Survey - most popular scales for WW2 (LAST CHANCE ends 19th Feb 18.00)

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have been thinking about updating my WW2 painting guides.

Artizan Guides are here
http://www.artizandesigns.com/painting-guides.php

Crusader Guides are here
http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/painting-guides.php

Some people suggested guides for other scales but as I do mostly 28mm and occasionally 10mm, I do not know what is popular.

In terms of individual buyers, players and painters, which scale is most popular.
I guess that if you include mainstream military modelling 54mm is the most popular based on variety of models available.
With wargaming, I suspect 25-28mm is most popular, closely followed by 15mm FOW.
After that, I have no idea.

Please help me by voting for the scales that you see frequently?

Thanks

Mick

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Thank-you everybody.

This is very useful.

[BillK]

Since this site leans towards 28mm, did you consider your results will be reflective of LAF and not wargamers in general? (Not sure what your intent is or whether that matters to you.)

Cheers,
bill

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I am wondering whether to include other scales in the painting guides. I have some possibilities to do more comprehensive guides.

[Norm]

As a user who visits here several times a day and being a 10mm gamer, I find that LAF is massively pre-disposed towards 28mm and so little surprise that the survey will reflect that.  But it is also a site that leans more towards collecting and painting rather than playing ad one tends to reinforce the other.

If your guides are only for this forum, time would be best spent working with 28mm, if you are to advertise your guides around the wargaming community in general, then it is probably a harder question to answer.

Pendraken (10mm manufacturer) have a forum that is obviously strong on 10mm, but they have a non-Pendraken product folder that sees its fair share of 28mm, though it is a wargamers forum above all else.

[MartinR]

Yes,  I spot of self selecting bias there I think.  The overwhelming majority of WW2 stuff at our club (40+ active members)  is,  in descending order,  15mm,  6mm, 20mm and then  28mm as a few of the guys have started playing BA.

15s have held the top spot since the turn of the century.

[Elk101]

Mick did say to vote for the scales that you see frequently, suggesting that this is not just what you play or collect. As it is we only have 28mm WWII and as we're not in any local clubs that's all we see. I've no idea what the local clubs play here. I do agree that overall one of the smaller sizes (probably 15mm?) is likely the most popular. Perhaps a 28mm and an accompanying 15mm would work well?  Personally I've used Mick's guides many times and found them very useful.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I am exploring two possibilities for some guides to be published in print (nothing concrete yet).

This would mean rewriting them to be more general rather than specific to one manufacturers figures.

[Captain Blood]

Yes,  I spot of self selecting bias there I think.  

Hmmm. Not sure. It's true that LAF has always been a temple to 28mm. The 'adventure gaming' approach that was the central idea of LAF when it started 10 years ago, is absolutely rooted in 28mm and still runs strongly through this forum. That said, when I joined, we had barely 100 members - now we have 7,500. An awful lot of 'regular wargamers' playing big battles in various scales and genres are now part of the make-up of the place. Nor do I think the forum is unduly focused on painting and modelling (as opposed to gaming). Regrettably as far as I'm concerned - but that's a different story. We all have different aspects of the hobby that appeal to us more than others.

Anyway, I'd be surprised if LAF these days isn't fairly representative of quite a broad spectrum of the wargaming world. But yes, of course the filling in of surveys is entirely self-selecting. People with an axe to grind tend to vote. People who don't have a strong view, don't bother.

15mm WW2 is clearly a hugely popular genre/scale, but I wonder if its apparent dominance may be skewed somewhat by the huge marketing effort, clout and presence of a couple of big brands, viz. FoW and latterly - though much less so - PSC. The combined impact of these can easily create the impression that 'everybody's playing 15mm WW2'. I agree it's still big - but perhaps not quite a big as we all thought it a few years ago? Maybe the crown has slipped a tiny bit? Wargaming, as we all know, is massively susceptible to fads. Scales, genres and periods come and go. Wax and wane. This year's 'next big thing' is next year's bring and buy fodder.

We're all biased in favour of our particular poison, that's true. I'm currently collecting 1/56 WW2, and I've played 15mm WW2 recently. I don't belong to a club, but I do go to shows. At shows, almost all the WW2 games I see are 28mm. (Yes, obviously shows are more showy, and the larger scales lend themselves to showiness, I appreciate). But in terms of 'scales I see frequently' 28mm and 15mm are the only available answers to me. That's not to say it's representative of what people are playing in their living rooms and wargames clubs the length and breadth of the land, where 1/300 or 1/72 may still very well hold sway. But the question was 'what do you see most?' not 'what do you guess most people are playing?' 

[fitterpete]

I think I voted without bias.
To me, at least here and what I see at the 3 HMGS conventions, 20mm is a "traditional" scale for WW2.I think because of the popularity, abundance and cheapness of airfix kits and the like.Many of the "oldtimers" play in this scale.
15mm became very popular with the introduction of FoW.
28mm is now gaining because of Bolt Action and a few other newer skirmish type games.
I only have 28mm exclusively but those were my 3 votes.
Pete

[olicana]

I have played in virtually every scale in the past, starting with 6mm (Sicily / Italy sold - later Russia 41 - 45, sold), going up to 10mm (NW Europe 44 - 45 sold), then playing games (not owning a collection) in 15mm, 20mm and 28mm (just about every theatre except the Far East).

Finally (after 30+ years), for what will be my only collection in this period, I settled on 15mm for the Western Desert late 41 early 42. My decision to go 15mm was based on three factors:

1. Needing something small enough to field large formations (brigades +) at 1 stand = platoon.
2. Needing something big enough to paint (I'm a reasonably good painter) for the eye candy factor.
3. Having £1300 to spend at the exact moment that I was offered a 40% discount on FoW products.

I still have a lot of stuff to paint, but I don't regret my choice of scale or sub period - possibly because when it comes to WW2 I've played just about everything.

[Captain Blood]

Well they look great 

[Elk101]

Well they look great 

Definitely,  very impressive. I'd actually really like to game in a smaller scale to field bigger formations and play at a more strategic level but as my 28mm figures are nothing to look at I wonder about my output at a smaller scale.

[Captain Blood]

Just going to point out here, that interestingly, 105 people have voted as of this morning, and the split is almost exactly the same as it was when 50 people had voted:
40% or so 28mm, 25% for 20mm, 22% for 15mm, a small showing for 1/300, and negligible for 54mm and 10mm.
It's a small sample, and of course it's self-selecting, but statistically, you'd have to say the pattern appears fairly consistent.

I would be surprised if 15mm really only had a 20 - 25% share of the WW2 wargames market. There again, as I said above, I do also think the marketing dominance of FoW for a good few years (running one of the biggest printed wargames magazines, for instance) could have somewhat over-represented the supremacy of 15mm...

[von Lucky]

More than anything I'm curious about the three that have so far voted for '54mm or 1/35'. What ruleset is used, and how big is the table? Anyone of those three, or someone that plays in this scale but voted for another scale, willing to comment?