How to design hulls

[ed4becky]

I am looking for information on different ways to build hulls.  I know we can use the hull plates(?) but the best MOCS seem to bypass that, and I would like to learn so I can scale.

[Rogue Redcoat]

Welcome to the forum, I also would love to know the answer to this question, I would ask someone like @boeing_787_8_dreamliner and @Supersick_ here's some of their awesome work [MOC] - HMS Supernaut (48) Heavy Frigate - Page 2 - Pirate MOCs - Eurobricks Forums, and [COR - FB] HMS Meteor - Brethren of the Brick Seas - Eurobricks Forums. Also perhaps you know what kind of ship you want to build?

[boeing_787_8_dreamliner]

Thank you. I'll try to explain briefly how I basically construct my ship hulls.

The first thing to understand is that the ship's sides were not straight (seen from above) as they are today, but curved. That's why the prefabricated hull parts like those used on pirate ships are not an option. If you use it, you get a straight side wall that was only available on a few ships. The front/rear parts developed by Lego are a good starting point. They also have problems, but that would be going too far.

I will now describe a method of building the hull section between the stern and the bow.
To do this, a row of bumps must be created with Brick modified. So that you can model a side wall in Snot construction.

In the next step, a gradual curvature is modeled with Plates. It is advisable to look at it from above from a distance. It would be fatal if you build a constant slope and end up with a straight and no curve. The special thing about this type of ship is that there are many organic forms and they have to be recreated.

 

Next you build a segment of the hull. This should be based on the angle and curvature of what the molded parts from Lego specify. Curved slopes are particularly suitable for this because, as I said, organic shapes are involved.

 

Now we have to convert the snot construction back into the conventional one. Brick modifiets can be used for this, but plate modifiets can also be used.

 

And finally you complete the side wall by letting it fall inwards - there are many possibilities. I chose slopes here, but of course you can also use curved slopes in snot construction.

 

The text may be a bit incomprehensible, but if steps are not clear or other questions arise, you can always ask me again. Ideally, I'm more active on Instagram there and see the news immediately.

[Marooned Marin]

Ahoy @ed4becky and welcome to the forum.

I will point you to two additional tutorials worth of your time:

1 -> on FLICKR by @Dunkleosteus

2 -> here on Eurobricks by @Captain Green Hair

Hope this helps

[Quotenotto]

A good way to start with custom hulls is, as @boeing_787_8_dreamliner showed, to use lego bricks sideways (= snot: Studs Not On Top). There are a lot of different curved pieces that can be combined in different ways to create the desired shapes, the tricky part is to combine them in a stable fashion. Therefore, it can be helpfull to learn, how different snot pieces (Brick modiefied, headlight bricks and brackets) fit together.

Another possible way is to incorporate hinges. you dont have to use the classic Lego hinges, there are many ways to achieve such an effect.

Another good approach is to print out an outline in the size you want to build the ship and then start to fill in the oultline with plates, this way, you can create a skeleton on wich to build the rest of your ship.

There are many possible ways and it is an interesting challenge to try to achieve such organic shapes with a building system that is based on squares.

[Vincwat]

On 8/10/2023 at 8:02 PM, boeing_787_8_dreamliner said:

Thank you. I'll try to explain briefly how I basically construct my ship hulls.

The first thing to understand is that the ship's sides were not straight (seen from above) as they are today, but curved. That's why the prefabricated hull parts like those used on pirate ships are not an option. If you use it, you get a straight side wall that was only available on a few ships. The front/rear parts developed by Lego are a good starting point. They also have problems, but that would be going too far.

I will now describe a method of building the hull section between the stern and the bow.
To do this, a row of bumps must be created with Brick modified. So that you can model a side wall in Snot construction.

In the next step, a gradual curvature is modeled with Plates. It is advisable to look at it from above from a distance. It would be fatal if you build a constant slope and end up with a straight and no curve. The special thing about this type of ship is that there are many organic forms and they have to be recreated.

 

Next you build a segment of the hull. This should be based on the angle and curvature of what the molded parts from Lego specify. Curved slopes are particularly suitable for this because, as I said, organic shapes are involved.

 

Now we have to convert the snot construction back into the conventional one. Brick modifiets can be used for this, but plate modifiets can also be used.

 

And finally you complete the side wall by letting it fall inwards - there are many possibilities. I chose slopes here, but of course you can also use curved slopes in snot construction.

 

The text may be a bit incomprehensible, but if steps are not clear or other questions arise, you can always ask me again. Ideally, I'm more active on Instagram there and see the news immediately.

I have been looking for this. Thank you 🙏

[Cousarmy0001]

@kurigan has some pretty great brick built hulls as well.  I don't know that he's still active, but if you search for his posts you'll see some really great examples there.

There's an older method that does use the hull plates, developed by @Captain Green Hair that still gives you the curved hull and tumblehome, just not below the waterline.  There are some variations on that as well that can be found throughout the forum.  He has a full tutorial that you can check out, here:

 

[Franco Clarke]

This is the technique I prefer for building ships that are larger than the prefabricated hull parts. Using technique pieces with 1/2 stud offsets (i.e. 6541 and 3700) allows you to widen or narrow the hull in 1/2 stud increments, without loosing too much structural integrity. This has the added bonus of allowing the ship to split into sections if you so desire. 

This particular example uses the prefabricated upper bow part at the front, but for larger vessels, using hinge part 2429 as per Captain Green Hair's instructions can work. 

Hope this helps.