Plan Drawing

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I am making good progress with the plan drawing of a four-masted barque. Now on Day 4.

Bob

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

4 days! Is that on a computer? I knew they were slow, but…..<G>

Martin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

No – it isn't done by computer! (Everyone asks me that) I don't have the money, time or patience to mess about with purchasing and learning CAD and suchlike!

It is done on a sheet of 70cm by 50cm white cartridge paper sellotaped to a large piece of plywood. The drawing is made with drawing pens, a set square, French Curves and a long curved dressmaker's ruler.

I propped it up on a table and photographed it with a normal camera as a jpeg. When the drawing it complete, I will open it in Adobe Photoshop and colour it in. These are some more I did recently.

Bob

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2016 10:55:25

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2016 10:56:25

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

As an ex draffie myself, Bob, I can really appreciate the time and effort you must have put in, to produce these wonderful drawings!

If you sign them, they may become collectors items…..One day

I used to draught out the manufacture details for some of the M6 bridges………All in ink too!

What a game that was!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks Bob,

I don't think they are anything special, but I must admit, that I do get a lot of satisfaction when experts ask what sort of CAD I am using, and who taught me how to use it.

In reality though, they are all very "low tech" I have never been much of a scholar, and didn't do very well at school (Not even a single O level and 11+ failed). But what I can't carry, I can drag well enough!

Anyway, to dispel all doubt, here it is as of a few minutes ago. I will probably do another mast this afternoon!

Bob

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

What made me wonder if they were ff a pootah (apart from the fact almost every damned thing IS these days, was the reduction made it all look steppy, which is a sure sign of a pooterised dwg.

That you've done it in pen by hand is a wonderful thing. As a draughtsman and technical illustrator who lost his job to damned computers I can appreciate your efforts. now rapidly losing my old trade of modelmaking to 3D printing and all that button pushing tosh.

Martin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Martin, thanks,

Know what you mean about computers The same thing hapenned to me. I was Radio Officer in this passenger

**LINK**

liner, but we were replaced by computers and satellite communications in the 1990s. I had been aboard St. Helena for two years, and before that, 11 years in the previous passenger ship of the same name. I had been at sea since early 1961, and it seemed like a job for life, but technology got rid of us in the end. The ship is to be withdrawn from service in less than 100 days now that an airport has just been completed on the island of St. Helena, and they will all be discarded and unemployed.

It was probably the converting of my drawing to a jpeg that made it look like a CAD production!

Bob

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

That's a hefty old crane on that ship!

And that street? Pure English!

You must miss such a life, Bob.

Cheers,

Martin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

No, I never missed it! As well as all the radio communication that kept me busy for 8 hours a day, I also had to maintain and repair it all, as well as repair radars, teleprinters, satellite communications, fire alarms, internal telephone system, computers, videos etc etc as well as passengers radios, recorders, etc etc. In the end when I was offered voluntary redundancy, I was very pleased to take it, but I could have hung on for a further 2 years before radio officers were dispensed with for good. Then, they shared out all the maintenance and repair work to the electrical officers, and heads of departmenst had to do their own communications on the satellite!

I really preferred the old ship, built in 1963. I joined the old one in 1979, and left to join the new ship in 1990! Here is my U-tube presentation of my 11 years on the old St. Helena: **LINK**

After 32 years at sea, I was ready to leave. But a bonus was that my wife was allowed to travel with me free of charge any time she wished! The round voyage was two months, UK – Cape Town, via Tenerife, Ascension and St. Helena.

——————-

I have now rigged the mainmast on the drawing, leaving only the foremast, and the colouring in, that I will probably do tomorrow.

Bob

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2016 17:27:30

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2016 17:33:15

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

Very nice work, Bob. Are you doing one of your miniatures of this one?

Martin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Not in the immediate future. I just started it for amusement more than anything else. Initially I started drawing plans because whenever I asked various establishments for permission to use their plans of sailing ships in publications or articles, they wanted vast amounts of cash! Then I though I would try drawing them myself and found out that it was not all that difficult. Next thing, I found myself getting "hooked" on it. As you can see, I am concentrating on a type of ship that is very unpopular. i.e. the big iron and steel square-riggers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that, to me at least, are far more impressive than tea clippers. This one had a hull length of 317.3 feet, a width of 46 feet. and had a gross tonnage of 3,145!

Bob

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

These certainly are magnificent vessels, Bob, but I think the vast amount of rigging may frighten off potential builders. It would me. I shun square riggers for the same reason I do Nelson ships and photography…too much to know. And the older I get, the more there is to know!

But aesthetically, they are wonderful. Have you thought of producing prints? A decent print shop will not charge you much for a quality colour print and you can magnify that several times for a numbered signed copy! Ask me how I know.

Cheers,

Martin

[Martin Field 1Participant @martinfield1]

Here's my best seller.

Martin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Martin,

The rigging only appears to be complicated. It is really very simple. Each of the square-rigged masts is essentially rigged the same. a lot of the rigging is "standing rigging" and does not move, it just holds the masts up. This is mainly the dozens of backstays and a lesser number of forestays. In normal modelling, rigging something like this would be an enormous task. I do not use normal methods though. The rigging is all fine copper wire glued on. There are no knots anywhere. Masting and rigging with the "special methods" that I use is not time-consuming at all. I rigged the attached Lord Ripon in less than a week!

As for the drawings, they look very good when shrunk down to less than A4 size, but full-size, they do not stand up to scrutiny. I use them mainly to illustrate books and articles (see attached). Finding it virtually impossible to get my books accepted by mainstream publishers, I turned to the much sneered at "Vanity Publishing" method several years ago. I produce my book as a PDF document, and e-mail it to my choosen printer. I pay them to print it, and ten days later, the books are delivered to me. I then distribute them myself.

The attached one is part of my autobiography. The two ship plans are there because I was able to board the ancient decaying hulks of both of them during my time in the Falklands, 1982/83!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 08/05/2016 08:12:02

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Martin,

Very nice silhouette of the puffer, and the water reflection is fantastic. Recollects holidays at Rothesay in the eary 50s, Arran Rose, Texan, Roman, Spartan etc!

———–

I completed the drawing this morning. The foremast took 1 hour, nine minutes. Then five minutes to photogrtaph it and colour it in on the computer. I will probably add chartroom and raild later. The ports along the hull are NOT gunports, they do not open, but are simply painted decoration.

Bob

PS

On posting, noticed I had missed out the lifts on the fore royal… I have since added them!

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 08/05/2016 14:09:13

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Took this plan along to the local Model Shipwrights meeting today. As usual, eyes glazed over as it went round, and it received not a single comment, good or bad!

Bob

[Steve Walker 1Participant @stevewalker1]

I don't want to sound as if I'm snivelling Bob but I think, mostly from the content of previous posts, that you're up against a preconception on the part of most viewers that this was something done in 2 minutes on a computer. Like so many other areas these days the work of a craftsman has been overtaken by computing.

Just think how 3D printing is going to change the way today's kids view the production of almost anything from fine model ship fittings to guns or artificial limbs. It's amazing but there will always be someone to admire the ability required to produce one from scratch. They won't know the difference until a giant sunburst wipes out all our satellites and computers…oh dear…..we're doomed, doomed I tell you……

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

You are quite correct, that is why I took the photograph on the previous page showing it on the drawing board. But our club members are all quite old, 50s to 80s and a lot of them never even bother with computers at all!

Bob

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