There are a lot of different ways to describe how big a figure is: "25mm", "25mm Heroic", "1/72 scale", "HO scale", etc. What do all those terms mean? Well, they come from a mix of different hobbies, including figure modeling, toy soldiers, plastic models, and model railroading. Here's a comparison of a human figure in the most common gaming figure sizes:

If you want to use models or model railroad accessories for wargaming, you need to be able to translate between scales. It can get confusing fast. It doesn't help when manufacturers or retailers don't bother to follow the standards. I've seen models with "HO" and "1/72" BOTH stamped on the outside, and I've seen "1/72" and "25mm" on the same package ("well, they're about an inch high, and that's 25mm, right?"). Then there are models marked HO/OO, which is fine except HO and OO model railroads are different scales! And then, it doesn't help to live in the US, where many people think centimeters and millimeters are bugs with lots of legs. :-)

Figure manuafacturers usually list a figure by how tall it is, in millimeters. Hence, a 25mm figure is about 25mm or one inch tall. According to my research, this is called the "Barrett Scale", after the person who first suggested it. (I've also read that he has apologized for inflicting it on the world!) An optional trailing letter indicates if the figure is L-light, M-medium, or H-heavy in style. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as figure height. Because base thicknesses and hat heights can vary (a bearskin hat can be two feet tall!), what 25mm actually represents is the distance from the base of the feet to the line of the eyes. Here's where it gets complicated, because not all manufacturers follow the feet-to-eyes rule. Most people probably aren't even aware of it. They use the height to the top of the head and/or include the base, which makes their figures undersized. Also, in recent years, figures have tended to get bigger, partly because people didn't follow the standard, partly to be easier to sculpt and/or paint, and partly just to "look cool". At first these figures were referred to as "25mm Heroic" scale, later as 28mm, their true scale. Then the same process took over for 28mm, for the same reasons, and now 30mm are becoming common (and even "Heroic" 33mm). The original 25mm is referred to as "true 25mm".

Toy soldier makers and miniature figure modelers use this system too, going all the way up to 120mm figures. I've noticed a tendency for little green army men to have an exact overall height of 45mm, 54mm, or 60mm, including bases, so the makers are ignoring the feet-to-eyes rule.

Model kit manuafacturers use a system that describes the kit as a fraction of the size of the actual subject. For example, a 1/72 scale tank is 1/72nd the size of the actual tank, or to look at the other way around, the actual tank is 72 times bigger than the model. The larger the number in the fraction, the smaller the scale, so a 1/48 scale kit is larger than a 1/72 scale kit of the same subject. Here are some common model scales:

You do get some variations. Sometimes the original drawings used are inaccurate, or whoever designed the kit rounded off (used 1/75 instead of 1/72 or 1/50 instead of 1/48, etc.) or made metric-to-US conversion errors. Sometimes they fudge the numbers just to make a kit fit in a standard-size package (like when a diecast "1/64" fire truck is about the same size as a "1/64" VW Bug). When the molds are a few decades old, and a kit is re-released, no one remembers what the original size was, so they just stick a label on it and go.

Model Railroad manufacturers have a number of ratio scales, expressed by a letter code:

If you really want a headache, find the rec.models.railroad FAQ, and read through the difference between "scale" and "gauge" and the pages and pages of various scales that have been used over the years. You might find kits that are way out of scale, but modern model railroad stuff is usually pretty close. But then, you seem to find a lot more anal-retentive "rivet counters" running around with tape measures in model railroading. I think they just like to argue.

This can be one of the most confusing scale systems. Usually, it's expressed as one size representing another size, such as 1/8":1' or 1/8"=1'. In other words, each eighth of an inch represents one foot real size. It's the same way maps note scale, where one inch on the map represents a certains number of miles in the real world. You sometime hear these scales expressed just as the first number, for instance "quarter inch scale" is 1/4"=1'. If you think about it, that means one inch represents 4 feet, or one inch represents 48 inches, which means it is 1/48th scale, or model railroad O scale.

I only include this system because it's used by some model ship builders and R/C plane makers. Most architectural scales are too small to worry about for gaming figures.

To compare the different scale systems, you have to be able to convert the different scales so you are comparing apples to apples. So let's start with one-to-one scale, which some people call "the real world".

The average height of a European man is 5 feet, 8 inches (68 inches, or 1727mm). Now, the body proportions of an average man are such that his body is six and a half to seven times the height of his head, or "seven heads" high. However, the average man is a dumpy guy who would rather drink beer and watch TV instead of reading this nonsense, so artists use an "ideal" proportion of "eight heads" high. Your eyes are centered on your head halfway between your jaw and the top of your head. (Go look in the mirror. Go ahead, take a good, long look. I want you to think about what you've done.) So, if you take average height, divide that by 8, and divide THAT by 2, you get 4.25 inches, the distance from the top of the head down to the line of the eyes. Subtract that from 68 inches, and you have the height from the base of the feet to the line of the eyes, 63.75 inches (1619mm). Some people round this to 1620mm. Some round it to 1600mm. Some split the difference at 1610mm. We're in trouble already.

Anyhow, if you take a Barrett Scale height like 25mm and divide it by 1619mm, you get the fraction of the original size. Hit the "1/x" key on your calculator, you get the lower number of the ratio scale, 64.76. So 25mm is about the same as 1/65 scale. That means that "true 25mm" is very close to 1/64 scale or model railroad S Scale. Unfortunately, neither 1/64 nor S Scale is the most popular scales in its respective hobby, or we'd have lots of cheap 25mm scenery!

Going the other way, if you multiply 1619mm by the fractional scale, you get the height scale in mm. For instance 1619mm times 1/72 = 22.5 mm, so the feet-to-eyes height should be 22.5 mm. This makes 1/72nd scale figures only a couple millimeters taller than 20mm figures.

Here's a table of various scales, their fractional equivalents, feet-to-eyes height, and overall height:

* - Don't worry if you don't understand the US measurement system. No one does.

Here's a chart comparing overall height of the various scales. Note that this assumes the figure maker followed the feet-to-eyes rule.

Because I wargame with 1/72 plastic figures, the most important scales to me are 1/72, 1/76, 20mm, and HO. You can mix 1/72 and 20mm okay. 25mm is a little big, but you might find a piece here or there that "looks right". Gaming scenery often looks better on the table if it's on the small side, so HO scale accessories usually work well. On a side note, 10mm and N scale is almost exactly the same size!

In conclusion, I guess I should point out that not all people are the same size (which is why I have so much trouble finding clothes and cars that fit). A figure that is slightly larger or smaller than its counterparts probably won't make much of a difference. The production processes for plastic and metal figures are quite different. Plastic figures are sculpted oversize, then scaled down in the process of making the steel injection mold. Metal figures are usually sculpted at their final size, with a rubber mold cast around the original master. Because of the difficulties of the metal casting process, metal figures are usually stockier than plastic equivalents. There are a lot of differences in the sculptors' personal styles, and many wargaming figures are "chunkier" than role-playing figures. Heads and hands might be sculpted oversize to make sculpting and painting easier. A certain company's style of figures, which are very popular and have set the standard lately, have been referred to as "poisoned dwarves" by reviewers who insist on anatomically correct figures. It's all a matter of taste.