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Hi all, this is my first sailing ship in at least 30 years. But I went all-in. This is also the first adult MOC for which I have bought "my own" bricks, rather than relying on whatever (admittedly copious) odds and ends my sons had lying around at a given moment.

Anyway, my creation is a fully-rigged minifig-scale (1:38.4) historical LEGO model of the 6th-rate frigate HMS Enterprize (also spelled as Enterprise), launched in 1774. I know that class is a bit "over-exposed," but the size was right (the end result is 5 feet long bowsprit to boom, just possible for me to lift), the plans were readily available on the web, and it's a lovely ship. My intent with it was to meld model and toy--it has a lot of working features and internal play spaces.

In this post I'm basically just going to focus on some of my favorite pictures, rather than bogging down in a lot of text. But if you are interested there is more to see:

- I have a ton of pictures on Flickr with info in many of the descriptions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/136587164@N02/collections/72157664502401642/

- I have a MOCPages page with more info: http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/426851

Also, I'm happy to answer any questions here. And if there are picture angles or subjects that I neglected, let me know and I will snap them while I still have my photo setup in place.

I hope you will like my product, it's been about 8 months of work. Throughout that process, seeing what is being done on the Pirates board here has been a big source of encouragement!

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HMS Enterprize - Gunports Open (Bow Quarter)

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HMS Enterprize - Waterline Stern

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HMS Enterprize - Stern

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HMS Enterprize - Waterline Bow Closeup

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HMS Enterprize - Forecastle

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HMS Enterprize Meets The Brick Bounty

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HMS Enterprize - Crew

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HMS Enterprize - Decks Overview

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HMS Enterprize - Captain's Quarters (removed from hull)

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HMS Enterprize - Captain's Quarters - Great Cabin Interior

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HMS Enterprize - Racing Neck and Neck on the Foremast

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HMS Enterprize - Launching a Cutting-Out Expedition!

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HMS Enterprize - Well Met, Fellow Traveller!

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HMS Enterprize - Into the Sunset

Thanks for your interest, input and inspiration!

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Absolute masterpiece!! :wub:

This is one of the finest Lego ships built yet. The scale is incredible. The hull looks really good and the rigging is just magnificent. Excellent work all the way around. This should earn you a spot on the frontpage, "Ship Expert", etc etc.

Custom guns might look a little better but otherwise she's a work of art. The assortment of photos is nice without being overwhelming. I also like the water technique - I don't think I've seen that before.

She's a beauty. Exquisite creation my friend. :classic:

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Absolutely stunning :pir-wub:. What you created is nothing short of sublime. The sheer scale is enough to inspire awe in fellow shipbuilders, and the details and accuracy take this build to the next level.

My only suggestion for improvement would be the sails. With everything else done so nicely, the sails look a little awkward without any of the lines or ropes you would normally see on sails. This tutorial has some simple techniques to help make sails look very realistic.

The last picture is nothing short of a piece of art. Once again, well done a hundred times overpirate_classic.gif.

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WOW!!!! An absolute beauty you have created! Funny how at first glance at the top image the ship seems average size, until I see the images of the deck! This is just a beautiful ship with so many details! Great rigging as well as sails. I love the tumble home design you have created here. The interior is so grand!!! Just simply WOW!

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Wow, a stunning ship both inside and out, and on such an impressive scale too! And this was your first ship? I cannot wait to see what else you will be able to craft!

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BEAUTIFUL SHIP!!!! The Brick Bounty is soooo small!!! XD

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Thank you for the very kind comments!

that last pic is amazing

At one point in the middle of the rigging work I had left my work light on behind the ship and turned off the room light and the idea was born of doing a backlit shot.

But it turned out to be a lot harder to get the shot than I thought. My camera is pretty cruddy, and I spent almost two hours of trying different things before I found something that worked decently. What it was, finally, was a couple of the kids' red "finger lights" in front to give the reddish hue, and then one of my main fluorescent lights BEHIND my white paper backdrop, with some cheesecloth draped over it to diffuse it a bit...

Custom guns might look a little better

:cannon:

Yes I went back and forth about it quite a bit. Actually the "match that lit the powder keg" for the whole project was buying a couple of extra cannons for my son's Brick Bounty (featured above). But then I thought maybe brick built cannons would be better. However I noticed that the scale difference of the LEGO cannons isn't really that bad, at least for the 9-pounders. In the end I decided that maybe it was more in keeping with the "toy-meets-model" idea to use LEGO cannons.

Who knows, though, maybe I will revisit it. It would be nice to have carronades, and to properly differentiate the 6 from 9 pounders

My only suggestion for improvement would be the sails. With everything else done so nicely, the sails look a little awkward without any of the lines or ropes you would normally see on sails.

This tutorial has some simple techniques to help make sails look very realistic.

I do like how the sails hang, but I agree they look plain.

I don't know how I missed that tutorial. On my scrap pieces of material I tried to do the lines (as I've seen many beautiful examples here on the site) and I was very dissatisfied with my results. So I played it safe. Maybe I was just getting fatigued toward the end of the project. But perhaps with the tutorial I will be reenergized to try again

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These to scale projects are just epic! This deserves to be on the frontpage.

How much did it cost to build it?

Both kidneys and a chunk of liver, I would bet :-P

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How much did it cost to build it?

heh heh, I've been trying not to think about that too much. Almost 20,000 pieces. A lot were plates and 2x2 round plates that were $0.05 per, but still it had to be over $1000. So I guess much credit has to go to my benevolent employer and understanding wife!

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heh heh, I've been trying not to think about that too much. Almost 20,000 pieces. A lot were plates and 2x2 round plates that were $0.05 per, but still it had to be over $1000. So I guess much credit has to go to my benevolent employer and understanding wife!

Geez! And people think my Thunderchild's 2,000 pieces is huge :-D

Edited by Cousarmy0001

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That is a really nice model, and the display with the water makes it just that much nicer and more complete.

I also really like your interior, something I have not yet made complete until now.

Your rigging also looks really accurate, I only think your sails look a bit plain.

My other nitpick is that the prow looks a bit too straight up. Lastly the colours of the cabin don't really match the rest of the ship, but I am unsure if you were referring to a certain colour scheme in your plans? Otherwise top notch, it certainly deserves that spot on the front page! thumbup.gif

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My only complaint is that she seems to be riding rather high in the water, maybe 5-6 bricks high- presumably that's so that the berthing deck can be shown. The prow does seem a little bit too vertical, but that's also only above the waterline.

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That is a really nice model, and the display with the water makes it just that much nicer and more complete.

Thanks! One of my goals with the model was definitely that people would enjoy looking at it on the web, and as I thought about what made other people's creations special, it became clear how much of a difference a nice base makes.

But I was, honestly, a bit tired of the "fill a rectangle with translucent blue one-stud plates." So I decided to try something different. Not a home run, I think, but hopefully worth points for effort :pir_laugh2:

My other nitpick is that the prow looks a bit too straight up. Lastly the colours of the cabin don't really match the rest of the ship, but I am unsure if you were referring to a certain colour scheme in your plans?

You raise some very good points. Both are, I think, examples of how focusing on one thing can start pulling you off course.

Regarding the cabin colors, I was going to use yellow lattice windows. But I really wanted to use the small rounded windows at the back of the galleries, as that is what my plans showed and I thought it would be cool. However those rounded lattices only come in a few colors like gold and black. So I ended up going more toward gold than yellow. But perhaps I should have used yellow window frames with black lattices, or replaced the dark red highlights with yellow. By the time I got to that point, I probably had some tunnel vision.

Regarding the prow, it is definitely far from perfect from a model standpoint (though I still think I respond it it emotionally). The plans I was working off of (first picture below) looked a bit different than the replica HMS Surprise (second picture below). Shorter and more blunted off. But still mine is far too blunt. The thing that I got hung up on was trying to model the shaped planks (?) that run from the side of the hull up to the peak of the prow. In the plans I have, they took a quicker turn toward the vertical, with less diagonal than on HMS Surprise. But still I probably should have rethought the whole thing to make it more angled, especially toward the bottom.

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Here's a bow perspective that made me pretty happy though

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HMS Enterprize - Bow

My only complaint is that she seems to be riding rather high in the water, maybe 5-6 bricks high- presumably that's so that the berthing deck can be shown. The prow does seem a little bit too vertical, but that's also only above the waterline.

Very perceptive--it is definitely too high, although I don't think 5-6 bricks worth. Probably 3 studs (tiles) too tall?

HMS Surprise can show a lot of flank at sides too.

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That is part of what made the frigate layout so popular--with one gun deck it was far off the water and could fire in any weather conditions.

But yes, it's still too high. The floor of the ship below the berth deck is 5 plates high, to act as a strength layer, as well as the attachment point for the side plates. Then the berth deck is at least a brick too tall, since I had a lot to fit in (furniture, deck supports, tiller, etc.). Maybe I will revisit the base at some point to conceal the height a little more effectively.

Edited by ejred

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How long did it take youto creat this masterpiece? And how much patience!!! I like the playability of your creation and that you combined a few different ideas in one set. It's good you share building techniques. The Brick Bounty has no chance neaby, so the pirates should run for life.

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How long did it take you to create this masterpiece?

Thank you for your kind comments! It all runs together in my mind now.

I started in August, and tried to spend at least a little time almost every day since then. And if time allowed, many hours.

First came about 4-6 weeks of looking at model plans, finalizing the project parameters, design work, trying out building techniques, and acquiring parts (well the first tranche of them)

The heavy building phase was September and October. By Halloween I had most of the hull done, although there was still much LEGO work on deck details, interior vignettes, prow and stern, etc. which I did when the rigging got too much for me

November I started trying out mast and rigging techniques with mizzenmast and bowsprit. By December I had the standing rigging done and bought sail material. In January I did sails and running rigging, and tiled the sides.

During NFL Superbowl I was working on the base, and around the same time I did the boats and anchors. Then I unfastened and retensioned all the rigging strings [prior to that my bowsprit looked like a banana :wall: ].

Then I detached the masts and finished any remaining detail work on the interiors

It took a few weeks to photograph, since I was learning how to do this with big LEGO projects, and also had to put back in the interiors and reattach the rigging at the proper points.

Ready for a break!

Very great model and stunning details.

Now you ready for a complete ship and not a waterline model default_blink.gif .

Ouch :pir_laugh2:

Seriously, thank you for the note, I love the ships you do. For myself, both aesthetics and the play dimension (however hypothetical that may be) always pull me toward waterline ships. If that is also easier, well, it's a side-benefit

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Thank you--I am honored!

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Cool! I like how there's actually a place to chill inside, and not just a regular ship. Also love that it's somewhat minifig-scale.

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Absolutely beautiful! Looks amazing. The one question is... Where's Captain Kirk??? Lol just kidding. I love the below deck especially. It all looks so great. pirate_classic.gif

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