22 replies to this topic

[Darkie]

Hello, EB. I'm in need of the vast Pirate-fan opinions here. :)

I'm working on a smallish ship. It's a severly modified version of the Orient Expedition one.

What I'm looking for is some feedback.

The colors aren't all matched, because I used what was convenient. It will eventually be all color matched, etc. The fig is a Ferarri pit crew fig, mostly because he was close when I was checking scale.

Here is a general picture, to get the whole thing in view.

A close up of the rudder system. It's a large lever attached directly to the rudder for navigation. Here's a drawing that illustrates it a bit better.

A shot of the figurehead. I'm not happy with it yet. I'm trying to figure how to hid the sides.

Any thoughts? Comments? Tips?

[rhymer]

All i can say is nice ship. I am speechless.

[Mister Phes]

Since I'm building a zombie at the moment I've only had time for a quick look so I'll give more substantial feedback later...


You're thinking of a tiller...

 151717462_d0b9ed2b9b.jpg   73.98K   28 downloads

And that horrible Flickr.com uses dynamic webpages which inhibit the images being linked directly, so I've had to attach it instead!

[Evil Willy]

Sails my friend! Sails are what you need. But I really dont see how you would get some on there. Hmm...The ship itself is looking rather good. I dont like the small size of the stern is irritating. For I can only see some 2 MF's getting on there. Hmm there is not steering wheel,which too me is a problem. I guess thats all I can say for now

[Norro]

Good start, look forward to seeing the finished article! I always use scale figs that are rarely related...

       God Bless,

             Nathan

[Scnicker]

Nice looking ship you have there Darkie! I saw 2 things that can be improved:

-Try to attach the flag to a pole then put it on the mast. Attaching the flag directly doesn't seem right.

-And the other thing is that you may try to put gems (any color although yellow-blue would look nice) into the figure head's eye sockets if possible.

I hope that helps. *y*

[SuvieD]

To firm up the masts you can use technic flex tubes.  They don't make lances or any other long thin bar in tan yet so consider using brown for your masts and using brown lances for the thinner riggings.  The shape is very box and plain in some areas which is good if you want it that way but I would try to incorporate some rounded parts or the use of jumpers to offset the deck or maybe even two layers of jumbers to get a full stud width with a nice stepped look.

Decoration of you ship must be personal because you have to like it.  I would suggest not using the horns and trying to have the mast in front sticking out of it's mouth.

The colors are okay.  The mast would generally not be tan as it looks like untreated wood.  The dark red is a good ship color but barring any colors the ship will look better with sails.  What ever colors you use try and get fabric or paper with some sort of pattern in complimentary colors.

I recommend Evil Willy's sail making guide.  It is good stuff!

MOC on!

[Dreamweb]

Evil Willy, on May 23 2006, 12:36 PM, said:

But I really dont see how you would get some on there. Hmm...The ship itself is looking rather good. I dont like the small size of the stern is irritating. For I can only see some 2 MF's getting on there. Hmm there is not steering wheel,which too me is a problem.

The way the rudder is controlled here doesn't require a wheel, mister Evil Willy. I agree that you would have to add some bricks to those masts if you wanted to attach sails - the way it is now they won't hold very well.

[Darkie]

Wow. Thanks for all the great insight!

Mostly, I used tan because that's what I have available. Oh, I do love PAB....

There will be sails and rigging, when I get to that point. That'll the last detail on, especially with the masts so fragile at this point.  I recieved a comment, suggest clip plates for rigging, so I'll try that.

I like the idea of using jumper bricks to offset the deck. I started with a older set and went from there, so that's why it's so...boxy?

Thanks! I'll use your suggestions and work on a revision. Thanks!

[Mister Phes]

I'm curious as to why you've constructed the masts from those 1 x 1 cylinders?  Was it because you wanted that specific colour or that was the only option available to you?

I notice the Viking sets have introduced brown masts, so if you didn't want the traditional black you could always source the brown.  Of course that shade of brown might not fit with with colour scheme.

It'll be interesting to see how these masts turn out...

[Captain Ironhook]

i dont understand why ur using an asian ship to build a european ship.  european ships were never red like this.

[Darkie]

Phes, I used the tan 1x1 round bricks because I have those en masse. They're usually at my local Pick a Brick, and I use them to fill in space to get more economy out of the cups. In some way, I also chose the tan because it fit with the exisiting color scheme of the boat before I began modifying it.

There will be other small ships that follow this basic design, so this one is totally for experimenting.

As for the color, I like red. Building in LEGO asks one to suspend reality anyway, so who's not to say I can't have a red ship? ;)

The only other thing is that it needs to be smaller than a normal scale. Because of this, I originally had the masts set up as a sloop. I prefer the look of squar-rigged vessels, which is why I decided on a sort of brig. A very small brig.

[Captain Ironhook]

the reason red is bad color for pirate ship is because its very easy to see so other pirate ships can find you and attack you.  dull colors are good for camoflaging into the horizon so it is more stealthy way of sailing about and escaping attack.

[Mister Phes]

Darkie, on May 25 2006, 05:29 AM, said:

Phes, I used the tan 1x1 round bricks because I have those en masse. They're usually at my local Pick a Brick, and I use them to fill in space to get more economy out of the cups. In some way, I also chose the tan because it fit with the exisiting color scheme of the boat before I began modifying it.

Just as I suspected!  How does Pick A Brick work anyways - I've never been to one (probably because there's none in my part of the world)?  From what you describe I'm assuming you're charged by the cup, not so much what's in it.  Is that correct or am I way off?

Darkie, on May 25 2006, 05:29 AM, said:

There will be other small ships that follow this basic design, so this one is totally for experimenting.

Ahhhhh experimentation!  The key to furthering your skills and developing new techniques!  You are a pioneer in this field and your research so go far into further the Pirate LEGO MOCing cause.  Anyway, when you say there will be other ships, will they all be red and tan?  Or shall you be branching out?

Darkie, on May 25 2006, 05:29 AM, said:

Captain Ironhook, on May 25 2006, 05:48 AM, said:

the reason red is bad color for pirate ship is because its very easy to see so other pirate ships can find you and attack you.  dull colors are good for camoflaging into the horizon so it is more stealthy way of sailing about and escaping attack.

As for the color, I like red. Building in LEGO asks one to suspend reality anyway, so who's not to say I can't have a red ship? ;)

Captain Ironhook is right!  You're gonna get blown out of the water with that colour scheme!  :-D  But you have a good point - if you like red then you build with it.  No need to conform to the ideals of reality when working with such a fantasically inspiring medium such as LEGO!

Darkie, on May 25 2006, 05:29 AM, said:

The only other thing is that it needs to be smaller than a normal scale. Because of this, I originally had the masts set up as a sloop. I prefer the look of squar-rigged vessels, which is why I decided on a sort of brig. A very small brig.

Why does it have to be smaller than normal scale?  It appears you're endeavouring to add a slight degree of historic accuracy given that you're basing the sail configuration on actual ship types.  I always thought a brig was a medium sized vessel though...

[Dreamweb]

Darkie, on May 24 2006, 07:29 PM, said:

As for the color, I like red. Building in LEGO asks one to suspend reality anyway, so who's not to say I can't have a red ship? ;)

Captain Ironhook, on May 24 2006, 07:48 PM, said:

the reason red is bad color for pirate ship is because its very easy to see so other pirate ships can find you and attack you.  dull colors are good for camoflaging into the horizon so it is more stealthy way of sailing about and escaping attack.

Mind you that even one official Lego pirate ship had red hull. It was of course the Red Beard Runner. So if Lego could do it - anyone can :-) And there was also this 4+ ship but that's a different story :-)

Mister Phes, on May 24 2006, 08:31 PM, said:

Captain Ironhook is right!  You're gonna get blown out of the water with that colour scheme!

So now it should be clear for everyone why the Red Beard Runner had so many holes in her sails :-)

[Darkie]

PAB works by the cup at official Lego Stores. They have a smaller $6.95 size, and a larger $12.95 size. I prefer the smaller size, because it's not so tapered and I use the cups for storage of special parts. As long as you can tape the lid shut, anything goes. They have all sorts of different parts. I do enjoy PAB. Many of my MOCs are inspired by what I find at the wall.

As far as color goes, it'll be based on what I can afford. If red is cheapest, I'll go with red. I don't have the parts yet for other ships, which is why this one is the guinea pig.

The reason for a smaller scale is because the ships will end up in a larger display, so I'm confined by that size frame. I'll be building two larger (longer?), and one smaller vessel. So yes, a brig is a medium sized ship, but it's all relative to the scale I've actually got to work with.

On a side note, I don't ever recall saying this was a pirate ship...I'm thinking more of a merchant vessel. These, to my knowledge, will be in safe harbor, not open water.  ;-)

I've decided to expand the stern a bit more, as i'm not digging the current design.

SuvieD, I tried playing a bit with the figure head. Your idea of having it stick out of the mouth sounds excellent, but the way it's set up now won't work. I'll have to fiddle with it some more to see what I can do.

[Mister Phes]

Ahhhhhhhh but nobody said it was a pirate ship either!  Unscrupulous pirates will attack any ship they figure has something of value to them, especially juicy heavily laden merchant ships which usually denotes lack of defense capabilities.

Since you haven't exactly specified the nature of this ship could you give us some background information on it?  Like what's its specific function - i.e. merchant ship carrying any particular cargo?  Is there a background story to it?  Does the ship have a name?

[Darkie]

I haven't come up with a background story as of yet, but I'm thinking a smaller merchant vessel. I'd imagine somewhere in the Middle ages perhaps, so not a lot of open water travel. I'd imagine that the cargo would be supplies, perhaps some trade goods that need to go down the coast. Right now I've stuck two barrels on it for show, plus a couple in the cargo hold.

As for a name, I'm kicking around the Red Wolf. It's a bit of a play on the name of my boyfriend's 41' Morgan, The Red Witch.

[Darkie]

Mmkay. I've been fiddling with this. I've come up with a different sort of design for the sides.

Clicky!

Thoughts?

[SuvieD]

Is it on Brickshelf, I can't see Flickr images

[Darkie]

It is now. :)

Clicky

Clicky  Again!

No, Click me!

One more Clicky...

[Dreamweb]

Darkie, on May 26 2006, 04:32 AM, said:

Mmkay. I've been fiddling with this. I've come up with a different sort of design for the sides.

Clicky!

Ah, yes... I wanted to use this design myself some time ago, however I have too few of those 75 deg. inverted slopes to put them in a row like that, especially on a long ship.

[Mister Phes]

How is the stern "expanding" progressing?  I've had an offbeat idea which probably isn't feasible as you most likely won't have the pieces but I'll post it anyway...



If you had vertically inversed pieces like this you could build a hull by connecting long SNOT pieces between them.   I've never tried it before and have no idea how effective it would be, and I'm not even sure if vertically inversed pieces like that even exist.