mon-o-mat Posted January 1, 2018 (edited) I tried to create some small mocs in LDD that could be lego-playsets. So I not only went for the look, but also for playability, stability(as good as you can in LDD ) and a reasonable part count. This are the results: Imperial Outpost On his remote outpost the imperial soldier holds watch for pirates that want to steal the treasure he protects. The first 'set' I created. I orientated myself on the classic sabre island set(https://brickset.com/sets/6265-1/Sabre-Island). While I really like the look of it the part count is relativly high for its sieze with 210 pieces. (Also: I used the old palmtree) Pirate Raft Escape After loosing his ship the old Captain has to sneak past the imperial fortress with his raft to get his treasure to saftey. This set combines the mandatory Raft with a Imperial fortress based on https://brickset.com/sets/6266-1/Cannon-Cove. The mast of the raft can be flipped over by shooting at it. Smugglers Shack An Imperial Officer is coming with his boat to inspect the old Smugglers Shack. Will he be able to find the hidden treasure? Sorry for the bad lightning here I was testing some other rendering programms. Pirate Hideout There were many pirate hideouts in the past, that had some hidden part behind a skull. I tried a slightly different aproach with some plam leaves to hide a small biat behind. The treasure is standing ontop of a trapdoor, either to save it by letting it fall onto the boat or to let the soldier make some swimming-exercises. Pirate Lagoon This serves as the Pirate Headquarter. It has a small Jail for the Governor's Daughter and a lookout, a hut with a hidden place for some barrels and a house for the captain. And it is modular. All the small islands and bridges can be put apart and recombined quite freely. The Imperial Port. The Imperial counterpart to the Pirate Lagoon. It is the center of Imperial Power. Cannons, the Governor's House with a jail for pirates and a storehouse for all the goods and treasures. It is modular as well, while it has less modules. Treasure Island: The Pirates followed their Treasure Map to this ruins on an remote island. Now they have to discover it's secrets and find the treasure it hides. But be aware: Imperial soldiers are already on their heels. I wanted to do the typical hiddent treasure in some old ruins. Unfortunatly the rotational mechanism that hides the chest needs some space and makes it more blocky than I like. Maybe I will try to remake it as a bigger set later. Edited February 10, 2018 by mon-o-mat Added pictures Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Praetorian_Guard Posted January 1, 2018 (edited) Great. Reminds me on the old times. Edited January 1, 2018 by Praetorian_Guard Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deraven Posted January 1, 2018 Definitely looks like they could have been included in the official line-up of sets. Those simple sets still have so much play value and feel larger than they are. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mon-o-mat Posted January 1, 2018 (edited) 49 minutes ago, deraven said: Definitely looks like they could have been included in the official line-up of sets. Those simple sets still have so much play value and feel larger than they are. Thx. The design of the large bases put me in front of problem indeed. They are supposed to be put together with the large ships without being dwarved by them. But I also restricted the piece-count. After trying some designs with much more rock-pieces that mimiced a raised baseplate I settled for the streched out design they have now. Edited January 1, 2018 by mon-o-mat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deraven Posted January 2, 2018 2 hours ago, mon-o-mat said: Thx. The design of the large bases put me in front of problem indeed. They are supposed to be put together with the large ships without being dwarved by them. But I also restricted the piece-count. After trying some designs with much more rock-pieces that mimiced a raised baseplate I settled for the streched out design they have now. I think that works pretty well to balance it all out. That was one of the things I liked best about the last Pirates line- the unexpected modularity where you could connect several of the smaller sets together to get something that looked much more impressive but still wasn't crazy on price or piece-count. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mon-o-mat Posted January 6, 2018 (edited) On 2.1.2018 at 2:22 AM, deraven said: I think that works pretty well to balance it all out. That was one of the things I liked best about the last Pirates line- the unexpected modularity where you could connect several of the smaller sets together to get something that looked much more impressive but still wasn't crazy on price or piece-count. Unfortunatley they still were way to small in the end and especially the Fort itself was missing substance. Edited January 6, 2018 by mon-o-mat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deraven Posted January 6, 2018 2 hours ago, mon-o-mat said: Unfortunatley they still were way to small in the end and especially the Fort itself was missing substance. And we didn't get an Imperial ship. It felt like half a line to me, like it should have been followed by a second wave with smaller ships and bigger forts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mon-o-mat Posted January 7, 2018 (edited) 28 minutes ago, deraven said: And we didn't get an Imperial ship. It felt like half a line to me, like it should have been followed by a second wave with smaller ships and bigger forts. This is something I already wrote in the Future of Pirates threat: We need smaller sheep hulls again. The old ones were only two knobs smaller, but the smaller ships with only one element in the middle still looked good, while with the ones right know basically only large ships are possible. But the line didn't only felt like half one, it felt like it was only done half-assed. Some small sets, so a new ship could be released. I tried to create a 'small' Pirate ship, in the spirit of the one-mast ships of the past. But it didn't got really smaller than Brick Beard's Bounty in the end. Edited January 7, 2018 by mon-o-mat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roadmonkeytj Posted January 7, 2018 The first really reminds me of lagoon lock up ... Or something or another outpost ... Early 90s sets both with bluecoats The cave with the palms - can you give a breakdown of those parts specific to how the palms attach in relation to the arch ... I wouldn't mind using that I would have bought the pirate lagoon hideout it looks like a playful dock set with the draw bridge to let a ship in to protect the lagoon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cousarmy0001 Posted January 7, 2018 I like that ship, Mon-o-mat. By chance could I trouble you for the LDD file (if you used LDD)? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mon-o-mat Posted January 7, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, Roadmonkeytj said: The first really reminds me of lagoon lock up ... Or something or another outpost ... Early 90s sets both with bluecoats The cave with the palms - can you give a breakdown of those parts specific to how the palms attach in relation to the arch ... I wouldn't mind using that I would have bought the pirate lagoon hideout it looks like a playful dock set with the draw bridge to let a ship in to protect the lagoon. Those are ball joints. Female on the arch and 1x2 male on the leaves. But I think it only works with the new ones, since the old ones don't offer enough movement. Edited January 7, 2018 by mon-o-mat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roadmonkeytj Posted January 7, 2018 1 hour ago, mon-o-mat said: Those are ball joints. Female on the arch and 1x2 male on the leaves. But I think it only works with the new ones, since the old ones don't offer enough movement. I happen to have some of those ... Might need to try it out ... Thanks And the old "tow hitch balls" are very limiting in range compared to the new ball and socket Thanks for the clarification Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Milan Posted January 8, 2018 @mon-o-mat Please resize your pictures. They are way big. Members may have problems loading this page on slower net. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mon-o-mat Posted February 10, 2018 I added new pictures to the original post. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JeffBuilds Posted February 11, 2018 These are pretty good! :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LM71Blackbird Posted February 17, 2018 I would definitely buy these if they were real sets! Great job! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*thomas* Posted February 18, 2018 Wow, these really are wonderful creations. I esp. like the smaller builds and the little story-line you wrote to accompany them. Well done, sir! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blackdeathgr Posted February 28, 2018 They remind me of the clasic era which is always a good move ;-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites