anglezoo

Congrats!! Like this very much!

Ah, well... My crew are a very disciplined bunch and they are made to hold it in until they reach port! Being made of plastic helps too! Joking aside I have too wondered where they would go on a ship with such a design, I guess there must be a door to give access to below the bowsprit...If anyone can shed some light on the subject, please do!

There are many ship designs, and the Napoleonic period frigates mostly favoured a closed bow design. Like this Geoff Hunt HMS Surprise or this My link. I have chosen this design based on designs I found in books and the web. I have seen what you are talking about, but it really doesn't apply. I ll give it consideration though and try it out. Thanks for the input.

I like halfpenguinhalflego's idea...You could attach it to the capstan...!

It's a very interesting idea. I think you'd need to slow down the whole process though so you could control it more easily, because right now it looks a bit rude.

I've given the lantern quite some consideration, and the current one is the one that has worked best. I used the type with the transparent cheese slopes in my previos ship the Pallas, but never really liked it as it looked too boxy. As far as the other design is concerned, the one with the inverted cone, it looks very realistic but it also looks too big on this ship- I think it is more in keeping with a galleon design ( even though the Diomedes has six middle sections!). If anything it gave the ship a comical look. I have also considered using just a larger radar plate for the top to give the lantern a more conical look, but again it doesn't really look right.

After listening to a couple of suggestions I have tried to (slightly) change the stern. I didn't want to make it overly elaborate, as this wouldn't be in keeping with the decorations of the Napoleonic era. I had some inspiration from HMS Surprise (formerly HMS Rose) link and used the trophy mini-mini figs from the minifig series. Here is my effort. Please let me know what you think.

...changes have been made to the figurehead and bowsprit. I spent some time studying Geoff Hunt's pics of the Surprise, on which this ship is loosely based. For the full set please visit my Flickr page at

Captain's stateroom

There's a pic of the captain's cabin on flickr, the link is in this thread.

Hmmm...very observant. I would have liked to have a working rudder, and tried to, but could not get it to work. Also, it's difficult to get much motion at the back (I use the old hulls for the back - not much lateral motion for the rudder allowed).

Ok... some more pics: Sorry about the bad pic quality in some. All suggestions welcome, but please none about custom rigging or sails. I have neither the time, nor the patience to engage in this. Also, please bear in mind that this ship was designed to be played with therefore concessions were made to playability vs authenticity. Cheers

Here's the link, but you won't find any more pics as I haven't taken any more. Am waiting for better light conditions.

Rope is all Lego - mostly the ones with studs on, but there is one long bit that came from the Skull-eye schooner