Thoughts on Scale

Overhead Photo (c) Mark Hertzberg

Getting the right scale is something that took some time for me to figure out when I first decided to build Wingspread. I'm lucky that there are a few reasonable basic blueprint graphics available if you search long enough. I knew early on that I would want to build Wingspread on a 45 degree angle. Doing so keeps the base smaller, although the 45 degree angle creates some completely new challenges (I have grown to greatly dislike the square root of 2). After playing with things in GIMP, I came up with the following image:

Each large square represents a standard LEGO 32x32 stud baseplate, and each smaller square represents an 8x8 stud section. This image has proved quite invaluable in building - I consult it more than any other image I have collected. When working on any section of the building, I keep pictures of that section handy, as well as this scale chart. The scale chart provides me with the length and approximate placement to work with, and I use real-life pictures of each section to work out the rest. I've found this method works quite well for me.