36 replies to this topic

[Frank Brick Wright]

Current Status: Frame Built
Piece count: around 400



So here it is. First of all, I apologize for the extremely bad quality of the photos, but my digital camera has been broken and I had to take pictures with iPhones, so the quality is far from good. Hopefully the camera will be repaired soon.

This project came to replace my digital version of the Batavia for a big reason: I found that pre-fabs ships float. My intents of putting a pre-fabs ship near the bottom of a pool were destroyed, so I had to found a new hull building method. This was when I found cb4's technique I used the basic idea, changed most of the parts he used, matched the lateral sections to plans (of the Unité, aka Surprise), and at last I started building the frame. It is quite colourful because I don't have that many plates

However, after 2 BL orders, totalling 2200 parts and 80€, which I received today, I hope to post an update in the weekend

The Brickshelf folder, as soon as it gets public: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=493061

Edited by Frank Brick Wright, 03 January 2012 - 09:44 PM.

[JWSLegoMaster]

Looking good Frank!  Keep it up!

[Sebeus I]

cb4's technique is very nice but he built a xebec, a vessel totally different than a frigate.
So I hope you have an idea on how to create the tumblehome shape ?
Anway, the structure looks great already, keep it up  

Edited by Sebeus Iniwum, 03 January 2012 - 11:02 PM.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Muahaha, I have a plan!

I hope to start building the gun's deck in the next week. I've ordered hinge bricks for the tumblehome (they are just waiting for me to have time!) and I have also created a prototype of a gun section. It will be a typical frigate, with two black stripes with a yellow one in the middle.

[Sebeus I]

Frank Brick Wright, on 03 January 2012 - 11:34 PM, said:

Muahaha, I have a plan!

I hope to start building the gun's deck in the next week. I've ordered hinge bricks for the tumblehome (they are just waiting for me to have time!) and I have also created a prototype of a gun section. It will be a typical frigate, with two black stripes with a yellow one in the middle.

Then I'm soothed  
I'm looking forward to the first update.

[efullner]

Good work on the frame. Keep it up!

[Hiawatha]

Glad to see you are doing a frigate. I love these ships and I can't wait to see the next update either.

[cb4]

I think it's very cool that you're inspired by my technique.

You may want to read this post if you haven't already:

http://www.eurobrick...ndpost&p=907053

It looks like you're putting your hinges wherever is most convenient right now - this may work but it may also cause serious structural issues and stress once you try to plank in the hull because things almost line up but not quite.

Here's a picture of a frame I happen to have on hand that may help illustrate how I locate my hinges.



Note that my dimensions are not in studs. 10 is one horizontal stud, 12 is one vertical stud.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Edited by cb4, 06 January 2012 - 07:33 AM.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Thanks for your post! Your technique , which I am proudly using, is amazing. Your technique allows the most accurate hulls at the minifig illusion scale, and it quite possible to build a hull almost exactly equal to an historical one. To do this, I matched every section from the Unité's plans with every lateral section of my ship, that ones built by colourful plates.




I'm not sure, but as I went through your xebec project, I think you made approximately every lateral section equal to the others; that is actually the only bad thing I can appoint on your first great usage of the technique.

Anyway, now returning to my ship. In fact I placed the hinges in a somewhat convenient way, and I had no concerns for geometry. My lateral sections have 12 studs of length, and I already built 9 of them in one of the sides. As far as this goes, I only had a small fight with the bricks, and had to very slightly stress them, because the angle formed by every lateral section with the vertical bricks was almost, but only almost, the same. I  hope I can finish the hull with this alignment.

Another issue of your technique is the rudder. I went for a simplification. The way you built it is probably the best one, but I still find the gaps between the parts inelegant. I'm also using high quality pictures of a  15.000€ model-ship french frigate (link is here http://www.modelship...gun-frigate.htm there you can find the fantastic pictures). I measured the angle (blue). At red is the highest angle possible to achieve with slopes, and at green a vertical (90º) angle, which is the one I chose.

[Skipper]

Awesome, another ship using cb4's techniques, her shape looks quite nice already. My only concern right now is that once you start building the tumblehome the ship might be too skinny.

Edited by Skipper, 07 January 2012 - 12:20 AM.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Current status: hull 80% built
Piece count: around 900


Fresh updates! So the hull is in is way to being finished! After all, it did not arouse many structural problems, because my random placement of the hinges turned out to be (luckily) approximately accurate






This is also my prototype for a lateral section of the gun's deck, and also for the masts… I love this colour scheme

[Sebeus I]

Hull looks great, very great,
I suggest you eiter place the cannon ports lower of raise the deck, the way it is now the cannons can only fire 'up'
Keep it up

[Frank Brick Wright]

So I have designed a new prototype for my gun's deck




Those technic pins will be used for the ringing; you can check this reference picture where you see they existed, though we almost never see them in lego ships…




Can someone suggest me a 12 or 18 pounder cannon design? I'm terrible at designing objects. Lego cannons, beside being 24 pounders, are expensive at BL and I only have 7…

[Sebeus I]

Nice, that section looks very good so far. I watched Master and Commander yesterday (again) and I'm in the mood to build a frigate  
As for lighter cannons maybe you can use the ones on this ship ?
(That's a ship by Bonaparte Napoleon)

edit: this forum has a cannon index, why didn't I think of that  

Edited by Sebeus Iniwum, 15 January 2012 - 09:52 PM.

[Foremast Jack]

Frank Brick Wright, on 15 January 2012 - 06:14 PM, said:

Can someone suggest me a 12 or 18 pounder cannon design? I'm terrible at designing objects. Lego cannons, beside being 24 pounders, are expensive at BL and I only have 7…

I would say have a look at the cannon index. I should think you could get a good idea of where to start if not find something that suits your needs precisely.

[Commander Red Hat]

This looks promising! Any updates?

[Frank Brick Wright]

Captain Green Hair, on 18 February 2012 - 11:35 AM, said:

This looks promising! Any updates?

Unfortunately no I have the hull in the my shelf but I am experiencing a lack of parts and my budget has reached its limits for now… I hope to get some new parts — I desperately need the slopes of the prow to proceed — in the Easter holidays. In the meantime I have been drawing the stern of the ship in LDD to know the parts I will need. It is almost finished, perhaps I can post one or two pictures next week.

[Frank Brick Wright]

This isn't much of an update, but I decided to post it anyway as there isn't a tutorial of this technique yet. If there are requests I might consider doing one.

Now this is to show the LDD of the begging of a ship. Please attend that this technique in LDD is extremely torturous (getting the hinges aligned is quite something). I just wanted to share the image with you all, and if anyone wants I can share the file (if I'm able to).

This is also to show the infinite possibilities of this technique. In the posts of cb4's xebec someone complained about its incapacity of building interiors. Good news! In this model I am able to even build the hold (quite easily in real bricks, approaching craziness in LDD, thus the small section built). Here you see the largest width of the hold would be 20 studs (!), which is a pretty good number.

Also I have 8 bricks of height from the hold to the gun's deck, which, if slightly extended, allows to build both the hold and the orlop at accurate (and pretty decent) heights (we never get to see orlops in lego ships).




Just in case someone can't see it I also uploaded it to flickr: http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

[Frank Brick Wright]

So finally I gathered the parts and time to make a small advance on her… She won't be finished until August, when I have lots of time and available money to buy the required parts. In the next remaining time, due to high-school exams, I won't be very active so don't expect updates.






Basically the hull is finished. It requires around 50 plates to be truly finished but I don't have the slopes in the bow (those blacks are fakes, obviously) so I can't connect it all.







I'm quite happy with my solution for the stern problem. While cb4 offered a clever method for building the bow in general ships his stern in the xebec was very accurate for a xebec but has nothing to do with galleons or frigates, which have the stern "closed". It also allows for a working rudder.

She's becoming quite large (around 80 bricks long) but as is mainly empty space weights only 820g. These photos also show the possibility of building, in the very least, an orlop (though the frame is so colourful and messy that there is no chance to do that in this specific ship). As you can get from the photos she is incredibly strong — I can hold her very easily with one hand without any risks.

I decided to start planning the next building phases. Here I show you my ideas for the rest of the vessel.

The cannon is a 12 powder.




The heavy and ornate stern:




That golden "thing" is a bell. I couldn't (obviously) attach it in LDD, though in reality it will have a proper rope, of course (the brown slope is a chimney). Also notice the base of the mast, where the rigging will be attached and the side stairs.




At last the masts. I'm using cross-axles (like in the Imperial Flagship) for the top masts, since they exist in brown and have strength and appropriate dimensions.



These LDD photos are just small helpers to let me know precisely which parts I need, so if they are not totally finished is mostly because I only need an idea about the shapes of the things; the details I will work with the bricks in the hands

Edited by Frank Brick Wright, 31 March 2012 - 04:53 PM.

[Sebeus I]

Nice, that stern is great, along with that nice hull this will become a fantastic ship, can't wait to see more.
I just got out of a contest so I can focus on my ships again.

[Captain Becker]

So far so good. May i be so rude and ask what are those two big holes in the stern? And mayi  get LXF for closer look. Im intrested to look next update, so take your time.  

Captain Becker

[Hiawatha]

It's looking very good. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Captainmorgan]

I am in love with that cabin! This will be a great ship.

Edited by Captainmorgan, 01 April 2012 - 02:37 AM.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Captain Becker, on 31 March 2012 - 10:21 PM, said:

So far so good. May i be so rude and ask what are those two big holes in the stern? And mayi  get LXF for closer look. Im intrested to look next update, so take your time.  

Captain Becker

So I'm using a 1500€ ship for reference and I am trying to replicate her so far as possible, though I'm not strictly following everything (link). Watch up, those are HIGH-QUAL pictures (around 4000 pixels )

i

I will attach some dragon plumes and wings to the flowers (just as in the Achille) and those tridents in the captain's cabin will have correspondence to those 1x1 bricks with 1 stud you see in blue.

About the Lxf file, I'm not sure if that's possible. I'm using a Mac so my LDD version is different. For instance, I can never read other users files. If you are using a Mac too I guess is ok and we can try anyway.

[Frank Brick Wright]

The bow was designed in LDD




As well as improvements on the stern and masts.

But finally the real bricks arrived, so:







One can ask: how strong is that deck?




Pretty strong if you consider the offsetting and the vertical curve. It has a nice sheer of 6 plates. Moreover it is some 70 bricks long. For some reason structure was needed to support that.