[MOC] Pirate ship "Parthenope"

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Hello everyone,

I've been following this forum for years now and I have always admired all of your creations and I must say you're all amazing. So, Inspired by all of your creativity, I thought to start building some pirate ship because it is the theme I love the most and it is also something I have been wanting to do for a long while. 

Recently I downloaded Studio app from bricklink and I started putting together something reminiscent of the Black Seas Barracuda as for color scheme and decorative elements, even if maintaining a certain kind of difference from the ship itself. This is nothing definitive and still a WIP by the way, and it is inspired by a ship of another builder regarding some of its parts.

I've started checking bricklink for pieces and I encountered a little problem about a specific brick and its color/availability/price. Not really knowing what should I do, I decided to ask you all for advice.

The brick in question is this one https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=136115&idColor=3#T=C&C=3 and I need it yellow. I found it, but it costs around $40 for a pair. I posted a picture here so you understand where it goes and the effect that it gives to the silhouette of the ship.

To cut on prices, (because from that same sellers I am also buying the hull's midsections and the red flags, totaling $80 + shipping to italy, which I don't know how much it is yet...!!!) I decided to change the color and this is the result:

The problem is I can't really decide between the first and second version, because I like the former a bit more than the latter (even if the latter is is not that bad). Maybe I am not yet used to seeing it in that color, so I need some time to adjust to it, but I think the yellow brick does add something. Its main purpose was a nod to the front part of the cabin on the BSB, which has got that yellow frame that almost wraps around the entrance of the cabin, and it was also a way to break the black area.

So what do you all think, should I just go for it and call it a day?

Here are a couple more pictures of the first version, seen from two different angles:

 

On a side note, the figurehead of the ship will be the "battle goddess" minifigure, but with the golden wings.

 

 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Elusys Ra Arwal

[Tezclatipoca]

That seems a good start.

I would go for the black piece and keep the yellow colour just for embellishments like you did on the second picture, with a thin yellow line following the curve of the cabin and to create some decorations.

This is a nice project and you have a good start !

Keep up the good job ! 

[Littleworlds]

I agree with @Faladrin. Yellow for accents might work better than having it as a dominant colour. Building in Lego is always a bit of juggling compromises, which can be quite fun in its own right. 

The ship hull looks so far really good. The white area you carried over from the Black Seas Barracuda helps with keeping it looking light, despite being substantially taller than in the original ship. Works well! The figurehead is an excellent choice btw. She is one of my favourite minifigures.

[Ultimo]

Personally I like more the black variant, yellow is imho very strong color, the details come out so much more if used on smaller (thinner) parts of the ship.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Thank you @Littleworlds, @Faladrin and @Ultimo for the reply. I think I'll follow your suggestion and discard that yellow brick. 

@Littleworlds as soon as I saw that minifigure, I just loved her. I was looking for some kind of goddess that could represent victory and war, that's why in my mock up I have the shield and bow (even if both don't exist in yellow) just for an idea, then she came up and it was just the perfect thing to place on the front. 

[The Neighborhood Merchant]

I'm looking forward to seeing the complete build! I'm a little late, but my input on rare, expensive pieces like that and if they should be avoided to save funds is more along the lines of biting the bullet if it's important. With your color scheme, it really comes down to the colors you want for the captain's quarters and to find the best accent. If that color of brick is vital to your color scheme, then It's more important to have a ship you can be proud of that's unique more than one that was cut back due to fund issues. You have to also consider future use of the piece. If you continue to build MOCs, you most likely will find yourself destroying your old ones to improve upon them or build more advanced ones with their pieces. If you believe a piece can be vital to a current build and a future one, then it would be important to get said piece so you can always have access to it (or until you lose it ). 

Also, never follow the price input Stud.io gives you. Trust me, they overestimate entirely. If you plan to purchase this, I'd recommend if you have the time then choose piece by piece from each store. Depending on your ship size, this may take a 10-20 hours, but you'll save 200 to 500 just by using that small amount of time (from my experience at least for buying three ships). Keep in mind as well, pieces like this that are in low quantity can sell for overpriced amounts just because the lack of other sellers; but, if you stay active and check ebay and bricklink often you will surely find them for a much more reasonable price later. 

Anyhow, that's just my opinion, but for stuff like this do what you believe is the correct path and what fits within your comfort zone. Also, welcome to the forums! Your ship looks beautiful already and I can't wait to see more! My apologies for the long message, I talk way too much. 

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

59 minutes ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

I'm looking forward to seeing the complete build! I'm a little late, but my input on rare, expensive pieces like that and if they should be avoided to save funds is more along the lines of biting the bullet if it's important. With your color scheme, it really comes down to the colors you want for the captain's quarters and to find the best accent. If that color of brick is vital to your color scheme, then It's more important to have a ship you can be proud of that's unique more than one that was cut back due to fund issues. You have to also consider future use of the piece. If you continue to build MOCs, you most likely will find yourself destroying your old ones to improve upon them or build more advanced ones with their pieces. If you believe a piece can be vital to a current build and a future one, then it would be important to get said piece so you can always have access to it (or until you lose it ). 

Also, never follow the price input Stud.io gives you. Trust me, they overestimate entirely. If you plan to purchase this, I'd recommend if you have the time then choose piece by piece from each store. Depending on your ship size, this may take a 10-20 hours, but you'll save 200 to 500 just by using that small amount of time (from my experience at least for buying three ships). Keep in mind as well, pieces like this that are in low quantity can sell for overpriced amounts just because the lack of other sellers; but, if you stay active and check ebay and bricklink often you will surely find them for a much more reasonable price later. 

Anyhow, that's just my opinion, but for stuff like this do what you believe is the correct path and what fits within your comfort zone. Also, welcome to the forums! Your ship looks beautiful already and I can't wait to see more! My apologies for the long message, I talk way too much. 

Don't worry because I haven't placed the order to the seller, so it is not "too late" yet... even if, as I said before, maybe it is not totally worth investing so much money on just two bricks that add some flavor, but aren't really this indispensable to the final look of the ship.

On a side note, once I build this ship it will be my first true MOC, as in buying pieces and putting them together. In the past, when I was little, I built one alternative ship from the SES, the broken one you can see in the first picture on the back of the box.

I modified it, and turned it into a functioning ship, but I never really bought any extra pieces because back in 1995 internet was still in 56kb modems and I didn't have a pc until 2003, so I didn't really think about these things were even possible... Also here in Italy, to my knowledge at least, there weren't shops from Lego where they sold bricks... just regular toy stores from where you buy your set and that is it. 

Then I discovered places like this, where people showed these amazing builds and I wondered how much would that cost and how many sets they'd need to buy in order to do something so articulated. Then I read people talking about bricklink, so I started seeing things and prices there but I never really bothered buying anything until now..heheh
Maybe for the MOC/MOD of the SES alternate model I'll open a topic and post there some pictures, as soon as I dust it well and nice!

So back on topic, I just started using stud.io, (actually I have to write something to their forum because basically, for no reason, bricks don't snap and they get placed in the middle of the studs, as in halfway, and to get them correctly I have to slowly move them and then they get displaced etc... so there's that to be solved) and I noticed that it provides some prices, but then I have controlled them on bricklink by entering the id number of the pieces and that yellow one is very expensive because this shop in Canada is the only one selling them and has got 6 parts... Then there's only one in italy and it is very cheap, but there's only one available and this shop has got a minimum purchase price. I tried to meet the minimum requirements, looking for any brick I could buy, but I couldn't make it because he didn't have what I needed, so back to the Canadian store.

Since it is not a really necessary brick but just aesthetics I think I can deal with the black one and put that money in some other bricks I found are quite expensive as well, to make custom cannons and some columns for the interior of the ship. I sort of found a solution to the problem, but I think I'll save that money for other things I'll need later. 

Thank you for your opinion, I appreciated it and don't worry about lengthy posts because I am long-winded too sometimes  

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Small update with the interior, or a possible version of it. 

On the left side of the picture, where the cannon is located, there are two small doors on each side.

[iammac]

Late to the party (as always,) but I actually prefer the black over the yellow brick, and especially so if they're $20/part!  The outline is shaping up so nicely, you must be very proud.

I like the interior shot you've posted. The inclusion of the medium sized doors is unique and a good use of space IMHO. The cannons are a good design too!

 

All told, I'm going to be following this thread for future updates.

 

MAC

[Anders T]

On the initial question regarding the #18653 bow.

-Why not sculpt it in other bricks-

From what I see, the section is something like seen on the right. On the left, I made a similar shape using tiles, slopes, plates and a #87087 brick (the red one).

Though the shape is not as smooth it gives you more flexibility in terms of color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2019 by Anders T

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

@iammac Don't worry, you're not late to the party... I ended up settling with the black brick, looks good and maybe that yellow was too much for that part, instead subtle accents works better. Anyway I have updated the interior of the ship and I moved as far back as the lower deck allowed me, and then next will be the cabin, since the part just above the lower deck it is already finished. Anyway here are the views to the area: 

@Anders T That's indeed a very good solution to the problem, yes less smooth, but very inventive, thanks! Although, as I just said, I think I'll stick with the black brick because it doesn't break too much the line of the ship and it is not too yellow. this is because above the flower where the yellow brick was supposed to be, there will be the railing and I am considering it to be yellow too, like the one that goes to the front. Although I might end up with black, otherwise there will be too much yellow. 
Thank you all really for the interest and suggestions! 

[iammac]

@Elusys Ra Arwal Ooh, thanks for the interior pictures! I like the design of those water pumps (that is what they are right?) From the looks of it, you're not going for maximum historical accuracy but something of a UCS Black Sea Barracuda... is this at all correct?

Keep the progress pictures coming. Your success could change the way I use this forum. 

 

MAC

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

@iammac For the design of those pumps you have to thank another user, not me. I took that design from "Concorde" of Imperial Shipyards, he really did an amazing job on historical accuracy. If I would nitpick on that ship, I'd say I didn't like the use of glue on the ratlines and other parts and the use of this techinic pin on the ratlines, instead of two of these wheels. That aside, great build and, like him, there are others too that for accuracy and details are true masters. You should check his work out 

As for my ship, You're in part correct. I am going for a kind of UCS Black Seas Barracuda and I am not going for historical accuracy in the sense that I'm not replicating any particular ship model and I'm not trying to make every part of it accurate, though I'm attempting to incorporate just a few elements, so to have a pseudo-realism on some parts and liberties on others.
For example, the interior I made is slightly accurate because you have those little trays with the cannonballs and, attached to the wall, two of the many tools needed to man a cannon, but given the space available, I couldn't include everything I wanted. I tried to put on the walls these plates, because I wanted to run those cables that you find around cannons, though I know I'd need so much more room to insert other hooks and pulleys, etc. The pumps you mentioned were inserted there because they're supposed to be on the ship, maybe not where I placed them, but space doesn't allow me to do better. 

Another thing I am working on is the capstan, and on here I found a wonderful tutorial made by Sebeus I, which is about a functional one. The only problem is its space requirements and, because there's no room to implement it in the way he made it, I have to create something similar and working for both anchors, though without using too much space. 

[iammac]

On 9/14/2019 at 6:26 AM, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

@iammac For the design of those pumps you have to thank another user, not me. I took that design from "Concorde" of Imperial Shipyards, he really did an amazing job on historical accuracy. If I would nitpick on that ship, I'd say I didn't like the use of glue on the ratlines and other parts and the use of this techinic pin on the ratlines, instead of two of these wheels. That aside, great build and, like him, there are others too that for accuracy and details are true masters. You should check his work out 

As for my ship, You're in part correct. I am going for a kind of UCS Black Seas Barracuda and I am not going for historical accuracy in the sense that I'm not replicating any particular ship model and I'm not trying to make every part of it accurate, though I'm attempting to incorporate just a few elements, so to have a pseudo-realism on some parts and liberties on others.
For example, the interior I made is slightly accurate because you have those little trays with the cannonballs and, attached to the wall, two of the many tools needed to man a cannon, but given the space available, I couldn't include everything I wanted. I tried to put on the walls these plates, because I wanted to run those cables that you find around cannons, though I know I'd need so much more room to insert other hooks and pulleys, etc. The pumps you mentioned were inserted there because they're supposed to be on the ship, maybe not where I placed them, but space doesn't allow me to do better. 

Another thing I am working on is the capstan, and on here I found a wonderful tutorial made by Sebeus I, which is about a functional one. The only problem is its space requirements and, because there's no room to implement it in the way he made it, I have to create something similar and working for both anchors, though without using too much space. 

Thanks for the explanation and insight... I'm rooting for you on this project because I can tell you've watched well the masters on this forum. (I should probably pay even closer attention myself!)

I look forward to seeing what you come up with. 

 

MAC

[Wellesley]

This is looking great! The colours, the shape, the railing... and not to forget the nostalgia aspect of it.

Only concern I have is the one that usually pops up, when someone is using a prefab bow. It is just too thick and destroys the continuity of the white curvature. Though this dark brown one already is the new version, right? Isn't the bottom part flat? Maybe there is a more elegant solution.

And what I just have spotted, you stretched the gap between the gun ports where the ladder is. I personally wouldn't do that.

 

Overall, really beautiful, hope to see more of it soon!

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

On 9/23/2019 at 12:12 PM, Wellesley said:

This is looking great! The colours, the shape, the railing... and not to forget the nostalgia aspect of it.

Only concern I have is the one that usually pops up, when someone is using a prefab bow. It is just too thick and destroys the continuity of the white curvature. Though this dark brown one already is the new version, right? Isn't the bottom part flat? Maybe there is a more elegant solution.

And what I just have spotted, you stretched the gap between the gun ports where the ladder is. I personally wouldn't do that.

 

Overall, really beautiful, hope to see more of it soon!

Yes the midsections and bow are the dark brow ones, I liked its "chocolate" look also because under certain light or lack thereof it almost looks like a sort of black, which is nice. In fact originally I planned to have the hull black and then the white border and black again, then I switched to the reddish brown, but it was too light and ended up with the dark brown.

About the problem of the break of the white curvature I know it and I don't hate it too much, but I agree that it suddenly blocks it. So far I haven't really thought about a way to make that part custom built, leaving only the lower part of the bow prefab, being it made out of two separate pieces. 

About the stretched part you mention, I can give you an explanation for it. The first few pictures are old renders. Since I took inspiration from another builder, he used less cannons and so they were symmetrically spaced, I wanted more, so it started making less sense, so I tried a few ways to make it look better, until I gave up and reduced everything and so now everything is symmetrical ans spaced properly, this can be seen from the last picture posted in this thread. So the gap you mention is less evident, although in the old version, right next to the ladder there would have been two hoses that would have reduced visually the gap, even if the effective distance would have been still a bit larger compared to the other cannons. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Elusys Ra Arwal

[Wellesley]

2 hours ago, Elusys Ra Arwal said:

this can be seen from the last picture posted in this thread.

Oh yes, didn't see that. Looks great.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

As for a small update, here are the anchors, though I think this model will be reworked a bit because I am not too fond of it, but I don't really hate it either.

 

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

I haven't updated this post in a long time, although the ship was finished and built in real life by November 2019. Therefore, in a series of posts, I will publish what I have done and afterwards also some pictures of it in real life. Unfortunately, because of this pandemic, I couldn't go to the models store and buy ropes, blocks etc. to rig the ship properly, so I resorted in using an ugly cord just to use it as a prototype for where everything should go.
For the sails, I will make them using paper first and then, when I can, I'll buy the appropriate textile, because it needs a certain scale and weave count to be somewhat "accurate", but I'll discuss this matter at a later time, posting also some photos of how a couple of modelers approached the making of sails, even if they're kind of elaborate to make (in their way at least). 

Here there's a different view of the interior, which was starting to be completed going towards the stern section:

BSB-BP Merger (final 1)_02 by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

BSB-BP Merger (final 1)_03 by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

And here a complete view of the lower deck:

BSB-BP Merger (final 1)_46 by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

At the far right of this picture you can see a brown bar sticking out, that's the rudder, and at this time I was considering making it functioning through the use of cables that are linked to the steering wheel, as you can see in this drawing.

rudder sailing ship 18th c by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

Making that would have prevented any access to the cabin and lower deck, so I avoided it... 

 

[Stoertebricker]

@Elusys Ra Arwal, you have build like a mod of the now arrived "Pirates of Barracuda Bay" even before its release! :D Crazy!

I first wanted to tell you that the prices will drop for the yellow arch now because it is used in the new barracuda or that you can start by buing the set for the pieces you need.

Now when I finished reading I had to realize thats the original post is old and its already build in real!

Even better!

 

[victorycount]

Very nice ship, I like all the details, the cannons(a lot of cannons), the anchor, also the figurehead and the rear part. The steering wheel idea looks also interesting, but understandably you didn't do it.

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

@Stoertebricker haha that was funny! Anyway a week ago or something I saw on bricklink that curved piece very cheap and in huge quantity, so I could really buy it and maybe I will just because it could be useful or i could try and add it there just to see the effect, but having it built for real, the black one is better because it is not a really imposing colour.
One modification I would really do but I have yet to find a decent way to make is to change the bow. As you can see other people suggested to build it out of bricks to make the curve of the ship more organic instead of abrupt, though I tried with regular and curved slopes, but I am not really satisfied because the design of the planks of the lower section are of course not much replicable, so I am still wondering if to leave it like that or what.
I also thought to make a "mask" out of paper and to stick it with a very light and non-disruptive glue, so to make the progress of that line more natural.. but I think this will be the last resource, if nothing else comes to my mind...

@victorycount The cannons you see in these pictures are not the final design I used - actually I'm going to post some more pictures about the cannons - because the final part I used was a very, very old type of brick, which I bought, and it didn't really connect to the new ones very well at all and the reason is because being it is several decades old, the size of the studs and holes have changed millimeterically, compared to the newers parts.

This is the old set of cannons, small and large:

BSB-BP Merger (final 1)_14 by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

and here an intermediate version in grey plus the definitive version of the large one in black:

BSB-BP Merger (final 1)_58 by Guglielmo di Napoli, on Flickr

Edited April 8, 2020 by Elusys Ra Arwal

[victorycount]

Oh, that's interesting... I can't even say which ones I like more. Isn't that the palm trunk piece on the new version?

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Yep that's the palm piece and it was kinda difficult to find it in black, but I managed... though for the ancor, since I don't understand why lego doesn't make those gray pieces in black, I spray-painted them and they came out perfect and now the anchor looks nicer and less awkward colourwise... 

[Elusys Ra Arwal]

Hello everybody,

this is not a real update, just a teaser view of the interior of the cabin and the ship's wheel:

At the wheel we have sailing master Thomas Sharp about to inspect the horizon through his telescope, while Pepsy enjoys his new perch...

While on deck everything seems calm and under control, inside the captain's cabin something quite dangerous is going on.

An intruder is trying to steal a map with information on a cargo ship directed to the Spanish Main to collect gold. Unfortunately no one aboard suspected that the new recruit, Craig Hawks, was a spy working for Captain Naft, sworn enemy of Captain Flint.

Fortunately, Mr. Hayward noticed Hawks' strange behavior and after following him for several days, he caught him in the act of taking the map!

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Elusys Ra Arwal