"Size/Scale Comparisons" Topic

        Height of Man
Figure	5'3	5'6"	5'9"	6ft
mm	1m60	1m67	1m75	1m82
6	1:267	1:278	1:292	1:303
10	1:160	1:167	1:175	1:182
15	1:107	1:111	1:117	1:121
20	1:80	1:84	1:88	1:91
25	1:64	1:67	1:70	1:73
28	1:57	1:60	1:63	1:65
32	1:50	1:52	1:55	1:57

Measurements 'to eyes' shift one column left

LH,

That is awesome. I must save this table. You rock!

Thanks.

Dan

I agree. The thing that gets me is that even though I know this stuff, I still have that 15mm = 1:100 idea stuck in my head. I think I got that from Peter Pig and it's a simple, if inaccurate, rule of thumb. The idea being that your average man is (or was depending on the period) about 1.5m from soles of feet to the eyeballs. This is probably just a tad on the short side. For me, the best thing about your chart is that it makes clear that using a range of of "28mm" miniatures that will bleed into 32mm depending on the manufacturer is not a bad thing. It's a nice way of representing human size variation in 1:57 scale.

pigbear- I assume you mean that some 28s are actually 30mm etc. True 28 and 25 next to each other (ignoring the equipment) will show a 6 footer next to a shortarse of 5'3" (see also the same for 25/28)

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The top and bottom of neighboring "sizes" do a nice job of representing height variation in a single scale. This point of view lends credence to 28mm = 1:56. I have been leaning towards this scale in my plans for obtaining vehicles.

It would only be 1:56 recently. Even one-two generations back 5'6", 5'8" would be an average size.

Personally I wish manufactures would go scale, not size, using a known piece of equipment- we know the length of a rifle. Then there would be no heretics who measure to the eyes

With the table above, don't make the error of assuming a figure labelled as '15mm' is actually 15mm high, whether to the eyes or top of the head.

The table is a very precise calculation of ratios, but it isn't the same thing as the labels manufacturers put on their figures. 20mm figs are typically 23, 24 or even 25mm high.

Useful discussion of heights, scales and labels on Plastic Soldier Review.

link

Martin- I know, and that is much of the problem. Manufactures should really use true scale- to describe the kit we can measure, then say what range of heights the figures cover. It's annoying buying X mm from a different company to the ones you have, then finding half your army looks like freaks.

I've just found where my Airfix so called 1:72 are, and they are 1-2mm taller than the 20mm (which are in fact 20mm to the top of head!)

Nice work, Last Hussar (and nice name too). I am one of those heretics, measuring to the eyes on my comparison-focused blog:

plasticpelisse.blogspot.com

I like your idea of showing what those nominal scales really mean as ratios.