[WIP] SS Amsterdam, an impossible project?

[Jeroen Ottens]

Hi,

I would like to present to you a project that I most likely will never finish, but I hope the road to failure is interesting enough to share. It is a project which I first thought of over 4 years ago. I spent some time designing in LDD, got all sorts of brick collision issues because of all the SNOT techniques used, then lost the files because of a computer upgrade and finally stopped working on this project.

But recently (after seeing the superyaught kiss of VFracingteam) I restarted this project. Here is a picture of the ship in question:

I attempt to design a 1:100 replica of this beauty. However I have nowhere near the required amount of bricks to ever finish it. I also don't expect to be willing to ever spend so much on lego to acquire the necessary bricks (the hull alone requires an estimated 7500 1x2 bricks). Almost the whole hull is curved (unlike modern cruiseships that are more rectangular slabs with a bow tacked onto them) and even the decks are not horizontal, but have a very slight, but noticeable bending radius (in Dutch this is called 'de zeeg van het dek').

My ambition would be to design it such that these beautiful curves stay intact, which means using a bending-brick technique where each brick is rotated just a little bit within the manufacturing tolerances. Here are the first attempts to capture those curves:

The red lines are the base of the hull. The white lines are the boarding of the front deck.

This is a close up of the front deck together with the drawings I purchased 4 years ago.

Because of the bending-brick technique I can't really use LDD and my expectation is that LDCAD is also not very friendly when rotating so many bricks. So I'll have to design parts in LDD (especially the cabins on the decks with all the windows are a nice challenge to design in CAD) and parts will be made in colourvomitted legobricks. Over the coming months bits and pieces will appear if you are interested in them.

All advice is appreciated

Edited October 18, 2015 by Jeroen Ottens

[legolijntje]

I think it won't actually be a big problem at all, rotating the bricks in LDCad and making a curved hull. I'd say it's almost "easy" as long as you know what to do and how LDCad works... I've never tried it though, so I'm not 100% certain. If you need any help with LDCad, you can always PM me or post a message in the LDCad topic over here.

Aside from that, it looks like a really nice model. The building style is really different from your other Technic models.

I'm wondering though, what is your goal? You say that you don't have enough bricks, but you're probably not going to buy them either. So, what's the point of starting a model that you're never going to finish?

[Cumulonimbus]

That is what you call an ambitious project, especially when you want to recreate all the curves of the real ship.

I have built a wooden ship model and even with a flexible material such as wood planking, it was very challenging to get the curves right. Personally, I would start by building the crucial cross sections and position them on a keel or a fake keel. This will give you some structure to fix parts of the deck and hull.

You probably familiar with this portfolio as well (I forgot the name of the creator): https://www.flickr.com/photos/konajra/albums

Good luck!

[Jeroen Ottens]

I think it won't actually be a big problem at all, rotating the bricks in LDCad and making a curved hull. I'd say it's almost "easy" as long as you know what to do and how LDCad works... I've never tried it though, so I'm not 100% certain. If you need any help with LDCad, you can always PM me or post a message in the LDCad topic over here.

Aside from that, it looks like a really nice model. The building style is really different from your other Technic models.

I'm wondering though, what is your goal? You say that you don't have enough bricks, but you're probably not going to buy them either. So, what's the point of starting a model that you're never going to finish?

The problem I foresee with LDCad is that I need to enter all rotation values by hand. Each brick will have a different rotation in two directions. I am not even sure which rotation point to use...

As for the goal, this is more a Buddhist approach to building , the road is more important than the goal . And who knows, maybe someone else does have the bricks/money/time to actually build it. Or maybe I do get so excited that I do throw all caution to the wind and invest in bricks (might be a good reason to join some LUG to get access to the LUGBulk program).

That is what you call an ambitious project, especially when you want to recreate all the curves of the real ship.

I have built a wooden ship model and even with a flexible material such as wood planking, it was very challenging to get the curves right. Personally, I would start by building the crucial cross sections and position them on a keel or a fake keel. This will give you some structure to fix parts of the deck and hull.

You probably familiar with this portfolio as well (I forgot the name of the creator): https://www.flickr.c.../konajra/albums

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. If I stick to a technic beam inner structure I might actually be able to make that (if all else fails I can still take apart my Zeppelin, that definitely should provide enough beams, it is about the same length). The curves I made so far are without (too much) stress in the lego pieces, but it will be a challenge to find the right support points so that the hull remains smooth and doesn't become all bumpy... I probably need some kind of adjustable connection between the hull and the inner structure... Hmm...

[Edwin Korstanje]

Hi Jeroen,

That's a ambitious project and glad after seeing the Kiss you wanted restarted this project SS Amsterdam and is a beautyfull ship .

I know that you are a Pro builder, but to juse the bending-brick technique i precarious about .

The SS Amsterdam in the scale 1/100 is 2,32 meter in lenght and 27 centimeters wide and with the bending technique you can't build strong enough.

Maybe you can learn from Konajra's Jutlandia and the technique he jused for the hull.

Also i make a quick calculation and you need around 50 K to 70 K off parts for it.

I hope you will make this beauty and will follow every step of it .

If you have question you can also PM me.

Here a picture of Konajra's JUTLANDIA

[legolijntje]

The problem I foresee with LDCad is that I need to enter all rotation values by hand. Each brick will have a different rotation in two directions. I am not even sure which rotation point to use...

As for the goal, this is more a Buddhist approach to building , the road is more important than the goal . And who knows, maybe someone else does have the bricks/money/time to actually build it. Or maybe I do get so excited that I do throw all caution to the wind and invest in bricks (might be a good reason to join some LUG to get access to the LUGBulk program).

Well, if you've calculated the angles, you can just insert them right? It's a little more manual work than something completely automatic, but it's something

I'm pretty sure that with a bit of programming, you can also make the process more automated. I've never tried that though.

Thanks for the advice. If I stick to a technic beam inner structure I might actually be able to make that (if all else fails I can still take apart my Zeppelin, that definitely should provide enough beams, it is about the same length). The curves I made so far are without (too much) stress in the lego pieces, but it will be a challenge to find the right support points so that the hull remains smooth and doesn't become all bumpy... I probably need some kind of adjustable connection between the hull and the inner structure... Hmm...

Maybe you can use mini-LA's to make a adjustable connection? Although, it's probably not the cheapest solution...

[captainmib]

I lived near the SS Rotterdam for a few years, it's a beautiful ship.

So i would encourage you to build it, but also not to loose your mind ;-)

I'm tinkering with a ship model myself, totaly different, in model and buildstyle.

Maybe i will post something when i have some ideas to show.

Building ship hulls is really a challenge, and I have no experience with it...

Good luck.

[flyboy01]

Good luck!