Minis for Classic Car Wars?

[Nestyr]

Hi all,

Long time lurker here (dont let the "join date" fool you - I first joined up when the internet was still a brand new thing. Yes, I am old...).

With the advent of relatively inexpensive resin printers, are there any resources out there for detailed minis that can be used for 1" scale Car Wars?

Is it likely SJG will produce 3D printer files for 1" scale Car Wars?

There's lots of stuff for "Hotwheels scale" Gaslands, and a few collections at 1:180 scale, with different levels of detail, but I haven't found anything yet which screams "print me"!

So, if it is allowed, and if you know of any good stl/ obj/ 3mf/ etc files for 1" Car Wars, whether they be Patreon, pay per file, free, etc, would you mind sharing with myself, and the rest of the class? :)

Cheers,

[HeatDeath]

Can't speak for SJGames, so this is total speculation:

Nothing has been announced that I'm aware of, but I could definitely see 3d printable minis for Car Wars 6e happening in the future. CW has a strong base, FLGS distribution is ramping up, and the company has seen some real success with the Kickstarters for .stl files they've done so far for TFT.

I would not expect to see anything directly and specifically targeting 4e, but I could possibly see some minimum [and probably unofficial] testing being done to verify that the .stl files are basically workable if scaled down to 33%, i.e. 4e scale. [I can particularly see this for Car Wars minis, because Car Wars minis are pretty much the best case scenario for dynamically scaling the 3d printing - relatively low and wide, requiring an absolute minimum of supports.]

I don't think it'd be a huge priority for them, but if it's not a huge amount of extra work, I could see some lip service being paid to the idea that, at least unofficially, scaling the .stl files down to 4e scale should be workable.

I think that's about the maximum 4e can expect to see in terms of official support going forward.

[Overload]

One Inch is is pretty small. What sort of resolution can you get with a 3D printer?

I have a bunch of old lead CW minis from the 80s, and they're not very good; again a resolution problem. You could figure out what car from the Vehicle Guide they were, but that's about it. I also have some 1" lead car models from another company of sports cars, with again, the same deal.

[HeatDeath]

Resin printers, of the sorts SJGames have targeted with their STL files [and will continue to support for the foreseeable future] have WAY higher resolution than any filament printers you may have seen in the past. They're genuinely impressive, even if they are significant more of a pain to use.

[Nestyr]

Originally Posted by HeatDeath

Can't speak for SJGames, so this is total speculation:

Nothing has been announced that I'm aware of, but I could definitely see 3d printable minis for Car Wars 6e happening in the future. CW has a strong base, FLGS distribution is ramping up, and the company has seen some real success with the Kickstarters for .stl files they've done so far for TFT.

I would not expect to see anything directly and specifically targeting 4e, but I could possibly see some minimum [and probably unofficial] testing being done to verify that the .stl files are basically workable if scaled down to 33%, i.e. 4e scale. [I can particularly see this for Car Wars minis, because Car Wars minis are pretty much the best case scenario for dynamically scaling the 3d printing - relatively low and wide, requiring an absolute minimum of supports.]

I don't think it'd be a huge priority for them, but if it's not a huge amount of extra work, I could see some lip service being paid to the idea that, at least unofficially, scaling the .stl files down to 4e scale should be workable.

I think that's about the maximum 4e can expect to see in terms of official support going forward.

<smacks forehead> I didn't even consider scaling down existring "hot wheels" scale files... Must be going senile.

Thanks so much for that prompt - it gives me a lot to work with.

Cheers,

[43Supporter]

Find an architectural-model-supply store; look up "1/200-scale". You'll find a lot of minis for low cost (I think I've seen mixed 100-packs for ~$30; but I'm not sure it's within forum rules to post links to same).

[Nestyr]

TL,DR, for the below: image scales on counters have been fudged. Retaining the 1”=15’ (or 1:180 scale, or “Heroic” 10mm scale) scale of the counter, I am asking whether changing the scale of objects to 1:220, for everything, would be acceptable, when printing miniatures, to be mounted on bases in the “standard” (1:180) scale of the game.

Hi all,

Tragically replying to my own post, and having spent a good deal of time measuring dimensions of vehicles on counters, comparing them to RL counterparts, I believe I have discovered something, which the community in general may already be aware of:

There has been a great deal of fudging in the sizes of the counter artwork.

Two examples:

There is a counter for a classic, yellow VW Beetle, which I believe is from the combustion engine hot rods counter sheet. The image is roughly one third the length of a counter. Which means it should be around 5’ in length. In reality, the average length of the classic Beetle is 13’. The image on the counter, therefore, should take up most of the length, then, as the counter represents a length of 15’.

Additionally, the average lengths for mid-sized and larger cars starts at over 15’, so they should not fit on a standard car base of 1”*1/2” (again, where 1”=15’).

Now, I can appreciate some fudging being done, for the sake of gameplay, in order to keep the “standard” base size to 1”*1/2”. However, my ASD finds this problematic, especially when I am looking at using miniatures in the “standard” Car Wars scale (which, incidentally is a scale of 1:180, or “Heroic” 10mm miniature scale).

In order for accurately-scaled images of vehicles to fit on this “standard” base size, the scale of these images needs to be corrected, and consistent. The next “common” scale of 1:200 (or 8mm) is still *just* a bit too large for vehicle images on the larger size to fit on the base. The next subsequent “common” scale would be 1:300 (or 6mm), and this is far too small, making smaller vehicles appear comically small on the counters.

After some experimentation, I believe the best scale for the images would be 1:220 (very roughly around 7.8mm scale - I haven’t done the math yet…). All cars fit comfortably on the car counters, cycles fit on cycle counters, etc. Larger vehicles look fine, and smaller vehicles do not appear to be any more comical than usual.

Why does this matter?

Ultimately, it doesn’t.

However, as I am working on making suitably-sized “realistically” dimensionally accurate miniatures, for these earlier versions of the game (and my autistic brain is having apoplexy, with the mixed scale sizes), I thought it would be good to determine a scale which would work, across the board, for all the things depicted on counters in the game.

So, what do you think? If the 1”*1/2” scale for the base sizes is retained, is a 1:220 scale suitable for things to be put on these counters/ bases?

Cheers,

[swordtart]

I applaud you for your endeavours, petty fogging consistency is the enemy of expediency but if all you have to do is measuring and maths at design time, why wouldn't you try to be consistent?

Of course the yellow car you identified isn't actually a classic VW beetle at all. It is a subcompact styled on the VW beetle but scaled down to the 5ft you measured it at. All those graphics are just pictures chosen for artistic reasons, not representations of actual vehicles. In reality a subcompact should be about half the length of a luxury car not 2/3 as depicted on the counters. A Smart car is 8.5ft and realistically about as small as you can get (since a sub-compact doesn't have to be a go-cart) and even at the 1" scale should be over 1/2" long. The VW Beetle is classed as a compact.

If you convert MPH to inches per second changing the scale doesn't really work. 10 MPH is 14.6 ft per second, it is pretty close to the 15ft that 1" represents using the conventional scale (which is why that scale was chosen).

If you want to fix the size of the scale car for realism you should instead change the size of the counter/base rather than change the scale to fit a 1 x .5 counter. That way the movement scale stays correct and you don't need to mess with movement keys etc. Putting a model on a different size base is trivial compared to redesigning the movement system.

You may know that 5th edition did use different sized counters for the various vehicle sizes, whereas earlier and now later versions have a standard size counter (for cars at least) and just vary the artwork. Different counter sizes doesn't make it any harder to move the counters (cycles, 10 wheelers and helicopters etc. don't use 1 x .5" counters anyway). It has the additional benefit of making collisions a bit more logical and determining if you could put a cycle up an narrow alley trivial. Handling a 1/2" counter however might be a bit fiddly (which was less of an issue with 5th as it was 3x or hot wheels scale). Using the standard scale a minicooper would be 2/3", a midsize 1" and a large pickup might tip 1 1/4". A 40" trailer should really be 2 2/3" but 1 1/2" for the tractor doesn't look far off (but it might be a little wider than 1/2").

If you do change the scale (and say the interval between turns is not a second but whatever fraction of a second it needs to make 1" of movement equate to 10 mph), I would recommend 1:240 scale instead of 1:220. It will make the maths easier and won't horrendously bend the images off your plan as you have a nice factor of 12 in there which means you just need to divide your real world length in feet by 20 to get it in scale inches. It is a slightly messy as a metric scale, but then metric to imperial scales are a bit messy anyway.

A 40ft trailer would be 2" exactly, a realistic subcompact (mini cooper) 1/2", a compact 3/4", a midsize 3/4". You could fit up to 20ft of car onto a 1" counter and 30ft of truck on a 1.5" counter. There is complication as the EPA categories are based on volume rather than purely length and the length, width and height are not necessarily in the same proportions between categories let alone between vehicles within a category.