World Word II ... Is 20mm (1/72) a good scale?

My club is close in this period for Covid-19 emergency so I decided to write this post using some old photos

Sometimes I received messages from other wargame lover about the scale to use to play WWII… 15mm, 20mm or 28mm? Thanks to rules set as Bolt Action, Cross fire and so on … the most used scales is the 28 mm. This scale allows you to create great miniatures with high details level ... but also a 20mm miniature is not to discard.

In your opinion, what scale are the miniatures in these photos?

Obviously they are all 20mm

My idea in this post is to try to create a kind of guide for those who approach 20mm (1/72) for the first time.

Let's start with a list of advances:
They have a low cost (generally 9 - 15 euro per box)
They are easily to find (amazon, ebay are just some of the commercial sites ... in addition to the manufacturers’ ones  ... where you can find them)
They are faster to paint than a classic 28mm
You can re-create large scenarios (in particular if yuo want to use tanks, jeeps and so on)

… But there are also some disadvantages:

Poor level of detail
They are difficult to modify
The poses are sometimes a bit "absurd" ... many of the molds still used are a bit "old style"

In our association we play with many World War II rule sets: Bolt Action, Cross Fire, Rapid Fire… … for all these systems we use both 28mm and 20mm without problems.

One of the first problems to start playing with 20mm is: but what are 20mm miniatures like?One of the sites I use is: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=1

It allows you to have a quick review of most of the 1/72 miniature boxes on the market. The site is not designed only for the Second World War but, thanks to the menu, it is possible to view the boxes of this period.

The second problem is… are we sure that the scale of the various manufacturers is "correct"?
This is also a problem for the 28mm but, to try and answer, I took this photo

It allows you to view the miniatures of five of the manufacturers that I usually paint. The miniatures are both in plastic (Caesar, Zvezda) and in lead (AB) and as you can see the scales are compatible. At least among these manufacturers.

I must admit that, the same manufacturer, sometimes builts sets that have not the perfect "dimensions" ... but the beauty of the miniatures overcomes this problem

For example, the Italeri winter Germans (miniature in the center) are a bit larger than the Zvezda miniatures or other Italeri sprues but can easily be combined

Third aspect to consider… they have few details and can hardly be changed.
This is not exactly the truth
This is the original image of a Zvezda frame

As you can see, with a few modifications, you can modify the pose

Without considering the awesome conversions of my friend Maurizio

A lot of wargamers tell me that 20mm miniatures have few details. As an amateur painter I admit that I prefer 28mm for painting but also 20mm… with the right scenario are not bad. The same miniatures out of the table...

And in action

I hope to help someone with this post