Patterns

[FL-Flintlock]

Fred,

Let me clarify my reply above - I said that speaking only of carving & engraving.  I don't take issue with obtaining proper blueprint proportions from a picture as the example you used.  On that matter though, I agree with Don Getz, it's very hard to beat using the grid pattern to enlarge/shrink proportions because you can eliminate the parallax error that often accompanies a photo.  If the pic was taken at any angle other than dead-perfect 90°, it won't "resize" proportionally in some areas, this is easily corrected when you do a grid copy because you'll see right away that it doesn't look right.  Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound like I was saying you shouldn't get the proper dimensions of the gun.

[Dphariss]

Another thing to consider when looking at photographs is lens distortion which can change to look of the firearm.

Dan

[Roger Fisher]

Thanks George!  I appreciate the compliment.  Most of the credit needs to go to Mr. Haines, it's his design, basically.

-Chad

Thats true; but you did the work and cleaned up the background very neat and then some!

[TENdriver]

Without getting into the philosophical discussions of the virtue or accuracy of using the computer there is software that most all of us have that is easy to use and very effective for "roughing" out a pattern.

Microsoft Word has a simple and limited photo edit capability that allows you to manipulate an image for size and then print out as normal.  I’ve used it extensively to calculate dimensions of period furniture from photographs. 

It's easy to do:

Drop an image into a word doc

Right click the image and select "format Picture"

Select the "size" tab

Input a known "height" and word tells you the width if "lock aspect ratio" is selected

If you uncheck "lock aspect ratio" you can adjust the image to another size

I recently took a photo of a wooden 2" x 9" pepper mill and modified it (by taking the "lock aspect ratio" off) into a 3" x 12" pepper mill.

Life’s not perfect and that peppermill may end up being 2.9" x 11" when it comes off my lathe but the modified image gives my hand and eyes a starting point without using expensive or fancy photo software (which I also have).

There are some adjustments done by cropping and some formatting for the margins that can help but this is all easy and quick stuff.

[Jim Filipski]

Since I'm only now starting to catch up on some of these threads I don't know how pertinent it is. but years ago ( when folks recorded images on film) I made a number of scaled drawings based on the two RCA books. George is an excellent photographer so much of the side views of the rifles in his books are quite square on. I would mostly pick the 2/3 butt stock pics which extended to the lower forestock.
Being a Commercial photographer it was easy to copystand the pictures of interest in the books and make fine 4x5 black & white negatives. These were placed in an enlarger in the darkroom and since George provided great measurements such as trigger pull & lock plate length, it was an easy thing to enlarge the negatives to the exact measurements provided. From there I would expose a sheet of photo paper & process it for a print or just trace the image onto a long sheet of paper. I made a number of these of the rifles I always loved ( making these for myself & not selling them eliminated the copy infringement policies). The kicker is I probably only used one of them to build a gun that I was trying to "reproduce". Most of the guns I build from scratch are from my designs so I never really ended up needing them but it was indeed possible to do so as long as the original image is square to the camera and you also have a fixed measurement to scale the photo.
Now days it could be scanned into the computer scaled & split up in Photoshop and printed out even on pieces of 8.5 x 11 printer paper and then taped together.
Sorry just a rambl'in

[Tom Currie]

I use Don Getz's grid pattern layout to " blow up" a RCA buttstock photo to actual size. However for the more artisic elements I like to try and challenge the 18th century resessive part of my brain and draw carving and patchbox elements that fit the school I am building in. I find personal satisfaction in drawing.