Vehicle scale best for 28mm figures?

[Grumpy Gnome]

There has been an interesting discussion about this topic over on the Wargames Atlantic forum and I wanted to see what folks thought about the topic here.

https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/51735/discussion-scale-of-wga-vehicles

Originally I was going to use 1/56 as it is the most common and is sold as “the correct scale” by Warlord Games but some research has shown me that I will likely prefer 1/48.

http://www.frontline-command.com/blog/the-question-of-scale-for-w-w-ii-28mm-gaming/

What are your thoughts?

[Tom Dulski]

I originally bought some 1/56 scale tanks and thought they looked ridiculous next to 28mm figures in heroic scale.  I think 1/48 is damn near perfect and 1/50 scale is almost indistinguishable from 1/48 so I think both work very well.

[Dags]

1/56th certainly has the advantage of being the established scale for WW2 gaming and there are a shedload of vehicles available in a variety of mediums. It is technically right for 'proper' 28s too. But....

Most 28s aren't 28s. They're bigger.
Most 28s on the table will have an integral base and/or be on a base. Unless you also base your vehicles they, to me, look too small.

1/48th is technically too big (cba to do the maths but iirc works out as a 6' man being 35mm) but TO ME looks right on the table.

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice and there is no right or wrong. As long as you don't mix vehicle scales it really doesn't matter.

[Sgt_T]

I have a few 1:48 (plastic kits), 1:50 (die cast) and 1:56 vehicles, but most are 1:43 die cast.

Now I am a fan of TLAR (That Looks About Right) so I don't have a problem using even differently scaled vehicles in the same game, as long as they are not right next to each other (e.g. a 1:43 Panzer III on one side of the table and a 1:50 Sherman on the other). All look OK to me with figures depending on the heigth of their base. My figures are mostly based on 25mm GW style plastic slottabases.

The main reason for choosing 1:43 die cast vehicles is cost. They tend to be a lot cheaper than 1:56 resin or plastic. An advantage over 1:48 kits (Tamiya / Hobby Boss) and some 1:56 plastic models is their sturdiness and they are ready-to-play. I personally enjoy building a kit, but putting together a 1:48 tank track consisting of individual track links or a 200+ parts suspension is taking it a bit too far, not to mention very easily damaged during play.

Of course the down side is that there is a limited selection of 1:43 die cast vehicles available, and rare models are naturally quite expensive. So when I needed a M3 Stuart I went for the 1:56 plastic version instead of the hard to find Altaya/Schuco/... die cast model.

But as Dags said:

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice and there is no right or wrong.

T.

[modelwarrior]

1/56 only because of the wide range. Depends on the models you are using for 28mm as 28mm comes in various differnt sizes

[Grumpy Gnome]

Yeah, I have already learned that the Perry WW2 figures I bought did not look right next to the Wargames Atlantic and Warlord Games WW2 figures… so the Perry figures went back onto eBay.

I was surprised to find I preferred the slightly exaggerated “heroic” look of the WA and Warlord figures compared to the more realistically proportioned Perry figures but the 1/56 vehicles just did not work for me.

[tin shed gamer]

My methodology is simple I sculpt 28mm miniatures so I scale vehicles at 6mm a foot .Why ? Because most early 20th century vehicles are measured in feet and inches. So 6mm to a foot is a doddle to convert.
Even then there's the artistic leeway as you take into account the casting requirements.
Which if your still hung up on scale modelling comparisons it's. Roughly. 03mm off 1/50 But they still marketed as 1/48 which is roughly 0.34mm  more per foot.

Personally I do give any real credence to which scale is which. I don't think it matters a jot as the whole concept of scale in wargamings is a hang up from the days of scale modelling.  As gamers we pick and choose scale or suspended it all together as when we feel it nolonger fits our tables or our tape measures. So we pick what works with our preconceived notions of what thing should look like on our tables.
My main concern is infantry LOS and cover,Once you base miniatures they're effectively over seven feet tall. So I go for bigger vehicles. Because they avoid gaming issues And  because I've a preconceived notion of tanks being Huge ( partly from being a kid at 4'3" doing a paper round on my chopper and constantly trying not to get run over by Chieftain tanks or getting my ankles broken on tank curbs or loosing an ear as the tracks whizzed pass. )

[Cat]

My axiom is that Perry and other more scale figures represent WW2 soldiers.
 
Warlord and other cartoony one represent WW2 reënactors.  Fitting more than one reënactor into a 1:1 scale Willys Jeep ain't easy neither!
 
But, I went with 1/56 for my WW2 skirminsh vehicles because of the incredible and growing variety.

For trains however, I go with S Scale, 1/64, because the track width looks a lot better with any 28mm figures.  O Scale, 1/48, is way too wide even for Russian broad gauge — you could never tie a figure across the tracks!

[vodkafan]

I voted for 1/56.  A 5'10" man at 1/56 scale is 31mm tall, which is what most "28mm" figures really are nowadays.
I find 1/48 much too big and it takes up more room on the table. 1/43 is just a bit ludicrous to my eye.

[commissarmoody]

I got for 1/50-1/48. Because I honestly think that 1/56 looks cartoonishly small on the table. And the only reason why it's the popular is because Warlord bought into that scale and marketed it as the true scale.
But that's just my view, you can use whatever you want. 
And we could always just go with 1/50. 

[Tom Dulski]

Agree it does look rather small. If you look at the hatches on the turret of a 1/56 scale tank and a typical warlord bolt action miniature you would see there is no way they would be able to fit in it. Now Perry or empress miniatures are another story.

[shadowbeast]

I got for 1/50-1/48. Because I honestly think that 1/56 looks cartoonishly small on the table. And the only reason why it's the popular is because Warlord bought into that scale and marketed it as the true scale.
But that's just my view, you can use whatever you want. 
And we could always just go with 1/50. 

What we seem to have here, is a bunch of figure scales being declared to be one.
If your vehicles are too small, maybe your figures are just too big?

[Wyrmalla]

Personally, I just buy more realistically proportioned figures.

Heroic Scale models are overly wide for their scale so look too large besides 1/56th scale vehicles. Height wise though, jumping to 1/48th scale then has the issue of the figures being far too short. Real tanks aren't that massive - a Tiger I's front glacis plate only reaches a man's waist, and an Sd.kfz 251 was the size of a large transit van.

With 3D printing becoming more accessible, that may excuse folk moving over to scales of their choosing. I used to have all my Modern vehicles in 1/50th scale - as that's what the manufacturers sold them in. Now everything's 1/56th.

Scale comparisons to 28mm may be arbitrary, but I'd rather take 1/56th as "good enough" than have my figures look so much like stumpy children with 1/48th.

[Patrice]

It's another religious war, it depends so much on personal tastes and choices.

I stay with 1/56 as much as possible (and I base my figures on 20mm washers as thin as possible because I don't like to see them too high above ground level). But I understand that groups of players using heroic size figures fixed on very thick bases may choose differently.

[CapnJim]

I'm in the "what looks okay to me is okay by me" camp.  I have 1/56 and 1/48 armored vehicles, and several 1/50 and 1/43 soft skins for my WW2 forces.  I don't mix the 1/56 and 1/48 armored vehicles, but I do mix the soft-skins with both.

Stepping outside of the WW2 era, but within the scope of the original question, I have 1/50 and 1/43 diecasts for my "modern" stuff, and freely mix them on the table.  My "modern" civilian cars and trucks are a mix of scales, once again in the "what looks right to me..." category.  Same for my gangster-era cars and trucks...

But as has been said several time, it all comes down to personal style and choice....