The new Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game claims that their ships are all in scale to each other. So what do you see in the above photo? Looks like a single X-Wing against two TIE/In fighters, right? But those TIE fighters are way too big! Everybody knows that the TIE fighter is a small ship and NO WAY can it be that big compared to the vaunted X-Wing!
According to Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Del Rey/Random House/Lucasfilms Ltd., 2003) the Incom Corporation T-65 X-Wing Space Superiority Fighter is 7.25m long (p. 168). The Seinar Fleet Systems TIE/IN Space Superiority Starfighter is 6.3m long (p.156). By this material (canon?) the TIE should be about 1/3 shorter than the X-Wing. Looking atthe photo above that does not appear to be the case.
So did Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) screw up the scale? In an interesting twist, FFG claims that all the source materials over the years has been dead wrong:
During the production process, we were surprised to discover that the official dimensions for some of the ships did not match our pre-existing expectations of their relative sizes. Nowhere is our devotion to scale more evident than in our TIE fighter. Through intensive research and close correspondence with Lucasfilm Ltd., we confirmed with no degree of uncertainty the true scales of this iconic Imperial fighter as it appears in the films, even going so far as to study the proportions of the original film models. (“The Making of X-Wing“)
The main source FFG appears to have used is this production photo of various models:
The TIE fighter certainly looks big compared to the Y-Wings (front) or X-Wings (back row). Did George Lucas retcon another change into the Star Wars Universe? Do I really care?
I don’t really care because the X-Wing game is a guilty pleasure that I enjoy with my youngsters. It’s Star Wars…not reality. Once the Millennium Falcon comes out the scale will be totally ruined anyway.
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 