I'm not really a modeller, but I found this forum by chance when I was searching for information on the steam bending of wood for modelling purposes; I haven't discovered too much new stuff on that subject — but instead, a goldmine of other extremely interesting things.
My intention is to build the hull model, at least, of a wooden fishing vessel, about 40' long, full size; it will be a static model scaled to no more than 25" in length, because I'm interested in the design and construction of working boats of this type that were built around the British coast — and that size suits me best as my workshop has very little working space left. Building an accurate look-a-like model is not so important as long as it is dimensionally representative; it may never get finished — it's the actual process of creating the thing from my own drawings, and seeing it through to the build stage, that appeals to me. The plans I shall do myself: the hull shape will be started off on the drawing board, at the same scale as the model, then finished off using surface modelling software, and when I'm finally satisfied with the shape and form of it, co-ordinates will be taken from the 3D model and transferred to wood, and so on.
As far as possible I'd like to avoid buying wood if I can, as I have a stockpile of various bits and pieces of different woods, although no doubt I'll have to buy some. At the moment though, I'm still exploring this vast website!
Dave