Dread Pirate Wesley

I agree with this, mostly. For me, Lego was designed to build houses and castles and structures of sorts, not complex curving shapes. In my AFOL life I've mainly built ships but always admire people who build things that at first glance are not apparently Lego. I think any MOC that accomplishes this was difficult to build and separates a good MOCer from an average one. Attention to detail, research, and innovative techniques are not required to build a ship, but it is required to build a good ship. I think the same can be said about most outstanding MOC's. Dread Pirate Wesley

Actually, I didn't come up with it. It is based on a historical ship that was the smallest ship present of the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She carried the dispatches of Nelson's death and the British victory back to Portsmouth. Dread Pirate Wesley

Yup that's a Frenchie alright! I will spend more time on the stern once I get a few more yellow fiddly bits, for lack of a better term. Question for the historians out there: if a ship-of-the-line was captured, how much of a re-fit would be done? Would interiors be completely changed, and exteriors redesigned to be more standardized? Something that I haven't seen any information on to be sure. Since Im taking a break on the stern I thought Id go back to the rigging for a while. I rigged the top shrouds and tressle trees, and built the top gallant. Here's how they turned out: The top shrouds are fastened to these: so they can be removed from the taps on the fighting top and the top mast can be taken down for transport or rigging. I think I might use yellow ones in the end. I had a go at rigging the fore yard as well, experimenting with the truss and the jeers. It will be working rigging so the yards can be lowered or swung. Here's how it looks raised: I also built the main top and mizzen top. They wont be attached until the shrouds are rigged. Quite a size difference between the two: I think I came up with a more realistic way of rigging the main shrouds, once I finish them I will post another update. What do you think of the fore shrouds so far? Dread Pirate Wesley

Im not quite sure what you mean about 'stepped'. There is a little step there between the upper quarter galleries and lower galleries on the real ship, though I may have exaggerated it a bit. On larger ships like Victory the step is less noticeable, but this is a 64. As to the balcony, from models and plans I have researched the balcony is both recessed and protruding, partly behind the galleries but extending a little beyond them as well. I found PR Dobsons fantistic digital rendering of Agamemnon very helpful for visualizing this: I realize it wasn't very obvious in my first pictures how the balcony is designed, so here is a collage showing how it is both recessed and protruding. Perhaps I made it stick out too far but there is a small section behind the galleries too: I think the above collage answers these two questions as well. Capt. Blackmoor, the portion above the yellow curve is necessary to mount the ships lanters, as well as covering the space between the captain's galleries and the poopdeck. The top two pictures show how the poopdeck sits in connection with the stern. I like your idea and might experiment with making the horseshoe larger to go all the way up to the taffrail rather than under the lanterns. Sebeus, yes there is a small compartment behind the curved windows. These are probably going to be the captain's quarter galleries (private privy) and captain's storage. I may make them a little larger but am hesitant to reduce the space in the captain's cabin. Thanks Daniel! I will divulge the full historical background once she is finished. Since she is not based on any one ship, during her design she became a love child between a Slade designed Ardent class and French designed Raisonnable. Thanks for the comments everyone! Im going back to the rigging for the time being and will post updates on that soon. DPW

Your longboat was a inspiration for mine, at least I think so, had to guess on a lot of it from that picture I just made it shallower to fit the proportions of my ship-of-the-line. Making it any taller or bigger and it dominates the center of the ship. Love to see a better picture! Those would work well on a smaller ship for sure. Plus they look like they could be stacked on top of each other which would be useful for a larger ship with 4 or more boats. DPW

Looks good Done! Definite improvement over TLG version. I especially like the way you did the poopdeck with the whips and lanterns, nice details. Only suggestion I would make is the gunports look a little too close together. I think the whole ship would look better with 4 brick spacing between the guns rather than 2. Of course this means less firepower but it would be more aesthetically pleasing. Good work Dread Pirate Wesley

Did you mean to post this in here or in the Ship's Boats thread? Would you mind reposting the image in that thread if you didnt? I think its a lovely design and would add to the discussion there. OT: looking good so far Kurigan! It will be interesting to see how you detail the insides of the dhow, lots of SNOT techniques required no doubt Keep it up! Dread Pirate Wesley

I believe the plank that you're referring to is called the bolster. Hmmm the doors eh? I guess I didn't put too much thought into them but I accept your challenge! This ship can never be carried in one piece, it is simply not strong enough without a full hull. Originally I had intended to have one side completely open like a cut-away, but even then it would not be strong enough to move. Since I still wanted access to the interior, with so many decks and so much length the best solution was to make it in sections. With 4 pieces you can still access virtually every section of the interior and it makes it much easier to move around. It wont move much once finished though, it's too complex so it will mainly be for display. Speaking of the ships sections, I spent some time working on the final section: the stern. The stern galleries slide out from the quarterdeck in one unit. It's a bit unconventional, but it gives direct access to the captains quarters, the wardroom, and the gunroom on the bottom. Here's how it looks removed from the rest of the quarterdeck section: And from the outside: You can see the captain has a private balcony as was common on ships-of-the-line. Here's a shot of the gunroom with the wardroom above it. The gunroom will have 4 cannons, the two rear most on the lower gun deck, and two stern chasers out the rear gunports. It also will house the gunner and junior officers in canvas quarters, as well as the tiller connected to the rudder: And a shot from the rear where you can see the gunports and the rudder from the outside. It still needs a lot of decoration and fine tuning, but Im pleased with the shape so far: It is still a work in progress and needs some more color and little details. Let me know what you think so far though! Dread Pirate Wesley

Looks great Legonardo! I especially like the technique on the bow, gives it a very realistic shape. It might be a bit large for minifig illusion scale but would fit nicely on a minifig scale ship. Good stuff DPW

I agree with you they do look more like rigid boats than long boats. They do have a keel though, so the cross section is not flat on the bottom, as you can tell they dont even sit flat on a table. They are not perfect by any means but that is why I started this thread, to get ideas and for people to post their versions. Try it out yourself and see what you can come up with! DPW

[pid][/pid] 134 A&B Hello everyone, I wanted to start a topic on making bruickbuilt ship's boats. Ship's boats might seem like a contradiction, but what Im refering to are the longboats, cutters, and pinaces that men-o-war carried for all the small duties required to serve a larger vessel. Ive been tinckering and kit bashing some models together to compliment my own man-o-war, but I thought it would be best to start a new topic devoted to these small craft. Of course you could just use Lego small boats, but this thread is for MOC boats. After going through several versions I came up with this for the ship's longboat: It can seat 6, or 4 plus a sea chest, with 3 rowing stations and one at the tiller. The colors are only for the mock up, I had the most pieces in red and black. The final version will probably be white with a green stripe as this seems to be most common. Here is a version of a cutter, didnt quite have enough yellow but you get the idea: The cutter is in a "stowed" configuration, with lashings and oars as she would be on the deck of a ship. The cutter is quite a bit smaller than the longboat here's how they look on the boat rails of a ship-of-the-line: This seems to be an under discussed topic but let me know what you guys think. Let's see some of your ideas and creations! Dread Pirate Wesley

This is a great ship, Im glad you decided to keep working on her. What I find most interesting about this build is it's based on a drawing which by itself is meant to be dramatic not accurate, and you've captured that brilliantly "in the brick". The only things I think that would improve her would be custom rigging of course, and also maybe one more headrail below the current one. I think that would top things off nicely. Well done Dread Pirate Wesley

Greetings, I saw this on flickr and thought it was awesome! I especially love the light up stern and the hatchway. Great job capturing the feel of the official set too. You say this is the second ship you made, what was the first? Dread Pirate Wesley

I think you both are referring to different things. Horatio I believe is talking about the inverted slope bricks on either side of the mast. I used these as splices to add some strength but they are much to thick. Nefarious I think is referring to the futtock shrouds, the lines that slope outward away from the mast to the fighting top. The hoops are indeed to attach them, I had a go at it to see how it looks and Im quite pleased with the result compared to my first attempt: Indeed it will be as detailed and accurate as possible. Ships of this kind were not particularly ornate, so I will focus mainly on accuracy and clean lines. It took many hours of tinkering and deep thought to get it right, but feel free to copy it Id love to see how it would look on a smaller ship! No not exactly. It is removable in the way that all Lego is removable, but it is not intended to be. For play features the ship will be able to separate into 4 sections to access the insides rather than removing the hull walls. Luckily I have an entire room dedicated to Lego. She doesn't care as long as they stay there! This ship has outgrown my building space and photo booth when fully assembled however, so for these latest photos I've commandeered the kitchen table I do have a plan, and it will be very much like the foremast only shorter. I was trying to find a way to make the mizzen thinner but I don't think that will be practical with the height it needs to be. Here is how the foremast stacks up with all of its pieces: As you can see it is quite tall but still sturdy despite the forward step of the fore topmast. Hopefully this will still be the case once spars and sails get hung from it. I also came up with a solution for my least favorite part of the bow where the gunwalls meet the headrails. The red circle in this picture shows the new solution and you can compare it with the previous images to see which one looks better to you. The green circle shows where the boomkins attach to the forward bulkhead. The boomkins will be lashed to the knighthead (black bit around the bowsprit) and are used as a forward leverage point. Thanks for the comments everyone. Im really enjoying this part of the build since most of the hull work is complete. I will post more updates as she progresses. DPW

It is quite strong, even without the shrouds. I should mention that there are long axles running the full length of the foremast and the fore topmast to add to the strength. Here's a collage showing the parts of the fighting top and how the foremast and fore topmast are connected: I think this version is much more realistic than my previous version, and even includes the lubber's holes! I also had a chance to fit the shrouds to this new design and add a preliminary forestay. The futtock shrouds still need to be attached, but I think the result looks very good: Last weekend gave me a chance to assemble all four sections for the first time to see how everything fits together (the fourth being the stern galleries). The ship is "naked" currently, without walls to work in the interior and finish up all of the cannons for placement, but it gives a unique view of the internals of this ship: And one more for good measure: This is the first time Ive attached the stern galleries which are removeable. I will show more details on them later Let me know what you think so far! Dread Pirate Wesley

Fantastic job on the sails! I think those are the best custom ones I've seen It's not historic but it sure captures the essence of a frigate. The rigging turned out great as well. Great job again and great presentation as well with the water and the photos. Dread Pirate Wesley

You're on a roll with ships at the moment! And all of them are quality builds. I agree it has a very classic feel to it, much more so than your frigate. You should see if you have any spare parts around for a hoist to lower in the cargo. Only if spare parts allow of course, hate to drive up the cost Dread Pirate Wesley

Cool idea! I think it could be used in a ship. It would have to be implemented on an open deck ship though, otherwise it'd be a pain to reset I would think. Even if it was motorized you'd lose the effect. Still, maybe a gun brig or sloop would be nice... might have to look in to that Clever as always Sebeus! Dread Pirate Wesley

I must have missed this tutorial originally but it is brilliant! Really well presented information on some parts of the ship that are hard to research. I like the way you present the compartment walls. I'm trying to rig them on my ship currently and I think I will have them lift rather than be removeable. Good work and a good read! Dread Pirate Wesley

I like that method of rigging, but in this example it means that the platform is slanted upwards. In my research the platforms are all parallel to the water on a ship of this size so Im not sure it would work. Also it looks a bit thick by comparison. Can it withstand vertical tension well? I forgot the lubber's hole! That is a major oversight for me since it is in my original plans . The reason I rigged it this way is to give it an accurate appearance while being able to remove the fore topmast from the fore mast without having to undo the rigging. But youre right it isnt 100% yet. I think I have a solution that will be more accurate and include the lubber's hole as well. I will experiment with it and see what I can do. I think I will end up using this line but I will wax it once it's in place. It looks liked pitched rope once it's waxed and makes it a little thicker and sturdier. The mast is bent, though the wide angle photo exagerates it quite a bit. It is under tension but will be equalled once the other side is rigged too. Good catch! Thanks for the comments everyone, keep it up! DPW

Looks great! The hinged sides and curved bow technique turned out nice on your frigate. The anchor is a good design too, might have to borrow bits of that I really like the brickbuilt cannon and tiled deck too. Nice job, looking forward to seeing her under sail! Dread Pirate Wesley

Very impressive undertaking! Looks like you've been working for a while too. Is this going to be a historic ship like USS pennsylvania? If so you've got a one of a kind project there but are going to need another deck or two to make it a proper first rate. I think the smallest US first rate was rated at 104 guns so this will be HUGE The head rail design looks good in white, about the only criticism I have at this point is the gunports look a little small for the size of the ship. On a side note you will deffinately have to resize your pictures, maximum is 800x600 I believe. Keep up the good work! Dread Pirate Wesley

Thanks I agree... today at least In honor of 20,000 views a lot of work was done this weekend since it was poor weather outside. I cleaned up a lot of small details, like making the sides symmetrical and switching out various bits and pieces. The bow is now finalized and I began working on some preliminary shrouds to see if the design would work. It turned out to be quite easy to rig and very strong. Here's how it looks: The trick is to place twice as many these on the forecastle than the fighting top. Then the shroud is one continuous line woven around the outside on the bottom and looped around one of the prongs on the top. Here's what it looks like top and bottom: This is really just a test, I think the shrouds are a bit too thin but I like the technique. Here's a shot of the finalized bow with doors finally! The next time you see it the rigging will be completed at least from the bowsprit to the fighting top: Still making more progress on the stern and will update as that develops. Let me know what you think of the shrouds so far. DPW

Superb scene! Lots of details. I especially love the little dinghy, Id like to see a closer picture of that. Lots of great building techniques scattered throughout as well. Excellent job and really sneaked this one in under the radar! Dread Pirate Wesley

I spent some time modifying the ship to lower the entire hull by one brick. Overall I think it goes a long way to make the ship appear shorter, but puts the lower gundeck almost too close to the water. Here is a comparison between the two with the old version: And two side shots: Im so used to the way it was originally that its hard for me to say which one looks better, that's what I have shipmates for! Which version looks better to you? DPW