Legeaux

You did? From my first post in this thread:

That's the colour they come in! 8-( (From the 4894 creator dragon set)

A bit. Although the analogy is not quite right, as the car almost certainly generated the power for the battery in the first place. Possibly more like coasting downhill, but again, not quite right either. A bit new? Definitely. For me too. I built it primarily as something interesting to do with the narrow hulls, it certainly doesn't fit the the timeline or 'story' of Port Brique. I even wondered if I should post it here! And the Guerre de Roue certainly provides a contrast to the other vessels in port at the moment.

Yes. There is two studs clearance between the guns - I would have liked smaller guns, but didn't have any 3x2 wedges in red. :( Originally, I had armed her with only one gun each side (one forward, one aft), but I decided she looked better with pairs, despite the clearance-for-recoil issue. I based it on the memory I had of a model I saw at the Australian National Maritime Museum (in the USA Gallery). I am embarrassed to admit that I don't even recall her name. I'll see what I can do. ;) Thanks! Thanks for the compliments. As for sails (which Captain Roger suggested too), a vessel like this, if on a short voyage (or one dominated by headwinds), would likely sail with bare spars. However, a set of furled sails would probably add to the appearance (even brick build Constitution-style sails might look okay). Definitely. They may not even be on the spars, but they would definitely be carried. A vessel like this may even spend time under both steam and sail, given the right conditions.

29c Ahoy all, A little advanced technology from the shipwrights of Port Brique, the Guerre de Roue: More pics here, post moderation. The Guerre de Roue was built out of parts on hand, and you can probably tell a few areas where I was scraping the bottom of the parts barrel... I find narrow hulls a bit of challenge to build well with, but a mid 19th century sidewheeeler can use the narrowness of the hulls well. As always, comments and criticisms welcome.

Keep them until the urge overtakes me to build something new with the parts. The oldest vessel in Port Brique is about five years old now... but some don't last nearly that long.

29a Ahoy all, A new vessel in the waters of Port Brique... and not a friendly one this time! The lateen rigged corsair, the Adroit Main, has been raiding merchant shipping... More pics here, post moderation. A bit of an experiment with the 10-wide hull sections, a traditional style on a small vessel, an exotic rig, and a pair of dragon wings as sails! As always, happy for any comment or suggestions. (This one definitely doesn't float ;-) )

Yes. But you can get pretty piratey without... I was seeing how far. (And I think you can go a lot further, but probably not with that hull ;))

If you're in need of cheaper headgear for Napoleonic soldiers, there's always the car-tyre busby: (I haven't met a LEGO fan yet who doesn't have a few spare tyres...)

Simply put, I hoped it would look better (more 'piratey' I guess) than it did. It's too long, too narrow and too tall. I really hoped to be able to widen the hull a bit, but the hull geometry doesn't match standard LEGO geometry very well (eg the sides of the hull are off-vertical, but they are far more vertical than a tall slope). The design limitations I used were simple - no pirate parts. (Just to see if it could be done). It is... I borrowed the calico sails from l'Ambassador Rouge for the pics, but didn't have a gaff sail/spanker to suit (and didn't want to modify one either). That's the one! And the fireboat set provides a reasonable number of 2x2x2 tall slopes - a most useful piece for ship building. No, it just means the superstructure is way too heavy for the bouancy of the hull. Not directly, but things can be attached by way of a technic axle and parts - the motor that comes with the fireboat set attaches to the hull via a technic axle included in the motor moulding. Well, that is the nature of speculations ;-) Um, no, not the least because I don't have a bath tub. :-D However, I have observed the performance of the fireboat model in a swimming pool, and I can compare how much the Nonlibre Billet weighs compared to the standard model, and I can conclude to my complete satisfaction that it is too heavy to float, in any reasonable way. Bouancy is about mass and volume - what the Nonlibre Billet needs is more volume, not more mass.

I don't think more weights would make the Nonlibre Billet float, but they might make it sink the right way up. ;) Thanks for the welcome back, too. I'll have some more vessels to share soon.

I like the way you used the fences on the stern gallery windows... so often when fences are used they look like, well, fences. Breaking them up into smaller panes with the 2x1 (with 1 stud?) plates works really well.

20a Ahoy all, I've been absent from these waters for a while, but the shipwrights have been busy at their trade, so I present the merchant brig, Nonlibre Billet: More pics here, post moderation. It didn't quite turn out as well as I hoped, but I did impose some fairly tight design limitations... anyway, I'd be pleased to hear any comments or suggestions for improvements. (Incidentally, I haven't tested it, but I'm reasonably certain it doesn't float - at least, not the right way up ;))

I think the airport engine is too big, but YMMV. The mortars on my two current bomb ketches are garbage cans. The most recent is the Bloviator. My first bomb ketch, the Fantine was originally armed with a 4x4 round mortar, but has since been rearmed with a pair of 2x2 mortars (sorry, no pics available of the new configuration).

Cool then! I've never used hot glue with Lego... but if it's not damaging, and is easy to remove from Lego, I think I might try it sometime. (I don't think you can beat hot glue for speed of cure combined with removability).

You may be better off using a product intended as a sealant, rather than hot glue. A silicon based sealant is likely to be safe with ABS, can be worked quite well, and is fairly easy to remove from plastic (once you realise that not matter how well sealed, it's not going to float well enough for you ;-)).

If you could get the enough weight low enough, you might stop it capsizing before it sinks. A brick built hull, or a brick supplemented hull, is going to be a leaky proposition. If someone were to attempt it, I'd suggest filling the hull with expanded styrofoam. The water will still get in, but won't be able to fill the hull. (Just cut the foam to size, or use bean bag beans or similar). If you have a look at a full hull drawing of a pirate era (or later) vessel, you'll see that there is a *lot* of volume below the waterline.

:o Well, I could, I guess, but I'm not going too. I think the real issue is not going to be the holes in the hulls, it's going to be a combination of the 'waterline cut-off' of the Lego hulls that has been mentioned, and also the weight and height of the superstructure and rigging. She'd capsize first, then sink, in my estimation. What I can report though, is that I took my 7906 Fireboat out for a run in a swimming pool (salt water) on the weekend. It wasn't hugely stable, but was great fun. She does sit low in the water - but is a lot more stable (if lower) with the motor attached. The motor is surprisingly effective, and the rudder quite good for steering. I had some spots of salt appear on the bricks when she'd dried off, but a quick rinse under fresh water solved that. I plan to have a go at a tall ship superstructure and rig for the 7906 hull. I think it should be possible to come up with something acceptable, but I also think that it will be too heavy to float - or at the very least the centre of gravity will be too high. If you want a floating pirate ship, I think you'll need to base it on the Captain Redbeard hull (or the Durmstrang one, possibly), and you'll need to work very carefully to keep the topsides light.

Nice looking vessel you have there! And in the correct navy! :-) The bowsprit looks a bit short - it could probably do with another mast section (and maybe a jibboom as well?).

I wasn't going to originally, but I've been toying with lengthening it for a while. I think I've finally decided not to, as I'm not sure I have enough tall red slopes to do it justice. Instead, I'm thinking of rebuilding the old Reprendr

I'd be tempted to make the mainmast slightly taller than the foremast. But kudos for building nicely tall masts - too often, I think, vessels are let down by what can only be considered 'stumpy' masts. I think the foremast needs to be lowered slightly (maybe with the base one or two bricks set into the deck), so the ratlines can be properly anchored. I am not a fan of the 4x4 brick construction at the base of the mainmast, it's just too square (I can't offer an easy solution, though). And the ratlines on the main should not extend upward of the fighting top, that's just wrong - unless the crew regularly starches the rigging, I guess! ;-) But enough criticism: You have a very nice looking vessel there, and, as others have said, that figurehead is pretty awesome.

Tony Priestman - see http://news.lugnet.com/pirates/?n=1887

Here's a list of most of what I've built to date (with pics). Some of the older ones really show their age, these days. Higher resolution pics of l'Administrateur Rouge still to come...

Ahoy, Don't forget, that in a real sailing vessel, the hull extends significantly below waterline, while lego hulls are effectively cut off of the waterline. This means there is dramatically different volume available for 'below decks', and you're never going to be able to create a 'to scale' interior without a full depth brick built hull. Cargo space, being essentially only 'space' (SPACE!) is an obvious thing to go in the selective compression which is neccessary when building models restricted to the waterline - and cargo space would generally be below the waterline anyway. Check out a few full hull drawings or pictures of full hull models and you'll soon see how much space we lose building only to the waterline.

Ahoy, The HMS Floater is quite an old vessel (dating back to 2001 - see http://news.lugnet.com/pirates/?n=1887), so I think it's a bit harsh to compare it to later vessels. I think, for the time, it's very nice. I particularly like the use of masts for yardarms. It is tall and narrow for it's armament, but unless dramatic steps are taken that is too be expected. Building a 64 is a pretty impressive undertaking (and even more so when it was done in 2001), and I think that the HMS Floater compares favourably aesthetically, to the majority of vessles built nowadays. Although I think there are a few improvements that could be done quite easily (and some, like building in a lot of inverse slopes, with quite a bit of difficuly), I'd certainly be proud to moor her in Port Brique! (Edited to correct the URL for the lugnet link)