Hi all
I've sold all my 28mm, 15mm, 6mm and some of my 10mm figures over recent years and now I'm looking to start collecting again. I'm looking for some detail and character, civilians etc and dont mind scratch building scenery and has to fit on 6x4 or less tables (perfect for RFCM).
So would you restart again in 15mm if you had a chance? Looking for some honest feedback.
I only game in 15mm , and wouldn't change that if I was starting over. For me, anything bigger is too expensive, and anything smaller too hard to paint!
regards,
Nick
Yes, for me 15mm is the "optimal" scale for many periods - small enough to do large games (eg: Company to Battalion level WW2) while not looking TOO silly in groundscale terms, large enough for the figures to still have character and identity.
I'll still occasionally use 25/28mm for man-to-man skirmish level stuff, but pretty much everything else is in 15mm - WW2, "Moderns" (Cold War) and of course all my own SciFi stuff!
Jon (GZG)
Hi Paul,
It's a good question, and one that we discussed with a lot of folk during the Colours show here in the UK on Saturday.
For me, the answer is a resounding "yes". And most people visiting our demo game agreed, having dabbled in various other scales. For me, 15mm is a good balance between cost, time to paint, detail and storage space (which extends to scenery too).
I can see a place for 10mm and 6mm in "big battle" games (SYW, Napoleonic...) where we're dealing with big blocks of figures, but 15mm is probably the smallest scale at which figures can still be seen (and potentially played, in skirmish games) as individuals, and for which a wide variety of poses are available.
So I think you've come to the right place :)
Simon
The whole range of scales is brilliant.
As long as opponents can make the same all is good.
15mm has many advantages.
If I only played at home and had a big 8x6 table I would do all my battle games in 54mm. Brilliant. The drawback is that my opponents would not want to make, transport or buy such armies.
Encouraging 15mm.
1. Easy to transport armies, if you travel to multiple game venues. A carry tub will hold my army, scenery, rules and a chocolate bar (in case Simon forgets the biscuits).
2. It is easy to build scenery and to transport it (scenery is very important). A box of 35 trees can measure 30x30x 10cm.
3. 15mm games on 5x3 can be played whilst sitting down.
4. 15mm can be played on many "home" tables.
5. 15mm. Many figure ranges and vehicles available.
6. A lot of nice people play 15mm.
7. RFCM rules do not need to be converted, they already work on a 5x3.
8. Very affordable to buy an army.
The above should all help more games to be played.
As to 54mm. That would be lovely. A wars of the roses army numbering about 150 figures per player.
Maybe cheap 3D printing? Some big Britains oak trees?
martin :)
Quote from: Colonel Kilgore on September 08, 2025, 10:37:24 AM>
For me, the answer is a resounding "yes". And most people visiting our demo game agreed, having dabbled in various other scales. For me, 15mm is a good balance between cost, time to paint, detail and storage space (which extends to scenery too).
>
I can see a place for 10mm and 6mm in "big battle" games (SYW, Napoleonic...) where we're dealing with big blocks of figures, but 15mm is probably the smallest scale at which figures can still be seen (and potentially played, in skirmish games) as individuals, and for which a wide variety of poses are available.
>
Simon
Very similar opinion here...THOUGH I might possibly look at the 10mm option (mostly due to the output of Pendraken) for larger battles. 15mm is still my 'go to', and with heaps of it already purchased the idea of changing now to other scales is a no-go.
Even my fantasy skirmish games use 15mm, which is, as mentioned by JonT, still detailed enough to work well (10mm is just too diddy for skirmish, IMHO).
I've drifted into a little bit of 28mm, but mostly to get some 'x - Rampant' games in at the club I now attend occasionally.
15mm still 'wins' for me...
I would reinforce a lot of what Martin says from my own experience and I have no connection to PP, if that makes a difference. I began building armies some 50 odd years ago when 25mm (not even 28mm) was about the only scale available in metal.
Apart from weight look at storage and transport. "Home" or "away" games. My figures (with the relevant scenery) now have their own room in the house for practical, rather than "show off" reasons.
Purchases are now all 15mm because I still think of 5mm figures as microblobs. Age doesn't help – remembering one game when players were forever picking up the models. Not to determine what particular tank it was but to see if it was tank or a truck.
Derek of Cambridge
I have re-started my 15mm Italian Wars armies as well as my 15mm Square Bashing 1914 armies (Belgian, German, British and some help from the French). I have also started a brand new 15mm project - Netherlands, May 1940. Never thought I'd ever get round to WWII, but there you go.
Thanks everyone, looks like 15mm is a good choice. I now need to recreate some of the armies I've sold in 15mm.
6mm speed to the table are great, but hard to distinguish between facing colours, 10mm I'll keep for SYW plus they are all imagi-nation... just need a few artillery to complete, quick to paint but lose some character.
I'll also need to expand my road system and get larger trees (mine are 50mm max high).
Stting down at a 5x3 with my Peter Pig figures is one of my greatest joys in life :)
I have spent a lot of time over the past few years painting and playing 28mm to the detriment of my 15mm collection but this year I put the 28mm to bed (also sold off some of it) and rediscovered my 15mm WotR and Italian Wars. It was quite refreshing to get back to a different painting style and I have enjoyed it so much that I now have two very large WotR armies with lots of lovely standards (I do like a nice flag). For the Italian Wars I have completed Papal, Venetian and Spanish forces with Milanese and French on the table.
If I had to start over from scratch I would happily go with 15mm in order to play games that feel like a battle. Most of the 28mm I was playing was skirmish style. Also 10mm scenery works well with 15mm figures.
I don't have any 15mm any more. These days I use 28mm for skirmishes and 6mm for battles. But I would still say that 15mm is the best all-round scale. It's the smallest scale where I would want to do skirmishes with single-based figures, and the largest where I'd want to paint 300+ figures a side and fit them on a 6' x 4' table.
I have to say I now far prefer 15mm. I first dabbled with them in my teens and got into them again at Uni when I could not transport my bulky 25s around. I've accumulated a lot of 25s since and more recently plastic multipart figs but the faff far exceeds the creativity imho. The sheer effort to create scenery and even wargaming standard paint jobs in the larger scale just takes up so much time (and that is from principally a collector-painter's pov!) All the while the 15s were in the background. PP rekindled my interest and being able to recreate epic scale cavalry charges and scenery more easily now makes it my go-to scale. There is also so much more available now that are great sculpts and poses. When I first started it was pretty much only Peter Laing and Mike's Models...
Neil
When I first saw the 15mm size start with Peter Laing I thought "this is a size I like". I had P Laing armies for colonial(Dervish/British), ancients (Selucids/Romans), dark ages(Vikings), Medieval, ACW and WW2.
martin :)
How many different figure sculpts was that, across all those armies, Martin? We've come a long way since!
Simon
Those wee great days Simon.
1 pose per type.
e.g. Gallic warband= 1 pose
e.g. Roman infantry= 1 pose
I think pose variety came in during 1998 with AB Napoleonics?
martin :)