Hmmm… well, I have now received the lion’s share of my orders from HBG… which included both extra A&A sculpts from their lineup of games (like more units from A&A 1941, 1942 and 1940P&E), to the custom sculpts that HBG offers that don’t exist in the A&A games (like 7TP & Type-97 tank models, to custom naval ships like Nevada’s, South Dakotas, Fuso’s and the like).
Now, if you really couldn’t give a hoot about scaling sizes… if unit #1 is a lot bigger/smaller than unit #2, then move along, nothing to see here…
I already see what’s going on… HBG’s custom sculpts are properly sized and scaled to each other and to reality. Which, normally, you would think is a really good thing. For example, in reality, the Iowa BBs were a good bit larger than the South Dakota class of BBs, which themselves were significantly larger than the Nevada BBs. Same with tanks… a KV-2 was larger than a T-34, which was larger than a 7TP… HBG’s custom sculpts reflect this to each other.
The problem is, with few exceptions, HBG’s custom sculpts aren’t on the same scale as A&A’s default sculpts… at least with what I’ve run into so-far. A&A has tried to standardize scaling for ease of recognition on the game board. A&A’s default sculpts all run the same size per class regardless of what it is they’re covering… an IS-2, a T-34, a Sherman, a Tiger or Panther… they’re all roughly the same size on the game board… same thing with all Battleships… a Royal Oak, Hood or Iowa are all the same size, just to avoid confusion over what is a BB or what is a CA (even though in reality, they all differ in size considerably). While it may not be historically accurate, it serves a purpose on a crowded game board.
Now comparing A&A’s default sculpts with HBG’s custom sculpts, I’ve come to the following observations:
HBG’s custom tank sculpts are mostly on a smaller scale than the game’s default sculpts… or at least shrink considerably with older tank models. The Japanese Type-97 Medium tank from HBG, is smaller compared to the Type-95 light tank default sculpt. HBG Shermans are smaller than A&A default Shermans (though clearly more accurately detailed), while Pershings are bigger than either (once again, properly scaled to each other, but not to A&A standardized sculpts)… the HBG ships are in the same boat (pun intended?). The South Dakota BB is roughly the same size as a default BB, but actually is larger than the default A&A Iowa (which is off to scale to each other), while considerably larger (accurately) to a HBG Nevada, which in-game is about the size of a Cruiser… while properly scaled to the HBG SD class, it could cause confusion in-game being the same size as a Cruiser.
As a HUGE fan of military equipment of all nations, I can immediately spot out a Nevada or Iowa or South Dakota silhouette from other ships, but I know my kids and friends probably cannot… and they would probably get confused in-game as to why some battleships are the size of cruisers while others are not (the same occurs with tanks, a default Sherman or Panther is easily three or four times the size of an HBG 7TP tank). I know in reality, size difference between classes is quite common, but it’s a sacrifice the designers of the game made for simplicity and easy spotting in-game (if all BB’s were the same size for example).
Oddly enough, the HBG custom aircraft seem to be immune to this issue… HBG custom fighters and bombers seem to be well-scaled to A&A default unit scaling… the scaling issues mostly seem to effect Tanks and Ships.
On a totally different note, the “pumpkin orange” of HBG custom units for Japan does not seem to be the same shade as “pumpkin orange” of current 2nd Edition default Japanese units… its close, but noticeably different… once again, I know some won’t care for the slight change in color, but it bothers me for some reason (not a complaint, so much as an observation).
Once again, I know HBG is catering to more than just A&A players… their custom units can be used for many games, A&A is one of them, and to their own credit, they are scaling units to each other properly, while A&A default units are not properly scaled, but rather “class scaled”… that all tanks are one size, all battleships are one size, etc, etc… this is done for ease of recognition in-game vs reality to unit scale… this is a purposeful design decision that one may, or may not agree to.
In the end, if one is mixing HBG custom units with default A&A units, you’ll end up with the following things occurring: Tanks and Ships will vary wildly in scale to each other and to the default A&A units… sculpt detail will also be obviously different… I have found HBG sculpts to generally be in greater detail than more generic A&A sculpts, and while at first, this may seem like a plus, it makes both the default A&A units the custom HBG sculpts stand out from one another on the game board.
If someone is bothered by uniformity and or game scale, then a few choices come down to this:
1) Stick strictly to A&A default units, they will all be the same detail and same scale by class in-game
2) Use only HBG sculpts for ships and tanks so they properly scale to one another, realizing that tank sizes will vary considerably and ships won’t always be size = class, as some battleships will be no bigger than cruisers.
3) Mix them altogether, noticing wildly different scaling and quality of sculpts… to some variety trumps scaling and color issues.
Now let me make this clear… I’m NOT COMPLAINING about HBG custom sculpts… I kinda had a feeling this would be an issue when I started ordering them… I’m merely pointing out some observations that I’ve noticed after getting my hands on some… and mind you, I don’t think I could have had a proper feeling for the differences until I had them in my hands and could compare them with the default units, so I kinda had to do this to “see for myself”.
Personally, of the three options I listed above, I’m not a fan of #3, mixing default sculpts with HBG sculpts, it just bothers me to see things like South Dakotas bigger than Iowas and Type-95 tanks bigger than Type-97 tanks, which is something that happens when you mix two different lines of units… so that leaves me with either Option #1 or Option #2… I’m probably going to just go back to using mostly default A&A sculpts (and I have already ordered extra of most default sculpts) because it has the added benefit of keeping things simpler on the game board, especially with people less fanatical about unique equipment than me, and I don’t want to have to explain why some battleships or tanks are vastly different in size than others.
Once again, I want to stress, this is not a complaint post… I think the HBG site is awesome, they ship quickly and deliver what they promise. Their custom sculpts are very cool and have more detail than the default sculpts in A&A (just look at the Sherman difference). I’m simply pointing out my observations, especially in regards to scaling issues, that if size does or doesn’t matter, and you’re thinking about custom HBG sculpts, this is something to consider if it’s important to you or not… if size matters.