28mm vs 32mm — what scale should your terrain be?

28mm vs 32mm — what scale should your terrain be?

It's one of the most frequently-asked questions we get in the inbox at our UK print farm: "I play Warhammer / D&D / Bolt Action / Frostgrave — is your 28mm terrain going to be too small?" Or sometimes the reverse: "Will 32mm terrain dwarf my older 28mm minis?" Both are sensible questions, and the answer is satisfyingly straightforward once you understand what those numbers actually mean. This guide unpacks the scale debate, explains the (mild) chaos around how miniature manufacturers measure heights, and gives you a practical decision-making framework for picking terrain that'll look right with your miniatures for years to come.

What "28mm" and "32mm" actually mean

In tabletop terms, scale is measured from the soles of a standing human miniature's feet to its eye-line (sometimes its head — manufacturers disagree). A "28mm" mini is supposed to be roughly 28mm tall to the eye. A "32mm" mini is roughly 32mm tall to the eye. That's it. There is no governing body. There is no ISO standard. Every manufacturer measures slightly differently, and the same range will drift over a decade as sculptors gradually scale things up to fit more detail.

The clearest way to think about it: 28mm is the older, classic miniature scale used by Games Workshop's older ranges, virtually all of historical wargaming (Warlord Games' Bolt Action, Perry Miniatures, Footsore, Victrix), Frostgrave, Mordheim, most of Reaper Bones, most of the OSR D&D miniatures cottage industry, and most 3D-printed terrain from UK and EU sellers. 32mm "heroic scale" is what Games Workshop has been quietly drifting toward for years — current Space Marines, current Stormcast Eternals, and most of the contemporary 40K and Age of Sigmar plastic ranges land closer to 32mm. Many newer DnD official lines (WizKids, Pathfinder Battles) sit in a similar range, often labelled "1 inch = 5 feet" which translates roughly to 28–32mm in practice.

The good news: terrain is much more forgiving than miniatures

Here's the thing nobody tells you on day one: terrain rated as "28mm compatible" will look completely fine alongside 32mm miniatures, and vice versa. The reason is straightforward — buildings, walls and ruins are scaled to the average height of an in-fiction person, but doorways, windowsills and table heights are generously sized to let a chunky Citadel base actually fit through them. A 28mm doorway is typically modelled around 35–45mm tall internally, which means your 32mm Custodes still fits without ducking. A 32mm-rated cottage will look a touch taller against an older 28mm Bretonnian, but the human eye reads "cottage" not "exactly correct cottage height", and a 4–5mm difference in scale is well within the variation you'd see in real medieval buildings anyway.

The terrain in our range — including everything in the Pumpkin Cottage, Elderberry Cottage, and Thistlewick Cottage lineup — is designed for 28mm but tested visually against 32mm Marines. They look correct alongside both. The same applies to the ruins, towers and inns: scale is forgiving on architecture in a way it absolutely is not on miniatures themselves.

Where scale matters more

There are a few specific cases where the 28mm-vs-32mm difference becomes noticeable rather than negligible:

Doors and arches. If you want your miniature to be visibly entering or exiting a door, the door needs to be tall enough for the mini to stand inside. Most 28mm terrain is modelled with internal door heights of 35–45mm, which works for both 28mm and 32mm minis. Cheap, generic 28mm terrain sometimes models doors at exactly 28mm — looking proportionally right but useless for actually placing minis. We err on the larger side specifically so that 32mm-scale minis still fit comfortably.

Window heights and parapets. Same principle. A 28mm window at 25mm height won't show the head of a 32mm sniper trying to look out of it. A 32mm-friendly window at 32mm height looks slightly oversized to a 28mm peasant — but again, the eye reads the function, not the precise measurement.

Playable interiors. If you're buying terrain with a removable roof and a fully playable interior — like the Luxorm Cottage, which has a hearth and detailed living space inside — the interior floor plan matters more than the exterior height. A "28mm" interior is typically built around 1-inch grid squares (25.4mm), which is the standard D&D combat grid. Both 28mm and 32mm miniatures on 25mm or 32mm round bases fit happily inside.

Centrepiece structures. Once you get into siege equipment — the Siege Tower is a good example — scale starts mattering because the model has to look as if a unit of minis could plausibly be inside it. Multi-level pieces are sculpted with the expectation that someone will try to perch a model on each floor, and we set internal floor-to-floor heights at around 45mm to be safe for both scales.

Which games use which scale?

To make this concrete, here's a quick rundown of the games and ranges you're most likely playing, and what they actually use:

28mm games and ranges. Bolt Action and all WW2 historical wargaming. Frostgrave and Stargrave (Joseph A. McCullough's North Star ranges). Mordheim (classic Games Workshop, OOP but going strong). Saga and Saga Age of Magic. Most Reaper Bones miniatures. WizKids unpainted minis ("Wardlings", "Nolzur's Marvellous"). Most Etsy and Kickstarter 3D printed mini ranges. The original Warhammer Fantasy plastic and metal ranges. Pretty much any "historical" or "old-school fantasy" range from a UK or EU sculptor.

32mm-ish "heroic" games and ranges. Current Games Workshop ranges — Space Marines, Stormcast Eternals, current Skitarii. Marvel: Crisis Protocol (Atomic Mass). Star Wars Legion (some figures push toward 32mm despite the marketing). Most current Kingdom Death miniatures. Most premium resin-cast adventurer ranges (Hellboy: The Board Game's bigger characters, the high-tier Kickstarters).

Genuinely mixed scale games. Dungeons & Dragons. Pathfinder. Most generic RPGs — your players will be bringing minis from every range under the sun, and terrain just needs to look "right" against whatever shows up at the table. 28mm-rated terrain is the safest bet here precisely because it accommodates everything from a 25mm classic Reaper mini to a 35mm Stormcast.

Practical decision-making: which to buy?

For most UK gamers, the answer is uncomplicated: buy 28mm terrain that's tested with 32mm minis in mind. That's almost everything in our range, and it's the choice that ages best across a mixed collection. The reason is simple — terrain is expensive and slow to accumulate, while miniature collections turn over every few years as new ranges come out. You want terrain that still looks right ten years from now, regardless of which game has the wind in its sails.

A few specific scenarios where you might think harder:

If you exclusively play current Games Workshop (40K, Age of Sigmar). You can comfortably use 28mm-labelled terrain. The visual mismatch is real but small, and most GW terrain isn't actually 32mm anyway — it's "fits in a Citadel Realm of Battle box", which is a different thing entirely. You'll find that 28mm cottages and ruins look perfectly at home alongside Marines.

If you exclusively play Bolt Action or other 28mm historicals. 28mm terrain is exactly what you want. Our entire WW2 line and the 28mm Building Ruins are designed specifically with the doorway heights and footprints that suit Warlord Games-sized models.

If you mostly run D&D. You're already in mixed-scale land. Buy 28mm terrain. Stop worrying. Your players will fight more about XP allocation than the precise scale of the inn.

If you're building a display board. Now scale matters, because nothing has a base on it to confuse the eye, and a 4mm height discrepancy reads. Pick one scale and stick to it. For display purposes, we'd recommend looking for ranges explicitly tested with 32mm minis if those are your hero figures — both the Raven Tower and Bell Tower Farm have been photographed alongside 32mm Stormcast for exactly this kind of buyer.

What about 15mm, 20mm, and other historical scales?

Worth a quick mention: if you play Flames of War (15mm), Battlegroup or Chain of Command in 20mm, or any of the Napoleonic ranges in 15mm, then 28mm terrain is genuinely too big. The doorways will look like garage entrances. For those games you need scale-appropriate terrain, and that's a different range of products. Most of our terrain is 28mm scale unless explicitly stated otherwise — if you're in 15mm/20mm land, drop us a line in chat and we'll point you at the right collection or print to order at scale where we can.

The bottom line

The 28mm vs 32mm debate sounds like a deep technical question, but for terrain it's almost always a non-issue. Pick 28mm-labelled terrain, check the doorway height is at least 35mm if you want minis to actually walk through, and you'll have a board that looks right against everything from a classic 1990s Bretonnian to a brand-new Custodes Guardian. Buying terrain for a single, very specific scale is the kind of decision that ages badly — your mini collection will drift, your gaming group's preferences will drift, and a 28mm cottage will still be the right cottage to throw on the board in five years.

If you're starting a collection from scratch, the budget-friendly entry points in our range — pieces under £25 like the Elderberry Cottage — are deliberately scaled to be the kind of thing you can buy three or four of without breaking the bank, and they'll all be compatible with whatever miniatures end up on your table. Stack them with a couple of bigger centrepieces like the Pumpkin Cottage or Thistlewick Cottage and you've got a board that handles fantasy, historical, and D&D equally well. Worry less about the millimetre, more about the table.