Properly Scaling Textures

**sreinmann** · #1 08-16-2016, 11:54 AM

As I continue to dabble in designing models to share I would appreciate some advice on scaling textures. Has anyone come up with a formula or guideline?

I build mostly in MS Publisher, using object background or image import to apply a texture to my parts. As you can see in the image below, my steel blooms, sized for my O-Scale paper model, used the included texture. This is a worst-case example where I didn't bother to tile the image in Photoshop prior to importing the texture on the Publisher layout. Aside from the stretching, the scale isn't correct.

Is the proper texture scaling a matter of personal preference and "eye." Especially, when I don't know the scale of the texture.

**wideride** · #2 08-16-2016, 04:58 PM

Hey sreinmann. I use MS publisher to create my models also; but dealing with buildings, I have a measurement and a scale I can work with. I am not real familiar with steel blooms, but I do believe your texture is way too big. I think that in this case, you are going to have to go with your 'eye'. Some times you may have to use 'artistic license' to give an item the 'feel' that your trying to get across; i.e.- slightly larger or smaller graining (in my case-wood siding), that kind of thing. I think that you might try reducing the texture size and tiling several of them together for what your trying to do. I use Gimp myself for some of that, but you can do some of that in Publisher itself. Bring the image in from your file and you can 'scale' that image up or down in size till you think it looks right. Tile them edge to edge, stack, turn, crop, etc. until you can build an image that fits your pattern. Once your happy, group the textures together. That's some of what I do with Publisher. I hope I've help you a bit. If you have any questions that I might be able to answer, just ask!
Have a Great Day! - George

**Jerry V** · #3 08-16-2016, 11:45 PM

Goodmorning Sreinmann.

I don't know how to scale textures in MS publisher, I am using Coreldraw.
But If I need a texture to be scaled I try to use an seamless image, tile them and sometimes have coreldraw to "quicktrace" the grouped image.

You could also use the image you found, but tile them mirrored, creating a seamless image. About scaling the texture, well I agree with George;

Bring the image in from your file and you can 'scale' that image up or down in size till you think it looks right.

That's how I textured one of my shipmodels.

With regards,

Jerry

**CharlieC** · #4 08-17-2016, 12:34 AM

As a survivor of the steel industry may I make a point about the texture you're using. It looks like you're using a zinc-plated texture - sometimes seen on very old hot dipped steel sheet. Modern galvanised steel is rolled after dipping to give a uniform thickness coating and doesn't show any zinc crystals like the old stuff did.
If you really are showing rolled or forged blooms on a flatbed wagon these would be a dull black colour since the only way to produce heavy section blooms is to hot roll or forge an ingot. The blooms would still be hot enough at the end of working to oxidise to a black colour.

Regards,

Charlie

**db-sa** · #5 08-17-2016, 02:15 PM

Textures scale the same way as anything else. At 1:87 your zinc crystals will be one eighty-seventh of their real life size. Individual grains simply won't be visible. Same goes for things like individual growth rings in timber.
Only features that are large enough to contribute to overall appearance at a reasonable distance in real life should be included in the textures used on models.

**sreinmann** · #6 08-19-2016, 05:24 PM

Thanks Charlie those are great tidbits to know and not something that I as a dabbler would have picked up on!

Great advise DB-SA. Maybe it should have been but, scaling the image wasn't intuitive to me. I can definitely work towards that!

**WVA** · #7 08-20-2016, 06:22 AM

I think that sometimes you have to create a texture that is out of scale, but looks right. I have no experience with steel, but I know that some brick patterns blend into an almost solid color when scaling to "N" gauge. I was trying to create a radiator print for a machine in 1/16, but found if using the right number of fins and tubes, it became a black blob. I reduced the number of each in half, and the finished print looked like a radiator should! Jim

**wideride** · #8 08-20-2016, 08:29 AM

WVA pointed out what is sometimes the modeler's dilemma. I model in HO and N scale. As I said, at times, you just have to go with what makes a piece 'look right' or has the 'right feel'. db-sa isn't wrong; scale is scale, but enlarging or reducing a certain texture can make all the difference in the world as to how a model looks in some cases.
Have a Great Day! -George