Blueprinting Example - Jack Sparrow Compass (page 2 of 4)

Drawing the Blueprints.

We know the compass is basically square in shape, but what about those beveled corners? How wide are those? How much do they cut off the 'box' shape?

Using the Open compass image, which is the most 'square' photo reference we have, we can section the compass into equal distance parts therefore determining the size of the beveled corners.

We can see that a single beveled corner takes up 20% or 1/5 of the size of the compass.

Using basic Math (3.5 inches divided by 5) we determine that the corners start .7 inches from the corners of the square shape.

We'll measure this off on our graph paper and
layout the basic top shape of the compass.

For each side of the compass box we add up .7 inches for each corner (.7 + .7 = 1.4 inches), This leaves 2.1 inches for the flat sides of the box. This measurement corresponds to the previous page when we measured the height of the box in the screencapture. The two numbers match up (more or less) so we must be on the right path in blueprinting this replica accurately.

Also, from previous measurements, we know the dome on top of the compass is 2.125 inches in diameter. We'll put that into our blueprints now.

Gold Stripe Details

Taking another measurement from the reference photos, I've determined that the gold stripes are .10 inches wide. Knowing this I'll lay out the template for the stripes. FYI - The inner stripe is .125 inches away from the inside edge of the outter stripe.

Continue to "Blueprinting the Details"