Hi Everyone,

My apologies if I missed this somewhere.

I thought I read somewhere that you could scale down the DIsneyland RR Main Street Station from http://www.disneyexperience.com to 76% upon printing to make it HO scale, but I can't seem to confirm the exact number. I searched these forums over again and found many references to using the paper models, but I just can't find the one thread that discussed it in detail. I thought it was from Karlg and his experience with the paper models.

Can anyone confirm the scale down percentage or at least what is the real life width and length of the station so I can try to figure it out?

Thanks!!

Wow. I think I was way off there in the previous post. I measured one of the side doors on the paper model at 2". From what I recall, the doors on the station are about 7'6" or 90" total.

Someone please check my math here. 90" / 2" = 45 so the Paper Model scale should be 1:45. Then I take 45/87(for HO Scale) and I get 52% if I round up. So I should shrink the print out to be 52% of the original size.

Does that sound feasible?

Well, first, you need to be sure of the measurement of the door itself. I would contact the maker of the model and ask him/her what they used for dimensions and where they got their numbers. I can tell you for certain, the model of the Mark Twain is dead on the scale they claim at 1/87th. I blew it up to both 1/24 scale and 1/20 scale seeing which I would prefer for my trains, 1/24 is best btw, the keel works out to 5' and a few inches compared to the G scale trains. I am pretty sure the station is O scale. BTMRR model is almost G but larger than O.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, IDMT. I think you're right about it probably being really close to O scale. I took 48/87 = 55% and printed a sample page out. Visually it looks to scale and pretty good to me.

I'd like to piece this station together as a placeholder for a later time when I can either make a much more higher quality paper model or kit bash a station together.

DisneyTrainFan75, I think your numbers are a bit off. While 55% is not far off, I think it should be 44.6%. I did this quickly but I think I have it right.

I have been meaning to put together the Disney Experience MSS for years (after putting together his excellent Sleeping Beauty Castle Model in HO scale). So I had all the parts on my computer and I am familiar with scaling in Photoshop having done the Castle and the Haunted Dimension's H.M.

Note: I use 1/87th for HO scale (the Schuco's say they are 1/90th, but I think 1/87th is the "official" scale).

I have a blueprint of MSS that says the front door is 7 foot 0 inches or 84 inches. So in HO scale this comes to about 0.9655 inches.

I pulled in the D.E. Part page #10 which has the MSS front door on it and measured it in Photoshop. It came to 1.983 inches.

So the model needs to be scaled to 0.96/1.983 = 44.6% (approximately). I scaled the model to 44.6% and got 0.966 which is very close to the 1/87th of 84 inches.

Hope this helps,
Karl

One more thing,

The Disney Experience overall dimensions are extremely good from what I can tell both from overlaying blueprints and photos. The one area where they are not so accurate is in the brick and rock/stone filling (he just uses a pattern where Disney did some odd size "bricks" of patterned concrete). So if you are a "brick counter" the bricks will not be right, but who will know but another "brick counter"?

Karlg.

Give me a hand here. So how much would it have to be blown up for 1/24 scale?

Sorry, but what exactly are you needing a hand with? I know that the person doing the Disney Experience has written (see quote below) he doesn't build the models for a certain "scale" but rather more or less scales the model to whatever seems to him to work best for that model in terms of detail and build-ability of the model. So every model on his site is a different "scale." I have blueprints of the Castle and MSS so scaling them correctly is pretty easy. The trick is finding one dimension with absolute certainty.

Quoting Directly from his blog http://www.disneyexperience.com/news/?p=2793:


He goes on to ask for help in getting scales for the models.

What I am asking is to make it HO it needs to be reduced by the % you gave and your math works out pretty well. So how much would it have to be blown up for garden scale and look resonable based on a 7 foot door.

If I understand you correctly, then it is very simple math.

It is just (87/24) x 44.6% = 161.7% (approx.) to scale the D.E. Main Street Station to 1/24th scale. As noted, every D.E. paper model is different and needs a different scale factor.

Most of the D.E. and the Haunted Dimension models start at larger than HO scale so one ends up scaling down and all the parts fit on a sheet of paper. When Scaling up, you either need a bigger piece of paper or you have to figure out how to break up the pieces onto two pieces of paper.

BTW, my favorite paper for paper models is some form of ink jet "Matte Paper Heavyweight" as it will do a good job of absorbing the inks, is thick enough to stand up, and has a dull (matte) finish. If I want something "shiny" like painted wood or metal then I would use a glossy paper which is pretty thick as well.

For these models in "HO" heavyweight inkjet paper is probably thick enough and you don't need to go all the way to card stock. This is of course for making HO scale models where the parts are small. As you scale up, you will may need a thicker/sturdier paper/card-stock (or at least some backing for any large sections).

KarlG