BrickPerfection

Looks very clean and detailed. Certainly one of the best small ships. Are you planning to add ratlines to the shrouds? That would look really awesome! If you glue them it can be done in 3-4 hours.

Quite interesting find, thanks for sharing. But I'm not entirely sure if that's worth blogging?

Yeah, I've discovered this guy on Mocpages a while ago. His ships are super accurate since he's using real plans and building them in true minifigure scale (actually I believe his ships are a tad too big for that even). The techniques used are very unique and sometimes fantastic, but on the other hand it often looks rather unstable. With that brig he's now showing that his creations can at least to some extend be build with real bricks, but I'm a bit worried about that masts, they look like they are going to fall apart any moment. If his entire fleet was ever built in real Lego it would be so stunning that almost nothing could come close. But I believe structural problems and escalating costs won't allow for that to happen. I'll be looking forward to see more MOCs from Anders T, and I hope he'll finish that brig, including sails.

Really nice! Your ship has a very unique look to it that distinguish it from pretty much everything else that's floating around here. I do regret I haven't written something earlier. The interior is probably the best I've ever seen in that scale and the stern looks fantastic. The presentation is first class and the way you made the water seems very effective, although rather expensive. I'm not incredibly fond of the bow, but you've used some very interesting techniques there. I like how you've too used 3mm tube for the headrails, but I still believe that can be improved. The sails show fantastic craftmanship of a kind unseen on Lego ships before, although they aren't terribly realistic (too small and too white). The rigging is very clean and nicely done, but the string is a bit too thin. Congrats on finishing her and for reaching the frontapage of course!

Building ships is probably one of the hardest disciplines in MOCs, if you take the (custom) rigging and sail making effort into account, it's quite possible the hardest; but then again that's not Lego. I think this is an important point that has not yet been mentioned: rigging and sailmaking regularly takes more than half of the time that's needed to build a ship (though only a small portion of the costs) and also a great deal of skill and creativity, but it's strictly speaking not building Lego. Why do I think building ships is so difficult? Well I guess it's a number of factors: - There are curves everywhere (in 3 dimensions) and we all know that bricks are straight. - Ornaments on historic ships can be very elaborate and are often impossible to make with lego. You can try and imitate the overall impression, but it's quite tricky. - There isn't much space: sailing ships have always been cramped and putting all of that detail into a MOC is impossible; even in minifigure scale, so you end up with a fraction of it that's still difficult to make. - The rigging makes it difficult to make your ship modular, the only viable options are to make either the sides or topdeck removable both of which compromises the rigging and build quality in some way. - Even Minifigure Illusion Scale (=prefab) ships are rather large compared to other MOCs which incresases construction time and also costs. No true minifigure scale ship has ever been finished, but Captain Blackmoor comes closer every other day. - For building ships you need many specialised parts, which further drives both build time and costs. - You'll also need a ton of very specialised techniques that can't possibly be all invented by one person, so one way or another you'll have to copy some from others before adding your own touch (in the past I've tried keeping track of credit, but given it up by now due to lack of interest ). - Then there's the rigging thing; take Vesta as an extreme example and you'll immediately know that that's hard. - The same applys to sails. Of course for instance building vehicles in Minifigure scale or with integrated technic functions is also a very hard discilpine that I have great respect for, but you don't have that rigging madness. I also have to agree with Captain Blackmoor that a lot depends on the amount of detail you want to achieve, however a mediocre ship looks like a house with masts while a mediocre castle still looks like a castle. By the way, I'm currently into the rigging process on 8 ships More on that later.

Quite simply the best PotC Flying Dutchman I have ever seen made with real bricks. I don't think there's much else to add. Congratulations!

First of all thanks for all of your efforts, I haven't seen anybody else spending as much time with tutorials as yo do, but I'd still like to clarify some details: I think this is a bit too strict, while it might be true for the typical 3rd rate, almost all 1st and 2nd rates have a tumblehome which is curving inwards much more on the middle gundeck than on the lower gundeck. HMS Victory is a good example: Also HMS Trincomalee has a tumblehome that is starting to curve inwards quite a bit below the gundeck (on the orlop): http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5022/5558105951_c656aa1e8c_b.jpg Similarly the space between gunports cannot be strictly nailed down to for instance 2 times the size of a gunport; it could also be 3 or 2,5 times times that size. It's just uncommon to be more than 3 or less than 2. I don't mean to prove you wrong, your tutorials are very long and helpful, but they should be more accurate if you really want to help people with their MOCs.

I'm quite surprised for how much the IFS is sold on ebay! If yoor looking for MOCs, Bricklink is your friend and your imagination (and wallet ) the only serious constraints. For a little Modding the Black Seas Barracuda is probably the most beautiful and best value for money ship. Practically it's an Imperial vessel with the wrong flags and crew.

Congratulations, Big Cam! Since you have very regularly put in such a great amount of effort into all of the EB forums (unlike e.g. me ) my guess is that there could not have been a more dedicated candidate!

First off all I am very grateful that you've considered expanding the historic ship index, I've feared it wouldn't be of much use but hopefully you've proved me wrong. If you read the INDEX thread carefully, it should become pretty obvious that it's not meant to be a complete list of all historical ships and replicas out there, but simply a compilation of all the ships the members of classic-pirates.com have taken pictures of. In other words: If I'm looking for ships, I can use wikipedia, but for pictures that are readily available and can easily be linked (!) in the forums (external links may cause problems and are often bigger than the allowed 800x600) there is this index! Also, you don't have to ask or make suggestions, you can easily contribute to the index by uploading your pictures, linking them to a thread and put in these: Soon, either myself or a staff member will edit my post and voilà, our index has grown by one more entry! Also consider that since it's your thread you can always edit if you have better pictures. I'm really looking forward to any additions and I hope everybody who might find the index useful does too!

I can see some interesting ideas, but the overall colorscheme and shape seem pretty messy to me. Maybe a look at some real ships might help you? Keep it up!

It's certainly looking good, but may I ask you how stable your rigging is? After all you have to consider that the topmast, topgallant mast and sails will add considerable weight. Also moving the MOC around may cause poorly constructed masts to collapse. I'd also like to note that by lowering your hull by one brick the guns are now much too close to the water; I liked the previous version better. Considering sleekness I'd recommend to lower the structure above the upper gunports, about where the working area is located (between the fore- and mainmast). Also take into account that minifigure illusion scale ships will always be "fatter" than both minifigure scale and historical ones, simply because the decks are too high relative to all other measures. Your ship has always been and always will be one of my favorite MOCs in progress, so I'm really looking forward to any progress made.

I am amazed to see such a mighty fine vessel built on the small prefabs. I don't think I every saw a better MOC build on these! Many have said it already, but I have to note that your sails stand out; i.e. they are simply outstanding! Rigging is good too. I also love your choice of colors; just as much as I enjoy my way of making headrails becoming more popular The showcase is great, I've build one too for my frigates, however I found it very heavy and prone to scratches. What are your experiences? Great build! I'm looking forward to seeing your next MOC.

The size sure is very impressive, but I can already count 22 guns on the lower gundeck; on each side! If you give just a tiny bit of attention to historical accuracy you should reduce this to 16 at most. After all the gun count is one of the most important characteristic of a ship of the line. Building a 1st rate with 44 guns on each deck is about as accurate as building one with 4 masts if you know what I mean. Personally I found 3-wide gunports the most accurate, the Lego cannons are a bit too short for minifigure scale (but come pretty close to carronades). How are you planning to ensure structural integrity? After all this is one of the toughest challenges for minifigure scale ships. Any ideas concerning modularity? Still, it's great to see one more minifigure scale ship in the works, this is the eye candy pretty much everybody on this forum is looking for. I'm very much looking forward to updates. Keep it up!

Interesting concept; the spring bricks are some of my favorite parts. I can however not imagine how this would fit into a ship since it takes so much space and ship's decks are usually very thin, even in minifigure scale it wouldn't fit. Besides the Captain Greenhair frigate you mentioned doesn't typically have guns on the gundeck since it isn't modular. The best real use I can see here is indeed for a fort gun battery of some kind, there are almost no building limitations and even if you just fit 3 or 4 guns it can look great.

Obviously much better than the official set, but what dedicated MOC isn't? Maybe you can buy another topsail of bricklink since your foremast is lacking one. The same applys for the foremast rigging. As for serious improvements: some modularity would be nice, maybe a removable topdeck like the Imperial Flagship? I also think the gundeck places the cannons a bit too low. The stern is looking very good. As others have mentioned already: What a great way to introduce yourself!

A nice little vessel you have there! A bit too edgy for my taste, but the choice of colors is very appealing. Fairly close to the official sets in terms of design and size.

Wonderful MOC of a wonderful airplane. The amount of detail is astonishing as usual and it's just as accurate as it can be. I can't really find a definitive flaw here, it's perfect in it's way. Personally I never liked studs showing up and I don't like it here either, but it's your style of building and it has something very unique to it. The switch to brick build canopys is an interesting decision; after all Lego designers make new parts they need as well! On the other hand it's even more impressive when you manage with the bricks available.

Guerriere is also finished now, I only need to take decent pictures, resize and possibly edit them, upload them etc... Meanwhile I'd like to give you a sneak peek of the new sails I'll introduce with Guerriere and which will also be added to Achille around Christmas time! I haven't seen anyone else doing the ropes, so I think it might be worth showing. Finishing Guerriere wasn't easy because she is also smaller than Achille (5mids) and uses some very similar techniques, yet every new ship should be a step forward. That's why I made those new sails.

Well I admit I'm a little spoiled by all those insane landscaping MOCs , but on a closer look your little port may not have the techniques, but it has atmosphere and style! It really does remind one very much of the "classic" Pirates lineup and hence fits here better than almost any other creation.

I have seen this magnificent building for a while now; it really does stand out! The wooden structure is excellent as are the windows and roof. My only thought here is that maybe dark brown would have been a little more accurate for those wooden bemas since they always seem to be so dark on the real things... but it's also looking great in reddish brown!

Yeah, you really should as that is the single biggest problem. 7 stud spacing works best in terms of general proportions. Also take into account that you'll need an uneven number if you want the (3-wide) gunports to be nicely offset from each other. 5 studs would usually be too short, while 9 definetely is too much. 7 appears to be perfect since it fits within the 1 stud= 1 foot scale. When you manage to fix the tumblehome too, she should be fine. We can argue about all those minor details later. On this picture it look pretty nice already! I'm looking forward to the next update!

I'm sorry, but you're missing my point: with 9 stud spacing between the gunports and 14 on each side it will become too long; in fact your hull would be about 200 studs at the waterline which is way too much! The Santissima was 201 feet at the gundeck; so yeah with 9 stud spacing you'll be building a 3rd rate as long as the Santissima! 46 studs sounds good to me - if it's at the very widest part of the ship! 40ish at the forecastle should be fine too, although it looks like 44 to me at the moment. I wouldn't base her so much on British ships, they were very different in a lot of ways. Especially the bow and stern would look much different, but the tumblehome and all curves would be much different too! Generally British ships were smaller and more curved, they had 28 guns on the upper gundeck whereas the French had 30 and 18 on the topdeck compared to 16. This is a British ship the HMS Bellona: This is a French model, build to the plans of Jean Boudriot : Also note the bow: You should see that the headrails are curved very low. Also there are gunports next to the doors for chaser guns! The headrails are so low so the guns could fire. The French traditionally included gunports for bow chasers on their 2-deckers from the 17th century onwards. The reason is that they had to face Barbary Corsairs and their Xebecs which could easily outmaneuver a lone ships of the line. You can actually find a proof of this in the book "The Ship" from Björn Landström, page 167 (in the German version ) Admiral Croissant should have it! So on a French ship the headrails would curve much lower and the deck between them would be far wider than on a British one. Nope, they had 2x14=28! If you don't believe me, click here! Sorry, but that is incorrect. HMS Anson which was build as a 64gun 3rd rate in 1781 had a freeboard of less than 5ft. When she was cut down to a frigate (razéed)it was reported to be 6ft 4in. Source: "Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars" by Robert Gardiner. Also in the book "The Ship" it is mentioned that some First Rates had a freeboard of just 1,2m (page 166)! It was indeed very common practice for battlefleets to wait for calm winds before engaging! Facing frigates in rough seas, the low gunports could become a serious drawback! The "Bucentaure" is a "ghost ship" in history, i.e. there is almost no reliable information on it, no plans, nothing. She was in service only from 1804-1805 since she didn't survive Trafalgar and - due to the blockade spend most of her lifetime in port. There is just one painting of her, but the painter is unknown and it's black and white. If you refer to this painting, you should know that the painter, Aguste Mayer, was born in 1805 and has probably never seen a ship of that period. He most likely made that colourscheme up from his fantasy. I apologize for that! I don't mean to teach you or win a debate, but instead just share some of the knowledge I aquired. Like I said, if this is getting too much into detail, just ignore my words. I can also stop with all these references if you don't wish so much historical accuracy! After all this is just a Lego and not a model building forum; although I visited the latter quite often recently. Just tell me if you wish different feedback! I wish you much sucess completing her - as accurate as you wish. Cheers! -Perfectionist

Sorry that I'm saying this so late, but I'm afraid your masts are way too high... the distance from the waterline to the top should about equal to the waterline lenght for most of the old sailing ships! Since you're not really building a historic model it's maybe not terribly relevant, but I wanted you to know! Happy building!

Ahoy, Captain, I've already seen you posting Friday night but wanted to gice a more detailed reply! As you know I've seen her in real life a few weeks ago and I think you know what I think of her - and since you only made her longer that hasn't changed. It's not so much criticism about the look or the techniques your using (she does look great! ), but rather about scale. She's simply far too big to be accurate! At minifigure scale even the "Ocean" or the "Santissima Trinidad" would be smaller than your ship and they were the biggest ships of their era. I'm basing "Superbe" on the measurements of the Téméraire class (the real "Superbe" was of that class too!) which was 172 French feet long and 44 feet and 6 inches wide. I made that 172 studs long and 44 studs wide which is 1:42 and hence minifig scale. Since almost all of the French 3rd rates during the napoleonic wars were built to that design your ship should have virtually the same measurements, if you want it to be accurate! Alternatively you could make her an 80 gun ship, those were larger and a bit more powerful with 186 feet lenght at the gundeck and 46 feet width. I also tried your technique a bit; it also works with a narrower hull! On that pic its 42 studs, but you could even bend it to 30! Another note about the lenght: you already have 9 gunports on the lower gundeck, so if that's 40% you'd end up with 20 on each side which is more than any ship of the line ever had ... a French 74 would have 14 on each side of the lower and 15 on the upper gundeck, a 80 gun ship 15 and 16. Personally I consider 7 stud spacing betweem the gunports most accurate, you seem to have 9 - again that's too big. Also take into account the freeboard of your ship, i.e. the distancefrom the waterline to the lower gunports on a ship of the line it would be not much more than 5 feet which is the height of a minifig or less. Another issue is the tumblehome. Consider that you should loose at least 10% of the deck width from the lower to the upper gundeck, French ships had less tumblehom than British ones, but yours is clearly not enough, again that makes the topdeck far too wide. What I also just noticed is that while a yellow-on-black colourscheme would have been accurate for a Napoleonic French ship of the line, it would definitely not feature the "Nelson checker", that means the gunports would be yellow, not black on the outside! Also the masts would have their natural wood look (reddish brown or tan) instead of yellow! Only the British painted their masts, and they did that too distinguish their ships from the sometimes yellow painted Frenchmen! Of course I'm a little bit crazy with my nitpicking here and I guess pretty much everybody else didn't notice any of that. So if you continue building her like that she still will be one of the best creations on the web! However I researched these things extensively for "Superbe" (which was already planned to be a 3rd rate when "Fourageux" was still a 4th rate), so I guess you're geting my point? Anyway it's great to see that you're still working on her and she does get better with every rebuild - but she's still far from perfection.