nrg710

This is something that I saw on facebook the other day in the group "Modeling [sic] the Olympic Class". It is a davit from RMS Britannic, 1:350 scale, printed on a Formlabs Form 1. Personally, I think the quality is really very good, especially for a consumer-level machine. If this is anything to go by, then in the next few years affordable 3D printing that renders good enough quality to pass all but the most meticulous inspection will be a reality!

I'm trying to come up with a hull shape for the Russian reasearch ship Priboy http://freeshipplans.com/free-model-ship-plans/passenger-ship-plans/priboy/ in maxsurf. However, I'm having a lot of difficulty getting to grips with Maxsurf, and I'm not really getting anywhere with the youtube tutorials. Can anyone share experience of getting started with Maxsurf? How would you go about creating this hull shape in Maxsurf?

About a year ago, I decided to design a 1:87 model of RMS Titanic to go on my model railway layout. I don't actually have the space to build the thing yet, so I can't get past the design stage until I have the space to build it. This gives me a decent amount of time to decide how I'm going to make each part. Then, when I do get the space, it's "simply" a question of cutting and sticking the parts together. So the starting point for all designs is the hull.... which is of course the most complicated bit! I had no experience in CAD so had to teach myself a software package and then design the hull. This is my experience of the past year. 1. Start with Solidworks. Learn package. Start designing the hull. Realise that SW is very limited when it comes to designing complex curved shapes. You can use freeform surfaces, but this is insanely more difficult than other options out there. 2. Decide to use Delftship to design the shape of the hull. I get something decent and reasonably lifelike (but not perfect) in a few weeks. This I can import into SW. It imported OK, but it's not perfect. 3. I then joined Maklab, who have a floating licence for Rhino. So I decided to learn Rhino and see if I can come up with something better. Which I did. In 2 months, I'd learned the basics of Rhino and come up with something acceptable (but not perfect), mostly from using the NetworkSrf command in Rhino. Obviously Rhino is not a parametric modeller, and I want to design individual components for a real life model so I exported to SW. However, I couldn't get the import to SW to work properly- the file was either huge, or massively distorted. 4. However, learning Rhino has given me a much better appreciation of control points and NURBS curves, which has made me see where I was going wrong with Delftship. So now I'm back to Delftship and redesigning the hull in there for export to SW or Rhino. 5. In parallel to that, I'm now looking at Maxsurf. Maxsurf appears to be the most powerful package out there, but the learning curve is VERY steep. And if you're wondering how I can afford all these software packages, I'm lucky enough to have access to one or the other of these through my work, or Maklab, or a friend's computer (he's a naval architect and the one who suggested I use Maxsurf- which is what he uses to design yachts for the rich and famous).

I got an airbrush for Christmas (Badger Patriot 105, so quite a decent one) but didn't have a compressor. I scratched my head over compressors for ages, toying with the idea of going cheap- like getting a spacehopper and fitting a valve to it; mid range- those ones you get on eBay for about £40-£60; or expensive, i.e. Sparmax. My theory with tools is that if you buy cheap tools, you pay over twice the price. That's because you buy a cheap one, it doesn't work as well as you'd like (but it does work), then it breaks, and then you buy a better version. So it's cheaper in the long run to buy decent stuff. So I got the Sparmax TC620, which definitely wasn't cheap. However it is f***ing awesome. The compressor runs mildly louder than that on a refrigerator, it fills the tank for no more than about 10 seconds, then it shuts off. Gives me about 5-10 mins airbrushing before coming on again. The other day, I used it for about 1.5h and the motor was warm, but not hot. Although no experience of the cheaper ones, I'm lead to believe that you get pulsating airflows, overheating motors, noisy compressors and about 1 in 10 breaks within 6 months. In anything I buy, I always do a Cost Benefit Analysis (or Cheapest Acceptable Solution). And I firmly believe that the Sparmax was money well spent!

Thanks Nigel I'm going to build a "trial" mould for another [smaller] ship out of wood and line in with aluminium high speed tape for the detailing. Will let you know how I get on!

Yes! The next house that I move to is going to have a garage that will be given over to... things that aren't cars. I've no time for cars. Anyway, back on topic... if I create a mould for fibreglass and that mould has lots of details in it (rivets, shell plating, marks for where sidelights will be drilled), how well will the fibreglass cast hold these details? Regarding rigidity, I'm not worried about that. I'm designing an internal structure that will support the ship's own weight and give a little to torsion moments. Such is the beauty of solidworks... In fact, if I get the add on (simulationworks) I can even spot stress points before I build it and then design them out!

@Nigel, I haven't considered 1/72, mainly because I'm building it for a model railway layout! My intention is that it will sit as the "centrepiece" of a New York Docks style model railway. I'm in two minds about whether to make this a model of RMS Titanic as built by Harland & Woolff in 1911/12, or whether to make this a model of that as built by CNC Jinling. i.e., Clive Palmer's Titanic 2. The biggest problem I have at the moment is actually computing power. To create the mould, there's a lot of graphics that need to go into Solidworks and my little laptop isn't handling it very well!

I appreciate the original construction technique, but I'm thinking that in order to get a solidworks model looking like that, I'll probably have to: - get the shape of the hulls correct, probably using lofted surface between the stations and the keel and gunwhale as guidecurves - 3d sketch onto the lofted surface where the planking lies - extrude inwards to create the thickness of the hull - swept cut using something that looks like a cut through of the planks and the original 3d sketches as guide curves That's the idea anyway! Do the panel think that will work?

Thanks for the replies guys. I'd already figured this wasn't going to be a cheap way of doing it! However, I figure that it would take me about a year to come up with a conventional plank-on-frame hull with all the shell plating/riveting etc, whereas (in theory) I could have a hull in less than a week given the CNC route. And if anyone ever wanted a 1/87 scale RMS Titanic (or RMS Olympic or Britannic) hull, then yes... I'd happily sell them one. There is a guy in the US who makes 1:144 RMS T. hulls out of fibreglass- I'm guessing he has done something like this. I have a "tame" CNC fabrication company who has done some work for me in the past, so this is who I'd probably use. They don't charge an arm and a leg for machine time, providing that you're not in a hurry for your product and it can fill gaps between "proper" jobs. The guy who owns the company suggested I use aluminium for the mould, which originally I was sceptical about- mainly because a mould of this size will be really quite heavy. I'd already envisaged splitting the mould into at least 9 pieces- this is mainly to reduce the amount of material that would be purchased for machining. It would also have the advantage of reducing machining time (although set-up time would be increased). I'm intrigued about pattern forming clay- I've not heard of this before and a brief search on Google doesn't enlighten me. What is it, where can I get it from, and what are its sort of properties?

I am about to embark upon building a 1:87 model of RMS Titanic. That will make the hull just over 3m (10ft) long. My intention is for it to be RC and lit. I also want it to be up there with the best models of this ship. I have toyed with the idea of plank on frame construction for the hull, but because of certain limitations, I'm looking into other methods and I'm pretty set on the idea of CNC cutting a mould. The hull would then be constructed in the mould out of fibreglass. Questions are: - what's a good material to make the mould out of? - will any external details that are CNC cut in the mould be replicated on the finished surface of there fibreglass? In other words, how good is the resin at preserving intricate details in the mould?

Sorry Wacko, not 100% sure I follow you there. Could you explain that for someone of limited ability like me?

... on the subject of which, how would the panel go about simulating the planking? SW needs a plane or planar face to sketch onto, so I was going to trace the planks onto the right (amidships(!)) plane and then project the curves onto the outside face. However I'm not sure that this is the best way to go about doing it. Eventually the sketches on the outside face will need to be extruded slightly to simulate the planking. I should probably point out that the eventual aim of this is to create a 2 part mould for resin casting. I expect that each part of the mould will be CNC milled, but I will investigate 3D printing.

After playing around with the sketches (a lot!) I've finally come up with something that I'm reasonably happy with. http://youtu.be/CyKVafTTl7Q I created a surface loft between the gunwhale and the keel and used surface fill to fill in the gaps left at the front. I'm not that satisfied with the surface fill, but it's a minor point. This is what I'm trying to model: Any tips for improving my model would be much appreciated. The next step is to start putting the planks on... steep learning curve here we come! BTW I make no apology for using terms like "front", "back", "left" and "right" as opposed to fore/aft/bow/stern/port/stbd" etc. I do this because of my flying background, safe in the knowledge that it annoys the navy!!!

Tried to educate myself about the differences between a loft and a knit, but I'm still none the wiser. However I have played around with the surface loft (why didn't I think of this before) and this is what I have come up with Could you suggest a way of tidying this up? I was thinking about sketching over the frames with one spline, but I'm not sure if the "waves" on the side of the hull indicate bad sketching or construction. I'm still quite new to model boatbuilding and solidworks, so please bear with me!

Wow, Wackowolf- that's some project! And dedication- going to college to learn SW. Well, the results are looking good. And Don- many thanks. Your idea looks very much the same as mine. I won't upload the main hull, because it's quite a complex set of sketches but the principle is the same as for the lifeboats: tracing each frame and then attempting to loft between them. Trimetric: The gunwhale is highlighted. This is a 3D sketch and is a spline joining the top point of each frame. This is a view from the front. Note that the centre profile is on the origin- this will then be extruded about 1mm to replicate the 3" thickness of the spine of the boat. The side profile: Attempt to loft the 3D sketches that are the gunwhale and where the bottom of frames join the spine of the boat Attempt to loft together the 2D sketches that are the frames (only 3 frames selected, but I get the same error with selecting all the frames. Each frame is selected as an "open loop"). And here is the solidworks file (created using SW2013) http://www.filedropper.com/lifeboat3 I suspect that the "open loop" things is creating the problems that I'm having.... if you could share the benefit of your experience, that would be appreciated!

Just discovered this forum and particularly this discussion. I'm currently planning a model of The Titanic at 1/87, and I want to get the hull right. I'm planning it in solidworks, with a view to having the frames laser cut and the bow and stern sections CNC milled. I'll then stick it all together and use high speed tape to emulate the hull plating. Not sure how I'm going to do the rivets yet... I'll figure that one out later! I'm having a bit of trouble getting the loft for the hull to work. I have tried all of these techniques, and still can't get a sensible loft: - 2D sketch on planes that are at each frame - loft between the 28 or so frames. - 3D sketch of the main rail, 2D sketch of the hull contours at 6", 3', 6', 9', 12', 18', 24' and 30' I'm also experimenting with creating a boundary surface and then freeforming to meet the shapes described in the half breadth diagram (as described https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I00QBv9khMA&list=HL1386170537) I think my sketches must be dodgy, because I just can't get anything to work. What do I need to look out for when sketching for a loft like this?