"Are 6mm infantry actually 6mm?" Topic

I'm getting into 1/285 with resin 3d printing but I'm not exactly sure how tall I should print my infantry. I think I might make them out of scale slightly large so for better painting and visibility.

I tested printing some at 1/200 and they were 7.5mm too tall?

How tall are ghq infantry for example?

comparison of different manufacturers figures click on 1/300 then click on 6mm infantry review
link

GHQ Modern Brits are getting on for 10mm tall. So tall they dwarf GHQ Challengers.

Adler are sized to work with GHQ vehicles and are the best infantry I've come across.
Well cast, lots of detail and paint up well.

Thanks for the link william. Some good stuff in there. I may be on the tall side but considering my bases are thin and most poses are kneeling I should be in good shape.

BattlerBritain

That's wild, at that point they might as well advertise them as 1/144 scale haha.

6mm is in the eye of the beholder.

On GHQs forums they have stated that their infantry are actually 1/220 scale and not 1/285 like the vehicles.

Good to know.

I think it's reasonable to have infantry slightly larger than scale. Nothing wrong with imagining the troops are taller than average. Besides, the ground scale is already off. As long as it looks believable, it's good.

I've always used Heroics & Ros with my micro scales be it 1/285th or 1/300th. When something works why change? (besides the desire to paint something new?)

You will be in good shape, Gauntlet, even if you use the 3D printed figures alongside some of the smaller '6'mm figures, such as H&R and GHQ. I should qualify 'alongside' in this context though. Each base should have figures of the same size IMHO. I wouldn't mix different size '6'mm figures on the same base but regularly wargame with armies that comprise bases of figures from multiple manufacturers.
FWIIW, I use the same dimension you described for printing resin 3D figures as well.

Robert

Monk,

Thanks for the reassurance. Are you also printing vehicles at 1/285?

Yes, I am. The downloadable vehicle STL files are usually optimised for 1:100 scale for example. They need some changes for 1:285, which I can do using CAD software. I have also designed some models from the ground up.

Here are some examples from WW2:

The buildings in the second photo are from Total Battle Miniatures.

Robert

Very nice. I have been using 1/200 models scaled down. I don't think they needed any changes but they might be slightly less detailed. The gun barrels are slightly bulked up as well.

The 1:200 models often work well without any changes apart of scaling down, typically according to length. The main difficulties have arisen where the gun barrels are very small, like the 37- or 45mm calibre barrels, machine guns or 2-pdr for example. Aerials can be a problem. Likewise very thin fenders that sit over the tracks. Narrow wheels on the likes of 37- or 45mm anti-tank guns as well as thin gun shields may need attention too.

Robert

"'ve always used Heroics & Ros with my micro scales be it 1/285th or 1/300th. When something works why change? (besides the desire to paint something new?)"

Ditto.

Baccus, GHQ and Adler are so huge they are closer to 10mm (iirc the Baccus vehicles are 1/240th?)

Irregular are also 1/300th, but on thicker bases than H&R

On GHQs forums they have stated that their infantry are actually 1/220 scale and not 1/285 like the vehicles.

I don't suppose you have a link or a reference to who said that on the GHQ Forums, and when?

Can't say that it isn't true, that it wasn't said. But I don't recall every seeing it said by GHQ. Not that I claim to have read and remembered every post, but … can you give us some more on it?

There was a fairly big kerfluffle in the GHQ Forums about maybe 8 years ago (IIRC), when the WW2 US Paratroopers were introduced. It does appear, from what I have seen, that these are rather larger than other WW2 troops. Some have said that the GHQ Vietnam infantry lines are similarly over-sized. So many things were said in the Forums about these specific figures, by forum posters. But I don't recall any pronouncements by GHQ. I don't have any of either in my collection, and have never seen them first-hand, but the pics I've seen online seem to be pretty clearly showing these two particular lines of infantry to be larger than the others.

But as for the rest of the GHQ infantry, I don't find them to be on the edge of size among 6mm vendors. Maybe a bit above average, but even that depends on who and how you are grading.

Examples are perhaps in order:

Not a perfect picture, I know. Should re-do this, or similar, on some graph paper some time…

In this pic you see (L-to-R) figures from: GHQ WW2 Romanian Individual Infantry, GHQ WW2 US Army Artillery Crew, GHQ WW2 US Army Armored Infantry, and H&R WW2 US Army Artillery Crew.

I find them all to be compatible enough, at least for my purposes.

I frequently mix the GHQ Artillery Crew figures with the Armored Infantry figures in my open-topped vehicles -- the Armored Infantry are a bit slighter in build, but not notably shorter in height once you clip the Artillery Crews off of their molded-on stands. In this pic of my US 1943 Armored Cav M3 Scout Cars, the .50cal gunners are GHQ Artillery Crew figures, while the .30cal side-gun gunners are from the Armored Infantry set. In the jeeps the front-passengers are sliced off of the multi-figure blocks of the GHQ Armored Infantry sets, while the rear-seat figures are H&R kneeling AT gun crewmen.

In this picture of my Romanian 100mm Howitzer battery, the gun crews are a mixed set of GHQ and H&R artillery figures. Is it so obvious which are larger or smaller that you would reject these from your collection?

Here is a command stand of WW2 French figures. In this case a Scotia figure is placed beside an H&R figure. This is beyond my threshold. I have generally rejected the Scotia WW2 French figures except for occasional kneeling figures, which I still regard as too large but which are harder to notice when placed among standing figures from other vendors.

It's not that I don't care about how my figures look, or the scale of the figures I use. I very much do care. But I don't see enough difference in size between most of the GHQ figures and H&R Figures to get too fussed about it. I happily mix them in my collections, in my units, and even on the same stand.

After all, people come in different sizes in the real world too. I certainly hope that Mr. Zaloga does not disregard my research on the Panther because he feels I am out-of-scale!

Your tankage may vary.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)