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Modeling my childhood home - Part 3: Figuring out dimensions Journals/Blogs
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Prolific poster (deceased) 6,447 posts rickwade Prolific poster (deceased) 6,447 posts
rickwade

;I'll need dimensions to start the process of cutting out the parts.  It's hard to believe how time flies, but it was 10 years ago that my wife, sister, and I visited my childhood home after contacting the current owner to get permission.  She was very gracious and not only allowed us to take pictures of the outside but invited us inside to see the home.  What a blast from the past!  She has done a great job with the house and wanted me to send pictures of the finished model.

I wasn't able to get many of the measurements,but I can estimate distances from known sizes of items including the bricks, doors, and windows. Here's a view of the front:

meFntDim.JPG 

This is the left side:

meLftDim.JPG 

The back: - note, the dormer and deck are additions by the current owner and will not be on my model

eBackDim.JPG 

And the right side:

omeRtDim.JPG 

I will be doing a bunch of estimating, but then it doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough for me!

Rick

img_4768.jpg 

The Richlawn Railroad Website - Featuring the L&N in HO  / MRH Blog  / MRM #123

Mt. 22: 37- 40
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JohnF Active Member 78 posts
JohnF

Sketchup thought

Good Morning Rick

In SketchUp there is a Photo Matching function that can trace a photo in 3 dimensions.    After tracing you can set any of the lines to an exact dimension then the whole drawing is scaled accordingly.    If you use HO scale all the dimension are directly readable for modeling.      

This should give you the idea:    https://youtu.be/70sAEpqpfyc 

Also SketchUp  can print plan view at 1:1 to act as templates.

Just a thought

John
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rickwade Prolific poster (deceased) 6,447 posts
rickwade

Thank you, John!

For your very helpful information.  I’ll check it out.

Rick

img_4768.jpg 

The Richlawn Railroad Website - Featuring the L&N in HO  / MRH Blog  / MRM #123

Mt. 22: 37- 40
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ACR_Forever Prolific poster 1,361 posts
ACR_Forever

Cross-check

From that first pic, the roof is standard three-tab shingles(three tabs = 36"), so you can count the tabs and you have the width of the roof in feet (hopefully, your pic has more resolution than what you posted).  Obviously, divide it in half, as you can't count across the gable, but you can quite easily determine the midpoint, and count the RHS.

Should help, anyway.

Blair
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rickwade Prolific poster (deceased) 6,447 posts
rickwade

Thank you, Blair.

I appreciate your help on this and never thought about using the shingles.  My pictures are much higher resolution so that will be helpful.

Rick

img_4768.jpg 

The Richlawn Railroad Website - Featuring the L&N in HO  / MRH Blog  / MRM #123

Mt. 22: 37- 40
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