[MOC] USS Poseidon - Minifig Scale First Rate Ship of the Line

[shiplover]

On 2/27/2017 at 3:02 PM, kurigan said:

First, let me chime in on praising the quality and intricacy of your rigging so far. Wow, great job mate! 

 

As to the thickness, I was meaning the diameter of the individual strands which make up one of your shrouds. With only your photographcs, and little size reference to go by, it seemed to me that they are only as thick, or maybe a bit thicker than those on my little sloops. Not trying to be a know-it-all, I really can't tell from back here, so I tried to phrase it in a question. I suppose something got lost in translation.  

 

Ow I'm not going to be a hypocrite here, I despised backhanded compliments, but I want you (and everyone) to understand, that even though you're doing things differently than I do and making decisions on which I may have gone another way, I respect the effort you're putting into this build. At first I didn't much like this her, but she's grow on me. Perhaps I didn't have faith she'd ever be completed, meeting the ignominious fate so many Lego SoLs meet. In any case I'm really getting behind this and find myself rooting for you to finish her. 

 

Do you have any plans for moving and/or displaying her publically? 

Thanks.  A build like this is a never ending compromise between aesthetics, cost, time, and authenticity. For the lines, I looked at many photographs of the Victory and tried to guestimate the size of the lines in proportion to a person and the Victory and then attempted to proportion that to the size of my ship and a minifig. It's an educated guessing game. The standing rigging is heavier and thicker. The running rigging is lighter and thinner, as I believe it really would be. I mixed it up with about six different thread sizes and colors. As I get further into the rigging it is astonishing how many lines were involved in a ship like this - literally hundreds of different lines between the standing and running rigging. I estimate that I already have over 500 feet of lines in the ship now, and there is a lot more to go.   

As for public displays, we might try to display in the Utah Brickslopes in June (I'm in Utah) or maybe the Utah State Fair. I have spent a lot of time building the structure and installing the rigging in a way that the ship can be separated into three pieces and moved. I certainly hope to see some benefit from that work and effort.

Edited March 1, 2017 by shiplover

[kurigan]

16 hours ago, shiplover said:

 A build like this is a never ending compromise between aesthetics, cost, time, and authenticity.

You don't have to tell me. I always say "modeling is a series of compromises." The timer says you only have 113 days to get ready. Better get cracking! 

[shiplover]

Updated pics. 

 

[Cousarmy0001]

Every time I see an update, my head explodes again.

[shiplover]

Almost done!  After several experiments, I think I have the process for building sails figured out. 95% of the rigging is complete. Three of the furled sails are in place. A few more weeks to finish the sails and all that will be left are the boats and to get the last two hundred of the crew in place. I'll get some updated photos soon.

[Cousarmy0001]

"USS" prefix aside, will you be devoting this class to either redcoat or bluecoat facitons?

You could dominate Brethren of the Brick Seas with this bad boy!

[Brick Customs]

Dang!  I had no idea the official Lego ships were that far off scale.  This is an incredible build! 

[Professor Thaum]

Truly amazing... the built, the rigging, the scale

 

I only hope the chamfer in the ceiling was not fitted out to permit the ship supporting the mast...

[Cousarmy0001]

The real question here:

Can she be moved? 

[shiplover]

Significant work and effort was put into making the ship so it can be moved. It's movable. I'll show photos of moving at some point. 

[Cousarmy0001]

As big as she is, do you need the aid of the sails to move her?

[shiplover]

It's been a busy summer so I haven't made much progress. I have experimented with sails and some sail construction techniques to give a full sail underway look and avoid a droopy flat sail look. I've found the material that I like and built and hung four or five full sails as part of this experiment. As is typical with this ship, all of these have been or will be scrapped and replaced with the final version. But, I think I have finally figured it out now and have an idea for making them work. I'll post some pics soon.   

Edited September 25, 2017 by shiplover

[LM71Blackbird]

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!!! That is massively, stupendously, awesome!!!!! I want one!  Keep up the great work!!

[shiplover]

See next entry

Edited May 21, 2018 by shiplover
replaced with next entry

[shiplover]

Almost finished with the sails. Should be able to post pics soon.  Final process with the sails: (1) obtain the right fabric from the fabric store (I went with Kona Natural, 044 IN 17032 RN 35055, Kona Cotton Solids). (2) carefully measure the needed sale from the ship and draw the outline of sail on fabric. (3) pencil in cosmetic seams for appearance of sail panels (in my scale I did 1 inches wide and 3 inch tall pencil marks), (4) pin the sail on each corner to a wood board. On any bending lines, place several pins along the bend (I just use normal cork board push pins, and inserted all pins at angle toward sale so that in subsequent steps the cord and wire are pushed to the surface of the sail, (5) place extra pins to allow ends of cord and wire to be tied away from sale, (6) string 30 gauge wire (I used generic 30 gauge wire distributed by MSPCI and obtained a craft store) on exterior of sail along pins and on interior seams of sail with spacing on interior seams at roughly six inches (the wires give the sail body and allow it to be shaped later), (7) run 30lb hemp cord (I used bead smith 100% crafters hemp cord) over the top of all of the wire. (8) glue the hemp cord and wire to the sail (I use "Unique Stitch" fast drying adhesive), this can be a little tricky and takes some practice - I used a good bead of glue on both sides of the cord and wire and then ran my finger along to push the glue into the cord and wire on both sides.  I would push the wire under the hemp cord as much as possible. The goal is to glue the hemp cord to the sail with the wire as closely tucked under the inside of edge of the hemp cord as possible. When done properly, the wire is almost invisible. In this step, glue everywhere not covered by tacks. (9) wait for the glue to dry, (10) remove tacks and glue areas where tacks were, (11) wait for all glue to dry (12) carefully examine hemp cord and wire and anywhere it does not appear securely glued, re-glue. The glue dries almost invisible so don't be afraid to use a lot, (13) when all the glue has dried (I would wait 24 hours from last step), use scissors to trim the sail to the outside hemp cord. Carefully avoid cutting the wire and if you have successfully glued the wire to the inside of the hemp cord, the chances of this go way down. (14) turn the sail over and match with pencil the cosmetic seams on the other sides of the sail. I could almost always see the seams through the sail and just match them by eye drawing the lines with a pencil and using a long rule. I used a 24 inch ruler to keep my lines straight. (15) spray the sails with starch and let dry (I used "Faultless" heavy starch). (16) Iron the sails carefully, (17) install the sails.

The starch and embedded wires allowed me to mold the sails to get the look of wind blown sails. Since some of my sails were over 20 inches long/wide, the weight was still a problem and I had to do the best with attaching lines at various places to help maintain the wind blown look, but it worked pretty well. I'm satisfied with the result. 

[Cousarmy0001]

So how long until we see this behemoth on BoBS?

[LM71Blackbird]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 3:13 PM, Cousarmy0001 said:

So how long until we see this behemoth on BoBS?

I think it's safe to say that if this ever sailed the brick seas of BoBs that every single ship and settlement would be in danger of being decimated...  We would probably need to make a special class just for this ship...

[iammac]

20 hours ago, LM71Blackbird said:

I think it's safe to say that if this ever sailed the brick seas of BoBs that every single ship and settlement would be in danger of being decimated...  We would probably need to make a special class just for this ship...

And what, pray tell, might that designation be? Amarda-class? Juggernaut-class? Perhaps just Poseidon-class?

 

MAC

[LM71Blackbird]

8 minutes ago, iammac said:

And what, pray tell, might that designation be? Amarda-class? Juggernaut-class? Perhaps just Poseidon-class?

 

MAC

The elephantine class? Behemothic class? Planetary class?

[SheepBlubber]

I probably shouldn't ask this but roughly how many pieces have you used so far and how much did it all cost?

[shiplover]

The ship is done.  I'll get some photos soon. 

Number of legos . . too many to count. Tens of thousands. Cost . . . . c'mon they are legos . . . a lot. 

Edited June 3, 2018 by shiplover

[shiplover]

Over 600 minifigures. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain Dee]

Wow, amazing to see this finished.  

Simply incredible, and a bit mind-boggling. The size doesn't really come through in the photos. I keep looking at the table for comparison.

A tip of the (tricorne) hat to you sir, and a long list of superlatives to go with it.

Oh, and you know you're doing something special when you get the "Ship Expert" tag while still building.

Excellent work!! 

[Cousarmy0001]

So I think this should be considered the "Game Over, Man!" class in BoBS :-D

Simply amazing, man.  I usually try to offer critiques and advice when somebody posts a finished product, but I simply have nothing for this.  I don't expect to ever see anything this great again.  I'm almost kinda sad to see the project end, as I won't have anything else to look forward to on this.  The best I could possibly come up with is to suggest tiling the deck.  Honestly, though, she's great just the way she is.

Might I trouble you for final measurements, and a closer picture of the stern face, as well as the prow?

[LM71Blackbird]

@shiplover This is just an incredible looking MOC. In my opinion, this the greatest Lego ship I have ever seen and my new personal favorite model! Keep up all the fantastic work and brick on!