Kolonialbeamter

The 120-gun Ship of the Line Sans Pareil

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[pid][/pid]158 C

Ahoy!

I'm proud to present to you my biggest project so far,

the 120-gun Ship of the Line Sans Pareil.

Construction began in January 2012, even before that of Vengeur, and I had finished her basic looks way before I finished any of my prefab hull ships.

I started out in real bricks, but every budget has limits, so LDD had to do the rest.

It did, and here she floats:

sans_pareil_1.jpg

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Poor Redcoats. :pir-grin:

sans_pareil_10210_1.jpg

She is a modular build, as you can see here.

sans_pareil_modular_1.jpg

And can hold a full interior.

sans_pareil_cutout_1.jpg

You can't really see it in this picture, but using some string the ship's wheel can actually be connected to the tiller, creating a working rudder (at least I hope so :pir-blush:).

Furthermore, all the (brown) walls in the officers' areas are made to be removed to create a realistic battle environment.

The key elements to her structure are these (old style) hinges.

2012-01-09_10.44.54.jpg

They are – unlike the new ones – completely flat and have hollow studs, which means they can be placed in half-stud distances, great for shaping, especially for that transition between the middle and upper gundeck.

She's been my main project for a long time. However, she has always felt strange to me in a way, never was a true love-child. I can't really put my finger on it, maybe it's due to her obscure scale. Her waterline measures 116 studs in length (equaling around 90cm), length overall is 180 studs (1,40m), the lower gundeck is 30 studs wide. I guess that's roughly 2/3 minifig scale. So she doesn't qualify for that. But neither does she qualify for minifig illusion scale. I wouldn't even put her in the same category as Dread Pirate Wesley's excellent HMS Persephone. The relative height of her hull does bother me. But maybe it's mostly the SNOT technique I used for the hull but never really grew fond of, because it doesn't allow for adjustments nor to be fiddled around with... At least in LDD it is extremely frustrating :wall:... Like for example I know the waterline clearly needs reworking, she's got to be lower and should enter the water at an angle of almost 90°. But in order to achieve this, I would have to change the entire base structure, not to mention all the hinges... It'd be an unbelievably time consuming act. I don't know if I'll ever update her.

Anyway, she is a Behemoth, a monstrosity in some sense. She will always be a unique shape in my fleet, forever 'sans pareil'. :pir_laugh2:

11700+ parts (Lego structure only)

HighRes. pictures @mybrickshelf

Thanks for watching, C&C as always welcome!

If you have questions, please ask!

Regards

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Wow. Really a great work both for play and display. I know I'm repetitive, or selfish... but it would be also great for hosting a comic pirate_tong.gif !

Can't wait to see her finished in bricks.

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I am drooling... This is a beautiful ship- the bulkheads for the officers' quarters are especially impressive from a detail standpoint. The construction of the bow is excellent, and your plan for the stern is spot on for a first rate. She truly is a ship without equal!

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Whaaa............. pirate_oh.gif We are so toasted right now...default_cry4.gif Bwahawaa! :cry3:

But seriosly, that model.... And you are going to make Her in real bricks?wub_drool.gif Oooooh boy! Im thinking on turning my coat right now.default_innocent.gif

Captain Becker

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*huh* You've kept this jewel WIP secret for that long?

This is an impressive piece of ship so far.

I could be wrong but the two lower gun decks each have one cannon port too much near the bow,

Keep up the good work!

By the way,

Did you base her on the HMS Victory?

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:wub_drool: Speechless... Just wow. Even DPW's HMS Persephone is dreading this massive whopper. Well done. I'm going back to the pictures, so I can continue to be utterly stunned at this perfect ship... Edited by C-Had18

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Fantastic!

And modular! Wow. I hope my kids don't want me to try to copy this.... pirate_blush.gif

I am curious: How do you take the pictures? The first photo looks very different from the WIP ones (and the colours are warmer).

Is it all about digital editing?

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Wow. Will you finish her in brick when your budget permits? Probably better for the Redcoats that she stays a rendering. :laugh:

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Thank all of you for your comments and kind words.

Firstly, I'm afraid to disappoint those that hope to see her in real bricks some day, for I'm not going to build her. It's not mostly due to budget, but rather to a pursuit of perfection. And I'm not really happy with her. So I surely will break up at least her midsection as soon as I need the space. Maybe I'll keep what exists of the bow. But that doesn't at all mean the Redcoats are off the hook!

Most excellent job here! This is so awesome that it just had to be:

[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

Thank you so much for blogging! It's quite an honor to me.

sans_pareil_3.png

The captain appears less impressed, but he's probably just doing his duty, planning the next move against the Redcoats.

default_huh.gif You've kept this jewel WIP secret for that long?

This is an impressive piece of ship so far.

I could be wrong but the two lower gun decks each have one cannon port too much near the bow,

Keep up the good work!

By the way,

Did you base her on the HMS Victory?

Can't fool a Ship Expert, can you? Yes, she's based on – or let's say more than heavily influenced by – HMS Victory. My material was more or less limited to Perfectionist's pictures of her here at the master index. I build her at a time when I had no clue as to what a ship has to look like, what belongs where, and so on. Like learning to write letters, I merely tried to copy elements without an understanding of the concept behind that, what I was copying. That might explain things like the one or other gun port in an off position. Plus, I originally build her to Victory's correct gun port pattern, but due to her height, she appeared stubby, so I lengthened her.

A detail I took over from Victory is a little batch marking the place where Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle of Trafalgar. It's represented by a chrome-golden 1x1 tile right at the feet of the ship's captain. To the Bluecoats this represents idontknowwhat, maybe the place of yet another Redcoats' surrender in the latest battle.

Fantastic!

And modular! Wow. I hope my kids don't want me to try to copy this.... :pir-blush:

I am curious: How do you take the pictures? The first photo looks very different from the WIP ones (and the colours are warmer).

Is it all about digital editing?

Every picture showing her finished is a picture of her LDD model.

It's not photoshoped or the like, it's a software called POV-Ray, that allows you to generate photo realistic renderings of your creations. Here's a shot of the related LDD perspective as-is.

sans_pareil_2.jpg

I hope your kids know to appreciate their father as quite a promising builder himself! Good luck!

looks great! incredible scale! Might consider adding some brick built guns for some extra detail :pir-classic: .

Future ships will feature cannons. But believe me when I say, placing over a hundred of them onto tiled gundecks without the help of the opposable thumb and gravity is more than annoying! :hmpf:

If anyone is interested in a particular shot of her, just tell me.

Regards

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I don't know that much about ships of the line and certainly not about first raters but she looks terrific to me.

I don't really see what you mean there with a "pursuit of perfection". I personally never had any sort of interest for anything larger than a 74-gunner, since they all get, to my eyes, way too large, clumsy and bulky. But in fact your model is tremendously gracious for something of this sort. The bow, for instance, is just as good as it can get, I had never seen anything like it before. Overall perhaps she could do a slight refining on the connections between the different sections and on the joints between the different angles of the tumblehome, but certainly nothing more than a polishment. She is really there, and if not perfect, fantastically near. What a job you have done in here.

Still I perfectly understand your not wanting to build her, specially if she is not that dear to you. A project of this magnitude requires enormous effort, dedication and preservation. I'm actually curious to what are your plans or if you would share them with us. Are you planning on building something in real bricks one day (I suspect so) and if this is the case, what? default_blush.gif

Edited by Frank Brick Wright

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I tried the LDD some years ago and found it was c**p, em, bad.

However, it seems to have developed into a fascinating tool. I need to give it another try.

How many month to I have to calculate for getting into the LDD? pirate_laugh_new.gif

On one of the above "real-life" pictures there is a custom build cannon visible - could I see more of that?

I think I understand the carronade.

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Overall perhaps she could do a slight refining on the connections between the different sections and on the joints between the different angles of the tumblehome, but certainly nothing more than a polishment.

Still I perfectly understand your not wanting to build her, specially if she is not that dear to you. A project of this magnitude requires enormous effort, dedication and preservation. I'm actually curious to what are your plans or if you would share them with us. Are you planning on building something in real bricks one day (I suspect so) and if this is the case, what? :blush:

This polishing is exactly my problem with her; even small improvements, minor adjustments are very hard to achieve. The hull indeed is very smooth. But this technique proved to me very inflexible. Sophisticated, but at last a dead end. Building her always more felt like sculpting rather than constructing, something I never managed to recreate on another ship. And I like the idea of having a common technique linking my ships with each other. I once tried to build a frigate using this hinge-technique. Found it too complicated, I gave it up. In comparison, the – so to say – standard technique following CGH's frigate tutorial, proves much more versatile and satisfying. Usable on prefabs, custom hulls, for carracks as for ships of the line.

What brings me to a glimpse onto what's ahead. Yes, I will (eventually) build something in real bricks, unfortunately this won't be until in a few years from now. But I have a designated WIP, that I'm going to present to you real soon, in fact, pictures are rendering as I'm writing this. Again, it's digital, again it's a first rate ship of the line, again Bluecoat... based on the look of Vengeur... how very boring :pir_wacko::hmpf:...

But featuring a custom brick built lower hull technique (waterline to gundeck), that I consider a neat equivalent to the standard upper hull technique!

I tried the LDD some years ago and found it was c**p, em, bad.

However, it seems to have developed into a fascinating tool. I need to give it another try.

How many month to I have to calculate for getting into the LDD? :pir-laugh:

On one of the above "real-life" pictures there is a custom build cannon visible - could I see more of that?

I think I understand the carronade.

LDD... could be better. It still has basically the same range of tools it used to have. But at least TLC still supports the program, bricks are updated regularly, which is very nice!

To “get into” LDD you don't need much time, it's very intuitive to use, quick to learn and you have (almost) all the bricks you need, when you need them. Sure, for more elaborate creations you need to build yourself some tools in order to simulate gravity, but all in all I think it offers a lot. I suggest you give it another try.

Here's the carronade you're referring to.

carronade.jpg

I got the design from DPW's HMS Persephone, credits to him (or to whomever first came up with it).

Thanks for reading,

Regards

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Wow, this set is absolutely jaw-dropping! Seeing so many details packed in, and the smooth lines around the hull is really incredible.

I don't usually follow the pirate forum, so this is also the first time I've seen brick built sails. They're very well done, and really add to the bulk and majesty of the ship. It's inspiring!

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