HMS Surprise

[Charlie03]

104 A

I'm new on Eurobricks and have finished my first frigate: the HMS Surprise. The ship is armed with 24 32 pound carronades, 10 18 pound carronades, and 2 4 pound chase guns. The ship features a working helm and capstan along with a removable deck. I designed the ship using plans and other images found online. When the folder becomes public, you can view more pictures here

Furled sails

Broadside!

Due to the upload size and quota, I can't put any more photos in this post, but I'll post more photos later. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please let me know!

[Tazmaniac]

What an amazing first ship well done ! It looks great.

And welcome to Classic Pirates I'm sure you'll love it here.

[Darth Yogi]

Awesome ship. The rigging looks beautiful, and I would love more pictures to really show how great a ship this is.

Great job

[Dread Pirate Wesley]

Finally got in to your brickshelf gallery, man are those pictures huge! But I think you should resize them and post some more here because clearly you've put a lot of work into this ship. Overall it's very nice, I especially like the rigging you've done, and the brickbuilt anchor. The only part that looks a bit odd to me is the bow. I think the headrails extend too far down and overall the bow has a very angular feel. But the rigging is particularly inspired and I think you've done a greate job recreating a classic ship Oh and welcome to the forum!

Dread Pirate Wesley

[Charlie03]

What an amazing first ship well done ! It looks great.

And welcome to Classic Pirates I'm sure you'll love it here.

Thanks a lot!

Awesome ship. The rigging looks beautiful, and I would love more pictures to really show how great a ship this is.

Great job

Thanks! I'll put more up! The brickshelf gallery is available so you can view more pictures there.

Finally got in to your brickshelf gallery, man are those pictures huge! But I think you should resize them and post some more here because clearly you've put a lot of work into this ship. Overall it's very nice, I especially like the rigging you've done, and the brickbuilt anchor. The only part that looks a bit odd to me is the bow. I think the headrails extend too far down and overall the bow has a very angular feel. But the rigging is particularly inspired and I think you've done a greate job recreating a classic ship Oh and welcome to the forum!

Dread Pirate Wesley

Thanks! I'll resize the photos and add more to this page. Also, thanks for your helpful suggestions. I agree that the bow looks angular and wonder if you have any specific suggestions as to how to make the bow more round?

[Sebeus I]

That second picture is a fantastic view, did you place the ship under an angle or something ?

It looks so... "sea taming" really nice.

[Admiral Croissant]

You did a very good job on this ship Especially the rigging is great with its modularity and historical accuracy.

The amount of detail on the decks is amazing as well, and the colourscheme is nice.

I agree about the bow being a bit angular. I think this tutorial made by Captain Green Hair could help you (scroll down to the bow section).

I also think you could make the hull a bit wider in the middle. It's quite narrow and high now.

And finally, I agree that the headrails could be improved.

I think it would look better if you removed the bottom headrail, and personally I don't like the black 1x1 round plates there much.

So if you're going to adjust the ship, good luck! And otherwise just thanks for sharing

And welcome to Eurobricks of course!

[Errorist]

A very good job for a first ship! The colours and the rigging look great

I do have to agree with Admiral Croissant on the bow though. Adding a few more hinges will make her less bulky

Keep up the good work!

Greetings,

Errorist

[Charlie03]

That second picture is a fantastic view, did you place the ship under an angle or something ?

It looks so... "sea taming" really nice.

Thanks! The ship is at a slight angle and the sails are angled toward the camera.

You did a very good job on this ship Especially the rigging is great with its modularity and historical accuracy.

The amount of detail on the decks is amazing as well, and the colourscheme is nice.

I agree about the bow being a bit angular. I think this tutorial made by Captain Green Hair could help you (scroll down to the bow section).

I also think you could make the hull a bit wider in the middle. It's quite narrow and high now.

And finally, I agree that the headrails could be improved.

I think it would look better if you removed the bottom headrail, and personally I don't like the black 1x1 round plates there much.

So if you're going to adjust the ship, good luck! And otherwise just thanks for sharing

And welcome to Eurobricks of course!

Thanks for your compliments and helpful suggestions Admiral! I plan to adjust the ship and I'll upload photos when finished.

A very good job for a first ship! The colours and the rigging look great

I do have to agree with Admiral Croissant on the bow though. Adding a few more hinges will make her less bulky

Keep up the good work!

Greetings,

Errorist

Thanks! I'll work on the bow.

Oh, and here are a few more (resized) pictures:

The Captain's cabin

Crew firing the carronades on the gun deck.

The chimney

The captain, Sir Edward Hamilton climbing into a boat

The stern details

a photo of the quarter deck and helm

The capstan (which actually raises and lowers the anchors, notice the thread)

An image of an anchor and the bow (I plan to adjust the bow and headrails)

This shows the helm and how the thread which attaches to the anchor chain.

Athena, the figurehead (who kinda looks like a conquistador rather than a Greek Goddess...oh well)

And finally....

The HMS Surprise under full sail!

[Captain Becker]

What a beaty. You surely made a great job whit her. May i ask how you did the working Steering wheel?

Captain Becker

[Charlie03]

What a beaty. You surely made a great job whit her. May i ask how you did the working Steering wheel?

Thanks Captain Becker! The helm has thread wrapped around the piece between the two wheels which is shown in this picture:

The thread goes below the deck (on both the left and right side of the helm) and is tied to a chain which pulls the rudder. So when the helm rotates clockwise, the rudder is pulled to the left (if you were looking at the stern) which happens because the thread is pulled on the left side and released on the right side.

[kurigan]

Don’t know why I didn’t comment on this earlier but I’ve been inspired. I just plane like your ship. I suppose there could be some refinement, but I don’t see any of it as entirely necessary. If this were the Patrick O’Brien “Surprise”, some of the suggested refinements might be inline as he wrote about a light French built vessel. From my understanding however, the “Enterprise” class, “Surprise” of history was a bit more of a “slab sided” sort of, bulky English build ship. Still more if your inspiration is the real world reproduction, formerly “Rose”, she is a but bulky for O’Brien’s “Surprise” as well as she was fist built as a 36 and re fit to play “Surprise” in the movie. All in all I think you’ve gotten pretty close to the mark and should be proud of what you have so far.

[Charlie03]

Don’t know why I didn’t comment on this earlier but I’ve been inspired. I just plane like your ship. I suppose there could be some refinement, but I don’t see any of it as entirely necessary. If this were the Patrick O’Brien “Surprise”, some of the suggested refinements might be inline as he wrote about a light French built vessel. From my understanding however, the “Enterprise” class, “Surprise” of history was a bit more of a “slab sided” sort of, bulky English build ship. Still more if your inspiration is the real world reproduction, formerly “Rose”, she is a but bulky for O’Brien’s “Surprise” as well as she was fist built as a 36 and re fit to play “Surprise” in the movie. All in all I think you’ve gotten pretty close to the mark and should be proud of what you have so far.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it! This ship is modeled after the French corvette L'Unité, which was captured by the British and famously captained by (Sir) Edward Hamilton. (I think that Patrick O'Brien used the same ship) Anyway, the ship is based on these plans: click here Do you have any suggestion as to how to make it appear less bulky? (In widening the hull, I might increase the angle of the tumblehome which might help)

[Dragon Warrior]

Well built and looks good