"Scales that have been and gone" Topic

Have Napoleonics "lost" more scales than any other era?

There have been 5mm, 12mm, 20mm, 30mm and arguably both 15mm and 25mm. As originally conceived these are now noticeably smaller to the point where although still made (eg Hinchliffe) they work only with each other. 15mm is now 18mm in effect.

Does anyone still game with these?

Quick count.
--I'm painting new 5mm H&R basing them to work with Wessencraft's Corps level rules or a 2/3 scale V&B.
--The 15mm were out in April or May. (It was a slow summer. They should be out again in October.)
--I just passed on the 20mm to another gamer who's planning to use them for Playable Napoleonic Wargames.
--I was playing with someone else's 25mm Saturday before last.
--My 30mm are sitting on the shelves waiting for their next game, probably next month. (The 30mm opponent is having scheduling difficulties.)

The N-gauges were up around South Bend the last time I checked, so I'm not sure about them, but otherwise, none of the scales appear to be lost.
"Not featured in glossy magazines" is VERY different from "not played."

some 25mm still fight for my armies:
- Minifigs 25mm Artillery pieces and MG manned by my 28mm Colonial crews from OG ecc..
- Some Minifigs foot Pathans, Dervishes and even smallish Zulus mixed with my 28mm OG/Foundry units
- Some 25mm Ral Partha colonial Boers among my 1:72 WW1 in South West Africa acting as Boer Mounted Corps
- Some Navwar or Naismith 25mm Landsquenets, Italian Renaissance Knights ecc…perfectly blending with my 1:72 Renaissance plastics..

I have a stack of boxes full of 1/72 scale (20mm) plastic Napoleonics as tall as I am. If I finish all the unpainted ones, the stack will easily double. I admit I'm not playing with them, but that has a lot to do with availability of players.

All of my ancients, Medievals, AWI, ACW, FPW and terrain is liberally mixed 15/18mm. The terrain for them is typically approx. N scale, but also varies. I do play with all that stuff.

- Ix

Oh. If we get to count 1/72 plastics, they're the home army. They just left the 4' table this weekend to make room for 5mm 1940 armies. And there are more on the painting table as I speak.
Individually mounted 1/72 castings are cheap, light, nearly indestructible and work on a smallish table with an amazing number of short rules.

My Napoleonic stuff is almost entirely H&R, fleshed out with a bit of Irregular. My 20mm Airfix Napoleonics are long gone however (although I still use those for Ancients and twentieth century stuff).

Odd scales never die…

I have my main armies as 1/72 (plastic and metal). Alwo have 5mm H&R, 25mm Minifigs, 28mm hinchliffe, 32mm victrix and 54mm plastics (which these days stretch from 50-60mm. Oh, and 15mm and 18mm

All naps

If I had set out to start Napoleonics with a purpose, I would have settled on 15/18mm. However, what got me interested in Napoleonics was actually the 1/72 plastic figures themselves. Many of the plastic sets tend to have an excess of weirdly hyperactive poses, but the sculpting, casting and proportions are beautiful, and they can look really lifelike when painted up. Considering how the variety of kits available has grown just in the last 15 years, I can't see how it would count as a "lost" scale. Add in the white metal offerings which have also grown since I started looking (usually called "20mm" instead of "1/72 scale"), and at least from a market perspective, this appears to be an active scale.

- Ix

@ Yellow Admiral –

Hear hear. For nostalgia reasons I've been acquiring Airfix Waterloo figures again after many decades. Two things that strike me is how well animated they mostly are – the RHA, hussars and British infantry are noticeably good – and what remarkable painting results are possible. Had there been British heavy cavalry and French dragoons and lancers available in the seventies, I doubt I'd ever have moved on.

@ Italwars: for Christmas in 1978 my dad bought me the Hinchliffe / Caldercraft 30mm Napoleonic RHA set. This was a square wooden base with a 6-pounder gun and a crew of, I think, nine. Back then, it was far too big to use with my other, 25mm Hinchliffes. Recently I bought the figures and the gun from Hinds, who still make them. These 1970s "30mm" figures are now perfectly and exactly compatible with modern Elite Miniatures 28mm. The sculpting style is different, but the height and heft of the figures is identical. The 6-pounder gun is the best 28mm artillery piece I've yet seen, from any maker.

My armies (and, as the manufacturer says "I do mean armies") are all 2mm Irregular Miniatures.

Except for the 4 Divisions of Alternative Armies 28mm fantasy Napoleonics for Slaughterloo.

My dad has around 6000 30mm Napoleonics that he still plays with.