amw

hi
i am planning my 1st scratchbuilt building in oo scale,i read somewhere you can workout a buildings size from old photos ,by counting brick courses etc,to give an accurate building size. is this correct ? and can someone clarify how exactly this is done.

heres hoping

amw

Bluewavestudios

According to my bible, (The Modelmakers Handbook), The size of bricks for buildings at this scale should be 1/8" by slightly less than 1/16" or to put into modern metric size, 3mm x 1mm. (For exact size required)
Yes you could count the number of brick courses on photos of buildings and used in conjunction with the above measurements your building should come out the right height and size.
Once done paint the walls with coat of Mahogany wood stain for red bricks or "Shellac" for yellow bricks.

If you can get your hands on the above book, you will find a wealth of information, Photos, Pics and Diagrams covering this subject, as well as lots of other useful stuff to do with Trains and All aspects of Modelling.

You may be able to order it through W.H.Smiths, the ISBN number you need is: 0 7207 1250 5
(If not in Smiths do a google.co.uk on ISBN and use the number to find the book, there are some 2nd Hand copies available)



Hope this helps......Good Luck.

Regards.......Mark

No.6

Hi

amw

Measuring the brick course is quite an acurate way of working out the size of a building. The standard size for british bricks over the years has become 215mm (L) x 102.5mm (W) x 65mm (D) when counting you usualy allow for 10mm morter between the courses of brick

A photo of a gable end along with this method has come very handy when I have been surveying a building and not been able to gain access to the loft/attic space.

With a CAD package such as AutoCAD (there are cheaper ones out there that do this as well) you can draw your plans and elevations at 1:1 scale and print out paper templates at any scale desired.

all the best

ray.

__________________

duncan

I think also door sizes are a standard that could be used. Dont know the formula but it might be easier than brick counting and of course no bricks on a corrugated iron or timber building.

new to trains

as a scale modelmaker and commercial modelmaker ( i do it for my living) i would always recommend the door measurement method if you have no other methods of scaling accurately.... bricks come in such different sizes relating to the age of the building, if you get the dimensions wrong for a single course of bricks then by the time you multiply it lots of times for every course of brick you could be way out, if it is a residential dwelling the doors will be fairly standard, if its something like a commercial building or a warehouse or whatever then if you have nothing else you have to use an educated guess !