MOC: CSS Baton Rouge WIP

[Laura Beinbrech]

Well, I've posted several MOCs based on the main Good-aligned faction in my post-apocalyptic LEGO setting, so I figured I'd post one of the "Bad Guy" factions vehicles. This is a steam-powered Battle Cruiser of the Confederate States of America, or Neo-Confederacy (after the Final War, the South did, in fact, rise again). Ever since I got the Black Pearl set at the LEGO Store in Arundel Mills at the beginning of the month, I've been slowly, but surely working on this beast. Now, at the end of the month I finally have something to show for it:

CSS Baton Rouge, Side WIP by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

CSSBCWIP1 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

CSSBCWIP3 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

As you can see, I've got the main hull exterior and the main deck finished (with the 10" gun turrets, the funnels and the interior of the main deck (which includes the Captain's Cabin and the Combat Information Center).... Now all I need to do is finish the 01 Level (Bridge and Radio Shack) and the 02 Level (basically open deck on top of the Bridge for the Lookouts and some additional Machinegunners and/or AA guns). I ended up buying two extra black hull sections on BrickLink, because the hull parts that came with the original Black Pearl set were too short and the resulting ship was far too stubby, so I ended up lengthening the ship. As a result, the interior of the superstructure is now two studs longer than it was before, allowing me to add an additional watch station to the CIC and let the Tactical Action Officer (officer in charge of CIC) to sit down. This, however requires me to re-design the level the Bridge is on as well as the one above it. Once I get that done, I'll be making a new list of parts required and ordering more stuff through Pick A Brick (which will hopefully not take nearly as long to arrive). Once the ship is finished, I'll post additional pics and a full backstory.

[Laura Beinbrech]

Well, I can tell that everyone is excited about this project, due to the overwhelming response this thread has received, so I decided to post some additional WIP pics. I spent about 5 hours last knight working on finishing up the main structure of the 01 Level (where the Bridge and Radio Shack are located) and the 02 Level (open upper deck with walls and the main mast), and I'm happy with how its shaping up so far. I just ordered what should be the final parts I need to finish this thing up (well, I do need more crew, but I'll have to order them on BrickLink, since they use the green and white striped Pirate Torso from the 2009 Pirates line... It was a good thing I bought some dozen or so Cannon Battle sets, otherwise I'd not have enough sailors to man all the bridge and CIC watch stations ).

Anyways, here they are:

Baton Rouge WIP part 2 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Side view pic... You can see some sailors manning the bridge-wing mounted heavy machineguns and an AA-vulcan cannon (I'm most likely going to convert that thing into a Phalanx CIWS or Goalkeeper mount). Yes, it is, in fact, a BrickArms Minigun. I'm also going to add one to the aft side of the 02 Level, for complete point defense.

Baton Rouge's Bridge and Radio Shack by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

This is the Bridge and Radio Shack interior... This picture didn't turn out too well for some reason, but you can still see the Captain's Chair (which is currently occupied by the Officer of the Deck), the Navigator's radar station and the Quartermaster of the Watch at the helm. The light-bley thing with the lever next to the helm is supposed to be the Engine Order Telegraph, which is used to convey engine speed orders to the Main Engine Room.

The red cabinet in the Radio Shack is a weapons locker, and holds two MP-40 submachine guns (for the QMOW and Duty Radioman) and two .45 Colt Revolvers for the Officer of the Deck and the Navigator, to be issued in case of an emergency combat situation (security alert, hostile boarding action, etc).

Baton Rouge's CIC and CO's Cabin by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

This is an updated pic of the main deck interior, showing the Combat Information Center and the Captain's Cabin (yes, that IS Blackbeard commanding this ship... One of the side-effects of all the blasted time-space portals that keep popping up since the Final War). The officer sitting at the fancy console with all the widgets is the Tactical Action Officer, the commissioned officer who is in charge of coordinating all the weapons systems in CIC with each other and the bridge in order to make most effective use of the ship's offensive and defensive capabilities. The other consoles are fire control stations for the various gun turrets.

Baton Rouge Below Decks WIP by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Finally, the still very much WIP belowdecks.. You can see part of the updated (but still far from complete) main Engine Room, and the Mess Deck, with three off-duty sailors enjoying a bite to eat. The big barrel was going to be a water tank/hoop boiler, but I can't figure out any good lit arrangement, so It's going in the Berthing area as a Shower/bath tub.

Hope you enjoyed the updates! Hopefully the PAB order I just placed won't take another 3 weeks to a month to arrive, otherwise I might not have this finished before Christmas.

[Bearded Castle Guy]

/]Hikaro Takayama[/url], on Flickr

Finally, the still very much WIP belowdecks.. You can see part of the updated (but still far from complete) main Engine Room, and the Mess Deck, with three off-duty sailors enjoying a bite to eat. The big barrel was going to be a water tank/hoop boiler, but I can't figure out any good lit arrangement, so It's going in the Berthing area as a Shower/bath tub.

Hope you enjoyed the updates! Hopefully the PAB order I just placed won't take another 3 weeks to a month to arrive, otherwise I might not have this finished before Christmas.

Well have you tried inverting (placing it upside down) the barrel and attaching whatever attachments, details etc to what is normally the bottom side of the barrel?

It's an interesting build to be sure, I just don't wander thru the 'Space/SciFi' forum very often.

Your finished build should be interesting

[Xyver]

That is a really mean looking battle cruiser, I especially like the side mounted gun turrets.

I will have to track down some of your previous works.

Can't wait to see the finished details inside.

[Laura Beinbrech]

Well have you tried inverting (placing it upside down) the barrel and attaching whatever attachments, details etc to what is normally the bottom side of the barrel?

Actually, I found that one of those 4x4 round plates or radar dishes would sorta work, but then the whole assembly was too high for me to attach the hoses and such to, so I decided to just add another horizontal boiler/accumulator assembly like the one in the lower left side of the pic and make the barrel into a shower (I'll need to move one stack of lockers, but I got enough space to do that)...

It's an interesting build to be sure, I just don't wander thru the 'Space/SciFi' forum very often.

Your finished build should be interesting

Yeah, I was kind of afraid of this... I kinda wanted to post it in the Pirates section, but even leaving aside the fact that it's a post-apoc ship built in 2105, it it still far to modern for that (like a kind of Schizo-technology WWI/WWII battle cruiser), and again, it wouldn't quite fit into the "Historical" section (although if I were to eliminate all the radar consoles and replace the radio with a wireless telegraph, it would kind of fit into the Wild West era) or the Military section of the "Other Themes", so here was the best fit for it.

I'm glad you guys like it, thus far.... BTW, I just found an awesome source for LEGO-Scale cloth flags on the internet, and ordered two each of their Confederate first national flag (a.k.a. "Stars and Bars") in the 1" length (slightly larger than the small LEGO flags) and the confederate battle flag (a.k.a. "Rebel Flag") in the 1.5" length (i.e. slightly smaller than the large LEGO flags)... Now we'll just have to see whether the flags beat my PAB order over here.

[Laura Beinbrech]

Ok, I finally got my PAB order and was able to finally finish this monstrosity (although it is still rather light on crew):

Baton Rouge Starboard side view by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Baton Rouge Port side view by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

These are pics of the entire ship from port and starboard views.

Baton Rouge 02 Level by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Pic of the uppermost deck, showing the two 20mm automated anti-air point-defense cannons (BrickArms miniguns) and the two lookouts manning their heavy machineguns.

Baton Rouge Bridge by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Completed view of the bridge and radio room... Not much change here from the previous pics.

Baton Rouge Main Deck by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Pic of the main deck interior, showing the Captain's cabin and Combat Information Center.

Baton Rouge belowdecks, Fwd by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Forward view of the belowdecks area, showing the Storage/Anchor Windlass room... The crates and chests are packed with food and other supplies.

Baton Rouge Belowdecks Aft by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Finally, the aft view of the belowdecks area, showing the Engine Room and Crew Berthing in all their glory.

I'll try to post more background information tomorrow, but I hope you enjoy what you see.

[Henchmen4Hire]

That looks like a formidable ship, it also looks like it has a bunch of rivets all over the body because of how the flash's highlights, pretty neat effect.

It's also cool that you added doors and hatches and exhaust pipes, I would always forget about those when I built ships... my poor, poor suffocated crew...

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I wouldn't take the lack of responses too personally, at least a ton of people are looking at your work. A good chunk of them most likely like it but don't bother posting or aren't registered.

Though it is kinda worrying when no one says how they think you did one way or the other. Feedback is always useful.

Add Yoda as the captain and post it in the star wars forum, maybe you'll get some more feedback that way

[Skipper]

I've been following this topic, just waiting for it to be finished to comment. A fearsome battle cruiser you've got there, with some huge guns. I like the chunkiness of the superstructure - looks like something out of a comic. The interior adds something special, a surprising amount fits in there. I like the mess and engine rooms especially, and the various doors connecting all the rooms are a great detail. Nice work!

[Laura Beinbrech]

That looks like a formidable ship, it also looks like it has a bunch of rivets all over the body because of how the flash's highlights, pretty neat effect.

It's also cool that you added doors and hatches and exhaust pipes, I would always forget about those when I built ships... my poor, poor suffocated crew...

Thanks! The reason I remember such details is the fact that I was in the US Navy for 6 years, four and a half of which I spent of surface ships (3 on a Spruance-Class Destroyer and 1.5 on a Tarawa-class Amphibious Assault ship), and I was a weapons system technician (I spent many, many, many long hours standing watch in the Combat Information Center). I also was assigned, on numerous occasions to "tiger teams" that helped with overhauling the main engine room and re-furbishing the crew berthing while the ship was in drydock, not to mention got qualified to stand engineering watches, so I got pretty familiar with the Destroyer I was on from top to bottom....

I've been following this topic, just waiting for it to be finished to comment. A fearsome battle cruiser you've got there, with some huge guns. I like the chunkiness of the superstructure - looks like something out of a comic. The interior adds something special, a surprising amount fits in there. I like the mess and engine rooms especially, and the various doors connecting all the rooms are a great detail. Nice work!

Thans! I tried to put as much detail as I could, but without making it too crowded (well, more crowded than shipboard conditions usually are, anyways ). The doors and hatches are based on real-life water-tight doors and hatches used in real-world navies (their purpose is to be able to divide the ship into watertight compartments, so that if a hole gets blown through the side, the flooding can be limited to one or two spaces (rooms) instead of filling up the whole ship).

And now for some background info, as promised (excerpt from Jayne's Fighting Ships, 2111 edition, Republic of New Jersey press):

"Shortly after the Final War, when the worst of the temporal disturbances occurred (one of which warped the Pentagon to heaven only knows where), one such portal, linking directly to the realm of Chaos opened up in eastern Louisiana, but fortunately, unlike the great rift up in northern Canada, this occurred near a populated area and was much smaller. As hordes of mutants, monsters and vile abominations poured forth, the mountaineers rallied behind a descendent of P. G. T. Beuregard and slowly pushed the invaders back and were eventually able to collapse the rift. From those humble beginnings, the new Confederate States of America slowly spread out, offering stability in the wake of the power vacuum left by the great war (the remnants of the North American Union that would eventually come to be known as the Federal Republic of America had their hands full dealing with incursions by the Grand Duchy of New York and the main Chaos incursion from Canada, which was led by none other than Sauron the Black), eventually spreading to cover the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

The dark side of the new nation, born from its first, horrific encounter with sapient non-humans in the post-Final War era, was its extreme pro-human, xenophopic policies: Only humans were given full rights to vote and work in the CSA, with Dwarves and Elves (being very human-looking) given nearly equal status... All other non-humans had to register with the "alien registration act" and carry their alien registration cards on them at all time, or risk being jailed or worse. Furthermore, most non-humans could only get menial, low-paying jobs and were generally treated with suspicion and reviled by the human citizens of the Confederacy.

Needless to say, when the Confederacy finally met with the Federal Republic of America (which had recently expanded into Tennessee and the Carolinas), the fact that they allowed non-humans to live freely and become full citizens was an immediate bone of contention and source of mistrust (not to mention the fact that the FRA occupied territories that the Confederates considered "theirs", such as the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia), which soon degenerated into open hostility when a Confederate border patrol murdered an alien member of the Federal Republic army on Federal Republic soil. Since the Federal Republic was a significant player in the Naval arena, not to mention increasing pirate attacks on their coastal regions, the CSA was forced to begin a crash naval construction program.

The Mobile-class Battle Cruiser (CC) was the result of this program. While somewhat primitive compared to most Federal Navy ships, it was capable of operating far afield with minimal logistical support: Instead of the gas turbine engines used by the Federal Navy, most Confederate Navy ships used biogas-fired boilers (with the food garbage and other... waste generated by the crew being used to produce more biogas), and rely heavily on guns, rather than missiles, due to the fact that the ammunition is cheaper and more of it can be carried per explosive yield weight as compared to missiles. The main armament of the ship consists of four 10-inch guns and four 5-inch side-mounted guns. Secondary armament consists of various medium-heavy machine guns and two 20mm automated anti-air/anti-missile point defense vulcan cannons for dealing with small boats and aircraft. Finally, most ships in the class are being retrofitted with guided torpedo launchers for anti-submarine warfare and dealing with some of the nastier sea monster that have infested the Atlantic Ocean since the Final War.

The ships primary role is convoy escort, commerce raiding, shore-fire support and anti-piracy (most pirates crap themselves when they see one of THESE ships coming at them). They have even proven themselves in battle against smaller detachments of Federal Navy and Lone Star Republic Navy ships in various sea skirmishes, although the CSS Mobile was sunk by a Federal Navy Kestrel-class frigate using a combination of daring, luck, and good solid hits from both its torpedoes and a merculite missile, but that was considered somewhat of a fluke by commanders on both sides."