77 replies to this topic

[matt22hew]

Hello all,

New member but have always had a personal affection for legos. Had the coastal clipper and a few other ships when I was very young and was always jealous of my friend who had a BSB.

Fast forward 20 or so years and I saw the Imperial Flagship being touted as the largest lego ship. Went out and bought it and the madness began. I was at first going to buy another IFS and simply make a large one out of two. But I recently took a trip to Europe on business and went to the Netherlands and stayed in Valkenburg (NICE TOWN!) Then I was off to london where I had an extra day to travel to Portsmouth. I went there exclusivley to see the victory as I always admired the ship. Needless to say she is my inspiration.

I lurked around these forums for about a month checking out some designs and I must say I never knew there was such a big following for this!

Anywaythis is a works in progress. The ship will be three modules with the bow, center and stern being detachable. Also the center section's side panels are completely detachable with the infrastructer being the meat and potatoes of the ridgitity.

I hope you like it so far and I am of course open to suggestions and will try to answer all questions.

[Horry]

Welcome to Eurobricks! This is a very nice and thoughtful work so far and I hope that your computer will be able to finish the whole project - it gets quite exhausted if LDD gets over a certain amount of bricks  

Are you planning to brickbuild this? Because this would be a HUGE project!

As for suggestions: If you go for accuracy, you should position the gunports not above each other but in a chequered manner. If you have a look your great picture of the Victory (I admire you for having been there!) you will see that there it is the same. This was necessary in order for the ship's framing to withstand the tremendeous energy produced by the recoil of a broadside. The kinetic energy would rupture the planking and maybe even the frames if the cannons would be positioned in direct vertical lines.

But anyway, this is a very good way to introduce you here at Eurobricks!  

[Sebeus I]

Very nice so far, I think it should be wider though, I also agree with Horry about the position of the gun ports.
For the rest it looks good, keep it up  

[MikeHaggarKJ]

Wow, that looks incredible.
Nice work on the sides, really gives it a nice shape

[Hiawatha]

Great job so far! I can't wait to see the finished product!

[Admiral Croissant]

Great that you've been to the Victory, I think it made many of us feel jealous!
The model also looks quite promising so far, but there's also room for improvement.
The checkered gunports as Horry said, is one thing.
Another thing is that the yellow gunline would look more interesting and realistic if it had a slight curve.
The shape of the hull could also be improved a little, and I'm not sure about the bricks you're using.
On a ship with one gundeck it might work, but I'm afraid you will get this effect:

While it should look more like this (although slightly exaggarated):


And finally, I think the masts are a bit too thick compared to the rest of the vessel.

This may seem like a long list, but it's better to name these things when you start than when it's almost finished.
Good luck, and before I forget: Welcome to Eurobricks!

[matt22hew]

Hello all,

Thanks you all for the replies and suggestions!

Regarding the masts, I have since made them the smaller. I was just starting to incorporate them into the project when I posted the pics and they did look quite silly!

Also for the gun ports I will try and post another few screenshots of the ship at direct broadside. They are staggered by a single brick but perhaps making them a full two brick offset would look nicer.

As far as the shape goes I would love to get the perfect "Flask" look but I think I will have to stick with the current side design. If and when I order bricks I might try and work something a bit different and experiment however.

I would love to make here a bit wider as someone mentioned but I want to try and keep it slightly smaller for placement in my house if it ever becomes real brick!

And yeah my little laptop starts to bog a bit if I do anything like move joints so I think after the mid section is built I will simply create the bow and stern on a seperate file.

More pics to come soon!!!


Best,

Matt

[Derfel Cadarn]

Looks great so far, i do agree with the others, but would be interested to see the effect your ship technique has on a real brick build model. I look forward to seeing updates on this project, and welcome to Eurobrcks! Nice to see the Victory, Its odd cause Im only 30 minutes away from her, but havn't bothered to go and look round for nearly 15 years!!! Must pop in and pay her a visit soon  

[matt22hew]

Some further progress.

About to start with the bow. Which should prove quite interesting and tedious!

[matt22hew]

Have to add this pic due to the way it looks much better with the cross masts!!

I never thought this could prove to be so addicting!

Edited by matt22hew, 05 October 2011 - 05:49 AM.

[Cpt. Tristan]

Looking good! But I wonder: Will we ever be seeing this in the flesh?


~Cpt. Tristan

[matt22hew]

Cpt. Tristan, on 06 October 2011 - 03:21 AM, said:

Looking good! But I wonder: Will we ever be seeing this in the flesh?


~Cpt. Tristan

Just ordered about 3500 bricks off of bricklink!  

poof goes $400ish

Props to the fella who made the wanted brick program! def helped out in a big way. unfortunately there are going to have to be a few mondifications on the larger plates I used as I soon realized that 8X16 plates only come in green lol

[Captain Becker]

Its looking good, but i think it is a little bit too thin, usually Ship of the lines were pretty wide. But i like the ship, keep it up.

Captain Becker

[matt22hew]

I think the thin issue is an issue too. The build will likely be redone 2 bricks wider and then full checker also.

[Erdbeereis]

When you have the time, could you please resize your pictures to a maximum of 800 x 600 please? Thanks!

[matt22hew]

Erdbeereis, on 06 October 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

When you have the time, could you please resize your pictures to a maximum of 800 x 600 please? Thanks!

Good to go! Bricks are on their way! Will post the pile!

[Skipper]

Good luck with your mega project! She's looking great already.

I'm very interested to see how your technique transitions to brick as well as your solution for the bow.
I envy you for visiting the Victory, I visited England a couple years ago and for some reason didn't visit her.   I was more of a castle nut back then.

Keep it up!

[matt22hew]

The legos finally came after having to wait for the no post Columbus day to pass. As I figured I forgot to order a few bricks and have since ordered them on brick lik with a hopeful arival of Friday. But with many pieces in hand I decieded to start to experiment with the siding!

From the good suggestions made I decieded to fully stager the cannon ports. The photos do not do it justice as the lighting was not optimal and the camera I used was my motorola droid.

[ZCerberus]

Good work m'boy!

It certainly looks sleek with the method you have used.

I can tell already though that you are definatley going to want to make this ship wider!

Also, a lot of the better looking "minifig illusion" scale ships adjust the height of the gun ports/decking to make the ship look like it sloops up on the bow and stern which is how a "real" ship looks.

[matt22hew]

ZCerberus, on 12 October 2011 - 06:58 PM, said:

Good work m'boy!

It certainly looks sleek with the method you have used.

I can tell already though that you are definatley going to want to make this ship wider!

Also, a lot of the better looking "minifig illusion" scale ships adjust the height of the gun ports/decking to make the ship look like it sloops up on the bow and stern which is how a "real" ship looks.

I agree on the widening as of now the base plate width is (20) pegs. I would like 22 but that number makes flooring the decks quite painful. 24 would be optimal for plate variation but I fear it may be too wide.

I will have to play around with it.

As far as the hieghtening the gun ports at the left and right, this would be something I would like to do. I may leave the mid section as is however and make the stern and bow have two or three ports which rise very very slightly. perhaps a plate width on each. I guess experimentation will be key.

[Horatio]

matt22hew, on 12 October 2011 - 08:03 PM, said:

24 would be optimal for plate variation but I fear it may be too wide.

Actually, 24 would probably be closer to realism, because the hull of a man of war should be circular at the waist. Because you didn't build below the waterline, she might look too fat, but she'd really be just right. This is, of course, depending on your amount of bricks available. Also, is she going to be a whole ship, or just a cross-section? Because either way, she's beautiful.

[ZCerberus]

Well the beam width on a big ship like this is probably WAY over 40 feet!!  Though Horatio is right, that beam would be underwater, the ship wouldn't taper that quickly.  If you used a scale like 1 stud is 1 foot, it is still far too "thin" at 24 studs right above the waterline for a "real ship".  In fact I think the beam width on the Victory is something like 50 feet so it is likely a good 40+ feet at the waterline.  Therefore, if you use something "realistic" for the height between the decks (so minifigs can stand in there etc.), the ship is going to end up looking too "tall".  I wouldn't go all out and make the ship 40 studs wide at the waterline however because if your ship only has 4 or so studs between the gun ports, it is going to be far shorter than a realistic ship and as a result the ship will end up looking too "fat" AND too tall.  I think I would rather have it look a little tall but sleek than too "fat".

I would definatley try it at 24 and see how it looks.  I wouldn't worry about scale accuracy too much, as this is a Lego fantasy ship, but try to keep the relative proportions in mind.  No matter what happens, unless you go full scale (which is a major parts commitment) the ship will probably end up looking too long, too short, too tall... too something, but if two of the three dimensions (l, h, w) are relatively proportional, the ship will probably look pretty sweet with your technique for the siding!!!

Edited by ZCerberus, 12 October 2011 - 08:53 PM.

[matt22hew]

I suppose 24 it is!! This will be more bricks unfortunately but it will allow endless more detail within the ship when I get to that stage.

I havent really thought about making the distance between gun ports wider I guess five would be ideal based on one of my photos of  vicorty below. The only problem I see there would be plate configuration on the siding and with five and I would get an offset checker. With six between I feel it would look too spread out. I guess the more cannons the merrier so I will likely just keep it at four. Might have to experiment with six just to see how it looks.

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

This looks great in real brick!  Certainly an interesting technique.  I agree about the width I think 24 would be fine but would not go any narrower.  Mine is 22 at the bottom and you can make it work, but it gets a little tricky, my ship is also a lot "shorter".  Are you planning on curving the gun line at all?  Glad to see another ship of the line taking shape!

Dread Pirate Wesley

[matt22hew]

Horatio, on 12 October 2011 - 08:18 PM, said:

Actually, 24 would probably be closer to realism, because the hull of a man of war should be circular at the waist. Because you didn't build below the waterline, she might look too fat, but she'd really be just right. This is, of course, depending on your amount of bricks available. Also, is she going to be a whole ship, or just a cross-section? Because either way, she's beautiful.

I plan on making the cross secton for now. But will ultimately build the bow and stern and use the pin connectors for seperation.