Hello all.

I just had a quick question about the strips' size. I've only purchased the Napoleonic line so far so I have only that as reference. To me it seems as if 10mm would be the correct size rather than 6mm. Does this apply to the other eras you can purchase as well? I had not really considered it until I actually checked the height of my French and British units with a ruler and saw that from the feet to the hat there was 10mm, and from the feet to the tip of the bayonette I could measure 15mm.

Wargames figures are normally measured from soles of their feet to eye level - no idea why, it just seems to be the convention.

So yes a 6mm figure in a shako, for example, is going to be bigger than 6mm. But then normally a 10mm figure will be bigger than 10mm and a 15mm figure bigger than 15mm and so on.

Most wargames figures depict some kind of head covering, so that it is not always easy to measure the height of the figure up to the anatomical top of the head.  Many types of uniform use the head gear to make the soldier look bigger, and hence more intimidating to their enemies, so total figure height up to the top of helmet or hat for a 6' tall man would vary from army to army. That, I suspect, is the reason why wargames figures are traditionally measured up to the eyes.

Have a feeling that Baccus figures are 1/287 scale.

The problem in all wargaming is not are these actually Xmm but rather are these figures compatible with other manufacturers. There are four main 6mm manufacturers: Baccus, Irregular Miniatures, Heroics and Ros and another whose name eludes me. None of them are exactly compatible, but nevertheless I have used all of the first three in the same army with reasonable success (the differences look less when the figures are painted). The fourth make really are more like 10mm with very large heads. Really cannot remember the name, but someone will be along shortly who can.

Hi Guys,

That other company is Adler Miniatures ;)

The others pretty well beat me to it with any points I could have made.   If you have a look about half way down the FAQ  you'll see some comments I have made on this subject.

Not sure Adler are as ill-proportioned as is being suggested but they are a little too big to fit with the other manufacturer's offerings for my taste.

Rapier Miniatures range of Ancients, by design, fits very well with Baccus sizewise.

For the sake of curiosity, I have just done a quick comparison. I bougth some Adler Duchy of Warsaw as a start to my Raszyn 1809 project and Baccus British for Waterloo and, given the fact that both have textured bases and are not easy to measure with pin-point accuracy, foot to eye both are about 6.5mm. I admit that Adler are more 'substantial' figures akin to Front Rank in 28mm but I like the detail, being more of a painter than a gamer. Yes, the headgear is fairly large though the original were designed to make the wearers look bigger, more imposing and thus scarier, so I have no problem with this.as it gives my 58 year old eyes a better chance of getting paint where it ought too be.

As Peter suggests in his FAQ bit, you makes your choice and pays your money, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Seems a good argument not to mix manufacturers although I am as guilty as the next gamer/collector.

I think Peter has made baccus the industry standard in 6mm. I think the only major forays I have had outside baccus are for periods he does not cover (or at least did not cover when I was doing ww2) and for fantasy. That being said I do have an inhereited Adler Quatre Bras british list and it looks good against my Baccus French (Being a shameless Bonapartist the important army is Baccus!). I also use Adler's Marshals and generals for my army commanders, as they have a lot of personality and the oversize facilitates likenesses. These stands are not out of place with my Baccus at all.

I am doing Italian wars at the moment (a period which baccus does not do) and thus I committed to irregular minis, wich have been satisfactory-the detail is not up to snuff as compared to baccus, but the period is so colorful that the units pass the "3 foot rule" with flying colors. By comparison people are astounded to see the monocles on my FPW prussian officers. Size-wise they are comparable to baccus however.

In terms of sculpitng quality, the other miniatures that seem to rival baccus in quality are from microworld, whihc does fantasy and sci-fi ranges only (with more extensive offereings than peter has in fantasy-and I don't speak of command horizon - its loss from baccus is almost too painful to bear).  

I would say the quality of baccus shoulds drive you to its figures as a first choice in any situation. That being said, individual units of Adler or Irregular, nicely painted would not be amiss in a mostly baccus army. I am truly a baccus fan, but I think honest comparisons between manufactuers can help the wider 6mm hobby as a whole. Besides Peter can possibly cover every period we might be interested in as fast as we would like (I know I know, NW Frontier is coming and maybe some day crimean war and acient china...).