Model ship plans, blueprints? 3D printed ships?

[Broadsword56]

I'm taking a 3D printer class this fall, and for my project I want to try and make myself a one-off 1:1000 ship to use in SoG.
Does anyone know where one finds source documents that would give me the data points for age of sail ships?
I know people have scanned real-life tall ships into CAD programs in the past.
But here, I'd want something where I could use a document and make data for the 3D model from that.
I'm thinking it would be fun to do a merchantman, or a smaller ship like a sloops or a brig.

[Diamondback]

Gina, start by browsing the Draughts collection at the National Maritime Museum:
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collect...eBy=collection

You'll have to create the digital model yourself, but the old draughts should give you a start to trace lines from. If you do accurate Ville de Paris and Hibernia 1st Rates and they turn out well, you can pencil me in for one of each. :)

For something small, I might suggest a 1797 Cruizer-class brig-sloop as a start--so common that Ares will NEVER do 'em all even if they sculpt their own version, or look for a ship-sloop in the 16-18-gun range...

[Broadsword56]

Thanks for the link and suggestions, Diamondback!

Here are a few existing free downloadable 3D model files that I've found today while searching online:

This one is called "Turk Ship 3D Model" -- I have no idea what it is, but it could make a good merchantman perhaps?
http://www.3dcadbrowser.com/download.aspx?3dmodel=31011

"Conquestador 1819" -- a few years past our era, but close enough. Looks like a frigate, Spanish?
http://www.3dcadbrowser.com/download.aspx?3dmodel=22170

And the frigate Venus. a Swedish-built ship with an interesting history:
http://www.all-model.com/Venus/Venus.html

I guess one challenge for 3D printing would be discerning what these models' native scale is, then rescaling them to be 1:1000 if that's possible.

But it seems to me it would be easier to start with an existing digital model than to make one from scratch using paper plans. But I'll learn more when I take my class.

Since the printed model would come out one color (can be painted, of course), I wonder what color plastic would make the most sense to use?
I'm thinking the brown deck color, if possible, because that would be the fiddliest area to paint.

[Diamondback]

Venus also has a broad stretch potential--I'm hoping that she, her sisters and her Russian derivatives will show up as official Ares releases someday. The "Turk Ship" looks like a plausible merchie, but I'm wondering if it wasn't patterned more after the French frigate Justice (related to the SGN105 Hebe-class sculpt, albeit a later stretched and better-armed version) that was taken by an Anglo-Turkish force in the eastern Med, handed over to the Turks and then seems to disappear from history at that point as if she sailed into the Bermuda Triangle...

Re Conquestador, no records found of any ship with that date, so take it with a grain of salt, maybe ask the designer about sources and documentation. Be careful to stress that you're not CHALLENGING anything, but just asking out of curiosity... artists, even digital ones, can be very temperamental people.

You have a delicate balancing act ahead of you--you want big enough to work on, small enough to not need a LOT of fine detail work--a larger 1- or 2-mast design would help simplify things unless you intend to use off-the-shelf parts like Langton's there.

[RotS-Targe]

I have a bit of experience with 3D printing, and a lot of CAD work under my belt, might as well speak up. One thing to keep in mind with printing, unless you really want to spend a lot, don't expect much in the way of detail, as all but the finest printers at their highest settings will leave lines where the material was laid. If you really want to make a production run out of them, for any sort of reasonable price, I would suggest making a mold out of one fine detail model, instead of printing straight to production. I don't know the costs off the top of my head, but anything printed with fine details will be very expensive. Come to think of it, I can easily see them as the same price as a single ship pack, so it might work out, if we assume that anyone willing to buy a custom ship is also willing to do some finishing work of their own once they have their copy.

TL;DR, don't get too deep into the details, at the scale we're working at, they won't show very well, not really worth the time put into it.

PS I'd love to see some renderings when you get them up.