Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'revenue cutter'.
Found 1 result
-
To me she is His Majesty’s Sloop Blanid. Her name comes from old Irish, meaning “little flower” and references the floral decorations on her transom; which themselves are hold overs from her predecessor in my fleet. She’ll be rigged as a topsail schooner and is very much inspired by American revenue cutters of the 19th century. The configuration of her hatch gun was intended to resemble that of “Friends Goodwill” but I can’t seem to find any decent images of that system, not any longer, and had to go from memory. Historically she would most likely represent a converted merchant vessel, probably a captured prize. The building method is an attempt at a further evolution of my curved hulls. The intent is to add not only breadth curvature and tumblehome, but sheer as well. (That’s the curve along the water line which brings the focsle and quarterdeck above the waist.) There was also a lack of counter astern, of which I complained before, and ventured to better simulate by building the lower portion of the hull on two levels. (Counter is the underside curve of the hull which rises up above the water line near the rear of the ship, cause by the narrowing of the hull towards the stern post.) I’m utterly enamored with her myself so I find it hard to judge the level of my success in these efforts. I did ask for community feedback before expending so much effort on her but received little to no response. So, I forged ahead and here have a hull which is, in almost all respects, ready to be rigged. It should be noted that there are many “cheats” and “illegal connections”. None of this is of any concern to me. It’s not as though I am in a competition, and if you think we are, you should probably reconsider that sentiment, or at the very least, bring me into the fold. Yes the inner hull is colored with tape as well are the muttons on the skylight windows. The former is something I wanted to try for a while, seeing the only other alternative being a completely different building technique involving plates like on Bumblebee. The latter is something I did not innovate but have had used before to great success and critical approval before. The transom is held in place with “o” rings which replaced the original Lego rubber bands, they having been too weak. I tried every conceivable brick connection to no avail. As for the gun, if you’re in any way a purest, no you cannot recreate it as it requires Mega Bloks so old and out of date I wouldn’t even know where to tell you could acquire them. I’m not even sure they are Mega Blok brand, they are just the kind of junk you find mixed in with used lots of bricks from craigslist. It looks pretty neat though, doesn’t it? Comments, questions, concerns, it’s all good. Talk her up, please. If it’s not obvious I do enjoy talking about my works, so don’t be shy, save, perhaps where purism is concerned. What I’d most like to hear is how convincing the attempts at sheer and counter are. Really, have I pulled it off? I can’t tell after staring at her for so long, my eye sees what I want it to anymore and I just can’t trust it. Thanks for looking! More images available here.
