The Ship Model Forum

The link posted below for the National Archives is actually for the US Navy's Navy History and Heritage Command (Naval Historical Center).

The link for the US National Archives is:

http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=403&jScript=true

You want to contact the Cartographic and Architectural Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division.

Before trying to find anything at the Archives be sure to read the following:

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/nara/index.htm

also I check my drawings before I get them scanned. a lot of times the drawings are screwed up already due to paper shrinkage and distortion. unless the person printing does it as it is ordered. I know a lot of guys thast just print out 50 or so drawing sets (for planes) at a time and they may sit on the shelf for a year or more until they are all sold.

I have a professional engineering printing company do it for me. they calibrate their machines every 2 weeks and unofficially delare they will be within 1/32 of an inch over 20 ft.

I draw a lot of 1/2 and 3rd scale planes and have never had one come any more out than abt 1/64th inch over 18 foot. I been using them for years especially when its only 5 bucks a sheet to have any size paper scanned. unlike kinkos who havent got a clue as to what their doing and most their machines are junk as they only upkeep them when they are broke.

joe

Fedex Office (used to be kinkos) is the best place i have found to scan them. Keep in mind that there will be scan drift as it goes through the machine and you will need to account for that when getting dims in ACAD. Draw a baseline from the front to the back and then look in the middle, you will see what I mean. The drawing will be off by six inches in the middle. Don't try to take global dimensions, only local.

thanks. I got my plans now just have to run down and get them scanned. prob is we just got dumped with 19 inches of snow so will be a few days then I can get back on this critter

joe

ive seen booklets of plans the only thing I hate abt them is they have everything you could ever ask for BUT Stations lol seems funny they give everything elde but dont have the stations.

Hello all... first post here. Great source of information for non-modellers as well!

When you are looking for interior views of ships you need to look for "Inboard Profile" and "Deck Views" (Floating Drydock categories A, C-E, G-O)and sometimes "Plan View". The plans of US Naval Vessels that best suit 3D modeling are called "G Series" by Floating Drydock, and are historically known as "Booklet of General Plans". These are detailed blueprints that depict the subject vessel by deck (sliced layers) that are highly suitable for hull lofting and deck creation.

Where can you find them? The best source that I know of for free plans is here:

[url]http://www.hnsa.org/doc/plans/index.htm[/url]

The next best source is to contact the US National Archives and make a request for specific plans is from here:

[url]http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-3.htm[/url]

After that you need to scour the internet and look at going to sources like Floating Drydock or The Maryland Silver Co. and buy them commercially. As an aside, the cost of these plans is somewhat high, but they are less expensive than going directly to the photographic sources listed above. The archive services charge a premium because they pull the originals and transcribe them for you. I ordered a set of plans that cost me $200.00... worth it to me, but EXPENSIVE none the less.

Hope this helps!

Any places you will get plans from online that are not an archive will not include much in the way of interior. You might get some for the superstructure, but not always the hull. The Koop/Scmolke ones will do the hull. Floating Drydock and Taubman's rarely do interior at all.

Cool I just got my drawings in from Floating drydock.

I am impressed and disappointed with the drawings. they are quite well drawn and very nice crisp lines almost as though they were cad drawn.

dissappointed that they seem to be scans of blueprints maybe? lot of blue on them to make it harder to get good quality scans for importing into cad.

also the ad is misleading for what I was expecting. it says "THE "TFW" SERIES OF PLANS ARE HIGHLY DETAILED PLANS DRAWN WITH THE MODEL BUILDER IN MIND. EACH PLAN CONTAINS ALL VIEWS AND DETAILED INFORMATION FOR THE MODEL BUILDER. DRAWN BY TOM WALKOWIAK."

well it does show all that but I was also expecting for 30 bucks that it had the other deck views like you normally get when you find drawings. I mean I got a top view profile view and a few superstructures. you get that normally with most other drawings. though I admit the quality of others is not even close to these. But if I wanted to do a cutaway or complete 3D drawing i would be missing stuff.

Basically I am 90% pleased with what I got and 10% displeased that the plans description was a little misleading or should clearly have stated which drawings come with or at least a phone number so could have asked.

Joe

Oh yeah, I forgot about that model. Thanks for the pics. I'll look them over tomorrow.

oh I forgot I did get all those pics and store them on my website at http://www.proflooney.net/yammy.rar

actually I started with the Yamato because theres a ton of closeup detail shots of it in color ))) actually 250 picture walkaround hehe http://news.webshots.com/album/550418549pWgDkE?start=0 thats the only ship I could find nice clear shots of and the reason I chose it

Joe

Your hulls are improving quite a bit. This is what it takes to get good, just doing a lot of them. Also, don't be afraid to throw them out and start over once a while. Right now you are still learning and you will find ways to improve each one. I am sorry I can't help more on Yamato, but I think it should be number 6 because it is so complex. I have a couple ideas of how I would do it, but they are not fully formed because I can't spend a week visualizing it right now, and that is what it would take me. You need to find a lot of really good pictures of a ship that just wasn't photographed a lot. Trust me when I say I know the feeling.

while waiting for my drawings so I dont get too carried away I decided to mess with one of the other 6 I want to do. the Destroyer USS Sullivans DD-537.

I finally finished the airport project I was working on early this am and set this hull up for loft at full scale. it took some messing around but I am pretty happy with the results. there may be some slight changes once i get my bathworks cd with the ships plans on it but im using the anatomy of the ship drawings for this loft.

Joe

Well today I got the front superstructure roughed in.

Finished the Basic rear superstructure. I still have a couple stacks or something to do but will worry abt them later. I also have the skirt under theouter decks but still have to add the structure braces underneath which will also do later as this is just a preliminary mockup. tomorrow I will work on the front superstructure and add doors etc. if I remember correctly the watertight doors were abt 4" off the deck. not sure of the porthole height or diameter

and a Couple more views.

side view of lower superstructure

Well I decided to finally settle on one ship so will be the Phoenix. Kinda cool since shortly I will be heading to Phoenix for 4 to 6 months of modeling work. (planes not my body)

So I was told by a friend who I brought the subject of the ship up to who lives there and runs a model company that theres a chance the Historical Society of Phoenix would want to do something with the ship.

I got some of the hull lofted but the drawings werent the greatest so I decided to start on the superstructure. right now it may not be super scale accurate, however I am just mocking it up to get all the pieces in place and figure out how it looks since this is basically my first ship other than screwing around trying to loft some other hulls.

Joe