Game Scales

[Steel Penguin]

Mr Copplestone is indeed, the ex Gw sculptor.
28mm is  normally reckoned to be 1:56th scale and it is visually detectable between the 1:56 and 1:48th scale kits if you put 2 next to each outher
part of the problem is differant company's in wargaming don't necessarily share the same scale definitions, so you have 25mm, true 25mm, heroic 25mm, 28mm, heroic 28mm, 30mm, 33mm and 35mm, and then 1:48, the best way is to compare on manufacturers sites or friendly web forums, as a true 25mm fig ( ground zeros games stargrunt figs) will be totally dwarfed by a 33mm ( latest games workshop).
but if any ones interested i can give a reasonable slew of manufacturers of metal and resin goodness, to whet the weirdness of you all,

Steel Penguin  ( who's defiantly not a closet wargamer, the closets too full of wargaming stuff for that)

[Steel Penguin]

28mm stuff will tower over 1:72 scale, and will look around half to a whole head shorter than 1:48th.
careful forcing of perspective would cure the 1:48th problem fairly easily
as a rough comparison my acadamy 1:48 challys are just over 2 3/16" from base of track to top of vison blocks, and a 1:56 sloppy jallopy  chieftain is 2 1/4 on the same mesurement  ( 2.95 vs 2.85 M respectivly)  though this is very much comparing apples to oranges
the high adventure area has the penguins, dog sleighs etc for dios.

i would warn though that trying to mix "scales" can be a one way trip to a headache, if you are too demanding of things.

[NARSES2]

On the scale issue, wargames 20mm scale is allegedly equivalent to 1/72nd.

Problem with Wargames scales is that each manufacturer has it's own version of 20mm  There can be up to 5mm difference between the ranges. Some measure base to top of head, others foot to eye, and anything inbetween. As the years have passed 20mm figures have got bigger as have 15mm amd 25mm !

[thedarkmaster]

tis true, my old Napoleonic 25mm figures are dwarfed by the modern ranges and don't look to out of place next to modern 20mm figures

[NARSES2]

I have some pre painted Alberkan Russian Grenadiers that I got as an Xmas present back in about 1963 (From Gamages !) that are boxed as 20mm. They would not even fit in with modern 15mm, way to small 

[rickshaw]

Gigantism in wargaming figures has been an ongoing problem for at least 30 years that I'm aware of.  15mm are not 17-20mm, 20mm are now 25mm and 25mm are 28-32mm in size.   Bloody ridiculous and I suspect more because of laziness on the part of the sculptors.

[Weaver]

I don't know, but I suspect that a kind of arms race goes on. Each sculptor, whatever scale they're nominally working in, wants to outdo the competition, and the easiest way to do that is to break the size standard in order to incorporate just a leetle bit more detail. Then the competition does the same thing, and before you know it, a vicious spiral of size inflation takes hold. It doesn't help that the field is now driven by sci-fi and fantasy ranges where "accuracy" can't be checked anyway: just how tall is a Halfling Space Assassin in Jet Boots anyway? The real problem lies in the fuzzy definition of the "mm" scale system which allows wiggle room: if they worked to ratios like scale modelling, no one would tolerate the innacuracy.

[NARSES2]

Have to agree with Weaver as to the reasons. As he says they are all in search of that "little extra detail" to beat the opposition. When I started (1963 or there abouts with Don Featherstones "Wargames") there were hardly any manufacturers in the UK and the figures that were about were beyond an 11 year olds pocket money. I think Hinton Hunt figures wre 20mm tall (not foot/eye) and Jack Scruby's were an inch ?

Still got some Hinton Hunt stuff and it just about fits with more recent 15mm. Detail is soft, but hey it was state of the art back then when a lot of people made their own. I managed to get hold of some of Tony Bath's flats moulds - used to cast them at school with melted milk bottle tops - oh happy days