Hello, everyone. This is my first post so please excuse my stupidity.
I just love ships. Anytime I see a picture of a sailing ship (are they called tall ships?), a documentary about ships, or a movie with ships in them like "Pirates of the Caribbean", and even video games, I get goose bumps.
Being a moron, I can't describe the feeling I get when I see these ships. I don't understand why, I don't come from a nautical family, been on a cruise only once, and worked for a tug boat company as a software developer (I love tugs too).
Although I did live in Portsmouth (small town in England) where they had something called the Victory (goose bumps), and my uncle drew these incredibly paintings of real ships (I think).
So I decided to merge this love of ships with my love of ancient and midevial history and start a little hobby. I want to go slow. Here is what I thought my hobby could contain:
Learning and reading about every nautical term ever invented, and the history of ships from around Egyptian times (earlier if there were ships in Mesopotamia.
I want to model and animate ships down to the smallest level in 3D software for both printing and making little movies out of.
And eventually start building these models in wood and plastic.
Here is my question to this talented community. Where are the resources? I can't seem to find anything but vague summaries of anything I am interested in. Forget Egyptian, I mean I can't seem to find anything from Viking ships to the H.M.S. Victory in detail.
I need details, and lots of them. Plans, details like how they where made, what type of wood they used, etc., etc.
I was lucky enough to find this site of wisdom and knowledge. What you guys do requires a brain trust, and I bet every one here has the answers to almost anything.
Here is hoping that 0.00002% of the knowledge in your pinkies rub off on me.