What 'looks right' when representing a village/town in 28mm big battles?

[AKULA]

Matt, sounds like you just need a bigger table

Yeah...thats what worries me 

I managed to squeeze a hamlet into a pretty tight space, which I was pleased with (though I'm now building something bigger, just because  )

Now you see ... THAT is inspirational 

Think i need to revisit your thread

[FifteensAway]

As one of the major proponents of 15 mm, this is one time I'm going to say "don't do it".  Either go with 20 mm or follow Silent Invaders lead.  15 mm next to 28 mm is just going to be weird.  I have a 10 mm (more like 12 mm) Seven Years War army setup and I use 6 mm buildings and that works fine: 6:10 ratio so a bit over half size.  20:28 is really 10:14 which is really 5:7 so, again, a bit more than half.  15:28 might seem similar but I'm not sure it would work - and no way I would mix different building scales with different fence scales, etc. 

The one exception might be some of the larger buildings offered by Old Glory 25 mm - they are way too big for battle scale 15 mm, even 18 mm, a lot closer to 20 mm (though very suitable for 1:1 skirmishing).  As a matter of fact, I'd say their Old West buildings are more suitable for 20 mm.  The few of their French and Indian War buildings I acquired are similar.  Not sure, however, if they have buildings that will fit your setting.  Do be aware this does not apply to all their buildings, some are more suitable for 15 mm such as their Boxer Rebellion offerings.

If it were me, I'd follow Silent Invaders route.  Though Cat's 3D suggestions seem workable - but then you need to be 3D printer literate and have such a device. 

[Sunjester]

Unless it's a single building, or just on the edge of the table, I would go for a smaller footprint, so 20mm for 28mm minis. Personally I think 15mm looks too small, at least to my eye.

When you look at older wargames buildings, they often had a smaller footprint than todays, more realistic?, offerings. I also have a collection of old Hovels 25mm buildings. measuring the doors, they are closer to 20mm scale, in fact I have used them with 20mm in the past. Here is a couple of pictures.

[bluewillow]

I use HO scale buildings for 28mm horse and musket, although now with 3d printing I am shrinking footprint even more but adding height.

Cheers
Matt

[Cat]

If it were me, I'd follow Silent Invaders route.  Though Cat's 3D suggestions seem workable - but then you need to be 3D printer literate and have such a device.

Just need access to a friend with a printer; I bring mine piles of spools of PLA.  Literacy is super minimalist: download free Cura program, open file and then adjusting scaling is as simple as typing in a percentage and seeing what the result size is, or typing in a desired dimension and seeing what the resulting scaling is.

[Freddy]

Houses of different scales just look weird imho, pushes the game from the ,,diorama" feel more toward the ,,map" feel.
I just try to "bathtub-ize" the buildings: feel of the scale without the actual scale. The key is to make the houses themselves small, but with the right height and all the details (doors, etc) in the right size. For more modern themes, Lego sets with buildings are perfect for inspiration, they are the master of this style.

[Rick]

This is a problem that has been with us wargamers throughout the history of wargaming and will likely vex us for a long while to come. Unless you're doing skirmish games then it's likely that the ground scale will always be out of scale with the troops and buildings. What I've tended to do is use the same scale for figures and scenery but reduce the footprint - 1 house instead of a small hamlet, 2-4 as a reasonably sized village or small town. It's not ideal but it works. The only other solution might be to make 28mm sized buildings but with the footprint of a 15mm sized one; not a great compromise!

[has.been]

Two things I would like to mention.
1) Years ago a friend wanted me to make terrain of the Crimean battle of the Alma.
    The Russians were on a blooming big hill.
    Going by the ground scale the hill would have been about two inches (50mm) tall 
    Going by the figure scale, it would have been over six foot (2 M) 
In the end I made it about two foot tall (60cm). It LOOKED believable.

2) When I first wanted to do WW2 in a small scale (10mm  1:200th) I came across the village size question.
    What I did was to base the vehicles on 'unit' bases. e.g. a couple of Shermans or a Tiger & a Kublevagen.
    Villages were a few buildings, or something like a windmill,  & some 'clutter', but each village had an open area that could hold a 'unit' base.

    On table it LOOKED believable. e.g. the Tiger & Kublevagen next to a windmill, or the two Shermans in a hamlet.

   BUT

   Each vehicle base represented a Unit  and each building base represented a hamlet (if it just had one building e.g. the windmill) village if it had two/three buildings,
   and a town if i put two 'village' tiles together. 

   So a player moved the Heavy Panzer unit (Das Reich ?) into the village of Darmstad,
    while on the table a tiger with a kublevagen took up residence next to two buildings of the same scale.  Works for me, how about you guys?


   

[white knight]

I think this is all a matter of personal preference and you can get all the opinions you want, but if you like the look, then do it, otherwise don't.

Around christmas, you can look around at Lemax christmas village diorama's to see if you can get past the scale differences, as those all mix large figures and accessories (60mm) with smaller scale buildings (28mm).

Example:

[Dice Roller]

...if you like the look, then do it, otherwise don't.

I think is about the sum of it.
They're your toy soldiers and you can play with them any way you want to, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[AKULA]

They're your toy soldiers and you can play with them any way you want to, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Thanks mate, good to know you've got my back when the big kids in the playground pick on me 

Thanks everyone for your thoughts... it has actually helped

Will start a WIP thread in due course 

[Codsticker]

Will start a WIP thread in due course 

Excellent; I'm looking forward to that.

[Dolnikan]

I personally just put down one or a few buildings and call that a village. Just like we tend to out down a few trees and call it a forest. Everything is in (roughly) the same scale so everything looks right to me. But that's my personal taste. Others like to have the right number of buildings, but personally, I'd also want to have the right number of figures then. And I'm not crazy enough to paint up whole battalions 1:1.

[Rick]

Heh - oh, I don't know, I once painted up an entire Roman Century using Warlord plastic figures at 1:1 scale - 106 figures.