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Proportion: Heroic scale

 

Proportion: Heroic scale

The miniature looks similar to the original model, but every body part is exeggarated to make the miniature wider. The head of the miniature is about 1/6 of the size of the whole miniature. The face takes up a larger part of the head, the eye-level is usually up to 2/3 instead of the 1/2 line compared to the head. The hands, feet and weapons are bigger. Heroic scale was created to make minis easier to paint.

The "Heroic scale" proportions of a miniatures are not to be confused with the "Heroic proportions" used in drawings. There it means that the figure has a relatively small head (1/9-1/10 of the height or even smaller) with a very muscular body.

Realistic and Heroic scale
Realistic (red outline) and Heroic scale
image © Games Workshop
modified by Kadmon

Red line is where the eye should be on a realistic figure.
Green line is where a Heroic scale eye is.

The usual proportions of a heroic scale mini are: head: 1 head, body: 2 heads, pelvis area: 1 head, legs: 2 heads.

The body is 50% wider than a realistically proportioned miniature.

The out of proportion nature of the miniature can cause confusion if an absolute size is used to eye-level, as the eye-level of a heroic miniature is higher than the eye-level of a realistic proportions miniature.

Players who got used to Heroic scale might see Realistic proportions ridiculously tiny, and can find it hard to paint them because of the smaller details.

For 1:56 scale heroic miniatures modellers often use 1:48 or even 1:35 weapons, as they look more in scale with them. For 1:56 scale heroic miniatures modellers often use 1:48 vehicles for the same reason.

Heroic scale equipment and weapons are usually 3 times as thick as their normal proportioned counterparts. It's partly due to make them to hold hard detail, and partly to make them fit the overall looks of the range.

Heroic scale vehicles are higher, and of course every part of them is more pronounced. To get hard detail, the rivets are unusually big. Heroic scale vehicles are mostly made by Games Workshop and other companies that create unlicenced copies of their ranges.

Examples: Warhammer range & Warhammer 40,000 range (Games Workshop and every company that copies their designs), Privateer Press, Target Games

Articles

Miniatures - A question of size and scale: A longer article about scales and proportions.

To see the full review of these products, click on the article titles!

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