Ahoy, captain Redbeard is looking for a ship for over 2 decades now

[langezwieper]

Since about 2 years, I've come out of my dark ages ;). After collecting the modulars I stumbled upon and old pirate set of mine "Sea Mates" nr 6252 including captain Redbeard. Besides this pirate set from 1993 I have some other small sets with 1 or 2 pirates. The poor fellows never had a ship or a building, just a chest with gold and some rafts. I would like to give my old 90s pirates a ship they can be proud of! One with cannons, a lot of them preferably. I would love to build something myself (based upon an existing ship maybe)? So I'm wondering, what would you guys do with a budget of a few hundred to build a ship. I was thinking to get the Sea Cow (or 2?) and extend it in length, add more canons and a normal cabin without Metalbeard maybe? Or is there a better investment base to build a ship from? I would rather not be building in LDD, just doesn't feel like the same for me.

[Kwatchi]

I think I'd start with the present pirate ship as a base. Then take a look at the instructions for the OOP Imperisl Flagship (10310?) and use that for ideas on what extra bricks you'd need to extend it and put main deck on. Then finally use Bricklink or Lego parts order to acquire those parts. Assuming you get the present ship for $100, that leaves you with $80 before shipping to truly make it your own.

I'm presently starting a similar process with a 95% complete Caribean Clipper I got last year. I found a little too 'stubby', and extending by a hill section is turning out to be a fun little project.

[TalonCard]

Sea Cow is a great source for ship parts; I would also recommend picking up the Brick Bounty on sale for the flags, sails, and extra hull sections. You could easily get two amazing ships out of that combo and have more than enough left over for a base.

[VintageLegoEra]

A great idea to buy 2 Sea Cow and make a Mega ship as so far i didn't see anyone did that yet

[TheLegoDr]

Keep an eye out too. A local Wal-Mart had the new ship for $70 recently. I didn't buy it but it looked like they were clearancing a lot of sets to make room for new August releases.

[Moomin]

Hey! Seems you may be in a similar position to that which I was a couple of years ago - wanting a larger, slightly more realistic ship but still on the old hull - I built 'The Parrot' from parts of the old Carribean Cipper' set - had a few other pieces too, but mostly I sourced hull and masts etc from ebay, bricks from the official lego store - about £125 all up, not including the original model of course. The flush decking was most expensive! so many tiles needed! Still upgrading, working on this now - should really get some new pics up...

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98226&hl=parrot

All the best!

[Plaid Beard]

I also bought a lot of parts from online, including hulls. I found it to be cheaper than buying a few ships outright as sets for the parts, and I was able to be more selective in choosing parts. The drawback to that is that I had to hunt for the right parts online, and I rarely was able to find exactly what I needed.

I built 'The Parrot' from parts of the old Carribean Cipper' set - had a few other pieces too, but mostly I sourced hull and masts etc from ebay, bricks from the official lego store - about £125 all up, not including the original model of course. The flush decking was most expensive! so many tiles needed! Still upgrading, working on this now - should really get some new pics up...

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98226&hl=parrot

Just took a look at your ship - amazing! I wonder how it escaped my attention?? Wish I'd seen it before I built my schooner!

[Moomin]

Thanks Plaid Beard . Was pleased with it overall. I'm not on here much - just tend to browse once in a while. I've cleaned up the ratlines now and added better mountings for them on the hull using technics pieces.

I agree - it is a mission trying to source parts from ebay and the like - I ended up with quite a few surplus parts: amongst numerous chests and barrels I now have maybe a dozen of the official cannons (too big for my project), and several jolly boats in my stores! Last time I checked the official store, no hull pieces were available - I searched for them looking under spare parts for the 'Imperial Flagship model.

All the best!