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Scale Drawings


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Hi,

Being relatively new to scratch building can anyone help, as I am sure it is simple but I cannot see it.  I have some scale drawings drawn in 3mm scale but I model in 4mm scale, so can anyone please tell me how to convert these up, many thanks.

Divide given dimensions by three, then mutiply by four. Alternatively, multiply all dimensions by 1.3333.... A decent calculator should have a 'constant' key somewhere; if you enter 1.333 as the constant, it'll save a lot of work.

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It is a 133.333 etc % enlargement if you are using a photocopier.   Obviously you won't decimals but may have a 4:3.   Many copiers enlarge by 1/2% to eliminate the black border even when set to 100%. 

 

1% inaccuracy is quite noticeable    I would carefully measure any set distance ideally 3 or 6 ft on the 1:100 and check it on the 133% enlargement.  if it is not within 1%  of 4/3 of the size tweak the copy size.

 

If you dont have a enlarging copier try scanning the drawing, save it as jpg, png etc  or do a screen shot to jpg png etc and run it through Fast Stone Image viewer (Freeware) or similar which has an enlargement feature.   you can also juggle height vs length if you find distortion.  

 

The printer may then distort it so I would estimate 5 to 6 attempts will be needed.

 

1:100 is a standard building scale as are 1:50 etc and the rule is never scale from a drawing, always use the given dimension.

 

There are some very bad drawings published in glossy books, even well respected magazines of the 1990s have some lousy drawings 

Some come from works drawings which were about how to build the thing showing, boiler diameters not cladding diameters, some don't show the cab front recessed behind the sides (GWR most things pre Grange 1936) .  Some were drawn by a bloke with a sketch pad and tape measure at the lineside, others from a 50 year old photo which may have distorted.

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  • 4 months later...

I am not sure as to whether this has been answered elsewhere, but can some expert just guide me in converting 3mm measurements to 7mm. Am I way off the mark in thinking that the measurement is divided by 3 and multiplied by 7?

 

I have a scale 3mm drawing of Bourton on the Water goods shed that was in the 1962 Model Railway News. Thanks in advance that I am working off.

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