Can HBG and GHQ be mixed?

[Modest_Proposal]

Hello,

I’m new here.

I apologize is this question has been asked before somewhere on the forum: I need to know before I start investing in miniatures if mixing and matching, for example, HBG and GHQ and CinC miniatures is a bad idea. That is - do they match well together when painted?

I am aware that GHQ are generally of a higher definition than HBG - but what about scale? I know they are both suppose to be 1/285th. But does that ring true? Peering at some of the plane models gives me the impression that HBG models can be a bit smaller. Am I being delusional?

What about material? Are they both made of different materials? If so, is this obvious when handling them on the board?

Do the differences in definition/quality really stand out when all put together?

I tend to be particularly anal about consistency and I don’t want a frankenstein set with clearly a mixed bag of pieces.

Anyway, if this post is ignorant or too generalized, please let me know.

[John Brown]

I can tell you, that DTROY on youtube, has bought the GHQ tanks, which are metal, if memory serves me correct, along with HBG’s miniatures, which are plastic.

He goes into great detail on his very first German video, which that video is 3 years old, about the differences.

As far as ships and planes, not sure the scale of GHQ, but everything HBG does, just about, is on scale with your OOB pieces.

When painted, they both look great. You can detail, the insane detail in the GHQ tanks, but they look cool.

I only have HBG and OOB, but check his older German video on the tanks.

I hope this helps and welcome to the forums! :-)

Cheers!

John

[Leatherneckinlv]

GHQ are all to a 285 scale…I have many pieces and quite happy with them. If you house rule tanks to fit your game then they are well worth it.

1/3000 scale for ships are quite good except for destroyers and Subs. 1/2400 for DD’s and just use OOB Subs

1/600 scale for planes…you have to do research here as once you start to delve into heavy bombers they start getting big.

for figuring length multiply length of actual unit in feet x 12 then divide by scale
Example Town class cruiser is 591 ft

591 x 12=7,092
7,092 > 3,000= 2.4 inches

so a Town Class Cruiser is approx. 2.4 inches in length

this formula applies to any scale

[Wolfshanze]

I’ve never dealt with GHQ units, so I can’t comment on them.

I’ve spent a lot of $$ on HBG and OOB units and I can comment on them.

On detail, HBG units are more detailed than OOB units, especially on tanks and ships… HBG planes roughly the same level of detail as OOB (not significantly more detailed).

On scale, HBG units are well scaled to themselves… vs OOB units, there are some hit and miss or huge differences depending on which units you speak of.

On OOB units, scale is secondary to class of unit. For instance all OOB battleships are x-length… even if one battleship class is known to be significantly longer/bigger than a different nations’ battleship, they’re all the same length in-game. All cruisers are a little smaller than battleships… even though some newer cruisers were just as long as some older battleships… what class your unit is in OOB determines its length…

In HBG, unit scale is adhered to over in-game class scale. A Nevada class battleship is noticeably smaller than an Iowa class battleship (which in-turn means its much shorter than all OOB battleships). This is absolutely most obvious when comparing OOB tank scale vs HBG tank scale… while most HBG “medium” tanks are roughly the same scale as OOB tanks, when you start looking at heavy and light tanks they are all much bigger or smaller than any OOB tank. A good example of this would be comparing a Type-95 Ha Go tank from OOB vs the Type-95 Ha Go tank from HBG… they are both the same tank but the HBG tank (because it’s to scale with other HBG tanks) is WAAAAY smaller than the OOB tank… the OOB Type-95 is just as big as an OOB Tiger or Panther tank…

On scale issues, HBG planes (for the most part) mix well with OOB units.

IMHO, there is merit in both lines of thinking (all tanks are the same size, all battleships are the same size)… the method OOB units chose (all same class same size) I’m sure is for instant on-board game recognition, as there’s no confusing a battleship from a cruiser due to size, while the other method (all units are correctly scaled on a consistent basis) that HBG chose is certainly more realistic and may appeal more to those looking for realism over game function (though someone not familiar with ships might start confusing old battleships and newer cruisers as sizes are no longer the way to tell them apart).

I’m not stating the above to pass judgment on either method of doing things, each person will choose what they deem as preferable to them. I just wanted to mention if unit scale is something that is important to you (in either method), OOB and HBG do handle them a bit differently… some people wouldn’t even notice or care, others (especially OCD types) will notice the difference immediately (look no further than the Type-95 Ha Go differences).

Just putting that info out there for you if its important to you.

[CWO Marc]

Two other suppliers you may want to investigate are Panzerschiffe (http://www.panzerschiffe.com/), which produces 1/2400 scale model ships cast in resin, and Navwar (http://www.navwar.co.uk/nav/), which produces 1:3000 scale and 1:1200 scale model ships in metal.  Both are somewhat less detailed than GHQ ships, as I recall, but the variety of models they have is quite extensive.

[Modest_Proposal]

Thank you all for your valuable contributions.

Wolfshanze - you have given me some insight on the differences between the OOB units and HBG units in terms of scaling. Good to know and something I will keep in mind.

Considering that HBG and GHQ both scale based on realistic dimensions, they should both be more similar in dimension then either are to OOB.

CWO - I appreciate the links and will check them out.

Leather - I suppose this brings into question the viability of certain units on the board. For example, certain large heavy tanks and especially bomber planes might clutter the board too much. Does this appear to be a problem with appropriately scaled units? Even sea units, I would imagine, in the smaller channels.

John - I will try to find those videos. Much appreciated! Can you tell me, however, if the feeling of handling metal pieces differs significantly from handling plastic pieces?

,David

[carsonbparker]

With GHQ everything will be good to scale for the board game except bombers and the larger ships.  Basically battleships, carriers, and “heavy bombers” will be much larger than the OOB axis pieces.  Some of the tactical bombers can be a good size larger as well. I am working on an all GHQ set but I’ll eventually have a larger board.  Maybe 90 x 45.  I’ll also use flight stands for the tactical and heavy bombers as well.  I plan to use task for cards or markers for the big navies too.

[spencer8030]

Yes they can. I’ve used GHQ, CinC, and HBG armor units together and they fit together nicely. There is a difference in detail so when sitting GHQ pieces next to HBG ones you will see a difference, but HBG is much easier on the pocket book.  I wouldn’t recommend GHQ and CinC navel pieces as they are noticeably bigger than OOB. They only exception is the destroyers, they a very close to OOB and HBG destroyer pieces. I also find the 1/600 is too small for fighters, I’ve found that 1/500 is closer to the OOB size for most fighters.  Here is the scale chart that I use.

Carrier: 6.5 cm
Light/Escort Carrier: 5cm
Battleship: 6 cm
Cruiser: 5.5(HBG)
Light Cruiser 5 cm to 5.5cm
Destroyer 4.8 cm

Planes: (cm is wingtip to wingtip)
Heavy Bomber: 4.7 cm 1/700
Medium Bomber: 3.5 cm 1/600
Heavy Fighter: (Twin engine) 2.8 cm 1/600
Fighter: 2.2 cm 1/500
Light Fighter: 1.7 cm 1/600
Dive/Torpedo Bomber: 3 cm 1/500

[John Brown]

David, I personally don’t have the GHQ models, so I don’t know how they feel, but I’m sure these guys can describe them. :-)

John

[John Brown]

MP, the video of DTROYS GHQ models, is called, “Painted Axis and Allies game board pieces.” This was DTROYS first video ever on Dec. 9, 2013.

I hope this helps!

Cheers!

John

[cyanight]

I use some GHQ for land units.  They are good pieces but the barrels on the tanks tend to bend a lot unlike plastic pieces that have fixed barrels.

[Leatherneckinlv]

Personally I like to scale units

I use 1/3000 scale DD’s for Torpedo Boat Destroyers
I like seeing a Type 95 or an L 6/40 getting dwarfed by a Tiger. Tanks should have variances

For planes I use stands so they are not an issue.

It’s worth it to customize in my opinion

[Modest_Proposal]

carsonbparker -

So, considering you are trying to make a full GHQ set, do you find the battleships, carriers, and heavy bombers (without stands) to be too large for the standard Global and/or Anniversary map?

Perhaps if I tactfully choose only a few large battleships and carriers and stuck mostly to the medium-smaller ones + support carriers.

,David

[sgtwiltan]

HBG vehicles are scaled more to the 1/300 scale while CinC and GHQ are 1/285.
I was going to use the GHQ route but the noodle gun barrels, weight, and paint chipping made me scratch build my own in plastic. Loved it when HBG came along but their older pieces were a little hit or miss in detail and scale. Their newer stuff is fantastic. I have tons of HBG pieces and modify the crap out of them as well as the out of box pieces. Look at my thread in the customization forum and you can see side by side comparisons of HBG, GHQ and OOB pieces and you can see the size relationships.

I also weighed OOB pieces against GHQ metal and found that the GHQ tiger weighs as much as 8 OOB tigers or 6 HBG Tigers. Think about that when you have lots of those metal pieces in you game box. That is why I switched to plastics.

[carsonbparker]

@Modest_Proposal:

carsonbparker -

So, considering you are trying to make a full GHQ set, do you find the battleships, carriers, and heavy bombers (without stands) to be too large for the standard Global and/or Anniversary map?

Perhaps if I tactfully choose only a few large battleships and carriers and stuck mostly to the medium-smaller ones + support carriers.

,David

I think with the bombers is were the real problem would be.  In the average game there usually aren’t tons of carriers and battleships littered across the board so even though they’re a little big its doable.  A big carrier like the Yorktown or the battleship Yamato or Bismark can easy be longer than an individual sea zone.  The destroyer size is perfect and cruisers and smaller battleships fit nicely. The Yorktown for instance is a quarter longer than my middle finger so they’re close to 4 inches long.  But I just finished the Japanese Escort carrier Ryujo and it’s honestly a great size (maybe more like 2.5 /inches). Tanks are perfect, mechanized infantry is just right, fighters are a tab bigger but good size.  Bombers now can span more that a whole country.  For instance the German HE-11 bomber has a wing span of about 2.5 / 3 inches.  On the ground they would virtually take up all the space of say Western Germany.  The magnet flight stands I use have a nail shaft to hold them up (they’re kinda heavy compared to plastic) and the pewter base I use is around the circumference of a quarter so the stands them selves still take up some room.  As the gentleman noted as well the pieces are a bit heavier bit I like the solid feel they bring and they’re kinda tacky on the board which is cool.  Regarding the bigger ships I’ve never been one for shying away for using task cards or zones.  The big navies always use these anyways in my games so they’re not much of a problem.  I’m also going to be to be using a bigger board soon so that will help with the pieces being on the bigger side.  It’s just the tactical and heavy bombers that need to be lifted to make room for the pieces on the bottom.