[ENTRY] La Serpiente - remake of 6280 Armada Flagship NOW UPDATED!

[Dreamweb]

UPDATE:

I have modified my entry following some of the feedback which I have received. Thank you for your constructive comments.

The current version can be seen below. The old version is at the end of this post, hidden under the spolier tag.

This is my entry, which is a remake of the 6280 Armada Flagship, less colourful and with more sails.

The stern has the same window as the original:

The figurehead is inspired by the strange figurehead from the original set. The side of the ship where the cannons are is built with the use of blue chairs - positioned normally and upside-down.

The ship has a compass and a bell, like the original, but I decided to make the structures holding them white, for more colour consistency.

The anchor has an old-type hoisting mechanism, something which the set was sadly missing.

A close-up of the gun deck:

This is how the ship opens up in order to access the captain's cabin:

And finally, the cabin itself!

This is my updated entry, and below you can see the original one if you wish. Thanks!

Spoiler

 

Loved and hated by many, the 6280 (and 6291) Armada Flagship, aka the rainbow ship , still remains the penultimate standalone ship ever released for the soldiers (regardless of the faction), followed only by the 10210 Imperial Flagship years later.
Personally, I think that the ship has some nice features, but overall, given the multiple colours and some strange design solutions, I think it's a bit of a mess. So when I heard about the contest, a remake of this set was the first thing that came to mind. The result can be seen below, and I called her La Serpiente.

I approached the challenge using my idea of what a remake of a LEGO set should be. In my opinion, it means leaving some characteristic features of the original still recognisable, but also not being TOO close to the original, i.e. adding something new to it.

Therefore, I tried to keep most of the many colours of the original ship (I even added some brown ), but I wanted to make them more organised, for a more aesthetically pleasing effect.

By the way, the uniforms worn by the crew are consistent with my previous ship of the Imperial Armada - El Mono - as well as those used in my comic series Kings and Queens of the Sea. So now my Spanish Armada consists of two ships.

You can also find the ship on Instagram!

So there she is, and I would like to thank Classic-Pirates for presenting a chance to participate in this great contest. Good luck to all of ye!

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Dreamweb

[Mazin]

Nice presentation, letting this vessel live in it's natural environment is something different from ship entries we've seen so far ;) And i'll give You points just for the simple fact that didn't decide to do an another Carribean Clipper or any schooners ;)

But it's hard to judge Your design itself since we can see only it's exterior, and i'd like to get more insight into how the gun deck looks like and what's hidden inside that stern. I wonder if captain's quaters are easily accesible, thus, if the stern is openable some way. Same goes for the forecastle, it seems nicely done from the outside, but im curious what inside. 

Now, definitely then most conspicuous element of Your vessel is it's color... i'd say there's a bit too much of it realy, and You should lowe those numbers down. It's higher part, with sails and flags is ok, nothing seems problematic there, and in the lower part i like the brown and white elements of the hull, but then this whole middle part is one big mashup of colors and ideas ;) I mean, i don't even mind red windows and red handraill, but adding green parts of handrail in there, and yellow, is just oo much. If i can be honset, it looks a bit like if a kid would wanna build something, but would run out of one color and used a different one instead, and just didn't mind that it doesn't compose well. 

It would probably work better if You'd use mix those more esthetically, if instead of doing red, and green, and black sections of handrail, You'd design something nice and continuous out of those tones. Or if You'd just pick maybe two colors instead of three, or four, like only white and blue, or green and white, or even white-blue-red, etc, but if it would be well combined together. 

And than white deck is a bit too shiny in my opinion :) It gives me this impression as if the whole steering wheel area was built on top of a modern yacht made out of fiberglass :) 

But the most confusing section is that central exterior of the hull, where the gun ports are. It just seems like if that part of the ship was cut, and a whole new block of blue was sewed in. It doesn't add up. I'd ust go with continuous white and brown scheme for the entire hull. Or design it as striper of white and brown, or chequerboard, could be mixed with blue, just too make it look more constitent. If You would want to keep that blue part in place anyway, then maybe that bow and part of the stern ( at least the rudder ) could be changed from white to blue as well, to again, give it a more continuous look, as i believe that would work better.    

Now about those gunports. Are they actually openable? They are opened on one of the photographs, but on others those horns seem to be blocking them. Or maybe it is required to remove those horns or to turn them in order to open embrasures?

[Dreamweb]

Thanks for your comments.

1 hour ago, Mazin said:

Now, definitely then most conspicuous element of Your vessel is it's color... i'd say there's a bit too much of it realy, and You should lowe those numbers down. It's higher part, with sails and flags is ok, nothing seems problematic there, and in the lower part i like the brown and white elements of the hull, but then this whole middle part is one big mashup of colors and ideas ;) I mean, i don't even mind red windows and red handraill, but adding green parts of handrail in there, and yellow, is just oo much. If i can be honset, it looks a bit like if a kid would wanna build something, but would run out of one color and used a different one instead, and just didn't mind that it doesn't compose well.  

A lot of your points about the colours can be simply explained by the fact that, by the rules of the contest, this is a remake of this set:

And as I already mentioned in the first post, my goal was not to avoid the colours seen in the original, but rather to use them in a way which would look more aesthetically pleasing. The green, red, and yellow are all there in the original. If anything, I made them more symmetrical, e.g. by using the green railing not just at the bow, but at the stern too. If you look at virtually any of my other ships, I always use less colours, but this time I just followed the original in that regard.

1 hour ago, Mazin said:

But the most confusing section is that central exterior of the hull, where the gun ports are. It just seems like if that part of the ship was cut, and a whole new block of blue was sewed in. It doesn't add up. I'd ust go with continuous white and brown scheme for the entire hull.

The blue part in the middle of the ship is also inspired by the original set, as are the black sections above (I simply added railings to them-also in black).

1 hour ago, Mazin said:

But it's hard to judge Your design itself since we can see only it's exterior, and i'd like to get more insight into how the gun deck looks like and what's hidden inside that stern. I wonder if captain's quaters are easily accesible, thus, if the stern is openable some way.

Like in my every other ship, the stern is openable and there is a cabin inside which can be accessed. I will provide more photos of such close-ups, including the gun deck.

1 hour ago, Mazin said:

Now about those gunports. Are they actually openable? They are opened on one of the photographs, but on others those horns seem to be blocking them. Or maybe it is required to remove those horns or to turn them in order to open embrasures?

The gun ports are openable and nothing needs to be removed. Actually, the 'horns' hold them just a little bit, enough so that they could not open by accident.

I hope this clarifies things a bit to you. Thanks again for the comments!

[CollinsAnimationStudio]

This is a really good and faithful remake of the classic armada ship, and the ocean view is a nice touch. I really like the building techniques used for the railings. One minor thing I would change is the red window pieces used, as they are just not as detailed compared to the rest of the ship (ex part 60607 as shown below)

Overall amazing build! 

[MstrOfPppts]

Not really a fan of Lego ships or ships in general, but I find this ship very bulky and therefore it's even less appealing to my eye. Never liked the original for the chaotic color scheme, but you did it justice in keeping the colors as chaotic as possible ;) I'm not saying the build is bad, the techniques are nice, it just misses some visual appeal to catch the eye of a potential buyer - might be a different story with someone who liked the original. Still I guess at least the Friends white hulls and matching triangular sails would benefit the looks a lot!

[Dreamweb]

On 8/18/2023 at 4:59 AM, CollinsAnimationStudio said:

One minor thing I would change is the red window pieces used, as they are just not as detailed compared to the rest of the ship (ex part 60607 as shown below) 

Overall amazing build!

Thank you. I use the windows which you showed here all the time, so this time I simply felt I needed a change.

On 8/18/2023 at 1:18 PM, MstrOfPppts said:

Never liked the original for the chaotic color scheme, but you did it justice in keeping the colors as chaotic as possible

My goal was to keep the colours of the original but make them less chaotic. If you think it didn't work, this is your right to think so.

On 8/18/2023 at 1:18 PM, MstrOfPppts said:

Still I guess at least the Friends white hulls and matching triangular sails would benefit the looks a lot! 

It was my conscious decision to use the brown hull instead of white and still try to make it resemble the Armada Flagship. And I'm sorry but I don't understand the comment about the matching sails. Do you want me to use some Friends sails?

Anyway, pictures of the interior will be uploaded in a day or two, as promised. I simply wanted to shoot them indoors, not outdoors like the rest.

[MstrOfPppts]

The sails are from a different set and the thickness of the stripes do not match. Making the overall appearance look even more messy ...

[Dreamweb]

All the sails have vertical white and blue stripes (and they are all genuine vintage LEGO sails, no customs). The only one which has a different width of the stripes happens to be shaped differently, and has a giant Armada emblem covering much of the sail anyway. I think they all match pretty well all things considered.

The real problem with the original Armada Flagship's sails was the lack of a jib, and the fact that the aft sail was facing the wrong direction (and had no proper connection to the mast). Those are the issues which I focused on fixing.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Dreamweb

[MstrOfPppts]

I am aware of the sails being vintage LEGO sails. What I was trying to say, is that you are using two of these instead of two of these which would better match the main sail in the stripes pattern.

[Dreamweb]

14 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

What I was trying to say, is that you are using two of these instead of two of these which would better match the main sail in the stripes pattern.

I understood you perfectly. However, I was trying to explain that although the triangular sail coming originally from the Armada Flagship would obviously fit, in my opinion the Caribbean Clipper sails also work fine. It's all a matter of taste, obviously.

ANYWAY...

Having given it a lot of consideration, I have decided to follow the constructive comments provided by our great critics. Not every single thing was taken into account; however, those comments inspired a new, updated version of the ship.

Although I still like the old, colourful version, which reminds me more of the actual set, I decided to indeed cut down on the colours. After all, the remake is supposed to be an improvement over the old set. So I ditched the red. Virtually all of it, except for the flags and clothes.

I have updated the first post to present the new version. The old version is still there, left for comparison, but hidden under spoilers. I have also provided pictures of the gun deck and the captain's cabin, which were missing from my original entry.

@Mister Phes sir, could you please add the updated entry to the building entries index, from which my entry is stil absent altogether, as far as I can tell. Thank you!

And big thanks to our constructive critics for pointing out the details which needed improvement! Good work lads.

[Mister Phes]

5 minutes ago, Dreamweb said:

@Mister Phes sir, could you please add the updated entry to the building entries index, from which my entry is stil absent altogether, as far as I can tell. Thank you!

Yes, indeedywinks!

I was a bit confused as to whether this was a remake/update or a new concept due to the name "La Serpiente".

So I was allowing extra time to observe how the build evolved before adding it to the appropriate section.

 

[Dreamweb]

29 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

I was a bit confused as to whether this was a remake/update or a new concept due to the name "La Serpiente".

Thank you! It was always supposed to be a remake of 6280, and if I'm not mistaken I'm not the only one who used a name for a remake set. And there's also an entry in here somewhere which uses an old set's name, but it's not a remake.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Dreamweb

[Mister Phes]

38 minutes ago, Dreamweb said:

I'm not the only one who used a name for a remake set. And there's also an entry in here somewhere which uses an old set's name, but it's not a remake.

Aye, it's rather confusing using existing set names for new creations.

 

[MstrOfPppts]

I think it's much better now. Who would of thought that losing just one color would make such a difference! It might be too white in some places now, though that could be fixed with replacing red with green instead of white. It'd also be nice to match the side windows with the rear one - green frame with black inside. Or at least use a different color for window panes. But I do understand it's a bit too much to expect you to have all the right parts in the right colors when building physically.

The gundeck is spacious as well as the cabin which is also nicely furnished and detailed. I really like how you used technic bushes for the smaller wheels on cannons! Only other complaint I might have is that the compass is positioned a bit too low? No idea how realistic that is but LEGO ships used to have them right on top of the wheel, which I got used to ... (:

[Dreamweb]

3 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

Who would of thought that losing just one color would make such a difference!

I also changed the rudder and the bow from white to blue, as per the advice of @Mazin They indeed blend in much better with the blue middle section.

3 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

It might be too white in some places now, though that could be fixed with replacing red with green instead of white. It'd also be nice to match the side windows with the rear one - green frame with black inside. Or at least use a different color for window panes. But I do understand it's a bit too much to expect you to have all the right parts in the right colors when building physically.

Well, unfortunately green is the colour which I always have too little of. Not counting trees, palm leaves, etc., but those are not really useful when making a ship. And let me just say that removing the green railing was out of the question for me - I consider it the most iconic part of the original set (just like the green door in the Armada Sentry set - to which I paid tribute here by also including green doors, although shaped differently). So I thought: why not make it simply green and white?

3 hours ago, MstrOfPppts said:

Only other complaint I might have is that the compass is positioned a bit too low? No idea how realistic that is but LEGO ships used to have them right on top of the wheel, which I got used to

Well, I always thought it was positioned too high in the actual set. Anyway, I also lowered it a bit so that it would allow the crew to access the ship's bell.

[Mazin]

36 minutes ago, Dreamweb said:

I also changed the rudder and the bow from white to blue, as per the advice of @Mazin They indeed blend in much better with the blue middle section.

Well, unfortunately green is the colour which I always have too little of. Not counting trees, palm leaves, etc., but those are not really useful when making a ship. And let me just say that removing the green railing was out of the question for me - I consider it the most iconic part of the original set (just like the green door in the Armada Sentry set - to which I paid tribute here by also including green doors, although shaped differently). So I thought: why not make it simply green and white?

Well, I always thought it was positioned too high in the actual set. Anyway, I also lowered it a bit so that it would allow the crew to access the ship's bell.

Wow. I'm trully stunned by those changes! :o  Glad i could help :) And I envy You for Your will to engage in such revolution. After all that was Your baby and You did already invest a tremendous amount of work into that design :) 

[Rogue Redcoat]

A very nice ship indeed, but perhaps a bit too much like the original not that it is built the same just the fact that it does not use many updated parts/minifigures or maybe I'm wrong, perhaps it's the colors there are no stripes or accents, just blotches of color here and there, you could make the railing all green or add some more brown pieces to complement the hull and a bit more yellow overall. This is just in my taste so... Other than this I love the figurehead, so happy building :)

[durazno33]

Your remake makes me think, "If Lego were to make that old set today, it would look like this" so good job on that. The original series was so oddly colored so the coloring here doesn't bother me as you are being true to that year of classic pirate. 

I will say it seems a bit short of a ship. It's a little oddly proportioned length to height wise. I'm thinking two bricks longer (added to the blue middle) would fix that so it doesn't seem so short and chubby. 

Also the red torso-ed minifigure with the red epaulets seems a bit too much red. Maybe change the red epaulets to gold or blue or some other color than red. It would save the poor minifigure from getting teased for in a "plad on plad" moment.  ;) 

[Dreamweb]

18 hours ago, Mazin said:

And I envy You for Your will to engage in such revolution. After all that was Your baby and You did already invest a tremendous amount of work into that design :) 

It wasn't so hard really to make those changes. I'm glad I made it in time though, as tomorrow I'll be leaving home for a few days and will not be back until after the submission deadline.

16 hours ago, Rogue Redcoat said:

you could make the railing all green or add some more brown pieces to complement the hull and a bit more yellow overall.

Thanks! I'm not sure about adding more colours as I just removed some to make it less messy. I'm glad you like the figurehead, it turned out... weird, but I guess I like it too.

16 hours ago, durazno33 said:

The original series was so oddly colored so the coloring here doesn't bother me as you are being true to that year of classic pirate.  

Yes, I was trying to be true to that. Perhaps even too much initially (in the first version of the ship anyway).

16 hours ago, durazno33 said:

I will say it seems a bit short of a ship. It's a little oddly proportioned length to height wise. I'm thinking two bricks longer (added to the blue middle) would fix that so it doesn't seem so short and chubby.

Now it has more or less the same proportions as the Caribbean Clipper, and I always liked that set.  I guess back then LEGO also concluded that wide hulls with one middle section looked 'short', so they introduced the narrow hulls soon after. Maybe I'm just used to the proportions of the CC, because the length to width ratio doesn't bother me.

16 hours ago, durazno33 said:

Also the red torso-ed minifigure with the red epaulets seems a bit too much red. Maybe change the red epaulets to gold or blue or some other color than red. It would save the poor minifigure from getting teased for in a "plad on plad" moment.  ;) 

I asked him about it and he said he didn't care.

[iragm]

On 8/20/2023 at 3:00 AM, Dreamweb said:

All the sails have vertical white and blue stripes (and they are all genuine vintage LEGO sails, no customs). The only one which has a different width of the stripes happens to be shaped differently, and has a giant Armada emblem covering much of the sail anyway. I think they all match pretty well all things considered. 

I agree completely.

 

On 8/20/2023 at 3:00 AM, Dreamweb said:

The real problem with the original Armada Flagship's sails was the lack of a jib

The real problem was the color scheme, IMHO.  Having flamboyant colors worked on the Skull's Eye because 1) it was a pirate ship and 2) the colors were accents on a mostly black and white ship.  The Armada Flagship looked like it sailed through clown vomit.  Your first design is a remarkable improvement over the original, but to me, there are still just too many colors.  The second revision is much better.

 

On 8/20/2023 at 3:00 AM, Dreamweb said:

and the fact that the aft sail was facing the wrong direction (and had no proper connection to the mast)

Glad someone else noticed this.  Reversing the mizen sail direction and adding a line at the bottom is a huge improvement.

 

On 8/17/2023 at 10:45 AM, Mazin said:

 

It would probably work better if You'd use mix those more esthetically, if instead of doing red, and green, and black sections of handrail, You'd design something nice and continuous out of those tones.

I agree with this assessment.  You've done a good job of updating the set with less red and it looks a lot better for it!

Wonderful photographs, although seeing the ship in the sea like that makes me worried about losing bricks :)

If I can make a suggestion; even the second revision still looks like a MOC, and not an official set.  There are some outstanding bits here -- the rope wrapped around the chest to hold it is brilliant, the compass and bell area is great, the horn and flower pieces are good decorations, etc.  But, this would benefit from being scaled down just a bit: if the same effect can be achieved with fewer bricks, it should be.  Does the cabin need two trophies?  And seven cups?  (Surely that is bordering on alcoholism!)  Can the whole cabin be shrunk down?  The decks are very high, can they be lowered by a brick or two?

The change from the first version to the second is incredible, and if you can improve the build like that once or twice more, you have a real shot at a winning design here.  As it stands now, this is a mediocre official set turned into a great MOC.  Excellent work, but there's already a lot of good ships in this contest!

[Dreamweb]

16 hours ago, iragm said:

Wonderful photographs, although seeing the ship in the sea like that makes me worried about losing bricks :)

The water was very calm that morning, so I was lucky.  I was shooting at roughly 6 am on a beach which is very crowded during the day. At such an early hour, there were very few people, but still two guys were interested and asked me what I was doing.  I returned to the same beach later that day (without the ship ) and not only were the crowds insane, but the waves were much higher, and even without all those people around, I would not risk taking photos in such weather.

I couldn't make another trip to take similar pictures of the second version (I live about 350 km from the shore), but at least the bricks didn't get wet and covered in sand this time.

Anyway, thanks for your comments, I see your point, I do, but I don't think I'll be tinkering with the ship anymore... The captain likes his trophies, and the cups are not for drinking, but for display. 

Besides, today I am going on another trip, and this time in an opposite direction (away from the sea). But I will stay in touch all the time!

 

[Dreamweb]

I'll be participating in two LEGO exhibitions in Poland: in 2 and in 3 weeks; the first one will be well before the voting deadline, and the second one will take place partially before the deadline. My entry in the contest will be among the MOCs which I'll be presenting during those events. Therefore, I have a question for @Mister Phes: will it violate the rules if I post pictures of the ship from those exhibitions while voting is still on? Technically, those would be new pictures, but the entry itself will NOT be modified. 

[Mazin]

6 hours ago, Dreamweb said:

I'll be participating in two LEGO exhibitions in Poland: in 2 and in 3 weeks; the first one will be well before the voting deadline, and the second one will take place partially before the deadline. My entry in the contest will be among the MOCs which I'll be presenting during those events. Therefore, I have a question for @Mister Phes: will it violate the rules if I post pictures of the ship from those exhibitions while voting is still on? Technically, those would be new pictures, but the entry itself will NOT be modified. 

O kurcze :o 

Where will those exhibitions take place if i may ask? Maybe i'll manage to attend if it won't be far ;)  

[Dreamweb]

On 8/28/2023 at 9:14 PM, Mazin said:

Where will those exhibitions take place if i may ask? Maybe i'll manage to attend if it won't be far ;)

Below are links to those two events:

EVENT 1

EVENT 2

The first one will be a small local exhibition, while the second one looks like it may turn into quite a big show. Then I'll also be attending the exhibition in Olomouc, Czechia, which is an absolute killer (over 20 thousand visitors last year), but that won't be until November.

[Mazin]

A bit too far for me, but thanx :)