School for Shipmodel Building School for model ship building

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

and now the mini lecture on model building

When you look closer you might notice a difference in the model as built and the drawings. Here is the drawing by Chapelle



The red area is quite narrow with a slight flaring as it approaches the stern



The model as built is wider and a slightly more flare toward the stern so why is that?

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

" Both models and ships are "shaped and refined during the building process." Thus, it always was and always will be. When it comes to plans, "accuracy" is a relative term. At the end of the day, it's always the craftsmanship that determines if the parts fit well enough. There used to be a saying: "A good framing carpenter works to the nearest eighth of an inch and a good finish carpenter works to the closest sixteenth of an inch, but a good a shipwright works to the closest ship."

Any professional craftsman who uses drawn plans for any purpose lives by the universal rule that "Measurements are never taken from the drawing, but rather always from the notations." In fact, many draftsmen printed a standard caveat on all their drawings saying just that. This is a rule that is widely ignored by modelers who commonly do the exact opposite

For some, the most important thing is the carpentry skills and their result, while for others it is the concept the carpenters tried to follow, with varying degrees of success in practice. Personally, I see no reason to oppose one to the other, because there is no conflict or contradiction here.

I believe that there is no such thing as true precision or false precision Rather, precision either exists or it does not, and to a varying degree.

In a nut shell what is being said plans are the concept and starting point. At some point a builder stops taking measurements from the plans and builds to the model. It is well known "the hand of man" or the "creeping thousandth" prevents a perfect model built to exactly the plans. Not saying sloppy building is acceptable what is acceptable is the model not being built to the thousandth of an inch as drawn on a set of plans.
As case in point the reason the last planked section at the side is wider than drawn started with the stern construction. It started out in the correct place but as the stern was built it creeped upward when compared to the drawing. keep in mind you are looking very close the differences are in the thousandth but they do add up thus the term creeping thousandth



the stern is built on the structure and that is where it all started, placing the transom pieces slightly different from the drawing. This resulted in the deck ever so slightly higher at the stern.



does it matter is an opinion if you building for strict competition and the judge has a set of calipers and he is measuring from plan to model you may lose a point or two because the model is not exactly built to the plans. But if your building for your own personal satisfaction and it looks good and it is close enough your good to go. The general public viewing the finished model and never seeing the original drawings would have no idea what is right or wrong or close enough.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

A top view shows a space between the frames and at the stern this is where the rail stanchions will go. These rail stanchions are separate from the frame top timbers because that can be replaces if broken. If they were the top timbers od a frame planking would have to be removed and the top of the frame repaired. The stanchions and railing are a delicate part of the model and will be the last thing added.
So next will be moving on to deck planking