On this forum, one thing we all have in common is our passion and love of Dust. When Dust was conceived by Paola Parente, all that was available were his illustrated works, drawings of walkers and futuristically dressed figures in a world war 2 setting. Then came the collectors sets, 1/35th, 1/48th, 1/25th and 1/6th. Dust was finally going places. Eventually, following behind came our wargaming sets with their superb 1/60th scale figures, and beautifully copied world war 2 walkers. In my opinion, still to this day, probably the best on the market. Certainly the most realistic to world war 2. Sadly, this is where the problem arises and will eventually explode out of control across the range of walkers, this problem is the perception of the scale of the walkers. I am sorry to say it won't go away, can't be swept under a rug, or bury your head in the sand,etc. Right now, it is very minor and can be corrected quite easily and cheaply with just a little modelling skill. The walkers look great, very world war 2 orienated, with blackout lights, jerry cans etc. All the garbage of world war 2. When a fictional machine is drawn by an artist like Parente, it is not necessarily drawn to a scale, just a fabulously drawn vehicle with great fields of perception. A model designer takes his drawings and creates a finished model. He views things like the 50 cal, jerry cans, packs etc.,draws the best items available from his spare parts box and then, with scratch parts, creates a copy of the Parente's drawings. It is then copied for collectors and given a scale. Designers, however, are not often used to wargaming. Our figures are 1/60th scale. Remove the base from any Dust figure and put it next to any world war 2 range, and it looks fine. Put one of theirs on a Dust base and it still works. So with 1/60th for our figures, the walkers should be the same. However take the pounder , the walker we are all familiar with, a medium mech with a possible 17 pounder main gun, a 50 caliber machine gun, a search light and 2 jerry cans. I list these items because all are taken from 1/35th scale kits and are exactly that scale. On a sci-fi machine, building or the like, the golden rule is - don't use a recogniseable part, jerry can etc, unless those parts set the finished scale. Some of you will think it's only sc-fi so does it really matter. It matters only if you wish it too, or use real vehicles alongside the sci-fi. This is probably the reason F.F.G. have chosen not to do WW2 vehicles. If they choose 1/60th, it could be Flames of War all over again. Turrets and guns could be swapped as easily as can be, a squad of 4 jeeps wouldn't cost an arm and a leg and an aircraft, even a fluing fortress, wouldn't be that big. Think positive, your figures are some of the best ever designed in 1/60th scale, so isn't it worth changing a few parts to get the ultimate walker in 1/60th. Think of all the wonderful gaming boards with all the accessories available from animals to buildings and scenery, even railways. Enjoy your Dust!!

I agree that scale is somewhat loose in Dust.

We all talked about OZZ´s big head back when op. seelowe was out, and when light walkers were lanuched, the difference between .50 cal of med walkers, and the one of the wildfire are there for all to see. Same if you put a honey/wildfire next to a BBQ squad guy...

Considering this, I say Dust is barely in it´s beginning, another reason why we love it, and e¡in constant change (like anything else). Proof of that, to me, is the allied crew set.

I think the first med walkers were made using exisitng parts because of many issues, founding ones maybe amongst others. As the game grows, and revenue gets bigger, opportunities for producing new stuff and making exisiting one better arise.

What I perceive from Dust Studio as creating company, and what inspisres loyalty in me as a customer, is the fact that through their actions they prove to be genuinely interested in producing quality stuff. And not in the marketing sense of achieveing quality to get more sells, but in the sense of dedication and love to outcome of their work.

Of course, that doesn´t mean they won´t make mistakes in the process, and sometimes be far away from the means to produce what they wish to produce, but you can count on them trying their best. And I appreciate that.

My biggest question: why are you saying DUST is 1:60th scale, when they have stated it is 1:48? When I measured my infantry, they measured out properly for 1:48, at about 35-39mm to the top of the head for a reasonable 168-187cm (66-74") tall man.

I understand the rationale in making the M2HB's bigger so they can take tabletop abuse without breaking as easily, but I don't really like it.

I do prefer models stay within the stated scale, rather than go the route of so many companies that ignore true scale in favor of nebulous heights without scale and then not stay consistent with that. The hard part is keeping control on the sculptors, and having someone checking their models against real gear depicted and the stated dimensions from Paolo's work. I agree with Aldarion, that as the game grows, it will be easier for them to add better checks to make sure models are released in the right scale.

Of course, the industry's tendency to ignore actual scale works to their advantage, as does real life. People are used to models where scale is questionable, at best from the first, and people can vary quite a bit in height, so variations in model height can be excused. If you consider people ranging only within a 2' range (5 to 7' (152-213cm), you have viable miniatures at 1:48 scale from 31.5-44.5mm tall from their feet to the top of their head.

Known equipment, like the M2HB .50 cal, become the biggest issue, as they should be 25.6mm, but not everyone will know that. If it looks cool, many will be satisfied. Jerry cans could be argued to be newer, larger cans, and weapons without specific designations could be assumed to be different weapons entirely, though that makes little sense on a different level.

So far, the infantry has stayed reasonably close, and we can hope that continues, as well as the vehicles improving in scale.

Heh, I don't know when I'd get the time, but I'd love to do a bit of kit bashing to turn on of the Axis medium walkers into a Black Templar Dreadnought. They are darned close to the correct size, a lot more so than the official GW models.

Algesan said:

Not to mention more impressive looking on the table.