Shipybuilding Blender Model

[edbardet]

After drafting / building several models I drifted away from physical building, I started an earlier post (since removed) about using Blender for a Whitehall skiff. I have to admit I was not as enthusiastic as I was several years ago. The duration of the project was the problem. I spent a several years on the last one - the Whaling Ship Morgan.

So - going to start on something where portions of the project can be 'completed'.

How many of you have read or have copies of "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dodds and Moore? (1984).

Much on Tools, Techniques and Methods. Focused on a 74, built at Woolwitch.

It's the first reference book I've actually 'read' and enjoyed.

Anyway I am going to continue with my learning of Blender and then start on the tools and equipment. Not sure how it will progress. (Static, Textured, Animated, incorporated in Shipyard setting)

I'm of course looking up things on the 'net, but if any of you know of other books of this vein, please let me know.

Ed

[Jaager]

Not much response, so far,  so I will stand on a soap box, and speechify at bit:

 

For Blender,  first you discover what the program can do.  Then you dig until you find out how to do it - which tools to use.  Then you practice until you can do it.  I think this works better by doing the reverse of the education model ( i.e. learning all of the tools before begin a project.)  The education model also has you learning functions that you will never need or use.   Learning each tool as the specific task that needs doing comes at you, has more immediate feedback.  By being out of school, passing the tests and the course, is no longer a motivating force.  The motivation comes down to getting satisfaction from learning and doing, what needs to be done.  It comes down to picking the needed tutorials up from wherever they are found, rather than a coherent and well written book.  3D computer graphics programs are messy to learn.

 

If you mean shipbuilding -  this pretty much requires focusing of a specific ship or specific and narrow slice of time.   There are monographs for individual vessels.  There are reprints of books on shipbuilding that are of their time and place.  They were written for a contemporary audience, to make money.  They did not need to say that the work did not apply all that much to their grandfather's or even their father's ships. The purpose was progress and or advocacy of an individual bias, not history. The amount of information lost with the death of those who did it, because they either did not care to, or lacked the skills to,  document it, is agonizing. 

 

The number of "books" that were even written and level of detail they contain builds over time from zero to covering only the major points.  https://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/index_03treatises.htm

There are journal articles with shipbuilding information. 

There are the concentrated and rewritten explanations of what the original books described. Most only cover a limited slice of time (Dodds and Moore). 

To cover 1500 to 1860 in a single volume, the result would be very superficial, or if at real depth, require a forklift to move and a lifetime to write.   

If you wish to build a comprehensive library covering the subject broadly, it will be expensive and large. The difficulty in obtaining out of print volumes that were published recently will prove frustrating.  On the plus side, more and more of the originals are becoming available in electron form, because they are free of copyright limits. 

The nature of this story is one of evolving tech,  with many dead ends along the way.  The mistakes could be and often were seriously consequential.  This journey offers the chance for a glimpse of the challenges and methods of those for whom this was life or death. 

 

A more focused request may produce more helpful information.

[edbardet]

   Jagger

Thanks for the feedback. I want to concentrate on the boatyard and the tools - not a specific vessel, nor a specific yard. I am using the book as a starting point, so the time frame will be relatively limited to the 18th century and 19th century, centering on 1800I have obtained many digital tomes and have used them in the past. I was luck to find Dodds and Moore on line.Your statement about learning a tool, is spot on. The 'immediate feedback' is a key element.

Ed