"Modern model cars for 28-30mm miniatures?" Topic

Hey folks. I'm looking for regular model cars and stuff that will work well with 28mm or 30mm figs. Would I need 1/48? or 1/32? Either way, aside from a couple of die cast things I can't find anything :( plenty of military stuff, but no regular cars. I didn't google very hard, but still.. couldn't find anything.

Anyone know where I can look or any companies that might make them? Would the standard model cars at the local hobby shop be too big? it's been about 30 years since I built a model car… :) not sure what's out there…

1/48 – 1/64, depending upon the minis, bases, and your take on what looks to be to scale.

CVS stores (drug stores) have a pretty decent selection of diecast minis that look to be about right, for around $6.00 USD each. Regular cars, police cars, and a few other things.

Take a standing mini with you, to see if they meet with your needs, sizewise.

Model cars and wargames figures are not scaled to work well together. It's a matter of finding models that look acceptable to you.

Some people like 1/43rd vehicles – the most common size – which are actually significantly overscale for even the largest '28mm' figures (but about right for 40mms). I'll generally accept an overscale truck or similar vehicle, but if your Honda Civic model is 25' long, it does not look right.

The smaller cars (Hot Wheels, Matchbox etc) are often sized to fit the packaging, and so vary in scale quite wildly – sports cars may fit with 28mms, larger vehicles will fit 20mm or even 15mm.

The best fit for most 28mms are actually the Pixar 'Cars' vehicles, which scale at 1/55. They do have eyes on the windscreen, which you'll need to paint out.

1/32 is way too big. As noted above, try 1/48-1/64. You can find die cast in various drug and grocery stores, as well as toy stores. There is also a ton of die cast on ebay and you can filter your search by scale.

Cars in perfect scale look odd because your figures are on bases and they (the cars) look really short.

hmm .. what about model railroad O gauge stuff? I've used some buildings, but never really found any O gauge cars.

I was hoping for model kits though. I want to build them as wrecked car terrain pieces, but I want them to still look like the figures could drive them

Matchbox/HotWheels are all over the place for scale. I have even found a few which say they are 1:50 or 1:55 on the bottom. For example, the Mini Cooper wagon my son has in his pile is the right scale, but the thing looks tiny…because the real thing is tiny.

I found a Matchbox Honda Element (which is the car I own and love) in the right color that also happens to be 1:55. So when I do a zombie apocalypse game, I can work myself into it…

I think most 1:43rd look way too big. The 1:64th stuff looks small at first, but I have found it looks just about right on the table with minis if you have thin metal bases.

Check Toys R Us for the 1:64th stuff. Lots of hot rods and muscle cars, but sometimes police, SUVs, and more modern cars too.

Johnny Lightning is one of the lines I see a lot of.

And MJS is right, the Cars series are perfect scale. Especially the Trabant which I want to buy a horde of for Cold War games.

I have a photo (somewhere)of five wargamers in full Canadian winter gear standing next to a VW Jetta. It's obvious that these five men in parkas cannot possibly fit into this tiny vehicle.

We'd just got out of it.

Most cars are really a lot smaller than people assume.

try the siku range they do a whole load of them in 1/55th scale, the right scale for 28mm gaming.

There is a "Hero Patrol" range of police cars at Wal Mart that claim to be 1:64 scale. Got my nifty "CIA" 2010 Chevy Tahoe that way, as we as a cruiser and SUV for the New Jersey State Police.

I've seen various state police markings in this line.

The best advice I have read elsewhere is to take a figure along with you and hold it next to the car to get an impression of scale. So many small model cars are "box scale" that you cannot be sure without the visual figure reference.

Bear in mind that the average human stands somewhat taller than most cars.

yeah I guess I'll have to just bring a figure with me to toys r us and see what looks good.

I'm trying to build a "modern day apocalypse" game board, that's a couple of city blocks. Tanks are easy to find, but I want the blown up burning cars to look like they match. I was afraid die cast stuff would be a paint to convert since they're all metal, and the physical details aren't as crisp as a model kit would be

The die cast 1/48 can work, however, the 1/43 are just too large for my tastes. If your figures are true 25mm some of the Matchbox as well as the 1/64 will work well.

Our local Riteaid drug store has a rotating stock in mixed larger scales.

What started me on the 1/48 was when the got in some RV's. Then police cars, taco truck, and some other random cars.

Vince

I prefer 1/48 to 1/50 for cars for my 28mm figs

That makes a modern car about 1 1/2" wide. I find that by keeping all my cars about that, they all look right together.

I use cheap Chinese 1/43 diecasts from Big W here in Australia. The brand is called "Welly". The slightly larger than reality car is compensated for by the recessed 30mm plastic bases my figures are mounted on. What I like about these toy cars is that they are easily disassembled by removeing two small screws underneath. They are also mundane cars like Toyota Corollas, Peugots etc and in mundane colours like white rather than the usual selection of sports cars in red, blue and yellow. The Welly models also have reasonable underneath detail so they look acceptable upsidedown or on their sides. Also look for pull and go diecasts at weekend carboot markets. I have built up a good selection of US police cars and taxis from this source.

Just thought of another useful brand worth looking for and thats Cararama they make a huge selection of models either individually or in sets, mostly European makes in 1/72 and 1:43. Their range includes mundane cars, vans and light trucks, ambulances, fire engines, boats and large trucks.

Thinking more about the issue of whether any one scale is too large or too all, I think that " consistancy" is the key. If ALL the civilian vehicles are consistantly scaled then you can get away with it. If you mix the scales up on the one table then too large or too small becomes a " noticable" problem.

1:46 to some 1:50 die cast.

game photos can be seen here.
link

Railroad scale "O" works pretty well…

Are there any plastic kits? I want to have a supervillain ripping through the top of the hearse at his funeral, and die-cast is not good for that sort of conversion!