[BDP9 WIP] Merchant ship.

[Elephant Knight]

The last month or two I have been spending a lot of time working on building a ship that I plan to submit for the BDP 9. It's not quite finished, I still have the interior of the cabin to complete.

You may notice that this is a digital build. GASP! Elephant Knight doing digital builds? I admit, this is a first for me, but as you all know, a digital build is required for submitting to BDP. It was quite a learning curve for me.

I went into this project with a couple things in mind. Number one was to keep the piece count under 2000, to have a more "affordable" boat available, if it gets that far.  It currently sits at 1812 pieces, so I have some room to plat with. I also wanted it to be a merchant ship, as I felt that is what Lego is lacking. There are plenty of official Pirate ships, but nothing for them to plunder! And while there aren't many "good guy" ships, there still are some. Merchant vessels are almost non existent, and the colour scheme was chosen to reflect that of the ship found in the Imperial Trading Post.

I do have a physical model built as well, but I am waiting on a couple Bricks and Pieces orders to arrive before It is finished. As well as completing the cabin. I will also have some more pictures of the virtual model up soon, but for now, let me know what you think, areas that need improving, and what sort of details would be needed!

EKnight

Edited August 18 by Elephant Knight
Added more pictures

[GeoBrick]

The... picture doesn't show?

[Elephant Knight]

1 hour ago, GeoBrick said:

The... picture doesn't show?

It did... not sure why it doesn't any more. I will go fix it.

Eknight

[CaptainMoore]

She is a beauty! Congrats!

Even if I get that it comes from respecting the original color style, I find the black figurehead a bit sad and dark for the merchants. Maybe a yellow color, complemented by yellow on the flexible tubes behind, might be worth trying? 

I'm not sure that it would be better though. 

[Elephant Knight]

4 hours ago, CaptainMoore said:

She is a beauty! Congrats!

Even if I get that it comes from respecting the original color style, I find the black figurehead a bit sad and dark for the merchants. Maybe a yellow color, complemented by yellow on the flexible tubes behind, might be worth trying? 

I'm not sure that it would be better though. 

I wanted yellow flex tubes, but the BDP pallet did not have yellow available in any length. I also agree the black figure head doesnt pop. I would have to check again what colour options were available, but there aren't too many.

Eknight 

[GeoBrick]

I like the way you did the. hull bow section. A bit less convinced on the method used on the midsection, but making the vessel wider is definitely a good thing for a merchant ship. The stern (especially the cabin) is superb. No frills, just a reliable design that gets its purpose done. Again, good thing for a merchant vessel.

[Sebeus I]

Lovely traders brig, I appreciate the effort keeping the rigging 100% lego, it iz quite challenging.

Interesting that you didn't go for prefab hulls, for a ship this particupar size, it would keep the part count low. But perhaps there are no hulls available for this edition of the Bricklink Designer program?

[Elephant Knight]

19 minutes ago, Sebeus I said:

Lovely traders brig, I appreciate the effort keeping the rigging 100% lego, it iz quite challenging.

Interesting that you didn't go for prefab hulls, for a ship this particupar size, it would keep the part count low. But perhaps there are no hulls available for this edition of the Bricklink Designer program?

Hulls were not available, I definitely would have gone for them if they were. I have still managed to kerp the part count below what I was aiming for. I also succeeded, in my opinion, of designing the hulls to not look out of place when placed next to a ship with prefab hulls.

Eknight 

[Birby_In_The_Belfry]

Looks adorable <3 Def going to have my vote 

[CaptainMoore]

16 hours ago, Elephant Knight said:

I wanted yellow flex tubes, but the BDP pallet did not have yellow available in any length. I also agree the black figure head doesnt pop. I would have to check again what colour options were available, but there aren't too many.

Eknight 

Ah, that's sad. I get it

[Elephant Knight]

I have officially submitted this now! 

EKnight

[GeoBrick]

On 9/17/2025 at 4:01 AM, Elephant Knight said:

I have officially submitted this now! 

EKnight

Looks like a real contender.
Did you have to make many sacrifices over your vision on how to build the ship over the constraints of available elements in BDP9?
Also, kuddo's on putting what looks to be a sizeable cargo hold underneath the gun deck. Important detail for a trading vessel. 

[Elephant Knight]

5 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

Looks like a real contender.
Did you have to make many sacrifices over your vision on how to build the ship over the constraints of available elements in BDP9?
Also, kuddo's on putting what looks to be a sizeable cargo hold underneath the gun deck. Important detail for a trading vessel. 

Honestly not really. I normally work with prefab hulls, that gave me pause when i first began the process. In the end it gave me a lot more freedom. The biggest issue I ran across was actually minifigs, not a lot of pirate options.

Eknight 

[GeoBrick]

1 hour ago, Elephant Knight said:

Honestly not really. I normally work with prefab hulls, that gave me pause when i first began the process. In the end it gave me a lot more freedom. The biggest issue I ran across was actually minifigs, not a lot of pirate options.

Eknight 

You seem to have found 4 separate printed torso's, so that's good. Merchants sailed with as small crews as possible anyway.

Talking about sails, I like how each of those are differently folded. Gives the ship an even more unique look.