Then the hull is sanded to shape, taken apart and reassembled. I have seen this done by building a rough out frame then a spacer and another frame so on the length of the hull. In short a rough hull was assembled and the hull was shaped as one piece.

If anyone here has the book Navy Board Ship Models by John Franklin maybe they would post the section on how these model were built. Like i said i have done this using sigh board which is a dense foam board that works and sands easy. You will have to add the inside shape of the frames but that is easy to do. Now, once you have the hull shaped you slice it like a loaf or bread then use these slices and trace them. you can reduce the scale to make it easier or if you want make the 1/2 hull the size of the model you want to build.

Next step is to use these drawings and build a 1/2 hull that is a solid shape of the hull. What is available are the hull lines and bodyplan from the NMM do not order a paper copy of the plans or you will end up with a huge set of drawings and expensive. There is another way to approach getting the frame shapes. I am a draftsman not trained as in marine drafting that is something i did on the side as a hobby, so i know it is very difficult to draw out a hull with all the timbering.