The little drone and the fairytale of proper scale.

[dirty harry]

Once there was a little drone fostered and controlled by a Hi-Scout drone carrier together with her siblings. One day she got the order to move out and find the proper scale for tanks in the BattleTech universe. As ordered our little drone and her five siblings moved out to scout the outside world for a proper scale.
It did not take long for our little drone to find a first, strange landmark but it did not seem to be the right scale as it seemed out of BattleTech.
Only a few miles further the little drone discovered two Savannah masters, tanks not much larger than itself. They were hyperactive, but it seemed they were on the small side just liker herself.
She moved on just to find two standard APCs. Those seemed like dwarfs to her as these tanks weigh more than three times as much as her, but were only merely larger than her.

[dirty harry]

These two APCs were superseeded by a hover APC, the biggest of the three, but still it was a big discrepancy between weight and size.
The hover APC sighed as it thought about its bigger brother, the heavy APC, which dwarfed her. Her only confidence came from the fact, that his brothers, the heavy wheeled APC and the heavy tracked APC dwarfed their counterparts even more.
"You won't find a bigger one than me!", yelled another hover at the little drone and posted itself in front of her. Indeed, it was a way bigger tank, but even with 50 tons on the top end of conventional hovers, it seemed small. The little drone noticed it and sended its thoughts back home.
"As if he could be the biggest tank", teased a bigger Manticore. With its 60 tons it seemed proper dimensioned, but still small in the sensors of the little drone.

[dirty harry]

"And you think, you are a big tank!", shouted another tracked tank at him and faced him off. The little drone was on the unhappy side between both and fled the situation.
"They are big, but not the biggest ones. Even i cannot hold that title", told her a more seasoned Ontos. The little drone was amazed as this tank looked like a proper scale, but if he told her to find even bigger ones, she had to move out and find them.
And it found something. Something really big.
A big bad clan Wolf Heimdall slumbering in a corner.

[dirty harry]

"You should not wander around, if you are unfamiliar with the area", told her a friendly Demolisher II after sending the Heimdall back to the clan front. The little drone stared at him and glared. This must be it. This must be the proper scale for a tank like her. If she was to be upgraded, she would end as Demolisher II someday she was sure. Her hopes were set and she went happily back to her Hi-Scout drone carrier.

To sum it up: there seems to be no ideal scale for BattleTech tank miniatures. Some of them are way to small and others are to big in every dimension.


And to make things sure: i just finished painting some of the smallest vehicles available (those drones) as well as both, the Heimdall as well as the Demolisher II. Seeing these extremes from both sides led me to this little fun story. ;) ;D

[Daryk]

A fun little story indeed!  :thumbsup:

Though I'll say the square-cube law seems to hold at least up through the Maxim...

[jimdigris]

 :thumbsup:

[DOC_Agren]

Well done   ;D

[Greywind]

RP/IWM should have been on a scale from the beginning and stuck to it.

[Cache]

RP/IWM should have been on a scale from the beginning and stuck to it.

They did pick a scale and stick to it.

Over 30 years, two different companies, dozens of sculptors, and no "real world" dimensions to work from. Piece of cake I'm sure.

Answer me this: What is the "real world" length, width, and height of a Maxim Heavy Hover Transport (Standard)? Because if you can't answer that for all BT units, you can't tell me with certainty that the miniatures are out of scale. They do the best they can with what they have compared to a completely subjective standard. Some minis feel out of scale to me but not to others. I've read people complaining that a Daishi should be as tall as an Atlas. (Kind of ridiculous in my opinion, considering the Daishi stretches much further along the horizontal than the Atlas.) Elementals are one of the very few that have actually been given a size: 3 meters tall. But they and the newer BA minis are sculpted larger because fans requested it. Easier to paint and all that. And, really, they're not wrong for making a product that fans request.