Royal Navy Ships' plans

[claudius]

Hello lads,

a plea for help from British friends!

I am having big difficulties in finding Royal Navy ships' plans, drawings etc. For example, it is almost impossible to find anything about, for example, HMS Illustrious and Upholder (both from Ww2, of course). I even asked Museums... but even they coudn't help.

I am sure I am searching in the wrong places... I cannot believe a country with the world's best Naval history and with such a big modellers' community has not a place where to find those references...

Thanks!!!!

[davepb]

National Maritime Museum, but they are expensive.

[Paul Bradley]

For Illustrious, you might look at this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Carrier-Victorious-Anatomy-Ship/dp/0851779964

While the ships were not identical, much of it will apply.

[Hardcastle]

The late John Lambert was a great source of ship plans - not sure who has taken over distributing his immense collection though.

tim

[brooker]

Hi,

I've probably got "Web" Plans of many HMS warships (in A3 size sheets) and other technical drawings in various scales from a variety of sources and in several different languages, but if you can "read" ships plans and work out the construction yourself, then they are easy enough to scratch build - in past years I enlarged Russian and Polish paper kits, (or built at scale 1/200), which come flat and in book format, to the scales I wanted to build in and then it was a relatively simple process to build my models in card and paper for r/c, although any other medium could be used instead, like plastic sheet, using the patterns, or whatever - I have posted pix of all of my warship models on this forum, earlier - to give you some idea of what I used to achieve.

Look for posts by Brooker - me.

I'm sad to say I've lost my desire to build anything much these days, either in card or plastic - I've bought all of the large scale plastic kits I've ever wanted to build and I seem to have lost all motivation to even make a start - anyone know how to beat that?

......sigh........which is my problem and unrelated here.

If you have a wants list of which ships you are looking for and the date of construction (like HMS Warspite - built 1913) I will know which Warspite you want, for example.

I don't mind doing a photocopy of any A4 or A3 plans I have, since they will be far more accurate than a photo and posting it/them to you, if you don't mind covering my photocopy and airmail postage costs from Australia, provided they are for your own use and not for commercial gain.

I do have a collection of large scale plans of 1/200 and 1/100 ships and warships, probably not available any more - however, I would rather you bought plans at this scale locally and only look on me as a last resort, as I probably won't be cheap.

Brooker

[claudius]

Hi,

I've probably got "Web" Plans of many HMS warships (in A3 size sheets) and other technical drawings in various scales from a variety of sources and in several different languages, but if you can "read" ships plans and work out the construction yourself, then they are easy enough to scratch build - in past years I enlarged Russian and Polish paper kits, (or built at scale 1/200), which come flat and in book format, to the scales I wanted to build in and then it was a relatively simple process to build my models in card and paper for r/c, although any other medium could be used instead, like plastic sheet, using the patterns, or whatever - I have posted pix of all of my warship models on this forum, earlier - to give you some idea of what I used to achieve.

Look for posts by Brooker - me.

I'm sad to say I've lost my desire to build anything much these days, either in card or plastic - I've bought all of the large scale plastic kits I've ever wanted to build and I seem to have lost all motivation to even make a start - anyone know how to beat that?

......sigh........which is my problem and unrelated here.

If you have a wants list of which ships you are looking for and the date of construction (like HMS Warspite - built 1913) I will know which Warspite you want, for example.

I don't mind doing a photocopy of any A4 or A3 plans I have, since they will be far more accurate than a photo and posting it/them to you, if you don't mind covering my photocopy and airmail postage costs from Australia, provided they are for your own use and not for commercial gain.

I do have a collection of large scale plans of 1/200 and 1/100 ships and warships, probably not available any more - however, I would rather you bought plans at this scale locally and only look on me as a last resort, as I probably won't be cheap.

Brooker

Yes, I developed my own plans from paper models from Poland as well. It works good.

Brooker, just open a box with the intent to build one model and you will see that your motivation will start over again!

[brooker]

Hi Claudius,

Thanks for your start up tip. With the exception of a plastic 1/200 Yamato kit I tried to build about 25 years ago and which I left too close to the gas fire which provided warmth during our Aussie winter months (a freezing 8C to 12C) and the side nearest the fire melted like a candle, unbeknownst to me until the next morning - I have never built a plastic kit of any sort and I'm 70 years old now, give or take a few months.

Like you, I have been building all of my card models at larger scales from Polish and Russian paper kits and I have more digital kits than I can shake a stick at now - I thought building in plastic would be easier for me in my advancing years, only to discover that the kits I have chosen to build are for the clever plastic kit modellers with years of experience - still, I have my female partner to give me a hand whenever we have a go at something, so as the old saying goes, 2 heads are often better than 1.

Brooker