Cousarmy0001

Ok, planning update: Several people said the building plans I had seemed too modern, though it seemed nobody could put their finger on which ones. So I went back to the drawing board, and wound up making the project WAY bigger than I'd originally intended, but hopefully now the whole thing looks closer to the correct time period. Also, procedure update: I've ordered the groundwork for this, but with over 13,000 pieces already involved (and I don't even have interiors for 3 of the buildings), it's going to take me a VERY long time to finish. I will keep you all appraised of my progress.

This and the Renegade Raft started my collection. The very first Lego sets I ever had :-)

This is excellent! Well done! Is that a brick build hull?

That couch, desk, and table are AWESOME! And I may try reducing the globe base as well. I was disappointed by how big the thing was, it took up the entire cabin on every single one of my ships!

Is it all of the buildings that look too modern, or just particular ones? Does anybody have pictures of buildings that could give me a better idea to shoot for?

I probably shouldn't have included that in my post. Let's just say I was very very unhappy with one of my family members that night. When you say "too modern", what do you mean? I tried to model only buildings that existed in the 1700s, the red warehouse was modelled after buildings from Empire Total War, the state house was from a Bermuda stamp I found, the yellow building was from a period painting, the brown warehouse was influenced by historic buildings in Yorktown, VA, and the orange building was modelled after several different buildings I found in historic ports. Any advice in keeping these in the 1600-1800 window would be appreciated.

So I've been a bit burned out on ships lately. I've finished reworking my two extended Caribbean Clippers, and after an "accident" at my house that ended with all of my ships on the floor in pieces (Thunderchild, 2x (new) Imperial Flagship, 2x reworked Caribbean Clippers, Brickbeard Bounty, Black Seas Barracuda, and an MOC fortress) that took me three months to rebuild, I just haven't had it in me to finish the paddle-wheel steamer I had mentioned in the Thunderchild thread. By "finish" I mean I've done it several times in LDD, and am just not satisfied with the hull, not to mention I want to do something different with the captain's cabin that isn't a copy of the new Imperial flagship or slight reworking of the Thunderchild cabin. So that one is on hiatus, and the engine is probably going to be sitting for quite some time. I still haven't rebuilt the fortress, it's a mixture of the Imperial Trading Post, El Dorado Fortress, Lagoon Lockup, and Broadside's Brig all rolled into one. Or should I say it WAS that, and like I said, I haven't had it in me to put back together, since I wasn't that happy with it to begin with. It is in that context that I reinstalled LDD, and began a new project to replace my destroyed base. It is large and ambitious, and is not all contained in what I am about to post, since I still plan on building a coastal fortress to protect it. But first things first, I wanted to get everybody's opinions on what I have so far, and get some advice to make it better before (or if) I start ordering pieces for it. So, without further ado, I present my new WIP, L'utinant Wharf! The large tan building is meant to be a state house / admiralty building. The brown building with blue addition at the back is a generic industrial building whose exact purpose I haven't decided yet. The red and white building is a warehouse of ship's stores. The yellow and white building is a tavern/brothel/boarding house. The orange and white building is a shop or storehouse of some type whose purpose I also haven't decided yet. I thought maybe a constabulary or armory, but it would be kind of a buzz kill to put that right next door to the only place in town with wine and wenches. The LDD file is WAY too big to attach, or I would have it in here. If anybody wants, I can e-mail it to them. I'm looking for tips to make the buildings more detailed and realistic. As is, the roofs and second floors are all removable (assuming I laid everything out correctly), the roof and second floor of the state house each break into two pieces, but the clock towers are permanently installed. The red squares in front of the wharf are to give an idea of scale. The larger square is the rough area of Thunderchild's hull minus the bowsprit. The smaller square is the rough area of the small merchant ship (including the bowsprit) that came with the old Imperial Trading Post. Thoughts?

I saw this some time ago, but didn't save it, and haven't been able to find it since. I laughed so hard when I saw this, I'm glad you found it :-)

How did you get that amazing circular look with the tan bricks jutting out? Are those a ton of 2x2 hinged bricks?

An excellent job! Am I counting correctly that this has three center hull pieces between the bow and stern?

First off, excellent work! This is a massive project, and you deserve credit not just for designing and undertaking it, but also for keeping with it. The ship looks amazing- though I do not envy you the task of assembling the rigging for her. I do tend to agree with the sloping in at the base, though. You are correct in your statement, diagram, and Lego depiction of an actual ship of the line from the waterline upwards, but it still doesn't seem quite right (to me, anyway). Something I learned in art class, that may apply to this, when you are reproducing an image, either from a photo or from reality, sometimes you have to over-emphasize a certain attribute of what you are drawing in order to make the drawing work. Sometimes, even if you draw or paint something PRECISELY how it is in reality, it just won't look right to people, so you have to alter it a little to make up for that. On the positive side, though, this could be just what you need to make up for your concern about the lower gun deck being too close to the water. You said that you wanted the hull lower, but you want to raise the lower deck, why not add one or two layers of plates to the bottom of the hull? This would raise the lower deck, while not raising the entire hull as much as a whole brick layer would. Additionally, if you make the plate layer(s) smaller than the rest of the hull, it could make the hull appear to slope inwards just enough to remove the flat base impression that people have been talking about- and if you don't like it that way, just make your one or two plate layers flush with the hull as it is now.

Very well done! Excellent detail, and she (he?) has a color scheme not often seen in MOCs. I also like how clean it is, the decks and hull do not appear to be overly busy or cluttered. Excellent job, sir, excellent indeed!

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I stole- I mean, borrowed- so much stuff from Vesta! This is a day which shall live in infamy! I shall have Thunderchild fire a salute to her and her gallant crew, and all ships of my fleet shall fly their colors at half mast until she is restored to her former glory.

Holy crap, dude, this thing must weigh a ton! Absolutely stunning, both in the amount of detail and in the functionality of it (modular build, opening hull, etc). One thing I've always worried about when designing an MOC is making the hull height too tall for the standard Lego hull. Your hull seems to be perfectly proportioned despite being so tall AND using the standard hull bottom. I especially liked the gallery at the back of the captain's cabin, the stove in the crew's common area, and the large map on the captain's wall. Well done, sir!

I may Bricklink them eventually, and Lego still has Pick-a-Brick as well. It's just that picking all of those pieces out the old fashioned way will be quite tedious, and I'm not certain that it's worth the trouble. On the other hand, I still have an old style bow and stern laying around that are begging to be made into a ship...

I see what you mean. Initially the rather bulbous appearance of the bow bothered me, but that kinda goes with the territory on the old hull pieces. At one time I had a longer prow on it, but it looked a little weird to me sticking that far out from the rest of the hull with no real transition between the two. As is, I kinda like it because while it's not terribly graceful like you said, but it gives the feel of a heavier ship, almost reminiscent of a modern oil tanker, or a larger ship of the line. Maybe it's my German heritage that gives me a soft spot for rounded bows. As for the ports opening downward, it's no problem for me to have them go the other way, the only reason I didn't do that originally is that the flags I used for the ports are brand new, and are very stiff when moving, so they tended to take the mount off of the hull. For some reason they grip better to the bottom of the port than they do the top. As for Bluecoat dominance, I had planned a ship I was going to name Stormchaser, but with the demise of Design-by-Me I will probably never get to build her. She was going to be an early paddle wheeled steamship a la HMS Warrior and would be for the Redcoats. She would have been 8 guns and approximately the size of the (new) Imperial Flagship, with the same color and hull design scheme as them. So it would not have had the sloped sides and other features that give alot of our MOCs an authentic look, but she would've been awesome nonetheless. Essentially my idea was that she would have fewer guns than Thunderchild, but the steam engine would have given her maneuverability that would make up for that. Unfortunately I was only able to order the steam engine before Lego shut it down. I used old technic pieces I had laying around to build the crank shaft. The whole thing DOES actually turn, it's a two piston engine with a "boiler" on the fore end. Here's some links to the pictures on my Flickr account. Thanks for showing me how to deeplink :-)

Absolutely amazing!

I was worried that it was too long as it is :-) It already extends 3 studs beyond the brown part of the hull, how much further do you suggest it should be?

I like how low your sloop of war is. When I was designing my MOC frigate, I had several designs that wound up being as tall as a ship of the line would have been in minifig scale. Even my Frobisher is actually a little bit taller than I would have liked. Very good job on that one, sir!

When you say that the bow is too short, do you mean the angled pieces forming the actual prow?

Hey all! I've got three factions- Redcoats, Bluecoats, and Pirates (who are usually given commissions by the Redcoats). Pirates have: 1 Black Seas Barracuda (Enlighten knockoff) 1 Brickbeard's Bounty Redcoats have: 2 (new) Imperial Flagships Castlerigg and Taggerung 1 MOC cutter Halcyon w/ 2 swivel guns Bluecoats have: 2 Caribbean Clippers Iliff and Axelay (modified, 6 guns each) 1 MOC frigate Thunderchild 1 MOC cutter Iliff w/ 4 light cannon 1 merchant ship (from Imperial Trading Post)

After several months and at least one complete hull reconstruction, my frigate Thunderchild is finished! Now with 14 guns instead of the original 10 (though I still need to buy eight of them), a figurehead, slightly reworked captain's cabin, and sails! Of course, the Redcoats don't know there's nothing behind those gunports >:-D I didn't get a chance to take pictures during daylight, so these pictures are kinda crappy. I'll try to take better ones tomorrow.

Wow! I've built rowboats with better rudders than that! This is yet one more way that I'm not impressed with the Black Pearl set. They should have hired Greenhair or Croissant to design the thing. I'd say a brick build rudder as well, similar to the ones on the old sets. You could also try replacing the Technic 1x2 and T with a 1x2 brick with a horizontal holder, and then attaching a 1x2 plate with stick. You can then attach more to the 1x2 plate to make the rudder longer. If my explanation makes no sense, check out the rudder for the merchant ship that came with the Imperial Trading Post from the mid 90s. It's essentially that, but with pieces added to the end to make it bigger.

So I'm continuing to tweak my frigate Thunderchild. I've developed a figurehead that I think goes well with the size of the ship, added a rudder, made a few changes to the color scheme, and I've redesigned her hull to accomodate two more guns per side (bringing her to 14 guns instead of the original 10), though I've yet to order the parts for that. Now I've been stuck for a while on anchors. I've got a functional capstan that's only mostly copied from the Imperial Flagship, and I've got anchor chains, but the standard Lego anchors seem inadequate for a ship her size, and the ones I designed in LDD didn't work AT ALL. I've seen some awesome anchors on some of the frigates out there, like on Achille and on Greenhair's tutorial, but I haven't been able to get any good detail shots of those anchors so I can see all of the parts that make them. Can any of you shipfitters and naval architects offer any advice or plans?

And to think, all of this time I thought the Essex was an aircraft carrier