"New board for 1/144 scale" Topic

I'd like to have a board for 1/144 scale miniatures. I'm normally opposed to the creation of new boards, but in this case I think one might be justified.

There is a small but cult-like group of 1/144 WWII gamers, and I've been abducted into it. I started playing with gashopon WWII planes in this scale in 2014, and have since grown my collection (far too large, really). Just a few weeks ago I fell into the rabbit hole of 1/144 tanks, and I'm afraid there's no climbing out now… This scale is really something special. I'd like to contain and foster the discussion about it, and I think a dedicated board would help with that.

WWII is far from being the only era for this scale. It's likely the most prolific scale of WWI aeroplane models, there is a fair bit of "modern" (post-WWII) gaming kit in 1/144 scale, and Kallistra has been making WWI, ACW, AWI, Medieval and fantasy figures in this scale for years. Warlord's newer lines of ACW and Napoleonic "epic" miniatures might fairly be considered 1/144 scale as well – Warlord makes no scale claims I'm aware of, but the epic figures are size-compatible with Kallistra's.

It's not hard to find posts with "1/144" in the subject on TMP, dating back to at least 2004. A search turns up hundreds of them. The sheer quantity actually makes it hard to look at the newest ones; a dedicated board would help with that.

It's probably a lot harder to find posts specifically about 12mm or 1/144 scale in other eras, if it isn't explicitly named in the subject.

Since I'm proposing a board about a niche scale rather than a period, I recommend it appear in all the period topics for which there is product available:

FANTASY BOARDS
ANCIENTS BOARDS
MEDIEVAL BOARDS
RENAISSANCE BOARDS
18TH CENTURY BOARDS
NAPOLEONICS BOARDS
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BOARDS
19TH CENTURY BOARDS
WORLD WAR ONE BOARDS
WORLD WAR TWO – LAND BOARDS
WORLD WAR TWO – AIR BOARDS
MODERN BOARDS

I'm agnostic about whether a new board should be called 1/144 or 12mm. Since I'm concerned with scale accuracy, I'd prefer "1/144", but many of the figures for this scale are advertised as "12mm" instead, so… <shrug>

- Ix

1/144 is a popular aircraft model collector scale (True North 1/144 metal aircraft…and a number of others). 1/144 is a very good scale for ground attack aircraft for 15mm WWII, not too big and doesn't overwhelm the figure scale. Nice armour scale..(mind you, I prefer 1/160..or 10mm)

link

and I've been abducted into it.

Forcibly?

I like 1/144 aircraft…. I haven't dabbled in 1/144 armor yet, but I've been tempted.

Count me in.

A great scale, especially for already assembled and painted minis in many cases.

I would support such a board.

I like 1/144 aircraft…. I haven't dabbled in 1/144 armor yet, but I've been tempted.

I was successfully ignoring the universe of 1/144 miniatures beyond aircraft for almost a decade… then a whole box of pre-painted 1/144 AFVs fell in my lap. I thought "I'll just use these for ground targets", but now I'm well on the way to combined-arms gaming with 1/144 planes and tanks and infantry and artillery all interacting on the same table. The pre-painted vehicles are right in that sweet spot that lights up the toy lust center of the brain, and the output from Victrix is some of the nicest looking modeling I've seen in years. Even the infantry.

Finding and collecting in this scale is more of a challenge than most, and the information about it is fractured and hard to hunt down. I think having a community to collect and discuss tips, tricks, sources, substitutions, crafting ideas, etc. would be really useful.

- Ix

Yea, 1/144th is a bit challenging, but getting much better of late.

Arrowhead, Dragon, Takara, Pegasus, Victrix, and others for true 1/144th scale minis.

Red3, Pendraken, Miniature Figurines, Pit-Head, and others for 1/150th scale minis.

Red3 and Pendraken are some of the more affordable, metal minis, so are worth checking out.

The difference in scales is only about 4%, so 1mms – 2mms per model, depending upon the vehicle. Don't mix the same vehicles from different manufacturers and you should be able to mix and match without too much concern.

Thankfully, these scales have expanded considerably in the last few years, and are slated to do so even more in the next couple of years.

You left out F-Toys, Anschluss, Kamiya, Kallistra, Butlers Printed Models…

Point taken, and agreed. There is a lot of uptake in 1/144 and the near-equivalents advertised as "10mm", and quite a bit of really nice-looking stuff, too. It's turning into a really good scale.

I'm excited enough about the scale that I'm actually contemplating painting soldiers again. I haven't painted a soldier taller than 6mm in over a decade.

Unfortunately the 1/144 WWII plane market is dying back. Takara, Bandai and 21.C Toys have stopped new releases years ago, F-Toys is only doing a couple a year, the old Minicraft and Revell models are all OOP, AFV Club might have just done a new production run (not sure yet), and lots of other manufacturers seem to have come and gone. I've been collecting 1/200 STLs of all the planes I want and trying to get them resized and printed in 1/144, but that's been tough going, and sometimes the proportions are a bit odd (oversized guns and canopy bars, thick wings and stabilizers, etc.). I think I'm going to have to buy a 3D printer if I want to be serious about that.

Meanwhile, the 1/144 WWI and interwar plane market is growing. I've always avoided WWI dogfight games because the planes were heavy, hard to assemble, and had complicated paint jobs, but 3D printing may be robbing me of all those excuses. In a moment of weakness, I bought a 1/144 print of Porco Rosso's plane, so I guess I have a toe in that water…

- Ix

Also kits from Pit Road and U-Star. I would like to see a 10/12mm / 1/144 board.

The olde WoW/WoG aircraft are quite light, so perfect for WWI aerial gaming.

The bonus is they come preassembled and prepainted, which is a plus too.

Some in our group have bought and assembled some of the Shapeways aircraft too, and they look quite nice as well.

The Historical Gamers Group in Sac, which IIRC, you may be near to.

Yes definitely please! Nomenclature to included 1/144 rather than 12mm too if possible…

I think Pendraken is awesome.

N-Scale could be another option, since it covers 1/144th – 1/160th scales, which seems to be the range of scales some use for this type of gaming.

1/144th and 1/150th scales seem to predominate, but 1/160th is also produced by some – very expensive, high-end models in one case.

Excellent proposal – and since it's a multi-periods recommendation, one with board reach on TMP here.

Maybe even draw in those 13.5mm new-comers too, under the big tent? ;) :)))

With the steady growth of both interest in this scale as well as a wide variety of available models I highly endorse this proposal.

Count me in.

Wolfhag

This is coming up for a vote on Monday. How do people feel about this now?

Ironically, I'm planning to vote against it. I think the 10mm WWII board already covers this request for WWII. I think it would be counterproductive to have both a 10mm WWII board and a 1/144 board for WWII.

10mm/12mm (and 1/144, N scale, etc.) is completely left out of other eras on TMP, but I have doubts that a 1/144 or 12mm board is the right way to correct that. Now that we're a step down the road to 10mm boards per era, I think that's probably the better way to proceed (10mm Napoleonics, 10mm ACW, 10mm World War One, 10mm Ancients, etc.).

YA, I agree.

The vote would serve better by just adding 12mm-1/144 to the 10mm board title, or we can just soldier on as we merrily have this past year as-is.

I'll vote against an exclusive 1/144th scale board if I see the poll (and you'll be likely to link it on the WW2 10mm board, eh?)

Dave