Hi guys

I'm bashing Carolina casting in HO. I printed out the parts at 55% and I downloaded the clean metal siding in O scale but when I reduce it, it is larger than the kit. Do you know the reduction you used to make this kit?
Thanks for all you do by providing this great resource

Dick

Ya know Dick, I'm not too sure we thought about it much when we did the kit. I think we just fooled around till we got what looked good. But to get back to your question, I think if you print out that silver corrugated at 45%, you will be really close. Here's how I arrived at that number.
If you look at page 2 of the kit and the texture sheet, you can pretty much tell how the patterns match up. So, I printed out page 2 at 55% like you did and then measured the width of the white appearing piece of siding above and to the right side of the door. It came out to 22/64" or .34375".
Then I printed out the texture sheet at 100% and measured the width of the corresponding place on the sheet. It came out to 48/64" or .75".
I then divided .34375" by .75" and got .4583333333. I printed out the texture sheet at 45.8% and compared it to the wall. It came out just a tiny but larger, so I suggest you try 45%. I think the slight error is from measuring inaccuracy. I'm lucky I can see a 64th. of an inch.
Good luck and send pictures.

Hi Dick and Dave,

The original N scale model I made was designed on "Model Builder" software so the siding isn't what Thom used when he re-designed it for O scale. Even though I sent Thom my drawing files, I'm sure the resolution was not good enough when enlarged to O. In fact, a couple of the doors Thom did enlarge and use, and they look a little "fuzzy" in the O scale print. This just proves the point that all scales are not the same, and Dick could use whatever siding he likes that looks good to him. I think the only real issue would be to be consistent on the various units so they don't look odd.

Incidentally....when Paul Egri does a "kitbash" of one of your designs he often changes the siding and detail items, and he does it "by eye" which sometimes gives me fits. If I want to mix in some details from your kits, they usually don't match up precisely. Paul often omits things, as he gets in a hurry to get his idea on paper. A good example was a modification he did to the Muchie's model to add some 2nd story windows on the front. He did not include the roof so I printed it up from the Clever original at 55% (I was making it in HO) and it was about 10% too small so I had to measure the same item (the width of the front) on both prints and adjust Paul's version by printing it at a smaller size. I still couldn't get a perfect match since my printer only does full percentage enlargements.