HMS Pandora - 24 Gun Frigate in 3D| Blender

[Maddog Shipyards]

Hello everyone!

 

I am back with a new project, the HMS Pandora, in which I hope to make significantly more progress on due to the readily available plans. As this model will be intended for use in a real-time application, I will be attempting to strike a balance between polycount and fidelity. To start, I began with scanning the plans from the AOTS book. This was a challenge in itself as I did not de-bind the pages as I don't wish to destroy the book. As a result there is some distortion in the plans requiring touch ups in photoshop, and of course stitching the scans together and straightening them out. I highly recommend anyone attempting this method to take their time in this step as small errors magnify greatly as you go forth. Would be a lot easier if you could get PDFs from the author 😜

 

I drew the lines as NURBs paths, then used the method demonstrated by @3DShipWright to "plank" the frames out. This is my second attempt at the hull, and I found this method gives significantly better results. A few tips for those attempting the same method:

1. Make sure your 6x6 "plank" origin, generally the midpoint of the bottom edge, is the same as your body line, which should be sitting on the rabbet.
2. I had to twist all the paths by 90 degrees to get the correct orientation, and I used the "Switch Direction" command to make sure it went the right way.
3. In order to use the top two vertices to stretch to your wales/rails, make sure you enable "Display Modifier in Edit Mode"

I am very happy with the result! It was very time consuming to individually stretch each frame to the next line, but this way a lot of the future topology issues should be resolved and the hull will look much more cohesive.

Next I will fill in the geometry outside of the station lines, and attempt to get the transom correct, which I find is the hardest part of these ship models!!

As I am a rookie to ship modelling and learning many of the specific construction details, I've ran into some challenges. One thing that threw me off at the beginning was that the body plan is drawn with a flat keel, while the ship has a raked keel. Therefore the waterlines on the body plan are actually CURVED, and I had to start all over to make sure I offset the frames from the rabbet after drawing them on the plan. Also the frames towards midships are so close together that they are almost impossible to distinguish, and require some manual "fairing" after the fact to get right.

Another thing I am struggling with is how to accurately shape the keel with all of the tapers. I've simplified it to a constant width so as to not waste time with it in frustration but for whatever reason my mind cannot accurately visualize how to shape the bits especially towards the stem. I may try it at some point with some knife projections.

[3DShipWright]

3 hours ago, Maddog Shipyards said:

• Make sure your 6x6 "plank" origin, generally the midpoint of the bottom edge, is the same as your body line, which should be sitting on the rabbet.
• I had to twist all the paths by 90 degrees to get the correct orientation, and I used the "Switch Direction" command to make sure it went the right way.
• In order to use the top two vertices to stretch to your wales/rails, make sure you enable "Display Modifier in Edit Mode"

Excellent start... and yes, I extensively used all three fixes you listed above, I just didn't list them because the tutorial I made was already hard enough to follow, and I assumed anyone that could follow it would also be able to figure out the 'change direction' hack on the curve segments and how to enable the modifier views correctly in edit mode. On a side note, its truly irritating that Blender can't figure out that a series of curves that all start from z=0 on the world plane should be pointing the same direction, but oh well...

 

I too own the AOS Pandora book, and in that book, note the complexity of the outer planking. in fact for my Confederacy build, I mimicked Pandora's hook-and-butt joints along the main wale, as well as how certain planks widen. to meet the gun ports in key spots.

 

Anyway, great job - excited to follow your progress.

-Nate

[Jaager]

If you want better and more accurate plans go to the source:  https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-87627

Unfortunately  ZAZ7836 has not ever been processed as a print as far as I can determine.

The class is Porcupine 1777. 

ZAZ5885  - a sister -is available as a print

ZAZ3681 - a sister -is available as a print

There are small JPEG of the decks and the framing for the class.

 

Unfortunately for your bank account, I can find none on the WIKI site

that grabbed large scale files of a bunch of ships:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich

 

[Martes]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'Pelican'_(1777)_RMG_J7944.png

[Maddog Shipyards]

Thank you for the additional resources! I'll see if I can incorporate them to check my current lines.

 

Straight frames are getting closer to completion, still have to finish the gun ports and the bitts and stanchions. Cutting out all of the futtocks was EXTREMELY tedious, and they won't even be visible in the model normally. Just wanted to give it a try. Due to limitations with the solidify modifiers I had to pick a "mean" thickness to the frames, but it would be significantly more work if I was to bevel them by hand.

Deck profiles for main and quarterdeck complete, working on the rails as well

As you can see i've been putting off doing the cant frames and transom, but I'll have to clench my teeth and tackle it soon!

 

[3DShipWright]

For the cant frames (or all frames for that matter), use a single solidified hull (modifier already applied), then use other objects as 'frame' cards and the boolean modifier (set to intersect) to get perfectly cut frames like so:

 

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by 3DShipWright

[3DShipWright]

Keep in mind the boolean does leave behind a messy topology, but you can quickly clean it up by selecting all horizontal edges by selecting a couple from each part, using the select similar -> direction to get all 'intentional' horizontal edges, then press numpad 1 to select the vertices that comprise those edges, then ctrl + I to select any messy verts left over from the boolean, then finally delete -> dissolve vertices

 

Hope that helps,

-Nate

[Martes]

Also, boolean can come in conflict with mirror, especially if both objects have mirror before boolean is applied, and generate mirrored geometry inside the mesh.

[3DShipWright]

4 hours ago, Martes said:

Also, boolean can come in conflict with mirror, especially if both objects have mirror before boolean is applied, and generate mirrored geometry inside the mesh.

Good point! Along time ago I simply got in the habit of ensuring any and all mirror modifiers I use go to the very bottom of the stack... that way, you can mitigate potential issues.

[Maddog Shipyards]

Tackled the cant frames and started work on the stern. The stern framing is definitely more challenging than the rest of the frames, as there is a lot of small details that the plans don't show too well. 

One issue i'm having is with the transom frames. I've modeled them exactly off the plans and they fit well in the arrangement however they seem completely out of place when compared with the planking/hull shape surface. I know I will have to do a bevel cut on them to shape them to the planks but even so they seem to stick out quite far. The lines for station 25 are correct per the plan so I don't know what's going on here, will take more investigation!

More to come shortly

[3DShipWright]

Good news is this is an easy issue to solve... Your problem is that your frames are way too thin. Even when using a uniform thickness due to the solidify modifier, the thickness of the frames should be, I'd guess, no less than 8-10 inches. Start with that and go from there.

 

Best,

-Nate

[Martes]

The AOTS book contains the frame thickness in cross-section views (p. 62 and forward)