I want to make a scratchbuilt model of the Lusitania. I know about basic hull construction techniques but where I’m stuck is how do you make hull plate detail?Any other hints and tips would be appreciated as well.
could scribe the hull to look like plates
I’ve plated wooden hulls with styrene sheet, and I’ve cast resin hulls and scribed in detail afterwards.
Jeff
What scale are you thinking about? Different scales really call for completely different techniques.
Donald McNarry, whom I regard as one of the very finest ship modelers in the world, has built some astonishingly detailed liners on 1/600 scale. He carves the basic hull shape from wood, then “plates” it with high-quality paper, having punched the portholes and other orifices in advance. The large-scale RC modelers often use discarded aluminum lithoplate cut to the scale shapes. For in-between scales there are all sorts of techniques, involving paper (don’t discard that idea till you’ve seen what can be done with it), styrene sheet, wood veneer, brass, aluminum, etc.
Maybe you already know this - but an ocean liner like the Lusitania is an extremely challenging scratchbuilding subject. Liners involve an enormous amount of repetition (deck planking, lifeboats, ventilators, winches, etc.), and the finish on such a ship is a challenge in itself. Liners, with rare exceptions, are well-maintained, and they’re painted in highly-contrasting colors. A good, weathered paint job on a battleship or a destroyer can hide quite a few sins, but a liner has to have absolutely clean dividing lines between black, white, and red. Frankly, if I were seeking a subject for a scratchbuilding exercise - even on a small scale - a ship like that is about the last one I’d pick.
There are two good plastic kits on the market that would be an excellent start for a Lusitania model. The old Entex one, on 1/350 scale, is a well-detailed, basically sound one; I haven’t built it, but if I remember the reviews correctly about the biggest problem with it is the lack of deck camber (noticeable, but hardly fatal in most observers’ eyes). I don’t know what manufacturer’s label is on it at the moment, but I’m pretty sure it’s still available.
And the old Airfix Mauretania, on 1/600 scale, has been reissued recently. It’s been around for a long time, but it’s actually an extremely nice kit - well up to the standards of most current 1/700-scale ones. The big difference between the Mauretania and the Lusitania was the shape of the ventilators on the boat deck. Converting the Airfix kit would be an interesting and worthwhile project. Gold Medal Models makes sets of photo-etched detail parts that would be applicable to either of those kits. Either of them, dressed up with such aftermarket parts, could be a spectacular model.
I scratch built a hull once. I found diagrams of ships and formed styrene into the shapes of its frames, fitted a keel to the bottom and fitted strip styrene to it and it took the correct shape of the hull.
that is how i do my 144 scale ships. i use styrene sheets on a balsa wood frame
Here’s a trick I’ll pass on…I’m pretty sure that fellow forum members Ed Grune and Ron Smith use the same technique I do.
With a set of plans…cut the individual frames from styrene and lay them onto a keel strip. This gives you the basic skeleton of the hull. From there, “plank” the hull with masking tape…creating a plastic-and-tape hull. Then fill the compartments with resin, slowly, in layers. Once you’ve got the resin to the proper height of the frames and it’s cured (kicked), remove the tape and start sanding. When you see the plastic frames start to poke through the thinned resin, you’ve got the proper shape.
Then you attach grooved styrene sheet to the deck, or…if you’re feeling adventurous, lay down individual deck planks of veneer.
This is how I intend to do my 1/200 IJN Takao, but I’ll be pouring in layers and using styrofoam blocks within the compartments to reduce the weight.
Jeff
Jeff … have you started that big cruiser yet? We want to see the whole build up … wouldja, wouldja, wouldja?
I’ve got the hull frames cut out, and the keel strip…and that’s about it…I’ve got a 1/16 Tiger I and 1/16 Tiger II that are in need of my attentions right now… 
J