Dread Pirate Wesley

Well, to be honest when I first saww the pic I wondered what it was all for. Then I went to your Flickr and watched youre video link and was truly amazed! Those mechanical gunports are brilliant on the Demon II, cant wait to see what you have in store for this ship Id love to see mechanically trimmed sails or something like that too Dread Pirate Wesley

Very nice furniture in the cabin! Dont remember seeing it before. The sail plan looks very good too, much better than on Athena. I think you could make the main and mizzen staysails drop down a little lower, on most frigates Ive seen the lower portion of the staysail is more rectangular where the upper is triangular like this: Whats your plan for the sails? Are you going to use cotton as per Admiral Croissant's tutorial or thicker paper? You might have already stated earlier in this thread so forgive me if you have. Great work Dread Pirate Wesley

Good looking little frigate I agree about the spanker though, it looks way too large right now! From what I can tell 2 ways to solve this would be to make the overall size smaller so it doesnt extend out as far over the taff, or slide the sail attachment farther forward. Theres a big gap between the mizzen mast and the sail when it should be touching. Other than that looks good! I like the cannon design on deck too, and the tiled deck Dread Pirate Wesley

The standard Lego cannon are actually just place holders at the moment. These are the two designs Ill be using on the gundecks, with the 24 pounder great-gun on the left and 18 pounder on the right. I think Ill go with the mostly black design, though I like the red as well. The catheads will most likely be black, I simply didnt have any 1x1 bricks in any color but yellow at the moment. Blue is a good idea though, especially with blue headrails I think that would look rather nice. What do you think of the tumblehome with the foc'sle walls in place? DPW

Time for a weekend update, Ive been pretty busy but managed to make some good progress. My first goal this weekend was finishing off the forecastle section upper deck. I placed the foremast and hatchway, stove pipe, and preliminary bell stand. The post are for securing the sheets and tack lines. Heres what it turned out like: Next I wanted to mate the bow and foc'sle sections. This was easier than I thought, there was very little finagling required to make it all fit together. The bow is held on in 4 different areas, and can be lifted with out any sagging. You can also see in this photo the block that will hold the bowsprit. It is sandwiched between the upper and lower gundecks, hopefully providing enough strength to hold it up. Here's a test with the bowsprit installed. Definately a WIP picture so dont mind the mess, I thought it was interesting to see it with the walls removed on the foc'sle section too. And finally for tonight I played around with some preliminary headrails, and how they would be attached. They will not be red on the finished ship, but red was the most abundant 1x2 tile I had at the time. I have a plate over the bowsprit connection at the moment, Ill have to get some different plates to make the mount accessible. That's how she sits for the time being, waiting on another huge bricklink shipment. The bow is nearly complete with some minor tweaks to the beakhead and lots of details. Comments are appreciated! EDIT: more photos on Flickr as always. DPW

Great stuff I am a great fan of your technique on a small ship but I dare say it looks even better on a larger one so far! Good choice in model too, the sail plan looks tricky with the raked masts but I'm sure you'll figure it out, good luck! Dread Pirate Wesley

That's a very good point, and one that I think the model picture doesnt really show accurately from this angle. I wish I had I picture of the same model from the bow, but here is the curve Im going for from the waterline: As you can see it is a complex curve, being near to vertical at the waterline, and near to vertical again on the upper walls (not sure on the correct name). With this technique, Ive really only built it so far up to the top of the upper gundeck. Above that will be the walls of the forecastle or the quarterdeck which will return to near vertical. Here is a picture from a mock up I did a while ago from some spare parts before I began the LDD model, it shows how the quarterdeck walls will appear to give it a more difinitive shape: Hopefully that will provide the illusion of this complex curve and look correct compared to the plans. If not, as you say I will have to adjust the gundeck walls to achieve it. Thanks for the suggestion! DPW

Excellent fireplace Is it possible to squeeze a flame in there? Or maybe a log? Dread Pirate Wesley

Not quite sure what you mean there, but thanks! The LDD model is only intended as a "pre-vis", or a proof of concept if you like to make sure the idea would work in real brick. Ive found that anything in LDD so far translates to real brick, not the other way around in a lot of cases however. Heres my initial build of the mid-ship section which goes from the end of the foc'sle to the mainmast/quarterdeck. The tumblehome turned out very nicely I think. This is really a test to prove it will work and I will continue detailing it this week. I also completed the foc'sle and put a few cannon in it to show the spacing and size: For now it has standard lego cannon on the lower gun deck and brickbuilt 18 pounders on the upper gundeck. Notice that I made the actual forecastle deck removeable, this is to allow access to the upper gundeck for detailing and cannon placement. Once Im satisified with that it will be fixed. Im planning on using 5 different bruickbuilt cannons for this ship of varying weights. From right to left we have a 24 pounder great gun, 18 pounder great gun, 32 pound carronade, 12 pound carronade, and 9 pound carriage gun which will be used on the quarterdeck. This weekend I will be detailing the foc'sle and mating it to the bow. I also have a preliminary idea for the headrails so stay tuned! Let me know what you think of the shape so far. I have about 75% of the bricks required for this project so now its all about making it work. Thanks for the comments! DPW

The design of HMS Interceptor in the demo is great! I really hope we get to see that ship for real. Also the naval officers blue uniforms are superb, cant wait to see them for real. Fun demo glad I pre-ordered the game! Dread Pirate Wesley

Good start I like the texturing on the dock walls. It's a good idea building it into a space like that too, makes it look really clean. I envy that pile of pirate parts! Dread Pirate Wesley

Is the red supposed to represent hanging pieces of meat or crabs or something? Good bit of detail below the deck I really like that hammock design too. Dont think Ive seen a ship with working hammocks before. Id like to see a closer picture of that cannon in the foreground of your masts picture, looks like a good design as well, keep it up! DPW

You could just abandon the top section of the prefab bow too. You have a good bow technique going there in green, Id love to see it expanded lower to give it a really piercing shape. Personally I think Hoexbroe's technique is perfect for bruickbuilt cutters, but I think you could make it work with just the lower portion of the prefab bow too. Great color scheme btw Dread Pirate Wesley

Thanks Bjornu! You can follow my next ship in progress here or on my Flickr. And welcome to Classic-Pirates! DPW

Thanks for the comments so far everyone! I took some time this weekend to dive into the real bricks and see if the LDD design would translate well. I started with the bow since that is probably the most unique and difficult section, heres what it turned out like "in the brick": I added some preliminary head rails, they clip on the top and hold the three curved sections in place very well: And then mocked up a very rough beak head. With the bow construction the beak head will be all SNOT, but it has remarkable strength since it is attached vertically rather than at the bottom: To answer Captain Becker's question about strength, with this design the bow attaches to the foc'sle at 4 points, giving it plenty of strenth in my tests. I'll know more once I knock out the foc'sle section. As you can see the internal structure of the three bow pieces is rather complex: I do admit the bow is very bluff. This is supposed to be an Ardent class 64 (for now) which was a very early design with a very bluff bow. Here's a good view of a wooden kit of the same class without the head rails for comparison, courtesy of Model Ship World: Next up is the foc'sle section and the gunwalls, let me know what you think so far! DPW

Great vig! I know Ill slap myself when you tell me, but I really cant figure out what the piece is that the sword is sticking out of Great seagull too! Dread Pirate Wesley

Avast matey's! For my next project I thought Id do something a little different. Usually when I post something it is mostly completed, but this time I wanted to share the progress of a much larger scale project from its beginnings. For this new endeavor I have chosen an under-represented class of ship in the Lego world, a third rate ship-of-the-line. After extensive research and planning, I began toying with ideas in LDD. This was really my first time using LDD to mock up a real build, mainly because the bricklink orders needed to be more or less precise to make it reasonably affordable. I focused more on size and shape than detail, I find it much easier to add detail in real brick than LDD. Here's what I came up with: This project will be entirely brick-built, using no prefab hull sections, brick-built cannon, and new levels of detail and realism than Ive achieved so far in Pickle or Praetorian. It is not minifig scale (even though it's 24 studs wide) but by moving away from hull sections the shape is much easier to get in proportion. She will be built from the waterline rather than a full hull, the reason for this will be revealed much later Heres a top view: The hull will be made in sections, consisting of the foc'sle, mid-ship, and quarterdeck. The cabin section and stern will also be removable and is one section I haven't fully conceptualized yet. Heres the foc'sle detatched: The interior will be fully finished, with at least 64 brick built cannon (I have 22 built so far) and will comfortably fit a minifig standing up. The technique on the tumblehome uses standard 1x2 hinges (over 200 of them!) instead of hinge plates to get the right shape: My first parts order arrived earlier this month. As I begin the actual build I will post progress updates in this thread, culminating hopefully in a very large, one of a kind battleship: Here's the Flickr gallery for this project. Stay tuned, any helpful comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated as this ship takes shape! Dread Pirate Wesley

I really liked the collectible minifig mime torso from series 2. It makes a fine pirate with black arms, plus its cheap! Dread Pirate Wesley

Love the clone troopers dr_spock! I was always a fan of this one I took a while ago Sail on the horizon! Dread Pirate Wesley

Just saw this on Flickr, great stuff! Im not so sure on the red and gold /o\ pattern (for lack of a better way of describing it) on the inner wall, but man everything else is fantastic especially love the water, gives it a nice choppy sea feeling... I feel inspired! Dread Pirate Wesley

Very cool techniques! Are those tee-pees next to the mountain? Love the different trees too Dread Pirate Wesley

Well the stitching took less time than the photo editing if thats any indication! It was really quite straight forward, I drew lines at 1cm intervals where they would be sewed to the yards, and the yards provided the spacing I needed to make it look even. Hardest part was not stabbing my fingers but you get the hang of that after the first few pokes. Thanks for the tip Admiral. Ive been trying to find the right balance between detail and character for the sails to match the ship. It would not be difficult to draw every line on the sails, but I think it will look too busy. I think the right balance might be to add the horizontal lines only, where the reef points are. I think that would look the best since the hull is really quite simple in colors and details. The jib and staysail I will leave plain, except for improving the clews. It will look a little like this with really prominent reef lines, maybe sewed in to complete the effect: Dont worry I think one blog is enough! Is it possible to change the thread title though? Like "The Pickle: Now under sail" or something like that? I couldnt figure out how to do that. Thanks! DPW

That is an interesting article cb4! Though it doesn't really explain why the first Pickle was named that way. Perhaps it will remain a mystery... Here she is now under sail for the first time: Making her way inland, perhaps around the coastal waters of France: And finally offset from Nelson's weather column at Trafalgar, an eyewitness to a rare action. The Victory and Temeraire are leading the line in the background: My first set of custom sails, so comments and criticisms are appreciated! She's mostly complete for now, thanks for looking and everyones comments DPW

Great tutorial Could have used this about a week ago when I started making sails for the Pickle but hey, at least its around now too. I did things a bit differently, using heavier cloth and folding the edges over and gluing them so they don't unravel. It looks a bit thicker, but is "pose-able" to bend in to what ever shape you want. Great idea with the pencil lines too, Ill have to try that next. Out of curiosity what is that book you are using as reference? Dread Pirate Wesley

Tip-o-the-hat to you Sir! DPW