I got to a point with the Grazyna when I started to have issues with the hull. I worked through early problems well enough. The original hull was built with bulkheads and stringers cut from 1/8″ basswood followed by packing the spaces between with balso which was sanded to shape later, a deck from more 1/8″ basswood .. and bondo .. and primer. This was fine originally as if the port and starboard were off a bit it didn’t matter since this was a static model and would only be viewed from one side on the layout.
Problems began when I decided to put in an engine compartment complete with a skylight. I had to route out an opening which was a major pain. When I decided to add a raised quarterdeck I found that getting a good plan of that now obviously “not quite” and example of bilateral symmetry .. the port and starboard were .. close .. but only that.
The other day I was looking at the planked decking and realized that I had made a mistake. The planking on a boat does not extend to the gunwale but instead there is a margin plank / border board / perimeter board installed around the edge of the dec where the planks meet at an angle. Running parallel to the gunwale and acts as a boundary for the deck planking to prevent the need to taper the deck planking to a fine point at the bow and stern allowing them to butt against it instead.
Thinking about this it occured to me that if I could 3d print the hull I would have the ability to create a hull mirrored exactly. I could plank the deck complete with the margin plank. I could print this using my resin printer in PLA .. and then .. print the plating complete with rivets in resin and cement that to the PLA. At the top I could add whatever is necessary to make realistic bulwarks. There more things that I could do so .. I stopped what I was doing and started work on a model I could print.
So I went back to the plans of the Grazyna as a starting point. This is a waterline model so the bulkheads stop at W4. I brought the plans into Sketchup where I could trace the bulkheads .. 0 through 10 and align them down the length of the keel. From there .. I played “connect the dots” manually connecting with smooth arcs.
I am only really concerned with getting a fairly smooth hull as this will be covered by riveted plating and decking. Like I mentioned above I think I can create the plating complete with rivets and print that with my resin printer. The decking will be laserboard cut on my laser.
The image to the left shows the hidden lines, the actual structure of the model. I have a bit of the deck curve shown .. the deck Camber. From Wikipedia .. “The camber is a measure of lateral main deck curvature in naval architecture. The curve is applied to a deck transversely, measured as the height of deck at centreline above the height of deck at side.” This allows water to run off and is approximately 1/50 of the beam/transverse of the ship at that point.
Here I am converting the arc to a series of straight lines so I can join each section easier.
Finished with half the hull. The 650 mm length is to fit in the area of my dock on my layout. This is actually close to the length of the real Grazyna at 30.7m/100.7 ft in length .. in 1:48 that’s 25.175″ / 639.4 mm. Next I will need to divide the CAD up into probably 4 pieces so I can print them.
When it came down to it woods wood. And plywood is being bonded to vaneer in every state. EVERY shop has all the species and length you need. And by the bound probably in the bin.
It lasers like buttah and is a good shake shingle too.
I did an etch on the laserboard I have. It’s 0.015″ thick and is I believe, a paper product in a resin. In any case it took stain well enough and glued also well enough.