Supersick_

Beautiful! And I agree, mods move this to the MOC section so we don't lose track of such a great build.

Really love the updated proportions and details! Great job, she looks beautiful.

Yes, I’m definitely making instructions for Anubis. Thanks so much to everyone for the encouragement. I’m making progress, work has just been busy for a bit!

No problem, happy to help!

Oh yeah if you want to make it symmetrical just use 2x 3L bars and do a radar dish on each.

I'm sure there are a few ways to do this but here's what I was thinking. Pictures being a thousand words and all that...

The smooth reddish brown piece on top looks like a 2x2 radar dish with a nozzle on top. I think these can fit over axle ends, but what I would do is ditch the axle and use a 4L bar. The bar fits tight in the axle holes and will slip through a radar dish to hold it, which is then hidden by the black hose nozzle being used as the spout.

Update is: work has been super busy lately and I’ve had to travel a bit. Just haven’t carved out the time for the final push to finish her off, but I also wanted to test something so I was waiting for a shipment. I should have her completed within the next week or two. Basically: the design I have for the beakhead uses some REALLY rare rigid tube lengths. In talking with some people about Fer Maiden’s tan slopes now becoming very rare (thus expensive), I considered some alternative designs but I guess once you like something enough you can’t get it out of your head. I ended up finding a near-identical (if not exact) supply of tubing that is still produced (Lego production has ceased from what I can gather, in many of the desired lengths). I am just confirming that this is a good enough solution, and I plan to offer pre-cut and sorted “kits” of the beakhead tubes for my ships (an update to Fer Maiden’s as well). This is not technically official parts (obviously) but I think this would be an understandable exception. The supplier I found is what many top convention-level architectural MOC builds use. There has been talk that this may even have been a supplier to TLG for pneumatic tubing. For background: the material (type of plastic) needed for pneumatics is different/specific compared to the injection-molded brick material. Different materials require different tools and flow optimization in the factory, often different storage of the raw material, and unlikely you are able to “share” anything between the various materials (for instance vats/vessels for heating, pouring, cooling, etc). Tubing is also produced in extrusions which is quite a different process from molded parts. This is why it would not surprise me if Lego used a supplier for tubing required in the relatively few pneumatic Technic kits. I personally wouldn’t do any custom lengths or colors, I would keep everything as-is with Lego’s catalog, just offer it for something like $10+shipping vs $1MM+ or whatever it would be if you could even find them on BrickLink. Any opinions/suggestions on that?

Both really nice solutions! I love them - probably the smaller ones would be a good base for Fer Maiden’s theme scale. Run a 2-stud-wide strip of tiles with jumpers to locate the single stud underneath? Can redo the gun deck to flush those tiled runs with the plates if needed to bring the barrels centered in the gunport. Can run the guns in/out along the tiles and stay them into position using the jumper plates.

Yes! So cool dude, can’t wait to see this progress!

These are all amazingly impressive. Fathom has great techniques in general, let alone that it transforms! Prime looks fantastic and I think Miasma and Flashpoint both work great.

This is amazing man! Great techniques and I know the plight of these ancient Egyptians far too intimately, though the offending deity in my case is multi-colored striped instead of grey. Haha. I love the figure, especially her belt execution. Actually I love every part of it, the color for the drink works so well for this palette. Great job, again.

I look at Lego's intent at Theme scale and tend to ignore the lack of exact gun counts. For instance Barracuda Bay BSB is clearly homage to a galleon, not just a "8 gun brig" like you would (technically) describe her. And then with the most recent Imperial Flagship, I feel like that was a kit intended to be 3rd or 4th rate. I think a Super 44 like Constitution would justify 12 guns per side, I think I can definitely squeeze one in right before the quarter galleries. Fer Maiden (as-is) would be something around Leda/Pallas-class. Fer Maiden (Heavy) would be Endymion. Here's a little WIP of Fer Maiden (Heavy). The only real changes compared to the standard design are +6 studs in length (1 ea. extra gun + carronade per broadside), new brick built hull, new beakhead and quarter gallery designs evolved from the Anubis. Let me know some feedback on whether you think this style of build at this scale is cool or if you prefer the more playful prefab style.

Looks great! what did you end up doing about the following cable/anchor line? Find a way to switch between sides? I know the original design with TLG string+studs is a bit cumbersome but it allows you to removing the grating to get access then unhook one side's anchor line and attached the other side. I'd love to see a more elegant solution since dragging that string with studs isn't ideal either haha.

Correct! A “40” would bring Fer Maiden to 1 extra gun plus an extra carronade per side. So her main battery would be 10 per broadside (right now she is 9). Anubis has 11 guns per broadside on the lower gun deck, but a frigate arms the "upper deck" (and lowers them all relative to the hull if we're really getting specific but you get a full gun deck that runs above the transom and some more freeboard). So yeah actually I could probably fit 12 per broadside on a super frigate like Constitution. I would make a “44” super frigate like 1 or 2 studs shorter than Anubis if that would still fit the guns. Fer Maiden was always intended to pay homage to Endymion but with the prefabs she is proportionally more similar to a Leda-class frigate (like Shannon, Trincomalee). Brick building her hull and giving her 6 more studs in length would be great. A Collector Series-type of revision/refit (would also match the style of Anubis).

Exactly my line of thinking. Yeah I would say that she looks great wearing her "normal" colors. If Anubis is in the cards for your future - and she will be Redcoat (makes sense) - then maybe you can leave the Chequer for her. Prices on yellow slopes is a lot cheaper right now! Brig would be a nice trader, can probably do something close cool/similar using leftovers if you have the hulls to spare. Turn the "flagship" into an Indiaman? Re: Constitution-style heavy frigate - can definitely be done using techniques from Anubis. I will get there eventually. I have played around with a Fer Maiden Heavy and it's quite cool, so it's something I want to do in the future. Fer Maiden Heavy would be analogous to HMS Endymion in my mind. At theme scale to keep it consistent with Anubis, Fer Maiden and the Brig, the Heavy would probably still "only" have 11 guns per side. Accurate gun counts at theme scale is super super difficult because the cannon are so upsized for the minifigs, which themselves are giant in scale. You've mentioned it before and the price of cannon have definitely made me think about it more, but doing a brick-built alternative for my builds would be a good idea. Can just be a freebie MOC file so that you can get a parts list and then multiply as needed.

Aye, now she's finished.

Ayyy! Can't wait to see. Question, I guess: are you planning Anubis to be a specific faction? The Fer Maiden would either be an adversary or part of the fleet. Maybe it is a privateer currently pirating in the employ of the Redcoats and thus doesn't threaten the flagship. What of the Brig though? I think it conceivable that the _________ admiralty may dispatch a Captain with a brig-sloop wanting to make a name for himself in pirate hunting, only to find out there's a vessel that requires a larger show of power to placate (entre: L'Anubis). Frigate captains had more or less free rein to paint their ships as they wanted - Nelson Chequer, obviously, being very en vogue during his heyday (I know this is, historically speaking, decades after the golden age of piracy). I'd say the tan stripe she has now is representative of "buff" which was a 1:2 mixture of Ochre and lead white. In Lego I think yellow is the best rich ochre option though it's a bit too saturated. Medium nougat and dark orange are good linseed oiled wood (though very limited on slopes in these colors!! but I am working on a version with this), and of course white is white. The "problem" with assigning a color formula to things is that really no-one adhered to any code for long. Both French and British Navies used ochre, buff and linseed oil finishes almost interchangeably (the latter being the hardest to maintain and thus larger line ships by this time almost always got painted). All 3 US, British and French navies wore lead white after the war of 1812 lol! The topic is fascinating and usually more answers are found researching specific ships instead of the fleet codes and practices. Trying to discern what is most accurate in paintings, especially, is challenging since most of them weren't commissioned until years or even decades after the intended time of the subject, etc. As a gift I recolored her to a classic Nelson-chequer for you to visualize. (Reference of HMS Diana). Have you ordered the parts yet? Danke schoen! Let me know your plans, if you would like to visualize some colorways, etc! Is she staying a pirate vessel or returning to admiralty duty? Please send/post pics when you build her, I love seeing them.

Haha cheers! He's on the Barracuda Brig with Captain Redbeard! Thank you so much. And yeah like @Mister Phes said, happen to have any pics? Would love to see. There are a few things, I guess. - I did tile in the cabin for accuracy: The great cabins of these ships were more often then not laid with ceramic tile. The contrast between stud wood deck and refined tile cabin was something I'm ok with. - At this scale, removable weather decks with tile planking would have been thicker than I wanted for my ship proportions. - I personally like plate decks. I like tile decks too, but yeah it just worked out easier for proportions and headroom to keep the wood be plates. Plus I like that you can play with the minifigs easier. - I free-built Fer Maiden from 2x Barracuda Bay 21322 and a bunch of brick linking to try various things in real life before replicating her in CAD. Since then I've developed more techniques and I could definitely solve the issue a few ways now if I needed to. It would require me to redesign how the ship comes apart, though.

So awesome! Lots of cool stuff to be had with this set, and amazing creativity to turn this out! Voted for it and now can't wait to get it!

Thanks Nod!

Haha!!! I do like the idea of a heavy. I'm not sure about the Bluecoats though, something to get the Redcoats in the mix I think... a certain Fer Maiden carries on it a chest with letters of marque and reprisal from an influential Redcoat governor. Dimensions are: 37.8" long, 21.7" tall. Currently ~3800 parts and growing. Haha, cheers man! I find waves of time to spend and try to maximize. Sometimes I go for 3-4 days without being able to open Stud.io (work has been super busy lately) so I try and catalog what changes I want or spend time researching further for refining. Once I get back into Stud.io I then have a list of things to work on. But yes, for real, I spend way too much time haha. Lately it's been refining the layout of the decks, (especially removable sections) and making the quarter galleries stable. They are offset 1/2 stud to give the desired fitment and design which was a nice challenge to solve. I made some decisions based solely on exterior design (the hardest part about theme scale ships, imho) and let that drive the building solutions. In the end I did some (new to me) techniques and ideas that I am pretty happy with. Cross section showing layout of upper and lower decks, specifically aft at officer's quarters and captain's cabin. Note: the partition walls for officer's quarters are removeable for increased great cabin space. They will get a dining table and some desks. Bird's eye view of the lower gun deck. Both the upper gun deck and weather decks have been removed. Exploded views showing the decks. Lower deck should have space for some more stores, I plan to have a pen for some pigs, goats and chickens aft of the mainmast, forward of the stairs on the lower deck. Playing around with "ornate" area rugs. Because headroom is so limited at this scale I have to make some concessions for deck thickness which limits me to traditional techniques, as anything SNOT would be way too thick. The captain's rug is tan and dark blue, which is rendering very close to black in Stud.io. Hopefully the blue is more saturated in real life and reads better. I still may alter the design to help it stand off from the black and white checker tile a bit more. Redid the quarterdeck stairs to the poop. The previous design was preferred but at this scale there were just too many constraints causing bigger issues so I reverted to a more traditional twin staircase setup. Bow and beakhead evolution. Happy with the progress here but need to figure out my hawse holes if I plan to keep using 100% legal parts and techniques. Unfortunately the stud on Lego strings will not pass through a Technic pin hole (obviously) so I still have some work to do on how to fudge that detail. Closing gaps and making structures at the transom and aft castle. Productive and satisfying, if a bit unremarkable in terms of visual evolution. I quite like the first gunport on the lower deck slightly creeping around the forward curvature of the hull to help sell the illusion of more curvature than bricks really allow. Getting closer and closer to a m-a-s-s-i-v-e bricklink order (lower hull is gonna bring this thing easily near 5000 pieces) Star Wars UCS kits level haha.

Yarrr. I put in some good hours this week and made some progress. Bow, stern and middle hull structures are pretty much sorted. Decks and hatches are coming along nicely (fingers crossed). I've been pretty careful to make sure the outer structure will be strong enough when they're removed. As you can see I'm keeping a cross-brace at fore and main masts to provide some lateral strength once I tie it into the outers. Interior gun decks with larboard battery. Haven't sorted out the officer's quarters yet. Lower deck. Space is super tight. I have the stairs as mobile subassemblies so you can get to the grating on the hatches. Some exterior refinement from the stern quarter. Bow and beakhead detail coming in. Quarter gallery detail refinement. Size comparison to Fer Maiden: Siblings. Lucky for Fer Maiden that she could outrun and out-maneuver the 74, I would certainly not want to be caught at this range trading broadsides.

Haha, yeah eventually! I have some stuff mocked up in Stud.io so I'm starting to think about some. Haha indeed. Yeah, Indefatigable was razeed from a 64 so I could start with a shortened version of this ship to make something like her! Or definitely apply this style of hull to a large frigate design ala Constitution.

I've been waiting for this kind of update! Did you ever solve the gaps on the SNOT compound slopes between the lower hull and prefabs? Secret until the final build?