Ship's boats

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

[pid][/pid] 134 A&B

Hello everyone,

I wanted to start a topic on making bruickbuilt ship's boats. Ship's boats might seem like a contradiction, but what Im refering to are the longboats, cutters, and pinaces that men-o-war carried for all the small duties required to serve a larger vessel. Ive been tinckering and kit bashing some models together to compliment my own man-o-war, but I thought it would be best to start a new topic devoted to these small craft. Of course you could just use Lego small boats, but this thread is for MOC boats.

After going through several versions I came up with this for the ship's longboat:

It can seat 6, or 4 plus a sea chest, with 3 rowing stations and one at the tiller. The colors are only for the mock up, I had the most pieces in red and black. The final version will probably be white with a green stripe as this seems to be most common. Here is a version of a cutter, didnt quite have enough yellow but you get the idea:

The cutter is in a "stowed" configuration, with lashings and oars as she would be on the deck of a ship. The cutter is quite a bit smaller than the longboat here's how they look on the boat rails of a ship-of-the-line:

This seems to be an under discussed topic but let me know what you guys think. Let's see some of your ideas and creations!

Dread Pirate Wesley

[Captainmorgan]

I think It is a wonderful idea, yet I can't use it because my ship is too small. (I think) But I hope your idea catches on.

[kurigan]

I love the idea, I even like what you have so far, but would you hate me if I suggested they look a bit more like zodiacs then long boats?

it might be the colors, which you suggested you'd change o later models, but i think they are a bot shallow and come to a point at the keel rather abruptly. like a larger ship, long boats seemed to be more "horse shoe" shaped in the cross section.

[Yawgmoth]

Really nice! I'll try my desing based on yours, hopefully this weekend..

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

I love the idea, I even like what you have so far, but would you hate me if I suggested they look a bit more like zodiacs then long boats?

I agree with you they do look more like rigid boats than long boats. They do have a keel though, so the cross section is not flat on the bottom, as you can tell they dont even sit flat on a table. They are not perfect by any means but that is why I started this thread, to get ideas and for people to post their versions. Try it out yourself and see what you can come up with!

DPW

[Legonardo]

just one pic, enjoy!

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

just one pic, enjoy!

Looks great Legonardo! I especially like the technique on the bow, gives it a very realistic shape. It might be a bit large for minifig illusion scale but would fit nicely on a minifig scale ship. Good stuff

DPW

[Captainmorgan]

Actually the will fit.

If you posted a picture of a white one, it would probably change the minds of some people.

[Frank Brick Wright]

Great design, incredible how you built it so detailed.

I tried to make a design of my own but really couldn't find anything with which I was pleased. Perhaps you can however take some inspiration at Foremast's Jack design, which I find very nice too:

[kurigan]

I was interrupted before finishing my last entry but posted it in my haste any way. I do have a design of my own to submit and find it interesting the Legonardo chimed in as mine is based on his as it appeared in “Close Encounters”. This is a Dhow (a kind of lateen rigged sea boat, originating in either the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean and migrate to the Mediterranean later.) It’s not exactly a launch, though they are a sort of Arabic version, of what Europeans call a pinnace. Using smaller parts to shrink the scale a bit might work well. Keep in mind though that ships boats (long boats, pinnace, even gigs) tend to be larger than expected, seating as many as four across.

[SlyOwl]

I'm afraid I don't have a great picture of it, but I had a go at a longboat here -

It's pretty similar, with the two top SNOT layers with curved bricks in them, with some sort of base on it (mine had a curvier bottom).

[Sebeus I]

Those are nice, I like the yellow one most (the shape).

I haven't made many ship boats yet, I only have these:

They are very small so they would fit on my ship (the prefab longboats were a bit too big) but obviously a bit minimalistic

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

I'm afraid I don't have a great picture of it, but I had a go at a longboat here -

It's pretty similar, with the two top SNOT layers with curved bricks in them, with some sort of base on it (mine had a curvier bottom).

Your longboat was a inspiration for mine, at least I think so, had to guess on a lot of it from that picture I just made it shallower to fit the proportions of my ship-of-the-line. Making it any taller or bigger and it dominates the center of the ship. Love to see a better picture!

Those are nice, I like the yellow one most (the shape).

I haven't made many ship boats yet, I only have these:

They are very small so they would fit on my ship (the prefab longboats were a bit too big) but obviously a bit minimalistic

Those would work well on a smaller ship for sure. Plus they look like they could be stacked on top of each other which would be useful for a larger ship with 4 or more boats.

DPW

[hobbes5a]

Just 2 pics, built this weekend. :pir-tongue:

[Horatio]

Here's my boat for the HMS Athena. It's larger than the pre-fab boat that I have, and it has a slot at the bow for a mast.

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

That's a nice boat Horatio, I like the blue and white color scheme too. Thanks everyone else for posting examples in here too, lots of good inspiration.

I spent some time updating my first designs. Finally have enough pieces to get the colors I want. I wasn't too pleased with the bow design at first, I like this second attempt better. Here's what I came up with for the longboat (yellow) and the cutter (red):

And the cutter with oars stowed, as she will appear on the boat booms:

Here's a cross section to show what it looks like with one side removed:

Let me know what you think!

DPW

[Frank Brick Wright]

It definitely is an improvement from your last version and I don't think it is possible to build something much better than this at this scale, great work

The only thing I actually would change is the keel, quoting Kurigan's plans:

They don't get much of a keel, do they? I mean, there is a keel, obviously, but is so thin in comparison that I don't think its really worth making it. Yours is actually pretty near to the scale — in the plans the keel height is 1/10 of the total height while in yours is precisely 1/7, 1 plate out of 7. The whole point is that if there is a keel it should extend from stern to stern which is clearly impossible in this case.

The keel is totally irrelevant but I think it adds to extra height unnecessarily. This being said I absolutely love your design and I never thought that a boat this good could be made Fantastic!

[Captain Blackmoor]

I've made this one a while ago. It still needs improvement but I'm getting there.

[______]

These all look very nice! I might have to try some out for my ships. Great idea for a thread.

[Alasdair Ryan]

Nice boat's everyone,but may i ask what is going on in this picture in the corner of captain Blackmoor's boat?

Edited July 2, 2012 by Alasdair Ryan

[Horry]

Do I see an illegal building technique?

Those small boats are great, everyone! I might borrow some of those ideas sometime. I especially liked Horatio's boat as it seems very sleek.

[Captain Blackmoor]

The boat has been on the shelves for some time, and it's still not completed. It needs a lot of finetuning.

You guys were referring to the technique right? It's quite sloppy and I'm not going to keep it that way.

[Capn Frank]

I've made this one a while ago. It still needs improvement but I'm getting there.

It seems a little big to me, but then again I am used to only frigate long boats.

Captain Green Hair and Errorist made an excellent one ages ago:

It had put mine to shame at the time, which didn't use any SNOT technique:

Inspired by Captain Green Hair's and Errorist's I built this one:

[Captain Blackmoor]

It's true my longboat is quite large, but it's meant for a minifig scale third rate. It was required to hold about 80 men.

Le Duquesne is one of my inspiration sources, as you can see it holds quite a large longboat as well:

But again, my example is my first attempt at a longboat.

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

It definitely is an improvement from your last version and I don't think it is possible to build something much better than this at this scale, great work

They don't get much of a keel, do they? I mean, there is a keel, obviously, but is so thin in comparison that I don't think its really worth making it. Yours is actually pretty near to the scale — in the plans the keel height is 1/10 of the total height while in yours is precisely 1/7, 1 plate out of 7. The whole point is that if there is a keel it should extend from stern to stern which is clearly impossible in this case.

The keel is totally irrelevant but I think it adds to extra height unnecessarily. This being said I absolutely love your design and I never thought that a boat this good could be made Fantastic!

Thanks Frank. I agree there is not much of a keel on these boats, that would kind of make them useless in the shallows anyways. The 1 x 10 plate on the bottom of the longboat can be removed, but it is necessary to attach it to the boat booms on my sixty-four. I will try extending it further or simply removing it and see how that looks.

That is a huge longboat Blackmoor! I've actually never seen one quite so large, wonder if it had a special purpose to fit so many men. How many minifigs do you think yours would hold? You should try it just for comparison

DPW