bootneck Posted January 14 Posted January 14 Hello all, whilst on holiday last year I came across a lovely little courtyard scene in France. I took a load of photos but, apart from a few paving slabs and my wife as reference points, I have been unable to define the actual base size, plus heights, in order to maker a diorama. I have checked Google Earth but this courtyard is obscured. Here are a few of the photos that I took, showing the paving slabs and my wife. The courtyard is L shaped and I would like have a go at this for the "Give Peace a chance GB", if only I could work out the size of the area. I'm looking at real sizes as that way I can decide what scale to work to in order to get it all in. Any help and advice would be gratefully appreciated. cheers, Mike
TimB Posted January 14 Posted January 14 Hi Mike, I think you've got what you need. I'd throw together a very basic 3 D model to show how the walls fit together, and scale it on the doorway with your wife. It'll be a bit of trial and error, but looking at the way the buildings and walls intersect, and having a stab at the slopes involved, it looks eminently do-able. The main aim is to get the relationships of the buildings right, then work out the scale, not the other way round. At least the walls seem to be at right angles! Regards Tim 1 1
Pedro52 Posted January 14 Posted January 14 Mike, Without sounding to rude, how tall is your wife, I could pro-rata that against the door that she is standing in front off, that would give an approximate height, then we can work out the width. On the last photo where the rainwater pipe joins the upright brown pipe (possibly old clay), the clay pipe woul normally be in the region of 110mm in diameter. Another thing that may help is an approximate floor to ceiling height. Modern building are genrally 2.4 metres, historic buildings can vary between 2.0m - 2.6m. Shame theres no exposed brickwork, I could have counted them to give rough sizes. Hope this is a bit of help. Pedro 1 1
bootneck Posted January 14 Author Posted January 14 Hi Pedro, not rude at all. Margaret is 160cm tall in shoes [5' 3"] possibly another cm or so with hat, and 49cm [1' 7"] wide at the shoulders. This view is on the opposite side of the courtyard to the one with the arched doors. I have the Vallejo book "Diorama" by Marcel Ackle and I would like to use some of the techniques from the book for my own diorama. cheers, Mike 1
Jo NZ Posted January 14 Posted January 14 The paving slabs should be 600, 900 or 1000mm square. Looking at the picture, your wife's shoulders are just smaller than the width of the slab. You should be able to work out the size from that. 1
dcrfan Posted January 15 Posted January 15 If you're really stumped I have model railway article somewhere on how to use angles and one known measurement to establish photo measurements stashed away somewhere. 1
Pedro52 Posted January 15 Posted January 15 Mike, quick overlay in cad. Squared off to allow for camera tilt etc. I will do a bit more tomorrow night, see if Im can work out the elevation heights (may be a bit approximate). 4
Ted Tunnah Posted February 3 Posted February 3 Jesus who needs advice when Pedro can do it all for ya lol 1
bootneck Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 Yes, it is amazing what @Pedro52 has done, especially as the only 'known' is my wife's height! cheers, Mike 1
ArnoldAmbrose Posted February 4 Posted February 4 On 1/15/2025 at 4:01 AM, bootneck said: Margaret is 160cm tall in shoes [5' 3"] possibly another cm or so with hat, and 49cm [1' 7"] wide at the shoulders. This view is on the opposite side of the courtyard to the one with the arched doors. G'day Mike, sorry to be late to the party, I've only just seen this thread. It seems that you have a lot of good help already, but I would work out actual dimensions of objects in the photos by simple ratios. For example, the actual height of that door is :- the actual height of Margaret X the height of the door in the photo the height of Margaret in the photo (measured at the heels) For this to work then Margaret needs to be almost the same distance away from the camera as the object (the door). Holding a plastic ruler against my computer screen I get 160cm X 52mm which equals 177cm 47mm Allowing for my rough method of measuring, holding a ruler to a computer screen. To do this properly I'd print off the photo plus measure Margaret's height at the heels. Mind you, this is the old-fashioned way. Technology such as Pedro's is probably a lot quicker, but then I still live in the Dark Ages. 🙂 HTH. Regards, Jeff.
Pedro52 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 23 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: G'day Mike, sorry to be late to the party, I've only just seen this thread. It seems that you have a lot of good help already, but I would work out actual dimensions of objects in the photos by simple ratios. For example, the actual height of that door is :- the actual height of Margaret X the height of the door in the photo the height of Margaret in the photo (measured at the heels) For this to work then Margaret needs to be almost the same distance away from the camera as the object (the door). Holding a plastic ruler against my computer screen I get 160cm X 52mm which equals 177cm 47mm Allowing for my rough method of measuring, holding a ruler to a computer screen. To do this properly I'd print off the photo plus measure Margaret's height at the heels. Mind you, this is the old-fashioned way. Technology such as Pedro's is probably a lot quicker, but then I still live in the Dark Ages. 🙂 HTH. Regards, Jeff. Jeff, that's how I used to do it when working on a drawing board many moons ago. Nought wrong with the Dark Ages, but you try explaining it to Post Graduates who can only use cad . Best not to get me started on training up people who are supposedly better qualified that I am.🤐 Pedro 1
Noel Smith Posted February 13 Posted February 13 I don't think that I have seen what scale this diorama will be built in Mike. Looks a nice interesting little courtyard for this project. There may be some proprietary stuff available depending on the scale from model suppliers like Slaters that might fit the bill.
bootneck Posted February 13 Author Posted February 13 Hi Noel, the scale will be 1:35 which should mean that I can use it after the build for diorama settings. I plan to build as much of this as I can with styrofoam type materials, balsa wood, coffee stirrers and straws etc. Any small items, such as junction boxes and window latches etc., could be 3D printed. I hope to start on this after my builds for the "Give peace a chance" GB are competed. I just need to get help with the dimensions as all I have is those photographs. If anyone is visiting Alsace in the near future and happens to have a 10m tape measure with them. cheers, Mike
YorkshireT Posted February 17 Posted February 17 (edited) Is that Turckheim? (p.s. no help whatsoever but thought that upon seeing the first photo) Edited February 17 by YorkshireT Added p.s.
YorkshireT Posted February 18 Posted February 18 Not too far from my guess then. The Alsace wine route is a lovely part of the world. Don't forget the 1:35 bottle of Riesling in your diorama scene 😉
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