DD 886 u.s.s. Orleck design process

[FRD]

Okay, this is my next project it's the U.S.S. ORLECK, a Gearing class destroyer, while 95 of this class were built, only five remain in existence.


This particular ship Just arrived in Jacksonville, Florida to serve as a museum ship for the Jacksonville Navel Museum, temporarily docked it will be moved to it's final mooring in June.


I'm doing this with the good graces of the museum and my objective is to keep it, "as simple as possible" without sacrificing detail.


At it's current mooring I was able to photograph the Starboard side of the ship, when it is relocated I will then be able to photograph the Port side.


Still unsure of the model scale, I will either put it out at 1/250 or 1/200.


All of the 3D work is done in Autocad while the 2D graphics will be done in Coreldraw.

[FRD]

The first thing I do is plot the vertices for the wire frame into virtual 3D space, these are essentially the general dimensions drawn at FULL SCALE, this ship is 390.5 feet (119.0244 M) long and 42 feet (12.8016 M) wide.


These images show where I'm at now, the wire frame is about 85% and is only used to establish the general dimensions.


All of the details will fit within this wire frame.
Once complete, I can then start with the virtual 3D model that can then be used not only to create a paper model but this 3-D model can be used for any number of other visual applications.


Here are a few images of the wire frame, each color denotes a different component.

[FRD]

The museum can be found here-> https://www.jaxnavalmuseum.org

[Desertrat77]

Can't wait to add this to my To Build pile(Pile of Shame). Look forward to the progress you make

[southwestforests]

Ah, a Gearing class DD Dad was XO of 840.

Somewhere for some reason, Mom one day said she liked the Sumner and Gearing DDs the best of all the ships Dad was on "because they looked the most nautical."

[southwestforests]

Man, that was in the 1970s and I STILL remember the smell of the ship, paint thinner, fuel oil, and cooking grease.

It just hit me like I was there.

[FRD]

The two things that I'm struggling with are interrelated, the scale and complexity.

My objective is to keep it as simple as possible without sacrificing details, that's not as easy as it sounds.

Even at 1/200 the Gun muzzles taper down to a very small diameter, these are essential details but may not be easy to assemble.

The theory being that the larger the scale, the greater the ease of assembly and the greater number of 3-D details that can be modeled.

But, the larger the number of components, the greater the complexity, so you see, it's a very fine line when you want to "keep it simple" yet, "not sacrifice details".

I'm seriously thinking that 1/200 may be the answer, this would make the finished model at 23.43 inches (59.51 cm) long but that is larger than what I initially envisioned.

Originally I was contemplating 1/250 which would produce a model 18.74 inches (47.6 cm) long, this would make it a smaller, simpler model but at a loss of easy to assemble, 3-D detail.

I'll "cross this bridge when I get to it" but I'll be putting a lot of thought into it in the interim, it's a, "very fine balance" that I'm sure all designers consider to one extent or another.

[FRD]

This is what I'm doing today, not the turret but the shielded winch that is in the foreground of this image.

[Don Boose]

Great project, Fred!

I am watching with interest.

Don

[FRD]

Don, I've never done a contemporary warship before so this should be interesting...