The making of HMS Prince of Wales

[Bonaparte]

This thread shows the making of the HMS Prince of Wales, featuring myself, Captain Green Hair and Errorist. The pictures also include a lot of beers of course

Part 1: Belgium, Antwerp province - My place

The very first start of the ship:

An early version of the broadside:

Version 2, looking more like it already:

Trying something out by adding another yellow line:

Almost there:

A view on the undecorated and rough version of the stern:

Part 2: The Netherlands, Amsterdam - Captain Green Hairs place

Yes, part of the ship was constructed in Amsterdam, mainly the stern. Next pic shows the stern before it was pimped in Amsterdam.

The masters @ work.

And there's a view of the pimped stern:

You can see very clearly in the following picture that the ship was first build one side only. Once one side was ready it was quickly copied to the other side. This way of working saved me a lot of time.

Part 3: Belgium, Antwerp province - My place

The finishing of the ship was done in Belgium, the next pics show how the first rigging and sails were made. Here's the captain measuring the ropes.

Oh look, there's me

And David (aka Errorist):

Me again, hidding behind the mast:

The rigging is growing and a first sail is on the ship:

That's how a sail is made:

Many days later I finished most of the rigging as you can see in the following two pictures:

And many weeks later this was the result:

More pictures of the finished ship are here.

[I Scream Clone]

That is amazing! I had no idea of the amount of work that would go into such a build, let alone the amount of string! Really helps having three creative influences involved in the process too. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

The sails and rigging are just amazing and really add to the whole MOC.

Well done.

[Quarryman]

Even more reasons to love this ship

It's always interesting to see how a great MOC develops over time. Apart from that, I still feel English lacks the words necessary to describe this beauty.

[Captain Green Hair]

It was great fun working with you and Errorist, and i can't wait to start on the next.

Thank god you are a fast learner.

[Erdbeereis]

What a cool project! I enjoyed seeing it progress. Looks like there was plenty of beer to go around.

And Greenie, nice slicked back hairdo.

[Zorro]

Looks amazing .

Of course this has already been frontpaged on Classic-Pirates.com

[dunamis]

Wow, that is incredible!

Thanks for sharing.

Question - what material did you use on the sails?

[Stash2Sixx]

Looks Amazing!

It has to help having a few other ship guys there to work with you? I see your late night building accessories...and I thought I was the only one, lol, beer and smokes. I was impressed how you built one side of the ship first, then moved on to the other. I do this with buildings, but never thought to do it on a ship. Very nice.

Thanks for sharing these photos. It helps.

[Captain Blackmoor]

It's so awesome to see how the "dockyard" looks like. Lots of beer there, I don't understand when you are drunk you can build such a ship. It also explains CGH's title!

It seems to be you guys had a lot of fun there. And it is so cool to see this ship being constructed bit by bit in different places.

Now off to the next ship you drunk pirates! guys!

[Captain Zuloo]

Looks amazing .

Of course this has already been frontpaged on Classic-Pirates.com

Of course, but I'm seeing this 'making of' on tomorrow's frontpage...

[Captain Cavinano]

Wow this is very great! This is the best HMS I've ever seen!

[El Bucanero]

You can't go wrong with jupiler huh

[Admiral Croissant]

Fantastic, great to see the building process, very interesting. It looks like you have changed the colour of the figurehead from yellow into red. For the rest it seems like you have built the ship straightforward. Are there also cannons on the decks below? I couldn't spot them anywhere.

[Bonaparte]

Question - what material did you use on the sails?

Those are Captain Green Hair's curtains which have been put in a bath of coffee and tea.

With that third yellow line it looks like you could easily make an awesome three-decker too.

A three-decker on standard hull is pushing it. Personally I wouldn't advise doing that.

Are there also cannons on the decks below? I couldn't spot them anywhere.

My previous ship had cannons on all decks, but in reality I never open the ship so it's a bit a waste to have those expensive Lego cannons hidden like that. For this ship I decided against doing that and only put cannons on the visible parts.

[martinsuper]

Now I understand. I cut back on beer because I have been working out more, maybe thats why my MOCs havent been turning out as nice?!

LOL

Again, very nice guys. Its so nice that I dont want to build anything again because I would feel embarrassed! I will have to assemble a mighty fleet of 20 Caribbean Clippers and hunt this redcoat down...

[tedbeard]

Fantastic work. Thanks for sharing the "making of" story. I especially liked the way you built one side then copied it. I can see how that would save a lot time and headaches.

My previous ship had cannons on all decks, but in reality I never open the ship so it's a bit a waste to have those expensive Lego cannons hidden like that. For this ship I decided against doing that and only put cannons on the visible parts.

Good call. Seems silly to increase expense and difficulty just so you can occasionally open a gun port and see a cannon.

[Guss]

nice^^ now we know how you build big ships! how many were you to build it finally ? 3 ? 4 ?

[Joey Lock]

Id be careful when mixing Lots 'o Beers with Lego. Your work will get sloppy and proberbly end up falling asleep face first in lego. Oh how Id love to see that image...

I would love to do this with my friends but shame they all think Lego is for children, Apart from 1, But he is slowly entering the Dark age...

Edited May 15, 2009 by Joey Lock

[Commodore Hornbricker]

That's awsome! You guys did a great job documenting your work (which seems like a lot of work in and of itself). I am curious if you have done the brick to beer ratio! The ship is amazing beyond compare but the best part is seeing a group of friends having fun working on it. That's not something I have experienced since I was a kid and I am jelous as hell. For me Lego building is an escape into my own solitary world...only the end result can be shared. It is cool and you guys are lucky to have been able to share a project like this. The end result speaks for itself!

[Errorist]

That's awsome! You guys did a great job documenting your work (which seems like a lot of work in and of itself). I am curious if you have done the brick to beer ratio!

10 beers to 1 brick Working with these two guys was awesome and I sure hope we can repeat it somewhere in the future.

I love the pictures Boney. Especially the one with my huge hands on it

And imo that picture with the third yellow line proves that a three-decker is definetely a possibility

[El Bucanero]

Jupiler. Nice

[bricksoldier]

I live in Den haag that is verry close to Amsterdam.

[Duke]

Great ship and really nice to see the work process, particularly that you guys all met up and did it. It's nice to see positive things like that coming out of these forums. Are there any more projects on the horizon?

[Captain Blackmoor]

Well I can spot another ship in CGH's place, on the yellow sofa.

I haven't seen it anywhere before and it looks cool. Perhaps that's a small thing they're working on too?

We'll see! I'm sure that ship will be around the forum if it is finished.

[Ratshot]

Beer, Smokes and Lego. What a life Anyway the ship looks awesome. Keep up the good work

Edited May 16, 2009 by Broadside