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After 14 years, you would think I'd know, but what scale are 40k models?
72:1 ?

And yes, I looked at a couple of my 40k boxes ... See there are no Rough Rider models available from GW at this time, so I am wondering if 25mm 72:1 'toy soldiers' are going to be a reasonable size.

Short answer: They aren't any particular scale. Their bobble heads are a different scale to their bodies and hands and weapons.

The infantry varies between 1/35 for some parts and 1/65 for others and even within the same "race", they may not be in scale to each other.

The vehicles range between 1/35 and 1/48 but are also not in scale with each other, nor with the infantry.

A realistically scaled rhino (for space marines) would be closer to the size of the land raider; the land raider closer to the Baneblade in size.

Victoria Miniatures do some rough rider components, IIRC.

As for the horses, Warhammer Fantasy Empire / Age of Sigmar Freeguild outriders are a good source apparently.

I remember that the heavy stubber guy from the Dark Vengeance box (DA vs Chaos) was taller than the Loyalist marines. Marines are meant to be 7-8ft tall. Humans (currently) are more like 6ft tall. So your guess will be as bad as everyone else's!!
If a mini is around 32mm high, 6ft is around 1820mm so that scale is roughly 1:56 but everything in 40K & AoS / WHFB is very very chunky.

Generally, you're looking at:

28-32mm or 1:56-1:48 in normal model scales. GW are "heroic" meaning the models are not realistically proportioned (mainly for longevity and ease of painting).

While it varies from manufacturer quite a bit:

25mm = 1/56 scale
20mm = 1/72 scale
15mm = 1/100 scale

Even the measure in mm is inaccurate on most ranges --- while a range might keep true to its own measurements, there is ZERO industry standard. Some miniatures are 25mm to the top of the head, some to the eyes, etc. Perry Miniatures for example does proper 25mm plastic miniatures. They're slight or even tiny in some instances compared to a company like GW which does 28-32mm + heroic scale.

1/72 models vary quite a bit, but they're all going to look tiny next to 40k models.

40k models are roughly 1/48 to 1/56, but because of the bobbleheaded chibi scale some parts of them are going to be closer to 1/35 scale.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Elbows wrote:
While it varies from manufacturer quite a bit:

25mm = 1/56 scale
20mm = 1/72 scale
15mm = 1/100 scale

20mm would be on the shortish side for 1/72, most are 22-25mm tall. If you think about it, 6 foot = 72 inches, so 1/72 should be 1" tall for a 6 foot person, which is 25.4mm. If you're measuring to the eyes instead of the top of the head, the height to the eyes is roughly 14/15th of the height to head, so 25.4*14/15 = 23.7mm.

A 20mm person at 1/72 scale even measured to the eyes would be a person who's only 5 foot tall (20mm*15/14*72 = 1.54m).

Sure, but those scales are commonly used together and it's probably the closest pairing you'll get when you have model kits mixing with wargaming miniatures. And a lot of "20mm" figures, as you stated...aren't.

But if you're doing 20mm figures, you'll likely end up using 1/72 scale model kits etc.

Just have to remember that WH isnt a game of scale models, its a game of representitive markers.

 Elbows wrote:
Sure, but those scales are commonly used together and it's probably the closest pairing you'll get when you have model kits mixing with wargaming miniatures. And a lot of "20mm" figures, as you stated...aren't.

But if you're doing 20mm figures, you'll likely end up using 1/72 scale model kits etc.

In historics there is a scale known as 1/76 as well that would be close to genuine 20mm models. To make things annoying manufacturers sometimes use 76 and 72 interchangeably even though they're really not (some models currently marketed as 72 were originally marketed as 76 and if you compare them to 72 models they are undersized). To be honest I don't have any experience with figures marketed as "20mm", I guess it's more of a wargaming thing but historic models I've bought always use a fractional scale rather than a millimetre scale, there's tons of 1/72 models out there. Plastic Soldier Review covers 1/72 infantry models in detail, including the heights of various models....

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Periods.aspx

I've always hated mm scales, I don't know why they ever became a thing in the first place.