I am absolutely thrilled by this. I am in absolute awe. Might as well go and delete my whole file i started two years ago that I got reminded by with this project continuation. I dont get this absolute beauty and detail , the perfection and attention to detail.
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hi Cergina;
Hope everything is well! I’m very happy that you consider my ship beautfiul and detailed (she is, but I like to hear it too 
) Don’t give up on your own project, it’s good to see other peoples work and it’ll still help you learn from it!
Not sure if you’d be interested in this or not, but a guy with a team of friends (and paid assistance) is rebuilding a much smaller boat than this, a 100 yr old (approx) gaff cutter. The workmanship involved is insane, and even though it’s not a CG project you might find it inspiring. About 133 episodes so far, over about 4 years.
Aye, I follow him on and off. He’s doing great work!
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I’ve been fairly busy, so progress on this has once again been quite slow. Glad to be back at it though.
After advice about the shape of the bow section on a dedicated ship building site, I decided to basically delete most of it and rebuild it from the ground up. Still some slight imperfections on the railings I can’t quite wrap my head around, but everything is coming along together. I’ve also rebuilt the forecastle bulkhead (the wall) and I’m currently building the stern/quarter galleries.
I’ve also uploaded a video log for those that might be interested.
I may have to start adding some color soon. IEven with cavity switched on and the like, the detail is starting to get lost again.
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Alright, I’ve had a good go with the quarter galleries. A lot more of those odd curves and lines, but it seems to be coming together okay! I think I’m nearly finished with the hardest parts (except perhaps the sails/rigging itself.) I’ll probably work on the rest during the week.
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I’ve done a bit more work on the stern. She’s finally starting to come together once again!
I’ve mainly been concentrating on the quarter galleries and getting the decoration in there. Feels much closer to the original ship she was based off. I’m also trying to debate whether to call it the same as she was originally (HMS Bellona) or a new one. I’ll see how things progress a bit more before finalising that decision.
On a slightly more personal note, I’ve been very weary with things lately. I’m so tired. This ship is helping me build my energy and willpower up and I’m greatful for all the people that stop by and the forum for providing the ability to share ones work.
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So I’ve pretty much completed the superstructure of the quater galleries. I’ve decided to start tackling some of the top-side stuff like the fore and aft pins, the chimney, the stairways, and other little things here and there.
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Gun ports installed! They need some additional tweaking here and there but she’s definitely starting to come along now. I’ve got all the above-board stuff pretty much done. I’ve also tweaked the Wale piece cos it looked a little too thick, but does come with a downside that it looks a bit wahsed out with these white-only viewport renders. I’ll be fixing that when it’s time for materials.
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I’ve mainly worked on the waist section here! Notably, placed the boats on it. For simpler objects, one or two of them did give me a few headaches! 
I’m thinking of naming her “Gorgo,” a play on the Medusa legend, with a matching figurehead. Not too sure on the paint-job, but I might go with the classic black/yellow or black/white theme, or try and match it as close as I can with the Bellona.
Another minor update with channels installed:
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I’ve installed the basic rigging for the gun-ports so I’m pretty much back to where I was the last time I did this ship. I’m deliberating between recreating the matrix as it was or using simpler custom properties on dedicated bones. The matrix does feel easier in many respects though so I’m currently leaning more towards that idea.
My computer is getting very sluggish now, so future viewport renders will have to have most modifiers switched off.
I’ve installed the 12 pounders on the forecastle, quaterdeck and captain’s cabin, and placed some carronades onto the poop-deck. I’m looking to install the rest of the cannon and then have a go at tackling the rigging. Progress wise, I’d say she’s proably between 70% and 80% of the way there!
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80% might be optimistic since you haven’t started rigging! 
Looking good!
I’m worried you might be right about that! 
The rigging is definitely looking daunting, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go all the same. I’ve already begun working on the masts and yardarms and I’ve noticed some things with them that people seem to miss. I’ve also got the base blocks and tackles ready set up with a basic armature so placing the lines shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve already used them on the cannon.
Generally, most of the ship so far has been one big jigsaw puzzle (or a game of tetris.)
I’ve not fitted the work I’ve been doing lately, so the latest VP render is this one:
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Rigging has formally commenced! I know it’s just the fore-mast shrouds, but I don’t think finishing them should take more than a day or two. The standard and running rigging might pose a bit more of a problem though, so many questions on the prints…
Minor update: main and mizzen masts have the starting shrouds!
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Greetings!
That’s one nice ship you have there!
I’m wondering on how do you plan on creating the ropes for the rigging.
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Curves, mostly. I already have a simple block and tackle set up with 1, 2 or 3 sheaves. More complex blocks and setups will need to be redone manually.
Ideally, I’d prefer to have a mesh on the curve arrayed through the curve as it makes setting up materials easier, but my computer simply can’t handle that. Instead i’m just going to use raw curves and see what I can do with textures. The prints / references I’m looking at aren’t always clear so there’s a lot of guessing going on too!
I’m just finishing up the shrouds at the moment, but I’m getting tired now so will likely do that tomorrow. I want to have a look at the mast “stay lines” that connect from the mizzen mast to the main, to the fore. After that, it’s effectively figuring out one line at a time.
If you’re interested, this is what I have now…
The ropes are nurbs curves with a geometry node setup that acts like a mesh + (array, curve) modifiers.
The ship.
The Geo node…
Unfortunately this will create a lot of geo (depending on the meshes you feed to the geometry node setup) but I have not found a way to make it lighter
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The biggest problem is finding reference as to where all these rope go and there’s plenty of ropes to go around 
Do you know how thick the ropes should be? I was mostly eyeballing the thickness and ended up with a 3cm for the thinner ones and 5-6cm for the thicker ones.
I’ve not had much by way of opportunity to experiment with geometry nodes. People have done some brilliant stuff with them, but you’re right - even doing it this way would be too taxing on my computer.
I came to the same sizes as you did re the lines; about 5cm for some and about 3cm for others. My thinking was they should be thick enough for somebody to grab, but not too thick such that they couldn’t do so; nor too thin such that it would slip or break.
The only exception are the anchor lines and potentially the rudder cables.
Your model is looking cool. I’m looking forward to seeing some more of itt!
