Frank Brick Wright

That's it, fantastic work! You get space for the hold and it looks very sturdy! However, if you want to build the orlop, I would suggest that you built the curve some slopes further. Check this basic plan: (sorry but the image is slightly over-sized) As you can see each curve tends to have more height than breadth and in the most widest position it basically makes a square while yours is longer than higher This really doesn't matter and doesn't have great visible effects except that the hull might look too short but "normal" people won't notice that But if you build her higher, then you get the orlop INSIDE the hull, which is precisely what you want because it has a perfect shape and curvature and then you can use the fantastic CGH technique up from the guns deck, thus avoiding those large straight lines ruining your fantastic work I think I will build my next ship (when this one gets finished -.-) with your technique! It looks sturdier and more elegant after all, avoiding the complex structure required to keep the hinges. Can you tell an esteem of how many slopes you used to make your East Indianman hull? (great design )

Such a nice idea, and done with great style! It is incredibly original, I actually love her

She has such a neat design! I specially like the crows nests, they are fantasitc! Great build

Agreed. After such a dark hull yellow seems a bit out of place but I guess it is possible anyway. I specially like the hold, it is quite detailed and is rare to see one of this in MOCs! Nice too that you started with brick-built hulls There is just one thing I don't really like, and it is in this photo: As you would be able to see easily from a ship's plans this isn't very accurate. You basically built a straight line from almost the very bottom and it rounds quite something. It is only accurate to build it that straight-forward from the gun's deck I think and you started some 3 bricks lower which looks odd. The horizontal curve is perfect though. Nice project, waiting for updates

Crazy people I think that if you want to get smoke perhaps it is better to purchase a real-size cannon and some powder

Are you sure that is a good idea? For my experience it is always better to split the vessel horizontally (in decks, I mean) than vertically. Specially when building such a beast wouldn't splitting her in 4 sections decrease her overall strength? I guess the ship weights quite something, so it might happen that it falls apart precisely in the separation of the sections. It is hard to estimate the connection strength just from photos (obviously you know if she is strong enough or not) but it just occurred to me. And hardly the bow could be better Your solution is amazing (though it obviously wasn't bad before)

I really can't express how much I admire this project. It is being developed in perfect accurateness and is of incredible proportions. I just hope that you will commit the stern to the same amount of detail you went on with the bow.

The water from top gets somewhat weird but this photo is fantastic : Nice battle scene

Of course it depends of the kind of building I was just pointing out that there is no "general formula", so it is hard to say: "your MOC is going to cost this." Of course different kinds of creations and building styles involve different numbers, so it is just hard to esteem in abstract terms.

I cannot agree with this. For the sake of example: I have few parts and I couldn't build ships taking +1500 bricks. So I started a new one, brick-built, and I easily ordered some 2500 bricks for just 90€. If you take less expensive/rare parts you will see that you can keep the detail with some effort and save quite some money. With unlimited parts we all could build fantastic MOCs and endless creations but the goal here is to chose a relatively medium-number of fairly accessible fairly cheap bricks to build what you want. Even if you budget is just to some 10€ you still can build something with your imagination, being the most important thing this: do the best you can with what you have.

Wowsers Neat building, fantastic attention to detail… … as always

Fantastic build! The attention to detail is wondrous Como é possível não gostar dos fantásticos comboios da CP?

This is amazing! I specially like the way you used to attach the shrouds to the platform. I agree though that they look too thin, perhaps you could add another line from the middle portion of the 1x2 plates. Another way of attaching the shrouds which I am using and I also find more accurate is this: Basically using technic pins with technic bricks. Are you going to attach the fore-topmast to the fighting top or is there another building process? And the bow is also fantastic

I don't know quite well what are you aiming at but if you are going for a large diorama with a flat sea and a sunken ship perhaps it can be a good idea to take a look at this: http://mocpages.com/moc.php/246285 Also for the water technique, I think this one works out pretty well and isn't very parts consuming.

It is quite obvious that you have committed a great deal of work into this: it shows detail and careful study. There are, however, some points in which I think you could improve. It is also plain that you have tons of skill so I will be criticizing as hardly as I can. I am sure the final work will be something awesome. I couldn't avoid posting here another photo of Sebeus' F.D.. I know you already know the photo but since both ships have a similar hull-building method I thought it would be easier to understand what I am talking about. First: I get the impression that you ship-of-the-line should get that curve like in this F.D. from the bow to the middle of the ship, which is way too straight. In fact, in yours, it does not even gets a larger beam in the middle of the vessel. I might be mistaken, but I am quite sure this should happen if if only for half a stud. Second: note that the ship meets the waterline vertically but it immediately starts turning inward in an angle that changes all the way long; yours is way too vertical (again, Sebeus' amazing work is a reference). The problem here is the scale. Since it is all so large and gigantic (and fantastic ), small mistakes are made enormous. This is why, IMO, even if she is already impressive, her curves do not look very natural. Third: as far as I know, that deck-curve that exists in reality and that you depicted only to the stern, i.e. that the middle of the deck is indeed lower that the extremities, should also extend to the bow, even if not as pronounced as to the back. I mean: the front cannons should be in a slightly higher level than the middle ones. This is as far as I can go. She is indeed amazing and the bow is an ouevre d'art. If I am pointing out this 3 points it is only because I see here the potential of a great vessel and I want to help in every manner I can.

Sure! I myself have used that piece in all three of my first ships. So, two examples: http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=286115&id=/user_images/66197/1315209556m http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=279813&id=/user_images/66197/1310502177m

I don't think I could have said it better This tutorial is extremely helpful and illustrates quite some issues with precision and clearly. But perhaps it could also be useful, when referring to certain aspects, to give several examples so that we can get a better perspective of the options available when building

The tutorial is indeed amazing, so much detail! I'm concerned here with an issue though. It is about gunport spacing. That is quite relative and varies A LOT from ship to ship. As the pictures are extra-large I am providing here the links of three contrasting examples: http://www.modelships.de/French_Frigate_Chapman_31/gIMG_2158.jpg http://www.modelships.de/Diana_IV/gIMG_7805.jpg http://www.modelships.de/French-40-gun-frigate/gIMG_8634.jpg There is no way these vessels have similar spacing; they are quite distinct. As for the proportions and etc. that is extremely interesting and useful, but I do not think we should standardize measures, shapes, heights and etc. when producing accurate models.

We have two main problems now, namely: How are we going to join the Classic Pirate, Master and Commander and PoTC Universes How are we going to integrate this in the forums and who will take care of such topics 2. is mostly an issue to be solved my mods and in a latter stage, so I believe that if we can solve 1. in a proper manner then there are decent chances that the project takes place. The join of these Universes requires intense discussion and rises a couple of issues. While PoTC is the easiest to integrate, for it is both fantastic and takes place in the real world, the other two are not. Personally am I convinced that our "World Map" should be the Map of the Caribbean, something like in the Sid Meier's Pirates Game. It is fairly possible to integrate both PoTC and historical builds here, and I believe we can do this also with the classic pirates. Now arises another issue, which is: what factions are we going to choose? I'm not quite sure about saying: Pirates/Spaniards/British/Dutch/French/Islanders(or Natives) is a good idea, but it is indeed the most obvious and in my opinion, if properly worked, the one with best chances. I do not get the point of building red-coatish vessels or MOCs, so I think that red coats and blue coats could pass perfectly as British and French, tough I am sure there are people who will disagree. So here is my first proposal: an historical Caribbean, with historical factions and place for lots of non-historical builds, such as Pirate builds, magical islands, volcanos, ships, etc.. Also we get the classic feeling, like small islands lost in the ocean with some small fortification on top of it, classic ships and historical accurate fortifications and builds. As far as I am concerned this seems plainly straight forward. Another idea that occurred to me is to, instead of organizing the groups of people by Spaniards/Pirates/etc. we could organize them locally, for instance: Central America (Vera Cruz, etc), South America (Venezuela, etc.), East Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Nevis, etc.) and West Caribbean (Cuba, Port Royal, etc.). This will make the build more diverse, we can build in almost all themes and nations in the same place and in the end the region with more diversity/quality wins. What do you all think?

Judging from your shrouds I don't see where is the noob part They are great and fit fantastically the ship!I'm actually speechless. If this was a normal ship it would be impressive for its details and scale… But it's not! It's the FD, with incredible detail, shape and accuracy! You have gathered the ship's look in the stern, bow, everywhere… The masts in that colorscheme turned out great, the captain's cabin also, there is but one place that I dislike: the capstan That capstan isn't looking finished yet, tough I know you went for lots of consideration with that. Anyway, at a ship at this scale, who notices the capstan? As I said in the WIP this is probably one of the best vessels ever done! Great job! And you can clearly notice your progress from builder since your last FD… Fantastic!

I'm sorry but I cannot agree with this statement. In the Guilds we have a lot of related builds: they have same backgrounds, countries, themes, ideas, stories; in the Pirate MOCs we get to see fantastic builds but with no relation/background between them. It is this lack of cohesion that, being improved, could turn this Pirate community into something even more fantastic. After all the forums are quite active, so I'm sure that, when this GoH thing has ended, with a couple of nice ideas is possible to build something great.

The masts are pretty cool! I think however there is just a small problem up there. The upper yard should be smaller in relation to the others than yours. Also the mast does not end properly in the last yard, it should continue for a little more and only there will be the flag bar This is becoming a nice vessel!

So I'm using a 1500€ ship for reference and I am trying to replicate her so far as possible, though I'm not strictly following everything (link). Watch up, those are HIGH-QUAL pictures (around 4000 pixels ) i I will attach some dragon plumes and wings to the flowers (just as in the Achille) and those tridents in the captain's cabin will have correspondence to those 1x1 bricks with 1 stud you see in blue. About the Lxf file, I'm not sure if that's possible. I'm using a Mac so my LDD version is different. For instance, I can never read other users files. If you are using a Mac too I guess is ok and we can try anyway.

This quite a nice ship! Perhaps the curve at the bow is somewhat weird but besides that there is no great criticism to do. Will she be having an interior?

So finally I gathered the parts and time to make a small advance on her… She won't be finished until August, when I have lots of time and available money to buy the required parts. In the next remaining time, due to high-school exams, I won't be very active so don't expect updates. Basically the hull is finished. It requires around 50 plates to be truly finished but I don't have the slopes in the bow (those blacks are fakes, obviously) so I can't connect it all. I'm quite happy with my solution for the stern problem. While cb4 offered a clever method for building the bow in general ships his stern in the xebec was very accurate for a xebec but has nothing to do with galleons or frigates, which have the stern "closed". It also allows for a working rudder. She's becoming quite large (around 80 bricks long) but as is mainly empty space weights only 820g. These photos also show the possibility of building, in the very least, an orlop (though the frame is so colourful and messy that there is no chance to do that in this specific ship). As you can get from the photos she is incredibly strong — I can hold her very easily with one hand without any risks. I decided to start planning the next building phases. Here I show you my ideas for the rest of the vessel. The cannon is a 12 powder. The heavy and ornate stern: That golden "thing" is a bell. I couldn't (obviously) attach it in LDD, though in reality it will have a proper rope, of course (the brown slope is a chimney). Also notice the base of the mast, where the rigging will be attached and the side stairs. At last the masts. I'm using cross-axles (like in the Imperial Flagship) for the top masts, since they exist in brown and have strength and appropriate dimensions. These LDD photos are just small helpers to let me know precisely which parts I need, so if they are not totally finished is mostly because I only need an idea about the shapes of the things; the details I will work with the bricks in the hands