Basic Suggestions for a Newbie

[NimitzFan]

Hi guys!

I've been collecting information on the fishing vessels used in the Deadliest Catch TV series, and was looking at doing them out in 1/100, or possibly 1/50. However, I've totally new to designing my own paper models, and I was wondering if y'all had any totally basic suggestions for a "newbie" like myself.

What do I need to have? The following website contains details pulled from a marine survey done on the M/v Wizard. http://www.crabwizard.com/vessel-folder/ This includes exhaustive details about the ship, down to the diameters of all the pipes, descriptions of the materials used on deck, etc... but has no plans. Are vidcaps and photos enough?

[nothing]

screen grabs may work if you get a side shot and you do a water line model. i looked into it myself a while ago but wasnt able to find anything to give myself a good start.

[cgutzmer]

Welcome! First have you picked any particular design software yet? Also designing just with pics can be tough as heck......
Chris

[airdave]

have you been to their website?
they do have some models to download.

maybe there is stuff you can use

[NimitzFan]

The downloads that they have are playsets - useful for the colors but little else.

I'm a past master of Microsoft Visio and I have it, so I'm planning to use it, in combination with any of several image mgmt tools. There are several other tools I'd enjoy using but cannot afford. I expect to save the results to PNG files and those to PDF's.

Also, in addition to being an ancient geek, I have the advantage of being a former US Naval Officer. Hence I know from personal experience what I am looking at and where I can "fudge."

[46rob]

I don't use any "design" software, other than Photoshop--I do all my basic work in pencil, scan it in to photoshop, clean it up and color it. Some of my models were done without any plans or three views, other than those I generated myself. I would say, that if you have all the dimensions, and technical info (I use actual aircraft, since I work at an aviation museum) you should be able to develop an pretty accurate rendition. Since you're an ex-naval officer, you should have enough marine engineering background to be able to approximate the lower hull shape based on the size of the ship, purpose and conditions it's designed to operate under. I wrote a tutorial a few years ago, descibing a manual method to develoop an aircraft fuselage--the same principle could be used to create the hull. YOu can find it on Fiddlers Green's web site. If you have the desired side view and top views drawn, it's relatively easy to genrate the hull sections using basic drafting techniques. I did this years ago, when I scratch-built a plank on frame galleon hull. (never finished it though--thirty years later, it's only got lower masts in place--every now and then, I pull it out and add a few more rigging lines--not known for rushing through things)

I like you project and hope to see a real model come forth.

[Amazyah]

Thanks Rob! I remember that tutorial well.
A great tutorial for those starting out in design work.
Thanks for your efforts.
Russell