[MOC] HMS Indefatigable 1794, fith-rate frigate

[lsherlockl]

Hello,

Figured I would start my first post with a bang. Recently rekindled my "adult" interest in lego, after re-sorting and putting back together piece wise our old lego pirate sets that were shared with my sibling growing up. Had gotten one or two icons sets but my love of the old pirates genre and nostalgia sucked me back in.

Long been a fan of the CS Foster Horatio Hornblower series of books as well as the TV miniseries adaptation (was a formative part of life as a young adult), where the HMS Indefatigable played a pretty sizeable role as well as historically (see 2nd post) was a well decorated ship with a interesting life. I know others have done it and its not exactly new or original, I decided I wanted to tackle making a MOC of it and it became a bit of a pet project.

No real experience with Lego Studio until this project, but probably will not be the last. I opted to go with the concept of "theme scale" as minifig scale was way too big (like 1.4meters long and wanting to be able to display it) and or maybe play with it with kids some day. So trying to go for durable construction while getting in as much of the dynamics of a ship that i can and packing in as many "play" features. Scale gets a little funky but ratios are about right with the exception of the heights really will include specs in the following post along with some of the history.

Lastly I will give credit that a lot of the build styles do come from the likes of buccaneer bay (gun deck/port layout and masts),also Der Fer Maiden (by Supersick) in particular I loved his capstan, and the bow curvature was absolutely borrowed, and a lot of forum browsing for ideas to sort of point me in the direction i ended up going.

without further adieu the renders.

 

learning how to make custom bricks was a pain but wanted to moc up what i could do with some decals.

Getting true curvature was hard without using alot of SNOT which then is hard on the durability/play aspect (IMHO) I think the navy line adds a bit of pop and helps imply curvature even when the gundeck really doesnt shift much.

Likewise getting such a long hull with standard hull pieces to not appear a giant flat was also interesting, some SNOT was used here but fairly minimal

Helm (i linked the wheels under the removeable deck but could not get a working rudder linkage figured out or fit) , Binnacle, capstan and one of my favorite features just in shot the skylight.

Captains Cabin/ Great Cabin, mostly tiled with a healthy smattering of studs for repositioning furniture and figures. I also wanted to do more in that lovely off green that so matches the paint of the time but not enough of the bricks exist in it.

 

Officers Cabin (technically not quite right in layout or position but seemed best use of this space) located under the main cabin. This was from a WIP render changed a little

lastly one of my favorite other "play features" the Galley

 

Whew, and boy i really want to figure out how to render better and or mess around with figures (maybe Studio is not the right place for it) like lighting in cabins or between decks is neigh impossible. I will also add how much of a pain making instructions is! at least when you don't think about it as you build and group stuff! This has been quite the learning process and I would say is probably not finally product but i wont know some things still i start working with the physical bricks. Also proper rigging (man i tried working with string in studio but i just cant handle it), sails etc will come with that too.

Edited March 22 by lsherlockl
removing extra content

[lsherlockl]

History Significance and Stats

HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was also the first to carry that name in the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but all of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44 gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.

• Tons burthen 1384+3⁄94 (bm)
• Length 160 ft 1+1⁄4 in (48.8 m) (gundeck); 131 ft 10+3⁄4 in (40.2 m) (keel)  Roughly 40 inches/ 101CM minifig scale
• Beam 44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) Roughly 11 inch/ 278cm minifig scale
• Depth of hold 19 ft (5.8 m) (as frigate, 13 ft 3 in (4.0 m)) 
• Complement 310 officers and men (as frigate)

Indefatigable was ordered on 3 August 1780 (long after Slade's death), and her keel was laid down in May 1781 at the Bucklers Hard shipyard in Hampshire owned by Henry Adams. She was launched in early July 1784 and completed from 11 July to 13 September of that year at Portsmouth Dockyard as a 64-gun two-decked third rate for the Royal Navy. She had cost £25,210 4s 5d to build; her total initial cost including fitting out and coppering was £36,154 18s 7d. By that time, she was already anachronistic for the role of a ship of the line as the French only built the more powerful 74-gun ships, and was never commissioned in that role.

In 1794, she was razéed; her upper gun deck was cut away to convert her into a large and heavily armed frigate. The original intention was to retain her twenty-six 24-pounder guns on her gundeck, and to mount eight 12-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and a further four on her forecastle, which would have rated her as a 38-gun vessel. However, it was at this time that the carronade was becoming more popular in the Navy, and her intended armament was altered on 5 December 1794 with the addition of four 42-pounder carronades to go on her quarterdeck and two on her forecastle. Indefatigable was thereafter rated as a 44-gun fifth-rate frigate, along with Magnanime and Anson, which were converted at about the same time. The work was carried out at Portsmouth from September 1794 to February 1795 at a cost of £8,764. On 17 February 1795, a further two 12-pounder guns were added to her quar terdeck, though her official rating remained unchanged.

The poop was shortened to aft of the mizzen. Pellew did request the removal of the poop altogether, worried about the potential windage, and the quarter galleries replaced with quarter badges. However, the Admiralty had spent a lot of money and two years to convert the vessel, so only the poop was short ened. The masts and rig were originally that of a 50-gun ship, but this changed very early on when it was realised this arrangement made the ship too unstable, so she reverted to her original 64-gun ship arrangement, with only the lower masts shortened at the heels so that the drop of the courses would be appropriate for their cut down upperworks. Indefatigable’s actual armament throughout most of Pellew’s command was 26x24 Pounder cannon, 18x42 Pounder carronades and 2x12 Pounder long guns for chasers. (This was certainly the configura tion when she captured Virginie in April 1796). The Admiralty also twice mentions 14 quarterdeck ports (as opposed to twelve shown on the original draught).

Indefatigable was first commissioned in December 1794 under Captain Sir Edward Pellew. He commanded her until early 1799. (Captain Sir Edward Pellew is a pretty well documented less notorious than the likes of Horatio Nelson, and is referenced by both CS Foster with Horatio Hornblower as well as Patrick O'Brian's works surrounding Captain Jack Aubry)

Really fascinating record, and really interesting to sort of read on its various engagements, often with very short fights and very little loss of life compared to what books and or movies would have you believe, went down a whole research rabbit hole.

Stats on my model:

Roughly about 80-85%i of minifig scale, with deck height being closer to 90 or 95%

Pieces 3261 (subj to change), and 497 unique pieces.

Armament

22 Lego Cannon on the gundeck vs twenty-six 24-pounder (they are just kind of big and once again fighting with scale had to be done)

16 Lego Brick Built Carronade vs 18x42 Pounder carronades. I really wanted to get a better representation of the carronade but couldn't get a good high caliber good looking brick built model, i might mess around with 3d printing but we will see.

2x Lego brick built cannon representing the 2x 12 lb chasers position able off the bow or side. (these feel about right sized)

2x Lego built swivels (mounted on the poop deck) no official record of this but was not a uncommon placement and really a "small arm" sort of weapon

You can kind of see my carronade conundrum i think like a 1.5 diameter cylinder would be ideal but doesnt really exists. But i settled for this design as it allows for rotation and angle adjustment and has the little moc casters. 

I honestly probably went overboard messing around with cannon design but reasonably happy with my selection.

I followed ratios as close as i could using both the original draft and sheer plan (really cool that it still exists!) as well as some of the really detailed info and plans from the ship modeling world. the top view i was pretty happy with rough hull shape mast placement, bell, galley, helm and capstain all pretty spot on only shifting a bit due to theme scale and cramming everything in. Verticality of decks and cabin skew the design from actual but a "theme scale" sacrifice. the masts and rigging are almost certainly a bit short but i at least have going for me is its masts were shortened (at least the first segments) when it was razeed, so it naturally would have had a little different proportions. There other major difference is where the ratlines tie down for the mizzen mast to allow for "easy" removal of the main cabin. I also opted to use the molded rigging for modeling so i at least had a option to mount it if I wanted to spacing wise. Play wise it will likely be a hybrid will see when its built.

I also did some deep dives into the HMS Victory, USS constitution, and the HMS Trincomalee (would love to visit any and or all of these in person some day) for some references for heights people, and general inspiration colors style etc.  

 

 

oof its late I will come back and finish this post tomorrow.

 

Edited March 22 by lsherlockl

[SpacePolice89]

I really like your HMS Indefatigable MOC. I'm also a big fan of the Hornblower TV miniseries and think that you have chosen a very suitable minifig head for Captain Sir Edward Pellew.

[lsherlockl]

Build Progress

Finally got a bulk of bricks or enough to start laying down the ship! ill try and not spam but showoff some of the interior and progress in this post. 

 

gun deck in and anchor cable strung (using braided nylon cord over lego strings. More on the gun deck layout later (as you may notice it looks a little funky, i also just really enjoy the hatchways with the headlight pieces

I'm at the crossroads of wanting to savor the build and just plow right through it. I'm still waiting on a few parts so will ahve to wait at some point :)

 

Edited March 22 by lsherlockl

[lsherlockl]

The Crew

Okay last reserved post i promise. Placeholder for the Crew as i want to or intend to flesh out a crew roughly relating to some of the cast of the Hornblower Tv mini series.

Crew of note

Placeholder Pellew

LT. Hornblower

LT. Bush (out of place on the Indy) but like the character

Midshipmen

perhaps sailing Master Bowles

Matthews

Styles

Able bodied Seamen

Marines

this section likely have some custom work and probably some 3d prints, but i need to learn probably blender and a whole other set of skills for that.

I have at least started collecting some heads along the way with parts orders so that should help some.

I also have no idea how to separate these into their own reply's as i will certainly edit them and don't want to make them too long.

Edited March 22 by lsherlockl

[lsherlockl]

7 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I really like your HMS Indefatigable MOC. I'm also a big fan of the Hornblower TV miniseries and think that you have chosen a very suitable minifig head for Captain Sir Edward Pellew.

thank you for the kind words. And i think i kind of just got lucky throwing a placeholder minifig together to move around and megablocks scale in lego studio. Certainly head style fits him pretty close.

[Franco Clarke]

This is an impressive frigate, especially for a first time design. Nice to see the Indy being built in real bricks too, as far as I am aware, this hasn't been attempted before. The ship is also quite reminiscent of the Hotspur from later in the show.