French steam powered submarine Narval, 1889 in 1:100

[jdulaney]

My current project is a model of the French submarine Narval. First I drew it up three dimensionally in AutoCAD:

Then I printed out templates for the stations and profile, glued them to 1/8" aircraft ply, and cut them out with a coping saw. I glued them up together and started planking:

And, this is where I'm at now:

So, what do y'all think?

 

[mkepke]

Nice. How does the rib construction (pic 3) compare to the original, full-size design ?

And will it get a miniature steam engine ?

-Mark

 

[Sealeveler]

Looks great,like the framing,same way we built a jig boat except only about 3-4 bulkheads stayed with the hull.
Tony

 

[jdulaney]

Nice. How does the rib construction (pic 3) compare to the original, full-size design ?

And will it get a miniature steam engine ?

-Mark

The bulkheads in my model do not coincide with the framing of the original. I build my models this way (the non-open ones, anyway) for strength and stability. I intend for this model to have the potential to be around in four hundred years.

Sadly, no steam engine. I am not doing any internal modeling; just the exterior.

 

[CaptnA]

pretty neat
double kudo's for no plans!

 

[jdulaney]

Who says I had no plans? I just like to redraft the hull in AutoCAD so that I can print out accurate templates and correct for a century of degradation. A model like this gets six months or so of research before I make the first cut.

That said, if I do a North Carolina workboat, there usually aren't plans available, so in those cases the no plans holds true. Sometimes I'll do a model almost entirely by eye (usually spritsail skiffs, since that was the way they were traditionally built).