[COR-FB] Schooner Amethyst

[Bregir]

The Montoya estate has seen no less than two of its vessels detained by Oleander authorities on pretence of an outrageous tax regime meant to control the workings of free trade. Ibn al'Sayeed has furiously protested to rear-admiral Fletcher, but the crown have so far done nothing - and perhaps there is nothing to be done, bar starting a trade tax war, something Her Majesty was unlikely to approve.

That offers little comfort to the ambitious manager of the estate, though, so he has ordered an expansion of the fleet to compensate. When Montoya returns, there are to be no doubts as to al'Sayeed's diligence!

The first vessel in this expansion is the unarmed coastal class 3 schooner "Amethyst". Relying on speed and upwind performance rather than defences to stay safe, she has a capacious hold, further added to by only carrying stores for shorter voyages.

Her large deck hatches allow easy access to the holds, and by rigging a block in the gaff of main and fore sail cargo can be easily loaded and unloaded, even in small settlements with little infrastructure in the way of cargo handling.

 

Newest vessel in the Montoya fleet. She is nothing fancy hull-wise, just a standard hinge based build, but I like the clean look of her decks, the overall shape, and the hatches I stole from @Bart. The rigging is also something I am starting to feel rather confident about - I am still on the look-out for a good material for sails that is easy to work with, but these turned out fairly well too.

C&C welcome as always.

[Bart]

That's a nice and clean schooner you've made Bregir. 

[Professor Thaum]

1 hour ago, Bart said:

That's a nice and clean schooner you've made Bregir. 

agreed !

I love this stern !

Edited July 2, 2018 by Professor Thaum

[Capt Wolf]

Very clean and sleek, neatly rigged. Well done!

[Ross Fisher]

Looks really nice. How long did it take? 

[LM71Blackbird]

Another great looking ship Bregir! I really like how the sails turned out.

[Bodi]

As said in the above posts, a nice and clean schooner, good job with the custom hull, the masts and sails looks very good as well.

[Bregir]

Thank you, all. I like working with vessels this scale - it is much more manageable if you need to redo something, for instance in the internal workings...

18 hours ago, Ross Fisher said:

Looks really nice. How long did it take? 

Thank you - hmm, good question. I would think the hull took a few hours, maybe one more for detailing, one or two for masts and rigging? Not a huge project, really, but it is a process of experimenting, building, and rebuilding. Once you know what you want, and remember the structural supports for chain plates, bowsprit and masts, the hinge plate hull and technic connector masts are easy to work with :)

 

[Roadmonkeytj]

Impressive ship...  Perhaps you would be willing to show off her bottom? 

[blackdeathgr]

Great merchant ship Bregir! I like how you have incorporated the cabin

[Kai NRG]

Very nice schooner, clean lines, great rigging.   You're getting good at these!

[Flavius Gratian]

A really nice ship! I think you've done a great job including small details, such as the anchor which I always forget. The rigging, as usual is superb! I can't tell you enough how amazed I am by the fact that you manage to it just using string. I assume you used paper for the sails?

Some comments: while the hatches do look nice, I don't really understand what they represent in real life. Do you possibly have any pictures of examples?

I think you should have used some kind of inverted slope for the prow instead of a normal rectagular brick. As it is now, it looks a bit strange being entirely vertical.

Finally, I wouldn't want to stand on the poop deck; that railing barely covers one's feet!

On 7/3/2018 at 12:58 PM, Bregir said:

for instance in the internal workings...

Oach! How late in the workprocess did that happen?

[Bregir]

On 7/3/2018 at 4:08 PM, Roadmonkeytj said:

Impressive ship...  Perhaps you would be willing to show off her bottom?  

Thanks. I will see if I can get a picture of her general construction. It is fairly simple. :)

On 7/3/2018 at 4:21 PM, blackdeathgr said:

Great merchant ship Bregir! I like how you have incorporated the cabin

Thanks - a cabin on deck would be a rarity for a vessel this size, but hey - captain's got to have some luxury... ;)

On 7/3/2018 at 10:11 PM, Kai NRG said:

Very nice schooner, clean lines, great rigging.   You're getting good at these!

Thanks - practice makes "perfect" ;)

3 hours ago, Flavius Gratian said:

A really nice ship! I think you've done a great job including small details, such as the anchor which I always forget. The rigging, as usual is superb! I can't tell you enough how amazed I am by the fact that you manage to it just using string. I assume you used paper for the sails?

Thanks Flavius - my rigging work has been improved over many builds - and now I really enjoy setting up the rope and making it all stand taut and straight. :) The deck details is something I have been focusing on, as I have always felt a bit weak in that area - my natural focus is on hull shape and rigging. And yes, regular printer paper. I see now that the lines really make them look rather nice, but I am still searching for the right material going forward. :)

3 hours ago, Flavius Gratian said:

Some comments: while the hatches do look nice, I don't really understand what they represent in real life. Do you possibly have any pictures of examples?

Not sure about pictures. But imagine the hatches have some raised sides over the deck. On top of these sides a number of wooden spars is placed, over which a canvas is stretched. This canvas/tarpaulin is then battened down around the edges. That is what they represent.

3 hours ago, Flavius Gratian said:

I think you should have used some kind of inverted slope for the prow instead of a normal rectagular brick. As it is now, it looks a bit strange being entirely vertical.

With the method using hinges for the hull, one is very limited in how to do the slope of the bow, particularly at this scale. To me, it would need to be a continuous curve from the beakhead down, and that I could not recreate at this scale. Also, in reality I think many ships had a keel almost vertical at the bow. So it is not perfect, but my best effort :P

3 hours ago, Flavius Gratian said:

Finally, I wouldn't want to stand on the poop deck; that railing barely covers one's feet!

No railing there as it would be in the way of the main boom! Generally, I think most vessels this size would be flushdecked, so it is a bit of a idiosyncrasy. Should a vessel of this configuration and scale have existed, I am sure the poop deck would only have seen very limited use...

3 hours ago, Flavius Gratian said:

Oach! How late in the workprocess did that happen? 

For this vessel, it didn't - as I considered it from the start - but when using string rigging (with a goal that everything can stand by itself even under some strain) anchor points for stays and shrouds (chain plates) are really important. Otherwise, the sides fall apart as you tighten the shrouds, or the hull bulges up as you tighten the stays... I have had that happen on several vessels, including the terraman I am working on - and sometimes you have to go through major redesigns to fix it. The Ironsides have notoriously weak chains, and is slowly falling apart as it sits on my shelf! :O