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Some time ago, I mentioned that I'm currently working on a very big ship. That is still true, however I decided to take a break from it and in the meantime build something smaller that would take quicker to accomplish. So that's what I did and here is the result - the Spanish Armada ship named El Mono (The Monkey).

It uses a narrow hull with two middle sections. The hull is customised using this procedure.

From a different angle...

A close-up of the stern...

And the bow with the monkey figurehead.

The anchor mechanism is simple but does its job.

The hatch at the front can be used to access the lower deck. Notice the ladder inside.

Main deck with the cannons and the ship's bell...

You can see the bell here too, as well as the doors to the captain's cabin and the ladder leading up to the bridge...

...and here it is, up here you can see ship's helm, and of course the captain.

Those sections are removable for easy access to the interior areas of the ship.

This is the lower deck, with four beds for the crew, also notice another room at the back with the treasure chest - unfortunately this area cannot be accessed, so consider this to be a secret treasury if you will... :)

Same area from a different angle, the passage on the right where the barrels are leads to the ladder and on to the main deck...

Not much room for a captain's cabin on a ship this size, but it's just enough for a bed and a small table with a map, and of course - some booze!

So that's it, comments are of course very much welcome! Thanks for watching and please take a look at the Brickshelf gallery for some extra pictures!

Very nice - especially the monkey as a gallion which I admire very much.

Apart from that I thought "mono" was somehow referring to the very blueish choice of colors (=one color).

People think my ships are too yellow - they will say that this is too blue

it is a fine model, a lot of work has gone into the details. Also good that its a modular build.

100% playable.

New custom cannons! I haven't seen these before.

What about adding some golden decoration elements at the stern?

(Ladders have been noticed!)

Brick on!

Thanks for your comment. As far as colours go I tend to think that sometimes less is more. I've built my share of 'rainbow ships' back in the day, now I prefere them to be more colour consistent. Besides, it also has a pretty high share of grey, and obviously brown. Three predominant colours are just enough for my taste, with more it can get too messy if you're not careful :-)

Are you sure this is not better dedicated a Bluecoat ship?! Kidding, of course.

I really like the overall shape of your ship, especially the different ways of sloping the tumblehome, great work here! The modularity is a very nice feature, along with the not so usual SNOTed way of planking the deck And those guns are splendid!

I agree with Captain Braunsfeld though, a little bit of a highlight color (gold or yellow) for some stern elements (and maybe even for headrails at the bow) would be a nice touch. And decently applied that wouldn't turn your ship into another 'rainbow'.

Congrats on a very nice ship, looks capital, although being based on the small prefabs. That's something not so easily achievable.

Brick on!

Oh, can you tell us anything about your very big ship?

Best regards,

KB

  On 11/2/2014 at 1:11 PM, Kolonialbeamter said:

Are you sure this is not better dedicated a Bluecoat ship?! Kidding, of course.

Let's just say that in my personal LEGO universe it's the Spaniards that use the blue and white sails (which is consistent with the original Armada Flagship's sails of course).

  On 11/2/2014 at 1:11 PM, Kolonialbeamter said:

And those guns are splendid!

Thanks! The thing with the narrow hulls is, you just don't have enough room to place two standard cannons back to back on both sides of the ship. Check the 6271 Imperial Flagship for example, it had two cannons but you could only place them either both one one side, or diagonally so to speak. So unless you just put one cannon in the middle on a rotating platform (like in the Renegade Runner), and I'm not a big fan of this solution, you have to improvise and make some smaller custom ones.

  On 11/2/2014 at 1:11 PM, Kolonialbeamter said:

Oh, can you tell us anything about your very big ship?

It will use some prefab hull sections, but not ones seen anywhere in the Pirate sets (regardless of the era). But a genuine LEGO hull nonetheless. I will not spill the beans right now, but maybe someone will guess what that hull might be?

However, I'm also working on another narrow hull ship at the same time, and I genuinely don't know which one will be finished sooner.

Very nice. I am especially fond of the rounding of the hull. Mine always look like someone chopped something off. I will have to implement that into future models.

  On 11/3/2014 at 1:34 PM, Dreamweb said:

you have to improvise and make some smaller custom ones.

'Improvise'... that's understatement Those are great small caliber guns, I'm especially fond of the wheels you've come up with.

  On 11/3/2014 at 1:34 PM, Dreamweb said:

It will use some prefab hull sections, but not ones seen anywhere in the Pirate sets (regardless of the era). But a genuine LEGO hull nonetheless. I will not spill the beans right now, but maybe someone will guess what that hull might be?

However, I'm also working on another narrow hull ship at the same time, and I genuinely don't know which one will be finished sooner.

Hmm, what hull could that be...

Wow, and yet another narrow hull ship! Busy shipyards, you've got there! Excellent!

Best of success for your builds!

Regards,

KB

Thanks for the comments!

  On 11/3/2014 at 7:20 PM, SilentWolf said:

Very nice. I am especially fond of the rounding of the hull. Mine always look like someone chopped something off. I will have to implement that into future models.

Actually, initially the hull looked way too massive, I was forced to trim it a little. The initial solution might have worked for a wide hull, but for the narrow one you have to be very careful not to make it look too beefed up. Well, it still looks massive, but to an extent which I find acceptable.

This is a gorgeous build -- such a nice silhouette. Your use of turntables for cannon wheels is brilliant, by the way.

I've picked up a small bow and stern and single hull section, and am experimenting with building my first ship. You've provided me with some wonderful inspiration!

Best of success completing your fleet!

Thanks! Good luck with your build too.

Those narrow hulls have really grown on me recently. Though one can build some powerful and heavily armed ships with the bigger hulls, there's just some sublime beauty hidden in the smaller ones. It manifests itself perfectly in the original Imperial Flagship, too bad the other official sets that used those weren't nearly as good. The Armada Flagship was a waste of such a perfect white/blue hull due to its questionable building solutions. But at least thanks to those sets we have some hull pieces in nice colours to work with!