The Case Against 1/48th (Edited)

There are lots of opinions around what scale 25/28mm miniatures our especially since manufacturers produce minis that while obstinately are 25/28mm vary greatly in size, proportion and appearance. There is a trend for WWII vehicle kits to be produced in 1/56th scale both in plastic and in resin and I'm throwing my hat into that ring. When I scratchbuild buildings I like to build in a scale and 1/56th is the one I have settled on for my town of Calamity. But even there I don't restrict my self to "scale" parts first because almost nothing is actually produced in that scale and second because why should I restrict myself to a scale when parts from any of the railroad scales will work? In the end if the proportions look good then use it!

I'm actually not trying to fan the flames of the scale wars but I was challenged to provide proof of why I feel that 1/48 is not only to big but way to big to be the "scale" of our 25/28mm miniatures as well as the Heroic versions standing closer to 30mm. I'm firmly in the camp of 1/56th as the best compromise scale. Unfortunately that precludes the use of the the railroad scales at least in the US; 1/64th or S scale and 1/48th or O Scale. 

Since sizes of minis tend to very quite a bit between miniatures I picked out a variety of miniatures to use as examples. They come from Black Scorpion, Reaper Miniatures, Dixon, Wargames Foundry and Knuckleduster. For scale examples I'm using flex track in the following scales and sizes: HO standard gauge, On30 (O scale but narrow gauge using the same spacing as HO), S standard gauge and O standard gauge.

I have also included pictures of the setup I used. My goal was to have the top of the bases that I use (and they are all on the same brand of bases) level with the inside edge of the bottom rail. Then I took a few group shots standing against the track as well as some singles against the O standard gauge track to really show just how short our minis are against it.

Here is the track. Top to bottom: HO Scale Standard (1/87), On30 Scale Narrow (1/48), S Scale Standard (1/64), O Scale Standard (1/48)

The setup using the HO Standard flextrack

Definitely to small for the minis but usable. From left to right; Black Scorpion, Reaper Miniatures, Wargames Foundry, Dixon, Knuckleduster

On30, exactly the same spacing between the rails as the HO standard, only the scale has changed so in this case the distance represents 30" rather than 4' 8 1/2" as it does in the HO shot.

S Scale, getting much closer again the distance between the rails is 4' 8 1/2". I like the feel of this and this is what I would like to use but equipment in S Scale is hard to find and somewhat expensive.

O Scale Standard gauge, they are definitely looking quite short here considering, again, the distance between the
rails is 4' 8 1/2". Only a couple of these miniatures are going to be close or over 5' tall  based on the photo.

All the following are closeups of the miniatures compared against the O Scale Standard Gauge track. Yea, this guy is barely over 5' tall.

Citizens of Calamity - Three more finished

There was a quick peek at two of these miniatures yesterday with the Marines. Late last night I got into one of those inspired painting sessions. It started with movies, I put in the Quick and the Dead and followed it up with Silverado, I like both of these movies a lot. I had Reaper's Ellen Stone in the pile of primed miniatures so I started and finished painting her last night (and into the wee hours of the morning) and finished the basing this morning. I trying to hone up my blending skills again (which tend to fall off when I'm doing army or bulk painting) and she seemed like a good candidate for it. Overall she is pretty good, although I'm having trouble getting my skin tones smooth again, something to work on since there is a lot of skin on one of the miniatures I have earmarked for the Genghis Con painting competition in February.

The other two miniatures are just more ordinary citizens for Calamity so I didn't spend a great deal of time on them. I tried a white coat on the preacher but I don't think it worked out very well and he kind of looks like a scientist raising his hand with a question. The Dixon bartender has odd eyes but was a fun mini to work on.

On to the pics, because pics are like bacon for blogs:

Reaper Miniatures, Ellen Stone, 50003 (Chronoscope)

Brigade Games, Western Characters I, Preacher
I don't like how the white coat came out on this one, but I'm not going to change it. I'm pretty sure I have at least one more preacher in the pile.

Dixon Miniatures, Bartender with Whiskey bottle, WG93

Action at the Saloon

WWI Restart - USMC Painting Session 1

I sat down and put in some pretty solid work on the WWI Marines today. I'm not entirely happy with the color, but its actually a pretty close match to some of my color photographs so I'm going to ride with it. I was shooting for something closer to a deeper brown but I think I missed a bit. I used Vallejo Feldgrau and US Olive Drab for this bunch, different from my original combination of Vallejo Feldgrau and Dark Olive. I started the with Vallejo US Field Drab and I'll lighten up from there. I have rethought my idea and I'm not going to do any of my Marines completely in US Army colors, I'll do a group with drab shirts with green pants and one with green shirts and drab pants. I might experiment with a third version of the green as well. I can pick out three distinctive shades of the Forest Green in the pictures that I have.

I also finished up a couple more citizens for Calamity. Here they are checking out their new digs.

Battle Flag Saloon, Brigade Games Preacher (Western Characters I) and Dixon Miniatures, Bartender with Whisky Bottle (WG93)