Legeaux

I chose the unstaggered spacing simply to squeeze the maximum number of guns in. I would have had to sacrifice one gun from the broadside to accomodate proper staggering in the space I had. As I said, the l

Thanks! It does look pretty good. Definitely, the absence of a defined poop on l

Very nice... is that an inverted jet engine?

If anything, I'd like to make the masts taller. Particularly if she was rebuilt as a ship, I'd want a bit more height on the mainmast. Thanks! I'd like to see that. (If you could downsize what is now the mainmast when it becomes the mizzenmast, that would be a nice touch too).

Perhaps using the term "uppermost sail" or "topmost sail" would be a reasonable way to avoid confusion? I think there is plenty of space for fore and main courses on the existing masts, but I guess it's only academic. Really? I find the main tops'l on the SES to be far to big in proportion to the other sails, and rigged far too close to the masthead to be realistic or practical. But, well, I guess I like to strike a balance between form and function (and so often, I think that if you get the function right, then the form looks 'right' too). That might be a hint for me to go and build some below decks detail, too! :-D At the moment, L'Administrateur Rouge is very empty below decks - a couple of platforms to hold the guns, and a large empty space where the cabins are. There are two masts and a substantial sternpost to support the rig and the decks, though. The whole gallery does fold down though, so there is good access for adding detail... hmmm, maybe a project for the weekend. ;-)

The sails probably look a bit high, because she's missing her courses - tops'ls, t'gallants and royals, though not uncommon for moderate winds, tend to look a bit too high. No doubt somewhere there is some evidence for an age of sail a two decked brig... I haven't come across any yet, though. ;-) While the length is the obvious issue, a properly scaled two decker will also need to be wider One of the things to address is that a two decker is not simply a single decker with an extra deck laid on top, and that the lower deck gun ports of a two decker should be considerably *lower* than the gun ports of a single decker of a similar length. Historically, frigates could sometimes take on two decked men-o-war in heavy seas because the ships of the line couldn't open their lower gunports (particularly if the frigate was to leeward).

Most references I've seen are that they are called chasers (or 'chase guns'), though often more fully as bow chasers and stern chasers (or after chasers). Correct mounting of the anchors is often overlooked (who am I to comment though, this brig has the anchors hooked on the rigging! :-D). In my last few vessels I've tried to incorporate decent catheads... these are the nicest yet, but a bit on the fragile side. Indeed. Don't forget that there's brown lattice windows too, and yellow and green (iirc) - though the latter are quite rare. The fences also give a larger window, which can be useful. I don't think I'll be stretching L'Administrateur Rouge - it really is just an experimental vessel, but it is interesting to speculate. By 'top sails' do you mean tops'ls or the royals that are the uppermost on L'Administrateur Rouge? Don't forget there would be courses below the tops'ls. The sails on L'Administrateur Rouge are stiffened calico made on templates I made from Lego sails... iirc the topgallants are the the same size as the BSB tops'ls and the tops'ls are the BSB courses ( I made them a couple of years ago, and don't have them handy to check). In any case though, L'Administrateur Rouge is a substantial vessel, and she would need greater sail area than I've given her so far.... out of interest, has anyone seen a Lego vessel with studding sails? That might be worth trying... As for the figure head? Well, what can I say? 8-| It's a carryover from the old Madame, and one that I use on most of my sailing vessels. I have used an armed version, but it's a little bigger.

I've used it a few times before... they're good for some colour variation, and also some size variation over the 4x3 lattice windows. (And credit where credit's due: I picked up the technique from Kevin Hall of Andrastavia fame.) A shade on the stubby side? :-D Absolutely! As I said, this isn't a serious vessel. As for the sudden increase in two deckers? Well, it seems there is a bit of an arms race going on. ;-)

A 4x2 plate? Not very surprising at all - same as the fore and main tops'ls in fact. ;-)

53c Ahoy, Since the settlement of Port Brique in 1801, there has been a wide variety of vessels calling it home. But no two deckers. Until now. Although wide and ungainly, brig-rigged L�Administrateur Rouge packs a broadside seldom matched, while her ample cabins make her a suitable alternative to the aging Mis�rable as the flagship of the French Colony. Reportedly, an experimental Dutch vessel, captured in the Straights de Torres in December 1806, the L�Administrateur Rouge now under the command of the colony�s second best captain, patrols the waters around Port Brique administering the law of revolutionary France (hence L�Administrateur Rouge). I have toyed with the idea of building a two decker for a while, but haven�t had the time, or the willingness to sacrifice on of my larger vessels for the hull. Over Christmas, I got the old brig Madame Thenardier out of storage, intending to rebuild her as a new brig, but I decided instead to use the Madame�s hull to experiment with some ideas I�d had for building a two decker, and particularly building a double gallery. The result is the L�Administrateur Rouge. The L�Administrateur Rouge is not by any means a serious vessel, but it has allowed me to toy with cross sections appropriate for a two decker. The deck spacing works out quite well, and while the join of the angled gallery to the cabin betrays my lack of red inverse tall slopes somewhat, I think it works reasonably well. The rig is straight from the old Madame, but with extra mast sections added. (What were once the mainmasts are now the topmasts (with new fighting tops added), what were once the courses are now the tops�ls and so on). The bowsprit is new, and uses a 4+ pirates mast section along with a column of 2x2 round bricks, to achieve a reasonable length. You'll note the use of small ratlines to the fore and main tops. Looking at the L�Administrateur Rouge, I can imagine it being two or three hull sections longer, with the current foremast becoming the main, the mizzen where the mainmast is now, and a foremast added. Maintaining the current gun spacing, means that each extra hull section would yield eight extra guns� this would mean that a four centre section version of the L�Administrateur Rouge would be a 40 gun ship! More pics are at brickshelf, if anyone is intereste: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=224506 Any feedback would be most welcome.

This is my green decorated, flybo hulled, pirate cutter Revenge, which was back in the days of my old camera.... She still exists, so if there's interest, I can take more (and definitely better!) pics.

Nice images. Odd modifications. It seems the extra ratlines were added for only the sake of adding extra ratlines. Ratlines secured to the rails? That's insulting to the original design of the vessel! Count me as unimpressed.

'Tis very confusing indeed. By the Napoleonic era (which is generally the era in which I choose to build), the number of decks refered to 'gun decks' - more or less enclosed decks with guns shooting through gunports in the hull. I say more or less, because, generally, the topmost gundeck would be at least partly open. Generally, in ships with multiple gun decks, the guns on the lower decks where heavier than the guns on the upper decks. IIRC, the Spanish 120gun ships had four gun decks. The 'top deck', I'd generally refer to as the spar deck, consisted (by then, anyway) of the forecastle & quarterdeck plus the gangways over the upper (or only) gun deck. The poop (still sometimes present on larger vessel) is a level above the quarterdeck (and hence the spar deck). For determining the rating (in the Royal Navy) or the number of guns (elsewhere), generally only the number of guns on the gun deck (or gun decks) were counted. Spar deck (or 'topdeck' or upper deck) guns where 'extras', but were also generally lighter (or carronades). So a sixty four might have 32 twenty-four pounders on the lower deck, 32 twelve pounders on the upper, four 24 pound carronades on the forecastle, half a dozen 24 pound carronades on the quarterdeck, and a pair of nine pound chasers foreward and aft. (in the forecastle and the gun room respectively), plus a few swivel guns on the rails and in the tops. I guess this is not much use to describing Lego vessels. And I'd warn against holding any of the above as 'truth'. As has been mentioned, we are talking about a rating system 200 years old, and records of the period, while comprehensive, are not always unanimous. I don't worry about trying to rate ships (most of my naval vessels are French anyway, so it shouldn't be applied!), I tend to use the number of guns (on gun decks) and the rig to give a quick description, unless the description is obvious. eg the Mis

Thanks! I've got it lined up on a shelf with a few of my other vessels, and I think it's the best looking by a fair margin. Excellent!

I used a hacksaw... but any fine toothed saw will work. The saw isn't as important as how you cut - I made a jig out of expendable bricks secured 3 studs forward of the stern, turned it over, and cut through from the bottom up, keeping the saw blade hard against the jig (the jig bricks will get scratched and scuffed). After sawing, the cut edges needed to be tidied a bit (a quick go over with fine emery paper if the sawing was accurate, a bit of work with a craft knife if not). That works very well. Impressive. (Particularly for something just thrown together). I will have to experiment.

I much recommend it. Real Lego fabric sails would be better (if they came in larger sizes! ;-)), but paper sails are, I think, far better than bare spars. From a construction point of vew, they are well supported. From a 'look' point of view, I can understand your concern, however, adding tall ratlines too the topmasts looks too heavy (thought the newer design does look better than the older, tapered design in this context). I think it looks better without topmast ratlines, although possibly some Lego string shrouds and backstays instead would look good. Cutting is always going to be an emotional issue. ;-) I'll just say that I have enough rowboats for it not to be a concern. I've cut some other pieces too (including wide hull pieces :-O), but only after I've properly considered what is lost by so doing. I've done some reasonable boats using six wide bow pieces and SNOT sides, quite sturdy and realistic, but too heavy for a proper whaleboat. I'd be interested in what you have in mind with plates and click hinges. It makes a change. And there's a lot of scope of different detail (lots of harpoons, for instance ;-)). I'd recommend building an unarmed vessel - it makes a change not to have to build gunports in.

Good question. I can give you the answer of 'possibly'. There are two factors: Firstly, I have a reasonable number of sailing vessels under sail or ready for sail, and I tend to periodically rebuild or upgrade them. I have a couple of things planned at the moment, and the Egregious is built in my latest style (along with Seatop, Bloviator, Rats

Yes. I was quite surprised how well they worked together (I think the black helps quite a bit too). Yes. I think the main problem is the deck colour. Grey (old light grey), always my first choice, didn't work well, white was too bright and brown (old) looked worse than the tan, so I went with tan. Looking at it again, new light grey might be an option (though none of the greys seem to work well with tan), or, perhaps surprisingly, black (though that would be terribly unrealistic!)

Wow, thanks! That's quite a complement. The Egregious is probably the closest any of my sailing vessels come to being 'doable' by Lego. The piece count is quite low for the size of the vessel and the whole thing (bar the bowsprit connection) is very solid. I give full credit to Richard Parsons for being the first person to actually do the whaleboat conversion... unfortunately, his whaleboats never got the publicity they deserved - I had the good fortune to see them in the flesh back in June 2003. I reckon the viking longship is a great set (and a pair even better! ;-)) there are some really excellent parts for the keen pirate builder. Thanks again!

I think there is a definite need for a variety of ships boats, and a brick built boat doesn't properly convey the fragility of a whaleboat. (Not to mention would be too big to sling on the Egregious's davits!) Thanks! You are actually partly right... the centre sections are from the viking longship. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a way to use the viking bow/stern sections for an age-of-sail-vessel - the timber work is just too different, I think. Certainly not when he's the best harpooner aboard! (Actually, the trick would probably to be to sail far enough south. He's going to want to put some clothes on sooner or later ;-) )

He's part of the "skilled, if somewhat eclectic crew". :-| (Whaler crews, like those of many age-of-sail crews, were of mixed race. Islanders, well practiced in spear throwing, were often favoured as harpooners).

13b Ahoy! It's been a while since I posted here (sorry), but I thought I should share my latest vessel with the community here. I don't recall any Lego whalers to date, but whalers make excellent targets for pirates and cruisers alike. The Egregious uses some new techniques, which you may find useful. Anyway, here's the narration to the brig that I used on LUGNET: The newest arrival in the waters around Port Brique is the whaling brig Egregious. Whalers have tended to operate further south, but Port Brique was a resupply stop for Captain Warning in his hunt for a peculiarly coloured great whale. The story has it that young Neville C. Warning Junior, then only a mate aboard his father's whaler Tendentious, lost his leg to a huge red hued southern right whale the notorious Moby Dique, the legendary Rouge Whale in the waters near Port Brique over twenty years ago. Despite the loss of his leg, young Neville has now achieved his own command, and, going by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father, Captain N. Civility Warning, returned to the South Pacifique, determined to kill the great Rouge Whale. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten02.jpg Despite being a small whaler by any standard, the Egregious is a fast and handy vessel, carries a skilled, if somewhat eclectic crew. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten03.jpg The Egregious is built on a four centre section hull, and includes the challenging construction combination of short ratlines and Vikings masts. I have gained a newfound appreciation of the possibilities of the short ratlines. I had previously written them off as next to useless for serious vessel construction and even after I used them on the cutter Tresfroid and the hermaphrodite brig Ratsee, I doubted that they could be used successfully on a wide hulled vessel. They support the 2x2 columns that form the masts nicely, and secure the tops which provide a stable base for the Vikings masts. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten04.jpg I know the stability of the Vikings masts has been questioned, particularly in that they have only a 4x2 footprint, compared to the 4x4 footprint of traditional pirates masts. My technique to secure the masts uses a 4x2 'socket' in the top only one plate deep, but that seems to be enough to keep things sufficiently rigid. Attaching yards, gaffs and booms to the Viking masts is, I think, more difficult than with the old style masts, and some of the solutions I used are fairly inelegant. This is my first vessel to include crow's nest style lookouts. Which are reasonably authentic in that masthead lookouts are very important for whalers, but seem a bit heavy compared to the masts. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten05.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten06pg I'm particularly pleased with the colour scheme of the Egregious. I didn't originally intend to have quite so much tan (in fact using tan was only a chance thought as I was looking through my box of inverted slopes, and I realized I had the necessary 32 inverted 2x2 slopes in tan), but as I built it up, I became more and more enamored with it. The black/tan/brown scheme also dictated that it would be brown rowboats sacrificed to make the whaleboats, rather than red ones although I guess it's not as if I have a particular shortage of either colour! The bowsprit and jibboom are the second try on the Egregious. I originally used a bowsprit SNOTed from plates and 1x1x5 bricks, in tan. It looked a lot like a microfig skyscraper mid collapse, but was, at least, the right colour. A third Viking mast (if I had one), wouldn't have been effective because of the 4x4 top, and the Viking topmast section alone wouldn't have been long enough. A near ideal solution might be a tan topmast section, with a column of 2x2 rounds making up the base, but even that wouldn't produce the bowsprit-jibboom look. So in the end, I went with the tried and tested traditional pirates mast sections for the bowsprit and jibboom. It would be perfect if it were in tan, but alas. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten07.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten08.jpg As alluded to above, the whaleboats are cut down rowboats, in the manner pioneered by Richard Parsons of Port Block fame. I made a jig out of expendable (old grey) bricks secured 3 studs forward of the stern, and carefully cut through with a fine toothed saw. On the first couple I needed to use a craft knife & sandpaper to trim and tidy, but the last two by which time I'd figured out it was better to cut from the bottom up rather than the top down a light sand was all that was needed to get them ready for joining. I could have made the whaleboats a little longer, but I was going for the look of a whaleboat, rather than length particularly. The sails are once again parchment type paper. I've now been using this paper for a while, and can report favourably on its durability as well. Not only is it easier to work with than stiffened fabric, it is much more durable and doesn't sag over time (particularly an issue with jibs and staysails). It's also very cheap. I know that many people don't care for the look, and I even tried using standard Lego sails but they just weren't large enough. A bonus of using short ratlines alone is that it allows the arms to be properly angled for beating. I particularly like the look of a big square rigger pointing up into the wind. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten09.jpg More pics: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten11.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten12.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten13.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten14.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten15.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten16.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten17.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten18.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rdulin/Egregious/ten19.jpg As always, any comments, suggestions or feedback would be most welcome.

Almost all Lego vessels are going to fall somewhere below sixth rate in any case. And, historically, most (though certainly not all) pirate vessels would have too. It's also worth noting that the really big ships 1st, 2nd and some 3rd rates, were little used other than in line of battle and for impressing foreigners!

I think there are some inaccuracies in that article (eg a ship with less than three masts being called a 'sloop'). But more importantly, why would you apply the Royal Navy rating to non Royal Navy vessels? While used in the RN, the rating would generally give way to the actual number of guns in documents.... eg Shipname (Number of Guns), possibly with the type of guns as a qualifier. French frigates were described as heavy or light, and there wasn't a Sloop-of-war in sight (corvette being the preferred term).