MOC : The Story of L'Archiveur

[Ingmar]

91a

Hello everybody, thak you very much for having the curiosity of visiting my thread !

After a few weeks following and inspirating the instructions of Captain Green-Blue Hair *very special thanks*, I finally conclude the intense and passionnating building of my new flagship that will stay in the ornaments of my room for a time. I can't wait to expose the pictures I took, but I also want to tell the story, more fantastic and poetic than historically rigorus, that shrounds the spirit I borrowed during the construction. I don't use to write english as often as french, so I apologize if something is wrong...I also hope you're going to have a not bad time

Captured by the french some decades ago, a so long time ago that anyone really remember how it happened, either who won the battle, and that not any record or notebook mention the fact, L'Archiveur, in another remote life, had been a famous ship while serving for Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, particularly known for having lead the first expedition to the Eldorado River that discovered the way to precolumbian treasures mentionned in some records of the Royal Navy and in some extracts of the Captain Inksand's log, that was never found back after he got killed during the battle that saw his ship taken over by the french.

Today, a few old mates, soldiers or sailers, whose stories were mixed with the circumnavigations of the ship will remember for you that the Captain Inksand had always had a premonition since the day when he came back from Eldorado River, as if she was enchanted ; in fact, those mates also will tell you that during the return to Grat Britain, the expedition passed through a tremendous storm that sunk three of the five boats, so that the only survivors were the flagship leaded by Inksand, and a frigate known as HMS Rose, that transported some modest treasures in her holds. Because of the shipwreck and the lack of clues for interesting resources, the expedition was kept secret, the treasures dissolved between merchants, and the Eldorado forgotten.

The enthusiasm that Inksand and his ship had aroused in the past times totally disappeared, and the dreams for extending the British Empire to sacred grounds of Eden and conquesting unknown civilizations, replaced by a race to the domination of the seas, when the french renamed the taken ship L'Archiveur. Today we are getting closer and closer to the end of the century, some memories get fading onto the water of insouciance since Great Britain finished to take control of all the routes of the sea and acquired by an ultimate démonstration of his strongness, the monopoly of the tread with the Remote Empire from Outer Seas ; the sailing age is coming to an end, more and more ships are sent to the break-in in order to improve the steam and iron technologies, and as a consequence L'Archiveur was about to be downgraded by the vote of the congress once for all and his history burried under the peace established by the relations with the Remote Empire from Outer Seas, when Captain Beaufort received a special mission from the France Empire, a kind of ultimate parade for his ship.

This time, the goal of her mission is not to go to America and discover the way to a precolumbian world or to a remote paradise, but to cross the seas in the greatest secrecy in order to follow, intercept, and capture a dissident frigate that escaped from Dunkerque some days ago, taking direction of the Remote Empire. The Remote Empire from Outer Seas has been seducing a great number of intelectuals and all kind of oppressed people for the time it has developped relations with europeans powers, so that a lot of militaries from the dismembered armies who didn't took an oath to the Royal Navy use to organize the migrations to this promised land. Offended for his historical defeat in front of the Great Britain during the centruy, the France Empire is the last power that didn't change his mind for that time, and that has kept on forbidding migrations.

But Captain Beaufort is not taken fooled ; his premontion is the same than Captain Inksand's, and he suspects that the frigate he has to catch up along the coasts of the continent, represents or carries something more important than dissidents ; what he doesn't know is the fact that this frigate was stolen from the Royal Navy, and that it is HMS Rose, the old L'Archiveur's friendship.

Both are now launched into a time trial toward the Remote Empire from Outer Seas, and if the determination of the crewmen has no limit, Captain Beaufort gets more and more puzzled between his duty that leads him to hunt inocents, and the wondering about what he is really purchasing, and overall about what he is going to find out about HMS Rose and about L'Archiveur, his own ship.

It was very important for me to keep loyal to some concepts of classic lego ships, such as the crane for the net, the lanterns, and overall the basic system with the big dots to attach the sails, a naive aspect that I conserved in the use of fat elastics to roll the sails up.

The ornaments for the stern and the bow are also minor ; I tried to create sober and menacing style ; I hope that my first trial with the headrail is not a complete failure.

Only the port broadside has guns at its disposal, the interior of the hull was too narrow to allow other canons because of the importance of the load-bearing structure.

I concepted a fonctional capstan, the principe is a vertical winch and a doble rope that supports the two anchors in the same time.

Well, I and the mate responsible for the color scheme, are hoping that you have enjoyed.

Of course, I have some other pictures to post, and I will present you the whole crew and tell you the story of the men in the next few days, but for the moment I have to think about the construction of HMS Rose, dig into my modest collection in order to see if I have the parts in order to build a two-masted ship. Thank you very much to CGBH, and you who visited the thread

Edited November 20, 2009 by SlyOwl

[Captain Green Hair]

That was an inspiring read, seems you are really living into the age of sail with Lego!

Too bad the BS folder isn't public yet, i'm looking forward to seeing it!

Wasn't deeplinking the images possible?

On top of that you are very welcome buddy, i hope you now have the tools to build any ship you like.

EDIT: finally pics! Though they are a bit big, may i ask you to resize them to a maximum of 800 x 600 pixels?

This rule is implemented to keep up the loading speed of pages for slow connection members.

I love how it turned out, the headrails look great and so does your rigging and sails.

Really like your capstan as well, i think it is a new design and it is scaled very nicely!

Keep it up mate!

[BrickPerfection]

EDIT: arr, only 2nd

Unfortunately, your Brickshelf isn't yet public.

But I happened to see some of your rather large pics before

Since deeplinking seems to work for you, I'd suggest to resize them to 800x600 with a program like Microsoft paint (which pretty much everybody has); then upload them to Brickshelf.

To what I saw of your MOC:

This is way better than what I have expected following the WIP pics you posted in the Tutorial Thread! Your rigging is great as are the sails. I'd be amazed if that was mine (the Achille has none yet )

What I enjoyed even more were the wonderful propotions of your ship; although it is a 2-decker it didn't seem to high in relation to its width at all.

(Regarding the height of the side, it should actually be possible to fit a full interior on each gundeck in such a ship; I'll have to try that out at some point. )

The stern seems very harmonic; giving the hull a very elegant shape and adding to the sweet propotions I mentioned above.

Even though your cholourscheme is the result of a compromise (since you had only SES hull parts), I really really like it! It seems so unique since I've never seen it before, still seems decently realistic (although it in fact isn't) and all the colours fit very well together. Given the trouble I had with finding the right colours recently, I must congratulate you at this point.

Another point that I found rather nice is that you fitted guns! I must say that was there is one thing I don't like so much about a typical CGH ship, it's probably the absence of such weapons or "teeth".

The working capstan is again rather nice, using surprisingly simple parts (which is good).

What I didn't like very much was the figurehead: It certainly lacks a lot of detail. Improving it should be rather easy since it doesn't affect the rigging. I'd suggest using chrome parts or some from Brcikforge (like in the tutorial) if you can.

I'm also not a big fan of grey decks, although they were used on the Lego sets BSB and SES; I'd prefer tan or - even more - tiles. But this may be a matter of opinion.

Certainly a very nice ship and frontpage worthy, alone regarding the rigging.

You just need to fix the picture issue.

Best Regards

Perfectionist

Edited November 4, 2009 by Perfectionist

[Bonaparte]

This looks like a stunning ship, but before going into the details I must ask you to resize the pictures as I can hardly load these with my Internet connection. To avoid this we have set the maximum picture width on our forums to 800px. If you need help for resizing pictures, then check out our tutorials. There's one to resize individual pictures and one to resize them in batch.

[BrickPerfection]

I must ask you to resize the pictures as I can hardly load these with my Internet connection.

You live in Belgium, don't you? They have pretty much the slowest internet connections in the European Union down there...

To the resizing: I think it can only be done by editing the pics on your computer BEFORE uploading them. I felt that is something rather difficult to learn from the tutorials; it took me quite a while myself.

Unfortunately it can take quite a while when all the uploaded pics are too large; have to be deleted, resized, uploaded again and than deeplinked...

Correct me, if I'm wrong

Perfectionist

[Ingmar]

I'm very sorry for the pictures, they appear reduced in my navigator, I thought the problem was settled. I delet them provisionally and will rsiize them as soon as possible, hopping that the BS folder will be soon public. Yes you're all right Perfectionnist, pictures must be resized before uploading, that's why I'm quite disgusted tonight ^^

Humbly

Edited November 4, 2009 by Ingmar

[Bonaparte]

I'm very sorry for the pictures, they appear reduced in my navigator, I thought the problem was settled. I delet them provisionally and will rsiize them as soon as possible, hopping that the BS folder will be soon public. Yes you're all right Perfectionnist, pictures must be resized before uploading, that's why I'm quite disgusted tonight ^^

On Brickshelf people will have the same problem as the loading time of the pictures will be very long. Our forum software will resize big pictures, but if first needs to download the full sized pictures. So in my case that takes a few minutes. With this tool you can resize them all very quickly on your PC. Next you can put them in a zip-file and upload them all as one file to Brickshelf (Brickshelf will automatically unzip them). I hope you manage to resize because your ship looks really very promising

[Ingmar]

Thank you very much for help and tolerance, the pics are now available.

This is way better than what I have expected following the WIP pics you posted in the Tutorial Thread! Your rigging is great as are the sails. I'd be amazed if that was mine (the Achille has none yet )

It was not an amazing feat, the sails are just cut from one old T-shirt, and the ropes are linen strings, but it took me three or four days in order to rig everything, particularly the ratlines recquiered a lot of patience ; I had never tied so much knots in my life...

Another point that I found rather nice is that you fitted guns! I must say that was there is one thing I don't like so much about a typical CGH ship, it's probably the absence of such weapons or "teeth".

I completly agree with you Perfectionnist, but I could experiment during the building that traditionnal guns are very bulky and don't allow to build a coherent interior ; I had to install them directly on the hinges which stability consequently was weakened, and also I had no place in order to install a mecanism to slip in the guns, they are fixed and not very solid.

What I didn't like very much was the figurehead: It certainly lacks a lot of detail. Improving it should be rather easy since it doesn't affect the rigging. I'd suggest using chrome parts or some from Brcikforge (like in the tutorial) if you can.

I'm also not a big fan of grey decks, although they were used on the Lego sets BSB and SES; I'd prefer tan or - even more - tiles. But this may be a matter of opinion.

Unfortunatly I'm not often inspired by ornaments, I don't like to use them too much, and moreover I lack of chrome or golden parts. I agree with you that grey decks are not a very esthetic choice, but I had no over because in my last list of containts, I had not enough tan plates, which I would have prefered, but if I soon lead the construction of a frigate, probably it will be possible.

That was an inspiring read, seems you are really living into the age of sail with Lego!

Yes it was, this a story I have in mind for some months, planing to write a novel about this theme. Of course, my childhood was very impressed by the first pirate sets, so that the romantic age of sail has kept on being an inspirating theme, that I maintain thanks to the legos.

[Big Cam]

This is a very classic ship, it looks great.

My only thing is the rope. It looks like there is too much, in some shots there is so much rope that you can barely see the details in the ship. The size is great though, I like the number of cannons you've incorporated. This would definetaly be a feared ship on the 7 seas.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Awesome work, what a great boat..ship! Nice choice of colours. Id love to build a ship like this, maybe i'll give it a go when my other projects are done. Nice work!

[Captain Green Hair]

I can't help but notice that your gun ports aren't evenly offset, is there any special reason for that?

[Swash Buckler]

Great ship good rigging- amazing size and nice details like capstan and all- but what do the chequered flag stands for as an signal flag?

[Skipper 24]

Look forward to seeing your great MOC Blogged on Classic-Pirates.com in the near future!

Edited November 7, 2009 by Skipper 24

[Zorro]

Amazing creation! Well done I say, and good ol' Skipper has already written and scheduled your strongly deserved article on www.classic-pirates.com!

[Ingmar]

No, they're not envenly offset, there is an irregular alternation of 3 and 4 studs between the gun ports, except in the middle part. The problem is that because of the odd number of studs on the wall, I couldn't set the gun ports on the 6 studs parts in the normal way ; if I did the ports would have been close to a gap, I think the result would have been weird...The second layer of the problem is more simple, because when building the second stripe, I had to respect the shift between the two rows of guns and to arrange the gun ports so that the smoke of the lower ones doesn't disturb the upper ones. I don't know if I have been very clear, but I hope this detail is not to salient.

Look forward to seeing your great MOC Blogged on Classic-Pirates.com in the near future!

Thank you very much, I can't wait to see the result, and didn't know that you did by yourself

By the way, I've been checking in my collection and think that building HMS Rose will be possible if I succeed in completing the first steps, particularly because of the black jumpers. I'll keep you posted.

Edited November 6, 2009 by Ingmar

[Ingmar]

Dear all, I'm currently working on HMS Rose, the building is quite difficult because I don't own anymore a lot of parts, overall the tan ones for the decks, whereas this ship will be much smaller (2 masts), but it will be finished in a few time.

I had other pics for L'Archiveur, from the point of view of the crewmen and continuing talking on the story of the ship, I thought it would have been quite fun to post them now, because it is quite far-fetched :

Captain Beaufort is watching to the sea, he still doesn't know how to consider his premonition, but he feels that something weird is hidding in his boat, a bad feeling, something like a voice, suggests him that his ship is heading to an aventure much more fascinating and mysterious than what he and his crew were expecting.

Master Lançon was the first crewman in guessing that something was wrong with Captain Beaufort and his mind ; since yesterday on the morning, it seems that this anxiety disturbs him and that he holds the ship's course, worst and worst.

Boatswain Le Goff is a very popular, kind and warm character on L'Archiveur. He likes learning some tips to his fifth son, the crewman Gérard, when he's not joking with another of his sons. But this friendly aspect doesn't eclipse his heroic past ; he fought in a lot of battle and were rarely injured.

First officer Vidal checks the course and has spent the night wondering what was happening around the Wheel, but he just has discovered that they were deviating from the way decided by the map, that's why a hard discussion is about to begin on the main deck.

Second officer Jar Jar Truc is a mysterious character on the deck ; nobody knows how he really incorporated the crew, because someones tell that he would be the twelth son of boatswain Le Goff...or not. Nethertheless, everyone know that when you can see him runing round the decks, it means that he's looking for someone in order to tell a bad new.

Between the bell and the capstan, Master's mate Plume is in great discussion with forman Leonard, they are trying to plan a strategy for the boarding of HMS Rose, while some of the crewmen discretely stare at them ; they never remember who of the two is the Le Goff's second son.

Soldier Bernard is going for a morning walk, he uses to go around the whaleboat in order to talk with Pierre, the yeoman of the sheets, one of his old friends because they knew each other thanks to Le Goff's family.

Yeoman Pierre is cleaning the whaleboat, he's not very interested in a lot of things and is not a passionnating man...Well, he's not dressed up to the nines either.

Soldier Rousseau is a very proud, romantic and brave young man, so young that anyone in the crew is really sure he is an adult (someones even tell he's a woman...), but overall, he's interested in the navigation arts, he uses to stay on the bow in order to learn the sky maps with an astrolabe he inherited from one of his father...Yet, we're sure that this father was not Le Goff.

Soldier Villette doesn't know what he's doing here, he spents his days watching to the skies and dreaming about the mysterious horizon, imaginating the curves of a gigantic monster that would bring him into a wonderful world hidden behind the mist layers, not so far from the Remote Empire from Outer Seas. Of course, his dreams assisted me during the building of the ship ^^

Soldier Tulipe is the Le Goff's eighth son and...Well, no comment...

Mr Squelette seems to be having fun with two other subofficers, but don't ask me what he's doing here, he already was in the cabin when Beaufort and his men boarded. But since then, he didn't move and seems to be quite friendly...

As friendly as Mr Squelette, Ingmar

[Zorro]

That looks very good, I didn't know Jar Jar was studying to become a ship officer .

Thanks for the new pics and have fun with your ship!

[plokoon 4 life!]

Such a great MOC. I am currently building a 44 gun frigate, do you mind if I use some of the details on my ship?