6mm buildings - 10mm figures

Started by Sean Clark, 14 May 2022, 04:10:20 PM

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Sean Clark

Does anyone here use 6mm buildings for their 10mm games of BKC?

I'm conscious that BKC is a battlion+ level game for the most part and the ground scale makes 10mm buildings cover a huge footprint. I'm thimking 6mm would be closer to the right size, and make a village or a town look a bit more realistic. I think Steve J on here does something similar.

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toxicpixie

I have - I'm still undecided on whether I prefer it or not, think it depends on how "abstracted" I'm feeling on the day!
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Sean Clark

I think this is my trouble, Nathan. I just cant rationalise it.

It may come down to economics. I have lots of 6mm buildings. But we are looking at playing some Market Garden themed games at the club in 10mm, and have some gorgeously painted figures but zero scenery.

I've just filled my basket at Timecast and I fiented when I saw the cost  ;D
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fred.

I've fairly recently added quite a lot of 6mm buildings for my WWI and WWII games - I'd rather a village base has a number of buildings on it, than just 1 or 2. 

Here is an example

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pierre the shy

Morning Sean

We've used 6mm buildings with our various 10mm games since we started back in 2014. Like Fred I like the more extensive "look" that it gives urban areas and the table is not taken up with massive buildings that dominate the game.

Having said that I am happily using a OG 10mm fort and village for a WW1 Cape Helles game as they did dominate the landings, especially on V Beach.

It's down to a matter of taste/practically/what tabletop "look" you want to achieve I guess.
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Raider4

If your 3-5 men on a base is supposed to represent a platoon - or even a section - having the buildings smaller than reality makes sense to me.

Ithoriel

Though I frequently deride the use of buildings a scale down from the figure scale as fighting over "Wendy Houses" :) and despair of those who can plonk half a dozen figures down and see a platoon but who can't plonk a building down and see a hamlet there is no doubt that it reduces both cost and footprint and slightly boosts the appearance of multiple structures.

Whether that is worth the price of having buildings the figures would have to enter on their hands and knees is a personal choice.

Personally, I'd always choose unified figure and building scales, where possible. 
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Raider4

Maybe an ideal would be for the height to be correctly scaled, but the width & length reduced, for a smaller footprint? (Real buildings are big). Seems that would be a good compromise for playability reasons?

paulr

Here is an example of a WWI game with 6mm buildings, NÉRY, 1 September 1914 https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,12600.msg173678.html#msg173678



I prefer several 6mm buildings to a village for the same reason I prefer several 10mm figures on a base, the mass effect
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Ithoriel

QuoteMaybe an ideal would be for the height to be correctly scaled, but the width & length reduced, for a smaller footprint? (Real buildings are big). Seems that would be a good compromise for playability reasons?
Exactly the option Total Battle Miniatures have taken with their Big Battalions ranges. I have some, beautiful miniatures but not cheap.
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John Cook

It all depends, it seems to me, on the size of your table.  I find most '10mm' buildings are on the small side anyway so it has never been an issue for me.

mmcv

Agonising over this a bit at the moment as I plan terrain for my WW1 games. I'm working on both big battle and skirmish level projects and I think 10mm buildings are fine for skirmish but might be a bit much for big battle. I've only got 2mm buildings which look great for really large abstracted maps but look a bit off alongside 10mm. Think I'll have to get a few 6mm and 10mm buildings and see. Timecast and battlescale seem to be the best options I've seen.

Rhys

A bit late to this discussion (computer issues).
Terrain is something I've always thought hard about , mostly in relation to looks vs playbility. I do have some serious issues with plonking down a single building and calling it a village. The table starts to look like a village with buildings lanted haphazardly (probably with some scale fences and trees for woods). It gets worse the larger the figure scale (at 28mm I'll be heard muttering "careful, someone could have an eye out").
The most difficult part of all this is buildings that were historicaly important in a historical refight. How do you model Hougoumont or la haye sainte. you can plonk your building down and say "Thats Hougoumont" but the players will look at it and while probably saying nice things will be thinking "no its not".
The compromise I have arrived at is to use buldings from the next scale down (or 1/2 the scale). Historical built up areas still need some cartooning to look right. I've got a couple that i have been working on for a while now which i will photograph and post here to show what I'm talking about (and oddly enough they are the formentioned Waterloo buildings).
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FierceKitty

In case any newbies don't know them, Leven are my first stop when I'm looking for buildings.
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Nick the Lemming

I've used 2mm / 3mm buildings before with 6mm and 10mm figures, for the larger stuff like BBB scenarios, and that works ok.