Horry

Heyho! I am excited that there is such a brisk interest in this tutorial, thank you all! I am also very thankful for all the feedback. Hoooooowever The very first paragraph clearly stated that there is no general "this is exactly how you do it" option for such a tutorial. I have spent much time on fully rigged ships as I used to be part of a project that voluntarily renovated old sailing vessels. Believe me when I say that some of those examples I've made occur more often than others. There are many compartment-walls that are lifted up like Captain Green Hair said and there are many gunports that are opened just as Admiral Croissant showed and of course there are no exact rules for as to how much space there should be between gunports. I seem to have failed in making it clear that I tried to set up reasonable examples that are amongst other variants and represent the basic principles, not the exact methods. I'll include your findings in the tutorial and try to make it clearer that this is more a guidelines-tutorial and not a rule-set. Sebeus: I'll answer those questions in the tutorial once I have reworked it as they must be of interest for all the readers. Again: Thank you all for your input, it's most helpful!

It's classic pirates for me and it always will be. I tried other themes and although I like them and sometimes I try to MOC something I always end up regretting that I used those bricks up for something that could have been a classic pirates MOC. It's something about the indefinite possibilities of this theme that makes it so attractive for me. Redcoats, Bluecoats, good pirates, bad pirates, ships vs. hideouts... It will take years before I can even think of seriously covering another section of LEGO. And PoTC is just another little part of the classic pirates cake for me.

Hey Bucks and welcome to Eurobricks! I'm sure you'll like it here. There's a growing community of Irish among us here and I'm really glad about his (having worked and lived in Eire for two years myself) - do you also do MOCs or do you prefer collecting sets?

I am revising the tutorial "Sailing ships - tech specs and workings" at the moment to iron it out. I will repost it here once done. Sorry for the inconvenience Horry, April 30th.

Good lord - I usually don't comment on Mechs as I don't find them too interesting. But your picture manipulation skills are exceptional. Great idea (very clean and stylish) and GREAT picture.

Oh come on! Am I really the first to comment on this? It's amazing how much was stuffed into this little scene. Still, the MOC does not look too crowded. And the photography is superb - great find, SirSven (as always, if I may add). I really hope that this fellow joins EB.

Ooh, I was looking forward to this one and it turned out to be more than worth the wait. This is absolutely incredible, Sebeus! I like every bit of it, from the choice of colours to the ornaments... congratulations, this is going to be one of the big MOCs around here

Yes, yes and yes. While I do think that this idea is a very good one and I would almost definetly participate if this was organized by the shipyard crew, I am more than sceptical about the feasibility of such an endeavour. (1) There are really really different opinions and tastes around here. What style to choose? What factions? how many? For example: Duck would like to have the classic pirates style, I'd like to make it much more realistic - How do we compromise? (2) How do we organize such a guild thingy? If those things would be posted in the MOC section, they would almost certainly "outshine" the regular MOCs for a while and I would not like that. They definetely don't belong into the regular LEGO Pirates section. And if a new section would be made, it would also have to be maintained. On a board like Eurobricks this is an awful lot of work - you'd have to close and move threads that were posted there by mistake. You would have to watch threads for inappropriate content. Especially from those who would join EB (or try to rejoin) just in order to participate - this is a difficult job and I'd say it's their decision to make, not ours... (3) We don't even have the basic needs in terms of forum-powers to maintain that guild. We cannot merge, rename or close threads, let alone make simple polls. All things that would come very handy. And don't expect anyone to give those powers to us. (4) The logistic work needed to maintain this is huge. Guilds threads, indices, rules, rule-enforcement, petitions, coordination with the guild masters... No offense, Kookaburra, but you are here since September and have made 9 posts up to now, most of them here. I don't know if all of this work could and would be done by you. I would certainly not entrust myself with it. And if Big Cam says that it's too much work for the staff right now I trust them. They've got an awful lot of experience in those kinds of things. As a compromise I'd suggest to prepare ideas and systems that we could present to the shipyard crew. If they find our ideas plausible and doable, they will consider it. But making a guild thingy without their consent and causing all the messy side effects feels wrong That being said, I'd like nothing more than a merchants guild (like the EITC) and an explorers guild

New title! Thank you for your contributions! could have been given to me because I left the shipyard crew or because I really like feedback on my MOCs - I don't know for sure. And I suppose it's from a ship yard member as I am most active there.

Welcome on Eurobricks! I'm sure you'll find many friends here. And the Harry Potter (AFOL) fanbase is quite big around here. What country are you from, if I may ask? PS: why not head over to this thread and get you a pink star?

Tutorial - Sailing ships – guidelines to tech specs and workings PART I –proportions and relations of dimensions on a sailing vessel A sailing ship is not a mass produced singular type of vessel. Even two ships of the same class and from the same yard will show different features - from the colour to the size. As constructing a sailing ship was a huge endeavour that took some years, newly learned techniques and individual wishes would heavily influence the appearance of the ships built. However, there are some basic guidelines for proportions and relations on sailing ships that should be taken into consideration if the ship should not end up like the Vasa did. In order to build your sailing ship MOC in a decent looking way, you will first have to determine what dimensions you want to use. Knowing that building an accurate sailing ship with Lego is a very difficult task, especially if it’s going to be in minifig-scale, you should first think about what type of vessel you want to use. For all sailing ships there are different specialisations that influence their shape, dimensions, rigging and equipment. A bulky cargo ship of the 19th century would be better suited to carry large quantities of supplies to India than a sleek frigate that is designed to intercept enemy ships. We can keep in mind that there are no exact figures on how a sailing ship HAS to be constructed. However, there are some guidelines and principles that will make your MOC looking good and functional. All figures and techniques depicted here are meant as recommendation, not as a rule The first principle is thinking about what type your ship should be. Will it be a frigate, a smaller ship or a mighty first rate ship-of-the-line? This will determine some of the very basic features your ship will have: armament, number of masts, the number of sails, function and the size of the crew. The second principle is that of determining the length. All dimensions on a ship will orientate on the length. The longer the ship is, the larger the broadside can be, the taller the height will be, the more masts it can carry and the larger those masts can be. A made main mast (a mast that would be constructed from different parts) for example would normally be roughly of the size of the length up to a three-mast vessel. The third principle is that of width vs. function: The broader a ship becomes the sturdier it will be and the more space it will give for cargo or guns. But a broad hull will also mean that the ship will be slower and lesser manoeuvrable. A good example for this principle would be comparing the hulls of a frigate and a first-rate-ship: The frigate is built for speed and manoeuvrability. She does not engage ships-of-the-line but will hunt down other frigates, sloops-of-war or merchant ships. The first-rate-ship will not have to hunt anyone. Battles of the line will come to the ship and speed will not be the most important thing for this type of vessel. A broader hull can permit more guns, more men to arm them and more stability. We can summarize: the form and the dimensions of sailing ships depend on their purpose. A light and small sailing boat that is designed to be able to plane will have a flat and small bow and a relatively broad stern. For this tutorial, however, we will concentrate on tall ships. For those ships the first question you will have to ask yourself: What shall be the length of the ship? The answer to this shall give you almost any information you need in order to design the rest of the ship. Please keep in mind that if we talk about the length overall of a sailing vessel we will use only the length of the main hull - that excludes superstructures, galleries, bowsprits and everything else that is not part of the immediate outer hull. terms von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Now, let’s toss in some facts and numbers: The length itself depends on the purpose of the ship. If it is a merchant ship that is designed for heavier seas you’ll need a more stable ship with a smaller length over all. If it shall be a fast clipper, the ship should become longer and get less width. If it is a man of war the length depends on the number of guns and the calibre who again are limited by the forces generated by a broadside and the weight of the cannons. A gun deck can normally hold around 17 to 20 guns (smaller calibres mean more guns) on each broadside. A gun port itself will normally be broader than higher or at least a square. Usually, there will at least roughly twice as much space between two gunports. The smaller the calibre of the used guns is the less space is needed in between the gunports. A gun deck is roughly two gunports tall but of course that may vary, too. The space between two gunports will vary and orientate on the heaviest calibre intended for this gunport when the ship was constructed. This would be especially important for ships-of-the-line that would have more than one gun deck. The lowest gun deck would feature the heaviest calibres and receive smaller cannons on the higher gun decks. However - the lowest gun deck will define the space between all gunports as the ship should have a chequered gunport alignment over the gun decks in order to keep the recoil energy from a broadside as much dispensed as possible. The ship will be much longer than it is wide. The (very rough) formula for the minimum beam (widest width) would be beam von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Keep in mind that the beam is subject to individual function of each vessel. A faster vessel might be fewer feet wide. A 1st rate ship-of-the-line will need more space on the gun decks. This formula will only work if LOA is measured in feet and will exclude the bow sprite. If you want to calculate this in meters, you'll have to replace the 1 with 0.3048. The deck planking will normally be as thick as the outer hull would be on the same level. The most often used formula to estimate the thickness of the planking would be thickness von HMSCentaur auf Flickr This formula will also work only if beam and LOA are measured in feet and the LOA will exclude the bow sprite. The outer hull will gradually become thinner towards the weather deck. The normal ratio would be around 30 % thinner on the weather deck itself compared to the bilge level. If the ship will feature a tumblehome (and almost all tall ships did) it will usually not appear much below the waterline. The tumblehome will also normally not exceed the lowest gun-deck armament – meaning that the upmost gun deck of a ship-of-the-line should not start more inboard than the guns placed on the lowest gun deck end. While it would be technically possible to do so while constructing the ship, the forces of a broadside can be better absorbed by a steeper tumblehome If the ship will feature a tumblehome (and almost all tall ships did) it will not appear much below the waterline and will not exceed the lowest gun deck – this means that the upmost gun deck of a ship-of-the-line will not start more inboard than the lowest gun deck starts. The sheer of the ship (meaning the curvature of the vessel’s main hull) will most often be the same at the stern and the bow in terms of the plain hull. The poop deck will normally feature higher superstructures than the forecastle. The more sheer there is on a vessel the more stable and the less manoeuvrable the ship becomes. The bow sprite should always exceed the stern sheer of a ship. PART II – the inner workings – how do they open a gun port? Sailing ships needed everything to support a crew of sometimes hundreds of sailors for many months at sea. Everything had to be accessible and easily storable at the same time, from food to light and air over water to cannons and hand weapons. Thus, sailing ships tended to be crowded, dark places with a lot of tricks to make even more out of everything. Some techniques can already be found in this tutorial, like the hanging tables that could be stored away. SteeringMechanism von HMSCentaur auf Flickr A fundamental mechanism was that of the steering wheel. From the beginning of seafaring until today, the basic principles of steering a ship haven't changed much. There is still a rudder that is operated by the helmsman. On sailing vessels of the 18th and 19th century, this rudder was operated through a steering wheel. The wheel was attached to two sturdy ropes that went directly through the lower decks under the wheel, accessing deck by deck via fairleads. They would be attached to a system of hoists (the number of hoists depending on the size of the ship) that would connect to the tiller. The tiller itself would lead directly to the rudder. The principle of an open hoist-system had the advantage of immediate problem analysis and instant accessibility, should the steering mechanism become compromised or damaged in any kind. It was also possible to easily destroy the steering mechanism, should the ship be boarded by enemies or should there be a mutiny on board. compartments von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Another important technique is compartmentalizing the ship’s sections. Especially on gun decks, the crew had to be able to access the whole area easily in order to make room for gun crews, ammunition resupplies, cleaners (usually boys that wiped away spilled gunpowder during battle) and officers or messengers that relayed orders. That was why walls usually were not fixed. They were attached to rails or brackets and could easily be dismantled. Then, they would be stored away by hanging them up to the ceiling or close additional entry hatches to lower decks – in that case, a wall became the floor. The different colours would also mark an area that was not fit for heavy weights (such as cannons). The larger a ship would be the more movable walls it would normally feature. A small ship like a ketch or a schooner would normally not carry cannons in the stern section of the broadside and hence not be forced to make room for the gun crews. Gunports2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr If the deck was to be cleared, the gun ports would be opened by a small hoist-system that would be operated by the gun-crew of the respective cannon. The string would be fixed at a small hook at the ceiling. The gun would then be brought into firing position (the muzzle being outside the ship) by using the recoil hoists or recoil ropes. Recoil ropes would be attached to the carriage or the backmost part of the cannon itself. To efficiently operate a single cannon a normal gun crew of five to 14 (depending on the calibre) was needed. At least two men would reposition the gun and aim it, one person to reload the gun and one to sweep the gun for residual gunpowder and ram the gunpowder cartridge into the cannon. Additional personnel could restock ammunition and gunpowder, repair the carriage and help with repositioning. Davit von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Another part of the vessel used for all different kinds of operations would be the davit. The davit was used to transport dinghies and material alongside the outer hull into the ship ad off the ship. It was normally made out of two curved (boom) cranes that would extend over the ship’s hull and be attached to the outer hull itself (NOT the deck, as the forces used for lowering a dinghy could damage the deck planking). There could be portable davits that would be positioned wherever needed and fixed, more stable davits that could carry much more weight. A davit usually featured four independent ropes that could be operated by groups of two to six deckhands. This allowed for a very precise operation of the lifting/lowering process. The davit itself ensured the needed distance of the handled object to the hull (thus not damaging the hull). On US American ships it would be common to keep the dinghy secured to the davit if not used. Some davits utilised boom cranes that could easily haul the object directly onto the weather deck. Those kinds of davits would normally be used on ships of the line where the needed space for those davits was available. Cargo von HMSCentaur auf Flickr If the needed objects (apart from dinghies) were on board, they also had to be stored. A man of war usually had much less designated cargo areas in comparison to a merchant vessel. Almost the whole cargo (from water supplies to gunpowder) was utilized to stabilise and balance the ship, thus increasing manoeuvring capabilities in combat. So, every available space on the ship had to be capable of hosting cargo. That was also accomplished by a very flexible and innovative system of compartmentalisation. Many rips, bulkheads, stringers and girders featured cleats and fairleads. They could be used to construct little “shelves” made of nets and wooden beams alongside the hull. The cargo would be stored in those shelves. It would often be an indicator of the length of the mission of a ship, how much of the outer hull could be seen behind the shelves. If the nets were full of casks, the ship had just resupplied. If there was plenty of hull planking to be seen, the ship had been on the open sea for quite some time. PART III locations – where to place your stairs and capstans To announce it in advance: There is no definite position of any part on a sailing ship. Every vessel had a different final design. Refitting a frigate to a troop transport for example could make a considerable percentage of the rigging obsolete and thus many capstans and hoists would be removed during the refitting process. But there are certain areas where our equipment would NOT go. The Ship’s wheel would normally not be positioned behind the mizzen mast in order to avoid having three or more rigged masts in front of the helm. Additionally, the mizzen mast could provide more cover for the commanding officers during a fight as the attack on the stern would be a popular method. In addition, the hoist system could be attached to the mast itself below deck, relieving the outer hull off the forces of the steering process. The wheel would also not be placed too far forward as the resulting length of the ropes below deck would result in slower response times during manoeuvres and bear a higher potential for interfering with the activities below deck. On a ship-of-the-line the ship’s wheel would often be placed before the aft well deck, often providing a roof for the helmsman. It would be normal to place the ship’s wheel directly next to stair leading below deck. In the case of a damaged steering mechanism the helmsman could easily access the lower decks and investigate the cause of the malfunction. Speaking of stairs: The steep and small stairs leading below deck would normally be placed at least on the forecastle and the aft well deck. They could normally be sealed by gratings and featured reinforced frames around the access in order to compensate for the structural weakening such an opening would cause on the deck. The following stairs to lower decks would normally be placed on the opposite side and not directly below – this guaranteed easier transport of material up and down the stairs and prevented crewmembers from falling all the way down should they stumble. They would often have massive railing in order to make the stairs better defendable should the ship be boarded by enemy forces. Stairs would often define different gun deck sections that were run by independent gunner groups. They would normally be orientated on the sections of the main hull (middle deck, forecastle, poop deck, etc.) On ships-of-the-line there would often be two stairs placed dead level on the portside and the starboard side. Capstans and hoists that would be reserved for the mast rigging would normally be placed behind the masts, not in front of them. This added to the structural stability of the masts that would receive all the force of the wind from behind. Rigging and hoists that would go abeam of the ship would normally be attached to the main beams directly under the ceiling. The deck planking itself was used only for smaller suspensions like lamps and hammocks. Crow nests would normally be positioned at the end of one mast section (remember, masts of tall ships would not be in one peace but combined mast-segments). This provided a good access point for repairs. Masts would be positioned according to the type of ship constructed. The number and positions of some different types of fully rigged ships can be seen in this tutorial. Different positions of locations below deck like the gunpowder magazine and the galley can be found in this tutorial.

I find the mizzen mast to be placed really nicely. And so is the rest of the ship: I really like it! And as always, your technical "upgrades" are neat!

Then welcome to Eurobricks! I think you will like it here. Do you have any favourite themes apart from DC Universe?

This already is the second smallest string for the recoil hoist that I have and would be realistic - but it might look better and more plausible when the scene is redone. Thank you all! (I've got five of those little hammocks in my ship and just had to show them another time )

Hello there! This is already a great ship. I would suggest reducing the curve a bit as it is a wee bit steep for a ship of the size of a brig. The forecastle of the ship should also be flattened and closed towards the jib boom so that a completely walkable weatherdeck would be the result. A I would also reduce the headrail and bring it more in line with the ship's curve. A beakhead of an 18th. century British sloop-of-war would also normally not be ornamented or have a figurehead (at least not of that size). As it is now there seems to be a little "peak" in the curve. As for the rigging: The basic rigging layout can be found here. When you have constructed the masts in their final configuration, make another picture and post it. The rigging of a sloop-of-war is very individual so we might be able to give better advice then. Hope that helped!

I love the colours, the structures and especially the spaceport (is it supposed to be one?) Also love the fact that it seems to be expandable

A great find! I really like the ambience - action and plants - it gives the whole scene much vitality. Too bad that it's pictured without proper background!

This looks great already! I love the curve of the ship's line. You could also try to add a little curve on the stern. Regarding the masts: Why don't you add a lookout platform on the top of the lowest mast part and add the next mast section on this platform. This would be accurate and provide more stability.

This is a great one! It's exactly as Blue Brick says, crumbling often is done much more sloppy (I'd say I would only be able to do a sloppy job myself when building something like this) - but this one feels very realistic and continuously.

So, do you actually call it Vulture now? :) I'd love to see more of this design!

[pid][/pid]209A Hey folks! I got a new tripod for my camera and some new lights and started experimenting with it. This is what came out after some time! A small vignette depicting a gunport aboard a late 18th century British frigate with an 18 pounder cannon. The light in the front is supposed to come from the cargo access. There are missing some rigs and a proper recoil absorbing hoist - this is something I intend to redo completley. But for this small vignette I focused on the lighting. As always I'd appreciate comments and criticism! Gunport02 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Gunport01 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Gunport03 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Gunport04 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Sleep01 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Sleep02 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Sleep03 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Sleep04 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr

This is a very nice first MOC, Donovan! You should try to get a deeplink to your thread so more folks will see the ship! I really like the amount of work put into the details. The gallery and the ornaments of the stern are very nice. If you keep on working on this I'd say try to put in some curving alongside the ship.

Now I'm back. The question I have to state in order to help is: what kind of sloop-of-war do you want to build? As this term can refer to any non-rated ship in military service (as can be read in this tutorial - another shameless advertisment) it would help to know what speficic class of ship you want to find out more about?

Hey folks! Ice Planet was a series that did greatly considering colours, design and parts in my opinion. So I've decided to build two MOCs that try to continue the style of Ice Planet. I humbly present the "Arctic Spear" mobile laboratory and its carrier, the "White Stallion"! I'd appreciate comments and criticism! One von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Arctic Spear 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Arctic Spear 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Arctic Spear 3 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Arctic Spear 4 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Arctic Spear 5 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr White Stallion 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr White Stallion 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Inner 12 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Inner 13 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Inner 11 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr

Hello Magna and a very warm welcome here on Eurobricks! I Think your English is rather understandable, no worries! As long as you keep up your efforts to be understood, nobody will use it against you if you make any mistakes Denmark, hm? The very core of LEGO, great! Do you have any special interests inbetween LEGO? Pirates, City, Sci-Fi?