shiplover

Forgot to mention, the rudder works. Turn the ship's wheel on the main deck and it moves back and forth. Also, over 300 minifigs already in the ship.

Current picture. In answer to a questions, it is built in three sections, bow, mid, aft. This allows me to move it section by section. But, they are getting really heavy. Not sure how this will work out with rigging. Every cannon port, both the closed and open has a cannon - over 150 cannons. While obviously a fictional ship, I wanted the biggest minifig scale first rate ship one could realistically imagine every being built.

Still a work in progress. All gun decks complete and working on quarterdeck.

USS Poseidon http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=68797 Just noticed requirement for completed ships. Please ignore the last post as the Poseidon is a WIP.

Upper gun deck almost fitted, will have updated pics shortly.

Still working . . . upper gun deck almost complete. Will update when completed.

Ships of this size had stern chasers below the gallery. They would often also have guns in the gallery. I left those out so that I could finely detail the gallery. When I laid out the dimensions and scaled the ship's dimensions. I basically added some width and about ten inches in additional length. I was looking for a ship that would have more firepower than any other ship of the time. That is the reason for the number of cannons, although I understand a few historical first rates existed with well over a hundred cannons.

Here are some new pics. Still working on bow sectino of upper gun deck, then the fitting of that deck.

Still working on it. Middle gun deck complete. Working on the upper gun deck. If I get a minute, I'll post new photos.

Orlop is fully built out with brig, sick bay, anchor line hold and anchor line, pursuer's store, carpenter's store and work area, massive storage area, a few officer quarters, and a powder magazine with glass walls and exterior lamps as in the real ship. I had to compromise a little to combine the hold and the orlop deck, so most of the typical officer quarters in this deck went away. In the picture, you are looking at the brig on the left and surgeon at work on the right. I'll add some more pictures in the future.

To keep it round, I think the best match for the Bowsprit width and initial length is the blocks selected. I was actually surprised at the diameter of the bowsprit. It was massive on ships of this size. Further lengths will be much smaller in diameter but on a ship of this size, it will extend out several feet further.

Thanks for resizing. I will pay attention to that with future picture posts. This is not a copy of any historic ship, but it should be obvious that that the HMS victory has been a source of much inspiration. It will have three gun decks. Estimating 150 guns. Gunports were a compromise. Go one brick larger and they are way too big and the ports look odd in my opinion. Size was initially scaled to HMS victory. I took a lot of effort in the scaling using various scaling resources for minifig scale on the internet. However, upon scaling and laying out the hull, I decided to go about ten inches longer to up the anti a little.

Status as of this month - February 2012. Orlop deck finished. Working on Lower Gun Deck. Lower gun Deck has 50 cannons. Ship will have over 100 total. Estimate crew of 500 at this point. Using the HMS Victory as a reference, but not attempting to build it.

Just to clear up a misunderstanding, this ship will have three gun decks. Thanks for the info on how to upload more pictures. I have them and I am working through the procedures to get more photos online. Good description! American super-frigate. Exactly what I have in mind. But, it will be a three decker. Working on more photos. Coming soon. I now have photos on brickshelf. I can't post the link here because I don't have enough pots. But search for photos by user: shipbuilder10 and drill down.

You are correct, it will be much larger that the victory in minifig scale. I ran the numbers and thought, what the hell, let's go bigger! Victory is merely the reference for key components and some design ideas.

When finished, it will have a full middle gun deck, upper gun deck, quarterdeck, and forecastle.