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Ok, in the spirit of scientific discovery I present you some basic findings

Fabric, 1.5m (5') dressmakers tape - 25g
Plastic Cased, 2m (6' 6") tape - 93g
Plastic Cased, 3m (10') tape - 112g
Metal Cased, 3m (10') tape - 146g
Metal Cased, 5m (16' tape) - 206g

Yeah, I perhaps have a few too many tape measures... I'll also point out that all of mine are metal tapes, not GRP tapes.

Assuming the GW or equivalents are 3m tapes then there's not a huge difference in weight / model smashing abilities. I have a few old Mk6 Marines laying round I may do some scientific drop tests later if I feel the urge

snurl wrote:You can get a fine tape measure at the dollar store.
Some are packaged with a sewing kit.
I have had mine for several years and it works great.

He's also put several buttons back on shirts and made some lovely curtains....

snurl wrote:Some are packaged with a sewing kit.

I greatly prefer the flexible tape ones that come with sewing kits over the metal retractable ones, to be honest, since you can easily bend them around terrain.

Capt_Bowman wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:
And when you drop said "brick" and smash my models I reenact the well scene from 300 on you...

If a guy is clumsy enough to be unable to maintain control of their tape measure then i'm not sure a metal or plastic one will make much of a difference. Certainly I haven't dropped mine in 20 years of gaming

(touches wood, turns around 3 times and spits.)

Accidents happen, and I'd rather that when they do the object in question (particularly one you have to repeatedly hold over the miniatures to play the game) not be any heavier than need be...

Stanley all the way. I've had mine since 1987. It's a small 12 foot yellow tape measure. It weighs about 1.5 lbs. It's been dropped, thrown, been through 2 car accidents as a passenger, hit by over spray during a priming session.

I've been using a GW tape I won or found a few years ago for the last few months and it has been woeful.

If the old tape measure I'd used for the last 10 years didn't break a coupel months ago, I still wouldn't be using the GW one.

we got a bunch of 2dollar no name tape measures for our store. After 4 years a few numbers have faded but they all still work great, even after handing them out to the public everyday.

Smitty0305 wrote:I have purchased two GW Measuring tapes for 8$.

Within playing around 15 games, each measuring tape has broken.

Stop hitting your opponent with it when you loose a game.

Issue solved.

Move along people.

A regular measuring tape is cheaper and better

I got mine from a pound shop and have never had a problem with it. The only reason to buy a more expensive tape measure is if you are actually using it to fabricate things and need it to be really sturdy and highly accurate.