Hey guys, Thought I'd share some more plans sources I stumbled upon while searching the bowels of the internet for ship info: https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/ This website has thousands of records scanned including the records of the Japanese Naval Ministry. The caveat is that they were not scanned with ship modelling in mind. So original drawings are jumbled in with mountains of other paperwork. Its like looking for a needle in a haystack. This link is to a Russian forum: http://tsushima.su/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2220&p=1 If you google translate it you will find the reference number that will lead you to some of the drawings they have found in the archive. Some of them have stitched the drawings back together and cleaned them up as well. But be warned that the Russian image hosting sites they use will likely try to spam your computer... so make sure your anti-virus is decent. The link is I posted is in the Pre-dreadnought section but they have a section for Dreadnoughts and Super Dreadnoughts as well. They are finding all kinds of stuff, I even saw that somebody found some drawings for HMS Erin. This site is a little less tedious but not much: http://gazo.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/hiraga2/login;jsessionid=6C1F7C48F0CB24F8BEFC148B7AD62FCE There are lots of plans on this site, most of the good stuff is in the 3000 un-categorized files that you will find in the advanced search. The original lines plan for the Mikasa is there, along with some info on the early armored cruisers. They have plans for most of the WW1 Dreadnoughts as well. Hope this helps some guys out. The more eyes searching the better. I've been at it for a few evenings hoping to find plans for the cruiser Matsushima... I found the cover sheet for her original builder's plans... but not the plans
Some teasers if you choose to jump in and start searching.... if anybody on the forum can read Japanese or Russian you are all set. Mikasa body plan:
Thanks for posting this! I'm always looking for original IJN builders plans, and I can tell you it's hard to find any with hull lines and stations...
Great find, thanks for posting. Images uploaded here get autoresized. If you're attaching large plans that you don't want resized i would recommend zipping them
Attention Submarine Fans: The body plans for all (or nearly all) WW1 U-boats can be found at this link: http://gazo.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/hiraga2/show?id=40340101
Continued digging is paying off. I found a tracing of the body plan for the Katori-class pre-dreadnoughts.... basically an enlarged "super" King Edward VII
I'm having the opposite problem with two Pre-Dreadnought cruisers. I found body plans and not much else. 1st is the body plan for the Suma Class Protected Cruisers... not super exciting but a neat old ship if you were doing 1/72 scale. The second is much more interesting. Its for the HIJMS Takasago, and it is the only actual plan I've ever found for one of the small, over-gunned "Elswick Cruisers" that were popular in the 1880's and 90's.
I honestly have no idea... the archive is so massive its impossible for one person to "find everything". Its not difficult to get sucked in and search for hours.... In addition.... I found another giant archive of plans that I will be posting shortly.
The Hiraga Archive (3rd link in OP) has plans for some of the ships built in the interwar period and I believe has information on the modernization of the WW1 Dreadnoughts
The was some talk of this on the Tsushima forum.... but I am not very computer savvy and most of those guys use programs that are not typically seen in the US. The Jacar Archive is so massive, and filled with so many documents that have no use for modelling... it is a needle in a haystack no matter what.
