Building a Good Sailing Ship, by LightWarriorK | VeteranCraft General Discussion | Forum

Over my years on VeteranCraft, I've heard MANY people comment on how hard it is to build good ships, and just as many asking for help, hints, or best ways to go about it.  Usually, the response is to "Search the Internet."  There are a lot of good examples out there, including Sillouete's Ship Bundle.

When I built my most recent ship that I'm using for my Exodus-Aelfheim Portal Request, I actually kept this in mind, and took snapshots of my progress, so that I could make this thread and share my "wisdom."  It may not be to everyone's liking, but it was the same method that allowed me to craft the Newbie Ship from the Trials and the Compass Ship from Exodus to the Wild portals.

• So first, look up pictures of real-life pictures you want to build like.  Get a good idea of the main features and general shape.
• Second, open up MS Paint or some program in which you can paint in pixels.  It's MUCH easier than starting in Minecraft.  Especially if you have to stick to a standard like in Exodus, you'll want to mark where those bounds are.
• Ok, so mark the area you're building in with those guides (the gray and black blocks).  Then start with your basic centerline OF THAT SHAPE YOU SKETCHED using planks and logs, like such:
• Now, still using the sketch, do your Main Deck Level.  Once you've done that, do your primary Ribs, right at the Main Mast.
• Now, do more Ribs.  Do them every few blocks, as the Deck and Keel (the bottom curve) gets smaller. 
• Now, fill in between the Ribs.  You can always go back and adjust if it looks too blocky or doesn't look right.
• Here you have the basic Hull of the ship done.  At this point, I usually go through and remove extra blocks from the interior that lessens the interior space.  You can always go back and add blocks back later.
• Time to do the castles!  You've already got your guides, just continue building the Hull up until you're including the castles in it.  Hey, it's starting to look like a ship! 
• At this point I'll go back and fill in the decks, including doing the stairs and walls on the castles. 
• Next, cut out the windows.
• Turning our attention  back to the masts, I've added the cross-spars, crow's nest, ladder on the main, and used iron blocks at the joints.  This adds a bit of "support flair."
• This doesn't have to be done when I did it, but I've added fences and stair blocks as a railing here.
• Ok, here's the hard part: Sails.  Sails are very tricky.  I recommend having enough variation so that you're not using a regular pattern, otherwise it doesn't look "organic" and will end up looking rigid.  You don't want it to be so varied that it looks messy, though.  Play with it.  If it looks too regular, vary it up.  If it looks to messy, clean it up.  You can see I have also used Iron Fences for "ropes" in rigging the sails.
• Mast Rigging.  I use Wood Fences, but you can use more Iron if you want.  Or anything.  It all works, because MC doesn't have ropes. 
• Light it up! If you don't have /god, I will recommend doing this as you go.
• And then add interiors and details!  Here's the finished product!

Here's some more views and interior pics.

I used the Sphax PureBDcraft 64x resource pack for all of this as for me it's by far the easiest pack to work with while still retaining a defaultish look, but for those who are curious, here's how it looks in default: 

Anyways, I hope this was informative!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I don't do requests, nor will I "help fix your ship," as I believe the best way to learn is to just practice practice practice, but I have no problem being a source of knowledge.  And good luck!