[WIP] Bluecoat Flagship Indestructible

[Sigolf Brimabane]

I'm building a bluecoat ship. I disassembled my Imperial Flagship and am now trying to build a better ship. Still... I'm not too happy with how it is turning out. I wanted to have a removable deck, but I'm finding it hard to make one. I'm also not sure what colours or techniques to use for the cabin. It will have three sails like the Imperial Flagship, and I'm also thinking of adding a fourth small mast with a triangular sail.

Comments, ideas etc. would be very welcome.

The new torsos work very well with the old heads! :D

[Capn Frank]

I really like the colors used. There is a lot of different colors being used, but they all seem to come together very nicely.

Nice piece usage on the stern. I never thought to use upside-down wings. I will have to steal borrow that technique.

What era of ship are you trying to make?

Ships of the 1500's to 1600's had high forecastles and sterns above the main gun decks. They also had a lateen rigged sail on the back one or two masts and had 3-4 masts. Like this.

Ships of the late 1700's and early 1800's were flush decked, where the stern and bows are not raised and the captain's cabin is at the same level as the gun deck(s). They also had 3 masts with a gaff rig sail on the mizzen mast. Like this.

I think your ship is not as curvy as she needs to be.

Dunkleosteus created a tutorial that talks about what curves are needed on a ship, which is harder on a prefab hull vessel.

Captain Green Hair Commander Red Hat created a tutorial on how to build in most of these curves onto a prefab hull that I think you should check out.

[Sigolf Brimabane]

Hmm... I can't take all the credit for the wing technique : P I have seen it on here before, but can't remember the name of the member who used it. But it was on a white ship. It is a bit tricky to get it to stay where you want it.

I have no idea what era actually... Kind of "generic late 1700s or so" I think. I've been trying to find pictures of ships, and especially of the decks, but I don't really know what to search for :/ I don't know many ship terms in Swedish, and even less in English. I think I have seen references to some book on here?

Those tutorials are pretty neat. I would have to make quite a few bricklink orders for that I think. And first I'd need to try it out in LDD, which I suck at. Would be great to know what quantities I'd need.

Do you have any suggestions for the stern? The bottom that is, where I have all those arch pieces. I don't think it came together very nicely there. Still a bit better than the regular hull piece though. A custom hull is out of the question

Edit: A ship I would like to "copy" is Götheborg. I often see her to port when I go to uni.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Sigolf Brimabane

[Captain Dee]

I agree with Phred on the colors - they look very good and should work well for the rest of the vessel. His pointers on the different time periods are good as well. Regarding curves, you need to decide whether you're building to resemble TLG-style or historically correct. If you choose the former, just keep on building. If the latter, you might want to check those tutorials. There's nothing bad or wrong about what you have if you're just trying a rebuild of the 10210 IFS. It's definitely a good start, but remember that full-rigged ships always had three square-rigged masts!

[Bluecoat officer]

This is really great . You are doing really well on this build. I would love to build something like this. But I just can never find the pieces. I appreciate the time and effort put into this project. Good luck!

[Capn Frank]

I have no idea what era actually... Kind of "generic late 1700s or so" I think. I've been trying to find pictures of ships, and especially of the decks, but I don't really know what to search for :/ I don't know many ship terms in Swedish, and even less in English. I think I have seen references to some book on here?

Sorry about rattling off a bunch of ship terms.

• Lateen rigged sails are triangle shaped.
  
• Gaff rigged sails are trapezoidal.
  
• Forecastle is the top of the bow or front.
  
• The mizzen mast is at the rear, the main mast is the tallest, typically middle mast, and the fore mast is at the front.
  

Hopefully that helps.

If you're looking to build a ship with three, square-rigged masts, from the late 1700's ship, then you're most likely going to be building a Corvette or a Frigate. It will be a lot easier to find examples of frigates than corvettes. The HMS Rose, which was used on Master and Commander, was a replica of a ship like the HMS Surprise. Looking for deck plans for either of these ships should yield fruitful results.

Here's the best image I've found so far for a profile view of the HMS Surprise. The upper open deck and gun deck both contain gun ports, but you can see that the gun ports are staggered so that not one gun port is directly above the other.

There's an old Reference Material for Creating More Realistic Ships topic you may want to check out too.

Those tutorials are pretty neat. I would have to make quite a few bricklink orders for that I think. And first I'd need to try it out in LDD, which I suck at. Would be great to know what quantities I'd need.

You don't have to use the exact same hinges as Commander Red Hat's tutorial for the providing slope on the hull. You could use:

or or +

Or a variation of these. Use what you got the most of.

You will likely need a bunch of these for the bow:

You can also do something completely different too.

Edit: A ship I would like to "copy" is Götheborg. I often see her to port when I go to uni.

It looks like the original Götheborg is from the mid-1700's. I really like the triangle sail in the rear mast.

[Sebeus I]

I like the headrails, I may try that some time.

The cabin is usually one of the more tricky parts.

I haven't built a 'regular' ship for some time (oposed to a ship with a tumblehome/ angled sides).

But I used to draw much inspiration from the old official pirate ship sets such as the Black Seas Barracuda.

Hmm... I can't take all the credit for the wing technique : P I have seen it on here before, but can't remember the name of the member who used it. But it was on a white ship. It is a bit tricky to get it to stay where you want it.

That would be the Beatrix , I'm glad it inspired someone.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Sebeus I

[Maxim I]

Edit: A ship I would like to "copy" is Götheborg. I often see her to port when I go to uni.

Hey, I already dipsed the Gothenburg :D I already have tons of pictures and plans :)

Only problem here is I just started a company so my budget and time for the rest of the year are very low.:(

[knight_40k]

I'm building a bluecoat ship. I disassembled my Imperial Flagship and am now trying to build a better ship.

Have you made any progress lately? I would love to see some more pics.

[Cousarmy0001]

I just noticed this thread is a few months old, but I'm surprised I missed it the first time around. As such, here are my suggestions.

If I were you, especially if you're going for a late 1700s era ship, I would look to bring the captain's cabin to a lower level, more flush with the hull, as Phred suggested, and less like the original Lego kit. You can still make great late period ships using the prefab hulls.

For the ship decks, you'll probably want to build them using two layers of plates, staggered to add strength. You could also try doing a single plate layer, and then use tiles to form the second layer. This will hold the bottom plate level together, while also making your deck look like a collection of finished planks, rather than a bunch of Lego studs.

Another idea, if you're trying to change the look, maybe you could try and reduce the space between each gun. When I made my pride and joy, Thunderchild, it initially had ten guns, but had 4 or 5 studs between each port. Then I realized I could cut it down to as few as three studs, while strengthening the deck supports, and thereby bump it up to a much more respectable (and better looking, in my opinion) fourteen guns.

There are a number of really great captain's cabins on the site, though I don't know if we have an index of them. If you dig around, though, you'll find some great ideas for beds, furniture, bookshelves, layout, etc.

Lastly, and I suggest this because frankly, I think it looks great, I would suggest adding a chequer pattern to the upper hull, like on Maeve Aulsebrook, as seen here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38226 This also gives an example of the tiled deck technique I mentioned earlier.

[Sigolf Brimabane]

Oh, thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I took it apart because it was collecting quite a bit of dust... :/ I started on another project instead, which I might be able to finish for the Pillage the Village contest. It's not a ship though. But when I finally get round to making a ship I'll try to incorporate your suggestions. More cannons = good idea :D And making the captain's cabin a bit lower than the deck is also great. It looked pretty bad from behind so maybe that will solve it.

I'd try to keep the colour scheme as well. White + dark blue + yellow works really well I think. I have a white hull as well, but I have a very limited assortment of white parts.

Edited September 6, 2015 by Sigolf Brimabane