Roguedog,

I guess modelers minds work in similar ways. The plans in this thread were scaled just the way you describe, except that the scaling was done based on wing span rather than exact grid reduction (or increase in the case of the 120). Having said that, "almost exactly 1/8" steps" is the case (less that 2% deviation) given the following:

1) Picorare (Tipo 10): Span 40" = 61.54% (1.5% deviation from 62.5% of 60 Size)
2) Nanorare (Tipo 20): Span 48" = 73.85% (1.5% deviation from 75% of 60 Size)
3) Mirare (Tipo 40): Span 56" = 86.15% (1.5% deviation from 87.5% of 60 Size)
4) Tiporare (Tipo 60): Span 65" = 100% (< 0% deviation from the mother ship! )
5) Merare (Tipo 120): Span 72" = 110.77% (1.5% deviation from 112.5% of 60 Size)

Your percentages of course reflect the exact 1/8" steps (comment for other readers who may not be reading as closely).

Now that we've adequately dissected this issue, it certainly should be useful for general scaling of plans of the given power system range. I'm sure this is re-inventing the wheel a bit (not like it isn't done on a daily basis by designers) but it is fun to make discoveries (maybe learn a little) out of thin air without having to crack a book (did plenty of that in my youth hopefully along with a decent dose of partying as well...).

Photoshop is also usually my tool of choice for this sort of stuff. In this case I used Illustrator though as it works in vector space rather than raster space. If one is fortunate enough to start with a lossless file such as a TIFF (in some cases), a TGA, a PNG or better yet a PDF or PS file, then any scaling is possible with zero loss in quality. But those guide thingies are great! I also use them to check things like plumb lines (e.g., a fuse CL laid parallel to the paper edge) on the various structures. Another cool feature I discovered in Acrobat is the possibility of drawing measuring lines on your PDF file. This allows you to annotate between arrows things like wing span, fuse length, wheel diameter, etc. Basically anything you want. You can then optionally print these marks or not (I use them on proxy printouts but not on the full size plans).

'nough said... I should be building but too tired after this particular weekend.

BTW, I did get the Deception files and emailed you back. Hope you received my note. Many thanks once again. I now have to wait for my wood shipment but am planning on putting a 10 size Deception together with an old ST .15 for which I'll have to find an appropriate sleeve to fit an X11 RC carb into the wider throat... and hopefully find a header from Macs that will fit the engine. Although I haven't built one before (in this size at least), I think there's something cool about a baby pattern ship of sorts with all the bells & whistles. Now.... should I put a retract trike in it (there will be the purists) or shave a little weight and move my main gear forward in the wing... (there will be the convention breakers!)