kurigan

A brigantine and a hermaphrodite brig are really the same thing. The terms really come more form when and where than what. Schooners come from cutters which predate brigantines/hermaphrodites while brigs predate schooners. When hybrids between schooners and brigs came about the term hermaphrodite brig came in to use, kind of unofficially, sort of like "jackass frigate". Such a classification was never on the books of any navy or respectable shipping company, but everyone knew what it meant. Since it was and adaptation of a brig, the term became brigantine. If you wanted her to be a brigantine/hermaphrodite, you just need to change the main top sail to a gaff/lug style one, or strike it entirely. To us lubbers it may seem a slight distinction but to a seamen of the age it's a glaring difference. Dave Edit: Just thought of the example that explains it. It's like Cigar and Cigarette. A cigar is larger and came first. At some point the "ette" was added to indicate the smaller size of a similar, but distinct thing. It's the same with Bark (or barque) and Barkentine.

She's beautiful. I think you've done a great job here. She's jot a Brigantine though. She's a brig, Brigantine is a different rig, similar but distinct. I appreciate the extra effort you put into your rigging especially. Looks good Dave

That looks great! It looks like an update version of the old 4505. Lego should make this a standard part.

@zoth33 I looked at those, and I'm sure it would work out great, but, it would kind of defeat the purpose. I'd have to plan ahead and actually spend money . This guy is just quick and dirty for the fun of it. I'd like to do a better one in the future, more reverent to the books, and for that I might order some custom parts. I'm thinking of making a whole faction under this banner, for which this version would hang around, but wind up being a wizard or something. It's all just dreams though. Thanks though!

Hello all. I just wanted to share this guy. I think the armor, which I only made to complete the set, worked out pretty well. I got this Warrior Pack at random through a facebook promotion Brickwariors was running a couple of weeks ago. Even though the set is more in the style of 300, I figured some historical anthropomorphic armor would round out the set neatly since I didn't have any bare chested torsos to put to the task. I made the print by using layers of the same image to first designate where the torso would print on the page, then colored that spot over with Silver Sharpie. Then I swapped the layers and ran the same sheet through in the same orientation, so my inkjet would print right over the shiny spot. I've used this technique with black light reactive colors too. The chest pattern is a modified version on the one i used on my Horned King, which is a tracing of the bare-chested guy from Indiana Jones.

I just want to chime in and say that I like it. I was always fond of the simplicity of the old castle themes and I think you captured that while utilizing updated bricks and techniques. It really has a nostalgic feel, like those a '90s era catalog/box art displays. The yellow backdrop really sells it too

@Wellesley of course you and I can bury the hatchet. I just don't expect it to be last time I see someone here saying "Hay all, I want free advice and information, but not form any of those people" We're cool though. Not sure what you mean by "mirroring the coloured stripe at the bow"..?

Dude, that' so rude. Discounting peoples advice and opinions for their basis. How am I not to take that as a direct jab at my self as well? There's nothing wrong, or oppressive about taking advice for history. People here need to stop doing this. What's worse, in this case, my (I'd assume, our) modern sensibilities go hand in hand with the historic. They, like us, want war ships to look intimidating, that's why blacked hulls with bold colors like yellow and red were the norm; it looks like something dangerous, like a poisonous plant or a stinging insect. Even with out that basis I'd have voted for the tan with red pin stripe. I don't find green to be a very intimidating color. As for Lydia, do as you will, she's your brain child. The third mast, though, is a small one with a tiny sail (no larger than the first head sail) and in this case and woudn't interfere with the main mast. It can also be canted back, like the fore mast rakes forward.

I like that! I see it too, couldn't put my finger on it, but you're right. It's like that '90's yellow background all the box art had. The bricks are actually tan, but I guess it's the exposure. Thanks! Shields are easy! There's a host of 'em on Classic Castle, including blank templates like the one I started with

@TomSkippy The lower, white, portion of the hull seems to be looking ok, but i'm not thrilled withe the transition for the curved slopes of the bow to the inverted slopes of the side. I get they you're emulating the old Lego hulls and trying to hint at roundness on the ship'd bottom, but it really isn't necessary. You see, a wooden ship is designed to float, under normal lading, withe it's widest part along the water line. only small portions of the counter (that;' the underside curve of the hull) at the bow and stern should be seen above the waterline, unless the vessel is entirely empty. You could make life easier by not bothering. Just my two cents on the matter. Tumble home, at the bow of a ship, if present at all, is usually very subtle, save for a few Mediterranean designs I can think of. It's just not useful and presents a difficulty in construction shipwrights would prefer to avoid. the actual function of tumble hone is to reduce top hamper, that's the amount weight extending above the surface, which must be supported to maintain stability. by shrinking each deck successively up, the vessel's center of gravity shifts back down. This is particularly useful on war ships, which have heavy artillery lined up along the sides. It's much less so for merchant craft, which stow their heavy cargo starting in the middle of the hull. What you'll actually see on wooden ships, instead of tumble home continuing around the bow, is flair, which is the complete opposite. This widening shape helps to keep the ship's bow above the surface as it pitches on the waves and/or has it's head pushed down by the press of the wind in it's sails. (Now some one write that down, so I don't have to be the one to explain it, again, in the future. I'm sure everyone's tried of hearing it from me anyway.) My suggestion in this case is to not worry about filling the gap with hose or not, but to not have it to fill. I like your capstan design, that pretty neat. It is a bit big on this hull, but its not critical. A brig of this size would more likely have just a windlass, but capstans, especially on man-of-war are not unheard of. The boat tiers shouldn't be coming out of the gratings, though. They'd come out from the deck and be built right into the ships frame. If they interfered with the gratings the men couldn't go down or get out from below decks. You can also make a much simpler grating by putting 1 X 1 bricks on a plate and placing it in the hole upside down so you just see the square bottoms.( that's what I do anyway) As for mast placement, is hard to say with out the whole rigging plan laid out. Large gaff sails on brigs are common, being that it's the ship's main sail. but it still seems that your main mast could still move back a couple of studs. I know that interferes with the ship's wheel but does she need a wheel? For one the Lego wheel is sized for a ship of the line and for another, a lot of small vessels like this just used a tiller with no wheel. Note: nothing I've offered is meant to discourage you. You do you, and make what ever you will of my advice. Not my monkey's, not my circus... G'night! Dave

OK first off, CGH stands for Captain Green Hair. Cutter can mean a few things. like many nautical terms it depends on which aspect of the vessel's design or function you're referring to which it means. any small cruiser, engaged in coastal patrol type duties, can be called a cutter, regardless of its size or rig. The term is still used in this way by the USCG. in terms of rigging; a cutter is a single masted vessel with more than one head sail; that's the triangular ones that go in front of the mast, out over the head, or bow, of the ship, hence the term head sail. Since schooners, actual schooners, evolved from cutters, the term is sometimes applied to them as well. so, it could be a cutter of a kind if you want it to be. I'm liking the black inserts. I don't see why you wouldn't stick with a blue stripe and black gun ports now. The white hull sections now give an impression of a white washed hull; that's what they did before copper plating to discourage marine life from latching on and ruining the hull. I hate being this guy, but it's the easiest way to make my point, sorry. What I was doing HERE on Ramcat, before she was broke up, is what I'm trying to convey about open gun decks and cabins. you note that the deck shares out space for the working of the sails as well as the guns. The cabin is also on that same deck, not elevated, and there is a tiny quarter deck (not a poop in this case as it's actually where from the ship is conned) above that, which makes a roof for the cabin. the cabin, realistically, is not full height and a mini-fig cannot stand up straight. Now I personally think her guns look comically close together and they are 4 studs apart. Her replacement has 6 studs in between and, to my lights, looks a lot better. While Ramcat is an 18th-19th century ship, the basic design of ships really doesn't change over the centuries, but to be refined and simplified. Alright, lots to think about there, enjoy!

I threw together this little vignette to showcase my latest custom mini-fig, The Horned King from The Chronicles of Prydain. I did the scene twice; once with Taran and again with Gwydion because the elements of Taran needed to go back to other figures yet I wanted to keep the scene on my shelf for a while at least. I like how much the scene changes with the expression on the foreground character's face. The images with Gwydion, in blue, were something of an after thought, so I apologize for the quality. About The Horned King: Well I hope my menacing dark lord brightened your day a bit. Thanks for checking him out. More Images Here

Oops. OK then! Sorry

@RoadmonkeytjI did this job for a little while, some time back. I wasn't very good at it. You really need to be a sort of "fan boy" because it's less about being here and more about being out there. The trick is in keeping up with news and builds from all the Lego community, not just Eurobricks (or just ships, pirates, seafaring stuff, etc.) That's never been my thing, so I found it a struggle to learn where to look and to then keep up with the latest. It's just not a job for someone who's not already doing it for them selves.

Got just a few thought for you, do with them as you will. Going from white, up to blue, up to black and back to blue, isn’t quite working. Lots of builders run into this which is why it’s popular to swap the insert for a more convenient color. Since you expressed in interest in not reinventing the wheel, links!: If you could get black inserts to replace the blue it would look more coordinated. The inconsistent spacing of the gun ports is off-putting. While, historically speaking, gun placement wasn’t always consistent, especially on small ships, you seem to be building a dedicated gundeck here, and in that case it should be. You also have a lot of gun ports for such a small ship. I would suggest, in this case, less is more. Try spacing them out 3 or 4 studs (more even if you want to poke your head into realism) and tell me it doesn’t look better; more ship-like. I’m a little concerned that your impression of what a schooner is, might be based on Skull’s Eye Schooner, but that’s just a name. She’s actually a pinnace (not the row boat kind), maybe a galleon if someone wants to argue scale. If she going to be a schooner, schooner isn’t a great rig for large men-of-war, large enough to have a dedicated gundeck. In that case I'd say leave off the top deck and make the cabin smaller or strike it entirely. If she’s going to be a pinnace/galleon, like SES there, I think you're going to try and cram a lot on a small hull and it will wind up looking cluttered even cartoonish. Fine by me if that’s what you’re going for but IMHO, less is more. Along that same line of thinking: you went through the effort of emulating CGH to generate a tumble home and sheer, yet while the colors below the gun ports stage out a curve, the cap rail is flat. It’s kind of in reverse. If not consistent down through the hull, it’s more likely that the sheer curve would be more apparent at the cap rail then at the water line, but really it would be the same top to bottom. Dave

Silent but deadly?

@Roadmonkeytj I was actually getting pretty up set about this and was actually about to send a message of the "how dare you" sort when, thankfully, recollection hit me. You're referring to white tape on Raven and the mullioned windows of Ramcat no doubt. Yes I own up to those uses as well, tough, the windows weren't my invention. The "(that you know of)" refers to works I haven't seen fit to share but are expected to incorporate tape in the same method as Blanid.

@Roadmonkeytj I only did that once (that you know of) and it was neither structural nor shape altering. On Blanid I used red tape on the inside of the gunwale so she could be blue outside and red inside. @TomSkippy It would be a lot more helpful if you were to show your own work, rather than referencing other's. Which aspect(s) of the hinge method do you find particularly distasteful?

@Wellesley I'd advise going with out ports entirely, unless you meant for them to be dumb show, in which case all of them. @Ross Fisher has the right of it; there is no space on deck for guns. I like her lines with out ports, but just because there are ports doesn't mean there have to be guns behind them. Fake gun ports were fairly common in history. You could put a few swivels and some small arms aboard and still call her "armed".

I like what you've done with the design/technique. Where did you get your rubber bands, them seem pretty well stretched? Mine were extra big; I recycled them from packs of shopping bags from when I worked at Game Stop in the last age. The bent yards were something I was considering a while ago and wasn't sure how I'd pull it off. I'm guessing these are Technic connectors over flex tub? They work great. Even the flange in the middle of each look like those characteristic bands. I think a third smaller "spanker" right aft would look great. Right now she seems a bit front heavy. Set all the way back at the stern post something like the image below, though you didn't use the extended deck, would be pretty handy. @blackdeathgr in this case only the Lego pre-fab shrouds are under tension and I've found that, given a moment to relax, spring right back to true once released. The plates are kept in place by the rubber bands. Follow the link, I talk about all this in some detail over there. Now the Bumblebee Technique, looks similar but is an entirely different animal. There, gaining any useful measure of curvature requires a bit of stressing of the bricks, though less than you might imagine. For one the plates seem to have more tolerance and if you put too much tension on them they want to fall apart. If you don't want to take my word for it, ask @Phred who suffered the privilege of having to reassemble the original after the USPS put the both of them through every sorting machine form here to Chicago, with a few drop kicks for good measure, i'm sure. Just to serve fair credit and full disclosure, here's my original inspiration, the "Pimp you IMTP" contest from many years ago. You'll have to scroll down to find it, but look for @SlyOwl's entry to see where the idea came from initially.

@Bregir Thank you, that was very well put together, A bit better than my ramblings anyway While I've heard of trimming sail with bunt lines but they are really only for taking the weight of the sail while the men on the yard bundle the fabric up to reef or furl. Well, it's also facing the wrong way and not only has it slipped around the shrouds in such a was that Bregir describes as quite impossible, but indeed the starboard fore shrouds seem to be competently missing. Perhaps battle damage has caused it to fly free and the artist is trying to depict that event in progress Maybe they just though it looked cool. It's a common complaint, that artists seeking to make the players obvious to even the the simplest of lubbers, ignore the force of wind, in order to present a clear image of each nation's flag(s). I hadn't noticed before, more caught up in the foreground, but Bregir is quite right about the galley. Those sails are completely out in front of the masts and all their supporting mechanism. I suppose with a dipping type rig it's not impossible, but all the tackle would have to be re arranged around the shrouds et al to make it possible. Then, I don't know what the strain on the rigging would be like, but it doesn't seem like it's designed for that kind of force. Oh well, it's a nice painting for what it's worth.