A Question Of Scale

RE-READING, for the umpteenth time, Joseph Morschauser III's How To Play War Games In Miniature (Walker and Company, 1962), I am reminded he was a pioneer of what today are called bases.
Morschauser formed a "Basic Unit" by fixing four infantrymen, two cavalrymen or a gun and two gunners to a "tray."
I use bases for my 10mm figures - they are otherwise too fiddly, and bases add to the formality of a unit's appearance, which is desirable for 18th-century armies.
But I will not be using bases for my 54mm figures as stability is not an issue and, in my view, they look obtrusive.
Then again, Morschauser's 54mm armies were far bigger than mine are ever likely to be, so I can well understand why he went down the "tray" route.

A photo-spread from How To Play War Games In Miniature

At first glance, the figures in the two photos I have chosen from Morschauser's book may look similar, although representing different historical periods.
Actually the top photo has some 500 Britain's 54mm colonial figures, while the bottom photo has a much smaller number of Airfix 20mm WW2 ones.
I can remember how in Charge!, by Brig Peter Young and Lt-Col James Lawford, collecting in more than one period, let alone more than one scale, was described as, if I recall correctly (I do not have my copy of the book to hand), "madness."
To be fair, Young & Lawford seem to have mostly collected relatively expensive 30mm metal figures, and to have had them painted professionally.
Morschauser, on the other hand, says: "It is quite possible and perhaps desirable to own a number of different sets of armies, each of a different type, scale and historical period. Many war gamers do."
But he adds: "Collect them one at a time. Mid-point change is costly and wasteful."
Amen to that.