LM71Blackbird

Thank you! I worked hard on the hull so I'm glad that it turned out the way it did! As for the front mast, that is actually on a hinge brick and the thread is minor stability and decoration. Thank you! I can see what you are saying about the white line on the water line. I consider her finished at this point, but I'll see about that for my next vessel. Thanks for the suggestion!

A new ship, the "Sternidae", calls Quinnsville home. For task #2 of The Merchant Marine Xebec 1 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr

[GoC - Ship] Class 5 Xebec "Sternidae" Sailing from the Corrington mainland, the xebec "Sternidae" is welcomed into the bustling port of Quinnsville. Xebec 1 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr The ship is laden with precious cargo from the old world cities. Thanks to her large hull, she had an extra large load for the long voyage to Cocovia. Xebec 5 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr Being a completely unarmed vessel, she traveled from port to port safely with the help of the ships of the Royal Navy. Xebec 7 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr Now, she will call the new world home and travel the islands. -------------------------------------------------- My first build towards the GoC Merchant Marine tasks. This one my Task #2 build. A medium sized ship between class 3-5. I am still really new at rigging, so please keep that in mind! C&C are welcome and appreciated and thanks for looking! @Bregir @Ayrlego @SilentWolf @Captain Dee

Fantastic micro ships with a enthralling story to go with them!

Lol! Just had to ask to make sure... Thanks!

Good to hear Cat b will remain open. I've definitely got ideas for that! Question, am I allowed to vote for myself?

Welcome to the seas @The Neighborhood Merchant! Good to have a new member sailing around. Well, we need space for all our fancy gadgets and gizmos! As you start your Journey, the Corrie port of Quinnsville - the home of the semi-defunct Corrington branch of MAESTRO - will always have a room in the inn for Arthur.

The Brickford's Story - Starting Circa 564AE 564AE - Born to well-to-do parents in the North of Corrington in the year 564AE, Richard Brickford grew up not wanting anything. His father was a corn farmer and was well respected among the men in his small town. 582AE - Richard grew up in the shining moments of Corrington's grandest days. As a young boy, reports of the brave boys in red defeating all their opposers came in from all over the land during the early years of the 49 years war. In the year 582AE, at the age of 18, Young Richard enlisted in the 1st Battalion, 9th Regiment of Foot "The Highlanders" as a private. It took many months for him to see action and his first engagement was nearly his last. A shot grazed the top of his head taking off his hat and rendering unconscious. This had him holed up in a military hospital for 3 weeks to recover. 590AE - After serving for 8 long and brutal years, Corrington was finally victorious over its bitter rival, Oleon, in the year 590AE. At 26 years old, Richard was relieved to be free of service after so many years. He moved back home to the North of Corrington and married his childhood sweetheart, Elanor Edwards. They built a sizable house with the money Richard had saved while serving in the Army. They decided to follow the family tradition and started a farm growing corn among other things. 596AE - In 596AE, the Brickford's welcomed a baby boy into their family. They named him Nathaniel. Nathaniel grew up in a time of peace during the Second Era, so education and the learning of trade were his parent's main concern for him. Along with education, he worked on the family farm. About the time of the outbreak of the Juniper War with Oleon, Richard Brickford had grown his farm into a very large and profitable business. Despite the war, he and his family remained safe in the North and were able to provide food to both the troops fighting along the border and the families displaced by the conflict. 615AE - In the year 615AE our story shifts to the younger Brickford. Nathaniel turned 18 shortly after the death of his grandfather, who was a Captain in the Royal Guard. He decided to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and he enlisted in the Queens Royal Guard at 19. He left home shortly after to assume his new duties. He trained and worked hard to advance to the rank of Corporal in the Royal Guard. 617AE - At the age of 21, Nathaniel started to get a hunger to explore the new world. When the time came to re-enlist, and he heard the news of a group of Royal Marines who were being shipped off to protect the interests of the Crown, he immediately enlisted in the Corrington Marines and received a commission as a Lieutenant for his service in the Royal Guard. As the sole heir to his family's fortune, he did not even need to work to live a comfortable life, however, he had a desire to make a name for himself. 618AE - Shortly after landing in Arlinsport to pick up more supplies, he purchased an old Naval Cutter (with the money his parents insisted he take) called the HMS "Barracuda" to sail around the Sea of Storms. He had started the quest that was sure to take him on many adventures and hopefully bring great wealth and a prosperous life. After taking on supplies at Arlinsport, Lieutenant Nathaniel Brickford boarded the troop transport HMS "Eagle" that was bound for King's Harbor. His company of Marines, who were led by the decorated veteran Captain Horatio Plates, were headed to King's Harbor to protect the interests of the Crown in the New World. After they had sailed almost half the distance from the Sea of Storms to the Terraversa Sea, the "Eagle" encountered a dreadful storm that shook the timbers of the mighty vessel to their core. In all the confusion, the aging Captain Plates was injured by a rouge barrel that broke loose in the hold. By the time the storm finally cleared after two days, Captain Horatio Plates had passed. The crew buried him at sea the following day. With the Company's leader now deceased, Nathaniel Brickford was promoted from second in command to Captain of the troops aboard the "Eagle". 619AE - After Arriving in King's Harbour, he fell into the duties of maintaining his new position. Thankfully, after a successful meeting with the Colonial Governor of the Southern Isles, Captain Johnathan Cooke RN, he was officially promoted to Captain in the Royal Marines. Very shortly thereafter, the young Captain's father came to King's Harbour to attend a Grand Ball held in honor of the cities growth in the New World. It was here that the Brickford's were given the very important assignment of surveying the near-abandoned settlement of Quinnsville on the other side of Cocovia. They spent many months walking the streets and visiting landmarks, farms and visiting with the townsfolk. For the service that they performed for the Governor and the Crown of Corrington, Richard was made official mayor of Quinnsville and Captain Nathaniel was promoted to Major in the Royal Marines. Richard's wife joined him and together the Brickford’s have turned Quinnsville into a thriving metropolis! 620AE - The Royal Society of Navigation and Discovery has selected Major Brickford to lead an expedition into the New Haven Sea region to secure new lands for the Crown of Corrington. Only time will tell what new adventures will unfold! October 14th 620AE - Major Sir Nathaniel Brickford is dubbed "Knight of the Order of the Compass Rose" for his service to the crown in the expansion of Quinnsville, the establishment of a new settlement in the New Haven Sea, and his actions against the Loti.

This is just a thread for me to keep track of my content I created for the Brethren of the Brick Seas. Brethren of the Brick Seas intro: Settlement builds Quinnsville: See official Era 2 settlement thread Mesabi Landing: King's Harbour: Ship Level increases: 1st - Hiring more crew members 2nd - The time has come... Ship MOCs: Class 0 - 2 2 Class 0s & 2 class 1s boat - The fishing and trading skiffs of Quinnsville 2 Class 1s & 1 Class 2 boat - Quinnsville Gunboats Class 2 ship - Cutter HMS "Barracuda" Class 2 Gunboat - HMS Growler Class 3 - 4 Class 4 Ship - Brig Swift Class 4 Ship - Merchant Xebec Pelican Class 4 Ship - Brig Puffin Class 5 - 6 Class 5 Ship - Xebec Sternidae Class 5 Ship - Frigate Razorbill Class 5 Ship - Galleon Turaco Class 5 Ship - Brig RSND Dolphin Class 5 Ship - Brig HMS Queen Class 6 Ship - Schooner Northern Gannet Class 6 Ship - Heavy Frigate Lightning - now HMS Thunderclap Class 6 Ship - Large Xebec Albatross Class 7 - 8 Class 7 Ship - Frigate Marlin Class 8 Ship - Troop Transport RSND Eagle Class 9 - 10 Class 10 Ship - 3rd Rate HMS Dominance Class 10 Ship - 1st Rate HMS Resilience - now HMS Indomitable For the Glory of Corrington! Redcoats Rule!: Task # 1: Artillery Field Testing Task # 2: Northern Garrison Task # 3: All hail the Queen! The Oaken Shield Tasks: Task # 1: Class 2 Gunboat - Gunboat for the RN Task # 2: Class 3 Ship - Cutter for the RN Task # 3: Class 5 Ship - Post Ship Black Panther The Merchant Marine: Task # 1: Task # 2: Class 5 Xebec "Sternidae" Task # 3: Higher Education: Task # 1: Task # 2: Task # 3: University of Quinnsville Challenge Entries:

A good build with some nice story. I like the use of Quinnsville lore, and I think you captured the look of the reclaiming of overgrown land with all the greenery. I personally like it when an irregular base is implemented as well. And I must say, you have a lot of those ice cream cone elements! As an apprentice GoC Reviewer, you have a from me!

Thanks! She's peppy, but no where near that fast! Only 140 hp from the GM 2.2 Ecotec. Blue is my favorite color for cars. Both of mine are blue.

A really nice collection of builds! The fort is a cool design, with the canons sticking out from each flat side. Great to have an expanding Corrie presence!

Cool build! I like the angled stone wall and the baseplate is especially well done.

Nice! Simple, but in a really good way.

Lol! That's the best idea I've got to keep everything from crashing down on me. The shaping is difficult, but i'll play around with a few ideas to see if I can get it to appear more curvy than it really is. Thanks for the reference ones! My original inspiration (and the pictures I was actually following) are from the Prefab hull 1 by Bonaparte.

It's been between lower 40s (4s C) at night and 50s (10 C) and 60s (15 C) in the afternoon and early evenings. So not to bad up in Vermont. At least we get some of the best fall foliage in the country!

Thanks! A lot of my bricks are black, white, or blue. Which is why most of my builds involve that color in one way or another. The single photo doesn't really do it justice in my opinion. A little more curve is in order, but I think it flows nicely atm. Thanks! That's a good idea! That should be a easy adjustment to give the ship more curve. I have an idea to strengthen the masts... a small amount of scotch tape around each of the seams should give it a lot of rigidity.

Then were even as I am very far from an expert as well! lol! Agreed, the tumblehome is probably the hardest part of building a ship for me. Thanks! It is probably to large for a ship of this size, but I don't think it is large enough to look silly. A valid point that I actually never really thought to do! I will certainly adjust the ship accordingly! Yes, I've tried Pov-Ray, but I never could get it to work properly. As to your renders, I much prefer the look of the first one than the second one.

A compromise that I am more than happy to live with. I'll do some research get ahold of a few different rendering programs to bring the presentation quality up a few notches.

Lol. I guess I forgot about that! Thanks for looking into that for me!

I've been working on another brick built ship this past week. Here is my progress so far. This will be my first IRL xebec. I am quite pleased with how it's turning out so far. I'm thinking it will be about a class 5. And before anyone mentions it, yes, the masts are completely square and unfortunately they will be staying that way. I don't have near enough round bricks of any sort to make a mast this large, but I have a bunch of the 1x1x5 bricks. This helps me cover a lot of distance. Lastly, the rigging is in the very, very beginning stages. literally just looped it around loosely to get a photo. Xebec wip 1 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr

I've tried Pov-Ray a few times, and for some reason I just can't get it to work properly. I use bluerender because it's super simple and gives a nice render. While I get your point about the render quality of certain colors, I personally think blue render does a pretty good job overall. I also don't feel like it should be a requirement to achieve a photo-realistic look if the quality of the build is more than adequate, even though gold and metallic elements don't come out the best. I really think it comes down to personal preference as Kai NRG (see below comment) quite likes how the gold came out and I myself kind of like it. I see it as a shimmering effect which is something you can't achieve with real bricks. Lastly, if image quality is your only complaint, as you said the like the build overall, I feel like that should be something to overlook. I can understand your comments on my ship about the deck, which admittedly does look like one big flat smooth surface. Something like that is something I will adjust. However, in the end, I do value your feedback and appreciate you taking the time to comment on all my builds and point out areas that could use some improvement. Oh, could you maybe supply a link to iStudio? I did a brief search and only came up with stuff for a Mac... I've got a windows machine with a Nvidia GTX 1050 2gb and 8 gigs of ram. Also, I do most of my rendering in 1024x720, I tend to be lazy at times and I can render multiple photos in under 10 minutes... here are some examples of a 1920x1080 render followed by an attempt at 4k: Arch 4 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr Arch 5 by LM71Blackbird, on Flickr Thank you! I'll have to give that a shot one of these days. Thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks! All valid points of improvement. Story telling is not my strong suit to be honest, never was through school either. But it's an area I want to expand, possibly with a AMRCA or a large over-reaching story of my characters.

Thank you for the ! I went with the foliage to add some texture, but I see your point on why dirt would be a better option around the new construction. My original goal was to not make it just boring plates, but feel more like a jungle atmosphere. As for the 'modern hats', this was something that the RSND has incorporated a few times already in their first exploration builds for the AMRCA, so I was just extending that story thread in a way.

Lol! I know! My collection is pretty small. One day I'll share a picture so you can get an idea of it!