Thunderchild Redux!

[Cousarmy0001]

After several months and at least one complete hull reconstruction, my frigate Thunderchild is finished! Now with 14 guns instead of the original 10 (though I still need to buy eight of them), a figurehead, slightly reworked captain's cabin, and sails!

Of course, the Redcoats don't know there's nothing behind those gunports >:-D

I didn't get a chance to take pictures during daylight, so these pictures are kinda crappy. I'll try to take better ones tomorrow.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Cousarmy0001

[Big Cam]

In the meantime I'll move this to the Pirate MOC forum.

[Blackar]

This is a great ship! I really like the interior of the cabin and the pattern on the hull. Good job.

Only the bow is a bit too short.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Blackar

[Hiawatha]

I really like it and its classic feel. Excellent work and I hope to see more ships like this in the future.

[Cousarmy0001]

This is a great ship! I really like the interior of the cabin and the pattern on the hull. Good job.

Only the bow is a bit too short.

When you say that the bow is too short, do you mean the angled pieces forming the actual prow?

Edited March 5, 2012 by Cousarmy0001

[Blackar]

When you say that the bow is too short, do you mean the angled pieces forming the actual prow?

I mean the part where the (great) figurehead is located.

[EITC Capt.William]

I like the design also like how you made the ship the same color as the flag and soldiers

[Cousarmy0001]

I mean the part where the (great) figurehead is located.

I was worried that it was too long as it is :-)

It already extends 3 studs beyond the brown part of the hull, how much further do you suggest it should be?

[Blackar]

I was worried that it was too long as it is :-)

It already extends 3 studs beyond the brown part of the hull, how much further do you suggest it should be?

It´s hard to say. I prefer longer bows because it makes ships more graceful and majestic (I hope I found the right english words to explain what I mean). In my opinion a bow which is too short makes the ship looking a bit clumsy.

I searched for some pics in the internet and found this which fits well with your ship.

Bow

Maybe this picture can help you. I guess we are talking about 3 or 4 studs.

But if you are happy with your ship don´t mind it. This is only my opinion.

[Skipper]

Awesome ship! It reminds me a bit of the Caribbean Clipper. I like the checkered stripe as well as the unique figurehead. I do agree with Blackar on the prow however, and I find it strange that the gunports open down, but other than that it's great.

Looking forward to new pictures.

[Admiral Croissant]

Very nice ship. I've deeplinked one of the pictures for you and I'll post it on our blog.

[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

[SirSven7]

ahh, I am feel especially nostalgic towards bluecoats these days after I won my second sabre Island off ebay two days ago.

lovely build, its nice to see the blues with sea dominance for a change

[Cousarmy0001]

I see what you mean. Initially the rather bulbous appearance of the bow bothered me, but that kinda goes with the territory on the old hull pieces. At one time I had a longer prow on it, but it looked a little weird to me sticking that far out from the rest of the hull with no real transition between the two. As is, I kinda like it because while it's not terribly graceful like you said, but it gives the feel of a heavier ship, almost reminiscent of a modern oil tanker, or a larger ship of the line.

Maybe it's my German heritage that gives me a soft spot for rounded bows.

As for the ports opening downward, it's no problem for me to have them go the other way, the only reason I didn't do that originally is that the flags I used for the ports are brand new, and are very stiff when moving, so they tended to take the mount off of the hull. For some reason they grip better to the bottom of the port than they do the top.

As for Bluecoat dominance, I had planned a ship I was going to name Stormchaser, but with the demise of Design-by-Me I will probably never get to build her. She was going to be an early paddle wheeled steamship a la HMS Warrior and would be for the Redcoats. She would have been 8 guns and approximately the size of the (new) Imperial Flagship, with the same color and hull design scheme as them. So it would not have had the sloped sides and other features that give alot of our MOCs an authentic look, but she would've been awesome nonetheless. Essentially my idea was that she would have fewer guns than Thunderchild, but the steam engine would have given her maneuverability that would make up for that. Unfortunately I was only able to order the steam engine before Lego shut it down. I used old technic pieces I had laying around to build the crank shaft. The whole thing DOES actually turn, it's a two piston engine with a "boiler" on the fore end. Here's some links to the pictures on my Flickr account.

Thanks for showing me how to deeplink :-)

Edited March 10, 2012 by Cousarmy0001

[Skipper]

How do you put the actual pictures in your posts? It always tells me I have exceeded my limit, do I need to be higher than a vassal to post more pictures?

You need to deeplink them, there's a tutorial here. The tutorial's for Brickshelf but the general mechanics are the same for Flickr, if you have any other questions just ask.

Shame about the sidewheeler, there aren't many MOCs of those around. Why don't you just Bricklink the pieces?

[Cousarmy0001]

I may Bricklink them eventually, and Lego still has Pick-a-Brick as well. It's just that picking all of those pieces out the old fashioned way will be quite tedious, and I'm not certain that it's worth the trouble. On the other hand, I still have an old style bow and stern laying around that are begging to be made into a ship...

[Lord William kane]

The redcoats will never know what hit em' I am working on a blue oat ship as well its a 10 gun brig