bfg and scale!

[osjclatchford]

ok. so we all know that bfg is a bit screwy when it comes to scale. just look at planets against ships! LOL
but today I had the idea of using a known 40k scaled object that occurs in both bfg and 40k.
right.

thunderhawks...

so forgive my piss-poor terrible maths skills but... its a given that 28mm is +/- 6ft in 40k scale.

so thats =/- 305mm to the 28mm.

in 40k a thunderhawk is 480mm
in bfg a thunderhawk is 6mm
and in bfg a regular imperial cruiser is 90mm

right?

so I figured: 480 / 28 = 17.142857
then
X 6 = 102.85714

so lets round it up and say a thunderhawk is +/- 103ft long

am I right so far?

so that all being true, in bfg scale 6mm = 103ft

then 90 / 6 = 15 X 103 = 1,545

so an imperial cruiser is 1545ft long?

and for the sake of "why not"  a cruiser in 40k scale we do, 90 / 6 = 15 X 480 = 7200mm? thats just over 23 and a half feet long in 40k!

that all seems likely to be utterly wrong to me but then this is all assuming that the thunderhawk models are the same scale to the strikecruiser they come from...

or just I'm shite at maths...

I'd love feedback on this so what say you?

[horizon]

The thunderhawk models are out of scale.

An imperial cruiser is between 3 and 5 kilometer long. Depending on the source you are using.

[Blacksails]

Well the planet - ship thing is easily explained by how BFG is not scaled to the model.  Each ship is more accurately represented by a fraction of the top of the stand the model sits on.  The base simply represents space close enough to the ship for limited torpedo guidance, debris fields, boarding ranges, and small attack craft weapon ranges.

I'm fairly certain this line of thinking extends to most weird scale issues and ultimately boils down to rule of cool on the table top.

[Thinking Stone]

As @Blacksails said, one of the pluses of BFG (in my humble opinion, at least, and for a space ship setting in particular) is that model scale is unrelated to the game rules.

It would be nice if the models were in scale with each other (and it's always fun to see how it works out for different things, like you've done, @osjclatchford) but as @horizon notes as well, not everything matches up model-wise either. This could lead to some cool scratch-building projects! but I suspect the practicalities of being able to see attack craft miniatures have led to some restrictions in 'true' scale.

Since the game rules are independent of model scale, you could even use such a scratch-built 'true' relative scale fleet in any old BFG game without changing how the game works!

[horizon]

A pretty cool but to mention though.

If you know the(supposed to be) real life measurements of the Tau Manta:
Measure the hangar bay on the custodian battleship in cm. Extrapolate that so one Manta world fit through it.

With that you measure all Tau vessels and get the real sizes to them. And they fit perfectly with the imperial cruiser is 3km theory!

I once did that.

But lost all values due a crash.

[Thinking Stone]

I think I remember you posting about that somewhere, @horizon! If anyone at GW was up to the task of consistent space ship scales, Forgeworld was; they seem to keep exhibiting that passion for the small details!

[osjclatchford]

as suspected then the scale was out... thanks guys. seems i opened a bit of a can-o-worms over this eh?

[Thinking Stone]

Haha @osjclatchford, it has been a topic of conversation for many a year now!

There is some contention between supporters of the older background and the newer background by Fantasy Flight Games which has inflated the size of many vessels and their crews.

But if you think this is a can of worms, you should see the discussion over at Tactical Command (the Epic/6 mm warfare fora) about the rumoured change in scale from 6(-ish) mm Epic to 8 mm for the new Adeptus Titanicus game!

For a bit of interest, it can be enlightening to see the perspective of historical miniature gamers (e.g. at The Miniatures Page) who play with models for which we actually know the real scale!

[horizon]

Tau!
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=8537.msg71767#msg71767