I'll copy from an email that I sent a guy whose wife I met at a trainshow yesterday. It summarizes what I'm thinking. I think the idea of having 3d prints easily decrease in size (to increase perspective) might be a useful concept. I really liked working from photographs to sort out measurements (thanks to Mohammed at the Alexandria museum for that idea). And no, no creepy, fascist underlying motivation here. Long story, but I really like steam trains, I'm quite interested in how the train systems changed warfare (from the civil war onward), and the concept of the layout goes from the SP daylight express in beautiful colourful california to the much darker (I'm going to do the Auschwitz section in black/grey and white0 Here's what I'm thinking: I am modelling (in N scale) part of the Auschwitz concentration camp. I've been working on it for over a year. I need to fabricate some of the 'barracks' they used. I'd like to have 8-10 of them identical. So I thought, hmmm, great project for 3d modelling. After spending many hours on it, I have a 3d rectangle and a 3d triangle roof. Its way harder than I thought. I don't know how hard the project is. I'd like to model these in 3d. I have taken many measurements from pictures (a friend of my daughter works in the Alexandria library (Egypt) and did a 3d model of the colonial streetscape- primarily using Ford Model T's (he knew exactly how high they were in the photos, and extrapolated the rest of the data- interesting project). Measurement wise (in feet), the bottom lower level (the height of the vertical boards) is 8 feet. The height to the top of the gable is 12'. The barracks look like they're about 120' long and 28' wide. The windows-there are 18 sets of 3 windows with a small division between the 18 sets. I figure about 6' 6' for three windows (2 feet wide per window) and about 15" high. I would like to make them a bit undersized (maybe 180:1). Ideally I'd like to have the vertical boards in the model (ie, have them separated on the outside surface into 8" wide planks). The roof I don't really need textured (it was made of tarpaper in the original). Extra ideal would be if they could be made to change in scale slightly. I have no idea if that is possible, but if you were to get into modelling structures, it can be quite effective on a layout. I've seen people use N scale churches in the background of an HO scale model (to give extra depth of field). If it was as easy as changing a ratio, I would bet there would be lots of enthusiasts could be easily marketed on such a concept (for everything). Its cheating, but, really, its a railroad. For those who don't have a visual of what I'm aiming for, these links have some photos: https://apnews.com/92f610f766614d0689c936c2bfd377e3http://www.photo-exhibits.com/europ...auschwitz_II_birkenau_quarantine_barrack.html They could be marketed afterwards as horse stables (the only place I've really seen that type of roof and window arrangement).
