gatorzip02

Eurobricks Vassals
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About gatorzip02

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  1. Ahoy! It has been 12 years since I last posted a MOC on Classic Pirates. I'm back and excited to share my latest project. I am re-creating the entire Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This has been done a few times by other builders on a smaller scale, but this one will be very large at 5x10 baseplates with over 100,000 bricks, and most importantly it is going to use real water to move the ride boats through the attraction. Yes, it will even include a drop hill. I started about two years ago by drawing up plans for the ride. Here is the design I finally settled on for the display. It isn't a perfect recreation of the actual ride, but a close approximation. All of the major scenes are included (in order: ride loading area in a fort, bayou, skeleton caves, fort and ship battle, dunking the mayor in the well, auction scene, pillaging pirates, town burning, jail scene with dog and key, and finally Jack Sparrow breaking in to the treasure room). I really struggled with how to contain the water and move it through the ride. I was originally going to try and seal the Lego with some sort of caulk/glue but I really didn't like the idea of ruining that many bricks, and it would make design changes almost impossible. I decided to build a custom table for the display and cut out the path the ride would take. I then laid a sheet of pond liner into the cut-out paths and placed a brick-built canal over the top of the pond liner to completely hide it from view. I built the canals all in black to make the water appear black like it does in the real ride. I played around with making a Lego lift system to make the water flow, but after a few months of trial and failure, I finally just decided to use a pond pump. I hope you will forgive me. I was invited to join a community Pirate build for Bricks and More in Belgium, so I decided to build out the fort and town scene first and display them separate from the table (no water) as part of the larger community display. It was great motivation to get started on the build. I always wanted to build a star-fort so I used some creative liberties to include one in the display. I had a great time displaying at BAM and met some of the incredible ship builders from this forum. Here is our community build (I'm on bottom left) and my contribution. After BAM, I displayed solo at Bricking Bavaria in Nuremberg. By then I was exhausted and took a couple month break from the project. Then I started hearing about Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark and decided I was going to set a goal of displaying the completed ride at SFW 23 (September 23-24). This motivated me, and I have been diligently working to get it done in time. Here are a few pictures of the current status. I've got the ride function working. Here is a YouTube video I posted showing my first test run a few months ago. It took quite a bit of tweaking to get it running reliably. By the end of that week, I got it to run for 30 minutes without touching it. I've got a little less than two months to go. I haven't started the swamp section yet, the main skeleton cave, or the portion of the town that is burning. Lots to do and so little time, I'll keep updating as I get closer. Is anybody on here planning on going to SFW this year? If you are, I'd love to meet up. Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading! Joel "BrickBuccaneer"
  2. gatorzip02

    LEGO 10294 Titanic Discussion

    Absolutely a day one buy for me, but I have a question about day one. Before the official announcement, everyone said it would be released to VIPs on 20 Oct. All I have been able to find is that it will be available for pre-order on 1 Nov and purchase on 8 Nov. No info at all about a special VIP release. Am I missing something? Thanks!
  3. gatorzip02

    THE PIRATE BAY IS GOING TO BE AN OFFICIAL LEGO SET!!!!

    Had a blast building this set, took me back to my childhood. It really is so much better in person. I was playing around with it after finishing. What do you think of this "little" mod?? ? One more.
  4. gatorzip02

    THE PIRATE BAY IS GOING TO BE AN OFFICIAL LEGO SET!!!!

    I haven't been this excited about a Lego set in years. I got the Barracuda for Christmas in '89 and have been a massive pirates fan ever since. I ordered mine at midnight with express shipping. Already got shipping confirmation, I'll be building at noon tomorrow! I just saw this awesome Lego pirates nostalgia ad on facebook. I couldn't find it on youtube. I dont know if this link will work, but copy and paste if not.
  5. gatorzip02

    UCS Black Pearl

    Thanks for all the compliments. I had a great time displaying her at Brickfair. I do wish there was more pirate representation there, it was kinda slim. I found a photo of my brother and I in front of our Pearls at the show. As you can see, he built his pearl to minifig scale so it kinda dwarfed my "little ship". Lots of the visitors thought mine must be the official Lego kit. Oh well...
  6. gatorzip02

    Do you have a MOC that has not been indexed?

    Hi, would you please add my Black Pearl MOC to the index, Thanks! http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63336
  7. gatorzip02

    UCS Black Pearl

    Well, after almost 18 months, I've finally finished my pearl! Admittedly, for the majority of those 18 months, she sat alone in a dark room waiting on me to feel motivated to continue her. Fortunately I received inspiration in the form of BrickFair Alabama. My brother and I both displayed our Pearls at the convention and had an absolute blast. (we even dressed up as pirates) I'm just now finally getting around to posting some final pictures. Overall I'm very happy with the way she turned out. I built the custom base to help bring the waterline up 2 bricks. It definately looks much better that way. I will eventually make a brass plate that says "Black Pearl" and secure it on the base in between the two skulls with crossed sabres. I have no intentions of ever taking this model apart, I've convinced my wife to let me display it in our office. It is a great conversation piece. For your viewing pleasure: "Now bring me that horizon" I have really enjoyed building and sharing her and I am already looking forward to my next project. Fair winds and following seas! (PS. Moderators, will you please take the "WIP" out of the title of this thread, thanks!)
  8. Brickfair Alabama is less than a week away (19-20 Jan). Is anyone on this forum planning on attending? I will be going along with my brother. This event gave me the deadline I needed to finally finish my Black Pearl MOC that I started almost 18 months ago: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63336&hl=%2Bblack+%2Bpearl I'll update the MOC page once I get a chance to take some photos. Hope to see some of you there! (We'll be the ones dressed as pirates) Joel
  9. gatorzip02

    UCS Black Pearl

    Greetings, It has been about four months since my first update. As predicted, work and life kept me from making much progress on this ship. In the last few weeks I have had some free time and managed to get some work done. Unfortunately, I was rushing through my initial build in the first post and didn't give much thought to the internal structure. I went back to put in an interior and had to rebuild a good part of the ship to make it work. The big challenge in the stern is the fact that all of the sides are hinged and none of the internal structure can connect to them. Here is a construction photo: I really appreciate everyone's constructive criticism. As a result, I have made lots of changes which have greatly improved the ship. The deck is now dark brown which looks much better. It was difficult because dark brown only comes in 1x2 and 1x4 tiles. A 1x1 would have made my life a lot easier. In response to comments, I also added hatches, hawse holes, and changed the front doors in the forecastle. Here are a few photos of my progress so far: One thing that has always annoyed me with Lego ships are the cannon hatches without cannons behind them. I was determined that every cannon hatch would have a cannon behind it. This Pearl packs a full broadside: I've completed the majority of the interior. I don't have all the parts I need to finish the captain's cabin but here's the gun deck: One comment that I gave a lot of thought to was the waterline of the ship. As others have said, the sides are too high if the waterline is intended to be the bottom of the prefab hulls. I have decided to build a display for the ship that will raise the waterline to the top of the middle prefabs. It will look something like this: That's it for now. Now I need to make a few more bricklink orders and soon I'll get moving on the rigging. I'm still not sure exactly what to make the sails with. Guess its time for some experimenting. Joel
  10. gatorzip02

    UCS Black Pearl

    Thanks for the kind words. Right now I would estimate I probably have about $500 into it. That is including all the interior pieces that I haven't installed yet. That would put it right in line with the UCS Millennium Falcon price wise. I had a lot of trouble working with the front of the forecastle. I think a 2-stud door might seem too narrow. Once the headrails, rigging, anchors and a few more details are installed, the doors won't be so obvious. I think it will look better then. If not, I'll work on a re-design. I'm glad you like it. I still need to order some flex-tubing for the headrails. I'm trying to decide if they would be better dark gray or brown. That deck is just temporary. I just wanted something to cover the giant void where the gun deck will be. The final deck will definately have hatches for the crew. Thanks again. I agree that the brown is too light. You can see that I did the deck in front of the forecastle in dark brown and it looks much better. My problem is that as far as I can tell, dark brown only comes in 1x2 and 1x4 tiles. I would definately need lots of 1x1s. Technically I guess it should be black, but I think that would be too much black. Maybe I'll see how much I can do in dark brown.
  11. gatorzip02

    UCS Black Pearl

    [pid][/pid] 148A Greetings! UPDATE: 16 April 2013, She's finally done! UPDATE: 18 March 2012 Like many others, I was rather disappointed with the Black Pearl set that Lego released a few months ago. I was hoping that Lego would give the central ship of the series a little bit better treatment. After playing the Pirates of the Caribbean Lego video game, I became enamored with the version of the ship in the game and was determined to bring it to life with actual bricks. The game version: To my absolute elation, fellow Classic Pirates member "Captain" created an amazing LDD version of the Black Pearl that I used as a foundation for my model. (I can't thank you enough, your LDD skills blow me away) I started with two of the Lego Black Pearls: I then make about eight Bricklink orders to get all of the remaining parts I would need: As I was building it, I noticed that the video game and LDD versions have 5 center sections and look a bit "scrunched" I added a 6th center section and feel that it really helps balance the ship out. It allowed me to add an extra stud between every cannon port. This made me change my goal from copying the video game version to creating my interpretation of a UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) Black Pearl. I also had to completely redesign the stern, the LDD version just wasn't nearly strong enough. I made quite a few other modifications, most notably to the forecastle. I've finished the basic exterior of the ship now and wanted to share what I've got done so far: Jack is ready for his ship to be finished: Right now, I'd guess it is about 50-60% done, I still need to create the interior, masts rigging and sails and deck. The solid deck on there now is just temporary, I'll add hatches, grates etc later. Unfortunately, I'm going to be extremely busy for the next month so I doubt I'm going to have any time to work on it. I will post updates as work progresses. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome and appreciated. Thanks! Joel [bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]
  12. gatorzip02

    POTC - Black Pearl!

    Captain, you are my hero! That model is amazing. How much time did that take? You have some serious LDD skills. I'll definately be leaning heavily on your design when I finally get around to building it. Thanks for posting this.
  13. gatorzip02

    POTC - Black Pearl!

    Well, I tried two Targets and no luck. I'm only an hour from the Lego store in Orlando, so I may give them a call and see if they have it yet. I'm glad to see several others interested in building the version from the game. Please post lots of pics if you do so I can steal your ideas. I wish there were better pictures online, but I can't find much. I do have the game, so maybe I can just pause it when it shows a good angle. Here are three more photos I found:
  14. gatorzip02

    POTC - Black Pearl!

    So, has anybody seen this anywhere in the US yet? Any word if the Lego stores may get it before the retail chains? I'm hoping to grab two so I can combine them (along with lots of black bricks) into to the one from the games. From what I can tell, it looks like it was designed using real legos. I'd love to find a LDD model of it, anyone heard of one?
  15. gatorzip02

    REVIEW: 4193 The London Escape

    Thanks for all the replies. I have updated the review to include photos of the minifig heads for those who are curious about the 2-sided ones. Tonight I'll be building the QAR and then I'll start to mod the Tavern to give it four walls and a proper roof. Thats what I like about Lego, if you don't like something about a set, you can just fix it yourself. Cheers, - Joel