by Bob Bendorf
Photographs by the author
[EDITOR'S NOTE: When Bob Bendorf submitted his latest photos of aircraft models he had reduced to 1:120 scale, I asked him how he accomplished the scale reduction, and whether or not he would be willing to share his methods with the readers of Card Modelers Online. Bob agreed, and the following is his description of the method he uses to produce the beautiful miniatures shown in the following series of photos. --Bill Geoghegan]
The reduction is done by using a Microtek Scanmaker XL12 for the initial scan. I scan at the 600ppi index [600 pixels per inch]. You can scan at up to 1200ppi but there is usually very good definition at 600ppi. This matches or exceeds the quality of the original print. Scanning at a higher definition also really increases the size of the file, and the "handling time" for other computer actions. The scanned file is then put into Photoshop for further handling.
For large prints above 8.5 inches in width and more than 14 inches in length, the prints are scanned in pieces and then reassembled in Photoshop. Since I work at a small scale, almost any print can be reduced to letter or legal size and then printed. Once the print is reassembled in Photoshop, the color is adjusted to match the original. This can be a tedious process in files where the color print is tiny dots, since there may be large areas that have to be recolored to match the original. In this case, the revised product can actually exceed the quality of the original. This can be done through three or four different processes, but that topic is really beyond the scope of this discussion.
Once the original document has been reassembled and color quality has been realigned to match the original, it is then reduced. This is a very simple process in Photoshop. For example, 1:33 can be
reduced to 1:120 by scaling the image to 27.5% of the original. Photoshop then allows you to transfer
the reduced print to a blank page. For most large print pages you can reduce 4 sheets to a letter size page for printing. You can see that for a large project that involves 20 large print pages, the finished project is just five pages of letter size paper -- a real space saver in model size -- but you must have good eyes for the really tiny cutting and cylinder rolls. The original prints are then stored away in archives.
Shown here are the four final color corrected plates reduced from 1:33 original to 1:120 on letter size high definition card stock. This B-24 printed out on 3 letter size pages, compared with the original 12 large plates. The color is excellent, uniform and of very high quality definition. The original appears darker. However, this is due to the metallic nature of the original. The final plates show what it looks like in plain color. I prefer not to work with metallic card stock due to its poor handling characteristics and poor color rendition.
The following photos show some Allied and Axis fighters from WW II at 1:120 scale. The F6F is a Flymodel reduced from 1:33 scale. The Corsair is from a Betexa 1:33 kit; the "Razorback" Jug is from a PMI 1:33 kit. The Zero is taken from a ModelArt kit, as is the Bf 109g. The Ki84 is from a 1:33 Flymodel kit, and the Tony is from a 1:50 kit from Marek. Fighters at this scale are pure fun to work with. I don't cover the white edges so that some of the "piece detail" can be seen in how they are constructed.
