Typo or convention?
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:30 pm
Ok. So long ago I had planned to build Bodiam castle. I got a floorplan, and started calculating. I quickly thought "Wow, I'll NEVER have enough grey for this." Why? According to the floorplan, it's like 167 "meters" square:
http://www.suave.net/~dave/images/bodiam/bodiam2.jpg
To give you an idea for minifig scale, that's roughly 500x500-- a bit more than a 15x15 of standard green baseplates (225 green baseplates! Yeah, like anyone but TLC has THAT much grey)
However, I happened upon another plan, which was closer to 167 *FEET*:
http://www.suave.net/~dave/images/bodiam/bodiam1.jpg
So, at first I figured hey, it's just a typo. Then, just this past weekend, I bought another book (THE best castle book I've ever seen for Lego Exploits, BTW) that showed Bodiam ALSO with a scale of "80m". What gives? Looking at random people's vacation photos online, it's roughly 150+ feet wide, so there's NO way the scale can be "80 meters". Is this some sort of odd convention to report "m" as "feet"? Did two completely different books make the same mistake?
Oh, and in case anyone's interested, the book is: The Medieval Fortress (they had it under the history section at Barnes & Noble, but is a bit cheaper on Amazon). The 1st half of the book shows illustrations and photographs of all sorts of different castle details. Various types of arrow slits, barbicans, portcullis and gate designs, and those dealies that hang out over the walls. It shows floorplans for various castles, has some cutaway views, and has all sorts of useful tidbits.
DaveE
http://www.suave.net/~dave/images/bodiam/bodiam2.jpg
To give you an idea for minifig scale, that's roughly 500x500-- a bit more than a 15x15 of standard green baseplates (225 green baseplates! Yeah, like anyone but TLC has THAT much grey)
However, I happened upon another plan, which was closer to 167 *FEET*:
http://www.suave.net/~dave/images/bodiam/bodiam1.jpg
So, at first I figured hey, it's just a typo. Then, just this past weekend, I bought another book (THE best castle book I've ever seen for Lego Exploits, BTW) that showed Bodiam ALSO with a scale of "80m". What gives? Looking at random people's vacation photos online, it's roughly 150+ feet wide, so there's NO way the scale can be "80 meters". Is this some sort of odd convention to report "m" as "feet"? Did two completely different books make the same mistake?
Oh, and in case anyone's interested, the book is: The Medieval Fortress (they had it under the history section at Barnes & Noble, but is a bit cheaper on Amazon). The 1st half of the book shows illustrations and photographs of all sorts of different castle details. Various types of arrow slits, barbicans, portcullis and gate designs, and those dealies that hang out over the walls. It shows floorplans for various castles, has some cutaway views, and has all sorts of useful tidbits.
DaveE