Foremast Jack Posted January 10, 2012 I think I've seen most every ship ever posted on these forums, but I can't ever recall seeing one using pre-fab hulls with a single stud prow. Since the hulls are designed for 2-wide pieces that's what everyone uses. I curious if anyone is aware of a way to taper it down to one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Blackmoor Posted January 10, 2012 I've never seen it before indeed, as most of the ships are built on prefab hulls. I'd say to give it a shot, but you have to notice an one stud wide prow is only useful for tiny vessels. Prows were quite large to be able to withstand the waves. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bart Posted January 10, 2012 I know cb4 used 1 stud wide prows. Here and here. But those are brick build hulls, If you are looking for a single stud prow on a prefab I wouldn't know. Bart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 10, 2012 I've never seen it before indeed, as most of the ships are built on prefab hulls. I'd say to give it a shot, but you have to notice an one stud wide prow is only useful for tiny vessels. Prows were quite large to be able to withstand the waves. I'm not sure I agree with you here. Yes, they had to withstand the waves, but they also had to slice through the water. Proportionally speaking, I'm inclined to believe that a single-studded prow would be more accurate. However, I do not have physical access to the ship I'm modeling after, so I can't go and measure it to find out for sure. Does anyone have comparative measurements for the width of the prow and the width at the beam for a fairly large ship from the time period? I know cb4 used 1 stud wide prows. Here and here. But those are brick build hulls, If you are looking for a single stud prow on a prefab I wouldn't know. Bart Yes, I remember these and other brickbuilt hulls, but I was looking for use on the the pre-fab's. I really don't think it can be done. The hulls themselves are so intrinsically designed for having a 2-stud wide piece that I can't see a way around it. There's no way to get a jumper or something else to off-set the alignment, so a single stud would be centered on the ship. That being said, I've seen a lot of other things I could have swore were equally impossible, so I'm hoping someone out there knows of a way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sebeus I Posted January 10, 2012 I have seen it once but I can't find it right now. Either way, the builder simply used jumpers to place the 1 stud wide prow in the prefab bow piece. He did leave two gaps on the hull though, (on each side of the prow) So it wasn't so elegant. I'll try to find it so you can see for yourself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cb4 Posted January 10, 2012 Maybe you could do something with this: If you put that at the bottom of the hull, you could invert your sloped cutwater structure and have it offset. You could fill in the gaps in the hull with bricks. It would be a bit blocky, though, I think. I've been building most of my ships from plans, and surprisingly they've all had prows less than one stud wide so far - that's why I've been using single studs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 10, 2012 Maybe you could do something with this: If you put that at the bottom of the hull, you could invert your sloped cutwater structure and have it offset. You could fill in the gaps in the hull with bricks. It would be a bit blocky, though, I think. I've been building most of my ships from plans, and surprisingly they've all had prows less than one stud wide so far - that's why I've been using single studs. Hmmm. You may have something there. I'll have to play around with it. Thanks for the suggestion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gotoAndLego Posted January 10, 2012 What about havingthe two bricks holding a jumper and attaching a single line of bricks to that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kurigan Posted January 10, 2012 I had moment so i opened LDD and work on this problem a bit. I came up with the following so far but no way to mount it to the hull. I've run out of time to spend on this but it's a start to an idea. I'd suggest brick-building your hull(s) if you want to better control the proportions for realism though. all my later, better LDD ships as well most of my plastic fleet use single stud prows and i find it works well. My link My link My link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 10, 2012 Well for all those interested I found a way to center and mount a single stud wide prow to the pre-fab hulls. It's really nothing too elegant but works quite effectively. I'm just going to list the key pieces cause I think it's quite straight forward. + + And the inverted slopes run upwards from there. The only issue I having with it now is the back-fill. The notched areas in the hull itself are very blocky now, and I don't quite like it. So unless another idea presents itself, I think I'm going to stick with a two wide. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horatio Posted January 11, 2012 If you are so concerned with accuracy, I'd suggest just going with brick built hulls. There are other proportion problems with the pre-fabs, all of which can be easily solved through some good old classic bricks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bart Posted January 11, 2012 I had two idea's LXF Bart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 11, 2012 I had two idea's LXF Bart Thanks for the suggestions, Bart. The one on the left is one of the ideas I stumbled upon myself. The issue I'm having with everything I find is the gaps left between the hull and the prow. But I'll keep playing around with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Storel Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Using Bart's idea as inspiration I had a bit of a play and came up with this No idea how well it'd actually work outside of LDD though. Edited January 11, 2012 by Storel Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Legonardo Posted January 11, 2012 Hi just noticed this topic Perfectionist used a single stud prow in the Achille (see wip topic) hope it helps Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 11, 2012 Hi just noticed this topic Perfectionist used a single stud prow in the Achille (see wip topic) hope it helps Thanks for the link. Looking through the photos it seems Perfectionist decided to stick with a 2 wide prow in the end. This is much how my sentiments have been inclining lately. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Blackmoor Posted January 11, 2012 Does anyone have comparative measurements for the width of the prow and the width at the beam for a fairly large ship from the time period? Kind of.. I've been to the Dutch dockyard in Lelystad where they are rebuilding the "Zeven Provinciën". I've been standing near the prow of the ship, at the very bottom, and the prow was far more wider then I was. If I think the width of a head is about one stud, it would be more accurate to make the prow 2 studs wide. But that is just the measurement I used. One stud wide prows are realistic on smaller ships instead of large ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frank Brick Wright Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Bow thickness varies a lot, from ship type to era built. It depends greatly on the kind of ship you are building. Even if you are not going for historical reconstitutions, I always suggest you take reference pics from the Internet of ships similar to yours. Let us suppose you are building a XVIII frigate (like I am). Then a good, well documented example is the Unité/Surprise. You find a picture from the bow. I placed it here for your pleasure Let us also say that you are building the gun's deck 6 bricks high. After some simple math, I got this proportions: Model ship: Prow: 0.4cm Gun's deck: 2.05cm Your lego ship: Prow: ? = 1.17 (approx) 1 brick Gun's deck: 6 bricks This is just an example of the kind of work you can for your ship. So in fact 1 stud wide is the most accurate Edited January 11, 2012 by Frank Brick Wright Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foremast Jack Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Kind of.. I've been to the Dutch dockyard in Lelystad where they are rebuilding the "Zeven Provinciën". I've been standing near the prow of the ship, at the very bottom, and the prow was far more wider then I was. If I think the width of a head is about one stud, it would be more accurate to make the prow 2 studs wide. But that is just the measurement I used. One stud wide prows are realistic on smaller ships instead of large ones. What you say is quite true but I think the proportionate ratio is slightly different than what you may realize. Yes, a prow would most accurately be represented with a width of 2 studs. However, this ratio would necessitate that the width of the beam (that being width of the ship) to be larger than is available with the pre-fabricated hulls. Thus, I think it stands to reason that a single stud prow would "appear" to be most realistic. Ultimately though, seeing how attaching a single stud prow to the prefab hull cannot be done without looking worse than simply using a 2 wide, this may all be moot. Edited January 11, 2012 by Foremast Jack Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skipper Posted January 11, 2012 Here's my try - LXF FILE It's all right, I guess, pretty clunky and fragile (IRL) though. EDIT: An exploded view: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
