Straat Clarence was part of a 5 ship class built for a KJCPL (also known as Royal Interocean Lines) service between Japan/China and East Africa in the early 60's. The companies' designs of the period were optimised for seakeeping and hull efficiency at a fixed service speed without much consideration for stowage efficiency. At the time this meant a hollow waterline (almost no equidistant lines, like a clipper) and a good sheer. The opinions of the companies' poor overworked loadmasters were not recorded but the ship definately looked sharp and fast.
For the project I had access to 1/300 deck plans and a side view.
My current method for scratchbuiling hulls is rather different than other small scale methods such as "bread and butter" and Don Mkeands full keel and frame method as illustrated on the Fine Waterline site. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. I think mine works best when you have a relatively substantial hull but only deck plans and side views to work from. If this build works out I may rework this thread into a short tutorial on scratchbuilding hulls in styrene/balsa.
For starters, the sideviews were reduced to 1/700 on a photo copier. A waterline shape was worked out from the deck and side views using french curves (burmester set) while making sure that the side view was .5mm too low and the waterline was .6mm too narrow. The side view and the waterline were transferred to 1 mm styrene and balsa planks were attached. The sheer was cut from the planks using the keel plate (=side view) as a guide and the decks were added in .5mm styrene. Then I filed and sanded the balsa in shape using the deck plates and some pictures as a guide. This is the result after an evenings' work:
Love the look of these old merchant ships.
I'm always looking for hints and tips for improving my 1/700 scratch building skills.