The 64-gun Ship of the Line Persephone

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

[pid][/pid] 154D

After more than two and a half years of research, design, and construction I am proud to present you with His Majesties Ship of the line Persephone.

Many of you have been following her construction in the work in progress thread from conception and I thank you for your support and advice. This thread is intended to be a running series of projects related to this ship. Persephone was built as a means of presenting what life was like on a ship of the line in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Now that she is finished, there are many stories that I would like to tell. For now though, I would simply like to present the ship:

About the build, it is hard to say at this point but an estimated 4000 bricks went in to this project. Over 1000 of them are in the 64 brick-built cannons alone. From bowsprit to spanker boom she measures 162 studs, reaching a height of three feet. Under sail, she flies 14 custom sails. Many yards of 7 different kinds of string and yarn keep her masts and spars in place with no glue required. Other details about her construction can be found in the WIP thread, but please feel free to ask any questions you may have here. Since she now sits an empty oak, in order to properly tell her tale we must get the crew aboard.

They are a lively bunch, and more than willing to answer any questions you might have about life at sea in a man-o-war. There will be plenty more to follow, and as always your comments and criticisms are most welcome!

Dread Pirate Wesley

New update post #29 on 9/18: Welcome aboard!

New update post #33 on 9/22: Below decks

Edited September 23, 2013 by Dread Pirate Wesley

[Capt. Redblade]

[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

[kevin8]

Impressive! Great work.

I like the details of the front and rear part.

[Swan Dutchman]

Hi Wesley,

I've been following your WIP thread and I must say I am really impressed with the ship. It's so rich in detail that it could be a photo of a real ship :)

Well done!

[Matteo1130]

Impressive. I really love all of your ship (all but the flag, it seems the redcoats/english have the biggest ships on this forum ).

Great job on everything, what I like most is the head railing, sturdy and elegant.

[Admiral Croissant]

Beautiful! Can't believe you used no glue for the rigging. It looks very neat!

Looks like an exceptionally accurate model with an impressive number of bricks.

Are all sails 'modular'? Or just the 3 on the picture?

I think this is a very useful ship if you want to explain life at sea, or perhaps to make a comic.

Is there also an interesting story about the figurehead? Why you chose it or what it represents?

By the way, your ship is currently on the Eurobricks Frontpage also

[kermit]

You did an amazing job on this. It is so huge and packed.with details including the rigging.

[lightningtiger]

Just simply AWESOME, the rigging, sails, overall detailing to the ship......wonderful work and congrats on being front paged 'DPW'......Brick On the seven seas !

[Nightshroud99]

That is really ballin, nice color combination and a impressive build overall. I wish I had one.

[Svad]

HUGE. Awesome work!

[Sebeus I]

Congratulations on finishing this ship, I liked following the WIP, great presentation, the pictures really catch a fantastic warship .

[Warspite03]

That is pure awesome! Incredible build! I for one would never have the patience to keep at it for that long. Well done.

[Herky]

Really great work, I too noticed the figurehead, just a lot of amazing detail...makes me want to see the guns a blazing as you take down those ocean going enemies.

[Kez]

Amazing work, so many great details, and congratulations on being front paged, well done

[Frank Brick Wright]

I'm quite content to see this ship presented in its full grandeur but even more to see that this project is not over yet!!

There are quite some things I would like to say and I hope this post won't be too long.

First of all I must praise your dedication, artfulness and commitment to this project. 2,5 years is a long time but surely it was worth it! What you have in here is--IMO--the most impressive lego (sailing) ship ever finished to this date, and that's quite something All the details you put into her, the perfect accuracy of shape, the exquisite rigging, the overwhelming bow view, the perfect joint of galleries and stern. It's not just a matter of size: it is a matter of detail and shape--you excelled in this build

There is nothing which I don't really like in the ship but I'd still like to point out a couple of things.

I've discovered a little interesting fact this holidays (applicable to french ships for sure, I do not know how far this extends to british ones, but after all you are the expert here ). Usually larger ships (from superfrigates upwards) had names of kings, Gods or of the more "powerful" heroes. Of course there were exceptions to this rule and as I said I don't know if this is true for the Royal Navy but I still think Persephone, although a really beautiful name as it is, would be more appropriate for a frigate or a smaller ship

Still, I have to complains regarding the stern . The shape is really nice, the hoses, the balcony, etc, and so are the details, except --I think so-- the green heads and arms! You kept a consistent colourscheme of yellow, black, blue and brown all through and the pale-green really stands out in a not-so-good way. I think yellow heads would blend-in in a better way, but of course this is just a matter of taste.

For me the bigger problem are the sails. You've done such a great job that I think it is a pity to let this pass. Of course the pencil lines and the colour are perfect but the problem is the shape they get. A ship under sail would be pushed through the sails and they would accordingly get a rounded shape, like in here. Your sails are parallel to your masts, giving the impression that there is no wind blowing at all--alright, they do have a small bulge in the lower part but it is pretty small nevertheless. Or perhaps this is just of the photos you took and we are awaiting different shots? I don't think we can have too much of them!

Another thing I don't quite get is the use of the long black pieces to make the lower shrouds' deadeyes and then the small wheels for the top ones. I like both of them separately but since the same structure was used, historically speaking, wouldn't it be better to do so in lego too? It doesn't really stand out but I think it is a small inconsistency.

It certainly is a true pleasure to see all this work come to an end (at least the major part of it). And what an end! What a masterpiece! Fantastic job DPW, this build brought ship-building in lego to a next dimension! I'm looking forward to see the continuation of this project

Edited September 9, 2013 by Frank Brick Wright

[spzero]

wow, gob-smaked

@ Frank Brick Wright:: Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and queen of the underworld a beautiful name and one worthy of such a great ship I'm sure,

​ as a side point I nearly had a niece called Persephone.

Edited September 9, 2013 by spzero

[-DoNe-]

Stunning!

[Chills]

Wow! That is amazing. The detail is terrific, I really dig how you did the curve of the bow.

As for the comment about the green in the statue on the stern, I think that was a good color choice. It looks like the head and arms are made of copper, because it turns a greenish color when exposed to water.

[ManInATopHat]

INCREDIBLE! The detail is simply stunning! Great work!

[TheLegoDr]

Very impressive. The scale alone is impressive, but the design aesthetics really work on this.

It is inspiring and makes me want to finish out my ship projects, but I doubt I ever will.

Keep up the great work!

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! As I said before this thread will be an ongoing project so please feel free to ask any questions about the ship. You really have an influence on where this thread goes.

Beautiful! Can't believe you used no glue for the rigging. It looks very neat!

Looks like an exceptionally accurate model with an impressive number of bricks.

Are all sails 'modular'? Or just the 3 on the picture?

I think this is a very useful ship if you want to explain life at sea, or perhaps to make a comic.

Is there also an interesting story about the figurehead? Why you chose it or what it represents?

By the way, your ship is currently on the Eurobricks Frontpage also

Thanks for the frontpage Admiral! I really appreciate that. The rigging doesn't require any glue the way that it's tied. One thing I did find it needed though was something to keep the ends from fraying after they were cut. In order to solve that problem, I coated the ends of the string in acrylic medium to hold the loose strands in place but also allow it to be flexible for tying. It works well, time will tell how long it lasts but for now it makes it look neat and tidy!

The sails are all modular and can be drawn up or removed. All except the spanker can be removed anyways, that is the only sail that is stitched in place. The rest are attached with a flexible, soluble double sided tape so they can be removed or replaced without it being a massive ordeal. Sometime in the future I want to make some battle damaged or wind damaged sails to hang so this was necessary, if not entirely permanent. The spars likewise can be raised and lowered, though not so easily removed. I shall make a short story about how all the rigging works some day.

Impressive. I really love all of your ship (all but the flag, it seems the redcoats/english have the biggest ships on this forum ).

Great job on everything, what I like most is the head railing, sturdy and elegant.

Thanks Matteo. She actually didn't have a nationality when I started building. I fell in love with the 64 though during my research, for their sailing qualities as much as their lines. It seems the only navies to really use 64's extensively were the British and the Dutch. British archives and plans were so much more accessible to me so I based the ship off of those.

Really great work, I too noticed the figurehead, just a lot of amazing detail...makes me want to see the guns a blazing as you take down those ocean going enemies.

You shall get your wish

I've discovered a little interesting fact this holidays (applicable to french ships for sure, I do not know how far this extends to british ones, but after all you are the expert here ). Usually larger ships (from superfrigates upwards) had names of kings, Gods or of the more "powerful" heroes. Of course there were exceptions to this rule and as I said I don't know if this is true for the Royal Navy but I still think Persephone, although a really beautiful name as it is, would be more appropriate for a frigate or a smaller ship

Still, I have to complains regarding the stern . The shape is really nice, the hoses, the balcony, etc, and so are the details, except --I think so-- the green heads and arms! You kept a consistent colourscheme of yellow, black, blue and brown all through and the pale-green really stands out in a not-so-good way. I think yellow heads would blend-in in a better way, but of course this is just a matter of taste.

For me the bigger problem are the sails. You've done such a great job that I think it is a pity to let this pass. Of course the pencil lines and the colour are perfect but the problem is the shape they get. A ship under sail would be pushed through the sails and they would accordingly get a rounded shape, like in here. Your sails are parallel to your masts, giving the impression that there is no wind blowing at all--alright, they do have a small bulge in the lower part but it is pretty small nevertheless. Or perhaps this is just of the photos you took and we are awaiting different shots? I don't think we can have too much of them!

Another thing I don't quite get is the use of the long black pieces to make the lower shrouds' deadeyes and then the small wheels for the top ones. I like both of them separately but since the same structure was used, historically speaking, wouldn't it be better to do so in lego too? It doesn't really stand out but I think it is a small inconsistency.

It certainly is a true pleasure to see all this work come to an end (at least the major part of it). And what an end! What a masterpiece! Fantastic job DPW, this build brought ship-building in lego to a next dimension! I'm looking forward to see the continuation of this project

@ Frank Brick Wright:: Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and queen of the underworld a beautiful name and one worthy of such a great ship I'm sure,

​ as a side point I nearly had a niece called Persephone.

As for the comment about the green in the statue on the stern, I think that was a good color choice. It looks like the head and arms are made of copper, because it turns a greenish color when exposed to water.

First of all Frank I thank you for your high praise. You also address some interesting things which have mostly been out of mind to me over the design process. Spzero hits the nail on the head when it comes to the name, and Chills has the right idea about the figures too. Since there seem to be a lot of questions about how she got her name and the significance of her figure head that will be the subject of the first story in this thread!

As for the sails, this was something that was on my mind at least for the last year. It seems there were tradeoffs to be made in the construction of the sails. Make them from a thick material, and they can be posed and molded into that lovely billowing shape of a ship under sail. They could not, however, be drawn up anywhere near accurately. The thickness makes them difficult to roll neatly into place, or if you can they look silly and out of place. I ended up going with a very thin material, the most flexible possible and also the lightest. This makes it difficult to achieve that full sail look, but they look beautiful and accurate once drawn up and lashed to the spars. Perhaps I could put a fan behind the ship and take a few pictures to achieve that billowing look

As for the deadeyes, you are also right that is an inconsistency. Personally, I prefer the black connectors, and I actually tried to use the same connectors for the deadeyes on the top shrouds. Unfortunately there just was enough space for them to angle properly on the top shrouds. Since they were packed so close together they stood nearly vertical which looked terrible in my opinion. So I sought another solution. In the WIP thread you can see that at first I only had one row of deadeyes on the top, this was also inaccurate. So the final solution was what you see now. If they made the "blocks" in black instead of yellow I would have used those instead for more consistency, but I still like the compromise. Perhaps I will address this again in the future if I find a better solution.

Again thanks everyone! Keep the C&C coming

DPW

[Hey Joe]

THAT is one beautiful ship. You'd never guess that was Lego from a distance. Many thanks for sharing.

Joe

[Jody Meyer]

just stunning work, wow. wish I had the time and patience.

[harton]

Well that is a set I wish I had! I hope you will not take it apart, and if it was me I'll put it behind a glass and let no one else than me touch it. I will especially keep it away of children!

They are to many details. Well done. I really enjoy those canons.

[sdrnet]

Wonderful Ship! very nice detail!