Subject:
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Re: Start of New Bedford Whaler up on Brickshelf
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build
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Date:
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Sat, 1 Sep 2001 02:26:01 GMT
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Viewed:
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591 times
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At 04:31 AM 8/31/01 +0000, you wrote:
> In lugnet.pirates, Don Bruce writes:
> > http://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=6602
> >
> > Click [above] to go to the first nine digital pics of my eventually to • be over
> > six foot long (when completed with bowsprit) Lego model of a 100 foot (deck
> > length) 300 plus ton generic New Bedford whaler.
>
> Excellent! I like how it's in winter trim in the pictures. :)
> Think cool...think cool...not hot and humid and nasty, nooooo...
Winter trim has plenty of appeal. Then I don't have to do the sails, which
never look right anyway, IMHO. If my interest holds, the finished ship
might get a diorama added. A sleepy southern Chile port town soon enough
past the horn to be cold, but not freezing year round. A ship fitter's
stone, but rundown, building, offset by local color, outpost boredom, and
some greenery.
> > All dimensions are based on connecting two Lego set #5986 (Amazon Ancient
> > Ruins) 5 and 5/8 inch rowboats together (stern to stern) to create a 25 foot
> > whaleboat. Whaleboats were pointed at BOTH ends for safety reasons, but the
> > whale's tail was still often quicker.
>
> !!! Those are big whaleboats (we call 'em "Filz-class Emergency
> Cutters" round these parts ;) ). They look surprisingly nice,
> and you've done a great job filling them in. I had to settle for
> "flat" whaleboats on FdG (no 5986s and a serious height restriction),
> but yours is a great solution.
The Essex whaleboats were about 25 feet long, but later whalers out of New
Bedford were carrying 32 footers, and perhaps longer. The real ones were
lower in the water and sleeker than the Lego offerings.
> > Five extended height minifigs (hopefully properly dressed) laid end to end
> > (and five feet tall) equal the length of a 25 foot whaleboat, and everything
> > follows that scale.
>
> NEW FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES: "Moby Dick" starring Sly Stallone,
> Bruce Willis, and virtually every other short guy in Hollywood!
> :) Considering how warped minifig-scale is, I think it's a well
> made decision to call them 5'.
And I can make some of them taller and the cabin boy shorter as height allows.
> > As the pics show, I only had four rowboats, so I so far have only two of the
> > six whaleboats a whaler of this size normally carried. I am still seeking
> > more 5 and 5/8 inch long brown rowboats.
>
> If I had any, I'd loan 'em to you for the cause. Alas, I don't
> own any. I know that some people DO have the Belville white ones,
> which might in some instances be better--weren't some of the
> whalers' boats painted white? Also, how are you going to make
> the extended-length oars used?
Yes, whaleboats were painted white, and I think they would be a better
choice than my brown. I'll look for the Belville boats. I used Medieval
joust poles for the oars that were angled down sharply into the 'water'.
Not perfect but not too bad.
> > I named the whaleship 'TESS', because I wanted to deal with only 'square'
> > letters, that is, those letters with horizontal and/or vertical members.
>
> I love that stern gallery. Is the interior detailed, and
> is it fully accessible to the minifigs? I can't help but
> think that the white and black deckhouse foundations look
> extremely tentative.
There is no interior at all. Just solid bracing to hold the masts up
steady, and allow me to press down hard on all deck items. The deck house
foundations are all still tentative at the point when I posted the pics. I
have started to work on them since then. The three white squares, then
double black space, then seven white squares are for the unspelled out
words 'NEW BEDFORD'.
> > The top of the mainmast will tower about 40 inches above the tan weather
> > deck. Bracing it is already a challenge, and it will get worse as I go • higher.
> > Pirate ship pieces have been used where applicable, but since this ship is
> > much larger, I have had to scratch build most of it. The whaleboat davits
> > are a good example, and so is my 'crazy' rigging scheme. If anyone has any
> > better ideas for whatever, please share them with me.
>
> Can you use the "straws" for extending the rig pieces? You
> might have to shift to black--not unauthentic, given that NE
> vessels usually had their hemp lines dipped in tar--but you
> might be able to create larger and broader rig with those and
> a bunch of 1x1 top-clip tiles/1x8 plates/etc.
What are these straws that you speak of? Have thought about clipped on
antennas or 1x4 to 1x8 on down the rigging, but they are so 'thick'.
> The hull curvature is going to plague you. Not much one can
> do about that. You may, however, consider varying the angle
> at the fore by toeing in at an increasing rate towards the prow.
> But your ship is roughly _Gloire_'s dimensions, and I got away
> OK with a hinged, single-slope bow, so maybe I'm just talking
> crazy.
Hull curvature is a real pain, always and forever, so I did it quick and
dirty and got it over with. I thought of plates for its 'vertical'
curvature, but it would still 'jump' in sudden 'horizontally' each time.
Plus it would use so, so many black plates.
> The masts: I had this problem in spades when I built that
> big quasi-sailer of mine. I used the rig to hold the masts
> stable, which is what I've done on every ship since (including
> FdG). If you switch to single-segment rigging using straws,
> some of the stability issues may correct themselves. I think
> your rig-bracing matrix is really very ingenious, though.
> A shift to 2x2x11 pillars may also help--on BrickBay these are
> around $1-$1.50 each, and well worth the investment. I almost
> wanted to pull my hair out dealing with 2x2 bricks--I even made
> a study of using black 2x2 tiles and a long string of overlapping
> plates to make the masts to get away from that.
So far my mast is 2x2 black square bricks. I will change out all or part of
it when the rounds come in. Tan might be a more accurate color, but that's
a lot of tan rounds, and maybe the New Englanders tarred the masts too.
My 11-horizontals rigging (from the larger pirate ships) does hold the mast
to that height very steady. For the next step I will not have the same
leverage.
> Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of _Gloire_'s retrofit
> for black one-piece rigging, which increased mast stability
> about 1000%. Knocking over a mast would carry away a piece of
> the hull after that!
>
> Anyways, just a few thoughts and ideas. I like the way the
> ship's shaping up. Then all you'll need is a LEGO whale...
> or LOTS of yummy dolphins.
Yup. The Lego whale that rammed the Essex twice and in part inspired Moby Dick.
> all best
>
> LFB
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