thibaultron

I don't think 3D printing will kill the hobby, anymore than plastic models, laser cutting, or resin casting did. Manufactures simply have to adapt. As far as models that are completely 3D printed, great, more subjects will be available, just like when plastic models came out. If 3D printing gets cheap enough manufactures can start selling printed kits. Not everyone will be willing to generate their own files for complex subjects, nor will they have a 3D printer of great resolution in their homes for a long time.

As far as laser scanning, that's great, but you need and original to scan.

Let's take Model Railroading (my other hobby) as an example. I like the Santa Fe Railroad, in the steam era. My problem is that the SF built almost all of their steam locos in house, to their own designs. 95% of those locos were either never offered by manufactures, or made in now rare and very expensive brass locomotives. I therefore either have to shell out BIG bucks, or do with generic models decaled for the SF. There are some models that have the correct frame and drivers for the loco, and others that have tenders that are close, but that requires buying 2 or more locos to make one. 3D printing would be a great help. I could make my own locos (maybe), but 1 would probably take me years.

There is a thread that has some info that might help

When the city of Baltimore acquired the Constellation as a museum ship it was claimed she was the frigate from the 1700s and thus the oldest continuously commissioned ship in the US. Her configuration however was not a frigate. The city claimed she had been rebuilt over the years and had her back dated to "correct" this. She was displayed for years this way (I visited her many times when I lived in Baltimore). About 20 years ago research showed that she was actually the second ship to be named in the line, and was actually a Sloop Of War built in the mid 1800s, not a frigate. There is a book "Fouled Anchors" that tells the story.

She has since been rebuilt to her original as built state.

As to how accurate the kit is to the frigate configuration, it as least looks close to what I remember. I've been tempted to buy this kit, if only because that is how I remember her. She did at least look like this at one time, even if she was at that time a fantasy model herself. I wish someone would come out with a kit as she is corrected.

On the post about the USS Constellation, the model depicts her as she was setup until the 80s or 90s in Baltimore Harbor.  It was not until more recently that she was rebuilt to resemble her as built. The ship was originally claimed to be built in the late 1700s, research later proved that she was built in the mid 1800s, configured as she now is. So while the kit does not show her as built, it does show her as she was when the kit came out.

^{Get the launch kit, the Bounty did not have a jolly boat! Found this out after buying the jolly boat kit.}

I have bought, then resold several kits (even one high quality US made kit), when I found out they were entirely fictitious, with the manufacturer lying about it. I have some that I kept because the manf honestly stated that they represented a type, not a specific boat. There are a lot of plans out there of ships that reflect as historically accurate as possible type of, or even of a specific ship (the Hannah comes to mind), that I would build from. Just tell me at the start! For instance, the previously mentioned Corel Ranger, why not just label the kit as Defender or other sister ship to start with? I have more kits than I will likely be able to build in my life time (ship and other types).  I would prefer to spend my time on kits that are at least reasonably close.

For translations, I have had good luck with Google Translate.

Years ago I needed to bend 1/8X1/4 stripwood edgewise around the rim of a model warship deck (1/144th scale). I made a tube out of PVC with a screw plug on one end. I filled it with water and then stuck the wood in, and screwed in the plug. A couple off days later the wood bent nicely. Used the same method on 5 additional ships. This immerses the entire surface of the wood, and doesn't spill if knocked over.

The wood rim held the deck in place securely so that the entire rest of the deck could be removed for access to the RC equipment. A couple of screws held it down.

I've used DesignCAD in various versions for years.

The only thing that limits the use of a paint in an airbrush (with proper thinning to the consistency of 2% milk, recommended by the owner of Badger Airbrush), is the size of the paint flakes in the paint. Some paints have finer "grinds" than others.

Here is a great intro to airbrushing by Ken, and there are several other videos by the Wargamers Consortium on airbrushing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsW-vN0_lHw. I am not associated with any of them, I just learned a lot from the videos. I'm also starting on airbrushing.

Drill presses are not setup to handle the lateral forces, nor are the drill chucks or chuck to spindle attachments designed for the end mills tendency to pull downward into the work piece. Get the real mill. Been there done that, with larger pieces.

Not quite as nice as some of the 3D renderings I see here, but here is my 3D drawing of a Maryland Terrapin Smack from Chapelle's Migrations Of An American Boat Type. I started from a low resolution Public Domain scan (72dpi). I plan to build a test half hull with cardboard and balsa. I will buy a real set of plans, before I build a real model. For now I have the material, and this drawing, until I get a bit more money.

Lindberg/Pryo "War Of Independence Sloop" is the "modern" name of the old Pyro Roger B. Taney. It is frequently available on Ebay. As I recall, this was Pyro's pirated copy of the Model Shipways kit.  I believe it is about 120 to 140th scale. Look at the inner and outer outlines for the closed gun ports, I have heard that they are misaligned slightly, a minor correction.

There is some question as to whether either kit is really the Taney. Chapelle who originally labeled the drawings as such, apparently later found different research that indicated they may be for a later type of revenue cutter, one of which was sold to the then country of Texas and named War of independence.

I have one, and plan to build her as the Taney.

I acquired this kit and was wondering if it represented an actual ship, or just a fictitious one?

Yes, my kit had 3 sheets with the same parts printed on all 3, the bottom large sheet in the above photo. even a decent resolution photo of each sheet from directly above would work, I could make scaled drawings from them, using CAD. I'll probably use different wood anyway, as the sheets are thick balsa.

I used my flatbed scanner, and carefully scanned them.  It took several scans as mine is a letter size scanner, but I got them. Had to be gentle with them.

Help needed! I recently bought a kit for Evangeline on ebay, but when I recieved the kit there were 3 sheets with copies of the sheet with the keel and half deck, no printed sheets for the other parts.  I called Freedom Song, and the owner said he is no longer in business, and sounded quite frail.  Can someone send me scans of the other 2 large sheets and the small sheet?

Brave men.

Thanks for the help! I'll try the sponge in the tube first, when I get back from vacation. I have some 4" PVC, I just need to get a couple end caps, and a union (cut a piece of plastic for the center to keep the plans and sponge separate). I can open the plans but don't want to handle them much, until I can strengthen them.

The Model Expo plans are for 1/48th POB, rather than the kits 1/96th solid hull, and cost more than I paid for the model. I'm going to keep track of their sales though, sometimes they have the plans on discount for reasonable prices. I did stumble across the instruction book for the 1/48th solid hull the succeeded this kit, so I now have much better instructions than the few page typed ones that came with the original kit.

Are you going to include data on kits that are no longer made, if the data is available? This might be helpfull to Ebayers for example.  Scientific and Sterling come to mind.

I have recently purchased an old Model Shipways (Yellow Box) model of the Benjamin Latham. I bought the older kit as it is 1/96th scale (close to a couple other fishing schooner kits I have), rather than the newer larger 148th kit they now offer. My problem is that the kit plans have aged to the point that they are quite brittle, to much so to simply have them photocopied. In addition they are folded, and are ripping in places. I am thinking of mounting them on a larger sheet, then having them copied and using the copies during building. Are there any suggestions on what adhesive to use, that would give some time to arrange the pieces, or some way to "soften" them, while still allowing for mounting? I think just taping them will only cause the plans to rip near the tape.

I recently acquired a kit, "Steingraebers Kleine Reich no 2 Fischutter HF 83" Wood Model Kit from West Germany. The kit box and instructions do not mention the history of the original boat. Does anyone now what the prototype was for this kit? "Fischkutter" translates as Trawler, but tthat is as far as I can get. Any help will be appreciated. I bought it as something different from my mostly US based models.

DesignCAD (by the same company) is also a good reasonably priced CAD program. I have been using it at home, in various versions, for the last 20 years.  It has both 2D and 3D capability.