Do you worry about varying figure sizes?

[Old Guy]

I mix figures in all my periods, that's the beauty of the hobby, although I do tend to keep them as close as possible. With my Dead Man's Hand I have Knuckleduster civilians, who are basically non player characters, and for the others a mix of DMH, Artizan and the beautiful Black Scorpion, now if you look at all these ranges closely they are not all uniform, some are thin, others fat and again some 'normal' and if you muck about with the bases (only the BS needed this for me) they all fit fine. I looked at the DMH Stagecoach crew the other day and if you put them next to a DMH standing figure they must have Hobbit forebears, but they look fine when set down on a crowded table. Mind you if you have Foundry figures why would you need to look elsewhere, the range is huge.

[Elbows]

Ohhh man, don't even let the "vehicle crew" discussion begin.  Let alone "how could X number of people fit in that stage coach!?"    That's a whole new ball of wax. 

[Heisler]

Ohhh man, don't even let the "vehicle crew" discussion begin.  Let alone "how could X number of people fit in that stage coach!?"    That's a whole new ball of wax. 

Clowns or regular people? With or without bases attached?

[maxxon]

As far as I'm aware, .44 Winchester repeater rifles didn't come in differing lengths for different sized people!

Actually, they did.

The classic lever action rifles were offered in bewildering variety of calibers, barrel lengths, barrel types, stock lengths, finishes etc. Plus cutting the stock is just about the simplest gunsmithing operation you can do.

Fitting the gun to the shooter is a very basic thing on the civilian side. It's the army grunts (and to some extent, Hollywood extras) who have to live with whatever they are issued with.

IMHO, it would be natural for a smaller person to look for a smaller gun. This is not an era of mass produced goods. You go to the tailor, he will make a suit for you. You go to the gunsmith, he will fit a gun for you. Ofcourse sometimes you have to make do with what you can get, but it's not at all out of the ordinary in this era for every single thing you own to be custom made for you.

Remember, we're talking Old West here, individuals who bring their own equipment, not government standard issue for everyone.

As for the figures: I think this is one of the genres where small variations in figures matter the least: There are no massed formations and there's even very little hand to hand combat which would require placing miniatures next to each other for easy comparison. Every figure on the table is literally an individual and usually viewed individually.

[thebinmann]

Very strangely I'm torn, but I tend to try to have similar sizes with maybe a few big guys and girls.

But I think a lot of painters/gamers have a little control freak nagging them for everything to be the same size/scale. This is true for me, then I get on the bus and see how the real world is. But those little men and women are MY SUBJECTS AND HAVE TO CONFORM TO MY VISION!!!

[Archie]

I don't think it's quite fair to say people unbothered or less bothered by changes in scale are uncaring or unable to create high quality paint jobs or care less about aesthetics. It may just be that what they beleive to be aesthetically pleasing and what strains their suspension of belief is different to yours.

I think the reason cb's comment sounded like bullying to former user is because it can be interpreted like he was saying if you are willing to use different scaled figures you are unlikely to be able to paint well or create an aesthetically pleasing game. I don't think that was the intent but I could see how it could be read that way.

It wasn't quite fair to say it - and I felt that it wasn't 'bullying' but insulting. I strongly suspect it wasn't meant that way but as someone who had come down on the side of 'size doesn't matter' I felt a little hurt. I'm fairly recently back in the hobby and whilst I like my painting ability for me it pales completely compared to virtually anyone on here.

As such reading the original comment set me back a bit and I've hesitated a few days over how to respond. I think Carlos has pulled out the relevant points and has a summary that bears repeating:

It may just be that what they believe to be aesthetically pleasing and what strains their suspension of belief is different to yours.

I really think that's it. I do the best job on my figures that I currently can but equally I'll play with an unpainted or undercoated mini if that's what I need for the game at hand and if they aren't quite the right size I won't have an issue with that.

Interestingly that 'suspension of disbelief' can vary depending on what I am playing. I am building an army from scratch for the rule set from Foundry - Gods of Battle - and I am striving to make them all at least similar in scale. That said I have some much shorter Amazons from one supplier and taller Dark Sword mini's. I did rule out using the 32mm girl who just didn't fit but also her asthetic wasn't right once I saw her in the flesh.

[weismonsters]

Sounds reasonable. Best of luck with creating your army.

[richarDISNEY]

No.