Miniature scale converter: 28mm, 32mm, 54mm and 1:56
Wargaming miniatures are quoted as 28mm, 32mm or 54mm: a height in millimetres, not a ratio. Type a real size and a scale to get the model size, or read it backwards. Enter a figure height and the height of the person it represents to see the ratio that implies. The sums are exact, and the one guess, how tall the person is, is yours to change.
Model size = real size ÷ scale denominator. Figure ratios use an adjustable assumed person height of 1,800 mm.
What your figures actually are depends on the maker - measure one you trust or ask them. This tool does the arithmetic; it does not speak for any manufacturer.
What a scale ratio is
1:56 just means the model is one fifty-sixth of the real size. A wall 2,800 mm long in the world is 50 mm long on your table. The same sum works on a doorway, a cart or a window, and it works backwards too: multiply the model by 56 and you have the real thing. The tool above does it whichever way round you type it.
| Scale | 1.8 m person | 2 m doorway | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:35 | 51.4 mm | 57.1 mm | Military vehicle and figure kits |
| 1:48 | 37.5 mm | 41.7 mm | Aircraft kits |
| 1:56 | 32.1 mm | 35.7 mm | Tanks and cars made to sit with 28mm figures |
| 1:64 | 28.1 mm | 31.2 mm | What a 28mm figure works out at, if it stands for a 1.8 m person |
| 1:72 | 25 mm | 27.8 mm | Plastic aircraft and soldier kits |
| 1:76 | 23.7 mm | 26.3 mm | OO gauge model railways in the UK (4 mm to the foot) |
| 1:100 | 18 mm | 20 mm | Vehicles often paired with 15mm figures |
Those numbers are plain division, so they hold for any maker. The last column is where you usually meet each scale, not a rule.
28mm scale, 32mm and heroic scale: why a figure is not one ratio
28mm and 32mm tell you roughly how tall a figure stands. Heroic scale means the head, hands and weapons are sculpted bigger than real life so they still read from across the table. So a 32mm figure is a bit taller than a 28mm one, and a heroic 28mm figure is often chunkier than a true-scale one of the same height.
The catch is that makers measure in different places. Some go to the top of the head, some to eye level, and they each picture a different height of person. That is why two 28mm figures from different ranges can look odd side by side, and why no one can give you one ratio for "28mm". The tool works it out from the person height you set. We start it at 1,800 mm, which is our guess, and you can change it.
The quickest fix is a ruler: stand the figure against it, decide how tall the person would be, and divide. The photographing guide uses the same habit of checking a figure against something you know.
What scale is Warhammer 40k?
Games Workshop doesn't publish a ratio for its models, so there's no official number to quote. You can still work one out.
Its infantry are usually called 28mm or 32mm figures. Put those into the tool with a 1,800 mm person and 28mm comes out at about 1:64, and 32mm at about 1:56. Picture a shorter or taller person and both answers move. So if someone gives you one confident number, they've picked a person height without saying so.
It's the same across the hobby. A 1:72 kit can look right beside one maker's 28mm figures and wrong beside another's.
How tall is a space marine?
For the model, measure it. Stand it against a steel rule, read the height to the top of the head, and type that into the figure calculator above. Games Workshop doesn't publish a height, so we won't make one up.
For the character in the stories, that's a lore question rather than a sum. What the tool can tell you, once you've measured, is how big a doorway, a crate or a wall should be if you're building scenery to match.
What painters use it for
Sizing a display case or a shelf: measure the model, multiply by the ratio, and you know how much room its world needs. Sizing a backdrop for a photo: the same sum the other way. And when a finished piece is going on the wall, the sum that matters is pixels against print size, which every product page checks for you before you can order.
If you're deciding what to put it on, the display guide compares wall prints, mugs and bottles.
The common scales
| Scale | 1 m of wall becomes | A 1800 mm person becomes |
|---|---|---|
| 1:12 | 83.3 mm | 150 mm |
| 1:16 | 62.5 mm | 112.5 mm |
| 1:20 | 50 mm | 90 mm |
| 1:24 | 41.7 mm | 75 mm |
| 1:32 | 31.3 mm | 56.3 mm |
| 1:35 | 28.6 mm | 51.4 mm |
| 1:43 | 23.3 mm | 41.9 mm |
| 1:48 | 20.8 mm | 37.5 mm |
| 1:50 | 20 mm | 36 mm |
| 1:56 | 17.9 mm | 32.1 mm |
| 1:64 | 15.6 mm | 28.1 mm |
| 1:72 | 13.9 mm | 25 mm |
| 1:76 | 13.2 mm | 23.7 mm |
| 1:87 | 11.5 mm | 20.7 mm |
| 1:100 | 10 mm | 18 mm |
| 1:144 | 6.9 mm | 12.5 mm |
| 1:160 | 6.3 mm | 11.3 mm |
| 6 mm figure* | 3.3 mm | 6 mm (≈ 1:300) |
| 10 mm figure* | 5.6 mm | 10 mm (≈ 1:180) |
| 15 mm figure* | 8.3 mm | 15 mm (≈ 1:120) |
| 20 mm figure* | 11.1 mm | 20 mm (≈ 1:90) |
| 25 mm figure* | 13.9 mm | 25 mm (≈ 1:72) |
| 28 mm figure* | 15.6 mm | 28 mm (≈ 1:64.3) |
| 32 mm figure* | 17.8 mm | 32 mm (≈ 1:56.3) |
| 38 mm figure* | 21.1 mm | 38 mm (≈ 1:47.4) |
| 54 mm figure* | 30 mm | 54 mm (≈ 1:33.3) |
*The ratio in italics is derived from the assumed person height, not stated by any manufacturer.
Print the figure you just measured
Upload a photo of the painted figure. Choose Create a scene and AI redraws it in a setting of its own, or print the photo as it is. You see it before you pay, and it goes in your basket from here.
Miniature scales, in one line
Miniature scales are simple division: 1:N means one Nth, so the real size divided by N gives you the model, and the model times N gives you the real thing. The tool does it both ways. For the figure sizes painters talk about (15 mm, 28 mm, 32 mm, 54 mm) it works out the ratio from the height of the person the figure stands for, which you can change, because makers don't agree on it.
Every number on this page comes from your inputs. None is quoted from a manufacturer, so it works the same whoever made your figures.
Questions and answers
What ratio is a 28mm miniature?
It depends on the maker and on what the 28mm measures. Assuming the figure represents a 1,800 mm person, the tool derives about 1:64; assume a 1,568 mm person and it comes out at 1:56. The surest way is to measure the figure and divide, which is what the figure calculator above does.
Is 1:56 the same as 28mm?
Only for a 1,568 mm person: 1,800 mm divided by 56 is 32.1 mm, so a 1:56 world makes a 1,800 mm human a 32 mm figure. The two numbers you see quoted come from picturing different people. The tool shows which height it uses and lets you change it.
How big should a display case be?
Measure the model, multiply by the ratio, and add a margin. A 50 mm figure at 1:56 implies a 2,800 mm person, so a doorway at the same scale is 2,000 mm divided by 56, about 36 mm. The converter does the multiplication either way.
Does this tell me which scale my figures are?
No. Only the maker can say that. It converts sizes exactly and shows what a figure height works out to for the person height you choose.
How big is a 1:24 scale miniature?
A 1,800 mm person at 1:24 is 75 mm tall, so a 1:24 figure is more than twice the height of a 32mm wargaming miniature. Any real size divided by 24 gives the model size: a 2,000 mm doorway comes out at about 83 mm. Change the person height in the converter if the maker works from a different one.