Ship-of-the-Line Under Construction

[Sebeus I]

Nice, I love the dark tan decks, the bow is very well shaped, keep it up.

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

You're building quite fast I think everything looks great, but I have a few suggestions.

Compared to this picture, I think your headrails (especially the top beam) could be curved a bit more.

And I suppose your bowsprit isn't the final product, so you could make the overlap part of the two sections longer, and all black.

And the rest is awesome Keep it up!

I agree about the upper beam of the headrails. Im going to raise the whole beakhead one or two studs which should give it more curve, I think its just too low in general. I dont think it will be as curved as the Victory though. Perhaps since it's one gundeck shorter. Here is an image from MSW that I used for reference, hope its ok to post here:

Compared to this first image I posted I think it looks accurate until the very front where it should curve up more. I will find a solution though

The lower section of the bowsprit is just one of the mast sections I had built, so not the final result. It will be similar though, just with fewer rings. Ive never seen an all black bowsprit though, the lower section tends to be yellow or brown and the overlap section tends to be black. I think mine will be yellow on the lower and black on the upper. And you're right the overlap should be a bit longer, and thinner by my research. I also need to find a way to secure the boomkins at an angle, but that will come later. Thanks for the comments everyone! And passing 2500 views already

DPW

[Captain Green Hair]

Even without being curved, the stern looks very good!

You might want to make some doors next to the blue cylinders though, otherwise everything gets wet inside.

[Such]

This is going to be a behemoth!

Looks great!

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

Alright mates time for another weekend update, hope everyone in the US had a good Memorial Day

As I said before this week was all about starting the quarterdeck. Since the quarterdeck accounts for nearly half the ship and is sloped and curved, this was by far the most difficult section to build. But I think I made a good start, that is until I ran out of deck pieces, this thing always takes more than I planned! Here is a port view from the rear of the quarterdeck:

I hadn't originally planned on joining the last 3 gun sections at the top in the LDD model, but real bricks allow you to tinker with these things so much easier and it actually worked out better than I had envisioned. Here's how it will look with all gun sections in place:

I really like the curve towards the stern. The unfinished starboard side sits in place in the background. As you can see it is getting too big for my temporary photo studio! When it is finally finished I will have to custom make one that is big enough to fit it all in. Once again I am awaiting more parts to finish up the quarterdeck, from there I will finish detailing the three gun sections before moving on to the stern. C&C are appreciated as always!

DPW

[Captain Becker]

No words are needed for this If i do two decker ship at some day in the future, im just wondering if im allowed to loan the idea from you?

Also im wondering how you are going to make the stern, and Her side will be under Bluecoats flag i presume, if i judge the Minifigs torso right. Good luck whit her. And keep those updates coming.

Captain Becker

[Admiral Croissant]

Beautiful

I think it's all perfect. There's just one think that bothers me a little bit:

I think the yellow line ends a bit too edgy here. It shows off a bit since the rest is all so perfectly curved

Outside of that, keep it up!

[Aalak]

She really comes along, great progress so far! The forecastle and the headrails are looking really nice! Nice technic there with the hinges under the the tiles!

Edited May 31, 2011 by Aalak

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

No words are needed for this If i do two decker ship at some day in the future, im just wondering if im allowed to loan the idea from you?

Also im wondering how you are going to make the stern, and Her side will be under Bluecoats flag i presume, if i judge the Minifigs torso right. Good luck whit her. And keep those updates coming.

Captain Becker

Thanks Captain Becker! And yes, I created this thread so that people could follow along and hopefully be inspired to build something similar using these techniques. So feel free to "loan" them. Her nationality is something that will remain secret until the end, as will her name, but it will come about in due course. That's me on deck, but I think this is too grand a ship for a privateer! Given that she is based on the same class of ship as Nelson's Agamemnon however, there is little disputing her country of origin.

I think the yellow line ends a bit too edgy here. It shows off a bit since the rest is all so perfectly curved

Outside of that, keep it up!

I heartily agree with you there Admiral, this part has bothered me for a long time and I am still thinking up a solution. Any help here will be greatly appreciated!

The forecastle and the headrails are looking really nice! Nice technic there with the hinges under the the tiles!

Thanks Aalak! I really like this method of headrails since it is quite strong and looks quite accurate. I first did this while refitting my frigate Praetorian but think it looks even better on a larger bow.

I will post more updates once I "complete" the quarterdeck, hopefully parts will arive soon. Until then thanks for the comments!

DPW

Edited May 31, 2011 by Dread Pirate Wesley

[______]

I have an idea to round it off quite nicely

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

Greetings matey's! Time for another quick update...

This weekend I pieced together the quarterdeck to give it more strength and plate the gundecks. To add strength to the whole section I added cross-runners, which when the gundeck plates were laid on top gave it very good rigidity. Heres how the skeleton looks from one gunwall:

Once the deck plates were laid on the lower gundeck, I added in the supports and plated the upper gundeck. The geometry here was much more complicated but Im quite pleased with them now, and they have a nice upslope towards the stern. I also fiddled with the mainmast, the mainmast bits (red parts) and the railing on the upper deck. The railing around the mainmast is a very distinct part of this ship so I really wanted to get it right. Here's how it all turned out for now:

Once again I ran out of parts for the deck supports, so once those come in I will finish the quarterdeck and move up to the poop deck. I think the poop will be angled and upsloped, much like this on the Pickle:

Unfortunately they dont make 12 long wedge plates in dark tan (yet) so I may have to find another solution. Until then I appreciate any feedback on the quarterdeck so far! Thanks for looking

DPW

[Dockmaster Brickington]

This looks amazing! You are building way faster then I do!

[Nazgarot]

Wow! This is really great!

Makes me wanna build one my self, but I'm neigther there in building tecnique or knowledge of parts...

Your pictures, and the way you show hov you solve problems is very good! Thanks.

I thought this might might spark some interest. It's from before my time, but quite good konsidering the bricks available at the time.

Edited June 13, 2011 by Admiral Croissant
Merged two posts

[Admiral Croissant]

Wow! This is really great!

Makes me wanna build one my self, but I'm neigther there in building tecnique or knowledge of parts...

Your pictures, and the way you show hov you solve problems is very good! Thanks.

I thought this might might spark some interest. It's from before my time, but quite good konsidering the bricks available at the time.

Nazgarot, in the future please don't post twice after each other when there is no other post between them.

Thank you (I've merged the posts this time).

[Jack Bricker]

So if the little ship that you pictured earlier is nameed HMS Pickle is this ship going to be named the HMS Cucumber. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I really like how you are designing and building this ship. I have so say I like how you are going for the authentic color scheme and I like the overall shape so far. I look forward to seeing it complete when you finnish it.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Jack Bricker

[legolooney]

Really enjoying watching this ship progress, from digital plan to reality.

I especially love the uses of the curved bricks. They are brilliant pieces underused by most ship builders.

Keep it up, can't wait for more.

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

I have an idea to round it off quite nicely

That's a good idea, however very difficult to make round. Here's my best solution for now. It looks a little digital to me, maybe some decoration would help it but I think its an improvement anyways:

I had originally tried to make it a checkered pattern, but it looked too much like a NY cab rather than a man-o-war. Any other suggestions on how to round this area off are appreciated! For comparrison to the earlier picture here's an overall shot of how she sits, quarterdeck and poopdeck still under construction:

The quarterdeck is starting to look very tall, but with the other fittings in place and little details I think it will look proportional. And to Jack Bricker, I think if this were a size comparison to Pickle it would be more like HMS Watermelon! Thanks for the comments everyone, stay tuned for the next update...

DPW

[Bart]

Looking good,

just an Idea about that corner

I got the feeling that the corner (red arrow) is sticking out to much,

Maybe you can angle the blue square area independent from the rest (green)

so you can make that a bit steeper then the green part, I got the feeling that will look better

I.e. pushing the corner (red arrow) inwards

Good luck

Bart

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

Thanks for the suggestions Bart. Im trying to make it tilt inwards to make it appear smoother, it's getting close. It has been a while since I posted an update so I figured I'd share what Ive been working on recently. Mostly I've been working on the quarterdeck and the poopdeck, trying to get the shape correct and the deck in place to begin the stern. It took a long time to get it right, but here is the current result:

I also had a crack at the poopdeck bulkheads, the wheel, and the binnacle (which houses the compass). This part was a lot of fun to research and get right. Im pleased how it turned out and took some pictures before it becomes enclosed by the poopdeck:

And finally how it looks fitted on the quarterdeck. One cannon is fitted in place to make sure it has clearance. Im not sure if the binnacle would go in front of or behind the wheel on a 64, but on 74's it seems to vary a lot. The hatch in the foreground is for an access ladder. The admiral is examining the progress:

Still a lot of work to be done, as you can see. Once the quarterdeck and poopdeck is finished it will be time to begin the stern! Comments welcome, thanks for looking everyone

DPW

[cb4]

This is really cool - I had no notion of the wheel being underneath the poop deck in this way on ships of the line.

That said, it seems uncommonly cramped in there. Where do you plan to step the mizzen mast? On HMS Victory it is just abaft the wheel, but I think the Victory's wheel may be farther forward.

[Bart]

looking good :D

love the fact that you place the wheel below decks.

One tiny thing,

If that cannon recoils your cabinet is blown to smithereens.

Bart

[Horry]

looking good :D

love the fact that you place the wheel below decks.

One tiny thing,

If that cannon recoils your cabinet is blown to smithereens.

Bart

I don't think he's actually puttin' the wheel below deck, but extending the poopdeck above the wheel, at least I think so - would be quite common on ships of the line.

Thet recoil problem is somethin' most of us know as Lego dimensions make it somewhat difficult to scale cannons and ships in the right proportion. But this can still be explained away by two things: First, the cannon would be one restricted to grape shots - the recoil would be reduced and could be absorbed by the ropes. The second one: ships of that size had enough room for "psychological warfare" - it was not uncommon to paint more gunports onto the hull than there actually were and it was also possible to add guns that were not used. That way, a ship would look more intimidating and would have spare cannons.

[CaptMc]

WOW! I'm loving what i'm seeing, your ship is immense, I like that your putting time into researching how it should be ratehr than just building your own design so to say. Do you intend to ad a crew to her or are you just building the ship?

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

This is really cool - I had no notion of the wheel being underneath the poop deck in this way on ships of the line.

That said, it seems uncommonly cramped in there. Where do you plan to step the mizzen mast? On HMS Victory it is just abaft the wheel, but I think the Victory's wheel may be farther forward.

Perhaps I should have shown a comparrison shot of how it would look on a ship of the line. Heres how it looks on HMS Victory, the only remaining ship of the line. It is situated at the rear of the quarterdeck, just bellow the poopdeck, and thats the mizzen mast directly behind it. Notice too the binnacle right in front of it:

And on a model of the same class of ship Im building you can see it looks very much the same, except for less space on deck since it is quite a bit smaller than Victory:

There are cannon on either side, as there is in the cabins behind the bulkheads. How often these cannons were used I dont know, but I think Horry is right that mostly they are stowed there as spares as I doubt any guncrews were assigned to them. I know the dimensions look tight but despite the size of the ship is still much smaller than minifig scale, so some creative adjustments are needed while maintaining as much historical accuracy as possible.

To answer CaptMC's question yes she will be crewed, probably not a full 500 like the real ship but as many as I can feasibly fit to man every station. Thanks for the comments again everyone

DPW

[Bart]

you convinced me, the canons can be there

Bart