Scales

[PaintpotpeteParticipant @paintpotpete]

Hi

could anyone out there give me a list of scales,  that are shown at model engineering exhibitionsI’m interested in the smaller static scales.

in anticipation

Peter King

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Peter

Metric or imperial?

Paul

[PaintpotpeteParticipant @paintpotpete]

Hi Paul

Imperial…. shows my age

Peter

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Peter

I am one of the odd breed that was at school during the change over to metric and was tought both imperial and metric and then went on to the building game mixing and matching between both scales (it did upset some architects)

The imperial scale is simply based upon the detailed 12in ruler (on that shows 32s and 64th) and can be shown as X to the foot i.e. 1in = 1 foot or 12:1 scale

Popular scales are

6:1 (or half size)

12:1 (1in to the foot)

24:1 (1/2in to the foot)

36:1 (3/8in to the foot)

48:1 (1/4in to the foot)

96:1 (commonly called 100:1)

After this building to scale becomes difficult for engineering projects and is usually employed for building scale ships / buildings.

I hope that this is of some help.

Paul

[Len OchiltreeParticipant @lenochiltree67043]

Hi Paul ,

I thought you was a gent of some years,but if you were at school when converted to metric,then you must be a young shaver?.

Len circa 1944

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Len

If it helps your calculations I was at primary school when the change over began and if that makes me a young shaver then I am flattered, I just wish that I had the constitution of such a person.

How is your skip sourced paddle boat coming along?

Paul circa 19**

[Len OchiltreeParticipant @lenochiltree67043]

Hi Paul,

Checkout " Cost nothing Boats", and Gallery.

Len,  Son of Isembard?

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

If you must use me GGGGG Grand-dads name……let`s spell it right…….It`s……..Izambard

……..and 6:1……………ain`t half size…………………..but …..6" to a foot ….is!

Bobrunel

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Len

Nice looking "blue peter" type there just right for the shallow end of the paddling pool.

Paul

[Len OchiltreeParticipant @lenochiltree67043]

Hi Paul,

Don’t you just like a clever clogs!.

Len

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Great Len

Now that is an idea for a hull….a clog…just stick some paddle wheels on and away you go.

Paul cira 195*

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

If you use two clogs in a catamaran layout……you could call it………."Double Dutch"

When I was little……..we used to wear clogs!……..and write on slates!……..Happy days!……….yawn

[ManxmanParticipant @manxman]

There’s a web site knocking around where the guy uses clogs to make his steam put-put boats out of – they look quite good as well.

[PaintpotpeteParticipant @paintpotpete]

Hi Guys

never knew scales could produce so much traffic, keep going . forget clogs, try welly boots, you may finish up with the worlds first   " Unter see boot ".

Cheers Peter

[MzeeParticipant @mzee]

Hi Paul,

 Ahem! Please check your 3/8 to a foot scale!  If it aint 1:32 scale then I’ll bury all my tug models and most of my ‘ethnic’ boats .

 BTW, how many of you use a slide rule for converting scales – it’s far and away easier than using a calculator or conversion tables.  Changing scales from drawings is a piece of cake if you measure off from the original drawing using calipers (or some such accurate yardstick) and then look up the new mesurement on the slide rule.  If anyone is interested in more detailed explanations (and actually HAS a slide rile) I’ll be glad to post more on the subject .

Regards,

Robin Stobbs 

[mackem1946Participant @mackem1946]

I’ll second 1:32 for 3/8 = 1 ft.
It’s been the world wide shipbuilding and piping scale since before I started work 46 years ago.
Robin, I’ve got a couple of guessing sticks stuck in the shed somewhere, along with numerous boxwood scale rules,which were well used before computers came along, and the ink pens to go with them.I’d like to know how you convert scales with a slide rule, even though I pdf the plans, on a full size scanner, and then just print at what ever converted scale is required.
Never too old to learn any new tricks.

[MzeeParticipant @mzee]

Thanks for that ‘mackem1946’.  Yes, 32nd scale is so convenient for scale models of smaller to midsize prototypes and is certainly my favoured scale.  How lucky you are to have access to full-size scanner and plotter – most of us have to fal back on regular A4 equipment and only scan and resize small parts of a plan.  I have a few ‘guesing sticks’ around the house – the one I use for scale conversion has a very stiff slide so once set in place it is not easily dislodged.  I set the scale conversion factor – say 1.56 if converting from 1:50 scale to 1:32 scale – and simply read off various sizes from measurements taken of the original plans. Make sense??  My scale rules are, I think, celluloid (they date to the pre-plastic era ) and I also have a handy set of ‘Aristo’ 6" scale rules that fan out from a leather pouch. Interestingly, when in Geneva a couple months back I discovered a delightful second-hand shop in which there was a German cylindrical ‘guessing stick’ of about 150mm diameter and 350/400mm long.  Lovely, but my bank manager would have had a fit had I done more than just drool! Learning new tricks – Oh yes – been learnin new ones every day over the past 27028 days

[mackem1946Participant @mackem1946]

Thanks for the info on the slide rule conversion,You must be very like me collecting the old type scales etc. because you don’t need electricity to power them. I’ve got a cylindrical slide rule, which as chromed brass discs between the different cylinders,I ‘ve had this since about 1962. A great piece of kit I always tend to use, is my Staedtler stainless steel Proportional dividers, thses are pre-war and still in the blue velvet lined box, great for working from photos.

I think the slide rules you have are like mine , celluloid either glued brass pinned to boxwood, I’ve two British Thornton rules, and another Staedtler.

I’ve only been learning for 23325 day, excluding leap years

regards Dave Cooper

[MzeeParticipant @mzee]

Greetings again Dave,

 Oh yes – and it wasn’t until recently when I realised I’d never use it again, that I sold my sextant!! Just imagine all the modern sailors with a total power cut approaching soundings and all they have is a dud GPS and no knowledge whatsoever of how to estimate angles by eye!.  I sort of grew up with slide rules as my Dad was a draughtsman and then in my first job we had to use the old Otis King cylindrical jobs – I think they were equivalent to a 6ft rule. The most sophisticated machine we had in our laboratory was a calculator where you clicked down tabs for the numbers you wished to calculate and then cranked the handle clockwise to add/multiply or anti-clockwise to subtract/divide.  Modern stuff I tell you!  I never possessed proportional dividers though we had them in my workplace and they sure came in handy when I had to draw up a bathymetric chart of part of our coast from the zillions of soundings on a fair chart and then transfer this to a usable scale (not having an A1 scanner and printer ) 

 Maybe I’m fortunate in being raised in a family where drawings and scales were a part of everyday life but I really fail to see why so many model makers have a problem with scales and scale conversion – it’s all so easy.

In the hope that other model makers might follow this line – I’m currently trying to build a few ‘dhows’ to 1:50 scale as well as Indian Ocean dugout outriggers canoes to 1:20 scale – this for a maritime museum to be opened in Zanzibar in 2010.  If anyone has details, drawings, pics I’d sure like to hear from them.

 Regards

Robin Stobbs (the ‘old coelacanth’ appelation refers to my previouys occulation; not my age or habits!!!!)

[mackem1946Participant @mackem1946]

 I come from the same type of family , Dad was a sea going chief engineer, I served my appreticeship in marine engineering draughting/ designer  ,  for VCC’s etc  and have been designing for the last 46 years in the petro chem industry both offshore and onshore installations

[MzeeParticipant @mzee]

For occulation(?) in my previous note please read occuPation

 Petrochem industry – now that’s interesting.  As part of one of the displays in the Zanzibar museum we plan to show, as part of our environment awareness programme, a modern double hull tanker.  My problem is to find a local model maker who is prepared to undertake the construction of a model showing this in a cutaway, or sectioned, model.  Trouble is, model makers are very thin on the grloound here in South Africa. There was a pic of a very nice card model in the latest Model Boats which shows exactly what we are looking for.  However, I think a card model would not survive long in the Zanzibar climate – even in a display case!

[mackem1946Participant @mackem1946]

 I’ll see if I can find a drawing showing this build ,  The tanks are only a series of separate, tanks within the overall hull.

regards Dave

[MzeeParticipant @mzee]

Thanks Dave, I’d really like to see what the tanks look like "from the inside".  I imagine they have baffles – especially longitudinal ones to avoid lateral weight shift which could result in capsize.  How about lateral (athwartship) baffles as well??  Another question – what might be the distance between hull and tank along the sides, and hull bottom?  And one more …. what other safety measures have been introduced in the past decade or two that might be shown in/on a small scale model?? And, after all that …. you don’t feel up to making such a model do you???  Cheers, Robin

[PaintpotpeteParticipant @paintpotpete]

[Michael BranParticipant @michaelbran84391]

Hi can anyone help I have been given a WWII light cruiser of 42ins long. .The prototype was 512ft how can i calculate the scale?

[Author]

Posts