Models in this scale-group fall into three distinctive sets – 1:220, 1:200, and 1:185. Their origins are all from different hobbies, but with care when choosing, they can fit comfortably together.

1:220 equates to 9mm wargaming scale (which is not a used size), but originated from the Z-gauge railway models scale, which appears to be more popular in Germany and the US, than in other countries. A short list of wargames manufacturers produce in this scale, crossing the hobbies divide.

!:200 is a commonly stated wargames scale that is actually 9.5mm on the metric man-height system. It originated within the plastic kit model industry, and emerged into wargaming via the pioneering cross-hobby, white metal models manufacturer – Skytrex/Davco of Loughborough, UK.

Strictly speaking 1:200 is not the same as 10mm wargaming – there is an 8% size difference in the scales, yet, like the 15mm/18mm controversy related to 1:100 scale, the wargames industry prefers their bananas bent, and refuse to listen to logic, believing always that bigger is better.

1:185 is the correct ratio scale for the popular 10mm wargames scale, and I confess that I have no idea why such a difficult to scale sizing has become popular – I can only guess that it is the using of 10mm as man height that has caused a proliferation of figure makers designing in the scale, whilst vehicle and buildings output remains sparse. Perhaps for this reason, the scale is more popular for pre-20th Century games, than it is for those needing lots of buildings and vehicles.

(page incomplete – more to follow)

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