nhdesigns Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Now I don't know if this is in the right forum or not but I need some help. I intend to do some scratchbuilding with card and plastic sheeting. I've done some searching to find a suitable looking retail park, mid '80s block style, and now that I have found some pics showing some basic looking retail park buildings. The only problem I have is measuring them and converting the sizes to 1:76 size. All I can do is measure the building(s) dimensions and details in question but I don't know how I go about making the sizes 1:76 scale. I know there are scale rullers available but I can't get to grips with them! Can anyone help? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhBBob Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 I usually work from a picture, or two, and use as my standard the room/storey height, the door height and the windows dimensions. So for a door the full size is likely to be 6 foot 6 inches high and 2 ft 6 in wide and windows can be anywhere from 3 ft square. Ceilings are upwards of 8 ft 6 in and the storey is perhaps 9/10 ft to allow for ceiling below and floor above. As to conversion to 1/76 th scale, well I am working in mm and cm which is easier for Swiss prototypes but for UK measurements a calculator is all you need. A door at around 78 inches by 30 inches is going to scale out at a smidgen over 1 inch high by 4/10th inches wide. In metric the door is 26 mm by 10 mm. Perhaps now you see why I prefer metric measurements ! Given that computer calculators - mine came with Windows 7 - can easily convert Imperial to metric, you may find conversion to metric easier. Hope this helps ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubber Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Good advice above. Basically, estimate the size of a component in feet and then multiply by 4 to give its size in mm which you can mark off straight onto the material, i.e. 2ft square would become 8mm square in 1/76th, 2ft-6" square would become 10mm square etc etc. Good luck, Doug [Edited to remove aberrent apostrophe...] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 26, 2014 Author Share Posted May 26, 2014 what I have tried to do is print an image of googlemaps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.394828,0.4958,3a,37.5y,173.21h,89.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1scLE4RDP5ghg9QgH5Rquy7g!2e0 and used a multi scale ruler to measure the dimensions. I measured up the side and front using a scale of 1:1 and made a note of the sizes. Now I got the sizes in scale of 1:1 how do I convert that to 1:76? Do I take the 1:1 sizes and times by 100 then divide by four or 76? Or do I take the 1:1 of something like 225mm and divide it by four? I can't seem to get my head around all these other ways. Not that I disregard them but I just found them a little confusing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silversurfer1947 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 The link does not work - all you get is a map. What sizes did you get for the side and front? If it's the actual size of the building, then, if it's in feet, multiply by 4 to get the equivalent in millimetres. If it's in metres, multiply by 1000 and divide by 76 and again you have the equivalent in millimetres. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 The link does not work - all you get is a map. What sizes did you get for the side and front? If it's the actual size of the building, then, if it's in feet, multiply by 4 to get the equivalent in millimetres. If it's in metres, multiply by 1000 and divide by 76 and again you have the equivalent in millimetres. Oh right I'm sorry about that. I know the lenght and widths in 1:1 scale mm. The lenght I got is 195mm and the width is 115mm on a 1:1 scale. The only other way I can measure is in centermeters and then convert that to millimeters but that's about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubber Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 What areyou trying to build? Or have I missed something? Doug Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 I am basically trying to build a retail park from scratch using a mix of mountboard and platic sheets. I know there is a kit that's available but it's too plain and does not meed the 1980s/1990s time which I'm modelling. I have got a screenshot of the building. It's the B&Q at Strood Retail park. I chose this one because it has the simplicity of the early retail parks built in the 1980s and early 1990s. The shots I got here show the front, the side and the roof top view. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold simonmcp Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2014 Hi nhdesigns, You say you measured "the 1:1 length is 195mm" do you mean Metres? If so the building would scale out at 2565mm or 2.565 metres or 8ft 5inches long! I worked it out by converting 195M to mm by multiplying it by 1,000 and then dividing by 76. Alternatively if you have the dimensions in Metres just multiply by 13.157894 to get the scale millimetres. If the dimensions you have are in inches and you want millimetres then multiply by 0.333 to get the size of the model in millimetres. Examples are: 12 real inches is 4mm 107 real inches is 35.6mm Hope this helps. Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 29, 2014 Author Share Posted May 29, 2014 Hi nhdesigns, You say you measured "the 1:1 length is 195mm" do you mean Metres? If so the building would scale out at 2565mm or 2.565 metres or 8ft 5inches long! I worked it out by converting 195M to mm by multiplying it by 1,000 and then dividing by 76. Alternatively if you have the dimensions in Metres just multiply by 13.157894 to get the scale millimetres. If the dimensions you have are in inches and you want millimetres then multiply by 0.333 to get the size of the model in millimetres. Examples are: 12 real inches is 4mm 107 real inches is 35.6mm Hope this helps. Simon Thanks for the help there. I did measure it on 1:1 scale ruler which did give the size of 195, in mlimeters I believe. I have checked the measurements with a standard centiremeter ruler which would be 19.5 cm. I'll measure the sizes again in inches this time and use the calculation there. The calculation is what I have had some trouble getting my head around. I did use one of the downloaded scale rulers for 1:76 size but oddly enough found the sizes were a lot smaller than what I attempted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silversurfer1947 Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 If it helps any, I used to work in a B & Q warehouse, and it was was just over 400 metres long end to end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 29, 2014 Author Share Posted May 29, 2014 If it helps any, I used to work in a B & Q warehouse, and it was was just over 400 metres long end to end. Now that does help out. Thanks for the help there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campaman Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 So that would mean your model needs to be 5280mm long For this type of building its not really practicable to build to exact scale as most of us have not got that sort of space, its a mater of making something that looks right, rather than to exact scale, you could half the 5280mm and it would still seem like a big industrial building in model form. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share Posted May 31, 2014 So that would mean your model needs to be 5280mm long For this type of building its not really practicable to build to exact scale as most of us have not got that sort of space, its a mater of making something that looks right, rather than to exact scale, you could half the 5280mm and it would still seem like a big industrial building in model form. Yeah that's what I intend to do anyway is to make a low relief version showing just the front of the building. Of course I'm not going to use the full width either but just half of it. That way I can have another retail outlet next to it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Oh right I'm sorry about that. I know the lenght and widths in 1:1 scale mm. The lenght I got is 195mm and the width is 115mm on a 1:1 scale. The only other way I can measure is in centermeters and then convert that to millimeters but that's about it. It sounds to me like you are trying to measure from your screen or a print without any idea of the scale. Look again at Google maps, I think this is what you want, and look at the far bottom right where you will see a scale of 10m Use this to measure the building and you'll find it is about 65m x 50m. There are other ways of measuring, but this is the simplest... If it helps any, I used to work in a B & Q warehouse, and it was was just over 400 metres long end to end. That's huge, are you sure it wasn't 400 feet? I know I live out in the sticks, but the largest I've seen are no more than about 120m long. Nick edit: ps. 65m x 50m or 65000mm x 50000mm divided by 76.2 gives 853mm x 656mm at 4mm scale. pps. use street view to look back at the building from near the bus stop on Commercial road. This will give a good square view from which it is possible to estimate the height of the building (by comparison with its length). I estimate it to be around 9m high, so that would be around 188mm at 4mm scale. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share Posted May 31, 2014 It sounds to me like you are trying to measure from your screen or a print without any idea of the scale. Look again at Google maps, I think this is what you want, and look at the far bottom right where you will see a scale of 10m Use this to measure the building and you'll find it is about 65m x 50m. There are other ways of measuring, but this is the simplest... That's huge, are you sure it wasn't 400 feet? I know I live out in the sticks, but the largest I've seen are no more than about 120m long. Nick edit: ps. 65m x 50m or 65000mm x 50000mm divided by 76.2 gives 853mm x 656mm at 4mm scale. pps. use street view to look back at the building from near the bus stop on Commercial road. This will give a good square view from which it is possible to estimate the height of the building (by comparison with its length). I estimate it to be around 9m high, so that would be around 188mm at 4mm scale. Ah I didn't know bout that. I've never really done scratch building before so I'm fairly new to all of this measuring stuff. I never noticed the scale at the bottom of google maps before. I just took a look now at it from the location you suggessted and it does look like a better view than what I had. And of course I took the view back in time to get a clear view as well as zooming in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silversurfer1947 Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Believe me, it was huge. I used a pedometer one day and clocked up over 10 miles in 8 hours! It was long and not very deep. Next time I'm that way, I will take a photo. Just checked it on Google Earth, including the Garden Centre, just over 300 metres - it seemed like longer when you walked up and down it all day! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhdesigns Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 Believe me, it was huge. I used a pedometer one day and clocked up over 10 miles in 8 hours! It was long and not very deep. Next time I'm that way, I will take a photo. Just checked it on Google Earth, including the Garden Centre, just over 300 metres - it seemed like longer when you walked up and down it all day! Well that does seem quite large. I don't know how many pages I got in my browser history under googlemaps myself. Either way I don't intend to model the entire building and garden center but just half of it. Trouble is I don't know if I want such large blocks on my layout or not. Looking at googlemaps just makes my mind fill with alternatives that look good but at the same time seem slightly complex. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS4Boy Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 To measure stuff in Google maps if you right click, I believed you will have an option that allows you to directly measure anything with a little tool. I have used it lots and its pretty accurate too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.