Hello, I would like to build the USS Alabama, and to do so need to find a set of South-Dakota Class plans. I would preferably not pay sixteen dollars for a piece of paper and numbers, so free would be nice, but a link to any plans is welcome.
You'll be spending a lot more than 16$ by the time you're done. But... http://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.htm has the Booklet of General Plans (attached below so you don't even have to go look)
Oh I know, and that's why I was I was asking for free ones to save that money for actually building it. But thanks. I looked at these. Do they tell me how many ribs there are? I couldn't tell.
16$ is really quite cheap if the plans are already scaled to 1/144. You aren't going to be saving what you think you are.
It provides the hullform. I do not know how many ribs you could easily glean from it, you'll have to go count for yourself.
Those plans are for the first run of South Dakota class battleships, which Alabama wasn't a part of. If you want to build an Alabama, you will need plans for the second South Dakota class, Hull #s 57- 60, Alabama being hull #60. I'm not sure if there is a set online anywhere that includes the hull forms or not, I can try to remember to check when I get home.
Plans of Warships in 1/144_LARGE scale has Alabama plans in 1/144. or buy paper plans Paper plans of Warships in 1/144 scale For a first ship I would highly recommend buying the hull or a wood hull kit rather than going full scratch. it will save you both money and time unless you don't mess anything up that requires a restart. Said restart is generally likely unless you have prior experience or physical access to those that do
The plans I saw looked a lot like the USS Alabama (I've seen it in person and have a scale model (like 1/1000 :3). I'll just incorporate the changes in the free plans, instead of getting a new set.
What Greg said above, this +1 Just get the hull from a vendor, it will be one of the cheaper purchases (factor in time+cost of "good" wood+epoxy+fiberglass cloth) and a under $150 hull is cheap.
Just keep this in mind.... epoxy + glass for a wood hull will run you 50 bucks if you can buy just what you need of quality stuff (if you can buy it off someone in small quantity), or 100 bucks if you buy in normally available quantities of the same stuff. you can get a little cheaper by using cheaper / lower quality materials.... but not that much
I think I'm going to build it. There's really no fun in building when it's already built, plus tugboat has his 40 dollars a month method But I've already got 300 bucks available for this so.
Best advice is follow the Bearn build by Mike, it is at the top of the build logs. Start a build and post pictures and ask questions. Let us know what tools you will be using, and how long you want the hull to last (not very long = you can use cheap products).
