More on ‘Figure Size’. This time from January 1966…

A Call to Reason:

OR

They Don’t Make Millimeters Like They Used to

By: Aram Bakshian Jr.

Table Top Talk, January 1966

The past several years have witnessed a mysterious change in the millimeter. Like some elderly matron with a taste for chocolates, the millimeter has lost its youthful figure and gradually expanded!

At least, that is the conclusion one draws when examining some of the model soldiers designated by their manufacturers as “20mm scale”. Some of them stand an inch high, some less than three-quarters of an inch. The effect, when they are viewed side by side, is that of a confrontation between Charles DeGaulle and Mickey Mouse!

Dr. DeGre’s recent proposal that wargamers and collectors band together and declare 20mm scale to equal l/8th of an inch to the foot may have come too late, but it is an excellent one.

Of course there has always been a great deal of variance in miniatures of all types. Anyone who has ever stood a Graham Farish or a Vertunni next to a Metayer or a Mignot knows what I mean. In addition, the same designer may unwittingly slip over the years, or change his “interpretation” of the millimeter.

Compare an early Bussler Revolutionary War Costume piece with his later Battle of Trenton series. In theory they are both “standard 54mm scale!”. In reality one is a short scare crow, the other is an over-stuffed giant! More than one outspoken critic of the magnificent Stadden line has been heard to remark that his remakes look considerably taller and better-fed than his initial models. I also heard one add that they seem to suffer from a strange glandular disorder which results in swollen heads lengthy arms and shrunken feet! This of course, is debatable, and the real issue does not concern any one maker alone.

For despite the myriad of individual preferences and prejudices, all collectors and wargamers can agree on the fact that 1 mm equals 1mm – never any more or less!

The simple table at the end of this article speaks for itself. A figure that is 1” high may be excellently crafted, but it simply is not 20mm!

In a way, while no fraud is intended, there is a great deal of “error” in manufacturers’ designation of scale.

1mm equals . 03937 inch – therefore:

20mm equals . 7874 Inches

30mm equals 1.181 inches

54mm equals 2.125 inches