Captain Blackmoor

Our company is not willing to destroy the other guilds economy, but to take it over. And when a guild turns hostile we simply close the stream of goods. Our company is well supplied in Avalonia and occupies several high productive farms, mines and land, which means the Avalonia Trading Company will last the longest. The goods are stored away in guarded and fortified warehouses so no attempts in destroying goods can be undertaken. On a side note, along one of the trade routes an old watchtower has been rebuilt and will feature the best armaments available in Avalonia. Just to keep the trade routes clear from bandits, wild animals and what not... Pictures are coming soon!

What a fantastic watchtowertree! The size of that chunk of wood is outstanding! When you look closer you'll spot all kind of different things, awesome! Amazing job there honourable guildsman!

I approve! I love these 'overhaul' creations. Sometimes I wish TLC produced such sets, yet this kind of set is too part intensive and would cost hundreds of euro's. The ship is cool too, it has a weird construction but somehow it totally fits within the scene.

I have made my introduction a few pages back, but now official. No fighting on the battlefield for us, We focus on the economy in Avalonia instead! Me and my company "Avalonia Traders" are responsible for the trade between the Guilds, we import precious goods and items, whilst we export high quality wares too. To maintain the safety on the trade routes, our company has a regiment of special trained troops available! Lumber, fish and grain comes from the lands of Mitgardia. The merchants of Kaliphlin provide us with coffee, silk, tobacco and glass. Our company wasn't welcome in Nocturnus, yet some small quantities of enchanted gems are being traded. In Avalonia our company produces farmland goods, fine quality armour and weapons, siege equipment and construction materials. All done by smaller companies! Our company makes sure the lands of Avalonia become, will and remain wealthy, while we crush the enemy's economy, sink their fleets economically, we will become the largest, wealthiest Guild of all.

My life for Avalonia! And so my services to the great lord.

In that case, I should look into that. Although the space between gunports is sometimes 8 as well, in order to keep the 3 stud wide gunports offset from eachother. At that picture indeed it was 44, but I've been building yesterday and now it's 40 at the widest part of the forecastle. I have that book as well. And I'm basing my ship on Le Duquesne, Bucentaure and Raissonable, which clearly had not these features on board. They had forechasers, which I will add, but the headrails look almost the same as their British opponents. That doesn't quite explain why I count 15 gunports at the lower gundeck. The image is in my first post as well. It still also relies on the loading weight of the ship! You know the stories to throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship, not only to make it less heavy, also to decrease the depth of the keel. On top of that it would cost too much effort to decrease the freeboard 'height' at this stage. So I just stick with my reference, which is the book "Ships of the Line". It is indeed a "ghost ship", also the reason why I started basing my ship on other vessels, simply because there was not enough reference material. However, I have found several paintings of her, including your black and white version in colour. Link Oh no, I like this kind of feedback! I just expand my reference sources and knowledge, as you've used different sources then I did. So in the meantime I have collected a wide arrange of ship model images and technical plans. I've also purchased a book recently, Admiral Béjaune told me about it. It contains eye witness reports of Trafalgar and several ship logs. Thank you very much for this feedback already, I should upload some new pictures soon! It's a French ship from the beginning, British designers copied French designs, who copied them from the Spanish. Every country added its own features to deal with opponents as best as possible. These features made the ships different, but in fact the root of every popular ship type is of Spanish origin. And indeed, many ships were captured and used in the fleet again after a refit, and extensive technical research. Thanks mate, I will upload pictures as soon as they are ready.

I have no plans of the "Ocean" but the "Santissima Trinidad" would certainly be larger according to the ship plans. I have considered to build the ST, but because of it's size I decided not to. The widest part of Le Fourageux is 46 studs, which is at the waterline. The tumblehome in the bow needs to be adjusted to get 38 to 40 studs in width on top of the forecastle, and at the moment of writing I'm working on that. Also according to my references the scale is almost correct in terms of width. This picture below shows an example and it provides a very detailed view of a bow. It's from a British 74 though. I've been researching this technique for several months, and by stacking 2 bricks high you can indeed bend further. That is however, impossible when that 'wall' is over 10 bricks high. Especially if you are implementing a tumblehome in it using jumper plates. And even if it holds, you will kill your bricks in the long term, they loose strenth and the construction will literally explode. I've experienced it all, but feel free to give it a try. It's about 40%, which means it varies between 30 and 50 percent. I don't know the exact percentage! She will have 15 guns on the lower deck, same as the Duquesne (See first post), which was a 74 gun ship of the Téméraire class. This is based on several factors, like the the loading weight of the ship. A ship with empty holds lies a meter(!) less deep in the water. Five feet is only seen at Second and First Rates, which could barely open the hatches on the lower gundeck at a rough sea. A Third Rate had no problems with that. On top of that I refer back to the picture of the book earlier in this post. You can see there what the distance between the water surface and the lower gunports is. Based on that I think I've done it pretty accurate. When you visited me you have indeed pointed me at this issue, and like I told you it's the first thing on the list to fix! I just had to expand the ship a bit to get the tumblehome in harmony. I've based my ship in the beginning on the French Bucentaure, which had a checker pattern and yellow masts. Otherwise I would have changed that already. I'm also looking at the Duquesne, regarding the coloursheme. Problem is, the hatches are opened so you can only see the red side of them. Red and yellow on the hatches doesn't really combine well I think, so that's why they are black. I will look into it though, as yellow hatches look awesome when they are closed.. I've researched almost only Third Rates, as there was not much reference material for Fourth Rates.. So yeah, I've done my research as well, but from other sources. And I'm placing my accents on different aspects. You are a true perfectionist after all, and I really appreciate such detailed feedback as that really aids me in the process! Althouh it looks like a debate sometimes I think it's an amazing learning process as well! In my humble opinion it's nearly perfect, at least it's a personal endeavour! Thank you very much for this very detailed feedback! She is not destroyed! Only the bow and masts are gone. The rest of the ship is just split up in sections, safely stored. The cannons aren't too small, the gunports are just a bit too large as I ran out of yellow plates. Easy fix! I also cannot wait to start with the stern, as that will be awesome! Thanks mate! The name is indeed a bit strange, Le Fougeuex is also a French Third Rate. That's a bit where I based the name on in the very beginning of this project. I just keep the name as it reminds me of the amazing process this ship has gone through. "Fourage" sounds like Feeding, thus the Fourageux became the scavenger of the seas. These were my very first ideas! After all it would be better to name, and base her on Le Duquesne, Le Bucentaure or Le Fougeuex. All French Third Rates which look almost the same. Thank you for your feedback!

This might be very useful for you too. I really like your idea!

Captain Blackmoor is back from the High Seas to participate in the build!

Oh my that is impressive! I love the different things you've put in, like the window technique on the lower floor. Awesome! The woodwork looks splendid as well and the balcony on the middle floor is outstanding. A fantastic build. Now we wait for an old fashion cobblestone street!

Due to pressure it's almost impossible to leave 4 gaps for the anchorholes in the bow, the bow would loose it's strength and will become very fragile. So there will be a technic brick instead with a hole to get the anchor cable through. The deck on the bow is indeed incomplete, no worries, it will be changed. Thank you for your feedback! Thanks! I have no ETA, not for the whole ship. But I'm sure you will see it coming! Thanks mate. Thank you! Thank you Skip! I can't wait to build, right now there is a parcel waiting next to me with new bricks. Ah yes, that's an interesting story! When Perfectionist visited me and Admiral Croissant he pointed out that most French 74 gunships had no hatches at their upper gundeck. So I went ahead and removed them, I have not yet filled up their space with yellow plates. So indeed, the gunports look quite high, but not for long. Thanks Sebeus! Thank you! There are more detailed pictures of the carronades a few pages back if you are interested. No hinges at all, there is not even one hinge in there. It's all done by making a large wall, and then slightly bending it. It's only possible with 1x2 bricks and it takes months (at last for me) to find the balance between where a brick is capable of and the ship shape. I've reached the max of what was possible with this technique, concerning the bow. I need to refine some parts though, as this is just the first version. Thank you Hikaro! I wish you all the best with your Bismarck, which is an awesome vessel. Thank you all for your feedback, it's very much appreciated!

As promised, a little update for you guys. Progress is extremely fast last weeks, as I already have most of the parts and sometimes hours on-end to build. Here is a view of the bow, featuring brand new techniques. The bow still needs heaps of work, especially the headrails and the prow details. The larboard lower gundeck, just behind the foremast. The pig pen and chicken coop are located just behind the anchorholes, surrounded by thick anchor cables. More cannons will be added in the future. As well for crew and more details. Please take a look at the bow, feedback on this part is very welcome! There she floats! She is at about 40% of her length. You can spot black jumperplates in the tumblehome, these will be replaced with yellow ones. An intersting collection of more pictures is here. Thank you for your attention, feel free to ask questions as I remain seated in my chair for several hours, trying to answer them.

We have some nice tutorials to aid you in the resizing process. Links are in my signature. Please hurry, as we don't want pages to load for decades. Especially people with slower connections or mobile devices have trouble with images of this size. Already thanks!

This is truely becoming a fantastic vessel. Original technics, and the scale is amazing. I love the curved shapes and tumblehome used in the bow, that part is the most difficult to achieve, and you have done a great job on it. I love it to see how much detail and effort you put into the interior and deck details. Awesome to look at, it makes large ships so much cooler. The only thing I would do is not to cut the yellow stripe (of the first gundeck) now it looks like the stripe is pointing towards the prow. Instead there should be a large block of wood with anchor holes. It would add a lot of realism and detail. I cannot wait to see more of this fantastic project, keep it up!

Leeuwarder Courant. No problem! I just had to share.

It might be interesting to know that this guide made it to the Dutch newspaper yesterday! Here is a translation of the article: Building lessons by a "Grand Master" For advanced builders, with a rich arsenal of bricks the international internetforum Eurobricks.com is offering a nice challenge. The British Grand Master Luke Watkins, known as Derfel Cardarn is revealing his secrets. Step by step it is explained how to build a medieval village from scratch. Followed by a link to this thread. Congratulations! This is a fantastic achievement!

As a Coastal Zone Manager Student I'm truely fond of these ships. It's a brilliant built, fantastic details and the size is impressive! Terrific job done there! Congratulations!

Please resize your pictures to a maximum of 800x600 pixels, as that is the standard we maintain here on Eurobricks. A tutorial can be found in my signature. After that I'll comment on this fantastic vessel. Thank you!

I notice you are really pumped indeed, perhaps a bit too pumped even. Builders will post an update immediately whenever they have made progress. Patience is a great tool.

Please resize your pictures to a maximum of 800x600 first. Thank-ye!

I see the pictures, and it's a fabulous ship. I'll have some feedback for you, but you really need to resize the pictures to a maximum of 800x600 pixels!

Yeah, how dare you. Your tutorials are very helpful, I have been looking at them to find out how for example a stove looks like, and how to build them. It's great reference material, and I like the amount of effort you put in these tutorials. So I'd say to keep it up! The only thing I'm always struggling with is the exact place of deck objects. The exact place for the capstans and staircases for example. This kind of reference material is hard to find, if you manage to get that captured I'm sure it will help a lot of people out here.

Gawd, I'm planning to wander there on the same time too.

That is awesome. I love your pirates army, so many different figures. They really look like a bunch of savages! The landscape is pretty neat too. You have a nice collection of bluecoats as well.

You can also use the 'edit' button a bit more. The store looks great to me, I think it's a challenge to put so many things inside a cramped space. Are you planning to add a staff coffee corner too?