Scale Conversion Reference

The discrepancy starts with where the manufacturer places their ruler. Historically, a 175cm human mapped to a 1:60 ratio — the "1 inch = 5 feet" standard. Mathematically that is 30mm. So why call it 28mm?

The answer is the reference point. As Alkony notes, manufacturers rarely tell you where they stop measuring:

"A 28mm miniature means that the size of the miniature will be 28mm from the feet of the mini to the chosen reference point."

— Alkony

In most cases that reference point is eye level, not top of head. It is easier for a sculptor to find the eyes than the crown of a head hidden under a helmet. Add the forehead and headgear, and a "28mm" model is actually 30-32mm in practice.

You are often buying 32mm models that have been grandfathered into a 28mm label for historical reasons.

Bolt Action says the official vehicle scale is 1:56. On paper this is correct for 28mm. Walk into any tournament and you will see Tamiya 1:48 kits dominating the motor pool. This is not an accident.

Warlord Games has an internal inconsistency. Their metal miniatures are traditional 28mm (closer to 1:52 or 1:56), but their newer plastic sprues are actually 32mm. These plastics are taller and bulkier, so a true 1:56 tank looks like a toy next to them. The volumetric bulk of the infantry makes the vehicle look like the crew would not fit inside.

"I believe they fit with the oversized nature of Warlord's infantry better than the actual Warlord tanks themselves."

— Reddit, r/boltaction

There is also a fiscal reality: 1:48 Tamiya kits are widely available at hobby shops and often cost half the price of official wargaming-branded 1:56 kits.

For the technical hobbyist, 1:48 is a rare win-win: better visual proportions and lower cost. Use our 1:48 to 32mm conversion and see how it looks on your table.

"Heroic Scale" is not a lack of anatomical skill. It is a functional design choice. From three feet away — the standard tabletop distance — a realistically proportioned 28mm head is roughly the size of a peppercorn.

"From a tabletop distance, a realistically scaled figure will have unintelligible hands and heads, and if they are scaled up to be readable, the feet look tiny."

— Zandoria Studios

Sculptors exaggerate heads, hands, and weapons to make models readable and easier to paint. This has led to what Warlord Games forums call the "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man" effect.

You can see this in the new plastic German Veteran and US Airborne kits. They are so puffy that they are incompatible with older true-scale kits. A new-style arm on an old-style body looks like a prosthetic from a different species.

Before you commit to a conversion, cross-reference the source scales in our conversion matrix above.

The most overlooked factor is not the model. It is the plastic disc it stands on. Infantry are almost always based on 2mm to 5mm thick plastic. Vehicles in historical games are often left unbased.

This creates a 3-5mm false height. A 32mm soldier on a 4mm base has his eye level at 36mm above the table. Next to a 1:56 Tiger tank resting directly on the mat, he towers over the engine deck.

This gap is why official scales feel wrong. The base raises the infantry's effective scale while the vehicle stays grounded.

3D printing is the equalizer. You no longer have to accept the manufacturer's fixed height. You can scale digitally to compensate for base thickness and ensure infantry and armor share the same visual horizon. Our Scale Engine accounts for both eye level and top of head methodologies.

Digital manufacturing shifts power from the factory to the player. Using a 175cm human baseline, I bridge the gap between 28mm (D&D/Historical) and 32mm (Warhammer/Modern) systems. When mixing STL files from different designers, you need to account for both measurement methodology and material physics.

What I do in practice

You will find these in the conversion matrix above.