CharlieZardoz

After tracing bitmap is done, go to stroke paint and use the hollow box. This traces the image and then go to fill and x it out. Now you have an inner and outer line with white in the middle. Delete the inner line, the outer line will allow for some extra meat to the piece you want to laser burn since lasers will burn away a tiny portion of material at the edge and will make anything you burn too thin unless you compensate. After that you have to correct the image. Scanned images will be very rough and go to the upper left where it says edit nodes and simple delete or move the nodes which don't belong. The end result if done correctly will make a smooth line or curve.

The keel and hull lines are all separated same as I did with Sultana and templates cut out with carboard. I did this for both models. NOte my Sigmund Frued action figure to the left. he assures me that I am perfectly sane!

Very interesting stuff guys thank you. I do have the NRG arcticle as well as the Ship Model Shop Notes II which both discuss the color schemes of period ships. Thing is I want to make a point that color scheme's from 1812-15 are a bit different than 1815-1825 and then 1825 onward (basically all black and white). The period right after the war is a weird time since it was the beginning of the standardization of colors to the 2 tone but wasn't quite there yet, ships that survived the war entered dock for refits so that by 1825 the navy was pretty much standard. Anywhoo I spoke more with Dave from Lumbreyard and we had a discussion again about what was most likely the color patterns on these types of ships. So I've modified my color patterns a bit what I am seeing is that the inside bulwarks were probably green, the outside black with either a white or green striping maybe red as well. Dave mentions Mahogany (reddish color) could have been used for trim work and that the cap railings might have been in bright natural wood so with that in mind, here are some layouts of what I'm thinking I may wind up doing based on new information. Feedback is most welcomed

Very interesting stuff guys thank you. I do have the NRG arcticle as well as the Ship Model Shop Notes II which both discuss the color schemes of period ships. Thing is I want to make a point that color scheme's from 1812-15 are a bit different than 1815-1825 and then 1825 onward (basically all black and white). The period right after the war is a weird time since it was the beginning of the standardization of colors to the 2 tone but wasn't quite there yet, ships that survived the war entered dock for refits so that by 1825 the navy was pretty much standard. Anywhoo I spoke more with Dave from Lumbreyard and we had a discussion again about what was most likely the color patterns on these types of ships. So I've modified my color patterns a bit what I am seeing is that the inside bulwarks were probably green, the outside black with either a white or green striping maybe red as well. Dave mentions Mahogany (reddish color) could have been used for trim work and that the cap railings might have been in bright natural wood so with that in mind, here are some layouts of what I'm thinking I may wind up doing based on new information. Feedback is most welcomed

Very interesting stuff guys thank you. I do have the NRG arcticle as well as the Ship Model Shop Notes II which both discuss the color schemes of period ships. Thing is I want to make a point that color scheme's from 1812-15 are a bit different than 1815-1825 and then 1825 onward (basically all black and white). The period right after the war is a weird time since it was the beginning of the standardization of colors to the 2 tone but wasn't quite there yet, ships that survived the war entered dock for refits so that by 1825 the navy was pretty much standard. Anywhoo I spoke more with Dave from Lumbreyard and we had a discussion again about what was most likely the color patterns on these types of ships. So I've modified my color patterns a bit what I am seeing is that the inside bulwarks were probably green, the outside black with either a white or green striping maybe red as well. Dave mentions Mahogany (reddish color) could have been used for trim work and that the cap railings might have been in bright natural wood so with that in mind, here are some layouts of what I'm thinking I may wind up doing based on new information. Feedback is most welcomed

There was one revenue cutter called the Nonsuch, who briefly sailed with the USS Enterprise off Charleston, SC in 1812-13. She reportedly fought one of two British Privateers that had sailed out of Bermuda in company with the Frigate Aeolus on a cruise. Nonsuch had brought her, a shattered prize, into Charleston late one night and dropped anchor next to the Enterprise. These two privateers were reportedly manned by runaway slaves who had raided many coastal plantations, causing quite a panic amongst the landed gentry.
 
Is there any information on the gallant Cutter Nonsuch?

The Mystic items are listed as ships plans - but that is all the info I have on them.
 
Here is the guidance on purchasing copies:
 
For Builders & Modelmakers
Full size black-and-white copies of plans in the collections are available for the non-profit use of owners, builders, restorers, modelmakers, researchers and others. These prints are produced from digital scans of the original plans.
Prices
Sets of plans from the Ships Plans Store are priced as marked. [note - the Doughty plans are not listed with a price.  May be able to contact them for more information]
Limitations
These copies are sold as historical documents, and Mystic Seaport makes no warranty as to the accuracy of the plans or their usefulness for a specific purpose. They are not certified by Mystic Seaport for construction. Plans are sold for research, boat or model building only. For commercial use of any kind and for reproduction in any form you must contact the Ships Plans office in advance at 860-572-5367.
 
If you are interested in more than what you find in our Ships Plans Store https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-plans/ , visit the site for the Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library at Mystic Seaport. The Library contains 100,000+ naval architectural drawings from 1827-2004, grouped into collections based on their source. Many of the collections within the library have an online finding aid that lists all of the vessels and sets of plans in that collection.
 
https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-plans/contacts

Wayne are those plates a series of illustrations or plans? Sounds interesting thank you!

I did the same with the bulkheads. After converting the parts I then put them into the laser program and now they are ready to be brought to the laser cutter. Ezpz!

So here's how to convert a plank of bulkhead kit and if I can convert this one I can convert any kit (though remember this kit is discontinued). I scanned the skeleton pieces then worked the contrast to get rid of the color, then resized them using a formula and checked the size using scanned copies of the Doughty plan from the book. Converting from 1/48 (not 1/50 like the kit suggests), to 1/64 which converts the kit hull 17.375" to about 13" a difference of about 74.82% or the multiple .7482. So after scanning a part just times the pixels let's say 3000 by .7482 and you get 2245 the size of the part at 1/64 scale. You can see that a printed image lines up with the plans perfectly now.

So now for confession time. I saw a deal on ebay for the old Dallas kit for $50 so picked it up. The kit is 1/48 scale so the parts won't be used however she is modeled after the 80 ton cutter so decided to convert the kit to 1/64 in a similar manner to how I converted the 50 ton kit. This model will be done last but I started some of the process so you can see how it's assisting me in the other two. The use of this kit helps me in understanding the changes between each cutter how the shape changes/gets bigger yet planking seems to have stayed the same (width of planks), and other parts helping me understand camber, etc. for the other 2 models. I just needed to see all 3 in perspective as they are sort of connected and don't fully trust myself as a scratch kit builder just yet. It also means that each cutter is going to be built in 3 different ways, block of wood, bread and butter slices and plank on bulkhead! Learning a lot with these 3 and will apply that to Sultana when I get back to her.

Here are the final images of the 30 ton hull as she is now about 9 and 1/8". In comparison to Sultana which took me a few months to shape, this one took me like 1-2 weeks, so definitely getting the hang of this. I still want to sand a little off the bow and the keelson area to make way for planks but overall it's good to go!

And here is the transom on the 50 ton ship.

So the last part was perfecting the stern which you can see what the transom for each cutter looks like on the screen. Look how they get longer and also note the dotted line where the deck ends. I cut out all 3 and then fit them on and fine tuned the sanding.

Fine tuning the shape was done with acrylic templates made at the laser shop which don't bend like the cardstock. Also the deck camber was accomplished using an image from the plans of Lumberyard's Lively which was very generously emailed to me. Making a little curved wood piece I added the camber to the deck. The deck itself was a piece of 1/'8" and 1/16" basswood sheet glued onto the top of the wood sections. It worked out great!

Here is some images of the 2 Doughty cutters lined up together. You can see the differences in the shape, the bow much more pointed and triangle-ish on the 30 ton, and the angel of the draught is more extreme. Look at the plans of all 3 you can see the flattening out of the shape, the 50 and 80 ton similar but 80 is longer. 

Shaping turned into an interesting and informative process, I used a rotary saw attachment to the dremel to cut the angle for the keel, sanding uncovered a few issues, mainly that the wood had a grain which sanded a tad unevenly also the glue sections did the same. My solution was to fill the uneven parts with the Durham water putty. It ultimately became a casing around the hull that I would comtinue shaping and sanding and while that lessoned the effect of the painted lined within, the effect worked out reasonable well.

So I made shaping templates in the style found on modelshipwright, basically a half with the deck level added that way I can just wedge them in to see how much material needs to be removed from the sides, top and bottom.

Check out my babies all lined up together now, making quite a fleet even if they all need planking lol.

Here she is lined up with the keel and all glued together. You can see the material that needs to be removed with the dremel the rest is ezpz!

There were about 9 pieces. The parts were glued together with paint and glue mixed so that way they would have natural lines built into the wood that would help with the shaping and lining up with the templates.  Red for the half lines and black for the main lines.

Hey all! So here is an update on my progress. I put together the hull for the 30 ton revenue cutter by using a few sheets of wood and gluing them together (as per Dan's suggestion). The sections on the plans are about 15/16" to 1"  so the wood plank is about that length. I then drew the sections and cut them out with a band saw.

Wayne are those plates a series of illustrations or plans? Sounds interesting thank you!

Hi Wayne! The source is Dave S from Lumbreyard. As far as contemporary models I know of none. All I really have is this image from Chapelle's book (see below) which shows dark hull with a light stripe. These ships served such a limited function I am unaware of their likeness being recorded anywhere except the plans. What Canney and Chapelle state is that the plans were ultimately modified subsequent to these ships going into service, while Dallas, Surprise, Alabama and Louisiana were 51 tonners, the Search and Detector were a variation of some sort for northern waters. Also the Alert which is quite possibly based off the largest of the plans had cannon ports and probably looked like this model I posted below (the middle image).
 
Chapelle called Dallas and Surprise 79 ton ships, which seems to have been disproved by Canney who is certain they were 51 ton ships, but I have no idea what research was done to come to any sort of conclusion. I'd honestly like it more if Dallas was the largest but the history seems conclusive. They both state that Crawford and Eagle was probably of the bigger tonnages, Monroe, Wasp as well. Gallatin has no info except that she might have been South Carolina renamed. Chapelle does state that while Active (which he calls Alert) in History of American sailing ships page 194 was called a purchase there is no reason to believe the ship wasn't of the smaller type and it did have one pivot gun. Obviously Mamoli and Artesania Latina used Chapelle as a source when naming their models since that was the only info available at the time and while Alert was now proven to be something different entirely, I could make an argument that Active was a 31 ton Doughty cutter. At the very least when it comes to modeling it's the most logical name with which to choose since it's not like any plan of Active exists to prove otherwise and the ship actually led a reasonably busy career fighting pirates so I can live with that lol. Both Active and Dallas actually had busy careers so there is some personal interest in building models of them. Regarding the larger ships Eagle is the only one which has a confirmed tonnage on record and while yes that could be the work of Canney it's all I really have to work with plus someone built a model of Eagle which looks nice and I can use that as a guide of some sorts. There was one Eagle which was famous but that was the prior ship a beautiful looking brig and I think the Captain Frederick Lee commanded both ships, must have felt like a bit of a downgrade hehehe  

Wayne are those plates a series of illustrations or plans? Sounds interesting thank you!