impressive sight AND in less than 1/2 the space. OK, now we had a the beginnings of an impressive looking, do-able and playable war game.

While we could have done (and I may still someday do it) the larger scale figures on the large bases, we would have wound up with a good looking game that we in all likelihood would only play once or twice a year, at one of the regional conventions (the only place where we could find enough space to play). So, in this case 10mm was our scale of choice. There are at least a few other projects where we made the same choice – small scale figures in order to obtain the look we wanted.

Over the years other factors such as cost, time ans the ever present space have helped determine the scale of figures used for various game projects. In some cases, I never found what I wanted (based upon factors in lay at the time); as such there are many yet un-started (still dreamed of) projects awaiting their time to come.

Over the years I've found that each and every war gamer has their own idea of just what the ideal scale for a war game army should be…

"Over the years I've found that each and every war gamer has their own idea of just what the ideal scale for a war game army should be…"

Or in my case, the same army in several scales!

For me it is always a compromise between cost, storage space, looks and ease of transportation – so I usually end up with smaller scales like 1/300th or 1/100th. I do have fairly large collections of 1/72nd scale stuff, but only a few dozen figures in anything bigger – just too expensive, heavy and big.

Most of my stuff is 15mm – my table is 4 X 6 feet. I do have some 10mm Great War Mideast, some 20mm ancients, medieval, AWI, ACW, and WWII. We just got into 28mm skirmish via Sharp Practice, so there may be more of those in my future.

Easy – I find the big stuff a grind to paint. I choose based on how much fun it is going to be for me to put it together because I never do a good job on figures that are a long haul.

28mm for skirmish, 6mm for large battles.

My main scales are 28mm and 10mm.

28mm for skirmishes and small actions which look good with fewer figures.

10mm for big battles and large scale actions.

I gravitate towards smaller scales due to the way they look on the table as a unit and in mass rather than how any one figure looks. 12 gorgeous 28mm Romans don't strike my fancy nearly as much as 60+ 10mm. This even applies to ships and armour but there, it is miniature size to range/table size. When my battleships are shooting at each other, I want it to look as if both are miles away.

I started about the tme I was in Uni, so 28mm were just too expensive, and I would never have the space. I began with 15's, but still didn't like the size of units, since I'm such a slow painter they were all 12 figure units. I dabbled in 6mm for a while, but didn't think the figures were detailed enough for the pagentry of the 18th Century (mind you this is before Bacuss did their very nice figures).
I got some 10mm and wasn't impressed with them at all, they were just like big 6mm figures (Ironically, looking back they were Pendraken's old WSS line!). Then I saw a review of Pendraken's SYW figures on The Spanner and Yank site, and I was completely sold on 10mm. Haven't looked back since.

I fell in to 40mm some time ago and have never looked back, 28mm was always too small for me and I could never be subtle enough on the exhibition 54mm scale figures or larger.

Strangely enough, many, many years ago I had tried modelling LOTR 1/48th scale, but at that time I still needed experence and there was no Green Stuff then!

I also modelled 1/43rd O Scale model trains (Narrow Gauge O – 16.5mm, for those in the know) and this again was just right for me, so 40mm or 1/48th – my scale of choice.

I also model in 1/300th and find that I can model by eye in both of these scales – picking out suitable toys or pieces in toy shops or my bits box – strange that!

Tony
dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com

I'm with Clibinarium – 10mm is the perfect compromise for me. They look good from a distance, and close up too.
But I also do 54mm / 75mm / 90mm just for painting and display.
I recently tried some 2mm – they looked pretty good, like a huge army, but my clumsy fingers had too much trouble moving them around. So I'm sticking with 10mm.

Although Warlord Games' plastic Romans make 28mm look interesting…
Regards,
Michael Lovejoy

I can't see why Wargamers (rather than painters or modellers) use 28mm figures for anything but skirmishes. They just look daft to me – a few figures representing a Bn and still not enough room on a smallish table for more than a few Bn.

Add to that the length of time taken to paint them and I just don't see the point.

In 10 & 6mm you get to choose. Smaller no of figures per Bn and lots of Bns or less larger Bns.

Michael – the trick with 2mm is to put a number of blocks on each base so that the BASE is the unit. Much less fiddly and you still get the 'look'.

When I broke in, 25mm was what was available. I never even heard of 30mm.
At the time 15mm was confined to Peter Laing and Minifigs strips, and I cared for neither.
That made up my mind.
I dabbled in 15mm Napoleonics, twice, and gave up on the period. That was another black mark for 15mm.

Like others, I use 15's for battle where the figure ratio is high and 25/28's when it's closer to 1:1.

I've recently commented on twice on TMP that cost is a factor for me when choosing a scale. That's true, but only to a certain extent. This might sound really obvious, but I must actually like the figures I'm buying and painting, whatever size they happen to be. I have found that anatomy, poses, good casting, a moderate amount of detail, and a reasonably good coverage of the period are important to me.

Also, what others are collecting also makes a difference. For instance, the other guys playing War of Spanish Succession here in Austin, Texas are using 15mm figures. That suits me fine.

I pick scales for various periods based on the scope of the battles that I want to get on the tabletop. It is tough to field 28mm tank battalions on most game tables, so I game armor in 1/285 and 15mm scales. I generally do skirmish games in larger scales.

I bought an Airfix tank at the Pharmacy when I was in grade 4 and have been making models ever since. And playing with them.
--
Tim

To say that wargamers only go for small scales because of cost or economics is another one of those hoary old myths that gets trotted out by people who don't use them or don't understand them. If you don't like the aesthetics of the smaller figures then you search around for the only advantage that you can logically think of. It's only then a small step to saying that the only reason for using 6mm or 10mm is cost savings.

As with all these 'looking in from the outside' theories it is as big as pile of stinking brown cow fecal matter as, 'They make you go blind.', 'They don't have enough detail.' or the famous, 'You can't tell what they are on the tabletop.'.

(BTW nycjadie, if you are having as much trouble painting the figures I sent you as you say you are, then you are going about the painting all wrong. Please get in touch with me by email and I'll talk you through it. I wouldn't use my 6mm painting technique to paint 40mm and you need to make a similar switch. Otherwise the only result will be tears.)

Back to the discussion at hand. People opt for small scales for a number of reasons of which cost is only one, and not necessarily the most important factor. One the whole they want to field mass large armies both in numbers of figures and in representation that is impossible, impractical or just stupid to try in large scales. Some people are happy representing a Napoleonic brigade of 2500 men with 6-8 beautifully painted figures. To others, myself included, this just looks like a few display figures taking a flag for a walk.

Some people are happy to see an 'army' of 40 top end painted figures, others want to field a minimum of 3000 figures for an evening game.

Some like to sweat over getting the exact shade of highlight for a Russian peasant's eyebrow in June 1814 while others want to get maximum painted output for minimum painting input. It would be a mistake to say they don't care about the look of the finished product – they are just looking for different things in the end result.

All of which means that there are two approaches to how games are played and how games appear on the table. I prefer my phalanx units deployed in units 288 strong in 8 ranks rather than 18 strong in 2 ranks. That is down to personal preference. Why anyone would want to try and do big, massed wargames periods in anything but small scales is beyond me. To me it's like using a screwdriver to saw a piece of wood in half. Wrong tool for the wrong job.

Finally, (at last they say!), don't think that 6mm gamers spend any less than 28mm gamers. Talking to other traders across the scales, our spend per customer is in the high average. I regularly get mail orders in excess of £100.00 GBP of am dealing with two orders this week both of which total over £300.00 GBP

Cost is definitely not the main driver for a lot of my customers.

Cheers

Peter

"Cost is definitely not the main driver for a lot of my customers."

Storage space is though – I can get two trays of 6mm stuff on the same shelf space as one tray of 15mm and three trays of 6mm for one of 20mm.

I like the look of 6mm as well, it is just much more in scale with the terrain and ground scale, and is generally neat and tidy with units looking like units and not a coupel of blokes. It also means I have the opportunity to preserve my back by playing on smaller tables sitting down…

15mm for pretty much everything these days. I started going in this direction because of the scenics side of things, as I couldn't afford to have 20mm scenic for ww2 an modern, and both 15 & 25mm scenics for everything else!

So the scenics boxes went down to 15mm only (buildings and trees mainly) & the 20mm WW2 and 25mm ancients mostly got sold (I confess to still having one 25mm ancients army I can't bear to part with). All of my land warfare kit apart from the one ancients army is 15mm.

28mm for Pulp, Sci Fi, Old West, LOTR, Pirates, and frontier America. These are more personality driven.

15mm for WWII and Modern infantry dominated gaming because of the broad selection and price.

10mm for large battles--Middle Earth, and ACW.

1/285--for large tank dominated battles.

1/600 for air combat.

1/6000 for naval combat.

I mostly play solo and ended up using 2mm. Reasons:

1) Space – I can play a game on my coffee table or my desk(which was useful in the days when I didn't have a dining room table)

2) Ease of painting – I hate to paint. 2mm doesn't have to take much effort (although I've seen some impressive jobs done on 2mm stands)

3) Storage – I put an army in an Altoids tin. An even more important storage consideration, though, is terrain. Terrain pieces take up a LOT of room in larger scales. I can keep a city in a tin.

4) Better scaling – 2mm stands look more like units that a handful of larger figs. The units relation to the ground scale looks more realistic.

this just looks like a few display figures taking a flag for a walk.

Now that's one of the best descriptions I've read in a long time.

"Why do I choose a certain scale?" – because "the voices" tell me to of course.

Why else would I have the same HYW army in 3 different scales?

Started out with 1:72 figures and vehicles as a lad, and despite some minor flirtations with 28s and 15s its been 1:72/20mm all the way since. One common scale for terrain and scenics, and it allows the use of HO/OO scale model RR stuff to boot.

Factor 1: Unit levels and number of figures required for the ruleset I want to use. This one is connected both to the visual aspect and economics of the game. For example when I started my regimental ACW project, my economy wasn't very strong and I wanted to play games with a lot of minis on the table. So the choice of 6mm was quite natural.

Factor 2: What other people are playing. All WWII gamers in my group played with 15mm minis (mostly Peter Pig, then FoW). So I started to collect my late war Americans in 15mm. All Ancients armies of my friends were also in 15mm, so I choose 15mm for my Classical Greeks too.

Factor 3: What I'm familiar with. I grew very fond of 6mm Adler minis and I knew that I would enjoy using them for my General de Brigade units. I DID consider 18mm from AB for a while, but the pricetag is still to high for me.

Factor 4: I like to use large and varied ranges that come from same manufacturer. So, 6mm ACW and Napoleonics from Adler, 20mm WWII from SHQ (although I did suplement with AB), 15mm from Xyston for my Classical period armies and I suspect most of my 28mm will continue to come from Gripping Beast.

Factor 4: Completely illogical reasons that I consider relevant. Couple of months ago I started collecting 28mm Romano-Arthurians for WAB. They are really cool minis and I love working with them, but the real reason for me starting this project is that I now can use shield decals from Little Big Men.

Also, when I decided to go with 20mm for WWII skirmish, despite the fact that my group have heaps of 15mm painted mins, tanks and suitable terrain, the only reason was that I was so fed up with painting 6mm and wanted something bigger.

"this just looks like a few display figures taking a flag for a walk."

That is funny, but at least I can tell it's a flag.