Here at Battle Honours 3D, we have spent, so, so very long on this question. We’re avid tabletop gamers and wanted our models to look right no matter what scale you like to wargame in. We took our buildings and a variety of different manufacturers of models, materials and scales and attempted to adjust our building sizes so that our buildings will look right based on the scales you wish to game with.
We spent a lot of time comparing competitors’ buildings and judging how each scale looked compared to their soldiers, and what we saw was a lot of buildings and models with scale creep. Scale creep is the tendency over time for bigger and bigger figures to be produced in the same notional scale.
How did we resolve this?
We spent some time making some models digitally and making true scale models in 6mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13.5mm, 15mm, 18mm, 20mm, 22mm, 25mm, 28mm & 32mm. We then printed many different scales and put models together to decide the correct scaling for our buildings. When I say our buildings, we reviewed hundreds of buildings with different sized doors, even went into such detail as finding the buildings with true pictures and through google maps. We then took approximate measurements of those doors on the genuine articles based on the images and on google maps, then compared them with other buildings in which we had the measurements of. Using this information, we were able to get definitive sizes and scales for our buildings.
We were really excited and slightly shocked at how excellent our models looked compared to our buildings at smaller scales. For example, 12mm & 13.5mm soldiers in front of 10mm models looked simply outstanding (even unpainted!). Due to this we felt that it may be best to condense some of our ranges into combined ranges. That is how we found ourselves with 6mm, 10 – 12mm, 15 – 18mm, 20mm, 25mm & 28mm.
Our breakdown and findings by scale:
6mm scale buildings look excellent with 5mm – 8mm scale models,
10 – 12mm scale buildings look excellent with 10 – 13.5mm scale models,
15 – 18mm scale buildings look excellent with 15 – 18mm scale models,
20mm scale buildings look excellent with 20 – 22mm scale models,
25mm scale buildings look excellent with 25 – 28mm scale models,
28mm scale buildings look excellent with 28 – 40mm scale models.
When we’ve developed our model buildings, they are true scale 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm & 28mm.
What do you think of our scaling? Have you ever put this much thought into your tabletop war gaming models?
