Though I'm not the most experienced in ship building, I am making the Black Pearl. I am using some blueprints from the movie to make it proportionally accurate and scaled right. The scale I'm using is 2 mm=1 stud. I know it isn't much yet, but I am planning on making it very good. Right now I am using a hull built out of slopes and I plan on using Captain Greenhair's frigate technique for the upper half. Unfortunately, as you will see below, I can't make a lot of the hull yet, so I'll need a bricklink order or two. The inside of the ship on the lowest deck is looking like a rainbow warrior right now, but that won't be visible when its done. Also I plan on having a fully decorated interior.

Constructive criticism is always welcome, so please let me know what I can improve on.

Edited June 25, 201212 yr by Ben King

The curve looks nice so far, I suggest you don't wait too long with making the keel, you can rely on it considering lenght and shape.

As for using captain greenhairs technique; I found a way to apply it in a different way to SNOT slope-built hulls:

Costum hull

Maybe you can use it.

As you can see I attached the hinge plates (car roor hinges in this case) to the upper slope pieces, the hull, instead of a central structure.

I don't know yet if it's a good Idea though, a central structure is safer considering stability issues that might occur later.

Keep it up!

Edited April 29, 201212 yr by Sebeus Iniwum

The curve looks nice so far, I suggest you don't wait too long with making the keel, you can rely on it considering lenght and shape.

As for using captain greenhairs technique; I found a way to apply it in a different way to SNOT slope-built hulls:

Costum hull

Maybe you can use it.

As you can see I attached the hinge plates (car roor hinges in this case) to the upper slope pieces, the hull, instead of a central structure.

I don't know yet if it's a good Idea though, a central structure is safer considering stability issues that might occur later.

Keep it up!

Thanks! I actually have part of the keel made, I didn't have it attached yet though. I think that I'll stick with the hinge plates being connected to the central structure, because like you said, it is more stable that way.

Do you guys think I should make the decks of my pearl black, brown, or dark brown? In the movies they look like a dark drown/weathered black look. Also, should the decks in the brig and gun deck be black because they aren't exposed to as much weathering, or would that look kind of weird? The main issue is I want to be as accurate as possible, but at the same time I don't want it to be a big black blob.

I'd say that you should go with brown (either dark or light, doesn't matter) so that the decks can be distinguished from the hull. Black would probably make it a blob. You could also think about grey, whether dark or light. I always use dark grey for the lowest deck, light grey for the next, and the top deck is brown. But's that's also based on the pieces available. For the top decks though, brown is probably best.

This builder had the same question, they started with 'normal' brown decks but they looked too bright so they switched to dark brown later in the thread, and I think the deck looked much better and more fitting. Hope that helps.

Edited May 15, 201212 yr by Skipper

As a fan of the films, and of ships in general, I'm really looking forward to watching this project grow! It looks like you're already off to a magnificent start with the hull!

As for the decks, that's a toughie. If I were the one taking on this project, I think I would try doing a dark brown for every bit of decking in the usual pattern to mimick the appearance of real decking. From there, I think I would start by replacing some boards along the edges with a black to still give them the charred look, since, if I understand correctly, the Pearl is black due to being severely burned. I think the dark brown with bits of black on the edges would work nicely. Also, depending on how big this ship is going to be, putting some small touches of light grey or holes on the outer-most parts of the blackened boards would be good for looking like ash. The Black Pearl, while fantastic in the films, is only such because it's an actual character. She's a rather boring ship when it comes to appearance, which is only amplified in Lego due to the limited selection of shades. I think the best way to combat this is to give it details that, while not directly from the film, still give it the same characterization.

Good luck, Ben King!

Edited May 15, 201212 yr by LRDark

Thanks for the advice, mates! I will be using dark brown for all the decks. As you will see in my next WIP pictures, I am currently using a normal brown or maybe black, but I am just doing that to see what pieces in dark brown I'll need to order from BL.

I just received a BL, so I will be able to finish the hull soon.

This is looking good. I am working on a "Minifig Illusion" scale version of the ship myself right now. Tell me, where are you finding your schematics at?

This is looking good. I am working on a "Minifig Illusion" scale version of the ship myself right now. Tell me, where are you finding your schematics at?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but here is a link to the Pearl Blueprints.

Excellent! That is a huge help. Thanks!

Well, I think an update of my Pearl is due. It is looking nice so far. It isn't much further than my last post. The main causes of that are lack of time and me having to tear apart my old one because the dimension were slightly wrong. Comments and/or criticism is always welcome.

I'm not fond of this awkward flat area were the 2 snotted areas meet (the area were the sword is pointing). I'm currently trying to find a good solution to that.

Thanks for checking out my WIP!

-Ben

It looks great! However, in the last picture, I see a gap between the sides and the bottom of the hull. I'd just use a bunch of black cheese wedge bricks to fill it in.

I see what you mean there. That's a problem you will always basically face and I can assure you that with the complete hull that will be totally unnoticed. If you still want to solve that you can attempt something with double slopes, I guess it is theoretically possible to change that though I'm not sure if you won't compromise something in stability.

My only point so far is that the tumblehome starts too low. If you check a typical ship's plan you will see that the lower section of the curve (the section when the curve is to the outside) is about half of the ship's height; the point where you turn inward should be at about half the ship, as you can check here.

Well it's been a while since I've updated. I'll see if I can post some more pictures soon, but don't get your hoes up. I took apart my old version because I thought it would be best to start fresh. I'm not 100% sure the scale will be perfect on this version but I'll most likely finish the ship regardless so I'll at least have a prototype and some experience with brick built hulls.

Looks nice so far - re the deck tiles question I have just completed a lot of ordering of tiles on Bricklink.

Agree that either dark brown or dark bluish grey will work the best - reddish brown and light bluish grey will show up too bright.

Dark brown costs more than dark bluish grey, even buying in bulk and only comes in a 1x2 & 1x4 tile. Dark bluish grey has every tile shape you can need.

Personally, I think dark brown looks a little better as it more resembles wood but dark bluish grey will be cheaper and more convenient.

Another option to consider is dark tan (sand yellow) but tile size is limited. Unless you want to spend heaps and stress over part availability, try not to plan for old brown (earth orange).

Personally, I think dark brown looks a little better as it more resembles wood but dark bluish grey will be cheaper and more convenient.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm thinking it'll be either dark gray or dark brown as well. Brown looks more like wood indeed, but like you said it has limited pieces. I'll probably have to go with dark gray because I doubt the deck will be able to be covered in only 1x2 and 1x4 tiles. I still haven't decided if I want to tile it or leave it with studs on the deck. I'm leaning more towards studs because that makes things easier and provides for better playability and figure placement.

-

Edited October 19, 20177 yr by Louie le Brickvalier

Nice to see you continue this! I look forward to your progress!

Thanks, Louie. It will probably be slow but progress nonetheless!