[SR FB] The Dogged Wench

[MiloNelsiano]

Not much of a story for this ship yet, but I may add one later. I'd like to license this as a Class 2 WR, and tried to design it like a sloop, which seemed to fit in the class. Could someone please let me know if it fits this class? Anyway, I'm not much for rigging and making sails yet, so I printed these from the Sail Library in the Master Index here. This was a little hard, being a purist, but I decided if I kept them to scale as the actual Lego sails, I could live with it. I know this isn't quite the right sail setup for a Sloop, but it was close enough for me, since I wanted to only use sails made by Lego. Also, for the first time I used a darker background to avoid the sails blending into a white background. Unfortunately, the dark blue blended too much with the black base, so I just GIMPed it. This was my first ship without a prefabricated hull, and while the general shape in front and back could use some work, I was pretty pleased with it. It's not easy to see in the pictures, but the hull actually has some decent curves to it, so I'll experiment a little more with the technique in the future. Anyway, let me know what you think!

[Bregir]

Well, as to classification, the two of us are in the same boat... It would seem my xebec and your sloop are appr. of the same size, and I too am looking at a class 2 rating!

Accordingly, as you might have guessed, I agree that this is a fine example of a class 2! And I think it looks reasonably close to a sloop. (Which really is an elastic type, anyways)

Since there are no minifigs on this build, the scale is a bit hard to discern - I assume it is to minifigure scale?

I am not too sure I agree with your choice of sails, though - the jibs are definitely a unique design, and I predict that they will be hard to set properly according to the wind.

Within your restiction of using lego sails, it worked out well, but I think you will benefit from customizing sails to a higher degree, as correct sails are what really set sailing ship types apart... (Obviously... ) The Lego sails appear to me generally to be too small in scale.

The hull shaping looks really good to me, and it is nice how you can see the planks it is made from. However, something about your picture makes it look really two-dimensional - it may be your editing, but the picture appears to have no depth?

I would like to see some more pictures from different angles (and with minifigs, if in scale... ).

The gun ports appear to be a bit close to the water, which could be dangerous (Swedish Vasa, anyone?). If you moved them up on row, they would appear to be standing on the open deck, which is where they would be on most sloops. Right now, it looks a bit like they are on an enclosed gun deck, which is probably also why I am confused abit about the scale.

All in all a nice sloop, Milo - this was not one of the techniques I tried in my frustration to build my own brick built hull! I hope the feedback is usefull - at least it is meant to be constructive!

And, of course, it is nice to see another known face here! Welcome! (You dirty sea rat! )

[blackdeathgr]

The ship is nice but i too cannot discern its scale or its curves. It looks like a collage atm (or whatever you name the scissors cutting of photos from books and glue them elsewhere) Can we have more photos plz if the moc hasn't been dismantled? Thanks and keep building awesome mocs in BoBS as well :)

[TitusV]

Finally a pirate ship, and a really Nice one!

[Captain Dee]

I like the hull design - well, what we can see of it anyway - but I seriously encourage you to use full custom sails. The purist route may be noble and all but it is extremely restrictive of what you can build. The jibs don't look very good to my eyes just because that arrangement isn't very realistic; likewise the mainsail could be better. As ship sizes grow in the game it will be increasingly difficult to build using official sails (or copies, which isn't truly purist anyway!) Besides, the sails have always been unique parts - not bricks, not even ABS - and virtually all of the really good ship models have custom rigging. You've made a good start but I would like to see a few more pics if you have them, preferably with a little depth to the background!

EDIT: I failed to mention the guns. Smaller custom pieces like these are much better than the standard cannon for smaller vessels such as this. But I agree with the thought that they look too low and probably wouldn't need to be fired from gunports anyway. The Swedes had the Vasa and the English had the big Mary Rose - which capsized from flooded lower ports. Otherwise the armament is very sensible. Keep it up.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Captain Dee

[Captain Green Hair]

It looks a bit plain to me, and are there actual decks an stuff that make it a ship?

[MiloNelsiano]

Thanks all for the feedback. If I get the time I may try to retake pictures to show it a little better. However, basically what you can see of the "ship" is really all there is. There are no decks, and no other side. This was just something I built to try out a hull building technique, and I was quite pleased with how it looked, but I didn't have enough pieces to use the technique for two sides. At some point I'll be ordering more of the pieces for the technique and try to develop it some more, and I'm hoping to build a full ship at that point. I'll also take the feedback on sails into consideration. I really wanted to avoid custom sails and rigging, but I might not be able to (though I imagine the rigging will be very minimalistic).