This is a large kit of 3D model components and a set of tutorials for making a class of ships commonly known as “dhows” and “feluccas.” It fills a gap in the tools available for 3D modelers of the traditional ships of the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and East Africa.
The tutorials are in the form of five documents. These explain what dhows and feluccas are, what sets them apart from Western, Scandinavian and Asian ships, shows all the parts of the Construction Kit, explains how different parts of dhows and feluccas "work," and basically explains how to use parts in the Kit to make your own dhow or felucca. You can read the first document in the tutorial set to get a better idea of everything that is in this package. Download it here, for free. Preface - Construction Kit - Dhows And Feluccas
Why you want to spend $100.00 on this Kit:
When I built my first reasonably accurate model of a traditional cargo dhow, it took me about two weeks.
Admittedly, some of this time was spent on research, some was spent on teaching myself to accurately loft a hull from the old technical drawings. Full days were spent on faithfully modelling the standing rigging - exactly following the old technical drawings from the 18th Century. Only to discover that these lines couldn't possibly be correct: such rigging would never really work in practice! (There is an advantage to being a life-long sailor myself.)
But, then I built a lot of old dhow and traditional felucca models. Did a lot more research! Modelling certain things like hulls, ribs, standing rigging and sails over and over again helped me to discover techniques for building these much more accurately and quickly. Reduced the time needed from days to fractions of hours.
Using parts in this Kit, you can build an accurate medium-to-high-resolution dhow or felucca of your own unique design in about four hours. Five to six hours if you want a high resolution, AAA-grade model with weathered textures. If you need to make several models of different ships for your project, this is your tool.
This is why you want to spend $100 on this Construction Kit.
Sailboat boat mast hull sail anchor cleat deck ribs cabin