More Progress on Midwest Products' Chesapeake Bay Flattie Model Ship Kit

Midwest Products' Chesapeake Bay Flattie

Plank-on-Bulkhead Model Ship Kit

Promises Ease of Construction

Midwest Products Chesapeake Bay Flattie kit.

While solid-hull ship models are generally considered the easiest to construct, Midwest Products has created a "Success Series" of ship model kits that offer plank-on-bulkhead models that promise to make model shipbuilding easy for the complete novice.

We decided to test this theory by making Midwest's Chesapeake Bay Flattie ship model kit our first on-line kit build. The simple lines of these boats that made them ideal for locals to build from locally-available lumber should also make this an ideal ship model kit or a person with no prior wood ship model building experience.

The biggest challenge of plank-on-bulkhead ship models is planking the hull, and because of the simple shape of these boats, this task is accomplished in this kit with a single plank on each of the sides, and two planks on the bottom.

The kit comes with well-executed die-cut and pre-cut parts, as well as fittings, rigging line, sail material, and a well-done set of instructions and building plans.

Click on the links below to visit each stage of construction:
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Introduction
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 1, Keel and Bulkhead assembly
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 2, Deck Assembly
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 3, Mast Steps and Bow Stiffeners
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit:Chapter 4: Keel and Chine Strips
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit:Chapter 5: Installing the Cabin
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit:Chapter 6: Planking the Hull
We have a lot more steps ahead of us, so keep checking back for updates!

Building Midwest Products' Chesapeake Bay Flattie Ship Model Kit

Chesapeake Bay Flattie Ship Model Kit Project Moves Ahead
Skeleton of Midwest Products Kit Takes Shape
Entry-level Kit is Great Place to Start Ship Model Building

Adding Chine Strips to the Chesapeake Bay Flattie

Next up in our construction of the Midwest Products Chesapeake Bay Flattie ship model kit is to create a supporting surface for the bottom and side planks by adding keel and chine strips.

The keel strips lie along the keel to keep the bottom planking from sagging between the bulkheads.

The chine strips run along the edge where the bottom and sides of the boat meet. The Chesapeake Bay Flattie is considered a "hard chine" boat due to the acute angle at which the side and bottom planking meets. The chine "logs" on a boat like this provide strength to the hull as well.

Click on the links below to visit each previous stage of construction:
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Introduction
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 1, Keel and Bulkhead assembly
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 2, Deck Assembly
Chesapeake Bay Flattie Kit: Chapter 3, Mast Steps and Bow Stiffeners

Essential tools for Model Ship Building

Start small, and build your collection

Model ship building only requires basic tools.

Model ship building, whether from kits or from scratch, does not require a vast array of exotic tools. In fact, most – if not all – of the tools you need can be found at your local hardware store.

For a review of the basic tools you need to start model ship building see our page Tools for Model Ship Building 

Types of Model Ship Kits

Getting Started in Model Ship Building?

Building a kit is a good way to start before tackling scratch-building

Parts included for the Corel plank-on-bulkhead kit "Ranger."

For the beginning ship modeler, scratch-building a ship model from a plan can be a daunting challenge. A better option for a first project in most cases is to pick from the vast array of ship model kits available today.
There are a number of international, and a few U.S. ship model kit manufacturers, and they are constantly coming out with new offerings that set a ship modeler’s mind racing with possibilities. But, while model ship kit manufacturers are constantly introducing new kits, and adding more detailed models to their lineup, all model ship kits fall into three basic categories, based on hull construction technique: Solid hull; Plank-on-bulkhead; and Plank-on-frame.
For a review of these basic ship model kit types, see our page Types of Ship Model Kits

French 20th Century Warship Le Gladiateur

Le Gladiateur 1933

For those of you who enjoy 20th Century warships, here's an interesting project for a ship model builder: A French net-laying ship, Le Gladiateur, launched in 1933. She was scuttled at Toulon  in 1942 by her own crew to avoid capture. She was salvaged the following year by Italians, then captured by Germans and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine in January 1944 as SG18. She was bombed and sunk by Allied aircraft in 1944.
Due to her relatively small size (compared to a battleship) she could be built at a larger scale and still create a ship model of manageable size. Our page on Le Gladiateur offers ships lines plans, outboard profiles, and deck plans: everything you need for scratch-building a highly-detailed ship model. We have more detailed plans available as well. For more information on those, please inquire on our Contact Page.

Free Ship Plan: Algerian Xebec Two-fer

Xebec with lateen sails

Not much put more fear in the heart of a Mediterranean seafarer than the triangular sails of a Barbary corsair appearing on the horizon.
The favorite vessel of these North African pirates was the xebec, a long, narrow ship descended from the rowed galleys of the ancient world. Able to sail close to the wind with its lateen sails - or to use oars if the wind failed - and able to navigate shoal waters due to its shallow draft, the xebec was the perfect ship for a pirate. It could catch most merchant vessels, and run away from warships that could reduce its lightly-built hull to splinters with a single broadside.
We found in the French Ministry of Defense archives a highly-detailed plan of the Algerian xebec captured in 1830 and placed in service by the French Navy as Le Boberach. She was used mainly as a dispatch ship, where she had a well-documented, albeit fairly uneventful career.

Algerian xebec Le Boberach, captured by the French in 1830

Lack of exciting engagements aside, she still has the exotic lines that would make an eye-catching model for the enterprising modelshipwright looking for something beyond the typical bathtub-hulled square rigger. Thanks to the French proclivity for record keeping, we also have a great deal of information about her service, too.
As an extra treat, we threw in the plans of an 18th Century Algerian xebec documented in Fredrik Henrik af Chapman’s Architectura Navalis Mercatoria.

Free Ship Plan: La Couronne 17th Century French Warship

Maritime historians and model shipwrights owe a lot to French naval admiral François-Edmond Pâris. He published a number of books in the 19th Century that featured plans, drawings, and even beautiful watercolor paintings of vessels from around the world. He also documented historical ships no longer in existence, but previously recorded by others. La Couronne is an example of this.

17th Century French Warship La Couronne

Ships plans for La Couronne, a 17th Century French first rate warship come from Pâris's Souvenirs de Marine Conservés, ou Collection de plans de navires de guerre et de commerce et de bateaux divers de tous les pays tracés par les constructeurs ou marins … recueillis et publiés par l’amiral Pâris.

La Couronne (French for “The Crown”) was commissioned into the French Navy in 1636. She was a war galleon built by the French as part of the effort by Cardinal-duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac, King Louis XIII’s chief minister, to ensure the French Navy was dominant on the seas.

Built 200 years before the 120-gun French ship of the line Montebello, in La Couronne one can really see the link between early Medieval vessels and the magnificent warships of the golden age of sail. Her massive castellated quarter decks recall the war galleys of the Mediterranean, on which bow and stern "castles" served as battle platforms from the Ancient to Medieval times.

Great Site for Ship Model Plans

A friend of ours in Turkey has a great website for model shipbuilders. He also offers a wide selection of  free ship plans, but where our ship plans are prototype ship plans than can be adopted to model shipbuilding, many of his plans show the ships already adapted to models. Many feature full-size patterns that can be used to cut the keel and bulkheads, and some even feature info on motor installation for radio-controlled operation. This provides a valuable shortcut if you are not familiar with completing this process with a prototype ship plan.

J M Briscoe - Clyde puffer VIC32 moored at Corpach by  Jmb at en.wikipedia

Our all-time favorite of his plans is the Lochinvar Clyde Puffer, a typical Scottish coastal vessel from the early 20th Century. These little tubs just radiate personality. They are so much a part of the U.K. maritime history that a series of novels were written about the exploits of a fictional crew, and later a BBC television series was made based on those books.

This ship is a great subject for modeling because, while the prototype is not very large, it has the very "salty" looks of much larger freighters. With a Clyde Puffer model you can build to a fairly large scale and still have a model that is easily handled.

Another factor that makes this ship a great subject for modelling is that a huge number of these were made during World War II. Classified as "VIC" Victualling Inshore Craft, after the war they were sold off for private use and some still can be found afloat. There are a vast number of images of them available through a simple internet search, so an infinite number of details can be used to make your Clyde Puffer model distinct.

Clyde Puffers also have a very simple, boxy hull shape that makes it easy to plank the hull with sheets of wood veneer, and offers an easy way to learn some of the basic skills that will be needed when it comes to planking more complex hull shapes.

Free Ship Plan: French Warship Montebello

French warship Montebello in 1850

Launched in 1812, Montebello was an Océan type ship of the line of the French Navy. Plans list her as a 120-gun ship, but many historical references refer to her as a 118-gun ship. She had an impressive 77-year career in the French navy. 

We have a massive collection of 10 high resolution plans of Montebello on our website, including lines, inboard and outboard profile, deck, rigging, mast, and sail plans. We even have accommodations plans showing how stores were shipped aboard this historic warship.

For the model shipwright looking for a massive project, the French ship-of-the-line Montebello may be just what you are looking for.

Free Ship Plan: Ancient Galley

Due to the popularity of our free ship plan pages for the Ancient Trireme and the Gokstad Viking Longship, we've added a new oar-powered vessel plan.

Free Ship Plan of an Ancient Galley

This Ancient Galley plan is from the Atlas du Génie Maritime in the archives of the French Le Ministère de la Défense. This atlas of ship plans was created in the 19th Century, and features both contemporary and ancient ships.

My guess is this galley is not truly ancient, but probably no older than the Medieval period. I haven't translated most the plan, so it may have info on it to pin down its provenance. I did get as far as the title, which roughly translates to an "Ancient Galley of 36 Banks of Oars, Five Rowers per Bank."

With its three lateen sails and sides bristling with oars, this ship offers a chance for the model shipwright to screatch-build a unique ship model that would truly be an impressive display.

Free Ship Plan: Lettie G. Howard

Lettie G. Howard  under sail, photo by Nelson Micheal Chin

Lettie G. Howard sail plan

The last existing clipper-bowed inshore Fredonia model fishing schooner,  Lettie G. Howard was surveyed in 1989 for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which documents historically significant engineering, industrial, and maritime works in the U.S. The project is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The drawings and photos from that survey are maintained by the Library of Congress, and we offer them at TheModelShipwright.com:
Lettie G. Howard Plan Page
Lettie G. Howard Photo Gallery

Free Ship Plan: Gokstad Viking Longboat

Plan of Gokstad Viking Longship from Ancient and Modern Ships

For generations, the sight of a Viking longship sail on the horizon sent chills of fear down the spines of Medieval Europeans. However, Viking longships were used by Scandinavian mariners for everything from commerce to exploration in addition to warfare. Vikings used them to discover new lands to settle in Iceland and Greenland, and it appears they reached the shores of North America hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus.

Our Viking longship plan comes from Ancient and Modern Ships by Sir George Charles Vincent Holmes, published in 1906. Holmes Took from Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, Vol. xxii, from a paper by noted naval architect Colin Archer. This particular smaller Viking longship was discovered in 1880 in a grave at Gokstad near Sandefjord at the entrance of the Fjord of Christiana. Built entirely of oak, she was 77 ft. 11 inches in length, extreme breadth 16 ft. 7 inches, depth from top of keel to gunwale 5 ft 9 inches.

Free Ship Plan: New York Pilot Schooner

New York Pilot Schooner lines plan from Desmond's Wooden Ship Building

This New York Pilot Schooner is another plan from Desmond's Wooden Ship Building. These boats share a lot in common with the Baltimore Clipper Schooner in hull shape. Especially in the "drag" of the keel: The ship sits much deeper at the stern than at the bow. One way in which they differ from their ancestor is the bow is much more plumb. Baltimore Clippers tended to have the outward curving bow of a cutter.

This would work up into a nice ship model. Because of the fairly small size of the prototype New York Pilot Boats, model ships can be built to a fairly large scale without resulting in a model too big for display in the average home.

The fore-aft rig of the schooner also simplifies the task of rigging this model ship, but still provides a very salty-looking result. Scratch-building a model of this ship is a good way to develop model shipbuilding skills needed for a larger project, such as a tea clipper of ship of the line, and allows the model builder to see results much more quickly.

Free Ship Plan: Ancient Trireme

While looking through the French Atlas of Marine Engineering I stumbled across this really cool plan for a trireme, the ancient rowed battleships of Greek and Roman empires. This would make a really cool ship model with a tiny bronze ram at the bow and a gazillion oars protruding from the sides.

Trireme oar-powered battleship of the ancient Mediterranean Sea

Free Ship Plan: 77-foot North River Schooner

Another interesting free ship plan from Wooden Ship Building by Charles Desmond is the North River Schooner.  The plans are a little rough, as the pages are yellowed and the ink faded, but the missing bulwark lines can be recreated using a coffee stir as a batten. Hold it on edge and bend it to match the existing lines on either side of the missing portion. The wood will give you an accurate curve to trace with a pencil to fill in where the lines are too faint to see.

Sail Plan for a 77 foot North River Schooner

Section, Sheer, and Waterline Plans of North River Schooner

This 77-footer is typical of the shoal draft centerboard sailboats used on the Hudson River to haul bulk cargo in the  19th Century. When it was extended, the centerboard acted as a keel, giving the boat stability when tacking to windward, keeping it from "crabbing" - moving sideways rather than forward. When retracted, it allowed the boat to get into shallow waters common along the river, or even be beached for unloading where a harbor wharf wasn't available.

From The Sloops of the Hudson, by By William E. Verplanck and Moses W. Collyer (The Knickerbocker Press 1908):

 The North River schooner was built on somewhat the same plan as the sloop, having a center board, and her bowsprit carried out almost horizontal, and one head-sail, the single jib, attached to a jib-boom, as with the sloop.* (A few of the later schooners carried a flying-jib.---W.E.V.)  She carried not foretopmast. The skippers contented themselves with a maintopsail only and set it like the sloop’s. The foresail was of good size compared with the mainsail and not a mere “ribbon” such as the racing schooner yacht now carries.  The quarter-deck was replaced in the later schooners by a trunk cabin, lighted from the side and end, affording smaller and less pleasant accommodations than those below the quarter-decks of the old packet sloops with their large windows for light and air at the stern.

The schooners were not as good in windward work as the sloop, but with a fair or beam wind they were faster.  The rig, however, soon commended itself for the sloop with her long boom, tall mast, and heavy mainsail was difficult to handle at all times and especially in a blow and required a crew of six men to the schooner’s four. The first of the schooners were converted sloops. From which many of the larger ones were changes to save expense of operation. Late, about 1865 there was built  a new type of schooner for the Hudson which though rigged the same was a wider and shallower boat thus giving her greater carrying capacity and permitting all the cargo to be placed on deck for expedition in loading and unloading. She was quite sharp forward, which—with other good points in her model—made her good sailer.

Scarf Joints: Essential in Shipbuilding

In building full-size wooden ships, it is impossible to get wood timbers long enough to make some of the structural members. In these cases, several pieces are joined together lengthwise by "scarfing": tapering the ends, lapping them and then fastening the two together.

Types of Scarphs - illustration from
The Construction of a Wooden Ship
by Charles G. Davis

As Charles G. Davis notes in his book The Building of a Wooden Ship:

Scarfing timbers together is one of the most important processes in wooden shipbuilding and deserves detailed explanation.
The length of the scarf is shown in the plans or specifications and is usually given to the workmen by the foreman who lays out the work. The foreman also tells the workmen the depth to make the pointed end or nib, as it is called, but if he does not, 23 percent, or about one-fifth the depth of the timber, is a safe rule to cut to.
Care must be taken not to run the saw out any deeper so as to make a weak spot where the timber may split when bent. The scarf is first marked out on the timber and is then sawed out on a band saw or circular saw. If neither is available a 5-foot or 6-foot cross-cut saw may be used and several saw cuts made and the chunks of wood spilt, chopped, or dubbed out with a broadaxe. The timber is then trimmed or dubbed off. carefully to the line on the face or working side of the timber with an adz. The remaining wood is then worked off, using the carpenter's square frequently to see that too much is not cut away. The face of the scarf is finished off with a plane so that the carpenter^s square fits perfectly on its face when applied at various points across it.
There are several kinds of scarfs; the plain scarf, flat scarf, hook scarf, lock scarf, etc. The plain and flat scarf are the ones most commonly used and the hook scarf comes next. The lock scarf has an opening in which is driven an oak wedge or key for the purpose of keying and setting the ends of the scarf tightly together. The keel scarf with tenons is a combination of the plain and hook scarf and is more difficult to cut and fit. To prevent pulling apart short wooden pins, called dowels, fitted vertically in the face of the scarf, were formerly used, but nowadays the more common practice is to bore across at the seam where the two faces meet and drive in treenails, long wooden pins about the size and shape of broom handles and usually made of locust wood. Sometimes a better fit can be obtained by running a cross-cut saw through the joint. When the surfaces fit perfectly with their nibs or ends pushed tightly together by means of a jack at one end, they are either clamped together with big iron screw clamps or are wrapped with chains with wedges driven between the chains and the timber so as to draw the wood tightly together.
Vertical holes are bored and iron or steel clinched fastenings and treenails are driven by the use of compressed air tools — air drills and air hammers. In some yards electric drills are used. Where air or electric tools are not provided the holes are bored with hand augers and the dowels and treenails are driven by sledge hammers. 

These strong joints are also useful in model ships, so it is a good idea to learn how to create them in miniature.

New Illustrations on the Shipbuilding Terms Pages

We've added some great illustrations of blocks and tackle from Wooden Ship Building by Charles Desmond to the Shipbuilding Terms pages:

Types of Sheaves and Blocks Illustration from Wooden Ship Building by Charles Desmond

Types of Tackle Illustration from Wooden Ship Building by Charles Desmond

Types of Tackle Illustration from Wooden Ship Building by Charles Desmond

Free Ship Plan 19th Century Steam Fishing Trawler

Steam-powered 19th Century fishing trawler designed by W.E. Redway

These plans, from the University of Washington Freshwater and Marine Image Bank, are of a late 19th Century steam-powered auxiliary fishing trawler of about 80 feet in length, designed by W.E. Redway.

Deck and inboard profile view of 19th Century Great Lakes
steam-powered fishing trawler designed by W.E. Redway

W. E. Redway was a Great Lakes shipbuilder in the late 1800s. 

Born in England, his father was also a shipbuilder. Redway served an apprenticeship in the Chatam dock yard in England, followed by positions in various shipyards "on the northeast coast of England and on the (River) Clyde," according to an 1897 profile in The Globe newspaper in Toronto. The River Clyde, flowing through Scotland's industrial city of Glasgow, was a major shipbuilding center during the Industrial Revolution.

Redway moved to Toronto, Canada in 1886.

Body, Sheer, and waterline plans of 19th Century Great Lakes
steam-powered fishing trawler designed by W.E. Redway

According to The Globe newspaper profile, Redway "up to June 1897, planned and constructed eleven steam vessels. These were the Imperial, the Mayflower, the Primrose, the Garden City, the Mascotte, the Mistassini, the Medora and others. He also framed the Gooderham yachts Cleopatra and Oriole. Hearing of some of his good work, the managers of the Union shipyards at Buffalo sent for Mr. Redway, and he was there second in charge of the building of the steamer Ramapo, being occupied for six months of the year of 1895 at that work."

Our Favorite Model Shipbuilding Book

One of the best all-around ship model building books for those contemplating building from scratch, Charles G. Davis' The Shipmodel Builder's Assistant also has tons of useful info ship model kit builders can use to improve their result.

New Illustrations in Shipbuilding Terms pages

We've been adding illustrations from vintage shipbuilding books to our Glossary of Shipbuilding Terms pages. Check them out:

Types of Rabbets, illustration fromThe Elements of Wood Ship Construction by William H. Curtis