Ship building & Customisation

[Joey Lock]

I am creating the Proper "Unicorn" from Tintin, thanks to Tedbeard for the plans

I have started making the Sides as you can see behind but what I tryed to make the side parts I thought are called "Sidecastles"

Should I just make it square? But I dont really know. Anyway I have gotten to the Roof...And paused. I cant make a Roof whilst its bending. Also, Is there a easier way to do this? And some help on how to do the back from the Elaborate Shipmakers here?

Thanks!

The Stern is the hardest, How could I make It go up slanted like that and add the Banister things?

EDIT: Also how could I make the Unicorn Figurehead? I asked that before and its what started the Figurehead contest! I never did get a answer...

Edited December 16, 2015 by Phred

[Errorist]

My advice would be to stop trying to design the ship in LDD and go for it IRL buying bricks through BL as you go.

A ship this size is a near impossible task with LDD (believe me I have tried and failed )

As for the sterngalleries, I think you should keep them the way they are now. Don't make them sqaure because it just doesn't look right IMO.

You've managed to get the shape really well.

But I'm afraid that LDD won't allow you to go much further due to the programs limitations.

If you were to build them IRL I would suggest doing something with wedgeplates and tiles to finish the roof.

Basically my advice is to experiment IRL instead of with LDD.

Even if you only have a limited supply of bricks. Those will get you much further than LDD ever will.

Greetings,

Errorist

PS: beautiful sterngalleries Joey

[SlyOwl]

I'm not sure how accurate you're trying to be to the Unicorn (are we going to see a Tintin and Captain Haddock? ), but you could try these HP rooves -

Alternatively, you could try using wedge plates at angles on the roof, as seen in Cafe Corner -

But building it in real life sounds best to me; I never did like LDD much...

That said, what you've produced so far have been oustanding!

[Mister Phes]

I am creating the Proper "Unicorn" from Tintin, thanks to Tedbeard for the plans

Maybe I'm a bit slow here but I've missed something... Are you creating this with real bricks or in a program like LDD or MLCAD?

[RoVer]

belive me. make angles whit mlcad or even ldd.. is almost imposible.. well.. you can.. but in a old school construction style.. y recomend real bricks..

in case of don´t.. well.. you will have to learn geometry =)

[Teddy]

Dear Joey,

I agree with Errorist. If anybody knows the limits of LDD he is, his BS folder still baffles me.

I do some computer programming as part of my day job and have to say that models will only get you to a certain point.

Moddeling real life is near to impossible and is part of the art of neglecting the unimportant.

But somehow the unimportant always gets important at one point or another, making the models and programs redundant...

Just trying to design with the bricks in your hand is so much easier in that respect.

I do really like what you have done so far in LDD.

I dont know how difficult it is to get a real brick design with angles in LDD?

Kind regards,

Teddy

[Joey Lock]

Maybe I'm a bit slow here but I've missed something... Are you creating this with real bricks or in a program like LDD or MLCAD?

Well I am Designing it in LDD since I dont know what pieces Ill need to make it. If I use this I can check if I have them already. Also I cant us MLCAD, Its to Complicated.

Ill see if I have angle pieces, Problem is most of my Angled pieces are missing since Ive been moving around the House a bit. Also I mostly have old sets which dont have many Angled. Ill get some Hinges and place 17 bricks high and then place a base plate in the middle and see if it holds.

I was thinking of using the idea Fat Tony used for his magnificant HMS Repentance:

But LDD wouldnt let me, I tryed MCLAD, seemed to difficult to work. This isnt going to be full size like Teddys HMS Victory! I can ever get around to being that good, I was going to try either used the Pirates hull and see if it works or make a brick made one.

[Manta]

try building In person, not on LDD, solutions come to you faster.

[Joey Lock]

try building In person, not on LDD, solutions come to you faster.

Ive tryed some Tiles:

[Admiral Bejaune]

Yea like Errorist said, build it in person rather than on the computer. You think you will actually save time in designing a ship first, but it will actually take you twice as long. Good Luck. Looks good from what you got.

[Mister Phes]

Interesting enough most architects and engineers build on computer first and then in the real world. Hmmmm... Now why might that be?

There used to be a user round these parts named ZCerberus and he used to design quite impressive forts and harbours in MLCAD then build them in the real world. Now whether he really needed to use MLCAD or not I'm not sure, but perhaps that enabled him to improve his designs.

You should do a search for some of his threads.

[MetroiD]

Ahoy fellow maties, first of all excuse me for starting a thread over a non-LEGO-related topic. However, I'm having trouble with this and I thought it might also be a useful thread for other ship modeling enthusiasts.

I received this gorgeous brig as a present for my birthday. It's a wooden ship kit model by OcCre (Occio Creativo), the Corsair Brigantine - here's an overview of the kit's contents and the ship's details, as posted by a guy on another forum... I don't need to tell you just how much I love it, but I must admit the sight of so many tiny elements and instructions so scarce was quite frightening. Especially seeing as I have no experience with ship modeling whatsoever - and I'm genuinely worried that my clumsiness might cause some damage to her fine mast, rigging or other details... Worst of all, this is not a beginner's kit - but I loved the model so much from the instant I saw her, I wouldn't have been happy building anything else.

I'd be grateful for any tips and pieces of information you might be able to share on this. I'll still build her, even if I get no help whatsoever, and even if that's at the expense of a few mistakes here and there (there's nothing that can't be rectified, at the end of the day :) ), but I thought I'd better ask the pros first and see what kind of response I'd get

[Admiral Croissant]

Well, I'm not a 'pro' but I had about the same problem.

I also bought a wooden model kit. But fortunately I knew a man who makes wooden models himself (for museums and stuff) and he would like to help me.

So now my ship is nearly finished, it has only 1 mast but it was still very difficult to build. So I must warn you, it's really not easy. And if you have someone to help you, he can always replace parts that are wrong-sawed or something like that and that's very useful

So try to find someone who is good at building things with wood. And otherwise try to make a plastic model first (or maybe you already did)

My best tip is not to hurry too much, take your time. Otherwise you might for example saw parts wrong and you have only one chance.

The ship looks great, I hope you will manage to build it. It's also good to improve the sail-making skills for lego

That's all for now, good luck!

[legolooney]

Hey Guys,

This morning i was messing around with my Brickbeard's Bounty set, trying to improve it (may upload some pictures later) when a great thought struck me .

'Why not order all the Gold pieces from the ship in White and all the red in Black?'

Then rebuild the ship in a new colour scheme.

Then i realised the huge number of possibilities for colour schemes.

I will probably also make some custom sails...

Basiucally i need your thoughts on colour scheme baring in mind i will only be changing colours of pieces not adding or subtracting pieces.

Heres a reference pic to get the ideas flowing.

P.S. if this post gets popular enough could someone add a votey thingy?

P.P.S. i know someone has already done a colour edit MOD but i want to stick to the original designs

P.P.P.S could admin add a folder in the Index for Brickbeard MODs

Edited December 31, 2009 by legolooney

[martinsuper]

If you are going to spend the time doing this, why not upgrade it to a "Super" Bounty and also change the colors? There have been many Bounty upgrades already on this forum.

Here is the most recent I could find. Catch my drift?

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36742

-martinsuper

[curtisrlee]

Hmm, how about Imperial Theme? Like a Imperial ship to match the Brickbeard's Bounty? I never done this before myself, but I shouldn't be hard to do

[legolooney]

I'm thinking..

Yellow and Black

or

White and Black

or

Yellow and White

@martinsuper, i would like to make one of those but i want to test colour schemes first, thanks for the link though :)

[Jack Bricker]

I would change the the flooring on the inside of the captain cabin to match the rest of the deck and then I would change the masts to the color brown. I would also change the sails to something similer to the imperial flagship and then I would change the dark tan around the gun ports to a light tan with a blue trim. After making those changes you would have an imperial brig to go along with the imperial flagship.

[AND3RSEN]

personally i would change all of the gold pieces to yellow, and then change all of the red on the cabin to either brown or black. Hope that helps

[legolooney]

I would change the the flooring on the inside of the captain cabin to match the rest of the deck and then I would change the masts to the color brown. I would also change the sails to something similer to the imperial flagship and then I would change the dark tan around the gun ports to a light tan with a blue trim. After making those changes you would have an imperial brig to go along with the imperial flagship.

love the idea of making a mini fleet for the navy, that would be cool,

personally i would change all of the gold pieces to yellow, and then change all of the red on the cabin to either brown or black. Hope that helps

yeah, that sounds good actually, i think thats what i'll do, thanks again

[mariahbre]

Yes I have just purchased the Imperial flagship and await the time when I can build that huge thing. I was wandering, I am pretty new to the ship building process and would like to know were I can buy the parts needed to build a custom ship. I might seriously consider taking this up as a new hobby as when I was younger both time and money were an issue. Now that these issues no longer exist, I am looking to build a ship or two, will see how it goes. Anyhow, are there websites, or other resources that I can use, maybe lego direct to say order the bottom sections pillars etc, were can these parts be located and used for custom assembly? Thanks and again I am new to this hobby so all help will be much appreciated! thanks Mark

[prateek]

There are a lot of great topics about ship building in the Pirates Forum, and more specifically, Captain Green Hair made a very comprehensive ship building guide here. Hope this helps

[Corvus]

I'm going to go ahead and move this to the Pirate forum- I'm sure you'll get more help there. (They're pretty obsessive like that. )

Moved to the Pirate MOCs forum- hopefully the pirate mods will agree that, as a question on MOCing, it'll go here.

[Captain Zuloo]

As far as parts, you can't go past Bricklink. It is certainly the best place to buy individual parts, and usually in quantity as well. What sort of ship were you planning to build?

[Ryan_T]

Why Bricklink of course! Click here to go to Bricklink. Maybe even This. Hope to see one up soon!