[MOC] Imperial Sloop "HMS Intrepid"

[Eggyslav]

For my contest entry, I wanted to make a small, yet feature packed little ship. Made in LDD and rendered in Bricklink Studio, It was based on 7416 Adventurer's set Emperor's ship, but I've remade it to be less of a Chinese Junk, and more of a Golden Age of Piracy Gunboat. I've added a bowsprit, cannon, steering wheel and a Poopdeck, and replaced cloth Junk sail with brick built Jib and Gaff Rigged sails (Ideally I'd use cloth sails, but I don't know how to do that in Studio). I'm very proud how it turned out, and I'm sure it would be a fine addition to Admiral Woodhouse's Navy. It's a very versatile vessel, perfect for patroling the shore, escorting and interception, and it's manned by a crew of three: Two Marines and One Captain. This is how it looks like from Starboard and Port.

Even though the cabin under the poopdeck doesn't have much space, it's enough to keep charts and delicate navigation instruments away from the Elements.

There's also a nice little hold for confiscated pirate contraband and treasure, though, to gain access to it, you have to remove the cannon. I guess that's what the huge crane at the Eldorado Fortress is for.

 

Obviously it's the first cathegory entry, and I mainly tried to emulate the 2009 era, as it's evident by the Minifig Prints, and rather modern parts.

 

EDIT: 

After hearing your suggestions, Here's the improved model:

The Sails are now tan and with much less visible studs.

New cannon! it's still not perfect, but it's much smaller, and has a built in stud shooter.

And yes, you can open the hold with cannon still attached:

Other changes:

-Added Figurehead

-Reduced number of golden decorations. Now it should be more aesthetically coherent.

-Tweaked the stern a little bit. Added colours flag, and an additional lantern.

- Made the hold trapdoor open the other way, this should make it more accessible.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Eggyslav

[_R_R_]

I really like it, the smaller brickbuilt build has so much charm and I love how you managed to include all the details and cool features like the hold despite the size, I hope to see more entries of smaller sets! 

[Eggyslav]

Thank you! Glad you Like it!

[thewatchman]

Wow!

 Great little build, I’m always in awe of people who can work at this scale, because whenever I try I always end up pulling my design to pieces and rebuilding bigger and bigger until it’s 3-1 pirate ship scale. 
 This build feels like the spiritual grandson of the “spongebobs Flying Dutchman” set in scale and clever use of parts, and it has enough in common with the “emperor’s ship” that you can see the homage, without it being a simple brick for brick creation.

pros:

Colour choice for the white hull and gold elements. 

Clever use of parts for the cannon torch.

Working at a scale that is very difficult to achieve.

Lots of detail in smaller areas.

cons:

Lots of detail in smaller areas, this is my only complaint with a lot of mocs that I see. I know a lot of people love hyper detail but I find that sometimes smaller builds can become “cluttered” or lost in detail. 

All up, fantastic build!

[Eggyslav]

1 hour ago, thewatchman said:

Wow!

 Great little build, I’m always in awe of people who can work at this scale, because whenever I try I always end up pulling my design to pieces and rebuilding bigger and bigger until it’s 3-1 pirate ship scale. 
 This build feels like the spiritual grandson of the “spongebobs Flying Dutchman” set in scale and clever use of parts, and it has enough in common with the “emperor’s ship” that you can see the homage, without it being a simple brick for brick creation.

pros:

Colour choice for the white hull and gold elements. 

Clever use of parts for the cannon torch.

Working at a scale that is very difficult to achieve.

Lots of detail in smaller areas.

cons:

Lots of detail in smaller areas, this is my only complaint with a lot of mocs that I see. I know a lot of people love hyper detail but I find that sometimes smaller builds can become “cluttered” or lost in detail. 

All up, fantastic build!

That is an Excellent, and well thought out review, thank you very much. I especially like the part where the last pro is also a con. How delightfully paradoxical! But it's also a very good point. I like my MOCs to be detailed like that. Bravo good sir! Bravo!

Edited June 28, 2023 by Eggyslav

[durazno33]

The design is solid. Good color pallet. Just the right dimensions for a small vessel. 

Feedback:

-The rudder only has one hook holding it on. This would be unstable in real life. Consider replacing it with a two hook design. Like this:

-I didn’t see any cannon balls. What will the cannon fire? Maybe add some.

-Have you considered smoothing out the sails using tile instead of plate? It might be too thick in the end but something to consider.

-From what I understand on a ship of that time, there would be sailors and soldiers on a ship.  They would have a division of responsibilities with sailors doing the sailing and the soldiers doing the fighting.  Maybe change out one of the soldiers for a traditionally looking sailor.

[Eggyslav]

42 minutes ago, durazno33 said:

The design is solid. Good color pallet. Just the right dimensions for a small vessel. 

Feedback:

-The rudder only has one hook holding it on. This would be unstable in real life. Consider replacing it with a two hook design. Like this:

-I didn’t see any cannon balls. What will the cannon fire? Maybe add some.

-Have you considered smoothing out the sails using tile instead of plate? It might be too thick in the end but something to consider.

-From what I understand on a ship of that time, there would be sailors and soldiers on a ship.  They would have a division of responsibilities with sailors doing the sailing and the soldiers doing the fighting.  Maybe change out one of the soldiers for a traditionally looking sailor.

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. :)

I don't think I can edit my entry, but these are all valid points. I honestly forgot about cannonballs, but let's just pretend there are a couple stashed in the hold. I like the Idea with the rudder, however if built like that it will be sitting way to high. As of the Crew, I'd rather have two Marines for uniformity sake. Besides, the Pirates theme was never intended to be historically accurate, and almost every Imperial vessel is manned exclusively by Soldiers. Not a civilian dressed sailor in sight. And the sails, well, these are just a placeholder for fabric sails. And I actually like the studded look of them.

[NOD]

I find this ship nicer and better built than the original 7416 Emperor's Ship. It has a captain's cabin and a working anchor. The ship's railing is high enough so that the sailors don't fall off board in a storm.

The cargo hold is also interesting, but it cannot be opened when the cannon is on board. The problem could be solved by mounting 4 swivel guns instead of 1 big cannon.

 

[Eggyslav]

2 minutes ago, NOD said:

I find this ship nicer and better built than the original 7416 Emperor's Ship. It has a captain's cabin and a working anchor. The ship's railing is high enough so that the sailors don't fall off board in a storm.

 

The cargo hold is also interesting, but it cannot be opened when the cannon is on board. The problem could be solved by mounting 4 swivel guns instead of 1 big cannon.

 

 

Thanks, It's an honor to hear feedback from such great lego ship builder like you. I actually prefer a big cannon, since swivel guns are mainly anti-personnel weapons, and HMS Intrepid needs serious firepower to stand against Black Seas Barracuda. Besides centrally mounted cannon reminds me of Renegade Runner, which was my first Pirate Ship (and one of only two, the second being Brick Bounty from 2015 wave), and it gives me warm fuzzy nostalgia.

[iragm]

As others have said, this is a really, really nice build.  Some minor nitpicks:

• I dislike the brick built sails, the jib is held in place by a single stud, so it would be very unstable.  A chain shouldn't be used as rigging, either.  That said, I do like the mast and gaff design.

• There is too much greebling for the scale of the boat, and there isn't any sort of pattern to it -- there's flexible tubing up front, unicorn horns on the back, spyglass railing posts on the sides, a lightsabre bar on the top of the ladder, cones on the aft rail, and more -- pick any two or three of these and repeat their usage, and it would look a lot less cluttered and more intentional.  For example, the "Plant Stem, Curved with 2 Thorns and 2 Swirls" would be a great front railing, and it would fit with the use of the same piece over the cabin windows.

• The ship could use a figurehead.

• I dislike the use of both gold and yellow, they are too similar and clash.  Barracuda Bay uses almost all yellow with just a couple of gold accents, but it would be fine to do all gold.

• The rudder is too large (both too thick and too long) and, as others pointed out, not securely attached.

• There's a large flag at the top but no colors on the back?  Even if there's no space for colors, the use of a small flag up top would fit this scale of ship better.

• The fore and aft-castles are a bit too high relative to the width of the ship, I would lower them by a stud.

Most of these are really personal preference, this is a fantastic build.  I've never been able to build anything this small and have it look presentable, so great work!

[Eggyslav]

Thank you, that's a very solid and constructive critique. As I said, the brick built sails are only a placeholder, and if it were a real model, I'd gladly use cloth sails instead. Alas, LDD and Bricklink Studio do not allow such luxury.  The chain is also used in Brick bounty to fasten the Jib sail, If TLG can get away with it, so can I. As of the decorations, I find them to be cohesive enough, using one-two elements would be repetitive and boring. I have no Idea how I could implement a figurehead on such a small vessel. And yellow stripe along the sides is a nod to traditional English livery. That's the smallest rudder I could come up with without it being a single plate with handle. The colours on the back, again, there is no space, unless It replaces the lantern with it. I find the Fore/Aft castles to be the correct height. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to include captain's cabin. But overall I'm glad you like, it despite the aformentioned shortcomings.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Eggyslav

[iragm]

Yeah, as I said, a lot of this is personal preference for sure.  Really great work overall, I know how hard it can be to build at this scale!

[Seaber]

I saw the Adventurers connection instantly, well done on adapting a great set into a great MOC. 

I love the large lamp design at the back, I'll definitely be using that in future. I also think you've done a great job making the junk look more pirate-y and I think the brink built sails are well done. Have you tried adding the red stipes to the antistud side? 

My only other comments would be to try and stick to just yellow or gold. I would personally stick to gold, making the six telescope pieces on the sides black though so they stay in line with the rail and supports. I like the simple figurehead but maybe a few more small Bricks could make it look more like a bird or human which would be more interesting without becoming too bulky. 

[Eggyslav]

Thank you. I'm particularily proud of that lantern, it's simple, but I like how it turned out. I'm suprised though, that no-one has noticed the other element I'm proud of: The Helm. The original didn't have one, so I made it out of a splash gear, quite ingenious if I say so myself. As of the Yellow, it is, again, a traditional Livery for English ships, and it's only on the sides of the ship, and the window frames of the cabin. Everything else is gold. It wouln't make sense for those elements to be gold. It would be too much.

[Dreamweb]

Well, this does look like the Orient Expedition ship mixed with the Imperial Trading Post vessel, and the brick-built sails also give it a bit of the Creator Pirate Ship feel. The Orient Expedition ship was actually my first new LEGO set after a long hiatus, and I still like the set.

I really like that you managed to put so many things on a ship this size: a ladder, an anchor complete with its mechanism, a cargo hold, and even a small captain's cabin. The way you've managed to use the available space is truly top-notch. My favourite part is definitely the stern with the golden ornamentation. Also, I think that using black inverted slopes to make the ship a bit wider was a clever and necessary idea.

I would actually consider improving two things in your creation. First, the brick-built sail could use some tiles to make it smoother, at least on one side. Second, I would suggest replacing the large cannon with several smaller ones, custom-built. The cannon looks a bit too large for a vessel this size.

Anyway, it's a very good-looking small ship which fits well with the Classic Pirates line!

[Eggyslav]

Thanks. As I said earlier, The big cannon is actually a nod to Renegade Runner. As of the tiles, because of the shape of the sails, it would be difficult to cover them all.

[Yoggington]

On 6/28/2023 at 7:02 PM, Eggyslav said:

I don't think I can edit my entry..<snip>

You are absolutely able to edit your entry. What would be the point of encouraging all this critique otherwise? From the rules:
 

Quote

 

Can I update my entry after it's been posted?
Yes. In fact, you may wish to action feedback provided by those posting in your entry topic.

The more you can improve the design, the more chance you have of winning!

 

As for some feedback;

I too would prefer cloth sails of some description, but understand the stud.io limitation. However, Pirate forum has you covered. There's a tutorial on just such a difficulty here:

This would be the biggest instant-improvement. It'll require a bit of learning and trial and error, but it would improve this and all your future efforts. Worth looking into.

After that I don't have much new feedback, but I will chime in to add a voice to say the greebling near the back end is probably a bit overboard (ha!). I think removing the unicorn horns & the floral pieces might give a lovely clean less distracted look. If you really want to work a 'side build' in with more detail, focus it into adding a figurehead.

 

All that aside there's a lot to love. The sheer compactness of the design is difficult to achieve and you've done it well. I'm a big fan of the use of the yellow palisade bricks on the sides - a nice amount of texture there.

 

 

 

[Eggyslav]

Thank you, I will think of improvements, however, I have 0 experience with CAD, and it's just too intimidating for me to try.

[Dreamweb]

11 hours ago, Eggyslav said:

As of the tiles, because of the shape of the sails, it would be difficult to cover them all.

True, but tiles with angled edges would look good even if they did not exactly match the shape of the sail edge. Or alternatively you could try to modify the shape of the whole sail a bit.

[Horation]

A tiny ship that looks like it was almost taken straight out of the design studio in Denmark!

1-Theme (story)

It's a sloop... slooping (or whatever it is sloops do), the ship does seem busy, perhaps a little too much, but an official set would be just like that, too. It looks like an imperial ship- clean, with an orderly crew. Now maybe just try to find a way to make that gun lift off without the cargo bay being hidden.

2-The build

Lovely colour choice! It looks like a classic set-but updated! Just really work on those sails, it's really weird how one side has red but the other doesn't, if you can fix that, then this'll be one of the best entries to date.

[Eggyslav]

3 hours ago, Horation said:

A tiny ship that looks like it was almost taken straight out of the design studio in Denmark!

1-Theme (story)

It's a sloop... slooping (or whatever it is sloops do), the ship does seem busy, perhaps a little too much, but an official set would be just like that, too. It looks like an imperial ship- clean, with an orderly crew. Now maybe just try to find a way to make that gun lift off without the cargo bay being hidden.

2-The build

Lovely colour choice! It looks like a classic set-but updated! Just really work on those sails, it's really weird how one side has red but the other doesn't, if you can fix that, then this'll be one of the best entries to date.

Thank you! Unfortunately, I can't make both sides of the sails stripped, since 1. It would make the sails too thick and heavy, 2. it would potentially make the sails unattacheble to the mast, as they are connected by the round ridges, not antistuds, and 3. It propably wouldn't look as good as you imagine it to be. Besides, newest sails are printed only on one side.

[Horation]

Well, you make some fair points (and I'll concede that was a bit nitpicky), but do consider making the sails with cloth (you do have two months left, after all...)

[Eggyslav]

2 hours ago, Horation said:

Well, you make some fair points (and I'll concede that was a bit nitpicky), but do consider making the sails with cloth (you do have two months left, after all...)

I'll improve it a bit, but I won't be able to make cloth sails, it's too hard and scary for me.

[Dreamweb]

13 hours ago, Eggyslav said:

Unfortunately, I can't make both sides of the sails stripped, since 1. It would make the sails too thick and heavy

But you could put red and white strips in the same plane, instead of red over white. And then connect them from the bottom, preferably with these in trans clear:

The result would actually be a bit thinner than your current sails

[Eggyslav]

16 hours ago, Dreamweb said:

But you could put red and white strips in the same plane, instead of red over white. And then connect them from the bottom, preferably with these in trans clear:

The result would actually be a bit thinner than your current sails

Yes, but what about structural integrity? A series of small plates wouldn't hold together well. You know what? I might actually just remove the stripes from the sails entirely.