A raid on Redbeards Chateau

[SkaForHire]

Ok, before i slam into a story, here is the link for just pictures of the outside of the building, if someone doesn't want to read through the whole thing. And here is a link for the battle pictures which show some of the inside of the building.

First off, i don't like the "drawbridge" like entrance, but i could not for the life of me figure out something better with what i had. at one point i had just a couple of ladders, but it didn't seem right either. also there are some noticable mega blocks here, just a warning to you folks who may have heart attacks! :-D

all my tan is used up now :(

now the story:

____________________

The Backstory of the raid by Captain Chilton of His Majesty's Imperial Guard:

The infamous Redbeard has been raiding the Legowind Straits now for the past four years, in that time he has surpassed any other pirate in infamy. He may not be as successful as Admiral Tolots, but he is much more feared by those merchants that travel the straits. It was recently rumored that Redbeard had taken an old Islander ruin on a remote island in the straits and converted it to a mannor / fortress.

Rumors have it that the treasure in his basement is endless and filled with islander jewels and spanish gold.

While on cruise, The HMS Wind (which would soon become the Inventive, due to Redbeard.) had spotted a ship in the distance. Thinking perhaps it could be a spanish ship and perhaps even an easy payload, Captain John Chilton advanced toward her.

The HMS Wind had been the only ship in the Legowind Straits that flew the crown's flag to that point. However, the British Navy had just forced the Spanairds fleet from the area a few months before, and now only merchants used the waters, or atleast for the time being. merchants and pirates, actually. Chilton was suprised as he came in fiew of the ship, a little larger then his ship, however he was not intimidated. The HMS wind had the most capable gunners that he had ever worked with. He knew he could have this prize in no time.

It was as he closed in on the ship that he realized who it was. He engaged Redbeards Bloody Mary in a most glorious fashion, but by the end of the battle both ships were taking on water. the Bloody Mary began to flee, down crew and out of shot, Redbeard did not take his chances.

The HMS Wind was taking water on even more heavily. Chilton could not keep up with the Bloody Mary, and he put in at a small missionary that he knew of on a nearby island. The missionary had only a shallow portage, and Chilton was forced to watch his ship sink.

Furious, Chilton bought a small sloop from the missionaries, just large enough to fit his nine imperial guard who were left after the battle. Redbeard could not have many more survivors, and they would be no match for elite troops of the crown.

The rumor has it that Captain Chilton set out , and before sunset was tailing the lagging Bloody Mary. It is not certain if Redbeards crew noticed the sloop behind them, or if Redbeard invited the fight, but no action was made to lose the sloop or to engage it.

The Bloody Mary soon made it to a shallow of a small island, where she beached. Chilton was suprised at this, if they had seen him, now they were sitting ducks... if the sloop had had any guns, which it didn't. He watched from a distance as Redbeard and his crew disapeared into the jungle. They left their ship, but probably figured that it would sink had anyone try to to steal it.

THE RAID:

Chilton landed his craft just after dark. He marched his Squad into the jungle.

Image 1 Captain Chilton and his men

Image 2 At dawn Chilton's men were in position, they emerged from the jungle in column and prepared to fire.

Image 3 The first shots were aimed high, and killed the men arming the cannon on the top of the building. They also woke Redbeard from his drunken slumber. Image 4 he ducks for cover.

Image 5 Redbeards men prepare for an assault on the ramp. Image 6 the mortar is of not use at such close ranges, neither is the artist who took this portrait.

Image 7 Led by Sergeant Billings column 2 makes a daring attempt to scale the walls. Image 8 , Image 9.

Image 10 men begin to fall on both sides.

image 11, but finally the line is cut and the ramp is secured image 12 unfortunately, it comes at a price, 3 brave souls, including billings fell to the pirate warriors.

Image 13 The doors are flung open on Redbeard's Dining and meeting room to reveal more pirates! Image 14 Pirates that were ready, and two more Imperials fall to the suprise volley they unleashed. Image 15 And they charge~!

image 16 The pirates are cleared from the meeting room, but only three guardsmen and Chilton have survived the encounter. Image 17

Image 18 The pirates lay a trap beyond the next door for Chilton's men. Image 19. The unlucky Jimmy is run through as he proceeds through the door Image 20

Image 21 The stairs prove hard for Chilton's men, leaving him but only one other man, his son James, with him when the final Pirate has been cleared out. Image 22, image 23.

Image 24, Redbeard suprises James, and shows no Mercy Image 25

Image 26, the duel begins, Image 27, through redbeards private quarters, Image 28, onto the railing, Image 29 The defeat of Chilton

Image 30 Redbeard throws Chilton's body over the edge, and looks for survivors.

Image 31 CHilton's body was never found. No one knows why. Image 32

The loss of so many British forces on that fateful day began a emergency panic by Governor Crane. He immediately commisione Lieutenant Arthur Garvy to become commodore and assemble a small fleet. the pirate menace was surely getting worse by the day.

After Redbeard lost most of his men, he quickly came up with firm plans. He would build a pirate colony, one he ruled, he would establish an army, he would build a city around his chateau, and recruit many followers. The british would pay. He would bring them much grief in the new world, if he had to raid every merchant ship to pay for it!

He accepted a letter of Marque from the Americans after careful negotiations. and secured supply lines from the new nation. Image 33, image 34,

[oo7]

I don't have much time to read the story right now, but this Moc is pretty decent, I think you should make the colors more consitant, Oh god! Is that... could it be? No, No, that stone wall is made of.....Megablocks! Your a very bad kid, SkaForHire! :-P

Anyway, The tan, red, black, dark gray, light gray, brown, green, sand green and a very small amout of dark blue are just to much, but it's an okay start so just keep it up and it will be pretty good.

P.S. Why is Sam Sinister standing there outside redbeads quarters?

[Mister Phes]

Another SkaForHire epic! I'm wondering if these images could be used to make a comic because its quite a challenge to read through everything and look at all the images. As the images are large and many they take some time to load which seems to interupt the flow of the story. I suppose the way to counteract that would be to load all the images first then begin reading.

Is Image 6 suppose to be blurry?

[SkaForHire]

Another SkaForHire epic! I'm wondering if these images could be used to make a comic because its quite a challenge to read through everything and look at all the images. As the images are large and many they take some time to load which seems to interupt the flow of the story. I suppose the way to counteract that would be to load all the images first then begin reading.

Is Image 6 suppose to be blurry?

it is blurry... that was the joke about it... its not supposed to be... but thats how my camera took it, so my mortar didn't get a look there...

as for the comic, thats a good idea... I will be putting up my webpage soon so that they will load on that.... so it will be easier, then you guys can just click the one link to see it all. I don't have a decent resizer like photoshop right now (paint skews your image when you resize...) so i didnt want to make thumnails.... i will fix the format soon hopefully.... the website should fix the problem, and keep my story junk out of the way for all you guys that are sick of it lol... but the story is half the creation :)

as for colors, i wish i had more tan, it was supposed to be tan and greens mostly... with a touch or red and brown. I dont think there is any blue in there... ill check again. The grey megablocks threw it off the most, but i was out of tan and options really. however i really like how the megablocks wall pieces look, with the curvs to look like stones... i think thats pretty cool. i through in the lighter grey blocks in that part to make it look more like a stone wall in contrast...

The idea was, and probably should have wrote it more in the story.... that the building is built on the ruins of a islander temple. Redbeard came along and added to it, the brown guard house, the stone ramparts... doors, a second floor.... The top was supposed to look more like a ship, as i took the stern piece off of of the 4+ ship... i had the bow piece on the MOC at one point but when you looked at it it looked like the Thundercats base! lol so i took that off. anyway... i wasn't going for neat and tidy, its an improvision on Redbeards part... hope that clarifies some stuff... at least lets people know what i was going for :) i wish i had more tan though! all grey had been requisitioned by the govenor for his fort though, or i would have made it of grey i think.

[SirScottLego]

And I was worried that I wasn't going to have anything to read on my next vacation. lol.

Seriously, very imaginative and creative. I loved the story and the MOCS are perfect! Nice share!

[Berry Syedow]

Another SkaForHire epic!

No kidding. ;-) Very imaginative, ska! I happen to agree with Mr. Phes, some sort of comic would be great, which reminds me, that I've still yet to read that other one... I don't believe I've ever seen a tan pirate fortress, so at least you can attest to doing something first. ;-) Looking at an overview of the MOC I'm reminded of the East. Perhaps that would be a more sensible setting, if it doesn't clash with the story too much. Plus you'd have a perfectly legitimate excuse for including some junks. *y*

Good work!

[Mister Phes]

Mr SkaForHire, its a pitty your images are too big to post directly into the thread, I'd very much like to be able post them so I can easily make reference to them. Is there any particular reason they're so big?

Obviously one option is to get a program like Photo Shop, Paint Shop Pro or Fireworks and do a batch resize. I.e. you select all the files you want to resize, tell the program what size you want them to be then the program will do them all for you, rather than individually.

The second option is to change the settings on the camera to take smaller pictures, that way you don't have to worry resizing them with software. This might sound like a complaint but I'm wondering if there is a need for images so big. I have a 20 inch monitor (1680 x 1050 resolution) and they still look too big!

[SkaForHire]

Mr SkaForHire, its a pitty your images are too big to post directly into the thread, I'd very much like to be able post them so I can easily make reference to them. Is there any particular reason they're so big?

Obviously one option is to get a program like Photo Shop, Paint Shop Pro or Fireworks and do a batch resize. I.e. you select all the files you want to resize, tell the program what size you want them to be then the program will do them all for you, rather than individually.

The second option is to change the settings on the camera to take smaller pictures, that way you don't have to worry resizing them with software. This might sound like a complaint but I'm wondering if there is a need for images so big. I have a 20 inch monitor (1680 x 1050 resolution) and they still look too big!

Yeah i know, i am still looking for a ::looks around to make sure no one ovehears:: "free" version of certain programs so i can do that. paint sucks for resizing. I could monkey with the camera i suppose... dont know what the result will be....

[Mister Phes]

Image 31 CHilton's body was never found. No one knows why. Image 32

I've just read to the end and its so sad what happens to Chilton!!! :'-( Is his body never found because in fact he might turn up in another story or because its to be left a mystery?

Yeah i know, i am still looking for a ::looks around to make sure no one ovehears:: "free" version of certain programs so i can do that. paint sucks for resizing. I could monkey with the camera i suppose... dont know what the result will be....

Irfanview recommended by Emperor Bonaparte is a FREEWARE program that can do batch (multiple images at once) image resizing. I've had a quick look at it and it seems it will do the job nicely. Its under 1MB so it won't take long to download nor take up much space on your computer either.

Head over to www.irfanview.com to check it out. Any problems, just let me know and I'll help.

But I highly recommend to EVERYONE that uploads large images to their Brickshelf folders that they reduce them in size. 800 x 600 pixels is more usually adequate for most images unless they're some kind of huge scene with much detail. Afterall 800 x 600 is the resolution Brickshelf resizes its previews, why anyone needs an image 2856 x 2142 pixels is beyond me.

Smaller images are much more managable:

• They can be posted in threads.
  
• They are fasted to download.
  
• They can be viewed on a monitor in their entirety.
  

Of course one or two huge images are fine if you want to show every little detail. But when every image is huge it places a demand on the people viewing them, especially if they have an older computer with a slower Internet connection.

[oo7]

I dont think there is any blue in there... ill check again.

There is dark blue, not blue right here.

[SkaForHire]

I dont think there is any blue in there... ill check again.

There is dark blue, not blue right here.

so there is! aha.... didnt even remember that. i think i did that for lack of black or tan....

as for chilton.... only time will tell...

[Mister Phes]

Ummm... Have I missed something? Why is it so important that the blue be correctly identified? It looks more like Royal Blue to me because its not dark enough to be Navy :-D

[El Bucanero]

On that same picture, I notice a strange thing. The gray bricks don't look lego the don't have the ''sharp'' edges on the sides, it looks quite strange... like they are megablocks or something.

[SkaForHire]

On that same picture, I notice a strange thing. The gray bricks don't look lego the don't have the ''sharp'' edges on the sides, it looks quite strange... like they are megablocks or something.

yep... i wrote a warning about that :P i like the way they look though .... they make more realistic looking rocks i think....

[Mister Phes]

Image 21 The stairs prove hard for Chilton's men, leaving him but only one other man, his son James, with him when the final Pirate has been cleared out. Image 22, image 23.

Image 24, Redbeard suprises James, and shows no Mercy Image 25

So James and Jimmy are two different characters?

Image 21 The stairs prove hard for Chilton's men, leaving him but only one other man, his son James, with him when the final Pirate has been cleared out. Image 22, image 23.

Image 24, Redbeard suprises James, and shows no Mercy Image 25

So James and Jimmy are two different characters? If the pictures were smaller then I'd post them in the thread so we could see exactly what I'm referring to.