1/72nd + 1/76th small boats

[Weaver]

Can't remember who was looking for them a while ago, but I just found Ebay seller Waylander.2012 who makes whole bunch of stuff, including rubber assault-style boats, wooden rowing boats small motorboats, RIBs in railway OO scale, which equates to 1/76th. Since most of these things are generic, they'd easily scaleorama to 1/72nd:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/waylander.2012/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

[kitnut617]

Harold, why do the war gamers call 1/72 20mms, shouldn't it be 25mm.

[Weaver]

Oh lordy...

Two things make the equivalence between modelling scales and wargame figure sizes only ever approximate:

1. Measuring standards: 20mm from where to where? Is it from the bottom of the base or the bottom of the feet? Is it up to the eyeline, the top of the head, the top of the hat, or the top of the feather on the hat?

2. Scale creep. This particularly affects fantasy and sci-fi genres, where the desire to get a bit more detail and character into a figure leads sculptors to make them just a shade bigger, then do the same next year, and the year after, and the year after that. Hence 1970s "28mm" figures often look distinctly undernourished, compared to 1980s/90s ones, and terms like "Heroic 28mm" get invented as euphemisms for "over-sized".

Another factor isn't directly related to size, but it does limit the interchangeability of figures, and that's sculpting style. Most traditional wargaming figures, and nearly all modelling figures, try to be a realistic ni their proportions as possible. Most modern wargaming/roleplaying figures however, go for a more cartoonish look, with over-sized heads, feet, hands and chunky weapons. This can make the latter look jarringly chunky next to the former. This started (again) with fantasy and sci-fi, but has spread to 'realistic' wargaming in 20mm too.

Bottom line is that in 2019, "20mm" is the wargames scale that most closely approximates to 1/72nd for practical purposes. 15mm is about 1/100th and 28mm is about 1/56th-ish (very -ish).

[NARSES2]

Oh lordy...

Two things make the equivalence between modelling scales and wargame figure sizes only ever approximate:

Having bought my first 20mm figures in about 1963 (Hinton Hunt) and my first 15mm figures in about 1968 (Battle Honours ?) all I can say is "oh how you have grown young man" 

Another classic case of figure growth is if you look at the earliest Airfix 00/H0 figure sets (British and German WWII infantry, the Guards on parade and Guards band) and compare them to some of the latter ones (the WWI figures) you go from perhaps nearer 12/15mm to nearer 15/18mm.

All great fun and with the white metal figures perhaps there was even a commercial reason behind it. You tended to use figures from the same manufacturer as if you tried to mix and match it could look ridiculous.

[zenrat]

I was looking for boats when I was building my Sky Pirates Kawanishi.
I got all I needed with some to spare.
But thanks anyway.