625 ton Venetian Carrack circa 1450, scratchbuilt, 1/700

This is my first attempt at scratchbuilding; carracks are a ship type perhaps nearer and dearer to my heart then even my beloved pre-dreadnoughts.

In the Conway's History Of The Ship volume "Cogs, Caravels, and Galleons", length and beam, among other dimensional tidbits, are given for a carrack listed in the Timbotta Manuscript, 140 feet by 38.6 feet.

This gives a length to beam ratio of roughly 3.6:1, a tad on the narrow side from what I've read about carracks, but it's exactly the ratio that Bjorn Landstrom gives in his book "The Ship" for a ship of 125 feet in the same manuscript.

The stempost is mentioned as being 51 feet above the keel, and 12 feet taller then the sternpost...I've been a little dismayed by the appearance of my work so far, the amount of freeboard seems extraordinary, but the height of the stem above the waterline scales out to 34 feet; guesstimation makes me think that 16 feet of draught is in the "acceptable" range...

Here's the Timbotta Manuscript illustration I'm using as my guide:

The amount of curvature in the sheer strake seems excessive to me, too excessive; I'll be playing around with that.

Masting and rigging will be based on WA's "Kraeck" woodcut of circa 1468, with some free interpretation as needed/desired.

I began with seven layers of .020" Evergreen stock laminated together, and roughed some lower hull contours into it forming a raft.
Doubting the dimensions I mentioned above, went with a straightforward 3:1 length to beam ratio.
It didn't look "right", yet I persevered and began adding and shaping by eye some templated onto the raft.

It was looking even less satisfying.

I pared about .080" of beam off of my beginning, creating a very slab sided and awkward looking thing, with ratios more fitting for an 18th century frigate, so I re-introduced some beam in the form of slabs of .020" stock slapped to the sides, remembered that I didn't take into account the amount of overhang the stempost has in the overall length, so I removed the appropriate amount of stern, and went to work with the sandpaper to achieve this hull shape, up to the upper deck:

A little forward motion with the fitting of the of the stern counter piece (correct term?) with the tiller opening:

You can see where I've marked the locations for false ribs that will be visible; I'm only going a semi plank-on-frame route; it uses less plastic, mail order is my only source for Evergreen stock, and I'm impatient!

Please excuse my nasty workbench.