"Slum areas and downsizing 28mm to 20mm" Topic

Forgive me for asking some questions with perhaps obvious answers.

I am looking to build up a shanty town in 20mm to use for the like of urban areas such as Mogadishu for Blackhawk Down and Iraq/Afghanistan.

The best looking models in cardstock appear to be Finger and Toe. Are there any others out there?

If I going with Finger and Toe, the problem is that they only produce in 15 and 28mm, which is a bit of a pity considering the range of figures and vehicles available in 20mm.

I presume that it is easier to downsize from 28mm, rather than upsizing from 15mm, when it comes to printing out the models.

Presumably it is easy enough to downsize the Finger & Toe pdfs using the like of Adobe Photoshop?

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Alan

Here's some shanties that I build on commission for 15mm, but you can use the same technique to build some 20mm ones, and I did for my own collection.

link

David

Very nice.

I have shanty buildings from The Scene – sold as 15mm but excellent for 20 mm too, All the dimensions are given so that you can draw them out and compare against minis if necessary …….

link

Also got a good value set from Iron Clad Minis

link

These models go really well together – I haven't got around to painting the ones from Ironclad tho'!
I looked at the cardstock stuff but with all the fuss over rescaling and print costs…..went with resin.

To print the paper at 20mm it mightnot matter whether you blow up 15mm or shrink 28mm. But other things being equal buy the 28 and shrink, just in case the 15mm is not set up as vector grpahics. If so it might pixellate when you blow it up.

My DIY paper shanty town models are available in 20mm (as well as 28mm, 15mm and 1/144), all in one product:

link

Jakar,

My apologies: in fact I did purchase your models some time ago and only remembered after I had posted my question. I have now found the download and fine models they are too!

No problem. Have fun with them and may they be useful in many games!

It is easier to shrink than enlarge, as you just print the pdf at a reduced % (tile all pages then enter the %). You cannot enlarge like this unless you can print on larger paper than it is designed for. I have enlarged some WW2 15mm buildings to 20mm by copying them into word and enlarging them there. Not too difficult and it all worked fine.
Are you making them from card ? I use foamboard, and print onto A4 single sticker sheets, which I then stick to the foamboard. I've been very pleased with the results.

Thanks for all the replies.

I agree that downsizing is more practical than upsizing as I too use A4 adhesive sheets to stick onto either foamboard or heavy card, depending on the scale I am building.

Resin is very nice but would be expensive for the number of buildings I need.

Alan