A current project for a scale Model of Hms Ontario of 1778 is well on the way.
She has been pieced together from the original Admiralty draughts and reports from her wreck exploration. She has been remarkably well preserved with her equipment very close to where and how it would have originally been.
The image below shows the 2D to 3D conversion process involved in building an accurate model. Paper drawings always have small discrepancies and sometimes even major mistakes. Computer Aided Design helps in getting a definitive model that can be reproduced, and when referenced is always identical. Also remember that not much on a wooden vessel is straight or flat, everything has curves. Something fairly hard to describe properly on two dimensional drawings, especially when it comes to details. Often, the only data is large sweeping curves describing the hull.
The image above shows the keel and sections that will be used for her construction. She will have two detailed decks as can be seen by the 'opening' in each section shown above. Modern drawings of her make some assumptions as to deviations from the original drawings! According to everything I've seen, her wreck resembles the original Admiralty drawings to a tee, with only a few details missing! Those missing details were almost never drawn up by ship designers and left to the yard and their standard practices!
A lot of work goes into getting everything as right as can be. For instance, the stern gallery as shown on a flat drawing is really on an angle vertically, and slightly curved horizontally. In case of HMS Ontario, the angle of the stern is about 23 degrees from vertical, and curved at a radius of about 33".
The image below shows the 'adjusted' profile. The flat stern profile shown below can now be created. When looking at the stern from directly behind the model, the profile shown below will look identical to the profile shown above.
I know the differences are relatively small and subtle, but when you add them all up, they will make for an accurate and subsequently a more 'right-looking' model. When someone comments that a model "looks right, but I can't quite put my finger on why", it makes it all worthwhile.
Latest updates are found here: http://theartofageofsail.blogspot.ca/2013/11/hms-ontario-project-completed.html
More about the HMS Ontario project at: http://www.ageofsail.net/aosont1.asp
This post first appeared on The Art Of Age Of Sail - Engineering History, please read the originial post: here
