Gents,

I can’t think of a good way to do this so though I’d throw it out to the masses. I have a set of bodywork and moulds for an enclosed body, open top car and I need to make a 1/4 scale model.

Does anyone have an ingenious or devious way of doing this? I don’t have access to Solidworks but I do have 2d capability.

I have a couple of ideas but not sure really?!?!?

Measure it and divide by 4¿

Or, are you after reducing the moulds?

Pass it to my wife, she'll stick it in the washing machine and drier... guaranteed to shrink it!



I've seen some clever laser scanning contraptions, both commercial and DIY. For example;

http://www.makerscanner.com/docs/1-makerscanner.html

You could do like I did, but in reverse?

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/racecar/pandora/body.htm

Build a 3D jig, put the body in it and acurately measure at 100mm points in lines across the body, measurign down from a known datum point, keeping a detailed record of the points as you go.

Then divide the measurements by 4 (so working at 25mm spaces) build up 'slices' through the car on 25mm board and then cut these out. Bolt them all together and smothe out the 'peaks' shoud get you close enough to add in the additional details.

alternatively, use thinner 3mm board and fill in the gaps at the end to form the smooth surface.

Not easy, or quick, but feasable at home if you have a basic set of tools, patience, and perhaps an 'O' level in woodwork.



Al

I've had this conversation many times with my son. He's a professional model maker.

He maintains that if you reduce every dimension by the same ratio then the result doesn't look right.
He has to make little "tweaks" until the proportions please the eye.

Cheers,
Paul G

It's well known that Dinky / Matchbox models etc were tweaked to get them to look 'right', but I suppose the question then is what the purpose of a scale model is - appearance, or as a technical resource to record data accurately.

I think the smaller the scale, the greater a 'problem' this becomes. 1/48 will need a lot more tweaking than a 1/4.


Al