Handling Scale Differences

Scale Differences

Over the years I acquired pieces for my village from a variety of sources. Some of mine are sentimental items from childhood, while others I have found at thrift stores, and others I created from scratch. 

The issue created is with the scale of your village. Chances are you didn't really want a godzilla sized human in your Christmas Village, unless that is the look you were aiming for, of course.  This is an example of a scale difference. When you placed a larger scale human next to a building of smaller scale, you unintentially created Christmas Village Godzilla.

 Follow these instructions to setup your town and avoid scaling issues.

Step One

Separate your landscaping elements (i.e. rocks, trees, flowers, etc.), your human figurines, and your buildings. (These will be your main categories.) Set aside the landscaping and human figurine categories until later. 

Step Two

Look closely at each building, making note of any buildings that have people attached. These buildings can be a good kickoff point. Lineup the buildings (space permitting) from smallest to largest (in terms of scale) and mentally divide them into groups based on size.

Step Three

With all of the buildings lined up and you want to create sub-categories of village areas based upon what you own. Some areas I include are a shopping district, residential area, city center, religious buildings, and city services. Make sure to create different sub-categories for items of differing scales. It is okay to have multiple shopping districts or residential areas. 

Step Four

Sketch out on a scrap of paper how you want to place these subcategories in relation to each other. (it doesn't have to be detailed or pretty)