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Green Schooner WIP Redux I am editing over the old post as I found it wanting. I suppose I could start a new post but that just seems wasteful. I also don’t want to discredit the support which has already been shown. Below is my attempt at a better, more informative, if verbose, WIP topic. If you’re taking an interest, you’ll likely have lots of questions as to how or why I made a lot of the choices I have. For those of you, here it all is. For those less inclined, enjoy the pictures. If anything is still unclear, you have a truly helpful suggestion, or just want to show your support, please feel free to comment. Thanks for your interest in advance, and trust me it’s worth getting all the way though. When I started this project, about a year ago now, I set forth with a few goals in mind. For one I wanted to frame the entire project within the idea of making an all-out pirate ship based on Skull’s Eye Schooner of Classic Pirates fame. Hither too I had always favored good-guy/hero types with my creations and figured it was about time I provide my mini-verse with some bad-guys to keep ‘em busy. When I was a kid, playing with my Lego ships it always bothered me that SES wasn’t anything like a schooner. I suppose even at that age I already preferred that the intersection where fiction converged with history be more in the neighborhood of realism over fantasy. I used this as inspiration and resolved that whatever came of it, I’d make this next MOC in the style of SES but as an actual schooner. My other goals involved further refining the “Bent Brick” method I had adopted and adapted (credit to Henrik Hoexbroe). My previous MOC, Ramcat, was rather experimental and in parts suffers from a lack of pre-planning. Though the basic elements are all there and the goal of an all-working-parts-model can be said to have been achieved, much was omitted for space while some things remain historically dubious. Knowing better the demands of this style of building I would be more well prepared with each step to make a more complete and inclusive model this time. Many of the things, like fife rails, left out or left peculiar to that previous venture would be rectified in this construction. Also important to me was to include elements from other builders which could enhance my own effort as well as incorporate other elements from real world examples I had previously shied away from. The final element I’d insist on incorporating would be homage paid to the American privateers of the early 18th century. In my youth I had considered such vessels to have occurred far too late in history to be truly relevant to my own interests or Pirate lore in general. As I matured, learned and branched out I came to appreciate these historic vessels, and the contemporary replicas thereof, a great deal more. Now, aside from perhaps Frigates and their daring crews of the same era, these are perhaps my favorite over all. For reference I’d look to Lynx and Pride of Baltimore II. The initial renditions of the project were less than stellar. It seemed that marrying my concept to the parameters of SES likeness was going to be a handicap. For one I didn’t want to destroy any previous builds to reuse parts and change the color scheme but at the same time did not want to go forth and acquire new or more bricks either. On the one hand I felt it a violation of my principal of “use what you have” vs. “order, just, what you’ll need”. On the other it would take some creative budgeting to afford the colors I’d need to do it right. Before I was done, however, I’d commit to both. After trying several different configurations of color, I decided that green should be the predominant color on the hull accented by gray, rather than the other way around as of SES originally. As for the red elements, I just couldn’t seem to rectify them on my version and abandoned them entirely. The shade of green was the deciding factor in my decision to order parts. The standard Lego green, that bright green of prefab foliage, was just too vibrant for my taste and didn’t give the feeling of pirate ship at all. Instead I had to go with a darker, drabber green which I could afford, but had to be ordered in sets and cannibalized. The gray elements would have to be dark gray and/or blay to compliment the darker green as well, but that I had in stock, abundantly enough. The rest of the ship would wind up black instead of wood colors. While “blacking” was a common practice for practical vessels of this era I also figure it would lend the schooner a more sinister look. This time around I built the ships sides in a “ribbon” like fashion, flat on the deck then tested it again and again around an armature. After a lot of trial and error of both elements, the ribbon and armature, I came up with a hull shape I found pleasing and accurate (enough). Astern I expounded on a concept I added to Ramcat as more of an afterthought which made attaching the ribbon to the armature particularly difficult. Though I am a little ashamed to admit I do not know the name of, nor can I find any reference to it; I found the lack of curve on the underside of the hull near the stern disenchanting. Even heavily laden ships have a small portion of their hull’s underside above the water line as it narrows to the stern post. On this model I wanted to make this effect more pronounced and better well incorporated in to the transom. Though not entirely successful, I think the scale to small to really work well, I find her stern profile passable. Since the dynamic shape I had envisioned escaped me I took advantage of the increased space and added elements for a working rudder. Only the rudder head and till actually exist as the rest would be below the water line, but all the same, working elements were established early on as a primary goal. Up forward another working element was integrated when inspiration struck. I always considered the idea of a functional windlass/capstan fundamental. Any round part on an axle will coil a cable. Going years back to Snake, though, I wanted to make something of a more practical model than just round bricks on pins. While looking over pictures of schooners for inspiration I took a closer look at the more advanced, metal, windlasses of 19th century vessels as such. I saw a lot of similar shapes in common with technic parts and started building. Digging though my bag of gears and such, I found a lot of useful parts and cobbled together some designs that would very much look the part but still not quite work. What I was missing was a ratcheting action. To function it would need cat’s paws but on that scale, how? I found a gear which worked well with a cheese wedge to lock in place but needed a spring. (Purists prepare to cringe) In one rendition I actually tried to use the spring from a retracting ball point pen but it was impossible to keep in place. The smooth surface of Lego bricks failed to create enough friction. After that I tried pieces of flexible material, like card stock and balsa wood, but none of it had the necessary tension. Then out of the blue I thought of closed cell foam. Over the years I had saved plenty of the stuff from the likes of video game console packaging for myriad uses. I even had black which would blend well into the schooner’s décor. With a cheese wedge attached to a clip to make a hinge and pressed up against a wall, the foam acted like a spring and the ratchet worked. I now had a truly functional and practical windlass for my schooner. If I could bring mini-figures to life, they could use the windlass just like the real thing! See Video Amid ships there was much more work to be done. Mounting masts was nothing new, the same methods from Ramcat would be used over but the railings and deck were going to be a challenge. The belaying pin system I developed for Ramcat would work well, but I would need a lot more pins this time and the same standard would be needed on the new fife rails as well. In this system a clip holds a pin firm in place, rather than loose through a board like the real thing. This is so that a rope to be belayed in place need be only wrapped around the pin once to hold its place while reaching through the web of lines on the model. Then the clip and pin can be removed as one, the line still held in place, and belayed properly; free of the ships rigging where the modeler can work more easily. Once properly tied off the assembly can be replaced on the rack to resume proper tension, taking full advantage of the Lego system. Then next thing to be incorporated were deck housings. In my previous works I shied away from such construction for lack of deck space. Instead I had tried to compensate for the small scale by leaving hatch ways and gratings flat or even flush. For a basic interpretation this works well enough but is a characteristic more appropriate for much larger vessels. On schooners of this type, raised deck housings helped compensate for a distinct lack of space below deck and are a key characteristic of those ships. The first rendition of these was rudimentary by comparison, but served to develop the hatch ways I kept on the later version. Though they do not open and close freely, these covers and doors can be configured to remain either open or closed. Since the type of model (waterline), scale and construction technique make a below decks space impossible, I figured this is a nice way to allude to one for certain scenes. I also wanted to take this model to the next level with a planked deck, never much enjoying the studded decks of my previous efforts. A tiled deck may have seemed easier at first but it would have made for a lot more spacing conflicts with the armature and the tiles as planks would be just too wide. Instead I tried out something I had seen here on Classic Pirates. I assembled gray plates on their sides and staggered them to resemble the planks. I feel it worked out rather well. I picked gray over beige or brown, not only because I have no abundance of those other colors but because I wanted to serve that sinister look. Wooden decks not regularly sanded and scrubbed, nor sealed and coated will turn gray when exposed to the weather. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough of any one gray to do all of the deck, so I took a queue from castle builders and started throwing in other grays randomly. My hope was that the different colors would resemble damaged, well worn and/or repaired sections. I think the overall effect worked, but worry that some particular sections may still be distracting. Still to be worked on: The wheel, I copied Ram cat’s design but, this time with the intention of actually attaching the line to the till to work the rudder. I had planned on using relieving tackles below deck to give the wheel a more realistic feel. After completing the deck from what was on hand, plates of every dimension from 1 to 4 studs wide, I’m not sure I still have the space. I may have to settle for a direct connection. The gun flaps are currently held in place with strips of tape. I tried many different configurations of bricks to make a hinge but found none that worked ad still fit the size/scale of the ship. I came up with this idea while pondering how the actual hinges were attached. Purists may cringe, again, but after seeing how well these work and look my intention is to print stickers to replace the taps and look like iron hinges. I actually don’t feel that this is too much of a purism violation, not that I am very much concerned. After all though not for articulation, even Lego uses stickers to decorate their creations at time. Mine will just be a custom sticker. Belaying pins have been something of a struggle on this build. On Ramcat I simply turned dowel against a file in my hands and that worked well enough. The shape was simple but served the purpose. Purest may again take umbrage but there simply are no parts in the Lego catalog that will work just right. This schooner has so many more pins than Ramcat (26 vs. 44), that I decided that old method would be remarkably impractical. I attempted to makeshift a lathe with my Dremel tool. It worked well enough but I found it difficult to produce consistent shapes. Perhaps with practice or a proper tool, I could do better but that would simply be far more of an investment than I’d like. Instead I tried to design 3D belaying pins to print with Shapeways. My efforts there have hit a hurdle in the form of my lacking experience as well. There are problems with my mesh which will take an investment in self education all its own to correct. On this front, any assistance the community can offer would be appreciated. There are still scale miles of rigging to be rove, though the masts and spars as complete and ready. Sails will be their own adventure as I moved on from Ramcat before ever making her suit. Though it will require some experimentation, both vessels will likely get their suits at the same time. I figure at this point that my end goal for this project cannot be reached in the remaining time. I had resolved to complete the project by October 31st in order to utilize it in a Halloween appropriate scene. After that I had hoped to use her in conjunction with Ramcat and some of my other MOCs in a number of vignettes and perhaps even on display at convention(s). Between changing jobs and getting married, though, I simply haven’t been able to keep up. At this point I fear the project never being completed let alone dragging on any longer. Though I still hold out hope for a finished Ramcat, it was much the same situation and still she collects dust. I may very well be able to broker some free time in the near future I can use towards this cause though. I still don’t’ find the end of the month realistic but I don’t believe any of the local (Philadelphia area) conventions occur till the New Year. If you made it this far, thanks for your investment and interest. I do appreciate the encouragement I’ve received (most of the time) from this community over the years and that’s probably why I keep coming back. Please leave your comments, but in mind of her incomplete status.
