Custom Hull Tutorial

[Dunkleosteus]

Tutorial

https://www.flickr.c...../<br /><br />

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Thanks for sharing these insights!

That means I have to buy hundreds of hinges...

[Dunkleosteus]

Thanks for sharing these insights!

That means I have to buy hundreds of hinges...

[Alamai]

one main problem might be the colours of those hinges.. some colours are pretty rare and due to this pretty expensive. something, one should keep in mind when planing the ships colours. just checked it on bricklink, there are not many colours for those hinges at all

but the technique is awesome. capable of the smoothest brickbuild hulls i have seen for a while.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Alamai

[Kolonialbeamter]

Funniest tutorial ever

This needs to be indexed right away!

You forgot one major character in that presentation, though... Where's Stacey?! And don't say she took the pictures, I'm not falling for that again!

[chofus]

Nice technique, will probably try something like that.

[Brickmasta]

Going to work on that then... need to buy thousands of them :D but really unfortunate that there are not many colors, black is good to get, maybe also grey and tan.. rest is low :(

[Yawgmoth]

I am trying for some time now, something similiar, a kind of hybrid,using prefab hull below, and hinges from the midheight and above, the higher it gets, the less manageable it becomes I can assure that, for obvious reasons haha, it gets less and less space between bricks to still form a curve... And thats something I had always wanted to ask you, how do you manage that? have you tested this out in real bricks?

I'll upload an image when I get to clean a little some mess I got here on my room :P

Edited April 2, 2015 by Yawgmoth

[Brickmasta]

I am trying for some time now, something similiar, a kind of hybrid,using prefab hull below, and hinges from the midheight and above, the higher it gets, the less manageable it becomes I can assure that, for obvious reasons haha, it gets less and less space between bricks to still form a curve... And thats something I had always wanted to ask you, how do you manage that? have you tested this out in real bricks?

I'll upload an image when I get to clean a little some mess I got here on my room :P

This is something that is also coming to my mind... but I will try it out also as soon as I have my bricks :D

[Yawgmoth]

Here it is a little preview... I gotta make a thread.. something like a WIP thing or the like, but right now I am just awaiting for shipments to come to my home to keep building hehe

It is still just a prototype... there's several pieces of different colors than the desired ones, and a lot of errors... just desingning and giving me a general idea while I have some fun building hehe.. until the right pieces arrive!

Edited April 2, 2015 by Yawgmoth

[Master_Data]

Thanks for sharing. I might just try it!

[Robinson]

Very interesting and helpful topic, I keep my eyes on it.

[kurigan]

A long time ago I too developed a ship building method in LDD which I thought was the “bee’s knees” and on it built a not inconsiderable fleet which I was all too eager to share with the world (well Eurobricks anyway). For a long time I was reluctant to share my LFX files, for fear of plagiarism, but in time I got over it and put a couple examples up to share with others I saw struggling with more conventional methods. At no point along the way did I stop to pick up a few bricks and try it out before spending months embroiled in ever more advanced designs. I still hold those ships dear in my memory (most were lost in a HDD crash) but have abandoned the method even after defending it vehemently against criticism from all sides. When I finally pulled together enough bricks to prototype in real plastic, the entire concept fell apart, literally. In the limitless, weightless environment of LDD it didn’t matter, but on my desktop, the hull of Snake just kept coming apart in sections and the deck wanted to collapse under the weight of her own rigging. Take a look back at the old WIP topic and compare it to Maidstone (one of my premier designs of that method). You can see all the extra support I had to add to keep her together and she’s still a fragile construct. I took Snake pretty far before losing confidence in the technique. Now I find my method is miles ahead of that and could have gotten there years ago had I not been so stubborn, and maybe listened to a few of those critics.

So what does all that mean to you? Well, maybe nothing, though I do wish to raise some questions about your method in general without seeming arrogant, aggressive or overly critical. I’ve been on the receiving end of that far too often to allow it from myself, so I preface my post in an attempt to relate.

Without a LFX to investigate, I can only guess, but I see some potential problems with your method. Chief amongst these is maintaining shape along the hull’s length. The curve along the side of a ship is not constant. More of a parabola it tends to be more shallow aft ward than foreword. The effect on your ships is evident but how have you achieved it? On the bow of my latest WIPs I’ve been using the conventional method, which I think we can attribute to CGH, but I’m not really sure. What I’ve run into is difficulty in keeping any one of those 2429c01 from going flat or folding too far and misshaping the bow, something like this. My solution has been to increase the points of contact with the armature, adding support and putting them under greater tension (from this to this ). Though the reorientation of the 2429c01 in your method is rather ingenious, if simple, it’s a similar enough arrangement to make me wonder if you will run into the same trouble along the entire length of the hull. What sort of structure do you have below decks, to maintain the shape as such?

I can make out no connection between the individual sections along the gunwale leading me to believe that each section must support its self from the 3937c01 (or whatever other hinge is employed) on up. I tried something similar, though significantly more rudimentary, on my now destroyed schooner Raven and a previous iteration of Scorpion. Frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. Every time I wanted to show it off I had to reset the sections as gravity had had its way and pulled them down. What was worse; trying to get the walls to support anything but themselves, like shrouds, was impossible. Again, simply because I cannot make it out, does not mean it’s not there, but I see no support mechanism in place against this eventuality, aside from where the decks are built up high enough to do the job.

In an earlier post you stated that the brick-built sails were simply there for effect (I’m paraphrasing) but would likely not be included on any real world versions. Do you have any designs on sails and/or rigging of any kind if you were to bring them to life in plastic? My primary concern relates again to the under structure and the flexibility all those hinges will give to the hull.

At the heart of it all; though the ships you’ve presented built with this method are utterly beautiful, I simply cannot fathom them holding up physically. Even if you managed to arrange them just so, they could not be moved without having to be, perhaps entirely, rearranged. Just dusting them off would be the most delicate chore. If I’m wrong, please tell, or better yet, show me. Make it a discussion; it’s just the kind of thing a community like this thrives on and is great for. If I’m not wrong, I’d be happy to help out and try to solve these issues. I can’t be the only one either; there simply has to be more members who share my sentiments of both concern and enthusiasm.

I apologize for taking up such a large section of your thread and sincerely hope you assume upon only my best intentions. It’s a rarity I speak up anymore and when I do you can be assured it stems from the greatest passion. At the very least, understand that it takes a lot of time and effort to compose a post like this so please don’t dismiss it.

Thanks for sharing all your lovely ships and this very well put together and entertaining tutorial.

P.S. I actually really like that micro ship from slide 5 :D

[Dunkleosteus]

A long time ago I too developed a ship building method in LDD which I thought was the “bee’s knees” and on it built a not inconsiderable fleet which I was all too eager to share with the world (well Eurobricks anyway). For a long time I was reluctant to share my LFX files, for fear of plagiarism, but in time I got over it and put a couple examples up to share with others I saw struggling with more conventional methods. At no point along the way did I stop to pick up a few bricks and try it out before spending months embroiled in ever more advanced designs. I still hold those ships dear in my memory (most were lost in a HDD crash) but have abandoned the method even after defending it vehemently against criticism from all sides. When I finally pulled together enough bricks to prototype in real plastic, the entire concept fell apart, literally. In the limitless, weightless environment of LDD it didn’t matter, but on my desktop, the hull of Snake just kept coming apart in sections and the deck wanted to collapse under the weight of her own rigging. Take a look back at the old WIP topic and compare it to Maidstone (one of my premier designs of that method). You can see all the extra support I had to add to keep her together and she’s still a fragile construct. I took Snake pretty far before losing confidence in the technique. Now I find my method is miles ahead of that and could have gotten there years ago had I not been so stubborn, and maybe listened to a few of those critics.

So what does all that mean to you? Well, maybe nothing, though I do wish to raise some questions about your method in general without seeming arrogant, aggressive or overly critical. I’ve been on the receiving end of that far too often to allow it from myself, so I preface my post in an attempt to relate.

Without a LFX to investigate, I can only guess, but I see some potential problems with your method. Chief amongst these is maintaining shape along the hull’s length. The curve along the side of a ship is not constant. More of a parabola it tends to be more shallow aft ward than foreword. The effect on your ships is evident but how have you achieved it? On the bow of my latest WIPs I’ve been using the conventional method, which I think we can attribute to CGH, but I’m not really sure. What I’ve run into is difficulty in keeping any one of those 2429c01 from going flat or folding too far and misshaping the bow, something like this. My solution has been to increase the points of contact with the armature, adding support and putting them under greater tension (from this to this ). Though the reorientation of the 2429c01 in your method is rather ingenious, if simple, it’s a similar enough arrangement to make me wonder if you will run into the same trouble along the entire length of the hull. What sort of structure do you have below decks, to maintain the shape as such?

I can make out no connection between the individual sections along the gunwale leading me to believe that each section must support its self from the 3937c01 (or whatever other hinge is employed) on up. I tried something similar, though significantly more rudimentary, on my now destroyed schooner Raven and a previous iteration of Scorpion. Frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. Every time I wanted to show it off I had to reset the sections as gravity had had its way and pulled them down. What was worse; trying to get the walls to support anything but themselves, like shrouds, was impossible. Again, simply because I cannot make it out, does not mean it’s not there, but I see no support mechanism in place against this eventuality, aside from where the decks are built up high enough to do the job.

In an earlier post you stated that the brick-built sails were simply there for effect (I’m paraphrasing) but would likely not be included on any real world versions. Do you have any designs on sails and/or rigging of any kind if you were to bring them to life in plastic? My primary concern relates again to the under structure and the flexibility all those hinges will give to the hull.

At the heart of it all; though the ships you’ve presented built with this method are utterly beautiful, I simply cannot fathom them holding up physically. Even if you managed to arrange them just so, they could not be moved without having to be, perhaps entirely, rearranged. Just dusting them off would be the most delicate chore. If I’m wrong, please tell, or better yet, show me. Make it a discussion; it’s just the kind of thing a community like this thrives on and is great for. If I’m not wrong, I’d be happy to help out and try to solve these issues. I can’t be the only one either; there simply has to be more members who share my sentiments of both concern and enthusiasm.

I apologize for taking up such a large section of your thread and sincerely hope you assume upon only my best intentions. It’s a rarity I speak up anymore and when I do you can be assured it stems from the greatest passion. At the very least, understand that it takes a lot of time and effort to compose a post like this so please don’t dismiss it.

Thanks for sharing all your lovely ships and this very well put together and entertaining tutorial.

P.S. I actually really like that micro ship from slide 5 :D

Dear Kurigan! This is just great that you're interested in my method, and it's double great to read so many intelligent considerations! It was a real pleasure for me to explore your review.

As I have written on the first slide of my little tutorial, the technique works in LDD and may work in real plastic, but I never tested it.. Of course, my humble knowledge of terrestrial gravitation suggests to me that transferring of my technology into real bricks definitely should be a great challenge. For today I haven't any single brick to implement the idea into non-virtual lego, and to be honest I don't see this as a problem. Firstly, LDD is merely a remarkable thing itself, Secondly...There is no necessity for me to be the one who will try to figure out how it could be implemented. Special board mounting or special stand? Who knows what will be the solution for it?) At the moment I'm 23 and I have no particular desire and financial opportunity, but..I know that there are those who prefer touchable lego bricks and I sincerely respect their passion!

The reason why I've made this tutorial - a delicate desire to share my experience in the field of sailing ships virtual creation. Personally, I see no difference between the creation in reality or virtual reality, the most important processes still taking place inside the human's head and if the embodiment of these images delights eyes and romanticizes hearts.. This is enough for me.

Funniest tutorial ever

This needs to be indexed right away!

You forgot one major character in that presentation, though... Where's Stacey?! And don't say she took the pictures, I'm not falling for that again!

Thank you, my friend)

Alas, no one but you and I knows Stacey, so I decided to leave her behind the scenes.. At the same time you can find there another equal insane probably female creation!

Edited April 3, 2015 by Dunkleosteus

[Brickmasta]

I am preparing to give this a try as i was bothering Dunkleosteus for weeks to share a tutorial about this technique usually it should work as LDD is checking for collisions / conflicts so I am not worrying about the angle of the hull when combining all the hinges with the brick ... and what I have seen, it is not supporting itself from bottom up to deck, but the other way around. You build the core deck structure, and the hull is then placed from top on the deck, the hull walls just "hanging" down.

That is the theory... can't explain it any better, kinda lack the vocabular for that in english But I will try it as soon as I have all the parts and will provide all details and progress here

Edited April 3, 2015 by Brickmasta

[Captain Edward]

Wow! i did not know that technique was actually quite simple to explain, because your ships look marvelous! Once, when I get a job and all that, I'm going to make a ship using these techniques! I hope you keep these online for a while! Really interesting. I got now loads of inspiration. My favorite ship s are 3rd rate SotL's and Light Frigates (Like the HMS Surprise) So I might just like to remake the HMS Implacable, Renown or Surprise. Or maybe the Victory? Nah, I must start small

Thank you, really thank you for this. But first, let me finish my remake of Master And Commander in Legos (movie)

Regards, Captain Edward

[Jreacher]

Thanks for sharing these insights!

That means I have to buy hundreds of hinges...

Yes that was great! However I now must also buy hundreds of hinges haha. I enjoyed the way you presented it also. Very easy to understand, great reference pictures and it gave me Ideas for my own ship.

Thank You

[Capn Frank]

Great tutorial Dunkleosteus! I'm really happy that you took the time to create and share this tutorial.

Enjoy your new tag.

[LegoPanda]

Congrats on the tag

[Dunkleosteus]

Great tutorial Dunkleosteus! I'm really happy that you took the time to create and share this tutorial.

Enjoy your new tag.

Blimey! It is a great honor for me humble soul Thank you!

Congrats on the tag

Yes that was great! However I now must also buy hundreds of hinges haha. I enjoyed the way you presented it also. Very easy to understand, great reference pictures and it gave me Ideas for my own ship.

Thank You

Wow! i did not know that technique was actually quite simple to explain, because your ships look marvelous! Once, when I get a job and all that, I'm going to make a ship using these techniques! I hope you keep these online for a while! Really interesting. I got now loads of inspiration. My favorite ship s are 3rd rate SotL's and Light Frigates (Like the HMS Surprise) So I might just like to remake the HMS Implacable, Renown or Surprise. Or maybe the Victory? Nah, I must start small

Thank you, really thank you for this. But first, let me finish my remake of Master And Commander in Legos (movie)

Regards, Captain Edward

Very interesting and helpful topic, I keep my eyes on it.

Thanks for sharing. I might just try it!

Large Thanks to all of you!

Edited April 5, 2015 by Dunkleosteus

[Wellesley]

Nice use of prefab hulls for bigger ships.

Could become one of those heavy frigates they used in the early 19th century around after the states joined napoleon in the war against the kingdom.

But the stern looks more like an earlier frigate.

Anyways, keep it up.

Now im nearly finished with my ship of the line and the technique i used for my hull works well for the astern part of the ship, but actually with more hinges and use of newer bricks for the bow, my ship wouldn't look so edgy out of some angles.

Maybe I will rework the shape step by step, but with the rig standing, it could be a hard task.

If anyone has some ideas, which techniques or bricks for changing the bow would fit in the overall design of my ship, I would like, if you would comment in my thread.

There are so many vessels, like this here, which have a better shape of the hull than mine. Thought it would be cool to use a design with almost classical bricks to stay in the lego look. But actually it seems to be better to stick with all you can get.

Greetings,

Wellesley

Edited May 8, 2015 by Wellesley

[Sebeus I]

This is all very interesting,

I really want to try this technique of yours in real bricks,

I may end up building a rainbow warrior though, it's very hinge brick/ hinge plate -consuming .

Thanks for the insight.

[iammac]

I keep returning for one more look. I enjoy tutorials like this one. Keep it up!

[Dean2113]

On 4/3/2015 at 9:27 AM, kurigan said:

A long time ago I too developed a ship building method in LDD which I thought was the “bee’s knees” and on it built a not inconsiderable fleet which I was all too eager to share with the world (well Eurobricks anyway). For a long time I was reluctant to share my LFX files, for fear of plagiarism, but in time I got over it and put a couple examples up to share with others I saw struggling with more conventional methods. At no point along the way did I stop to pick up a few bricks and try it out before spending months embroiled in ever more advanced designs. I still hold those ships dear in my memory (most were lost in a HDD crash) but have abandoned the method even after defending it vehemently against criticism from all sides. When I finally pulled together enough bricks to prototype in real plastic, the entire concept fell apart, literally. In the limitless, weightless environment of LDD it didn’t matter, but on my desktop, the hull of Snake just kept coming apart in sections and the deck wanted to collapse under the weight of her own rigging. Take a look back at the old WIP topic and compare it to Maidstone (one of my premier designs of that method). You can see all the extra support I had to add to keep her together and she’s still a fragile construct. I took Snake pretty far before losing confidence in the technique. Now I find my method is miles ahead of that and could have gotten there years ago had I not been so stubborn, and maybe listened to a few of those critics.

So what does all that mean to you? Well, maybe nothing, though I do wish to raise some questions about your method in general without seeming arrogant, aggressive or overly critical. I’ve been on the receiving end of that far too often to allow it from myself, so I preface my post in an attempt to relate.

Without a LFX to investigate, I can only guess, but I see some potential problems with your method. Chief amongst these is maintaining shape along the hull’s length. The curve along the side of a ship is not constant. More of a parabola it tends to be more shallow aft ward than foreword. The effect on your ships is evident but how have you achieved it? On the bow of my latest WIPs I’ve been using the conventional method, which I think we can attribute to CGH, but I’m not really sure. What I’ve run into is difficulty in keeping any one of those 2429c01 from going flat or folding too far and misshaping the bow, something like this. My solution has been to increase the points of contact with the armature, adding support and putting them under greater tension (from this to this ). Though the reorientation of the 2429c01 in your method is rather ingenious, if simple, it’s a similar enough arrangement to make me wonder if you will run into the same trouble along the entire length of the hull. What sort of structure do you have below decks, to maintain the shape as such?

I can make out no connection between the individual sections along the gunwale leading me to believe that each section must support its self from the 3937c01 (or whatever other hinge is employed) on up. I tried something similar, though significantly more rudimentary, on my now destroyed schooner Raven and a previous iteration of Scorpion. Frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. Every time I wanted to show it off I had to reset the sections as gravity had had its way and pulled them down. What was worse; trying to get the walls to support anything but themselves, like shrouds, was impossible. Again, simply because I cannot make it out, does not mean it’s not there, but I see no support mechanism in place against this eventuality, aside from where the decks are built up high enough to do the job.

In an earlier post you stated that the brick-built sails were simply there for effect (I’m paraphrasing) but would likely not be included on any real world versions. Do you have any designs on sails and/or rigging of any kind if you were to bring them to life in plastic? My primary concern relates again to the under structure and the flexibility all those hinges will give to the hull.

At the heart of it all; though the ships you’ve presented built with this method are utterly beautiful, I simply cannot fathom them holding up physically. Even if you managed to arrange them just so, they could not be moved without having to be, perhaps entirely, rearranged. Just dusting them off would be the most delicate chore. If I’m wrong, please tell, or better yet, show me. Make it a discussion; it’s just the kind of thing a community like this thrives on and is great for. If I’m not wrong, I’d be happy to help out and try to solve these issues. I can’t be the only one either; there simply has to be more members who share my sentiments of both concern and enthusiasm.

I apologize for taking up such a large section of your thread and sincerely hope you assume upon only my best intentions. It’s a rarity I speak up anymore and when I do you can be assured it stems from the greatest passion. At the very least, understand that it takes a lot of time and effort to compose a post like this so please don’t dismiss it.

Thanks for sharing all your lovely ships and this very well put together and entertaining tutorial.

P.S. I actually really like that micro ship from slide 5 :D

I am currently facing the same issue, although I am attempting to build a larger ship more specifically a third rate, using the hinge plate and curved slope technique for the bow. I am facing difficulties when trying to reinforce the shape from the inside as there is only 1 point of contact between the curved slopes and and the hinge plates. Do you have any suggestions as to how to overcome this. See link for image. https://www.tipsandbricks.co.uk/post/723-techniques-creating-a-rounded-boat-hull 

P.s I did not come up with this technique nor do I take credit for it.

[kurigan]

23 hours ago, Dean2113 said:

I am currently facing the same issue, although I am attempting to build a larger ship more specifically a third rate, using the hinge plate and curved slope technique for the bow. I am facing difficulties when trying to reinforce the shape from the inside as there is only 1 point of contact between the curved slopes and and the hinge plates. Do you have any suggestions as to how to overcome this. See link for image. https://www.tipsandbricks.co.uk/post/723-techniques-creating-a-rounded-boat-hull 

P.s I did not come up with this technique nor do I take credit for it.

Are you asking me? I don't know. Perhaps I misunderstand, but I never did any work in this style. My own stuff is rather different. @Kolonialbeamter is your guy for making this technique work IRL. My own bows aren't very dissimilar, but only need a couple points of contact due to the tension exerted by the rest of the hull.

 

 Dave