134 replies to this topic

[Captain Grog]

Is there any chance of this becoming a 3 or even 4 deck ship?

[ZCerberus]

Captain Grog, on 18 January 2011 - 04:31 PM, said:

Is there any chance of this becoming a 3 or even 4 deck ship?

Nope.  This is as tall as she will get.

I made the main and fore masts 6 studs taller.

There are still some wholes in the decking, but thanks to a bricklink order, the back side is now fully "skinned".

First order of business will be to fill those holes, then start some of the rigging.

[plokoon 4 life!]

impressive! you never cease to amaze me Z, and this proves it. ive noticed how this is much shorter than the old version had, as that had more guns on the bottom gundeck and had about 65 guns all together. i prefer this version

[Perfectionist]

ZCerberus, on 12 January 2011 - 04:01 PM, said:

As much as I like the changes you made, especially your new dark blue/ pearl gold stern (lovely combination btw) I am still not sure about your hull design. It looks far too squarish in my opinion. It should also narrow much, much more towards the stern. I think this photo shows best what I mean.



Anyway, I wish you the best of luck completing her! She's great so far! Rigging can be a pain tough...

[ZCerberus]

Perfectionist, on 26 January 2011 - 09:36 PM, said:

As much as I like the changes you made, especially your new dark blue/ pearl gold stern (lovely combination btw) I am still not sure about your hull design. It looks far too squarish in my opinion. It should also narrow much, much more towards the stern. I think this photo shows best what I mean.



Anyway, I wish you the best of luck completing her! She's great so far! Rigging can be a pain tough...

There are some issues I have with the ship as well.

1) the bow curves too quickly.  This is something I was aware of, but I wanted to see how it would look with the stern before doing a rebuild.  I now know it bothers me enough that I am going to change it.  I moved it onto another table last night so I could walk around it and see how she faired... though she looks good from the front, looking from the back or 3/4 to the back, the front of the ship just disappears.  I am also strongly considering changing the black plates on the bottom of the ship to brown as well.  We'll see how I like that.

2) the stern/poop is too tall... but because of the snot technique, I have to trim it down in multiples of 5 plates.  The verdict...  I am going to trim her down by 5 plates.  That will cause me to make a bunch of changes in the stern and the stern cabin, but I think they will ultimately be worth it.

3) the space between the gun ports is too small.  Right now it is 5 studs between ports... it should be more like 7 studs.  That would help make the ship look sleeker... I think the beam width is decently close to what it should be... (30+ studs right now) but the length is probably not close to what it should be! To change the spacing between the gun ports would mean the ship would need to be about 26 studs longer which I think would make a huge difference.  It would probably also weigh another 10 pounds... but so what... that is A LOT to change.  

Right now I am STRONGLY considering doing it anyway!  Yes, the stern should curve in a little more... not easy to do with the way the cabin is set up.  It looks good from the back, but not as good from up top.  ALL of the things I don't like contribute to the hull looking too square.  We'll see how it shapes up with some of the changes outlined above.

[Perfectionist]

ZCerberus, on 26 January 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

There are some issues I have with the ship as well.
I am also strongly considering changing the black plates on the bottom of the ship to brown as well.  We'll see how I like that.

Why not use white? I think it would work better with your other colours and it's historically accurate for ships that had no copper plating.

ZCerberus, on 26 January 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

3) the space between the gun ports is too small.  Right now it is 5 studs between ports... it should be more like 7 studs.

When I was working on Superbe a while ago, i took a look in some books like Anatomy of the ship: HMS Bellona that proved very helpful. I took some measurements and indeed a 7 stud spacing between the gunports is not just best looking, but also historically most accurate.
However, the gunports would have different sizes, i.e. the bigger the guns, the bigger the gunports. Hence in some situations a 5 stud spacing could occur, though more likely on the topdeck

I like that you made your gunports on the poop 2 studs instead of 3 though!  

I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to make her longer, but a length/width ratio of slightly less than 4:1 would be accurate.

That's just valid if you want to build a 18th century third rate though, on a fantasy vessel you can do it however you like  

[ZCerberus]

Perfectionist, on 26 January 2011 - 11:13 PM, said:

Why not use white? I think it would work better with your other colours and it's historically accurate for ships that had no copper plating.

though the brown could look like non-shiny copper too... what was sort of my thought.  since this ship is a "just above the water line" type look to it.

Perfectionist, on 26 January 2011 - 11:13 PM, said:

I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to make her longer, but a length/width ratio of slightly less than 4:1 would be accurate.

So if it is 30-36 it should be 120-130ish studs long... it might be close to that now... but I am not sure exactly... all I know is it looks a little chunky as it is!

Edited by ZCerberus, 27 January 2011 - 01:42 PM.

[ZCerberus]

ZCerberus, on 27 January 2011 - 12:19 AM, said:

So if it is 30-36 it should be 120-130ish studs long... it might be close to that now... but I am not sure exactly... all I know is it looks a little chunky as it is!

Okay... so the beam width is 38ish studs which means it should be about 150 studs long... it is only about 120ish studs now.  That means adding 26 studs by expanding the space between the gun ports by two studs a crack would be right about spot on.  Also means basically rebuilding the ship... on the hand with the technique already down, it might not be as terrible as it seems... I am going to keep the width about where it is, since it seem to be right about where I want it!

[Phred]

ZCerberus, on 26 January 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

There are some issues I have with the ship as well.

1) the bow curves too quickly.  This is something I was aware of, but I wanted to see how it would look with the stern before doing a rebuild.  I now know it bothers me enough that I am going to change it.  I moved it onto another table last night so I could walk around it and see how she faired... though she looks good from the front, looking from the back or 3/4 to the back, the front of the ship just disappears.  I am also strongly considering changing the black plates on the bottom of the ship to brown as well.  We'll see how I like that.

I do not believe the bow coming out so fast is that big of a deal.  Most hulls at the bow have close to a semi-circular shape, an then railing is added going to where the figurehead is located and bowsprit is mounted to give the bow a more pointed look.

ZCerberus, on 26 January 2011 - 10:30 PM, said:

3) the space between the gun ports is too small.  Right now it is 5 studs between ports... it should be more like 7 studs.  That would help make the ship look sleeker...

The 7-stud spacing would make the ship more realistic to mini-fig scale.

[ZCerberus]

Phred, on 27 January 2011 - 07:05 PM, said:

I do not believe the bow coming out so fast is that big of a deal.  Most hulls at the bow have close to a semi-circular shape, an then railing is added going to where the figurehead is located and bowsprit is mounted to give the bow a more pointed look.

It is a'ight as it is, but I think it will be nice to have the curve ever so slightly longer.  going to the wider spacing between the ports means I have a shot to change it anyways!