ISO Plans

[BluestreekCustoms]

My father and I are looking for places to be able to buy Ship building plans so we can scratch build ships, Where are some places that we can buy plans, we live in Canada. Thanks

 

[shipahoy]

Try Cornwall model boats in England its where i order all my plans from. I believe most, if not all the plans they sell have a bulkhead and keel layout that can be copied and glued to plywood.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

there are a number of sources

https://taubmansonline.com/

Ship Plans

Free Downloadable High-Resolution Ship Plans Starting Point for Scratch-Built Ship Model Building All the the plans offered on The Model Shipwright and The Model Shipwright blog are available …

www.themodelshipwright.com

Free Plans Collection - Ship Models

Free Plans for building Ship Models of Any Kind. Thousands of Plans and Drawings Free for Download and Organized by Ship Types. Ship Models Photo Collection.

www.shipmodell.com

Download free model ship plans and drawings.

harold hahn plans from the lumberyard for model shipwrights

many museums

model Expo

actually we should gather as many source as we can and make a sticky post. This has come up a nubmer of times

 

[AllanKP69]

My father and I are looking for places to be able to buy Ship building plans so we can scratch build ships,

Some questions that may get you good direction from the members

Do you know what size/scale model you want to build?
What type vessel?
What era?
What nation?

For scratch build you can go with:
Monographs
Detailed books that include "how to" as well as the plans that go with the books.
Contemporary plans from sources such as Royal Museum Greenwich (RMG). They have thousands on-line in low resolution. They can be purchased in high resolution but are not cheap https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections
Wiki Commons has about 3000 plans from RMG, 800 of which are in high resolution and can be downloaded at no cost https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich
Original contracts at RMG and the National Archives in Kew, England/ These give the dimensions for all parts of the ship.
Scantlings from the Establishments 1719-1750, Shipbuilder's Repository 1788 and David Steel 1805 These give dimensions of all parts of RN ships from first rates to 6th rates

If you are looking for other types of vessels such as schooners, you can find sources with a few minutes search on line. There are plans at the US Library of Congress on line that include the fishing schooner Ernestina for example
Mystic Seaport has many plans of commercial vessels for sale.

There are more but these are commonly used by a number of scratchers.

Allan

 

[OlivierF]

Another source are the books and monographs from Gérard Delacroix and other authors available on www.ancre.fr

Ancre

Boutique propulsée par PrestaShop

ancre.fr

 

[Joone1]

Personally, I have a lot of monographs purchased from ANCRE M. Berti.
Very good books and good plans, excellent for making arsenal models.

 

[mick]

My father and I are looking for places to be able to buy Ship building plans so we can scratch build ships, Where are some places that we can buy plans, we live in Canada. Thanks

From what I can gather pans for a lot of old ships are available from the Royal Greenwich Observationary UK but unsure of the price.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

one thing to keep in mind original ship building plans do not always give much construction detail. for the most part they give you the shape of the hull and the deck layout.
Modeling plans are usually based on the original ship plan but will include frame or bulkhead drawings and more construction details.

 

[Roger Pellett]

Your question requires tighter definition. Ship model build is a very diverse activity. Current interest and opinion seems to be that the highest form of the art is a model of a wooden warship from the “Nelsonian” age of sail with lots of rigging and rows of cannon. While I too admire these models if they are well built, this ignores most of the watercraft that could be modeled.

Some idea, dates are a matter of opinion:

WARSHIPS-
Ancient ships (up to 1500)
Pre Nelson (1500-1750)
Nelson (1750-1815)
Post Nelson (1815-1860)
Iron-Steel Navy (1860-1914)
Modern Navy (1914- today)

MERCHANT VESSELS-
Pre Clipper- (??- 1850)
Clipper-(1850-1875)
End of sail wooden (1875-1920)
End of sail iron and steel 1875-1940)
Classic steamship (1860-1930)
Modern powered vessels (1920- today)

INLAND AND HARBOR CRAFT
Tugs
River Boats
Great Lakes Vessels
Fishing vessels

YACHTS
Large sailing yachts
Large powered yachts
Small sailing and/or powered yachts.

This list is my no means definitive. Others will find many that I have missed. Ship modeling ultimately involves reconstructing details. For this reason I personally do not like plans aimed at model makers. Original builders drawings allow the model builders to research unknown areas and to make their own decisions how to model them.

Roger

 

[Uwek]

Take a look at these planset reviews we have here in our forum

Search results

 

[AllanKP69]

Royal Greenwich Observationary UK but unsure of the price.

Mick,
They are not cheap, something like £80 per page. They are at the Royal Museum Greenwich website (https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections) in low resolution for free though. They do have a few contracts for free download as well that are very useful plus many more for which there is a charge.

Wiki Commons site has over 3000 of these RMG drawings and about 800 are high resolution and are free. I downloaded all the high resolution drawings in case they disappear from the internet and categorized them by number of guns for the ships, boats by type, masts and spars, etc.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich
Allan

 

[paul ron]

how about re using plans from compleated kits n projects... a sharing list of plans available? maybe start a thread where anyone can put plans for recycling?

 

[Roger Pellett]

Kit plans can vary widely in quality. Some are best forgotten. If you have the skill, equipment and determination to scratch built a ship model, start with historically accurate plans.

Roger

 

[OlivierF]

how about re using plans from compleated kits n projects... a sharing list of plans available? maybe start a thread where anyone can put plans for recycling?

I’m not a lawyer but there may be some copyright issues with that idea. Something about not reproducing the plans without the author’s permission…

 

[Uwek]

I’m not a lawyer but there may be some copyright issues with that idea. Something about not reproducing the plans without the author’s permission…

I think @paul ron was talking not about reproducing of drawings.....
There is no copyright issues, when used drawings and plans (in paper) are given further to somebody else (costfree or also paid).
The author of the drawings was paid already with the first deal, f.e. with buying the kit....
It is the same f.e. when I sell a monograph out of my library ......

 

[paul ron]

yes, not reproductions. once upon a time modelshipways and a couple others sold plans which were from their kits. ive got several that were good enough to scratch build from. the historical accuracy can be up to the builder to modify the plans as needed but at least you have a scaled starting point.

how many people in here still have plans left over from previous projects just stashed away turning yellow in a closet? why not recycle them?

 

[mick]

Mick,
They are not cheap, something like £80 per page. They are at the Royal Museum Greenwich website (https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections) in low resolution for free though. They do have a few contracts for free download as well that are very useful plus many more for which there is a charge.

Wiki Commons site has over 3000 of these RMG drawings and about 800 are high resolution and are free. I downloaded all the high resolution drawings in case they disappear from the internet and categorized them by number of guns for the ships, boats by type, masts and spars, etc.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich
Allan

Sorry I think I had brain fog, I did mean to say Royal museum at Greenwich but got a little mixed up.