Classic-Castle.com

Hey all, here is my latest build for the Lands of Roawia LEGO online role-playing game over on the Merlin's Beard forum.

This is my first large scale ship and I really hate using LEGO prefab pieces of any kind, so I wanted to create a realistic brick-built curved hull. I present the Spirit of Lenfald:






She's a solid 77 centimeters long from stem to stern and all LEGO except for custom sails and rigging. The story is a long one and is on Flickr if you're interested. More photos are also on my Flickr stream. All comments and criticism are most welcome!

Aaron

Wow, so at this criticism I can not do even if I wanted. Beautiful.

Wow! The curve of the hull from front to back is mind bending, what technique is that?!

Stunning ship! The shaping of the entire thing is perfect! I love the rigging too

BohuslavIII wrote:Wow, so at this criticism I can not do even if I wanted. Beautiful.

Hey, there's always room for improvement! But I really appreciate that, thank you!

Ferret wrote:Wow! The curve of the hull from front to back is mind bending, what technique is that?!

Well I'd say the curve is much more brick-bending than mind-bending. It's basically very long strands of 1x4 tiles overlapping 1x4 plates and held firmly by technic rigs of various sizes and lengths. Each row involves a slightly different rig to create the gradual slope effect, but they're all made of some combination of 1/2 bricks with pin holes, technic pins, and a lift arm. The 1x2 bricks are attached by only one stud to an internal support column to allow side-to-side turning. The angle is controlled by another stack of bricks which stops the lift arm from moving any farther and determines the curvature of the hull. I was actually surprised to find I could pick up the whole ship without breaking the hull, as there is a tremendous amount of pressure placed on it. I can post some internal/WIP shots if you're interested. I don't have a ton of them (I wish I'd taken more!) but I can share what I do have if you want.

LittleJohn wrote:Stunning ship! The shaping of the entire thing is perfect! I love the rigging too

Thank you LittleJohn! It took me about a dozen tries to get that shaping down, so I'm glad you like the finished product.

AardWolf wrote: I can post some internal/WIP shots if you're interested. I don't have a ton of them (I wish I'd taken more!) but I can share what I do have if you want.

Definitely we are interested! I'm very curious.

BohuslavIII wrote:Definitely we are interested! I'm very curious.

Ok sounds good! I'm away from home right now so I may be delayed a few days but I will post all my WIP pics and link them here as soon as I can

Beautiful ship! The shaping is excellent, like others have said.

Justin M wrote:Beautiful ship! The shaping is excellent, like others have said.

Thanks Justin! Glad it came out well.

I'll be home on Wednesday so I will be sure to post WIP pictures either then or Thursday as promised!

Ship is realy masterpiece.
I belive more of us thank you for explanation how hull is made but one picture says 1000 words.
Thanks you.

As many have said, the ship is just great. Easily one of the better LEGO ships I've seen.

This is a beauty, Aaron! I'm always drawn to a brick-built hull, and you've done an awesome job here. I like those little ballistas you've made, also.

Bruce

subix wrote:Ship is realy masterpiece.
I belive more of us thank you for explanation how hull is made but one picture says 1000 words.
Thanks you.

Thank you very much! I'm going to double post right now with the few WIP shots I have and an explanation.

Brickninja wrote:As many have said, the ship is just great. Easily one of the better LEGO ships I've seen.

I appreciate that Brickninja- thank you!

Bruce N H wrote:This is a beauty, Aaron! I'm always drawn to a brick-built hull, and you've done an awesome job here. I like those little ballistas you've made, also.

Bruce

Thank you Bruce! It was fun trying out different designs for the weapons and I'm pretty satisfied.

Here are the few WIP pictures I have. I wish (and thought) I had taken more, but unfortunately I didn't, so I really hope this sheds some light on the hull technique I used. The basic concept is to build long strands of 1x4 tiles layered over 1x4 plates and then attached them to technic bricks attached to supported lift arms that are set at an angle. The other challenge was to attach the fore and aft castles at multiple angles above the hull while not putting pressure on the hull pieces themselves. I had to have multiple axes of rotation. To accomplish this, I used these pieces:

http://www.bricklink.com/PL/3700.jpg?0
http://www.bricklink.com/PL/2780.jpg?1
http://www.bricklink.../PL/32013.jpg?0
http://www.bricklink.com/PL/4519.jpg?0
http://www.bricklink.../PL/32054.jpg?0
http://www.bricklink.com/PL/2817.jpg?0

The 1x2 technic brick with pin hole is then attached by only one of its studs to the edge of a column of bricks. This is mirrored on the opposite side of the ship as well. The single attachment points allowed range of motion from side to side (to match the angle of the curved hull) while also slanting anything placed on top of the modified plates both forward and inward. I added long reddish brown plates on top of the modified plates on which to build the sides of the aftcastle. These plates are also supported near the very stern by support columns topped with tiles so as not to put pressure on the already-stressed curved hull beams.

I hope this helps! Here are the WIP shots:

Thank you for photos of WIP stage. Interesting!