RUBICON MODELS 1/56 RANGE

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

RUBICON MODELS 1/56 Wargame Range

Tiger Hobbies will soon sub distribute Rubicon Models for their UK importer.

This is a rapidly growing range of about 60 kits aimed at the skirmish wargame Hobby.

These are possibly the first wargame range to out detail standard normal kits of similar scale or even larger.

https://www.tigerhobbies.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&search=RUBICON

Link to the Rubicon site


 

Edited May 2, 2019 by TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

Some of you may wounder where the scale of 1/56 came from, and why are they bothering.

The Model hobby is split into 5 main areas, Toy/Model Soldiers, Wargaming, Model Railways, Plastic scale models and diecast scale models. Senior is Toy Soldiers, which has been going for hundreds of years.

Toy Soldiers and Wargaming have their scale in inches or Millimeters.

Railway folks in Gauges i.e G, O, N, and even Z. A being the largest and Z being the smallest.

Scale Models in 1 to scale, i.e 1/72 1/32 and so on.

Children and Adults have played with Toy Soldiers for years and some form of gaming would also go on, but there was no laid down rules. Back in Late Victorian times, the Author HG Wells got together with friends and started his Small Wars rules. These were played on summers days in his garden with large scale soldiers running into the hundreds. Clear rules for moral and casualties and movement on the battlefield were made. So good were these rules that they formed the basis of wargaming into the late 20th century, including Military training.

Like early model railways, wargaming in its large scale, was for the rich or children of the rich, it was not until after WW2 that cottages industry made soldiers in smaller scales so wargames could be fought on a table and not in your garden. Again this was for adults as these were still quite expensive and in white metal. in the early 1960's Airfix came along with boxes of 50 1/76 figures for little money and wargaming really took off. The problem with wargaming it can be very boring if you follow the rules to the latter, with not a lot happening and games taking all weekend or bank holidays to complete. Back in the 90's we saw the rise of fantasy games where space marines would fight aliens on a distant planet, or fantasy monsters and hobbits. This brought younger gamers into the hobby, and game could be fought over 3 or 4 hours not 3 or 4 days. Playing with cardboard or similar figures, companies started to notice and new models started to come out. Younger gamers wanted larger scale but not as big as 54mm 1/32, so 30 mil figures or similar started to come out. The largest of these companies was Games Workshop. 

From this started to emerge gamers getting a little older and wanted to re-fight WW2 or US Civil War or other historical periods, but using the new faster rules and larger size. There was no suitable scale in the normal modelling world it was either 1/72 or 1/35/32 either too small or too large. 1/48 which should have been the scale, at the time little or no Military kits other than old out of production Bandi kits very hard to find. So again cottage industry started to produce Figure in 28mm or 30mm, so they could fight what is known as Skirmish, Platoons or Companies rather than Regiments. Vehicles on these early skirmish games were what they could pick up, 1/50 Corgi, 1/43 Jeeps older Corgi 1/60 models would be used, or crude resin models made in someones shed.

Corgi started to produce a range of figures to go with their 1/50 models, but for what ever reason were only issued in the USA, Tamiya looked at 1/48 Military but were a little too late to the party, by this time some of these cottages industry had grown and were producing Military vehicles in now what is known as 1/56. Oddly no one really knows what is the true scale for 28mm skirmish as wargamers don't know themselves. 

Scale Models are scaled from the Vehicle or aircraft, so it is fairly exact, and troops are worked out from a 6 foot man. Wargames have scaled from the man and men can be 6.5 foot or 5.5 foot, also they argue is the MM from the base of the foot to the eyes or top of the head or even his hat, so you you can see where the problem have come from.

1/56 is now the accepted scale for 28mm Skirmish and new manu's are coming along, Rubicon is the fastest growing and the first major one out of China with global distribution. 

No use fighting this best to embrace it, expect to see Aircraft in 1/56 soon and possibly diecast and possibly models you wanted in 1/72. Wargaming is possibly the fastest growing part of our Hobby, and the manus will go where the money is.

Rubicon will be the first of the 1/56 models that have the detail equal or better than normal scale models, and should cross overs to general modelers, esp when you look at the accessories been produced and whats coming.

The creation of diorama's that can show great detail without been so big as in 1.35 or even 1/48.

This company would not have spent the money on these tooling now well over 60, if the requirement or need was not there, 1/56 has been bubbling along for the last 10 year or so, but now has poked its head above the trench, and we expect it to become more popular among general modelers.

 

Will this replace 1/72 or 1/35 not really they are well established, but 1/48 Military could be in trouble.

Edited May 2, 2019 by TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED