kurigan

Well, i finally got around to it, i made a template for shoulder straps. 1221191843a by David Stasny, on Flickr\ 1221191842a by David Stasny, on Flickr 1221191836a by David Stasny, on Flickr 1221191837 by David Stasny, on Flickr

Ah-ha! yes, thank you!

What's that green torso from?

I’ve actually been sitting on these since August, but finally found a couple of hours in between to make up a sample of each today. These are based on the same pattern as my naval coats and jackets but for other military roles in my little Lego world. From left to right you’ll see: Infantry (Red Coat), Royal Artillery, Royal Marine, Dragoon and Queens Ranger/Rifles. They are not 100% historically accurate (I know, I know) but they are close enough for my purposes. I had a bit of fun doing portrait shots of each. I guess they came out OK, but whatever, it’s just for fun. Disclaimer: Yes, if anyone is interested, I can and will share PDFs. Use them all you like, change them is you want, just, please, don't claim them as your own. They are actually a lot of work and it took a long time to get to this point. It would break me heart to be so betrayed. Send me a PM, though, as I don't have anywhere to host files. Hope you enjoyed them! Dave

To the first part, meh. Much easier To the second, while I would have preferred to find plans, they are apparently like hen's teeth for this type, but here's a nice model which kind of makes the point. Cheers!

@Bodi thanks. I really don't think it's a shortcoming, no. A limitation, maybe, just maybe. it was never my intent to do anything but waterline, but I'm not sure it's not possible to combine this with other methods to make a more complete construction. I'll reference good old Frank again and his Frigate where he combined modified versions of cb4 and CGH's methods to get the best of both. It's not something I want to work on, but I don't see it as impossible.

Just wanted to put this out here. I don't play the game, but I chime in on ship builds from time to time since most of the MOCs wind up here anymore. If you looked in and wondered what I've done, here's a bit of it Cheers!

Pardon me a bit of Threadcromancy if you will, but I believe it’s worth it in this case. You see, I’ve been jealously guarding my progress for a while now and as I continue to proffer advice and commentary I find myself wondering, once again, if those I approach don’t wonder from what experience/success I speak. While to some I may be infamous, I’m not as well-known to others since I tend to not finish my builds before deeming them inadequate and tearing them apart to be redone. Heck, my most complete build (not counting minis) is Reckless, which after 4 years still lacks an outer jib to truly be complete. Perhaps then it’s time to lift the veil. So, what have I been up to? Why a complete reinvention of my technique, of course. Take note that the last iteration shown above was painfully flat. I could go the way a lot of builders have and use the old-school method of building up sheer curve by stacking plates. After all I’ve done in order to create a smooth cross section and dorsal profile it seemed an anathema to me, so, I set about finding a way to use brick bending to create sheer curve as well. I had some limited success with Blanid, but it needed to be more and better. Thus, Scorpion got a 6th edition. Background: Originally I was just going to do another Baltimore Clipper/Topsail Schooner, but as she developed, I thought I might get a brig out of her. Too small to be a Cruizer, like what inspired the 4th, I started thinking of the Cherokee Class. I was just not able to get the bending technique to work with full ports and a cap rail though, so she’s kind of stuck in limbo. Part of me wants to keep her as a nondescript brig and press on while the other part thinks she’d still make a great schooner. If I went with the latter, the Scorpion moniker would be shifted to a sister hull of the current Snake, which is more successful attempt at a Cruizer Class. That build is on hold until I get enough bricks to bring it to a point of completion which will prove its viability. It’s going to be expensive to build one Cruizer, let alone two, though. After stealing all I could from my own inventory, I still spent over 100 USD to get enough tan plates to finish the deck on this 6th iteration of Scorpion which is considerably smaller; 14 vs 18 guns. I wish I could say, we’ll see soon enough, once they’re done. There just isn’t time in my life right now for any significant building or rigging and I don’t know if they will ever be complete. Here is Scorpion the 6th as she has existed for most of 2019 Here is the New Privateer Snake, meant to be a model of the historic HMS Snake. She was one of two prototypes of the Cruizer Class, rigged as a ship as an alternative to brig rig of the class’ namesake. The longer hull of the Cruizer doesn’t require the bricks to give quite so much to get the same amount of curvature as on the Cherokee/schooner hull. That’s why Snake can have a top rail, but Scorpion doesn’t. The gunwale of scorpion was so stiff with the added thickness that a ridged enough armature couldn’t be built in the space available and the water line was hogging up ruining the effect. Snake’s hull looks better at this point, but the deck is intended to reinforce the understructure. Without it’s complete I cannot be sure if the tension of the rigging will hog it in a similar fashion or not.

Oh this is nice Not just a good build but a great example of a lug rig. I was thinking "you should put the main sail on the other tack" but I see you went with dipping lugs, very nice She is a bit narrow. Luggers tend to be rather round and wide. I see you're dappling in bent sides though. It's good, but can be so much more I feel your pain where size vs space is concerned. Once you start approaching full mini-fig scale, even tiny sloops take on huge proportions. I personally feel that it pays off though. Cloth or paper sails? Reef points are a nice touch, but all that nice rigging and you forgot tacks and sheets? a SNOT deck, while parts consuming, can conform a lot ore close to the gunwale's curvature. I don't think i've been quite so amused with a ship build in a while. Thanks for sharing her. Dave

Just a though, on the 18th, as I sit on my "coffee break" wondering what's going to come of this: It honestly doesn't look like much. Thankfully there are these entries to get something going on so the effort isn't a loss. I bet if you kept it going, more entries would inspire others to jump on board, much like @Kai NRG did for me. With that in mind, why not transition this to a guild/college just for generating promotional artwork for the game? I'd suggest pinning a submissions thread and have a floating discussion thread for WIPs and advice (much like the Shipwrights Guild Hall). An archive of useful images and elements might be handy as well (though I really don't want to volunteer to maintain it myself either ) I've got a few more ideas myslef, for CAT B too, but just haven't had time to materialize them; it just takes time and that's a commodity I'm short on.

Submission for Cat A Top Banner Sorry again @Kai NRG, but entries seem a bit thin on the ground so I might as well toss it in the ring, eh? Imitation, flattery and all that, what? Cheers!

Oh, Hot Dog! Thanks mate. editing... @Bodi well the factions was Kai's idea works though. The color scheme is no accident @Kai NRG thanks! yeah my "whole pirate style" centers around parchment paper, heavy ink and poor lighting

I missed the contest entirely, I just want paying attention. I also wasn't feeling 100% today and found myself looking to kill time so figured I'd amuse myself by doing a Top Banner version in my own "pirate" style anyway. I kind of ripped off @Kai NRGs format, more than a little bit, sorry, but it's just for fun. Use it or don't, love it or hate it, what ever; it is what it is.

Yeah, there's really no comparison to cb4's. Untill you're willing to do the kind of math and engineering that gentleman is known for, you're just not going to get the same results. Frank came close, but as warned by the aforementioned gentleman, ran into trouble getting all the elements to line up (then he left and we haven't heard from him in years). When i was first embarking on my current style of hull construction, what seems like a hundred years ago now, I tried my hand at a xebec. Twice, actually, and in both cases gave up pretty early, disappointed with the results. There are just no straight lines on a xebec and everything i was doing, just failed me. At the current level of development in my technique, I imagine I could do a lot better, but I just don't have the time, space or bricks to venture upon yet another incomplete hull. If I find any time to Lego at all, it should go to rigging. What you both have is a good start. you have al the elements and in relative good proportion. I just don't think you (forget what anyone else thinks) are going to be satisfied with your results in the end. I do like the use of 3010pb035e on the bow though

@LM71Blackbird tape? Tape? TAPE!? How DARE you? I'm just kidding. Do what you gotta do; I'm in your corner. I've had to do some pretty crazy things to stretch my brick supply in the past. Just keep building, figuring things out and solutions will present them selves. If in the mean time the best you have is a bit of string, a wooden dowel, a piece of tape or some other random element, then just go with it and don't l the purests get to you. That being said, I personally think that Xebec is a very difficult shape to do well in Lego. Without a significant investment in bricks and a more complex structure, the curvyness of the real thing is just lost in translation. Instead you could do a schooner or a chasse maree (if you really want to stick with the lug rig) at this level of investment and complexity and have it come out very well.

While this sin't a new topic: @icm there seems to have just about nailed the common sentiment. It is worth it to note that there have been a few examples of really well done and/or applied brick-built sails on offer over the years. @Dunkleosteus and @Kolonialbeamter have done some impressive things in the digital realm in particular. I think brick-built work best as furled and gasketed sails IRL but admit it severely limits playability. It seems more a matter of circumstance that an argument over which is best. What you're building and why, let alone your talents and methods, are going to play a big part in what materials you find useful. It's often overlooked in such consideration that there are myriad other materials, equally viable. Lego has used plastic on a small scale to good effect. Cardboard/cardstock would be an inexpensive alternative to the heavily starched fabric of Classic Pirate sets. I've even put paper to good use myself, decorating it to look like sail cloth and even going so far as to shape it with moisture and wind pressure. It's a kind of "to each his own" situation. It's and open forum and an open medium. While conventions develop amongst the like minded, the only rules that matter are what a man can do and what a man can't do. Trying to boil things down to better or worse, right or wrong, only alienates builders who otherwise might have enriched the community. I suggest, dropping the topic and instead show us what you got. What have you done with cloth or brick-built. Share your reasoning and maybe inspire other builders to work with your idea and, perhaps, even improve on it. I know, I know.. "What a jerk". Whatever, I'm used to it. Cheers! Dave

Humm... Yes *nod* very nice. I like her. Technic lift arms... good use. Thought about this once and never perused it. Looks good though.

https://youtu.be/_6Lu-wDCYVY By what system is she not? @LM71Blackbird the first two gun ports seem awkward, being so far forward. I'd suggesting eliminating the first set of double windows on the side galleries and using that space for those guns. Cool piece thought it is, that panther just seems way too huge. Perhaps a crouching cat instead? also, how your mast are segmented in to main, top and top gallant, so to should the bowsprit be. Other wise you're on your way to a neat little Post Ship. Three masts and twenty, or more, guns warrants a Post Captain, thus a frigate @Wellesley Long after the use of a spritsail fell out of vogue, the spar would remain standard equipment in most ship rigs. In many cases the sail existed, but mainly below decks in the locker, only brought out on an odd occasion where it might actually do some good. It hung around because it can be handy for running other points of the ships rigging as well can be swung around, like any spar, to balance the ship; not unlike a tight rope walker. @The Neighborhood Merchant Yeah, the Main and Fore could move forward, about a gun ports worth of space. Otherwise, there's not much to give notes on. You've got it pretty well together.

Give her a glorious end in battle! Take her on one more round of conventions, as part of a display showing ship to ship action

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/120696-bumblebee/

@LM71Blackbird As i said, you, do you. If you want better reference, try the cutter HMS Fly, 1763. You may want to try a different hull technique as well. Might I suggest the Bumblebee method? I think you're going to struggle to fit all the elements of something like Resolution on such a small scale. Sometimes simpler is better. Do basic well and wow everyone. (You asked for advice, this is my honest advice. You don't have to take it, I really don't care.) Cheers! Dave

@LM71Blackbird Well apparently the model kit you're using for inspiration is rather slab sided. It 's also rather atypical. Seems it's likely a work of fantasy, made of elements of different types cobbled together to make something that "looks cool". You do you, but it may not make the best reference material; particularly considering your's is half the size. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19395-hms-resolution-by-thunder-finished-corel-150-scale-17th-century-cutter/?tab=comments#comment-592016 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/14768-getting-some-info-on-this-hms-resolution-kit/?tab=comments#comment-459568 Dave

Because it's up to the builder to make Lego in to what you imagine. Themes in Lego are just marketing. Stories sell, and story is conflict. If you want a house, build a house. If you want a wind mill build a wind mill. If you want to sell bricks, make up a character for the most popular fictional genera at that moment and animate some cutesy commercial showing all the awesome adventures he has. Or, better yet, licence preexistence, popular and well established franchises so the writing is already done. Playmobil is, what it is, forever. If it's a car, then it's just a car. If it's a house, then for ever more it will be a house. Check the landfills in a million years, and they will still be plastic cars and houses. Take a Lego car and decide you want a tractor, a space ship, ever a castle (why not) and you can tear it down and build it back up in to any of those things. To continue existing and being the awesome thing it is, Lego needs to sell. If putting it in a box labeled "War Toys" is what gets it out the door, then so be it. If it says something about society that conflict sells better than domestic bliss, I'm not sure it's a bad thing. It's easy to say "but what of the children?" but what kind of upbringing , what sort of life preparedness, are they being given if all their stories and fantasies are about a perfect world where nothing goes wrong and everyone gets along? Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light? Dave

@Grover Yeah, we already covered that.

@MAB wasn't really looking for notes, just sharing for fun. I do disagree though. I don't hold Lego-likeness as the highest measure of quality. In fact, as a custom fig, I think, going beyond Lego-likeness is part of the point. I find the paper adds texture and thickness, which helps tie in the Brickwarriors parts, in a way that pad printed torsos don't. I also like that you can see his yellow "flesh" wrap around in a more natural fashion than with the prints. I actually have a couple of the armored female torso's around, like Athena from the CMF series, but rejected them for these reasons. There is also nothing wrong with me being, just a little, proud that I managed to tie a complete figure together from what I had around, without further purchases. If I seem a little irked, it's because I am. It's been bugging me all week. I can't but read in your reply that I somehow offended your sensibilities and you felt a need to put me down. Well I'm not down. I like my little guy and i'm gonna keep making my customs my way. If you all don't want to see em, that's fine, just have a Moderator to tell me where to go. Cheers!