I was wondering were I can get plans for scratchbuilding a Tall Ship? Something along the lines of the draftings you get with a kit.
Also, I think I have an easy idea for how to get the keel shape, but haven’t thought of a way to actually get the hull lines (shape of the hull?) It occured to me after reading two books on wooden ships that what you get in a kit is mostly the keel and frames. Most everything else you have to build yourself (other than cannon, rigging line, fittings, etc.) . Am I wrong in that assumption?
My thought was to do a smaller ship to learn from and then try to scratchbuild the same one using only the plans. Please let me know if I’m way off base with this.
Chris
Well if you don’t mind starting with fishing schooners, then look for the
hull lines in a book by Howard I. Chapelle, "The American Fishing Schooner, 1825-1935, at the public library.
You can scale the lines to what ever you like on a photocopier, and the book has enough information to cut the keel and frames, for variety schooners.
Well…again…you may wish you hadn’t asked, but here goes. If you’re looking for a real “wish book” of sailing ship plans, the best in the business is the catalog of the Taubman Plan Service. Abe Taubman, an amazing octagenerian, stocks the most comprehensive variety of ship plans I’ve ever heard of. His mailing address is: Taubman Plans Service International, 11 College Drive, Jersey City, NJ 07305. He does have a website (actually run by some of his friends), but be warned: not everything in his printed catalog is listed on the website. (Another participant in this forum put up Abe’s web address a couple of weeks ago, but I can’t access it while I’m typing this. A search engine should find it.) His printed catalog costs $10.00, and is well worth having.
Be warned: Abe doesn’t carry any absolute junk, but there’s a great deal of variety in terms of quality and thoroughness in his offerings. Some of them (not many) are only slightly better than those awful Continental European kits. Among those I know are good are the works of Harold Underhill (nice, but expensive), David MacGregor (always well done, but varying a great deal in amount of detail), Seagull Plans (by Hornsby and Crothers - some of the best drafting I’ve ever seen, but generally dealing with really elaborate subjects), and the Musee de la Marine (if you like French ships). There are plenty of other good plans in that catalog; these are just some I’ve seen and know are good.
That’s a start. If you want to narrow the range of subjects down a bit, I may (or may not) be able to offer some more specific ideas. Your idea of starting with a small vessel in kit form and then moving to scratchbuilding is, in my opinion, dead on target. As an interim step, you might want to do a scratchbuilt model based on a book, which would include not only plans but step-by-step instructions and illustrations. The ones by “Dynamite” Payson look pretty good, though I haven’t worked with them personally.
Hope this helps a little.
Looks like Mr. Ryuzuki and I were typing at the same time. His suggestion of the Chapelle book is excellent. I’ll go a step further and suggest that you take a look at several books by that author: The Baltimore Clipper, The History of American Sailing Ships, The History of the American Sailing Navy, The History of American Sailing Craft, The History of American Small Sailing Craft, and The Search For Speed Under Sail. Chapelle was a great man; he almost single-handedly created the history of American naval architecture as an academic subject. He published his books over a period of nearly fifty years, and, like any other skilled and intelligent human being, got better as he went along; the detail and quality of his drawing got better from his first books (e.g., The Baltimore Clipper) to the last (The Search For Speed). Chapelle may or may not give you enough info for your first scratchbuilt model, but he’ll give you a beautiful introduction to the range of subjects that are out there.
Thanks for the help guys. I’ll see if I can’t pick up a few of those books. I was browsing the web early and noticed that the US Naval Dept. (I think) has a plans catalog, one for merchant ships the other for naval ships. Wondering if anyone had any experience with them. Thanks again for the help.
Chris
Well, Miss Ryuzuki [;)]
would recommend Floating drydock for naval plans, or the previously mentioned Taubman Plan Service.
Both are good places to find the necessary plans fo building keel, frames and all out fine scale model ships.
I do apologize to Miss Ryuzuki! Looks like I’ve inadvertently been guilty of a mode of behavior of which I’ve accused other modelers - namely male chauvinism. Mea culpa.
I’ll jot down those website addresses. Taubman and Floating Drydock are indeed among the best in the business.
I think the plans catalogs Mastercarp mentioned may in fact be the ones offered by the Smithsonian. Howard I. Chapelle, who’s been mentioned before in this section, was a curator there for many years and left the Smithsonian his original drawings. As I understand it, virtually all of the drawings published in his books are available from there in the form of full-size prints. (I built a model from one of them once.) The reproductions the Smithsonian sells are (or were the last time I dealt with them) good old-fashioned blueprints made on order from the originals. I believe the merchant ship catalog also includes the plans from Henry Hall’s 19th-century survey of the American merchant marine. I’m not sure of the website or mailing address, but a query to the Smithsonian probably would get them.
Another great resource for wooden saqilign ship construction is Seaways Ships in Scale magazine. They’re sorta like the FineScale Modeler of Wooden ships. There’s also a wwebsite www.seaways.com. Highly recommended.
If it is a tall ship you want I might recommend not jumping into the deep end of the pool right off. Some of the references jtilley spoke of concern Baltimore Clippers, and this type of ship would be a good first project for someone with some woodworking experience; that or a schooner.
Good luck,
Bruce