My first attempt at a real ship. The NOAAS Thomas Jefferson (S222) is a hydrographic survey vessel of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is stationed a short walk from my front door in Norfolk VA. I have been staring at it for years multiple times a week as the PETA headquarters across from its berth has an awesome dog park (I know PETA blah, but the dog park really is awesome). The Thomas Jefferson shares its home base with the Stalwart class conversion NOAAS Gordon Gunter (R336) which has already been drawn by WhyMe so I am using parts and colors from his drawing to maintain some consistency.
I have been drawing the basic hull off of a line drawing available on the NOAA website. The government shut down actually stalled this project as I has just started my research and had to wait for their site to come back up to download it.
![[ img ]](http://www.moc.noaa.gov/tj/specs/tj_line_drawing.jpg)
Its a pretty old drawing but it worked for basic hull dimensions and it is the only source for the underwater hull I could find. I am using my own pictures for the details. Here is my progress so far:
![[ img ]](http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Shipright/FFLX/s222.png)
Most of the gear aft and the antennas on the top of the bridge/mast are completely different from the line drawing, they are unfinished as I have to snap some better pictures to get them correct. In the mean time I thought I'd post my WIP to see if there is anything I can improve/and outright errors some of you more experienced types might find as I know there are plenty. Thanks!
![[ img ]](http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Shipright/FFLX/s222-2.png)