La Victoria

[Dreamweb]

55d

Hello everyone. Long time no see!

It's been some time since I last posted here. But now I'm back and I wish to show you a new MOC - a Spanish frigate. Since historically it was the Spaniards who had the biggest and most powerful ships, it was only logical for me to give the biggest ship I ever built to them... So here she is - La Victoria...

If you wish, you can take this quick tour of the vessel, where I show you the things I consider worth noticing.

So, let's begin with the figurehead. And before you start complaining about those KK2 swords (they're Viking, actually ;-) ), let me explain. IMO figureheads often represent mythological or fantastic creatures, and these swords have this unrealistic, fantastic look which fits here (actually I think it's the only case where they fit...).

This ship has its own brig, located on the upper deck. Right now you can see a British captain who was unlucky to become a POW in there.

The ship has a spacious cargo bay with 2 hatches leading to it. It's used for carrying all sorts of goods belonging to the Armada.

The sailors can use the hatch on the upper deck and the stairs below it to reach the lower deck. This is the place where the ordinary seamen sleep and dine. Of course the officers have their own mess hall. The meals are prepared in the galley by the one-eyed chef and are delivered to the officers by the steward.

The officers' quarters are on the upper floor of the sterncastle - the captain has his own quarters, while the first and second officers live together.

These are only the small details I wanted to draw your attention to. You can see the rest in the brickshelf folder. Please don't forget about page 2.

Hope you enjoy it!

Edited December 17, 2009 by Dreamweb

[Mister Phes]

Dreamweb, I've been wondering where you've been! Ummm... Where have you been?

Anyways...

It appears you've bounced back big time by expanding the might Imperial Armada's fleet with the frigate La Victoria!

The first thing I notice is you've used a lot of yellow, particularly for the stern castle and I'm wondering if there's any particular reason for this? It makes the ship appear quite bright.

Actually the colour scheme has me thinking hot dogs. I.e. Red hot dog, yellow mustard and a brown bun. But maybe that's just the frame of mind I'm in right now.

[Bonaparte]

That's an amazing ship.

During a certain time in history the Spaniards were indeed the rulers of the seas with there big ships full of gold.

I love the tour you give us and the details on the ship.

Once the brickshelf folder is public, you can count on more feedback from me!

Actually the colour scheme has me thinking hot dogs. I.e. Red hot dog, yellow mustard and a brown bun. But maybe that's just the frame of mind I'm in right now.

Please Mr. Phes, get something to eat and stop comparing this beautiful ship with food *sad*

[Dreamweb]

Dreamweb, I've been wondering where you've been! Ummm... Where have you been?

Busy with lots of various things... In fact this ship here was 90% complete a few months ago... But then suddenly I felt exhausted with building it, and I decided to have a break. I felt that if I had rushed things this ship wouldn't have turned out quite the way I wanted.

Once the brickshelf folder is public, you can count on more feedback from me!

Yes, I know I could have waited for the folder to be public and then start this topic. But I wasn't very patient...

Oh, and thanks to yoda601 for helping me find the correct Spanish name for the ship.

[Evil Willy]

I love the sheer power the ship seems to have mr Dreamweb. And the side where the cannons are looks awsomely superb, but it needs to be touched on the color scheme, and the stern castle is a little to square for my liking, but its a beautiful ship none the less! Keep it up.

[Dreamweb]

Finally... The folder is now public so feel free to examine it and share your thoughts...

[Mister Phes]

Please Mr. Phes, get something to eat and stop comparing this beautiful ship with food *sad*

I'll have you know I never eat hot dogs with mustard! Actually at the time of wrote that message I was so full of food I could have exploded, any more would have tipped me over the balance.

So, let's begin with the figurehead. And before you start complaining about those KK2 swords (they're Viking, actually ;-) ), let me explain. IMO figureheads often represent mythological or fantastic creatures, and these swords have this unrealistic,

Yes, lets begin with the figurehead...

(Notice how Mr Dreamweb has images that aren't too big. Much more convenient and easy to work with)

This mini-figurehead looks quite androgynous, I can't determine whether is supposed to be male or female. Is this intentional Mr Dreamweb or hadn't you any other pieces to give this creation a sexual identity? X-D

You say "figureheads often represent mythological or fantastic creatures" however, this one appears to be neither, so by adding the swords are you implying that the figurehead is a representation of a mythological human, like Hercules for example?

[Dreamweb]

(Notice how Mr Dreamweb has images that aren't too big. Much more convenient and easy to work with)

In fact, now that you've mentioned it, I think the images (maybe not this particular one) are slightly too big, but I guess I'll just leave them that way. :-)

This mini-figurehead looks quite androgynous, I can't determine whether is supposed to be male or female. Is this intentional Mr Dreamweb or hadn't you any other pieces to give this creation a sexual identity? X-D

Well, it was supposed to be female, something like the one of the BSB. But I didn't want to use the female face as I don't have enough of them and I want to spare them for building "real" women... But you're right, it can be considered a man as well, but I kind of like its ambiguity. So I'll just leave it to the imagination of viewers.

You say "figureheads often represent mythological or fantastic creatures" however, this one appears to be neither, so by adding the swords are you implying that the figurehead is a representation of a mythological human, like Hercules for example?

Yes, that was my thought exactly.

[Mister Phes]

In fact, now that you've mentioned it, I think the images (maybe not this particular one) are slightly too big, but I guess I'll just leave them that way. :-)

Well I've just made a tutorial on how to do a batch image resize so you can take care of all your oversized images in one swoop, but I'd say the images here are fine.

Here's the Black Seas Barracuda figurehead,(provided by yourself sometime ago)

Well, it was supposed to be female, something like the one of the BSB. But I didn't want to use the female face as I don't have enough of them and I want to spare them for building "real" women... But you're right, it can be considered a man as well, but I kind of like its ambiguity. So I'll just leave it to the imagination of viewers.

You've made it quite different from the figurehead of the Black Seas Barracuda however and while the sexual ambiguity doesn't bother me those damn Knights Kingdom II/Viking Swords do. For some reason they don't look quite right... They're too "sci-fi" for my liking but I'm not sure what you could use in instead, the sabres from the original pirate theme would be too small so maybe a pair of chrome simitars would do the trick. Mind you I'm not a big fan of using simitars in pirate related creations, however in this instance it might work.

You could well be thinking right now:

"Oh yeah chrome simitars he says, doesn't he realise how they RARE and expensive they are?"

Or maybe not!

[Bonaparte]

What I like about this ship is that it is easy to open certain parts to get access to the lower decks and the cabins.

There's a big collection of figs on the ship and they are positioned well (I like the picture of crew eating).

Personally I think that the colors are excelent for a spanish ship.

The ships design makes me think it could be build around the year 1600 (when the spanish armada was on its way to invade britain).

The figurehead with the 2 swords looks good on this ship. I don't have much ideas on how to make it better. Maybe a chrome helmet or a crown instead of the hair?

Another thing you can do is put some "painted (printed)" shields on the sails. Some good examples are added to the Santa Maria thread by Mr. Phes.

[Governor Broadside]

What I really like are the rooms like the mess hall and sleeping quarters; makes it more realistic. *pirate*

[Scouty]

Just for fun: 01000001 01110111 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100001 (Awsome!)

Really nice Moc DreamWeb. THe front of ship is really nice and I like the figure head alot. THe cabin also looks really good :-) . The mess hall is nice too.

[Mister Phes]

Everyone is raving about the mess hall and I haven't even got to that picture yet, so here it is...

Posted right before our very eyes!

This is great detail - simple yet effective! I think this the first time I've seen someone include a galley on their ship. But why the brown epaulettes on the mini-figures? And the plant in the top left corner - is that possible in a ship like this?

[legopirate83]

your moc looks great

i love your color scheme

[Mister Phes]

The "hot hog" colour scheme? :-D

[Dreamweb]

There's a big collection of figs on the ship and they are positioned well (I like the picture of crew eating).

Personally I think that the colors are excelent for a spanish ship.

Well, actually it doesn't have enough crew. While taking pictures of the interior, I took most of the minifigs from the upper deck and put them on the lower deck :-) I'd say it needs at least 10 more crewmembers.

Another thing you can do is put some "painted (printed)" shields on the sails. Some good examples are added to the Santa Maria thread by Mr. Phes.

I was considering making printed sails, however I'm short of ink these days and I spent too much money on ink lately anyway. So I decided to make them just plain white.

I think this the first time I've seen someone include a galley on their ship.

I've seen it on several other ships, including my very own De Rode Draak.

And the plant in the top left corner - is that possible in a ship like this?

I think it is - even the infamous HMS Bounty's mission was to transport a load of breadfruit plantings, so what's one plant in the mess hall compared to that? ;-)

[Mister Phes]

I think it is - even the infamous HMS Bounty's mission was to transport a load of breadfruit plantings, so what's one plant in the mess hall compared to that? ;-)

Correct me if I'm mistaken but the breadfruit plantings would have been contained and restrained to prevent flying over the place on the high seas, not out in the open like a potted plant?

I actually hadn't heard of breadfruit before... But this has changed...

[El Bucanero]

What am I doing in there? :-P :armada1: And who is the one-eyed chap on the left?? Very cool ship Dreamweb!

I really love all the interior details you put on your ships! I particulary like the sleeping quarters for the crew...

I decide to help the Spanish invasion, I'll post my spanish ship as soon as it's finished!

You are really inspiring! My only complaint is that on some places the colours are strange....

[Dreamweb]

And who is the one-eyed chap on the left??

Well, loosing an eye sometimes happens to non-pirate sailors as well *sweet*

Now that I look at this ship after some time has passed (I haven't dismantled it yet :) ) I think the bow sails are a bit too small and out of proportion compared to the rest of the ship - it looks like they can't serve their purpose well being this size. I think I'll try and make bigger ones...

[El Bucanero]

After taking a look at this beautiful ship again, I noticed how big it is! Six mid sections if I'm not mistaking?

[Dreamweb]

Seven actually... That's why I widened the hull with triple row of inverted slopes on each side - otherwise it would be too narrow...

[Dreamweb]

Three years after its premiere, I decided to go back to this topic. The reason I did it is because my biggest ship so far - La Victoria - got slightly revamped recently, and pictures of the upgraded version are here. I always thought that the sails in the old version were too small and the ship looked slow because of that. This has been changed and I guess it looks more propotional now. The figurehead has been altered too, although it still has the KK2/Viking swords, as I actually like them in here, but now it's definitely a female.

Anyway, here's the upgraded version:

I've also changed the first post, adding new main picture and some new deeplinks. The whole updated Brickshelf gallery can be seen HERE. Note that the interior pictures and some close-ups are left from the old version, as they depict areas that were not changed during upgrade. In the future I'll have to take new photos of some of them as well though, as they tend to be a bit blurry - while taking them 3 years ago I had much less experience with a digital camera.

The tour of the ship from the first post in this thread still works, so feel free to check it out! It shows some details and locations on the ship, like sleeping quarters, galley, brig, mess hall, captain's cabin and so on - I wanted this ship to be as accessible as possible.

[Big Cam]

Great looking ship, and I'm impressed with the interior, that's one thing the Black Seas Barracuda was lacking.

[martinsuper]

I LOVE THE COLORS!

Also, for some reason, I also love the use of the brown epaulettes. I think this looks great. I have been very impressed by the ships that have been built lately, but I think we spend WAY too much time worrying about 110% historical accuracy when really LEGO is there to have fun, like this particular build.

VERY VERY VERY cool!

-martinsuper

[Admiral Croissant]

When you posted this ship the first time, I wasn't a member yet.

And I can't spot a lot of updated things, so I'm just going to say something about the complete ship

I really like the fact that this ship is so accessible, in that way you can also show a lot of nice details below decks.

All the cabins and things like that are really cool.

But I still think you should make something like a cross on one of the sails, it will make it look a lot more like an Armada ship (so buy some new ink )

I think this ship is very playable and like martinsuper already mentioned, that's the main purpose of Lego of course!