Achilles099

The Imgur link isn't working? Do you know if Flickr works better where you are? I've used that platform in the past as well, and I'd be happy to put the album up over there if it makes it easier for people to access.

Yeah that is one of my biggest frustrations, I wish there was a way to do both detailed and accurate rigging and maintain tons of access to the interior, but I haven't been able to figure out a satisfactory way to do that. I've consider things like making the sides of the hull along the gundecks removable, but then that precludes doing things like gun tackle, which I really like having. On my last ship I made sections of the deck removable, but that also proved unsatisfactory as even if those sections of deck didn't have any rigging connecting directly to it, all of the rigging made it extremely difficult to actually maneuver the deck segments off the ship and clear of the rigging. One thing I am going to experiment with is having the stern galleries open so that sections at the rear of the gundecks can slide out, but I am also planning on including a functional and accurate rudder linkage which will certainly pose serious challenges.

Thank you! I'm not sure I follow your question? Right now the hold is accessible by removing the orlop, and the plan is for the gundecks above (everything above the orlop deck, in fact) to be removable to give access to the orlop. The gundecks themselves will not be very accessible, which is just because of the level of realistic detail I am including there. I've been thinking about how I might be able to make some areas of the gundecks accessible, but for the most part they will be sealed up once the build is complete since the rigging requires solid structures that will not shift (since the rigging supports the masts).

Sharing some images and an imgur gallery of my work-in-progress moc: a minifigure scale model of HMS Leopard, a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1790. Click the gallery link to see more detailed pictures of the build: https://imgur.com/gallery/wip-moc-hms-leopard-1790-50-gun-fourth-rate-minifigure-scale-nVshSA9 After my last project (HMS Diana in minifigure scale), I wanted to build a 50-gun ship, as I think this might be the upper limit in terms of ship size that can be done really well in a close-to-minifigure scale. I wanted this to be HMS Leopard, and I was happy to discover that one of the reference books I found contained detailed plans to build a model of HMS Leopard. The book in question is Rif Winfield's "The 50-Gun Ship". My goal with this moc is to stay as close as possible to the real construction of a ship like this and to include as much detail as possible. I plan for everything from the lower gundeck and above to be removable as a single structure. For the masts and rigging I am planning to use the same approach I did for HMS Diana while incorporating some significant improvements I have devised. Starboard view of the hull. Getting the shaping right at the bow and stern was a massive challenge, and involved multiple re-builds. The bow and stern are also the areas where I have had to compromise the "realism" of the internal structure the most to ensure stability. In reality these areas would have more open space inside them, but that just wasn't possible for me to achieve. Full view of the removable orlop deck. Almost all of this deck can be removed to access the various compartments of the hold below. The orlop with the removable sections gone, giving views into the hold. This is my current prototyping progress for the lower gundeck, which will support the top half of the ship that can be removed from the hull. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress in the coming weeks with some new shipments of pieces arriving, I'll post more progress pictures once I finalize the design of the gundecks.

I'm curious if you've tested this latest design in real bricks yet? That sail design looks cool, but it also looks very heavy and I wonder if it might cause the masts to lean forward quite severely.

Very nice model! Just fyi, a 28 gun ship would be a sixth rate, not a fifth rate. The rating system only accounted for long guns, so carronades and swivels didn't count towards a ship's rating (hence why ships rated as 38's in British service actually carried 46-48 guns in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, but were still only rated as 38's).

Have you thought about making it longer and wider? It's going to look very squat once you add additional decks and the upperworks, in my opinion.

Ambitious project, great progress so far! What's the length of the gundeck in studs going to be?

Nice build! Are some of these custom minifigures, and if so, where'd you get them made?

Thank you! Me too, I was worried about using all LEGO strings at this scale but I think it turned out great! I'm thinking about adding more of the running rigging if I can get some more white string, but I need to reinforce the spars somehow otherwise the weight of string on them will be too much. Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks so much for the kind words!

Thanks! It is in fact 100% LEGO strings used for all of the rigging!

Thank you for all the compliments! Yeah photography is not my strong suit, I might resubmit if I can get some better shots. If the sun would finally come out where I live I could get some decent natural lighting hopefully! Thanks! No problem at all, high-quality sources on this topic are sometimes hard to find and difficult to assess the reliability of so I figured many people could benefit from knowing some of the sources I found were best! Enjoy the reading!

Thank you! I built it very large so I could cram in as much detail as possible! Check out the full album to see all the below-deck details too!

Thanks, that's what I was going for! It is taller than me when it's on a table! Thanks! Thank you, glad you like it! Now I just need somewhere to display it! The rigging was a lot of time and effort but it is also one of my favourite parts to work on because the payoff is so great when you can get it to look the way you want. Thank you!