How many use original photos to base your model on

Where ever possible I use pics of the actual subject I am doing. That's usually to get the paint scheme and markings as close as possable. On a couple of occasions I have loosely based a diorama on photo's. I have seen occasions where people have replicated a scene exactly in a dio.

All the time for Aircraft.

Every model since I turned 12

A lot of my decal sheets are based on aircraft that the decal maker had photos for, and I either couldn't find that same aircraft or when I did all I found was a profile somewhere. In each of those cases, I changed the small details that had to be changed to match a different BuNo that I did have a photo for. Of course, if I have a photo and the decal matches,,,,,,those get to be the "easy builds".

Many of my models weren't ever released as decals, but other aircraft from the squadron were, so those changes were made,,,,,for example to build an A-6C there is no decal for those,(because there is no model) but, you can get the squadron's A-6A and KA-6D decals all over the place, make a few changes and you can match your A-6C photo.

Other times, entire units were never released as decals, but, if you have a good photo and some decal sheets you can make something like a VA-26 Cougar or VSF-3 Skyhawk, or Blue tailed VA-43 F-11A Tiger.

Photos are also a must if you are doing something like kit-bashing to build your own -3 Fury, after you use your drawings to get things right, you need some photos to see if you have the "right look",,,,,,,you need that "3 D feeling" to see if you have what you intended.

Rex

yup definitely. and operational aircraft if poss too, as museum planes could have been painted any old colours.

Since I mainly build Auto, I generally see something I like in a Hot Rod magazine or in a book that I have and then use the general idea.  Whether it be the car's stance, color, wheel/tire selection, body style, or whatever, I will take the bits and parts of the subject I like and combine them with what I like.  With Subjects such as Indy Cars, Drag Cars, etc the photos are a BIG MUST because the kit you have to use generally has a few incorrect things going on with it.  Some are supplied with the wrong engine, some (especially Indy cars) have certain decals missing due to licensing issues.  Most of all, many have incorrect instructions on colors and painting.  The most common one I see is a stock Hemi calling for chrome valve covers.  In reality they were matt black from the factory.

So to me there is nothing more accurate than seeing the real thing!

Cars (unless it's one of my Nascars) very little. Aircraft, all the time.

Not so much for dioramas. But for nearly every build that I have done in the past couple of decades I have used photo references where ever possible.

The easiest way to utilize the photographs would be have prints made to 1/16 scale and base your scratch built tanker on the photograph.

To blueprint a model the drawings are made to scale from the front, side and top views.

Sounds like a interesting scratch build, do post WIP's in the Scratch building section of the form once you get going!

All the time for vehicles and planes to get as close as possible to the actual thing. For dioramas I mainly use an idea from a picture but add and fine tune to my own twist.

How are you able to gain access to all the airplanes to photograph them?  Especially I find military aircraft hard to find and photograph.  Even vintage civil aircraft are hard to find. I always seek them out to photograph them if I can, but very often have to rely on other folks pics.

unless your building oob and just look at the box or dont care about errors from the mg of the model  then photos  or pics from books are almost a req.

SuppressionFire

The easiest way to utilize the photographs would be have prints made to 1/16 scale and base your scratch built tanker on the photograph.

To blueprint a model the drawings are made to scale from the front, side and top views.

Sounds like a interesting scratch build, do post WIP's in the Scratch building section of the form once you get going!

I find it easier to do the scaling in my CAD program.  It has a "trace" function that allows me to load in a JPEG, and then trace that to make a drawing on another layer(s).  Once I have the drawing to the point where I have a recognizable part that I know the dimensions of, then I can rescale the drawing.

I find it hard to scale a digital photo, since it doesn't have a dimension until it is printed on paper, and my photo program will print it whatever size I want.

I always try to;

   Now that said, there's times I just can't . I must sometimes rely on verbal info .This has drawbacks in that sometimes after delivery the client comes back with a very old picture and says this is what I wanted .

   For civilian vessels of the fifties this can get to be a pain. Many were wartime builds were changed dramatically by their new owners and good photos are very hard too come by.

This old Impala in the snow got turned into a model that was featured in an article in Finescale magazine a year or two ago...

I remember it well very well done cheers ian

There is another thread in another part of the forum about panel lines being overly done, and has a relationship to this thread.  The more photos we look at when building a particular model, the more it will look like a real subject- at least that is my belief.