Hi new to this seen plans for sale and free but which is the best for accuracy ? Some old plans that are for display ( yellowish paper ) are very cool . So who has the best plans ?
it is hard to say who has the best plans because it depends on the builder. there are original plans from various maritime museums but they are not usable as modeling plans. you would have to be able to fill in a lot of missing data and redraw the plans for modeling use.
going through this forum, you will find plans and monographs of various ships Uwek posted several reviews of them. These are more toward advanced scratch builders. You can find Harold Hahn plans for sale on the Navy board model site a link is to the right of the forum. These are plank on frame and the collection covers ships from small schooners to a first rate ships. There is also the Harold Underhiull collection of modeling plans.
There are 10s of thousands of plans out there you need to narrow down what type of ship your interested in, the year and how you plan on modeling the ship.
I can only echo what Dave said. Basically start to ask yourself what type of ship model you would like to build: POB (plank on bulkheads) or POF (plank on frames). The POB builds plans can be easily purchased from major kit manufacturers like Corel, Mamomoly, Amati, Constructo and many others just to name few. Those are not true plans, instead, this is the drafts to help build the kit. Oftentimes the scale is 1:1 and you can easily trace the parts to your own material and cut out with your tools. You would follow the steps outlined in their instruction\plans.
Another way, I should say more advanced is POF. This is where modeler uses plans drafted to experience modeler where you have to cut individual parts to build individual frames (the way the real shipwrights build the actual ship). It is required a great knowledge to read and understand drafts. Some of them coming as monographs and contain all the documentation: including history, photos and set of plans, everything you will need to build a great model.
A few well know companies made such plans. One of them is ANCRE publications. @Uwek has to spend enormous time (Many, many thanks Uwe!!!!!! ) to review most (if not all of their available books), you can check Uwe's work below:
In order to find faster interesting books you will find here a sticky Thread in which new Reviews published in SOS will be listed. So this listing should be relatively actual and complete. If you are interested in a book please click on the the title of the book and you will get automatically...
actual OVERVIEW - Plan Set / Monographies Reviews Remark: to go to the Review please click on the title of the Planset LE FLEURON - 64-gun Ship by Joseph & Blaise OLLIVIER by Delacroix, Gerard SAINT PHILIPPE (1693 - 1715) - 90 gun built by Francois Coulomb at Toulon by Lemineur, Jean...
Free plans of various vessels are available from the Library of Congress as well. A good example is the set of plans of the schooner Ernestina (Effie M. Morrisey) with 21 drawings. There are many photos of her as well which show details that would be an aid to the model builder. An example of one of the drawings can be found at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma1719.sheet.00004a/
Allan