4 new MLCAD Ships WIPs

[Eddy Redbeart]

Here are some ships ive been working on on and off for a while.

1st one is a small pirate galleon. Something like Drakes Golden Hind but somwhat more modern. It is built on a small hull with two middlesections and features 8 gunports and a cabin for the captain. the roof of the cabin can be taken off to allow acces. below the captains cabin is room for storage. When finished it will have 3 Masts and 4 main cannons, 2 smaller bowchasers and 2 or 4 swivelguns.

2nd is a royal pirate hunter. a small manowar a predecessor of the later frigates. it features 14 gunports,

a captains cabin with removable roof, interior including a small organ , and a storage area below decks. it has 5 big cannons 1 small cannon and will get 1 more plus 2 bowchasers. and 2 sternchasers.

3rd is my idea of an imerial Flagship. Its based on some early 18 century warships. its hull is still empty but i will include cannons, captains room, storage room and boats as well as a capstan oce its finished. 26 gunports will allow 13 broadside cannons. it will have 2 sternchasers, 2 bowchasers and 4 swivelguns.

4th is a larger version of the second ship. its basicly just a slightly longer version but it will have a flush deck and sternchasers. as well as some more guns on the upperdeck along with a more modern rigging.

interior will be similar to the smaller ship but it will have 2 storage areas, a bigger cabin with removable doors and roof and more details on the upper deck like a capstan, a bell, the hole in the deck with stairs downward and so on.

updates will follow.

[Captain Becker]

Now, THATS impressive, what program did you use for that? The last ship is indeed awesome and the others are just... wow. Great work man, keep it up

Captain Becker

[Tycho McKorley]

Wow, great ships. I haven't seen anything in MLCAD in a long time, so it was nice to walk down memory lane. Thanks for sharing.

[Eddy Redbeart]

thanx :)

i use mlcad. its a free program somewhat similar to ldd but with lots more parts available. sadly its my only way to built with lego at the moment. lost my whole collection in a fire about a year ago.

i cant put on sails or ropes in mlcad but i can add that via photoshop later. but the realy bad thing about mlcad is it screws up the perspective. so some lines are kinda distorted.

other than that its a very very very nice programm. and its relativly easy to use.

[Captain Becker]

thanx :)

sadly its my only way to built with lego at the moment. lost my whole collection in a fire about a year ago.

That really brokes my heat man Ye i tryed to downloaded it but i still do someething wrong, maby i just get LDD universe mode and goin whi it. Even at LDD is pretty weird sometimes and its difficult to make a ship if you havent those hull pieces. i had to do everything my self, even the cannons

Captain Becker

[Eddy Redbeart]

i haveent used ldd yet. heard it has only a small selection of parts. duing hulls without the prefabricated parts must be quite some work. i never tried it on larger ships. it works on small boats very well but i imagine it extremly hard for big ships. to get the right curvature and the tumblehome. i admit im glad mlcad has those parts. however i miss the real bricks. at the moment its too expensive for me to rebuilt my collection. i lost about 50 kilos of legos in the fire. it was a sad day.

i hope lego will come up with some new pirate sets in the future. heard they might do potc sometimes soon. would love to see their idea of the black pearl or the dauntless.

i think once i finished my ships ill try to recreate the pearl in a semirealistic style. she does not have too difficult shapes - should be fun. i just love the the shape of the stern.

[Captain Becker]

Actually LDD has the ship hull parts, but you have to get acces in Universe mode (Wich i havent done yet) and you are right, it is kinda annoying when you have to do the hull ur self, but its not such a difficult at me, the bow and the back gallery are the hardest way to do in LDD and everyone has to be a own technique to do that (Ihave my own but it takes time and its a bit difficult. But the result is be rewarding for me) so ye LDD will be updates on Setember on 4.0 i remember, there will be new parts and hopefully those hull pieces too.

Captain Becker

[kurigan]

Wow, those are really impressive. I find it hard to believe that a brick built hull would come as difficult to you. Seems a shame to limit yourself to the dimensions and proportions of the prefab Lego parts, like hull sections and cannons. Remarkable detail though.

You might find you like LDD, and it’s free too. Though the standard mode limits you to what parts are currently available to order from Lego, that’s still quite a few bricks. If you unlock the universe mode, there is a thread about it here on eurobricks, most every part ever available from Lego is included. The program will just prompt you that you can’t order your model from Lego, based on brick availability. I find it answers well, and you don’t get those black “CAD” lines, outlining each brick, breaking up the image.

[Admiral Croissant]

These ships look very good

I especially like the third one, which has also the best looking colour scheme IMO (but they are all realistic).

I think some of the mizzen masts could be made a bit longer, although that's of course not possible if you're using prefab rigging.

I've worked with MLCad too and I think it works very well (quite easy indeed)

Anyway, I like them a lot and therefore:[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

[Eddy Redbeart]

Thanx :) Im glad you like them. Ill do some work on those ships tonight. Yeah i already planned to stretch the mizzen on the small frigate. ill add a ladderpiece to stretch the rigging.

the first 3 ships will get an old style rigging with a lateen sailboom on the mizzen. the last ship will get a more modern layout.

once they are finished ill add sails and ropes via photoshop. :)

[ikensall]

Words cannot describe my enviousness.

Cant wait to see the finished boats.

Heres a thought what about a naval brikwar with these.

All you need is to modify the cannons so they fire OTC's.

Edited July 30, 2010 by ikensall

[Eddy Redbeart]

Update on the 4th ship. Added interrior, cabin and small details.

here are the pics :)

[Big Cam]

These look really cool, the ldd program has been blowing me away lately. I can't wait to see the finished ships.

[kurigan]

Wow, that’s just incredible. All around you have a great vessel. The proportions, the shapes, most of all the level of detail are all top notch. It just seems a shame that all your internal space is take up with those large guns. Perhaps if you went with brick built guns on smaller carriages, it wouldn’t feel so cluttered. All in all, color me impressed. Great Work, keep it up.

[Captain Becker]

Words cant say anything what could make justice for that. Just keep those updates coming mate

Captain Becker

[Karlo]

Wow, these ships are amazing especially the first one, really hope to see it in brick .)

[Eddy Redbeart]

One ship is finished. Added some crew to brng it to life a little bit. Last pic with painted sails just to give an impression how it should look :)

[Captain Becker]

yep, she is the queen of the seas indeed, i love every single piece on it and you did the sails perfectly (Even at you draw them)

Captain Becker

[Aveal the black sheep]

These are wonderfull,if been trying to build some ships in LDD but failed. Seeing what you were able to do with mlcad is definitely inspiring,i´ll try it myself. One think i really struggle with in both programs is that Ldd snaps the pieces in place which is great but sometimes it won´t go to where you want, can´t it be turned off?

On mlcad the problem is the opposite,the lack of a snap feature makes it really time consuming. How do you work this out? and to you plan the ships ahead,like draw them on paper first?

Again awesome work, keep them coming

[Eddy Redbeart]

i dont know aout ldd but mlcad usses a grid. you can adjust it. i usualy take the default setting and medium grid but for angled stuff i use fine grid set to finest setting. one thing to remember is when u use a new part it takes the orientation of the last selected part. makes it easy to put in parts that need some fine adjustment you cant do in medium grid. like snoted parts. whenever possible i try to avoid it in mlcad. thatas one reason why i use slopes to create the tumblehome effect insted of hinged parts.

however the end result is not looking alot worse and is much more stable in a real model. not to mention it provides a base to built upon. and mlcad provides you with a feature to put parts into groups. wich makes it easier to work on. the finished ship has for example a group wich is the entire hullt, a riggin group, each cannon is a group and the deck is spilt into 4 part wich can be taken off to allow acces to the interior. each of those 4 parts is a group as well.

[Joey Lock]

These look really cool, the ldd program has been blowing me away lately. I can't wait to see the finished ships.

They aren't LDD. There MCLAD designs. LDD is much diffrent and much less bricks too use.

[plokoon 4 life!]

They aren't LDD. There MCLAD designs. LDD is much diffrent and much less bricks too use.

not as such anymore, joey. because of lego universe its upped the parts list to over 5000, and you can colour the bricks whatever colour you want.

Also, Mlcad dosent seem to work for me. ive got all the stuff for it, but whenever i go to run the program, it comes up with this box saying: LDRAW base path

invalid path(no parts or p dir found)

can anybody help?

[Eddy Redbeart]

did you install ldrw first? there are some msdos stuff to do to install it properly.

heres an update on the little pirate galleon. its pretty much finished. all it needs are masts ,sails, an anchor and the cannons.

i tried to put in as much details as possible and im pretty much happy with the results so far.

it has a detailed interior, a capstan, swivel cannons, alot of stairs and rooms. in the bow there is a little room where i put a treasure chest in. its 5 bricks high so a minifig is able to stand in it. below the steering wheel there is as well eneught deck height to fit in a standing minifig. there is also a door that leeds to the captains cabin wich is complete with chair, bed, desc and other details. when you pull out the chair you lift a 4x4 plate. below is a small storage room wich holds 2 barrels.

behind the capstan is also a 2x5 sized plate you can take out. below is a little storage room wich is 1 brick high. enough space to put in some cutlasses or a bottle or other small stuff.

the deck uses alot of tiles but i also placed in some standart plates for the minifigs to be fixed on. even digital minifigs dont want to fall aboard ;)

4 swivelcannons wich can be turned and elevated complete the package. a little ships bell is fixed to the main mast as well.

around the hole is a small strip of deck so the minifigs can walk around it. when putting some barrs over the hole, you can fit a rowboat over it.

even then the ere is enough hight for minifigs to stand below it. only thing i couldt fit in is a little kitchen. but maybe il modify the room in the bow to allow that as well. there is enough room for a treasureches in the captains quaters anyway.

long story short, here are the pics

[Captain Green Hair]

These look great for digital creations!

Some make me feel like the early Dutch warships, was this intended?

[Eddy Redbeart]

Im glad you like them.

Yes it is intended. I love the Sailingships of the 17th and 18th Century most.Galleons are a favorite too. While i like the napoleonic Era as well, the earlier Ships are much more pleasing to my Eyes. Because they are much more decorated and Colorfull.

And another bonus is they are smaller and their shape,especialy the high sterns, allow more room for minifigs without spoiling the shape of the hull. That way there is more room for details too. Rigging is also a little more simple.

I try to keep the ships relativly small in mlcad. 3 midsections on small hulls, 4 midsections on wide hulls maximum. Bigger and the prefab rigging begins to look out of place. Not to mentions that the hull then needs to be widened to look right. And later ships wich are lower in profile with flat decks dont allow multiple decks without looking kinda thin at the bow.

Some builders found their way around this and made extremly beautyfull Ships but hinges sides and snoting are hard to do in mlcad.

So i try a semirealistic aproach considering size and shape.