Survey! Smaller Scales in Hard Plastic!

Comments

Anonymous - July 7, 2023

I would also prefer 1/72 (aka 20mm) miniatures in hard plastic.

Anonymous - July 6, 2023

Hellenistic / Republican Roman Antiquity in 6mm, 8mm or 10mm and in Plastic would be nice.

Anonymous - July 6, 2023

I’m currently buying (in metal):

6-8mm scifi and WW2 10mm Fantasy 15mm WW2

Not all periods/genres appeal at all scales, but I’d be interested in the above.

Paul Mitting - July 6, 2023

I would like to see 20mm / 1:72 scale figs for Fantasy and Sci-Fi in hard plastic. As many have noted there is a dearth of figures in this scale other than some soft plastic versions (which are good but still too bendy to paint well). This would open up a lot of conversions using other vehicles and terrain in this popular wargaming scale.
As a wild card, I have always loved 54mm scale skirmish gaming and other than Tehnolog from Russia it is hard to get good looking SciFi and Fantasy minis. Having them as a larger sized multi-part kit like the Grognards or Cannon Fodder would be a dream come true!

Harry Opping - July 6, 2023

Re: 20mm 1/72. It’s just the worst of all worlds. Too big for mass battle, takes as much time to paint as more detailed 28s.

Matt WIlliamson - July 6, 2023

Where is 1/72-20mm far more popular around the world than the other scales you are proposing. Ancients to modern era.

My two cents
Matt
French Wargame Holidays

Tyler Tinsley - July 6, 2023

“MM” is not a great way to talk of scale given some measure to the eyes and some to the top of the head.

I prefer 12mm or 1-144 for smaller scale figures because it’s a happy medium for so many subjects in so many near by scales.

It’s close enough to use most N scale railway terrain, it’s got plenty of support in historical and sci-fi vehicles, it’s got lots of old school European “10mm” figures like from pendraken.

Currently the biggest gap in available subjects are actual human figures and the biggest opportunity imo is samurai era battles given you only need to make one range to cover most of the factions in that era.

I would adopt the 20×40 mm style bases with figures in strips like seen in warmaster. Or at least cast the figures on parts frames that allow for easy organized painting.

For larger then 28mm I prefer 1/46 1/48 as it’s a popular enough scale

Y. Whateley - July 6, 2023

I agree with some of the other answers, though again, as someone who isn’t likely to branch out into smaller scales: it’s probably not a good idea to rock the boat of your 28mm historical and Death Fields fan bases very much, and if you do try other scales, you might want to keep it simple and focus on one other scale, maybe two at most, as there seem to be so many scales to choose from out there, that it kinda discourages those of us who might otherwise experiment a little. You might also want to limit the genres used in that scale a little, as again, the bewildering variety of genres and historical periods can be a bit bewildering and discouraging!

With that in mind, those who already have a favorite game in mind probably already have a favorite, but for those who are on the fence or have never considered any of these smaller scales:

1/72 (~25mm) – Wildly popular for military scale models, with a wealth of scale model infantry, buildings, armor, aircraft, and other kits available for terrain and gaming pieces. I don’t think there is a lot out there in sci-fi, but I do see a little fantasy gaming stuff available in this scale (it’s close to the scale used for older RPG minis, and modern 28mm Heroic monsters and so on are adaptable to this scale), and it seems popular enough with a subset of fantasy gamers. Crosses over loosely with the popular HO scale (1/87 or ~20mm, I think) railroad modeling, for a fair variety of railroading scenery, civilian models, buildings, etc. This “small” scale isn’t a whole lot smaller than modern 28mm and heroic scale minis, and is still just big enough to allow for somewhat detailed painting of infantry, though eyes, mouth, and other features are generally lost at this scale; armor, aircraft and other larger models should however be a pleasure to paint and model in this scale. Painters will likely prefer 28mm and larger figures for nice, detailed infantry figures: this really isn’t much of a painter’s scale, where infantry is concerned, and small-scale miniatures only get smaller from here. There is a lot of traditional historical 1/72 soft-plastic infantry kits on the market, from almost any historical period you can imagine, but the soft plastic, in my experience, doesn’t take gluing or painting very well, so beware of that if you’re new to this scale, but some hard plastic Wargames Atalantic historical, fantasy, and/or sci-fi kits in this scale ought to be a pleasure for kitbashing, painting, and so on.

1/144 (~12mm) – Fairly popular for military scale models, with a number of WWII to modern-era scale aircraft, armor, and ships available, though I’m not aware of any great amount of infantry scale models in this scale, so this might be an opportunity to fill a void. This scale also seems to be popular for sci-fi model kits, but I don’t think there’s much out there for fantasy gaming in this scale. I’m not sure how common this scale is for wargaming miniatures, but I guess there are a few in 12mm. Might be a close enough match to cross over with 10mm gaming stuff, and should cross over loosely with W scale railroad modeling, but this doesn’t seem to be a popular railroading scale so opportunities for finding civilian models and scenics in this scale seem limited. Personally, I kinda like the scale modeling options in this scale, and it might have been a better gaming scale than 10mm or 9mm or some of the other similar scales, but as-is, it seems like a wargaming wasteland; on one hand, this means it’s currently a niche market, on the other, the sky’s the limit for new markets to be created with all the voids to fill here….

10mm (1/200 or 1/220) – seems to be a relatively new scale, used more for wargaming than modeling, with only a few dozen military models in these scales, but an interesting number of sci-fi and fantasy wargaming miniatures – mostly infantry, buildings, and vehicles, I think – available out there. Reaper Miniatures has a nice selection of plastic sci-fi battlemechs, scif-fi armor, aircraft, infantry, and buildings, and I believe this is a popular scale for 3D-printed and metal gaming content. Crosses over loosely with N-scale railroading kits, which may provide a fair amount of civilian and railroading kit options for scenery, etc., and it’s a “close enough” scale for use with whatever 9mm gaming miniatures are available out there, or alternatively it’s not very far off from the 1/144 scale military models mentioned above, as long as you don’t mind a little sloppy handwaving on the scale (I’d be fine with it, but YMMV). There doesn’t otherwise seem to be very much available in this scale for historical gamers, but I wonder if there might be a “build it and they will come” opportunity here to expand this scale for use in historical and sci-fi/fantasy cross-over gaming?

6mm (1/285 or 1/300) scale – A popular “micro-armor” scale, with 1/300 apparently used by NATO military wargaming, it seems, with a pretty wide variety of military scale miniatures and gaming pieces available in this scale. Looks like 6mm is otherwise technically a sloppy “standard” scale for older battlemech wargaming, with a huge variety of metal and plastic sci-fi gaming miniatures in this scale available, though the old battlemech gaming minis are, as near as I can tell, not really in scale with each other, being more like tokens than actual scale models – expect infantry that can’t possibly fit in their vehicles and this sort of thing when mixing-and-matching models from this scale. Apparently it’s a popular scale for 3D printed minis, with potentially a lot of 3D printed material available to add to your gaming table. It apparently crosses over with the relatively obscure Z-scale railroading scale, but I don’t think very much Z-scale material exists out there; it might be “close enough” that you could mix in 8mm and perhaps even 9mm and 10mm gaming stuff here. Probably best for armor and aircraft, as in-scale infantry would be very, very tiny, but infantry options do exist, and you could get a lot of gaming material onto a tabletop at this scale! Given the relative popularity of this scale compared to other really small options, this would seem to be the “safest” option.

I don’t really think Wargames Atlantic could go very far wrong with either 6mm or 1/72 – these seem like the safest bets to me.

I kinda like 10mm as the best compromise between too-small-to-see, and too-big-for-armor-and-aircraft-wargaming, and it’s probably close enough to some similar military scale modeling and similar scales to handwave some nice non-10mm stuff onto the tabletop alongside it, but it seems like this mid-range is where things get riskier in any event, given the competing standards here, and the relative lack of material at this scale. That might present an opportunity, however, for Wargames Atlantic to decide on one of these mid-range scales as a standard, and 10mm seems like the best compromise here.

Alan - July 6, 2023

6/8mm Bulldogs for the next GW epic scale you say?

Y. Whateley - July 6, 2023

I really don’t have a dog in this race, as I really couldn’t afford to branch out into smaller-scale gaming, so I can’t fairly answer the poll and will stay out of it.

But, I do have always had a fondness for 1/72 scale (~25mm) military aircraft and tank/vehicle modeling, and 1/720 or 1/700 scale military ship modeling, and I really kind of wish that sci-fi and fantasy gaming miniatures had gone toward 1/72 scale instead of the heroic scale-creep direction we have instead.

A line of 10mm (or smaller) sci-fi and “modern” (WWI to near-future) vehicles for tabletop gaming – battlemechs, tanks, buildings, ships, infantry and gun emplacements, etc. – does sound like it could be a lot of fun!

Based on what seems to be popular in the wargaming market right now, it seems like 10mm might work somewhat bet for battlemech gaming, and in a modern space-opera aesthetic (see Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc., and you can probably include Warhammer 40K in the mix…), though as always, I always like something a little different from whatever is popular.

I’d suggested some Martians & tripod Martian War Machines for the classic fantasy line before, to square off against some of the Great War or Imperial Conquest sets for a tabletop War of the Worlds, but perhaps that sort of thing might be better suited for 6mm or some other popular small scale? A sort of retro sci-fi angle with Martian, Venusian, Lunar, and other alien factions would be a lot of fun for me – though as always, my tastes are strange and no reflection on the general sci-fi wargaming market!

With War of the Worlds in mind, it turns out that H.G. Wells was an early wargame enthusiast, developer, and publisher, and developed multiple wargaming rule sets, including one from 1913 called “Little Wars” – it might be fun to run a War of the Worlds game with some variation on Wells’ own wargaming rules! The original was played using spring-loaded artillery that fired wooden dowels at toy soldiers, which Wells noted as being capable of hitting a target “nine times out of ten at a distance of nine yards” for the larger-scale toy soldiers of the time, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to adjust that to a dice roll and a smaller-scale tabletop battlefield….

Anyway, I guess that if I were to vote, I’d be leaning toward 10mm scale, which seems to be what Reaper Miniatures’ uses for its plastic sci-fi battlemech, aircraft, armor, infantry, and building models for CAV Strike Operations, which seems like it would invite the use of the models together, alongside N-Scale railroading stuff, a small number of 1/200 and 1/220 military ship and other scale models, and what seems to be a small but growing number of historical, sci-fi, and fantasy 10mm gaming miniatures. A good selection of affordable building, infantry, armor, and other models that can cover a lot of historical and sci-fi ground could go a long way toward growing what is currently a niche 10mm market!