The purpose of this thread is to collect useful links to threads and webpages pertaining to building wooden hull. This thread will be pinned. Anyone is welcome to add content to it, but off-topic posts will be trimmed. To start us off, I will link the 3 pages I seem to send people to most often. The Bearn build thread here Tugboat's Edgar Quinet here Brian and Clark (tugboat)'s Vanguard construction series here These are good resources for anyone looking at building a wooden hull.
Nick, The Brian and Clark (tugboat)'s Vanguard construction series here Link appears to be broken. Are any of the build threads loaded as a complete PDF? Mike
I will fix the link; Brian had it hosted on the Chemistry department server while he was a professor there, but he got promoted to DEAN!!! So he's got it on a new server.
I really need advice on building a wood hull, as I plan too for my first ship (Advice on the fletcher would be helpful as well)
as a fellow who built a dd twice don't build one as your first boat. spent almost twice as much time on it than i have my Yamato class BB. but for advice on wood hull honest it depends on what boat your building. something with a flat bottom you would want to do the double keel with the water channel in it like was done in https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/armored-cruiser-st-louis-ircwcc.444400/#post-503514
Ok I will take up both of you guys' advice, but what wood is used to make a hull in the first place? Also another question, On the hull plans of most ships there are 2 sides, what are the two sides? hulls and ribs? If so which one is which (like which one is left which one is right) Also I'm sorry but I am a complete noob
most hull plans show a profile and a top down view. also in some corner somewhere there is a split view of a hull plan. https://rcwarshipcombat.com/resources/french-cruiser-emile-bertin.19/ these plans do a very very good job of laying out everything exactly how you would want to for a wood boat https://rcwarshipcombat.com/resources/french-battleship-jean-bart.13/ these plans show mostly what you will see for most plans although this one doesn't have the Super Structure that most do. top right corner is what you use to create the ribs. duplicate and mirror. Also I really can't encourage you enough to go meet someone down in Texas who has already built.
I tend to use plywood from hobby stores due to the fact that i don't have a place to get quality plywood in full sheet. while it costs more and you do have to do a splice it works well and isn't that much more. less than $30 for a Kongo class BC and bout 45-50 for the IJN Akagi which is 70" long using 3/4 wood homedepot and lowes plywood is crap and has alot of voids in it that cause nothing but problems. best thing for building a wood boat is really any medium quality wood and a good coating of epoxy. spar varnish works but epoxy is better long term
I don't really know how to post on here but I am starting to work on the Scharnhorst. I may never battle it but I would like to build it as correct as possible. The plans of the ribs show half the rib lines perpendicular with the center line and half of them skewed some. Are they drawn the way they should be cut out or do I need to draw a perpendicular line from the skewed ones? I hope to post a picture of what I mean. Also, I do not know how to use the rib calculator so how many ribs should this ship have? 14 is what is shown. Thanks and move this anywhere you feel it should be. Johnny
the picture you are looking at are half profiles of the ribs. The ones on the right are from the bow of the ship backward. The last one on the right side should be where the widest outline on the left starts going to the stern of the ship. What you do is take a folded piece of paper, put the folded edge on the center line between both halves then trace over the lines one at a time on different pages start one side then the other. Once traced cut along the traced lines then unfold which should give you a full profile of that rib. Now mind you it is a solid piece you will have to then apply it to the plywood you are going to cut them out of. Since you want to get as many ribs out of the wood you can, you will need to add an inner dimension of the rib. 5/8th to 3/4 inch in width on sides and bottom following the curves in the rib. Some of the captains on this forum use Elmers rubber cement or a artist poster spray glue or just white glue to attach the template to the wood before cutting. The double horizontal lines is where the armor belt starts where you are allowed a 1/8th inch stringer to attach the hull sheeting. If you go to the Construction sub forum there are many good start to finish build discussions for wood ships and fiberglass hulled ships. You should even be able to find Scharnhorst build. Best of luck and welcome.
Thanks for the quick reply. I am still confused about the rib layout though. I have cut out the ribs where the lines going left to right are perpendicular with the centerline but what about the ones that are not perpendicular to the centerline? Do I draw a centerline perpendicular to those to cut from or are they supposed to be on an angle? Please see previous post photo. I hope to start cutting them this weekend if I can figure this out. Thanks again, Johnny
Those perpendicular lines are generally ignored. Those "half ribs" between 12/11 and 3/2 are for the armor belt I believe. The top line you ask "why is this slanted downward" that's because that's the way the ship's bow actually is. It has a flare to it, aka, the very nose of the ship curves upwards vs the rest of the hull to keep heavy seas off the deck. I have built a wooden hull or four in my time, if you need any help/clarifications you can message me on here. Check out my Jean Bart build thread to see what a completed wooden hull looks like, it might explain a lot.
And for Scharnhorst, you can check out an old friend's website: http://shipyard.hi2matt.com/newgneis.htm It's a bit old, but should give you some good visuals. Don't forget to take into account the 3/8" deck/subdeck assembly when designing your ribs either. FYI, I picked up that hull from Steve many years ago and have since removed the plate in the bow to improve water flow from hits up there back to the pump. I also moved the rear spreader/support bar forward to clear the triple magazines. Just a couple things to take into account during layup that make life easier down the road.
