Vengeur - First Rate Ship-of-the-Line on a Prefab Hull

[Kolonialbeamter]

[pid][/pid] LDD 11B

Hello Eurobricks Community.

Beeing a long time lurker I felt that with the new year having arrived it was about time to give back a little after I've received so much from you over the last years.

To start with I present to you Vengeur.

Originally starting as a little side project for something a bit larger (which I will present to you asap), meaning to function merely as a try and error platform for ideas and techniques, she kept developing more or less "by herself" and at some point I couldn't resist the idea of finishing her any longer.

The original question in my head was, how many cannons fit on a prefab hull based model, without for the ship to look too odd.

In this state she can carry 100 guns, plus each two bow- and stern chasers.

I had a lot of inspiration from you here, especially thanks to the splendid Pirates' Index. But I kept missing a true prefab hull based, minifig illusion scale First Rate.

As you might imagine, an acceptable tumblehome and developing techniques to create an "as wide as possible"-effect were my top concerns, as on a prefab hull everything always tends to be a compromise.

The lower gundeck is 20 studs wide, whereas the quarterdeck measures 14. That is still very steep but the best I could come up with at the time.

I have to say that by now she is almost two years old, has undergone major updating and transformed into what is now my main WIP. The main reason I first present her to you in this state though is to show you that from the start she was destined to be Bluecoat! Therefore have a look at this LDD Screenshot:

Those that speak of coincidence shall be keelhauled!

I hope you understand that I find it difficult to find words to express my thanks to you guys at Eurobricks, for I don't want anyone to feel offended by me using their techniques without giving credits in a proper manner.

But it's really hard not to forget anyone, so I appologize in advance.

Most noteably I'd like to mention Imperial Shipyards for his ingenious head rail technique, his stern designs and overall perfectionist-ic solutions to all ship related challenges. Furthermore probably still green-haired Commander Red Hat for his amazingly educational and inspiring frigate tutorial, Dread Pirate Wesley for his superb HMS Persephone, providing tons of info and I-could-try-it-like-this moments, Admiral Croissant for his Vesta, which got me into ship building in the first place, and Horry for his tutorials, especially concerning rudders and of course.

I hope you enjoy, updates and new material will follow.

C&C welcome!

Regards

[Captain Becker]

Oh my..... can I have that LXF file to take a closer look? This is mind bogglingly awesome! I cant say anything else than... Wow.

Captain Becker

[Admiral Croissant]

Truely a beautiful ship! And what a clever way to increase the width of the hull at the lowest deck

I also like the view in which you can see all the decks, and the stern decorations are very nice as well.

On the other hand, I think prefabs are way too narrow for a first rate ship, so I can't wait to see your skills being used on a brickbuilt hull.

But on a frigate even with prefab hulls it would look splendid. All in all this is very promising, good luck on other MOCs!

EDIT: And of course: Welcome to Eurobricks!

[Matteo1130]

Really nice! The only problem is (IMHO) the difference in scale between the MOC and the minifig. I mean: the MOC itself is out of any rating, three decker on prefab hull is astonishing, but it could be hard to show some minifig in it.. it would look like a giant! ;)

Your way to make sides and increase hull's width is really smart and I really love the amount of details, I've a lot of things to learn from this..

I wonder how could it look a MOC with 2 gundecks and your technique, it would be great to show minifigs too!

[Sebeus I]

Nice, very nice,

I really love the open side view.

Quite impressing for your first post .

Personally I think the ship should be wider, eventhough you managed to widen the prefab hull in an elegant manner it still is not wide enough.

Keep it up!

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Terrific!

Great approach to rigging (I never thought of that)

[Marquis]

Great work!

But photo there isn't enough. Make more photo of this ship.

[Alamai]

Hi!

Great Ship you build there =)

Would you mind to share the LDD file of this Model with us? You used some very intresting building technics which i want to study in detail, because i can use many of them in my own ships.

greetings,

Alamai

[tedbeard]

Fantastic. I have to concur on the interesting technique for the lower deck.

[Kolonialbeamter]

Vengeur Mk.II (now under sails)

Thank you for your warm welcome here on the forum and for your interest in this project.

Since there're still plenty of ships left to show, I'll jump right into presenting my next (and last) version of Vengeur.

HR pics @ here.

Mk.II's piece count went up to 7070. She is another six studs longer, now carrying a broadside of 53 guns, bow and stern were tweaked, the poop deck is now angled... and I made a flag!

Admiral Croissant: [...] I think prefabs are way too narrow for a first rate ship [...]

Sebeus I.: Personally I think the ship should be wider, even though you managed to widen the prefab hull in an elegant manner it still is not wide enough.

My thoughts exactly! So after a lot of derping around I came up with a technique that marks my first step towards a brick-built hull and therefore waves a long goodbye to prefabs in my creations.

As you can see Mk.II features no midsections any more, in fact all that's left are the upper prefab bow / stern elements, acting as width-limiters.

Advantages of this technique are that the ship rides lower, I gain an additional plus four studs increase in width, as you can see in this poor comparison montage:

And last but not least I'm no longer bound to the midsection's length of plus eight studs when I want to lengthen the hull, which makes for more flexibility in designing. Hurray!

On the downside you need way more parts (=money) than you would using prefabs, since the ship's structure requires strength and support, that prefabs supply easily. But since this is all digital I tend to close my eyes over this issue...

Here's a shot of the parts that I think create a smooth waterline underneath the bow / stern elements:

In fact the larger part of my fleet features this technique (pics soon, even including 'giant' minifigs), and it works really well on every kind of ship, from brigs to ships of the line. But again, more money will be involved, so if you want to build ships up to a frigate, Imperial Shipyard's awesome NextGen technique is a much better choice!

@Captain Becker, Alamai

Unfortunately I lack the possibilities to do so at the moment, the file is quite large. But given time, I'll figure something out.

@Marquis

Taking pictures isn't done that quickly, each render takes my computer about 1,5h, often enough much more. But if you'd like to see something in particular, just go ahead and ask! I'll provide!

Thanks for watching!

Regards

[Kolonialbeamter]

Here's a little comparison shot, showing Mk.I's prefab expansion technique on a two decker and - slightly altered - on a frigate.

HR pic here

As Admiral Croissant anticipated, it works quite well on a frigate. As for the two decker, I'm not so sure. What do you think?

Anyway, I hope this works as a teaser, so watch the horizon for more ships!

Regards