Foremast Jack

Eurobricks Citizen
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    283

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Foremast Jack

  1. Posted

    I am curious about the amount of vegetation you seem to have growing on the inside walls and ceiling though - what's going on there? :look:

    This may not have been the intent, but it reminded me of the typical Norse langhús. The MOC here a little sparing in this regard, but I think it is reminiscent. :wink:

    Þjóðveldisbær in Þjórsárdalur, Iceland:

    house_reconstruction.jpg

    Eiríksstaðir in Haukadalur, Iceland:

    eiriksstadir.jpg

  2. Posted · Edited by Foremast Jack

    My only suggestion would be to go with the dark tan plates instead of reddish brown for the deck. Little more money, but they look a little more like a natural wood color...

    Just saw your edit. Yes, I actually had planned to use tan (normal, not dark) for some time now. I just never bothered to change it in LDD. Again, this is because LDD is more a visual guide than a formal set of instructions for me.

    I wanted to use dark tan, but the tiles are only readily available in sizes that don't completely serve my purposes. (This is also the case with dark brown and brown.) So since tan has the greatest range of sizes, it is what I'll go with.

    Thinking on it some more though, I may go back and rework the decking with available dark tan sizes and fill in the holes with tan; we'll see.

  3. Posted

    Okay, so here are so more LDD shots since they seem quite desired.

    The first are general images of the ship.

    lddscreenshot20.png

    lddscreenshot21.png

    lddscreenshot23.png

    Here are the yards and spars.

    lddscreenshot19.png

    The ship's jolly-boat.

    icarus_jolly_boat.jpg

    And lastly (the part of the ship I'm most fond and proud of) the windlass, which is fully functional with a working pawl. (The technique for the squared bar holes is taken from Kurigan.)

    lddscreenshot18.png

  4. Posted

    Id like to get LXF-file to take a bit closer look before i say anything. :pir-classic:

    Captain Becker

    Becker you are always after all my LXF files. :laugh: While I do, ultimately, plan to post it, I'm not going to just yet. I think I may take some more pictures, but I really only posted the one LDD screen shot because the admins don't like posts without pictures and since my bricks are en route I needed something.

    We'll see though. With all the feedback I don't think I can keep passing off flaws as "the picture angle doesn't do it justice" without giving some better angles. :pir-hmpf_bad:

  5. Posted

    Kurigan let me first say that there are few here from which I value such voracious loquacity more. The blinding effect of first loves to which you speak is so true. That coupled with countless hours of acquaintance have undoubtedly lead to some sub-par renditions. I hope to address and at least strike up conversation, if not out-right satisfy, some of your many concerns. :wink:

    To the first point of her seeming lack of hull curvature I will say, "Damn your black innards you infernal bugger! She ain't your slab-sided hulk of butterbox berth!" :tongue: Seriously though, I think most of this is the angle from which the picture was taken. I have no doubt that there is some to be desired, but I think that can be said of any LEGO ship that embraces the use of pre-fabricated hulls. There is some curve there (or at least the appearance of it in the "paintwork"). I didn't use a picture that mirrors the reference one exactly because I partly wanted some view of the deck along with a desire to hide the aft most portion of the stern (which is not representative of what I have planned for her, but are the limits of LDD).

    As to the main and fore-channels: you have me here. I'm quite surprised I never noticed their lack of length. I think perhaps spending most of my viewing time at the level of a snail I failed to notice the lack of proper proportioning. I will indeed rectify this before building this portion in real life. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Now to the cannon ports in the stern "cabin." All your concerns are quite reasonable and ones I came across. I originally had a cabin/quarterdeck area that was probably 6 studs shorter. This, as you pointed out, leaves no practical room for working of the great guns. So to increase the playability factor I lengthened that section. (That's the reason there's the great overhang you touch on later.) Again, I hope to resolve all these issues once I get my hands on the older style stern piece so I can get a visualization for how it will lie within the ship. I can't promise that she will look perfect in the end, but I'm confident she'll look much better than she is.

    You asked about the wheel, and your intuitions are quite right. On the Lady Washington she actually has a whipstaff and no wheel at all. (Actually I think it's more accurate to name it a common tiller than whipstaff. I'll see if I can't find a picture.) The wheel was indeed added in the film to make her more piratical.

    Tiller_LadyWashington.jpg

    I know the lubber's hole is a bit small, but it was hard to work it in without it being some gaping great space in the top. It's 2x1 which a mini-fig could fit through (if he has no arms). But no able-bodied seamen would be caught doing anything but scaling the futtock shrouds. So I'm okay with it's size. :tongue:

    Thanks again for all the critiques. That's why I posted her up here. I'll tear her completely apart and start anew if that's what it takes.

  6. Posted · Edited by Foremast Jack

    EDIT: I forgot to ask, what does it's name mean? Or is it just something random?

    I'm not positive on the meaning (and obviously once the Captain chimes in it will answer the question completely) but in an attempt to satisfy you somewhat I think it's something along the lines of Guild hall of the Forest-Hawk (I'm not really sure on the "guild" bit. I can't quite remember what Veizla means on it's own like this.)

    edit:

    LOL! I kind of feel like an idiot now. Just realized there's a translation in the first post. Just above the first picture is Feasting Hall of the Forest Hawks.

  7. Posted

    Oh, yes I meant to make note of it in the first post. I'm actually going to be using one of the old-style pre-fab stern pieces. So the transition from the waterline to the base of the quarterdeck won't be as bland and blocky as it is in LDD. I'm having to order every piece for this project since I gave all my childhood LEGOs away many years ago, and this is my first real life build since the end of my dark age. Once I have the base down I can better visualize how to make the transition best in LDD. I'm glad you brought it up Sebeus.

  8. Posted

    Thanks for the comments Admiral Croissant. You are right that the stern (cabin) is too tall. I purposefully designed her this way. The quarterdeck lifts off to allow access to the cabin for working of the guns there. I decided to make it tall enough for a mini-fig to stand upright since they don't crouch too well. :wink: I know it throws the look off a bit, and perhaps it's a bit too much. It's hard for me to say, since I've grown accustomed to her peculiarities. Do you think I should sacrifice playability here in order to retain a more accurate external look?

  9. Posted

    Seawatch will be built in what I feel is minifig scale, covering about 20 48x48 plates and be surrounded by a diorama about the same size. All floors and areas in the castle will be axessable.

    I just realized how big this is going to be. It didn't register the first time I read through this post. If every part of Seawatch is to be half as good as this piece, I think we are all in for quite a treat.

  10. Posted

    While I like the transition from sand to surf to sea (and poetry is always a plus) I a bit curious how this cast-away managed to salvage the ship's bell (it being a very hefty item that surely would have sunk him). :tongue:

  11. Posted

    Very nice MOC. Like Dreamweb I like the part usage here. While he's quite found of the "wings" I rather like how it was used for the flag poles. I think I could more easily think to use the piece as wings long before I'd use it as horizontal flag-poles. So a :thumbup: for creativity.

  12. Posted

    The masts platforms look lightly larger than what they should be but that's just a small detail.

    I'm fairly confident they are properly sized. I think perhaps because the masts are naked they look larger, in proportion, than what looks right. Once the yards are hung and she's flying canvas I think all will be well. I do appreciate the comment though.

    p.s. Those platforms are called the "tops" by the way. (e.g. Fore-top and Main-top in this case) :pir-classic:

  14. Posted · Edited by Foremast Jack

    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 :pir-hmpf_bad:).

    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...

    hms_icarus_ldd_wip.jpg

    As way of comparison here is a screen shot from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl:

    vlcsnap-2011-09-11-17h01m50s145.png

  16. Posted

    There's not a chance in Hell that Brickington is going to end up in this ship. Because then something would have to go terribly awry, and we couldn't have that for so majestic a vessel. No, he will undoubtedly be teased and tempted by it to some great extent, but alas, be confined to some slab-sided dutch-built bugger. It's his lot in life... and we love him for it. :grin: