More Ships!

[Kolonialbeamter]

[pid][/pid] 157C

Ahoy again!

As I mentioned before, I have a few more ships to present to you. And since I don't think each of them deserves their own post, I'm just going to use this one as a stage.

For starters, here's a MOD of 2010's Imperial Flagship.

For this built I tried to enlarge the IFS to a modular two-decker, keeping as much of the original design unaltered as possible.

In fact, this was the first ship I built after the Pirates' revival of 2009. I was fascinated by the way the bow was designed using curved slopes, so I kind of got obsessed with this part and... that's one reason that got me into ship building.

For the upper gun deck instead of curved slopes I should have used tiles to create a better looking tumblehome. Here's what she would look like had I thought twice before ordering parts.

HighRes. here

Overall I think she looks too clunky. I thought of removing the lower gun deck, making her a frigate. But then I'd have to change the captain's cabin, and I'm too lazy to do so...

C&C as always welcome!

Thanks for watching,

Regards

[Matthias]

I like your Interpretation of the Flagship. I think the side of the ship looks brilliant. Form far away it don t seem so great. But than look near, wow. I just definatly buy a lot of the rounded bricks you used at THW side.

Thanks for posting

[Tycho McKorley]

I think you've put together a very nice reinterpretation of the IFS. It certainly looks more formidable than the original, to say that least. My only criticism is that it seems a bit short or stubby given how tall it is. Have you thought about adding another hull section? That might balance it out. That said, it is a great MOD that should have the pirates running.

[Kolonialbeamter]

Thanks for your comments.

I just definitely buy a lot of the rounded bricks you used.

Yeah, these curved slopes really come in handy for designing a brick hull. And they are available in a lot of colors!

My only criticism is that it seems a bit short or stubby given how tall it is. Have you thought about adding another hull section? That might balance it out.

In fact I once tried to lenghten her as I wanted to transform her into a frigate, but somehow the IFS-'feeling' got lost. Then I got bored and abandoned this plan. Here's a WIP shot.

[Captain Becker]

I do agree that the Frigate type does lack that IFS feeling somewhat. Wish I could only own one of those babies. Anyway, great job on that MOD, but it could surely use some more color on the sides. But then again, not maby possible to do anything good looking using the 1x3 curved slopes wich does BTW work a lot better than the "Flat sides". Also the fact that its fully playable makes this a great MOD, Great job!

Captain Becker

[Sebeus I]

I like how you integrated a real tumblehome, a great improvement .

Attaching the jibs with ropes was an evident call but very needed nonetheless.

I do hope however that you will also modify the cabin of the Imperial Flagship,

Unlike many others I really don't like the look of the IFS set, what I think is worst about it are the inverted slopes making the cabin wider when it gets higher,

while on a realistic ship the cabin should become more narrow, following the tumblehome.

Keep it up .

[El_Pirotecnico]

Great Job !!!

The rounded bricks fit very well !!!

Keep it up !!!

[Kolonialbeamter]

[pid][/pid] LDD 11C

Thank you for your comments.

I have to say that I gave up working on my IFS-Mod altogether shortly after having discovered CGH's Frigate Tutorial. The SNOT technique that I had used before proved inferior to a regular SOT design in terms of stability, shaping and coloring, especially considering prefab hull based ships with more than one gun deck.

Here are some results.

The frigate is HMS Sawfish. She carries 38 guns and is a ship that I first considered building in real bricks. But then I thought the same about the next ship, and then the next, and so on...

The next one is HMS Phoenix, a 62 gun ship of the line.

Here a longer version of the two-decker, the 74 gun Spartiate.

And a smaller frigate, the Anubis.

This was the supposed flagship of the Blue fraction, Némésis, a 120 gun 1^st rate (Here next to the puny IFS-Mod).

Being the result of firepower hubris, evil laughter and lightning, she features a fourth continuous gun deck à la Santissima Trinidad, putting her on top of the maritime pecking order. She's also my first ship to have two stern balconies, and entry ports.

The last ship is a little brig named Belle Poule. Design credits for her go to Imperial Shipyards.

Concerning the color-design: I aimed at creating two fractions, Red- and Bluecoats (of course), that would have no relations to historical accuracy, but be rather Lego-ish in style. I found my results to be quite disappointing. Whereas for the Reds I managed to create a loose resemblance to the IFS' color-scheme (brown, black, red, gold; minus the blue), I didn't succeed at all to create something visually 'opposing' this, that I liked.

Here's an overview of my Redcoat fleet.

So eventually I ditched this idea and turned to a black and yellow pattern, focusing on making ships for the Bluecoats.

Here are Spartiate and Anubis in new colors.

HighRes. pictures @ my brickshelf

I hope you'll enjoy!

C&C as always welcome,

Regards

[Matteo1130]

The black/yellow spatiae are amazing, but I think my favourite is the HMS Sawfish both for shape and colors.

[Frank Brick Wright]

You certainly can't go much farther with prefab hulls what you have here is quite in the limit of what is possible in terms of shape, I'd say. Congrats for these ships!

I like what you did here since you get very convincing waterline models. It is also remarkable how polished the models are all-through and how smooth their lines are. Especially the middle sections are quite smooth and have a perfect shape. Anubis is your best ship in my opinion, she is really close to perfection. I'm not sure wether the scale allows it but you could use a bit of inwards curve in the galleries, to meet the tumblehome more graciously, but then I understand this is hard to manage in such a small space. Overall I think you could try to smooth a bit the transitions to the bow in all the ships but again I'm not sure to which extent that is doable.

The connection with the galleries in the spartiate is very clever and perfectly smooth and I don't think you can have a better shape at the stern without removing the prefab hull! What definitely looks off to me are the slopes used in the middle of the tumblehome of the spartiate, whose purpose I don't really understand.

I look forward to see more ships from you!, this is a terrific start already

[Louie le Brickvalier]

-

Edited October 19, 2017 by Louie le Brickvalier

[Capt. Stabbin]

Nice ships! I really like how you used the string with grips for the rigging, Excellent idea!

[Captain Braunsfeld]

A truly great collection of ships.

I must admit, I also like the HMS Sawfish best.

And "yes", you could have used tiles instead of curved slopes, but I appreciate that you gave us the chance to see what comes out of the slope-based approach.

I think it's unique.

(However, this will be difficult to carry into my designs as I only have very few curved slopes. Practically none... Max one or two .... In the wrong colour .... )

[C-Had18]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've been busy. My favorite is the yellow Anubis. How on earth did you manage to fit 120 guns on a prefab? Most prefabs with 2 decks look too tall, but you have 3 decks, and it doesn't look bad at all! Amazing fleet!

Edited January 18, 2014 by C-Had18

[Sebeus I]

These are very nice

I particulary like these, for a render they look extremely appealing.

I do hope you build atleast one of them in real bricks .

[Captain Becker]

I agree whit Sebeus, especially the two decker Ship of the line is just pure Not to mention those custom made Bluecoat flags, they are very well put together. Hope to see some of these in real bricks maby someday.

Captain Becker

[Kolonialbeamter]

You certainly can't go much farther with prefab hulls what you have here is quite in the limit of what is possible in terms of shape, I'd say. [...] What definitely looks off to me are the slopes used in the middle of the tumblehome of the spartiate, whose purpose I don't really understand.

Yes, I think I pretty much maxed out prefab hulls with these builds.

The (black) slopes you mean are these here and are part of the tumblehome. In reality this tumbling home would be much smoother and more gracious. But they allow me not having to stick to a straight wall, but “show some curves”, while the entire wall itself is only 2 studs thick and the only hinges in it are at it's base on the lower gun deck. They are a compromise between looks and stability. In fact I also use them on the frigates (in yellow/brown), to achieve the same effect.

How on earth did you manage to fit 120 guns on a prefab? Most prefabs with 2 decks look too tall, but you have 3 decks, and it doesn't look bad at all!

To be honest, Némésis and Vengeur are borderline tall. Even my opinion about them changes from time to time. But I'm proud that you can place minifigs (with hats!) onto each deck, means you can have a full interior!

It's all about making the waterline as wide as possible. If you look here you'll find a LDD screenshot where you can see the lower gun deck and the way these curved slopes are excessively (ab)used...

I do hope you build atleast one of them in real bricks .

I agree whit Sebeus, especially the two decker Ship of the line is just pure Not to mention those custom made Bluecoat flags, they are very well put together. Hope to see some of these in real bricks maby someday.

Captain Becker

I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you for I'm not going to build any of them in real bricks. It's a bit of a shame and waste, but my current WIP looks much more promising to me...

I'm pretty proud of this flag. In fact you'd have to see it in LDD to fully appreciate it, since no single brick is connected to any other...

This is all of my prefab hull based fleet. One or another ship will receive an update, but the next ships I'll present feature brick built hulls.

Here's a little teaser of what's ahead.

Regards

[C-Had18]

Are your brick built ones minifigure scale? I really love that stern teaser shot. Anything more you could give us? I can't wait. And again, amazing fleet, especially Anubis (I'm still trying to unglue my eyes from the pictures ). I really like your brick built sails, and the bluecoat flag is also amazing, never seen anyone try that. Hurry and build some more, I'm already tired of waiting!

[Kolonialbeamter]

Are your brick built ones minifigure scale? I really love that stern teaser shot. Anything more you could give us? I can't wait. And again, amazing fleet, especially Anubis (I'm still trying to unglue my eyes from the pictures ). I really like your brick built sails, and the bluecoat flag is also amazing, never seen anyone try that. Hurry and build some more, I'm already tired of waiting!

Oui, mon capitaine!

And check out the big new flag, it's even more sophisticated than the smaller one!

[Kolonialbeamter]

Ahoy,

I haven't posted anything in a while... and it won't be anything useful today...

However, in a spate of nostalgia I was browsing through my LDD data the other day... and stumbled across one of my earliest digital ships. By now it's almost three years old, I remember having started it shortly after I found this fantastic forum here. It's from a time when I had barely any clue about sailing ships, their design and features, and CGH's divine tutorial hadn't crossed my path.

(click pics for HR)

Yeah, it's dorky, not well porportioned, surely no eye candy... but still when I think back, there's techniques and features in this that I still use today... weird... so to say it's the 'common ancestor' of all my later ships. So, I think it should have a place here.

Thanks for watching and enduring my nostalgia attack Feel free to criticise!

KB

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Soo many ships - and another good looking one (though being virtual -> no need to worry about stability of the masts, right? ).

I am happy to see the extensive use of yellow as colour (which is a habit of myself - and which is from my pov perfectly in line with what the British have done).

The stern shown above is, of course, much more advanced. Really nice.

Are you sharing some LDD data?

[__________________________]

[pid][/pid] LDD 11C

Thank you for your comments.

I have to say that I gave up working on my IFS-Mod altogether shortly after having discovered CGH's Frigate Tutorial. The SNOT technique that I had used before proved inferior to a regular SOT design in terms of stability, shaping and coloring, especially considering prefab hull based ships with more than one gun deck.

Here are some results.

The frigate is HMS Sawfish. She carries 38 guns and is a ship that I first considered building in real bricks. But then I thought the same about the next ship, and then the next, and so on...

The next one is HMS Phoenix, a 62 gun ship of the line.

Here a longer version of the two-decker, the 74 gun Spartiate.

And a smaller frigate, the Anubis.

This was the supposed flagship of the Blue fraction, Némésis, a 120 gun 1^st rate (Here next to the puny IFS-Mod).

Being the result of firepower hubris, evil laughter and lightning, she features a fourth continuous gun deck à la Santissima Trinidad, putting her on top of the maritime pecking order. She's also my first ship to have two stern balconies, and entry ports.

The last ship is a little brig named Belle Poule. Design credits for her go to Imperial Shipyards.

Concerning the color-design: I aimed at creating two fractions, Red- and Bluecoats (of course), that would have no relations to historical accuracy, but be rather Lego-ish in style. I found my results to be quite disappointing. Whereas for the Reds I managed to create a loose resemblance to the IFS' color-scheme (brown, black, red, gold; minus the blue), I didn't succeed at all to create something visually 'opposing' this, that I liked.

Here's an overview of my Redcoat fleet.

So eventually I ditched this idea and turned to a black and yellow pattern, focusing on making ships for the Bluecoats.

Here are Spartiate and Anubis in new colors.

HighRes. pictures @ my brickshelf

I hope you'll enjoy!

C&C as always welcome,

Regards

Any chance of sharing LXFs?

[Kolonialbeamter]

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not really a fan of providing complete data on a MOC, what might or might not change over time.

Instead I'd much prefer to see a shipbuilding techniques thread aka. a 'Shipyard' program established, if possible along with the 'Pirates' Guilds' project (maybe featuring elements à la GoH's 'University of Patraea's Doctorate Program'), where people could present their solutions and ways of building ships, questions be answered, discussions discussed, and so on...

Any thoughts on that?

Until then, If you happen to have specific questions regarding a design feature or such, feel free to ask!

[Captain Edward]

God boy, I was looking to this whit an open mouth scrolling down, thinking of every image I saw I NEED THIS! These ships are just so accurate as I know them from books, games and designpapers. I find this a wonderful beautiful job you do, and I hope you will continue building these. Frigates are really my favs, but the Line ships are also wonderfully made. I think I just fell in love!

[Edvin56]

I really like this ship! How long did it take to build it?