Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
Sloping Off - our newsletter

GETTING 3-VIEWS ENLARGED

Fifteen years ago I was still enlarging 3-views by the grid method—a tedious process and very prone to error. Then I got a scanner which could change the scale of jpgs and so I printed out forests of A4 sheets and stuck them all together to make a large image. Then I discovered that PP Printing in the Fairmile had a scanner that would print enlargements up to 300mm wide from drawings or pictures.

Nearly all my big models were built over these enlargements, including the 100” Golden Hind.

Imagine my disappointment when late last year their scanner broke down and could not be repaired! However, Richard told me that “Colour Copier” at 413 Lymington Road in Highcliffe had a big scanner, so I trotted along and met Tom, who turned out to be THE MAN.
Now all I have to do is use my new scanner to copy a 3-view as a pdf, save it onto a stick, take it along to Tom and he prints it at whatever scale I like.

Actually, it’s not quite that simple.

Because his maximum paper width is 300mm, you do have to save the 3-view as a series of slices (wing, fuz side, nacelle etc) rather than all one piece, but there is no limit on paper length. The best way of getting a clean image is to enlarge your 3-view to about a third of the eventual size and draw the outlines and any scale detail you need on tracing paper, then take this to the copy-shop and make the final enlargement. This first step (the 1/3rd size you are going to trace) can easily be done at home, but the second is cheaper and easier to do commercially

He will also scan your big plan as a pdf and email it to you (if you wanted to share the plan with others, for instance).

If your scanner does not do this, or you don’t have one, just email me the 3-view you want enlarged as a jpg, gif or pdf. I’ll print it at 100% to find out the enlargement factor you need for the wingspan you want and scan it as pdfs of components and email it back to you. You can then save these onto a stick, take it to Tom and ask him to print your enlargements.

All done!

Mike

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