What is ‘scale’?
The size of a model or miniature relative to whatever it is a representation of is known as its scale. Scales can be defined in a variety of confusing ways, for a variety of historical reasons. For example, models of historical vehicles are often defined simply as “1/48”, implying that the model is a forty-eighth the size of the original. Wargaming figures instead regularly use the ‘eye height’ measure, where a ‘28mm’ model is a model scaled such that a human would be 28mm tall up to their eyes (presumably to avoid the difficulty of accounting for fancy hats). Model railway scales are more complicated still.
This page serves as a reference to allow you to easily convert between ‘equivalent’ scale representations, and to record common uses of those scales.
Large amounts of the information contained herewithin is taken from http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/scales.html upon which this serves to update and elaborate. That page has been an invaluable resource to me over the years and I highly recommend you check it out for more details about scale conversion.
Note: Many conversions shown here are slightly rounded, particularly if the equivalent is close to a commonly-used term for a scale.
For instance, I have merged 1/100 and 15mm scales (which are more strictly 16.1mm and 1/107 respectively), because they are so close as to be indistinguishable.
| 1/X scale | Xmm eye height | X to the foot | Model Railway | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | (to be expanded) | |||
| 1/2400 | 0.67mm | Modern naval miniatures including WWI, WWII, and beyond. | ||
| 1/1250 | 1.29mm | Naval miniatures for the most part. Used by actual militaries for training. | ||
| 1/1200 | 1.34mm | 1 inch to 100 feet | UK/USA alternative to 1/1250. | |
| 1/800 | 2mm | Probably the smallest scale where you field units of actual people, although at this scale, units are generally textured blobs, a whole formation to a base. | ||
| 1/450 | 3.58mm | T scale | The tiniest working model railways. Sometimes referred to as 1/480 instead. | |
| 1/270 | 6mm | At this scale you start to actually get individual figures for people (rather than just bumps), although they may still be moulded together onto a strip. Also used for sci-fi vehicles such as FFG’s X-wing Miniatures Game, Games Workshop’s new Adeptus Titanicus. Old Epic 40k was roughly 6mm too. | ||
| 1/220 | 7mm | Z scale | ||
| 1/160 | 10mm | N scale | Comparatively large number of models available from different genres, including Games Workshop’s old Warmaster. | |
| 1/144 | 12mm | Popular scale modelling scale. Gundam’s High-Grade (HG) and Real-Grade (RG) models are normally made to this scale. | ||
| 1/100 | 15mm | Popular scale for all sorts of wargaming, with both individual infantry figures and a wide variety of vehicles availables. Flames of War models are at this scale, as are Gundam’s Master-Grade (MG) models. | ||
| 1/87 | 18.5mm | HO scale | Also used for diecast civilian cars. | |
| 1/80 | 20mm | Some wargaming figures are available as this scale. | ||
| 1/76 | 21.2mm | OO scale | British alternative to HO, diecast cars also available. | |
| 1/72 | 22.4mm | 1 inch to 6 feet | Primarily used for scale models of vehicles and planes | |
| 1/64 | 25mm | S scale | Original scale of early Games Workshop (/Ral Partha) models. | |
| 1/56 | 28mm | Most popular wargaming scale, used for Warlord’s Bolt Action, Napoleonics (including Perry Miniatures variety of plastic kits), and, Games Workshop’s mainline games (although they increasingly creep upwards). Although closer to 1/58, vehicles at this scale are increasingly being sold as 1/56. | ||
| 1/48 | 32mm | O scale (USA) | Relatively common scale for a variety of purposes, both in scale modelling and wargaming. Star Wars Legion uses this scale. | |
| 1/43.5 | 37mm | 7mm to the foot | O scale (UK) | Die-cast cars available. |
| (to be continued) |