ZCerberus

The Arbiter II In progress

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The origins of the Arbiter II.

Aldea de Ensenada was a beautiful trading village, sunk deep in a cove. The people were few, but rich and happy. The peaceful village, however, soon found itself being raided continuously by the feared pirate Gregory Cladwin. Though born British, he received his nickname from the Spanish, who called him La Tortuga Oscura because his ships would often lure in their prey in by hiding behind large rocks, hiding like a turtle in its shell.

Though Spanish in name, Aldea de Ensenada was an English trading post. The King commissioned the creation of a fort to protect the entrance to the cove and named it Fort Brighton.

--Fort Brighton

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Fort Brighton's unique drawbridge design allowed friendly ships passage in and out of the cove, while guarding it against piratical attacks.

Even though the cove was protected, La Tortuga Oscura still attacked many ships while at sea. The King sent Captain Burress and his ship the 'Arbiter' to protect the friendly waters outside of Aldea de Ensenada.

--Captain Burress

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--The Arbiter

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The Arbiter, however, was too large and slow to catch "the Tortoise". Burress knew the only way to catch the pirate was to turn to piracy himself. He commission a local merchant Hoy to hunt, raid and capture all Pirate vessels near Aldea de Ensenada. Burress promoted his first officer, Bradely Certich, to command the ship. Certich named the ship 'Sienna' after a girl long left behind.

--Certich

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--The Sienna

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Though she didn't look like much, the Sienna raided several small pirate camps and captured two small pirate ships within weeks of her commission. The two ships, the Tesoro and the Het Avontuur were Spanish and Dutch trading vessels (never renamed) under Pirate control. Much to Certich's surprise, both were carry a heavy load of treasure.

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The two vessels were recommissioned as the Fortune and the Adventure.

--The Sister Treasure Ships. Fortune and Adventure

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Though successful, the Sienna had her short comings. She was poorly armed, under crewed and did not sail well against the wind. Burress, however, was happy with the success of Certich and after receiving a promotion to 'Admiral', Burress commission a new ship to replace the Sienna. The ship was an unusual design for the Caribbean using both Lateen rigged sails and oars to move in any wind conditions. The captured pirates from the Tesoro and Het Avontuur did the rowing.

--The building of the new Sienna

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Unable to say good bye to his old ship and love, Certich named the new vessel 'Sienna'.

--The Sienna

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The new sienna proved to be a formidable ship, destroying many vessels flying the Jolly Roger. Perhaps the largest conquest of all, however, was the capturing of El Tortuga Oscura's flagship, the 'The Dark Treasure' (El Tesoro Oscuro). Though the pirate captain was not aboard the ship when the Sienna captured her (he was raiding a fishing village on foot when the Seinna met her), Certich returned the prize to Burress, who quickly claimed the ship as his flagship and renamed it the 'Arbiter II'

--The Arbiter II

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The twin Arbiters could have ruled the seas had it not been for an unfortunate sinking of the Spanish ship, the 'Espada'.

The latest edition to the royal navy, the 'Covenant' happened upon the Espada while patrolling Aldea de Ensenada. The Covenant claimed the Espada was a privateer that had opened fire on her. The Covenant sunk the Espada raising the hostility levels between the British and Spanish in the region. To appease the Spanish, the King ordered the sale of the Arbiter to the Spanish.

--The Covenant

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Days after the Spanish acquired the ship, they renamed it the 'Venganza' and sunk the Covenant.

Burress declared open war on the Spanish and commission the building of the 'New Covenant' to hunt and kill the Spanish.

--The New Covenant

covenant1.jpg

NOTE: This topic has been split, since the first post here, the ship was redesigned. Go here to see it completed! aarbiter1.jpg_thumb.jpg

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Whoa! You've been quite busy Mr ZCerberus!

If there's a way to tell a long story with pictures this is probably one of the better ways of doing it because you've got a nice balance between text and images.

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I liiiiike it. Colour scheme looks good. There is plenty of detail, lots of cannons and it's a nice size. I may have to steal that studs out on the sides idea one day though. It sort of makes the ship look stronger for some reason, even though the sides are thinner than they would normally be.

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I should also note, if anyone is interested, you may be able to tell by the story that the 'old' Arbiter is mostly still in tact. I had to steal the 9 guns, the crew, and all the sails for the Arbiter II, but the rest of the ship was untouched. That means it is now the 'Venganza', a Spanish ship. It is sail-less right now, and is missing some guns, but some day I will correct both of these errors, and my Spanish fleet will challenge my Imperial fleet! I might make some sort of small deck gun for the upper deck and not use regular cannons like the old Arbiter had, but that is still in the air.

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That's your best ship so far Mr. ZCerberus. Very original design.

You must have a lot of time or getting some help :)

Your building speed is really amazing!

And the quality of your MOCs is very high.

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Very good! Excellent1 Some nice ideas along the side of the ships for sloping upwards, a good looking forecastle and quarter deck. Colors are good and the sails complement the whole thing quite well. I'd give it a 9 out of ten, the rest of the fleet is quite impressive as well! Very Impressive! i also like the draw bridge idea for your fortress as well.

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The ArbiterII Looks real nice! The lower gun deck seems a little...

...eh low. but those snot walls turned out real nice.

very original and still kool looking.

good job

i like how your captain fig has the black rifle on his back.

i may have to "borrow" that idea.

Edit:

i see you've got your avatar with a rifle on his back too.

is this a new idea or have you been putting rifles on your figs' backs for a while now?

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That's your best ship so far Mr. ZCerberus.

Well it is certainly the largest... but I kind of like the Sienna a little better! There are some details I would like to add to the Arbiter still. The lower deck and the captain's cabin are fairly bare right now, but I was running a little low on time. Still, thank you for saying so!

You must have a lot of time or getting some help :)

Your building speed is really amazing!

No help, and it took a little over 2 days to build. I am not sure how many hours, but it was pretty continuous. I guess I had already made a decent plan for it... the mid sections were sort of planned out, and I designed the rest on the fly. I actually ran out of some black pieces, which I thought would never happen!

i like how your captain fig has the black rifle on his back.

i may have to "borrow" that idea.

Edit:

i see you've got your avatar with a rifle on his back too.

is this a new idea or have you been putting rifles on your figs' backs for a while now?

The first time I ever added a weapon on someones back was with Vikings. I would add battle axes to their backs regularly for cool Berserker like figures. The first time I have seen it used for Pirates was by me, on the Sienna... I wanted to be able to make my Marines for the Sienna look different, so I went with white epaulettes, then I was trying to decided if I wanted to use white or black backpack, but it then occurred to me that I could use the Viking technique to add a weapon. I went with all black weapons for a more elite look.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I believe I actually added a weapon on the back of the captain of the Arbiter before I built the Sienna while I was rebuilding the harbor. I was going to give him a cape, but it didn't look good with the epaulettes, so I went with the rifle on the back. I think if you look closely at the old Arbiter pics, with the new harbor, you can see it...

arbiter3.jpg

Here is a little look. The rifle is brown, but that was the first time I tried it out.

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...

No help, and it took a little over 2 days to build. I am not sure how many hours, but it was pretty continuous. I guess I had already made a decent plan for it... the mid sections, and I designed the rest on the fly. I actually ran out of some black pieces, which I thought would never happen!

OH MY GOODNESS!! It only took you 2 days to built the ArbiterII?? That's fast! I guess those were very decent plans indeed.

Edit:

Well Like I said it was pretty continuous... and I might have spent some time on it the December 23rd too... so maybe... 15-20 hours? That is a decent amount of time!

I, since I had pre-designed the Sienna in CAD it only took a single day of building. I helped my dad work on the house most of Friday, and worked on it Friday night and part of Saturday. I may have been a total of 8 or 9 hours... not including the CAD work! I think if you have a design and know you have the parts, it isn't TOO bad!

That's still not a lot of time for this quality of a moc! I've been working on my frigate since September and just now i am getting to the point where it's getting sorta close to done (besides the interior). I've rebuilt and redesigned major portions of the ship multiple times to get it where it's at (and i still don't like the stern).

If you're this fast at CADing and MOCing maybe you should enter some compitions with lego. You'd probably do very well! Although i have no idea where there would be any; but being near the twin cities, there should be some.

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OH MY GOODNESS!! It only took you 2 days to built the ArbiterII?? That's fast! I guess those were very decent plans indeed.

Well Like I said it was pretty continuous... and I might have spent some time on it the December 23rd too... so maybe... 15-20 hours? That is a decent amount of time!

I, since I had pre-designed the Sienna in CAD it only took a single day of building. I helped my dad work on the house most of Friday, and worked on it Friday night and part of Saturday. I may have been a total of 8 or 9 hours... not including the CAD work! I think if you have a design and know you have the parts, it isn't TOO bad!

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Alright, my full bevy of Pirate Ships and structures. This is were I store them, unfortunately. You will notice, no Covenant yet. I am will eventually be working on it. Target completion... sometime in 2007 ;) You can also see that the Venganza is there and mainly intact, just without sails, and missing several guns. The RedBeard Runner and the Skull's Eye Schooner are slightly modified versions of the official sets. Perhaps someday I will get around to revamping them, but I rather like the Skull's Eye Schooner, so it may remain the only official Lego set in my collection. The RedBeard Runner, on the other hand, could certainly stand an overhaul!

Okay some pics of the whole collection!

shipguide.jpg

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5.jpg

4.jpg

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2.jpg

1.jpg

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holy... ...eh... ...ships :-$

that's a lot of vessels you have there matey with a complete fort brighton too.

you definetely got yer-self a lot of piratey bricks!!

i only have enough lego hulls for 5 ships (but i have lots of bricks so i made my own hull X-D)

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holy... ...eh... ...ships :-$

that's a lot of vessels you have there matey with a complete fort brighton too.

you definetely got yer-self a lot of piratey bricks!!

i only have enough lego hulls for 5 ships (but i have lots of bricks so i made my own hull X-D)

Yes... at the expense of ALL other themes though,except star wars models, which for the most part remain as Lego had designed them...

Yes, I have been sticking with the prefab hulls. I actually have a white fore and stern, a black fore and stern, and a gray fore and stern left over (all the smaller width). No mid hulls though. I could make a couple of sloops or hoys from them to supplement my pirates, but no mid hulls. Actually the Arbiter II and a few small sections of the Vanganza don't use prefab mid hulls, they use inverted slopes.

I think if I ever build a large pirate ship, I might have to make my own hull... but I like the smaller ships fro my pirates as I had mentioned in your thread. Though a few pirates liked the big ships (Teach and Bart Roberts for example) I think shall stick with the smaller guys for their plundering and hit and running skills!

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I think if I ever build a large pirate ship, I might have to make my own hull... but I like the smaller ships fro my pirates as I had mentioned in your thread. Though a few pirates liked the big ships (Teach and Bart Roberts for example) I think shall stick with the smaller guys for their plundering and hit and running skills!

I think Arbiter II is the right size for either of those pirates... I think Blackbeard's largest ship was only 32 guns, and not much larger in proportions to the Arbiter II... I am trying to remember what Roberts was caught in... i am pretty sure his largest ship rotted away somewhere off the coast of Africa though.. can't remember how big it was tho...

anyway... to the ship... Awesome! I love it. I have always wanted to do a large ship in this color scheme! You pulled it off quite nice! The fold down sides are excellent for "playability" That is a great Idea. I hope you can get your collection out to somewhere not as cramped though... that must be hard to work with!

I am glad someone else does stories too... now phes can yell at other people for long posts! :) look forward to more of your ships.

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I am glad someone else does stories too... now phes can yell at other people for long posts! :)

He didn't even yell at me!

It was my first attempt at a story, but I think it worked out well.

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Small bit of news... the Arbiter II is being Stretched by another 20 studs. That essentially means by 2 more middle sections. This isn't going to happen for a while, but I hope it will not be too big of a chore! I also intend to add some things to the interior of the lower deck.

Also, I am going to need to make new sails for the Venganza as well as the Covenant, so I might retool a few sails (especially the spanker sail) on the Arbiter II as well!

Thanks for your interest!

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Is the below image taken in your attic?

6.jpg

It looks like its below the deck of ship! And are there a couple of fort MOCs I see in that image which will find their way to threads of their own (eventually)?

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Is the below image taken in your attic?

6.jpg

It looks like its below the deck of ship! And are there a couple of fort MOCs I see in that image which will find their way to threads of their own (eventually)?

It is the attic of my parents' house. There is a singular pirate MOC fort there, but it is nothing special. I hope to come up with something with a little more pizazz for El Trotuga Oscura to call home!

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And now back to The Arbiter II...

final5.jpg

Was there any particular reason you gave it oars?

uhhh.... this is the Sienna my friend! Maybe you can move these last two posts into that thread!!

EDIT: And to answer your question... I think mostly I was originally enamored with a ship type called a Xebec, which was an oar and sail powered vessel mostly used by the Barbary Pirates. I found out they Xebecs were both rowed and power by oar, but the ones used by Carribean pirates, though few, removed the oars in favor of guns. Xebecs were only a single deck you see. I however, was interested in the design as it was supposed to be excellent for sailing against the winds. Galleys had rows of oars as well as guns, so I kind of used ideas from both the Xebec and the Galley for this ship. It is a 'Xeballey' if you will!

As for the Arbiter II... it is clearly a Man-of-War. A two decker with 28 gun capacity would be a sixth rate frigate I think... but I am making her a little bigger... 40 guns is the target, to get her up to fifth rate status. I am also redesigning the sail plan to be a little more realistic. That will happen... eventually ;-)

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So I don't like the look of the sails on the Arbiter II.... mostly because they are unrealistic and very old.

Anyhow... I started to design a new sail plan, but the sails looked... umm... NOT so great...

observe--

27.jpg

NOTE: This mast it is attached to a hull that will probably be the Covenant eventually, and the Covenant mast will not be this tall, but I needed something to attach the rigging to. As you can tell, I haven't done much too the Covenant yet.

This sail plan will be on the Arbiter II, NOT the Covenant, but I don't have access to the Arbiter right now.

So after the first run, I kind of figured out what was wrong with the sails on the first attempt, and I made a second attempt, which I am MUCH happier with...

Here...

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33.jpg

And a few looks at the rest of the construction for the mast. It is pretty sturdy! The main mast will have 4 sails, the other two masts will only have 3 sails on them.

34.jpg

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That looks really great! It'll be big ship I assume when you have so tall mast :-||

If you ask me I would leave out the smallest sail of the top.. It depend ofcourse what will the other masts look like.. keep up the good work. Hopefully I have someday enough Lego bricks to do some big ships too. I envy you *sweet*

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That looks really great! It'll be big ship I assume when you have so tall mast :-||

If you ask me I would leave out the smallest sail of the top.. It depend of course what will the other masts look like.. keep up the good work. Hopefully I have someday enough Lego bricks to do some big ships too. I envy you *sweet*

First of all, look earlier in th thread to see the ship it is going on. This one...

arbiter10.jpg

The main mast there will be getting the mast design in the post...

Secondly, the uppermost sail I definitely will be including as if I did not there would only be 2 sails on the fore and mizzen masts, maybe later I will show you what those mast would look like, but basically the bottom sail on those mast will be roughly the size of the bottom sail on the main mast and the sail above that on the main mast will not exist on the mizzen and fore ones. The upper most sails may need to be reshaped a little on the sides still. Maybe I could draw them in by having them cut at a steeper angle. This is still a possibility.

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I updated the story on the front page with a picture of the still unfinished New Covenant

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