7mm New Quay (was Bow Locks Wharf a S7 a not so quicky)

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
I saw this 4mm layout in a box from Scalescenes and thought what a good idea for a small micro S7 layout.Bow Locks brewery wharf.jpg
I have most of the stock required to run it a a Great Eastern industrial branch and I saw a narrow Boat with "Bow Locks" on it and thought its a great name. Not sure what the product being made will be yet i'm toying with a Brewery or a fire works factory.

Tasks to start with
  1. scale everything up, time consuming as its a case if printing each piece out at 176% which doesn't fit that well on an A3 printer.
  2. work out how I'm going to build it. I was thinking either 3mm ply or 3mm foam board covered in DAS or plastikard. 6mm play for the base board.
  3. hand built in-laid track mounted on copper clad and then covered with DAS and the cobbles incraved in.
Should have a bit of time on my hands shortly as No.1 child is going back to school and there doesn't look like we shall be see any exhibitions this side of Christmas.

Marc
 

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Marc

I see from the Scalescenes website that the download is 4mm/1ft. Are you going then put it through a colour copier/enlarger? Or is there a way to print it off straight to 7mm/1ft?

Mike
 

Bill Campbell

Western Thunderer
Marc

I see from the Scalescenes website that the download is 4mm/1ft. Are you going then put it through a colour copier/enlarger? Or is there a way to print it off straight to 7mm/1ft?

Mike

Hi Mike

My technique for enlarging Scalescenes is to open the file at 175% in a pdf viewer and selectively copy and paste into a word document. Since the models I have built to 7mm scale are usually modified in some way this means that only the bits I need are copied and printed. Where there are optional finishes in the Scalescenes "kit" I only need to copy and print those that will actually be used.

Here is a warehouse in 7mm scale made using the northlight engine shed kit. All the parts were printed on A4 paper. I did cheat a little with the window frames - these were from Purple Bob.

Warehouse.jpg

Regards.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
I see from the Scalescenes website that the download is 4mm/1ft. Are you going then put it through a colour copier/enlarger? Or is there a way to print it off straight to 7mm/1ft?
I just tried downloading one of their free kits to test. It seems that the kit is supplied in in pdf format which is really good as they should scale accurately.

So a simple solution is just to print off at 7/4 (1.75) larger although this may be a problem if your printer is limited to A4 prints. So if you want to do it properly then you can download Inkscape for free. Draw Freely | Inkscape This is an excellent free bit of software, it's a vector image based system I use it a lot to convert pictures and images into vector drawings suitable for laser cutting. Anyway you can import the downloaded pdf from scalescene into Inkscape. Select the image and transform it by 175% to get the 7mm version.

Screenshot 2020-05-28 at 22.13.01.png

You can then ungroup the images and rearrange them to print out if you are limited to A4 prints.
 

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Hi Mike

My technique for enlarging Scalescenes is to open the file at 175% in a pdf viewer and selectively copy and paste into a word document. Since the models I have built to 7mm scale are usually modified in some way this means that only the bits I need are copied and printed. Where there are optional finishes in the Scalescenes "kit" I only need to copy and print those that will actually be used.

Here is a warehouse in 7mm scale made using the northlight engine shed kit. All the parts were printed on A4 paper. I did cheat a little with the window frames - these were from Purple Bob.

View attachment 124648

Regards.

Hi Bill

I might have to give that a go. Will need some more printer ink though! ;)

Mike
 

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
I just tried downloading one of their free kits to test. It seems that the kit is supplied in in pdf format which is really good as they should scale accurately.

So a simple solution is just to print off at 7/4 (1.75) larger although this may be a problem if your printer is limited to A4 prints. So if you want to do it properly then you can download Inkscape for free. Draw Freely | Inkscape This is an excellent free bit of software, it's a vector image based system I use it a lot to convert pictures and images into vector drawings suitable for laser cutting. Anyway you can import the downloaded pdf from scalescene into Inkscape. Select the image and transform it by 175% to get the 7mm version.

View attachment 124653

You can then ungroup the images and rearrange them to print out if you are limited to A4 prints.

Hi Adrian

That's very informative. Thank you for that.

I have been thinking of doing a small diorama like this for a while as my Scale7 layout is temporarily stored in my loft. I've got a spare turnout which needs to be put to use and this diorama project might be ideal.

Mike
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
I was experimenting with printing them off on A3 but for some reason my printer is being an AR$£. We could start an S7 Lock-down layout build competition. As long as I'm given credit for coming up with the idea.
Marc
 

adrian

Flying Squad
That's very informative. Thank you for that.

I have been thinking of doing a small diorama like this for a while as my Scale7 layout is temporarily stored in my loft. I've got a spare turnout which needs to be put to use and this diorama project might be ideal.
No problem - glad to help. If you need any pointers with Inkscape then please post a question or two.

It does look a great little diorama and would make a nice photogenic "photo plank" as a change to the usual length of track on a grassy embankment.
 

cbrailways

Western Thunderer
I just tried downloading one of their free kits to test. It seems that the kit is supplied in in pdf format which is really good as they should scale accurately.

So a simple solution is just to print off at 7/4 (1.75) larger although this may be a problem if your printer is limited to A4 prints. So if you want to do it properly then you can download Inkscape for free. Draw Freely | Inkscape This is an excellent free bit of software, it's a vector image based system I use it a lot to convert pictures and images into vector drawings suitable for laser cutting. Anyway you can import the downloaded pdf from scalescene into Inkscape. Select the image and transform it by 175% to get the 7mm version.

View attachment 124653

You can then ungroup the images and rearrange them to print out if you are limited to A4 prints.

Thanks for that Adrian. One question though, I can't see how you Ungroup it once you have Transformed it. Help!
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Thanks for that Adrian. One question though, I can't see how you Ungroup it once you have Transformed it. Help!
Hi,

It depends how many images were used - you can only ungroup objects that have been grouped in the first place. So for the example I downloaded I could select the entire image - you can see the move and grow arrows around the sides and corners. If you then right-click the popup menu should have an "ungroup" option.
Screenshot 2020-05-30 at 21.06.26.png

You can then see a lot of dotted bounding boxes around each element.
Screenshot 2020-05-30 at 21.13.40.png

If you don't have an ungroup option available then it means that it is all one element. In that case I would suggest that you use the duplicate option to create a copy. The tools will then allow you to delete parts of the object. So if for example the image had front wall and back wall then in one copy delete the front wall and in the other copy delete the back wall. It's a little bit more effort but still possible in the software.
 
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Al Tait

Western Thunderer
Downloaded Inkscape ages ago to have a play with something else. Using it to up scale Scale Scenes stuff is a great idea. Off to have a play!
 

76043

Western Thunderer
Another aspect to this is that you can create new or modified buildings from the ScaleScenes PDF. I happen to use Affinity Designer, or Adobe Illustrator if you have it, but it doesn't matter what you use, as long as you can access the layers in the file and then cut and paste the elements into a new document. Does Inkscape have layers? Affinity Designer is made in Nottingham and currently is 50% off at a whopping £23, so you'd be supporting the UK software industry. It is a professional piece of software so may be daunting compared to InkScape.

Affinity Designer – Professional Graphic Design Software

You'll see from my work below that I have created a cattle dock and milk dock from the various parts in the files and also modified a standard building by moving or deleting features, all before printing, so it is not a collage.

Dublingham Goods Station

I'm currently working on the ScaleScenes Goods shed, I've removed the end office, doubled the length and made the windows square. This now looks like a 1920s building and will be my perishable depot.

R009 Goods Shed - Scalescenes

IMG_20200601_114135.jpg

I must admit to being surprised that the PDFs were not flattened, but I'm very grateful as it meant I could scratchbuild very simply electronically.

Tony
 
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adrian

Flying Squad
Does Inkscape have layers? Affinity Designer is made in Nottingham and currently is 50% off at a whopping £23, so you'd be supporting the UK software industry. It is a professional piece of software so may be daunting compared to InkScape.
Inkscape does have layers and no worries Inkscape can be quite daunting as well with all the features. It's one of those rare open-source projects that has achieved a level of maturity to gain a 1.0 release. :)
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
I've not done anything with this for a while but last week I saw a great series of videos from BRM building a small layout based by a small harbour. This got me thinking again.
So I fired up templot and finished the track off on auto cad. I'm going for inlayed track soldered to copper clad.
Marc
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
With the track now drawn I need to draw out each of the buildings to make sure that they fit then I can start the build proper. I have opted for a two road traverser as that probable the easiest option to build. The point is an A4 with most of the parts coming from a Waverley point kit. I have most of the stock built but there will always more wagons and locos to add to the stud.
Marc
upload_2021-1-10_12-37-5.png
 
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