"The myth of GW's new "bigger" AOS ranges..." Topic

So I'm still in the process of going through and assembling several Warhammer armies. I decided to incorporate some Age of Sigmar models into my armies because I love some of the new sculpts so much.

Over the past year and a half, I've seen the prevailing belief that seems to persist in much of the gaming community that AOS has gone from 28mm to 32mm, everything they makes now is supposedly a new bigger scale.

Based on the models that I've built from the AOS ranges, particularly the Orruks and Stormcast Eternals, this is actually not true. It's a myth like a lot of negative GW myths.

I want to report for anyone interested in this topic and who might have assumed simply because it was said so that AOS's new ranges are 32mm. They are NOT 32mm, they are NOT a new, "bigger" range of miniatures.

AOS is a 28mm game and its miniature ranges are 28mm. I bring this up because among the many accusations leveled at GW over the course of them discontinuing Warhammer and releasing Age of Sigmar is that GW decided to abandon 28mm fantasy so they could sell new ranges of bigger, more expensive models.

These photos are an example of why this is a myth.

The following photos show in the center one of the new Age of Sigmar mounted Orruks in between two vintage Orc warriors from all the way back from 6th Edition, circa. about the year 2000.

You can see from these photos that all three orcs are exactly the same scale, right down to their heads. They are all the same height. These are two ranges of orcs separated by 15 years of production.

The only thing that makes the mounted Orruk "bigger" is that he's riding a giant boar and that he's wearing much thicker armor. He's monster cavalry. But he's Warhammer-scale monster cavalry.

It's NOT a 32mm model. It's a 28mm orc mounted on a giant boar, and that's it.

By the way, the same goes for the Stormcast Eternals. They are "bigger" because they have on high-fantasy super thick armor. But the dimensions of the heads and the person inside the armor is the same scale as a Warhammer fantasy or Warhammer 40k human.

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That armour still makes a gigantic figure. The new Orc warboss IS huge compared to standard orcs from earlier releases. Let's just say you won't rank him up with the old black orc models because he wouldn't fit on a 25mm base.

opens can. 28mm is not a scale…

28mm is not a scale?

The thing with the new Orruks is they are suppose to be HUGE. The Black Orcs are the smallest Orruks in the Iron Jaws faction.

The game hasn't switched to a new scale. Just that the newer factions are beefier than the Old World equivalents.

The Blood Reavers are pretty close to the same height as Chaos Marauders they just have thicker muscles and more mass to them.

28mm is not a scale?

28mm to the eye, chin, head, belly button etc etc etc.

28mm is a measure of distance.

1/56 is a scale.

Measuring to the eye is nonsense and gw have not been 28mm for awhile.

If you like the miniatures buy 'em if you don't, don't.

I like the old stuff others like the new. They won't get my buck but that hardly seems to matter to a mega marketer like GW.

One note: Age of Silly is not High Fantasy. Tolkien, Martin, Cameron write High Fantasy. AOS is over the top D&D on steriods comic book stuff. If you like it that should hardly matter but its not High Fantasy.

TomT

From the Chaos side of things (where there are figures that don't wear full plate armour covering everything), there does seem to be enough of a difference:

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Same with Dwarfs:

Yea GW scale has always been all over the place anyway. They are 28mm-ish.

-Will

Bottom line is that GW will sculpt whatever they think will sell, everything else be damned.

-Will

The bases are certainly larger.

I guess GW finally decided to give Dwarves waists.

Saying they are or are not 28mm is not being negative to GW. It is an observation. Just to be clear.

I agree that they have never been 100% exact on scale. Though some of there sculptors have been more consistent, Perry's for example.

I agree that they do seem to be bigger figures, even if it is just the armor.

Bigger bases is just inviting bigger figures in the future, armored or not.

It think they may be trying to make them bigger all over to appeal to regular folk by taking the mini out of the miniatures. Time will tell.

Isn't 28mm equivalent to 275/15950…?

I love all scales, but yes, the variety in both scale AND SCULPTING STYLE/PROPORTIONS often makes mix-matching assorted figures interesting…. No complaint, because there are so many options now for miniatures… this is a good thing.

I don't think GW have ever been 28mm. Here are some GW parts on Perry:

Friendly advice:

Just buy Perry:

Better Quality
Cheaper ("less expensive")
Consistent scale/size/proportion.

And perfect for A Game of Fire and Ice…

TomT

Yet another photo that is even more telling…

…here are the Orruk Gore Gruntas alongside a 7th/8th Edition Ogre Kingdoms Mournfang Cavalry model:

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This clearly shows that the Gore Gruntas are actually slightly smaller than the Ogre Kingdoms Cavalry in every basic dimension. No way this could even be considered a "32mm model", not even close.

Again, I'm merely reporting actual scale comparisons in response to all the rumor junk I've seen online with the rumor mill sites since AOS was launched in 2015. Obviously many gamers who joined the "GW is abandoning 28mm to make bigger models" never bothered to actually find out for themselves if that was really true.

It just shows that sometimes actual information is helpful when rumors and negative feelings towards something end up shaping and dictating peoples' positions on certain things.

:)