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No shortages of threads about scale on the forum but none tackling my specific issue.

I've been considering using 1/35 scale heads used in historical diorama building combined with the bodies of GW 28mm marines.

If we go purely by numbers, 28mm scale would be something like 1/60. However; since 28mm minis in general, and GW's in particular feature rather overexagerated heads and hands, a completely true-scale head in 1/35 scale would be of similar size as a GW spacemarine head.

I've measured some GW marine heads from 'bottom of chin to top of scalp' and 'ear to ear'. The size is roughly 5-6mm high and 3-4mm wide.
A real life human head, measured between those points are roughly 25cm in height and 15cm in with. Divided in 35 we get 6-7mm high and 4mm wide heads. So, if 1/35 scale really is truly scaled down from real proportons, they should be compatible. I'm however not sure if also 1/35 scale sculptors does exaggerate heads and hands somewhat to help convey facial expressions, help with painting etc.


So my question is; does anyone here own any 1/35 scale heads and could measure them for me. Or even better own both 1/35 scale heads and a bare GW Space marine head and might take a comparison picture of them?

I should be able to come up with something in a day or two,

but I think the 1/35 heads will end up looking comically big

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I should be able to come up with something in a day or two,

but I think the 1/35 heads will end up looking comically big

That would be greatly appreciated Orlando

I too fear 1/35 might be a it big. Just a mm or so, but at that scale, and with heads especially, just a small difference can be jarring. Maybe 1/48 would be a better match, but it seems like a far less popular scale and I've not managed to find much interesting in the way of loose heads.

1/35 will probably be too big. Might work if you're doing a "true-scale" marine conversion though.

As for 1/48 the useability is going to vary quite a bit depending on what kind of 28mm you're dealing with. If it's true-scale or skinny like infinity it should work quite well. If it's GW style heroic 30mm+ marines it will probably seem small.

You're right about there not being much avaialble in 1/48. 1/35 is the most common scale for military model dioramas so most scale model detail packs, body parts, figs etc are in that scale. 1/48 is more common for aircraft. While there are a good number of armor models, many of the 1/48 figures I've seen have been intended for dioramas where the aircraft is the main focus so you dont' find as much in the way of figures and detail packs.

 Eilif wrote:
1/35 will probably be too big. Might work if you're doing a "true-scale" marine conversion though.

As for 1/48 the useability is going to vary quite a bit depending on what kind of 28mm you're dealing with. If it's true-scale or skinny like infinity it should work quite well. If it's GW style heroic 30mm+ marines it will probably seem small.

It's for regular marines. So, far bulkier than true-scale/realistically scaled 28mm but smaller than those truescale/artscale/etc. marines built on terminator legs or stretched/beefed out with plastcard.
I've had my eye on these (and others) from Hornet for exemple. Looking to add some further ethnic diversity to my World eaters


I think GW's later marine heads have become better proportioned in later years too. I tried out a head from the ancient berserker box and it looked far bulkier than the more recent ones like the sternguard/vanguard boxes.

I found a picture of a 1/48 scale head with measurements added and those numbers were very similar to the ones I got from measuring my 28mm heads (although my tools weren't very precise)

These were somewhat custom made though, so I'm not sure if they match the normal size of 1/48's even if I would find any. Seeing as the scale is mostly geared towards aircraft and armour like you mention.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I should be able to come up with something in a day or two,

but I think the 1/35 heads will end up looking comically big

Well GW heads are already comically big

I don't have any 1/35 heads to check, I have some 1/32 pilot figures from my Tamiya spitfire and they are a touch larger my 40k heads (comparing with Cadians and Terminators), they're actually quite similar as far as broadness of the face is concerned, but the skull is larger on my 1/32 figures than it is on my 40k figures. I think for 40k figures GW stretches the face relative to the size of the skull.

But the 1/32 heads are far closer in size than the 1/48 pilot figures that came with my Zero which are way too small compared to 40k heads (though the models themselves are about the same height as 40k Cadians, though much less bulky)

So if 1/35 is a touch smaller than 1/32, it'd probably be about equivalent to GW's 28mm heads, noting that GW's heads are horribly scaled so as usual anything "realistic" will probably look out of place on them

I can take some pics if you want when I get home from work, don't really have the time to do it now.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I should be able to come up with something in a day or two,

but I think the 1/35 heads will end up looking comically big

Well GW heads are already comically big

I don't have any 1/35 heads to check, I have some 1/32 pilot figures from my Tamiya spitfire and they are a touch larger my 40k heads (comparing with Cadians and Terminators), they're actually quite similar as far as broadness of the face is concerned, but the skull is larger on my 1/32 figures than it is on my 40k figures. I think for 40k figures GW stretches the face relative to the size of the skull.

But the 1/32 heads are far closer in size than the 1/48 pilot figures that came with my Zero which are way too small compared to 40k heads (though the models themselves are about the same height as 40k Cadians, though much less bulky)

So if 1/35 is a touch smaller than 1/32, it'd probably be about equivalent to GW's 28mm heads, noting that GW's heads are horribly scaled so as usual anything "realistic" will probably look out of place on them

I can take some pics if you want when I get home from work, don't really have the time to do it now.

That sounds promising.

Some comparasion pics would be much appreciated

Okidokie.

The tall dude is a 1/32 British pilot figure, the short dude in front of him is a 1/48 Japanese pilot figure.

I tried to use a few different GW models for comparison because GW is hardly consistent with their head sizing. The head on the unpainted Marine is from the SW Terminator kit, the head on the painted Marine is from the previous SW kit.

If you click on the pictures and zoom in you can see the comparison a bit better.

So you want something between those scales I guess, whether 1/35 is good, hard to say. Probably something close to 1/38 to 1/40 would be about right but I don't know if you'd find anything that scale.

Dont have any to hand to do a scale comparisonphoto as I'm busy packing my house, but 1:35 heads are much too big for 40k models

A couple of Miniart 1/35 soviets (so reletivly modern and actually 1/35, a lot of the older stuff labelled 1/35 is actually 1/32 or larger... I'm looking at you Verlinden, and early Dragon plastics etc) and a space marine from the Deathwatch overkill set



You can see they're too large

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
[ they're actually quite similar as far as broadness of the face is concerned, but the skull is larger on my 1/32 figures than it is on my 40k figures. I think for 40k figures GW stretches the face relative to the size of the skull.

After seeing the pics above, this seems right. The width of the face looks right similar from the front. Profile views however show that the 1/35 head looks much too big.

I think that GW is by no means along in exagerating facial size and features. Lots of companies do this the same way they enlarge hands, wrists ankles and some gear. All together this makes for figures that are easier to paint and much sturdier.

Thanks for the pictures everyone.

It looks like it would be difficult to get 1/35 heads to fit well with 28mm marines, sadly.

As you say, from the front it looks like it could maybe work, but in profile the 1/35 heads looks a lot bigger.

I guess it's possible that some 1/35 scale figures have smaller heads than those Miniart ones though. If we imagine the head of Allseingskink's 1/32 scale pilot shrunken down by 10%. I think that would be a better match than Orlando's 1/35 heads.