improving the materials, adding dirt, and varying the textures used for panelling so not too obvious they are the same. again, the UV mapping of main hull shows issues, but that's for later.

small image version

Added "scuppers" where water would pour out if deck gets a wave splashing over it.

Much of the railings now done! REAL pain in arse tricky work, headaches galore.

this shows initial design for holding the removable panels where cargo would be loaded

lot of the ship's railing now done :)
missed out one damn pillar on rear entrance, doh! :P

whole ship, to date. start work on the railings :)

Improved the doors, well, they do have to keep pirates out ;)

tweaking it, altering testures, modelled "acron" style carving on sides of doors (which I later removed)

close up of rear entrance, showing the detail of the lights, and how I "chamfer" everything to give detail, and rebated the top of one post to accept the light
notice how the second, smaller scroll, acts as a strengthener, and makes it harder for the chain to slip off accidentally ;)

And, oops! this is test#27, doh, well, anyone can screw up :P

The rear entrance

Built a new frame to hold the door

close up details of the magic lights around the entrance :)
"Keeping the ship safe from the scum of the universe!" ;)

One of the many odd things in the "Spelljammer" universe is that between solar systems, is the "Phlogiston",
a vast region of rainbow coloured, highly INFLAMMABLE gas,
ie it's like sailing through psychedelic petrol fumes :P hence,
magic, non burning lights are a good idea!!

Created some lights for the entrances, and ornate ironscroll work to hold them up :)

front entrance done :)
I envision the roof can be lifted right off to help load cargo/items etc when required. still working on it though

This shows the method to support the cargo hatches, which are flush wih the decks, so are held up by a sort of "ring" underneath them.
Also shows the angle supports, plus the new decking on ballast deck and candles.

also shows the two "ribs" near cargo hatches don't "look" right, ebcause I had to rebuild them to fit new hatch/supports, I will need ot UV map them same as old ones, doh! this is why test shots are important

there, cargo hatches fitted flush with the deck, held up by big supprting sort of "collar" underneath, and support angle beams bracing those, so my "inner engineer" is happy with strength of the deck now, hehe.

then I added proper decking to the ballast hold, tricky, used individual planks rather than one large flat sheet to do that, because of layout, and way I like to let some of the ballast be seen, and can use in later renders, to pull up planks to show smuggled treasure or such hiding in the sand etc...or I can just delete it all to cut down on polygon count for renders showing no internals

another "glass" render, love these ;) that all looks pretty good now, so am happy with what's done so far plus I added block for the new mast to sit in, too. next I need to work on the hatches

did this as a "beauty" and test shot...test shots are important...sigh, I'd forgotten to leave enough space for the damn big cargo hatches, DOH!!! the two horizontal beams in middle are in the way, necessitating much work in rebuilding them, ribs at that point etc had all been cropped to fit so, more work...c'est le vie! ;)

this shows the "ribs" that hold the entire ship together. In real life, these are made from many very cleverly interlocking pieces, as no single tree is ever big enough, or right, for such work, but that's too much work, even for me ;)

A simple shot showing the passgeway back of the bridge, with a human for scale. yes I know, his eyes are weird, low quality import jsut for test, not a fine art render! ;)

this render shows how I've added doorways with frames.
used simple latches as such would be likely, as locking doors as we know 'em would be uncommon, kept only for the captain's cabin or helmroom perhaps.
I "booleaned" (cut out) shapes from the doorframes and support pillars to let the swinging latch work,
I try to be as practical as possible with these most impractical of vessels ;)

this pic shows the lower hold
the original deck plans for the ship and it's statistics didn't mention much of this or take into account it's size! massively increases the ship's true cargo capacity

the "sand" is the ballast, ships used sand to weigh and balance the ship
it also absorbed blows of cargo being accidentally dropped on it so saving the hull from being ruptured and they often added bricks, metal ingots and other heavy, tradeable stuff as extra ballast down deep, that they could make profit from
interestingly, sometimes the sand itself was valuable, as some sands contained rare minerals, or was used for making special glass if of the right type.

think I'll make the plank walkway more even using risers

Added some simple candles and holders, in Spelljammer such would be magical due to high risk of fire form normal candles in such a hold!

K, now I've made the rear (boxey) section and blended the hull into it underneath which is quite tricky

render of the initial hull shape, from curves and lines, to this :)

Initial start #1