37 replies to this topic

[Big Cam]

shiplover, on 24 April 2012 - 02:09 AM, said:

Thanks for resizing.  I will pay attention to that with future picture posts.

Your images were not re-sized, and I have removed them until they are.

[Commander Red Hat]

I hate to bump old topics, but is there any news about this wonderful behemoth? I'd love to see some new (resized) pictures.

[shiplover]

Still working on it.  Middle gun deck complete. Working on the upper gun deck.  If I get a minute, I'll post new photos.

[pogie]

Very nice work.  Tbh I did not know that the US navy ever sailed any first rates.  Most of what you read about the early navy concerns the original heavy frigates, Constitution et al.  I'll have to do some more reading I guess.

[ManInATopHat]

*My face when I saw how massive she was*
Absolutely incredible, quite the undertaking!

[shiplover]

Here are some new pics.  Still working on bow sectino of upper gun deck, then the fitting of that deck.

[pogie]

Noticed your "Anatomy of the Ship" book lying on the table.  Such great reference books.  I have the Bellona and Pandora.  Thanks for the close up pics, the detailing is excellent.  Are stern chasers on the lower deck accurate?  I had always pictured them on the poop deck.  Most of what I know of these ships is from reading Aubrey/Maturin over and over and they don't spend much time on first rates.

[Fraunces]

I can't open your photo's but after i read the comments I need to see them! Isn't there any other site where I can see them??

[Nefarious]

Great ship so far, breathtaking scope, and a wonderful stern hull and gallery! My one slight criticism is in agreement with Perfectionist's comments - the sheer number of guns, which isn't historically accurate. But surely beautiful nonetheless and it might be a purposeful decision. :) I am using 3 wide gunports as well on a project of mine, and they seem to scale well with TLG cannons. Edit: spacing between gunports on my own ship is 7 studs, which fits a minifig scale third rate, sort of anyway, so I guess if you were inclined to do a bit of reworking on the walls it could come out historically accurate. Did I mention I love the black/white colorscheme? :P Great work!

Edited by Nefarious, 11 February 2013 - 09:51 PM.

[shiplover]

pogie, on 11 February 2013 - 04:26 PM, said:

Noticed your "Anatomy of the Ship" book lying on the table.  Such great reference books.  I have the Bellona and Pandora.  Thanks for the close up pics, the detailing is excellent.  Are stern chasers on the lower deck accurate?  I had always pictured them on the poop deck.  Most of what I know of these ships is from reading Aubrey/Maturin over and over and they don't spend much time on first rates.

Ships of this size had stern chasers below the gallery.  They would often also have guns in the gallery.  I left those out so that I could finely detail the gallery.

Nefarious, on 11 February 2013 - 09:47 PM, said:

Great ship so far, breathtaking scope, and a wonderful stern hull and gallery! My one slight criticism is in agreement with Perfectionist's comments - the sheer number of guns, which isn't historically accurate. But surely beautiful nonetheless and it might be a purposeful decision. :) I am using 3 wide gunports as well on a project of mine, and they seem to scale well with TLG cannons. Edit: spacing between gunports on my own ship is 7 studs, which fits a minifig scale third rate, sort of anyway, so I guess if you were inclined to do a bit of reworking on the walls it could come out historically accurate. Did I mention I love the black/white colorscheme? :P Great work!

When I laid out the dimensions and scaled the ship's dimensions.  I basically added some width and about ten inches in additional length.  I was looking for a ship that would have more firepower than any other ship of the time.  That is the reason for the number of cannons, although I understand a few historical first rates existed with well over a hundred cannons.

[Frank Brick Wright]

I'm specially impressed by the crazyness and the size of this project! It is looking tremendous already

However, a few issues come to my mind. In the first place the gunports are not to scale. Check here, the gunports should be almost of the size of windows and they are way too small. Besides this and the wrong number of gunports (which has already been adressed), the bowsprit is also too thick, here. I haven't measured it but I'd say you should have something like 3 studs wide, and not 4 (though IMO 3 studs is even too much, but it is needed because there are no half-stud pieces). Also 150 guns is larger than anything ever built in real life, and even for a forth-decker those 10 extra guns make a difference.

I'm looking forward for any updates, this has an enormous potential!

Edited by Frank Brick Wright, 12 February 2013 - 02:43 PM.

[Commander Red Hat]

Wow, you are making great progress! I love the shape and the looks of the stern, looks really good.
Next to other things said, I do think your gunports are a bit small in comparison to everything else, 3x3 ones might look better.
I also think your steps along the middle of the hull are a bit wide, I think 4 studs should really be the maximum.

Good luck on finishing up this wonderful behemoth!

pogie, on 10 February 2013 - 12:20 AM, said:

Very nice work.  Tbh I did not know that the US navy ever sailed any first rates.  Most of what you read about the early navy concerns the original heavy frigates, Constitution et al.  I'll have to do some more reading I guess.

I don't know of any either, in the time of the super frigates not many first raters were afloat any more anyway I think. Costs were too high and they were rather slow.
So I am curious if this is modelled after a real ship, otherwise it is still nice to see one in the US colours!

Frank Brick Wright, on 12 February 2013 - 02:33 PM, said:

Besides this and the wrong number of gunports (which has already been adressed), the bowsprit is also too thick, here. I haven't measured it but I'd say you should have something like 3 studs wide, and not 4 (though IMO 3 studs is even too much, but it is needed because there are no half-stud pieces). \

I agree, the bowsprit might be the nicest in 2 studs wide. This will also be the thickness I'm using for my Prince Willim VOC ship.

[Perfectionist]

While this isn't the most detailed ship project in minifigure scale and your gun count isn't anywhere realistic, you are actually making some real progress and you've got good chances to be one of the very very few to actually complete such a massive ship model.

I've got one question though since she'll become really heavy in the building process: can you still move her? Is the structure stable enough?