Hey, I got a Model Power Mr. and Mrs. Diggers House in HO scale for X-mas, well I am going to use it as a house for my crews to stay in when they come into the yard (Does this happen in the real world in the 50’s and 60’s?) Well I have started building it and it looks so small compared to my walther Clayton County Lumber, is it to scale, this is my first house in HO scale my second structure, maybe its just me but what do you guys say? Mike
Do you have a scale ruler? Take some measurements, and see if it’s of a reasonable size. Houses tend to get selectively compressed for layouts, but a decent small house could work out to about 18 or 20’ x 36 to 40. A second story would allow for a smaller footprint.
Pull some measurements, take a picture or two, and let us know what you’ve got there.
Lee
I’m not sure I quite understand what you mean when you ask “Is it to scale?” The Digger house is a residence; exactly how big do you want a residence to be? - there are exceptions to be sure but you have to start getting into the size of The Biltmore before residences begin to exceed the size of commercial structures.
One way you can evaluate the proportion of the structure is to measure the doorways; MOST doors measure somewhere in the ballpark of 80" tall by 30" wide. This, in itself, may not be conclusive because several kit manufacturers have been gross violators of this standard and have designed doorways ranging everywhere from 62" to 99" tall - that’s Hobbit size to Yao Ming size.
The standard for front doors is 3’ x 6’8". 1" HO is 87" real size, so an 6’8" (80") door would be slightly under 1". “Normal” homes are 20 to 26’ x 32 to 45’ or 2 1/2 to 3 1/4" x 4 1/4 to 6" actual HO size. I believe that the real size of a Mr & Mrs Diggers style home would be abour 24’ x 40’, or 2 1/2 x 5 1/2". My[2c]
Well, remember that visitors to your layout may not be carrying scale rules (hmm, maybe they would), so if possible use the ever-popular ‘little-people’ measuring concept - grab a figure, with no base, that’s between .803" (about 5’8" - I suppose it would be a male figure) and .826" (6ft even), and place in front of the front door of the house - does it look ridiculous or not? (also very handy in toy stores when searching for usable die-cast vehicles NOT marked as 1/87 - and the figure can be hidden behind your thumb when non-modeling parents wander into the aisle so as not to give them a reason to stare at you).
This of course persumes you can actual see the model structure in question, and position the figure beside it…