23ft Launch (1785) by Arthur Goulart

[Arthur Goulart]

So, I wanted a not too complicated to learn both 3D modelling and ship construction. I decided to go with a ship's boat, because you can't get much simpler than that for a first scratch project, and because the result might come in handy in the future for ships that, well, will be fitted with boats. Imagine the designer behind the plans had access to a CAD program, that is what I'm aiming to achieve. Thus, I'm looking at understanding how ship's lines were formed, so I can reconstruct this little launch from principle, not from merely tracing all the plan's lines. With that, I hope to get a more accurate model to the original designer's vision, by mitigating the limitations of the hand drawings and measurements of the time, of the 200+ years of wear the plans have been through, and of the distortion the scanning process might've added on top of it all.

 

On this topic, I'll be registering my progress, in a step by step manner. I insist that you guys point out where I've got something wrong, even if you're not sure of it yourself, we might learn something by looking into it! I'm expecting to make plenty mistakes, and the purpose to pick something simple is that I can start it all over again without pulling too many of my hairs off.

 

So far, my main reference has been The Elements and Practices of Naval Architecture, from '§ 2. OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHEER DRAUGHT OF THE EIGHTY GUN SHIP, FROM THE GIVEN DIMENSIONS' (p. 242) and onwards. Steel's book is aimed mostly at full on ships, but many instructions are aplicable to our purposes, many require a fair deal of interpretation - he is not the most clear and didactic, which is not helped by my still limited knowledge of ship building vocabulary, and by english not being my first language.

 

Why this 23ft launch was picked, specifically? I tried a couple different boats out, I made some sense of this one the faster. The stem's radii and those of the midship frame are really important dimensions that I struggled with on other plans, but that I fairly confidently figured out for this launch.

 

My take is that ship's boats were neglected subjects in their time, at least from a more technical stand point, and that today they likewise get less attention when compared to the more complex and exciting subjects, hopefully this will be a more thorough and complete reconstruction.

 

The next post, I'll take you back to the beggining of the model's construction, but, for now, I'll leave you with how the model is looking present-day:

 

- Arthur

Edited 16 hours ago by Arthur Goulart

[Waldemar]

 

A very good and reasonable approach, so as not to say that the only truly satisfactory.

 

[Loracs]

On this topic, any good reference on modeling ship with CAD software.  I'm an utterly beginner planning to try using FreeCAD/blender, both of which I never really used.  They are freeware and quite comprehensive though.

[Arthur Goulart]

On 11/19/2024 at 5:15 PM, Loracs said:

On this topic, any good reference on modeling ship with CAD software.  I'm an utterly beginner planning to try using FreeCAD/blender, both of which I never really used.  They are freeware and quite comprehensive though.

Loracs, I'm using Rhinoceros, I found it to be rather intuitive, messing around with it a little and some quick google searchs have gone a long way for me. I have not tried something different, so I can't compare. Rhino seems to be what most folks use here too. And, part of the reason I started this topic is that I haven't found one that adresses my questions regarding redrawing plans, so I hope to crowd source some knowledge through here.

[3DShipWright]

@Arthur Goulart No - most people here use Blender, especially as of late.

 

@Loracs To each his own, but personally, I'd recommend Blender... Rhino may be easier to learn, but it doesn't come close to Blender in terms of features/functionality. I say that honestly and with no ego; it's simply a fact. Blenders' actual competitors are pro studio software like Maya or 3DS Max, but Blender is free. And as a newbie, don't you ultimately want a software you can grow into? Again, to each their own.

 

Best of luck whatever you decide,

-Nate

 

[3DShipWright]

@Arthur Goulart - BTW, I didn't mean to seem negative on Rhino.... still a good software, and I'm excited to follow your build.

[Loracs]

Thanks a lot all... now I need a good set of tutorials for blender, maybe one focusing on model ship modeling...  but that may be a lot to ask.  The learning curve seen very step though.

Edited 7 hours ago by Loracs