Foremast Jack

Eurobricks Citizen
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Everything posted by Foremast Jack

  1. I was curious if anyone was aware of a way to determine which brick(s) were removed when they couldn't be properly placed by LDD. I find it extremely annoying that there is no notification apart from "these bricks were removed" since it only ever seems to happen on a multi-thousand brick build. This makes it nearly impossible to just look at the picture and find the missing piece.
  2. Foremast Jack

    More ships for the fleet!

    I really love this photo! Was I to see it in any other context than a Lego forum I would have taken my gospel oath on it being a real life picture. Well done, sir.
  3. Foremast Jack

    Realistic color schemes

    While I agree it is the best historical fiction ever written in English. I really think you should leave such huge spoilers out of a post (or at least warn people). I don't speak for myself as I'm on my fourth run through the series, but I imagine there are still many who've yet to wander into O'Brian's amazing replication of an age not too long past.
  4. Foremast Jack

    Merchant Brig

    Very nice as always Sebeus. I love the spanker boom and gaff. I had planned a similar idea with my old HMS Icarus. You can see in one of the later pictures how I was planning to do it. Your idea is superior though since mine required the tying of knots and yours simply snaps together. Well done!
  5. Foremast Jack

    Æneias

    Frank she's a beaut! Very impressive in every way. Great designs always result in great lines. Although I think I would like to see a little more attention given to the "capstan" (windlass in this case). On a side note: I'd like to throw in my 2-cents about the seemingly overcrowded ship. While it is quite true that LEGO men aren't exactly proportioned properly, I think another reason she seems overcrowded is because she IS overcrowded. It's easy to forget that living on a man-of-war wasn't exactly the most comfortable of lives (for the lower-deck hands). Remember that on a ship of the line every inch of space was mathematically accounted for and filled with something. There are so many men packed aboard that half had to always be at work. What I mean here is that each man was afforded 14 inches (~35cm) to "sling his hammock." Now obviously a man is wider than that, but since only half the crew would be sleeping at once this was effectually twice that, still not much. To give you an idea look at this scene from Master and Commander. Those are bodies hanging there. So, yes. She is overcrowded, but then again she should be.
  6. Foremast Jack

    Farore's Wind

    Nice lines and superb colouring! :thumup: The masts looks perfectly placed to me.
  7. Foremast Jack

    [Tutorial] Sailing ships - tech specs and workings

    Horry another superb start to what is surely going to be a great, and very needed, tutorial! I love all the math being employed. I look forward to the latter parts.
  8. Foremast Jack

    LDD Pirate cannon?

    Just do a search for "cannon" or part number "84943".
  9. Foremast Jack

    Tia Dalma's Shack

    Truly stunning work! Perfect amount of overgrowth and the water is amazing.
  10. Foremast Jack

    Thanks everyone for the ideas and pictures

    She looks amazing! I think the shape of the bow looks pretty awesome, and it's always nice to see something in so grand a scale. While I would disagree with Frank on the ship's beam (something around 45 studs in breadth would be perfect for this scale of ship) I think she may be a little long. Or rather there should be a greater spacing between the great guns. I understand you're not trying to reproduce an exactly historically accurate ship here, but it seems a shame to not take advantage of all this space to make something as realistic as possible. If you're going for a typical first rate of over 100 guns, there should be something more like 32-34 guns per gun deck (as I'm sure you're aware from referencing the Victory). If you're placing 50 guns on the lower deck and have yet to build and arm the middle, upper, fo'c'sle and quarter decks you're going to have WELL over 100 (something closer to 200!). Still I very much look forward to seeing wherever this ship happens to take us.
  11. Foremast Jack

    A New Schooner Raven

    I think she looks great so far, for the most part. I think the cannon carriages could use some love. I think I'd like to see something a tad more elaborate. I also feel the masts are a bit too large in diameter for this size of ship. However, since 1x1 would probably be too small, I guess 2x2 is the better route to take. My favourite part has to be the little windlass. I love it! Keep up the good work.
  12. Foremast Jack

    Where do you buy your special Bricks? (Europe) MOC

    No, I don't think there's one in Switzerland either. Germany has the closest one. However, you may want to take a look on Ebay. I'd say the majority of bulk buying takes place there. You can buy pieces by the kilo.
  13. Foremast Jack

    Where do you buy your special Bricks? (Europe) MOC

    Perhaps you misunderstood. Bricklink is a collection of sellers who will sell whichever parts you may need. Follow the link in the previous post and click on "Buy Lego" then search for the piece(s) you want. (Ich kann es auf deutsch sagen wenn du brauchst.)
  14. Foremast Jack

    Where do you buy your special Bricks? (Europe) MOC

    If you're looking for specific bricks, the most commonly used store is BrickLink.
  15. Foremast Jack

    Pirate Island

    I don't think you will even be judged negatively here on "classic pirates" for making a classical pirate MOC.
  16. Foremast Jack

    [WIP] HMS Icarus

    Greetings fellow seafarers! Let me start by saying that while I've spent a fair amount of time here amongst your ranks I've yet to offer anything laid down in real brick. The time has come for that to change (although it won't change with this post ). I want to try an explain my motivation behind this build. I'm a great lover of all things nautical, but the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars has a special place in my heart. However, what drew me to these great forums, some many months ago, was Pirates of the Caribbean. Now I stumbled across LDD a while before these forums, and with that great tool I had a wonderful opportunity to start building a model of the HMS Interceptor. The Interceptor was far and away my favourite ship from the films. I'm not going to say that it's the only "real" pirate ship in the films, but I would suggest that it is the closest thing to what would have been most prefer by pirates. A further motivating factor in deciding to render the Interceptor in most glorious plastic perfection was the simple fact that I couldn't find anywhere that it had been done. Now I should say that there were several custom LEGO ships that people had created and called the HMS Interceptor. Alas, none of these (that I could find) were actually built based on the real thing. They seemed to be LEGO sets that had maybe some extra cannon, or a little more here and there, but they never really looked anything like the ship in the film. I felt it a travesty that so fine a vessel should not have justice done to its grandeur. (Not to say I've done her justice, but I'd like to think it's at least a start.) Now, that is where I started, and that was before I found these forums. Once I took a look around here and saw all the great talent that was common place, I realized that I really needed to step up my game and decided to make something as historically accurate as I could (custom rigging, sails, etc.). With that though, I still very much wanted to replicate the Interceptor. So I decided to kind of combine the two projects. This created some interesting problems. Firstly the ship used for the Interceptor in the film was the Lady Washington. A fine ship in her own right, but a modern tall-ship, thus not the best model to create an "accurate" early 19th century naval vessel. What I ended up doing was taking the hull of the Lady Washington (which I'm going to solely refer to as Interceptor henceforth) and pairing it with the innards of an actual ship from the time. Pair is perhaps not the best term, since the two don't really match up. Rather I tried to cram as many of the features that would have been on a brig in the service of His Majesty into the shell of the Interceptor. This called for some key changes in certain areas, and because of these changes I didn't feel right calling her the HMS Interceptor. So, I decided to go with HMS Icarus (an actual Royal Navy gun-brig in service at the time). I think I've done a pretty good job at balancing playability with extreme detail, but of course, part of posting everything here is to get your thoughts on just that and perhaps any suggestions you may have. So, let's to the good stuff... I have placed several Brick-Link orders for parts that will amount to what is the hold of the ship. However, since they've not yet arrived and I'm anxious to get something recorded I can only give you a screen-shot of the LDD model. Now please keep in mind that whilst the LDD model is "complete" there are naturally things that can be done in real life, but not replicated to great effect in LDD (without causing irreplicable brain-damage). That, along with the fact that since day one I've planned to build this in actual brick I didn't bother to make things work on screen that I know would when I got my grubby, little fingers on those studded bricks of gold. I say that, to make it clear that there will be some obvious features missing from the ship (e.g. yard-less masts, no cannon on deck). Don't hesitate to raise any questions though. I think I've rambled enough. After 8 months of research and development here she is... As way of comparison here is a screen shot from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl:
  17. Foremast Jack

    Davy Jones' locker by /TheBricks\

    It looks pretty good, and is a clever take on the name; but like Bart stated, "If you didn't stated it was Davy Jones his, then I woudn't have guest it." It needs something more to really define it as belonging to old Davy. I'm thinking it needs a giant kraken coming out of it or something.
  18. Foremast Jack

    Witness

    I think you're quite right. I think it's a little large from strict scale perspective, but it definitely looks just like a busted coconut.
  19. Foremast Jack

    [WIP] HMS Icarus

    I think I'm going to completely scrap this project and start anew with a brick-built hull. I'll post the .LXF in case any avid POTC fans have a desire to use any part of it to add the Interceptor to their fleet.
  20. Foremast Jack

    Witness

    I was wondering what that was. I thought it was supposed to be some sort of animal. It is quite a clever coconut indeed.
  21. Foremast Jack

    Lt. Hastings hastens back to the Diomedes...

    Thank you very much for the added pictures. There are so many great things about her. Without a doubt though I have to say those which catch my eye most are her superb lines. She looks so elegant. I also love the brick-built sails, powder-buckets, signal flags, and the tarpaulin and gripes on the launch. I did have a question. There seems to be string from the wheel running below deck. Does it operate the rudder, or just loop below giving the appearance?
  22. Foremast Jack

    Scorpion's Soul Pirate Ship

    She's come together quite quickly Hass. Great job.
  23. Foremast Jack

    [WIP] HMS Icarus

    So did some reworking on her today as I briefly touched on earlier. Wanted to post a picture to get some feedback on the changes. Changed things: - Reworked the entire length of gunwales from the trumblehome aft. Employed a SNOT technique to allow for multi-tone colouring to more accurately reflect the paint scheme. - Replaced the gun-port cover "flags" with brick-built covers. - Removed the "slopes" in the gunwales and instituted a hinge system (based on CGH's technique) to give the look of more curvature in the hull. (note: I didn't go through the process of angling the sides in LDD, but obviously they will be in real life.) - Lengthened the channels substantially. - (There were innumerable other small changes, however myself alone will recognise them.)
  24. Foremast Jack

    Ragnarok

    Very nice build! I love the three-dimensional depth of the snow and that spire looks awesome!
  25. Foremast Jack

    [WIP] HMS Icarus

    So based on all the responses I received here, I'm in the process of reworking the entire upper-half of the ship, stem to stern. I'll think she'll turn out a lot better. I'm sure I'll still post a picture or two when my brick-link orders arrive, but seeing how some the pieces I ordered are no longer the right ones, I'm not sure how complete it'll be. We'll just have to wait and see.