So one of my current projects is the Alien Commander V1.0 kit. I wanted to make a pulse rifle (rather than use the included carbine). So I went about draying plans, measuring a loose pulse rifle from a 28mm fire warrior kit and simply multiplying by 2.
This generated a monstrosity of a rifle nearly as large as the commander.
In peoples experience, what is a better conversion ratio from 28mm up to 54mm? I find the 54mm models have a more realistic proportion and I want it to look more in line, rather than the squat 28mm aesthetic.
The 54mm miniatures have a marginally more realistic proportion, but it is still heavily in GW's chunky heroic style.
I've come across this a lot. Every time I've done a model to match some artwork, it's had to be done in totally different proportions, and can typically take their gear out of my 28mm bitz box.
Sgt Gillmore has mostly 28mm pouches and grenades. Sister Phoenix was given a 28mm bolter and power armour backpack (and found plenty of space for WYSIWYG spare ammo). Sgt Kronen... well, she's one case where I had to build her lasgun, because the Triplex-Phall is slightly longer than most.
Generally, the weapons GW put in their 28mm kits are actually about 54mm scale (that being a true proportion 54mm, not a heroic proportion 54mm).
But given that heroic models can have a fairly strongly varying proportion, there's no single conversion factor that will suit every model.
Personally though, I will say I think that pulse rifles should be fairly long weapons. Even were I doing a realistically proportioned one, I wouldn't aim for less than 40mm total length, and I'd increase that at least to some degree in the hands of a heroically proportioned model.
Agreed. That said, I prefer to use original artwork to judge scale off of. Similarly, I use the scale of a specific mini to judge the size of accouterments, using aesthetics to judge the size of scht-oof to put on it.
In Dionzi's case, the process ends up with a halberd literally twice the mini's height, but looks smaller when he's wielding it.
Personally, I'm of the same opinion as Marco that the 28mm weapons are so heroic you don't need to scale them up, but can simply put them on a 54mm model. Certainly, that's been my experience of the pistols and combat weapons, though I'm not sure if the same is true of rifles.
Thanks for the input everyone. I think a trip to the hobby store will be in order this weekend. I want the rifle to have some heft, so I will most likely make it twice as thick as the pulse carbine provided with the kit, but not much longer.
My plan is to take a styrene bar of roughly the right length but half the end thickness. then I am going to cut detail into a 0.5mm sheet and laminate it to the bar so I can get panel lines and recesses.