Rattlesnake 1782 by Gregory - Scale 1:48 - Plans Developed From Line Drawings by Howard Chapelle

[Gregory]

Hi!  It's me again.

I stalled some months ago with my build using the plans from Model Shipways.  I don't want to go into any details about why those plans did not work for me, but I hope to show how I have adapted the lines drawn by Howard Chapelle to start a new build.

 

First, a little history of why I chose this subject.

 

The Mamoli kit of Rattlesnake was my first wood ship kit over 30 years ago.

Here, it is not quite finished.  I gifted it to a relative, and the story of how I caught up with it later will be left for another time.

I have always wanted to do the Rattlesnake again. Now with the idea of seeing what 30 years of  experience, education, and inspiration, particularly from MSW might bring, I am launching this project.

 

All plans for models of Rattlesnake that I am aware of; Mamoli, Hahn and Model Shipways, are derived from the drawings  from the NMM.

The NMM lines are available at WIKI Commons.  I purchased the drawings from the NMM several years ago, and the ones at WIKI Commons are actually much better to work from than what I received from the NMM.

There are 2 additional drawings at the link above that show some deck details.

 

The MS plans were originally drawn by George F. Campbell  for the solid hull version of the MS kit and further refined by Ben Lankford for the POB model .

Chapelle's drawings originally appeared in 1935 in "The History of American Sailing Ships" and later in " The Search for Speed Under Sail " 1967. 

They are also available from The Smithsonian, and include rigging plans that Chapelle would have inferred, based on his expertise.  The NMM drawings do include mast and spar dimensions.

 

Of interest (to me, anyway) is an isometric drawing by  George C. Wales included with the Chapelle  drawings in  "The History of American Sailing Ships".

Amazing drafting skills in light of no computers and no CAD.  I like the idea of the ladders going up to the gangway.  I will consider modeling them if I ever get to that point.

 These are the lines by Chapelle from "The History of American Sailing Ships" on which I am now basing my work. ( coloring is mine )

 

We have  to keep in mind that the NMM drawings were " taken off the ship " and were not construction drawings, so the NMM drawings lack other details that can only be left to speculation, so I think the modeler should feel free to satisfy their own vision based on what is available.  Chapelle, Campbell and Hahn have provided additional details based on their expertise, and I think the modeler can feel comfortable drawing upon their ideas.

Of note, is the drawing of  the quarterdeck bulkhead.

This drawing is by George Campbell and included in the MS plans.

Chapelle did not include it, although it is partly drawn in the Wales isometric.  The Hahn plans and the Mamoli drawings show the bulkhead pretty much as Campbell drew it.

The two sets of doors are indicated on the NMM lines, but with no other detail.

 The windows in the center panels, and not in the doors, do not seem logical to me.  I plan to model the doors with windows.

I have copies of all of the mentioned plans, and for the most part, they match up fairly well . 

 

The NMM, Chapelle and Campbell lines show 12 stations, but for whatever reason, the MS POB plans call for 13.   In the long run, you would think 13 is better than 12 when building POB, but there is some slight deviation between some of the MS bulkhead shapes and the NMM profiles.   I assume this comes from the use of 13 stations and the change in shape along the profile. 

 

Before I document my actual building process, I want to share some of my work flow, the development of which, is what I have been doing for the past few months instead of building.

I ventured a bit into 3D modeling with Autodesk Fusion ( formerly known as Fusion360 ).   It turned out to be more of a learning curve than I want to invest in at this time, so I reverted to my 2D efforts, which is what I will be sharing here.

This shows the difference in station lines from the various drawings.  On the left,  the Chapelle lines are in black with Campbell ( from the MS plans ) in red.  On the right are the Chapelle lines overlayed on the NMM lines.

The Chapelle lines are obviously very close, to the extent that much of the  most of the NMM lines are obscured by the Chapelle lines.   Station 12 is the most notable but slight difference except for the waterlines (?) which who knows why he chose to go off base there.  Campbell  followed Chapelle in that regard. The NMM lines do not include the railings.

 

Getting back to the overlay on the left. There are small but obvious differences between Chapelle and Campbell, but I think using either set would produce models with little apparent difference.  I'm giving the nod to Chapelle since his lines are closer to the NMM lines.

The shaded in bulkheads are scanned and scaled copies of the MS drawings.   Unless I overlooked it, the MS plans do not include any station lines that actually match the shape of the bulkheads as provided, but they are close enough to the Campbell drawings, and as I think the MS kit builders will attest,  the bulkheads and backbone as provided, go together  to provide a nice representation of the ship as drawn.

The MS backbone and bulkheads, which I copied and scaled up to 1:48, just didn't work for me in my scratch endeavors, and I should have made new parts based on one of the three sets of drawings, rather than copying the MS Parts, which is what I am pursuing now.

 

I have been pursuing this for a few weeks now and actually have some sawdust and smoke ( from the laser ) to show for it, but I have a little more story to tell.  For now, I'm running up against the clock and will post some more tomorrow.

 

 

 

[Dr PR]

Gregory,

 

I saw George Wales' drawing of the Rattlesnake in "American Sailing Ships" about 55 years ago and thought it was a beautiful ship (I really like vessels with tumblehome). I started redrawing Chapelle's plans by hand, scaling them to 1:48, with the intention of making a scratch build model. However the little fuss in Vietnam brought that effort to a halt.

 

About 25 years ago I saw the Mamoli kit in a local hobby shop and bought it on the spot. However my job, marriage and a couple of houses to keep up put the kit on the shelf, where it has been ever since. But someday I intend to bring it out and start building it.

 

Hence my interest in your project. I will be following it closely, taking notes for when I start work on the Rattlesnake.

Edited 8 hours ago by Dr PR

[Thunder]

As always going to love following this build. I as well have a Rattlesnake kit on a shelf waiting to be built. An unusual kit and boxed as Revell, not sure if originates from them as have not seen any other than plastic. I have some early MS plans and looks to be the exact same scale.