Having been involved in this hobby in the UK since the early 1960's and read up its earlier history, I think I know where the earlier scales came from originally. I should say "scales" because "20mm" or whatever isn't a scale, which is a ratio of a representation to the actual object. 1:76 is a scale, because the representation (the model) is one seventy-sixth as big as the real thing. In particular, the height of a soldier varies by individual, varies somewhat by ethnicity and has varied in its average over the course of history- modern people are somewhat taller than our ancestors.
Anyway, recreational wargames such as those by HG Wells were first played with W Britain's lead figures. Everything they produced was to the same "standard scale" variously described as 2 1/4 inches, 54mm and 1:32. When other manufacturers came along, including in plastic they were roughly compatible with this size. That's the toys I played with as a boy in the 1950's. The handful of wargamers who existed in Britain or Europe wanted something a bit handier, better sculpted and more historically varied and they found it in the 30mm flat figures which had been copiously produced in Germany for a very long time. That's where the 30mm scale came from. This was a handy scale and 3D figures were sculpted to the same size from about the late 1950's in Britain by Ted Suren/ Willie Figures. They were attractive but awfully expensive, and so a smaller scale of 3D metal figure grew up, called "20mm" to give an immediate idea how big they were in relation to the 30mm. The idea of this scale also flowed from the availability of Airfix plastic scenery and then figures designed to go with 00 gauge model railway stuff, ie about 1:76 scale.
So when I first came across metal wargames figures in the mid-1960's there were two established scales: 20mm and 30mm. The story may have been somewhat different in the US, because of Jack Scruby's early, prolific and innovative output. The next "scale" to come along was an intermediate size between the two, which Jack Scruby called "one inch" scale, I think. The UK version of that was the Minifigs "S" Range, bigger and better relatives of the 20mm boys. Both of these originated in the late 1960's. The Minifigs output then got established as "25mm" scale. This is the scale from which our modern 28mm figures are descended, genetically modified by "scale creep" to be at least as tall as the old 30mm figures and usually more chunky too!
By the way I am pretty sure the wily sculptor/ manufacturer referred to in a link above would have been Dick Higgs, sculptor for Minifigs. As well as establishing 26mm as the standard, the company brought out two more scales in around 1971-72. Firstly little blocks of figures called "5mm", which didn't really take off as such but gave rise to the 6mm scale and 1/300 AFV models. Secondly they came out with 15mm Napoleonics which originally came as strips of 5 infantry or 3 cavalry. 20mm or 1:76 or 1:72 remained the most popular scale for WWII etc until relatively recently because of the wide availability of AFV model kits.
Coming on to the issue of why games rules mostly specify distances in inches rather than mm, I think it's mainly down to inches being a more convenient unit of measurement when you are talking of tabletop distances greater than 6"/ 150mm say, but rarely bigger than 6'/ 2 metres . Some would refer to this issue as the "level of granularity", ie what sort of distances are you going to bother with? An inch is a more practical chunk to use than a millimetre. By the way, UK wargamers are mostly "bi-lingual" with measurements, because metric ones were taught at school since at least the 1960's, but our society largely still uses inches and miles. A carpenter or engineer would think or talk exclusively in metric nowadays however. I think US wargamers are more attached to the old measurements, and even small scale work is done in thirty-seconds of an inch or whatever, I gather. I have noticed that wargames base sizes tend to be specified in millimetres in UK rules, but inch sizes in US rules! "We say 30mm, you say 1 1/4 inches".
In support of my argument about inches being a handier unit of distance on the tabletop, you may be surprised to hear that French wargamers commonly use inch measurements in their rules and games. I am fluent in that language, have a number of French rule-sets and subscribe to the French wargames magazine Vae Victis Now the inch, "pouce" (= thumb!) hasn't been used in French schools or society since Napoleon's time, but French gamers were reintroduced to it by US/ UK rules and so forth, and they do choose it for their own rules, because it's just more convenient for distances within the range we use on the tabletop.
Hope this is of some interest.
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April 19, 2024, 09:06:56 PM
