[ENTRY] Caribbean Brig - better known as the Ironram

[Stoertebricker]

Hi there!

Phew, the Caribbean Brig closely made it in time into port to enter the contest! (for category New LEGO Pirate set from the 90s era)

Although the hourglas on the webpage seems broken, my Kalender still states 25th august so the deadline should not be closed!

 

I present you the Carribbean Brig: (the ship I saw in the official caribbean clipper, though it was way to small to be the flagship of Gov. Broadside!)

UPDATE (for full Infos see my latest comment)

Old Topic Entry:

It is a fully square rigged brig, proudly sailing the seven seas in search for Captain Redbeard.

It is equipped with 3 Cannons on the main deck. Two of them are the feared royal cannons (in blue). The lower deck is fully equipped with 6 cannons, 3 for each side. The stern has 2 cannons as well, which can be swiveled. When you remove the last bit of the handrail, these cannons can rotato fully to the sides, but I would let this modification to the kids themeselfes, as I did when I was young.

I am a bit late to the contest, so there is not much time for criticism and changing something, but I created some slighly different sterns with 1 or two flextubes. (Please give some feedback, even when the contest deadline has passed, it is always interesting!)

The maindeck is removable and the sides of the cabin can be opened:

This gives a better look in the cabin, as well:

The figurehead is a small dragon:

The anchor and the crane have working winches for play.

 

Check the Flickr-Album for more pics!

 

I hope you like it and to fully upgrade the blucoat set wave, I build the Eldorado Bastion as well. Both can be combined well, check it out here:

Eldorado Bastion

All the best and good luck to all contestants, there are already so many marvellous builds. The new Eldorado Fortress and the contest really brought back old pirates in the forum and some new sailors as well! Awesome!

Edited August 26, 2023 by Stoertebricker
I made a new comment with the last minute changes, two updated pics at the top

[TheCosmicTravelers]

I always like seeing expansions of 6274 that don't just look like a recolored 6285 (by the way, I appreciate that you've managed to keep the original color-scheme without going overboard with blue like I've seen with some other expansions of 6274). I also like how you have expanded the stern section considerably while correcting many of the issues I have with 6274!

A few small criticisms:

1) Where did the flying jib go?  I think the bowsprit looks funny without the triangular sail present.

2) The deck area near the bow could use more railings (there are large gaps here)

3) The guns on the upper deck seem a bit oversized (especially the 2 stern chasers); perhaps brick-built cannons would look more to scale?

4) The ‘mast’ at the stern could be made smaller; here it is essentially an oversized flag-pole that would only slow the ship by increasing weight and drag (I also have this issue with mizzenmast of the original 6274 set – masts on sailing ships are worse than useless unless they have sails!)

5) The mainmast needs a spanker sail like in 21322 (this is an issue I have with many LEGO brigs including 6285, 6243, and 70413). I realize that a large blue-white striped spanker sail is not officially available, but brigs always look incomplete to me without them.

Edited August 25, 2023 by TheCosmicTravelers

[Mister Phes]

2 hours ago, Stoertebricker said:

I present you the Carribbean Brig: (the ship I saw in the official caribbean clipper, though it was way to small to be the flagship of Gov. Broadside!)

This looks more like the Ironram.

[Stoertebricker]

6 hours ago, TheCosmicTravelers said:

I always like seeing expansions of 6274 that don't just look like a recolored 6285 (by the way, I appreciate that you've managed to keep the original color-scheme without going overboard with blue like I've seen with some other expansions of 6274). I also like how you have expanded the stern section considerably while correcting many of the issues I have with 6274!

A few small criticisms:

1) Where did the flying jib go?  I think the bowsprit looks funny without the triangular sail present.

2) The deck area near the bow could use more railings (there are large gaps here)

3) The guns on the upper deck seem a bit oversized (especially the 2 stern chasers); perhaps brick-built cannons would look more to scale?

4) The ‘mast’ at the stern could be made smaller; here it is essentially an oversized flag-pole that would only slow the ship by increasing weight and drag (I also have this issue with mizzenmast of the original 6274 set – masts on sailing ships are worse than useless unless they have sails!)

5) The mainmast needs a spanker sail like in 21322 (this is an issue I have with many LEGO brigs including 6285, 6243, and 70413). I realize that a large blue-white striped spanker sail is not officially available, but brigs always look incomplete to me without them.

Thanks, these are some very detailed observations!

1) The jibsail is waiting at the Eldorado Bastion I did not like it with a jibsail, the jib is quite short and all ropes have a very steep angle. The original jibsail is therefore a bit large... I tried to give the ship a bit of a compressed look, because i think the clipper is a bit short, too.

2) True, but I could not figure out a good looking one, so only build that mini forcastle.

3) True but as designed for play, all canons should shoot .

4/5) That is an hommage to the official set, which had no sails as well (My goal was not to build a realistic sailing ship.) I first wanted to make a lateen sail on it like on the armada flagship, but that looked weird. A spanker was an Option as well, but I only wanted to use original lego parts, and "making" a spanker out of two jibsails like in my Armada Brig did not worked out well, too.

I wish I had some time to make some of your points possible, especially 2). But I have to work tomorrow...

4 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

This looks more like the Ironram.

I am not an expert on pirate lore from old cassettes, comics and so on. Thanks for this information! Should I rename the entry?

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Stoertebricker

[durazno33]

There is a lot to love here. I like how you brought out the yellow as a contrasting color to the black and blue with white as a neutral color. It makes the ship POP.

I do think that there are a few too many cannons though. Each cannon takes a couple of sailors/soldiers to shoot so you are either over cannoned or under staffed. I'd recommend taking a few cannons off the top deck. and maybe the aft. That way the ship appears well manned.

 

[Rogue Redcoat]

A nice ship you have there, perhaps if there was a real set in the '90s it would have fewer cannons, and less crew members, besides this, there are some other changes I would make, first I would find a way to attach the rowboat to the stern of the ship and perhaps getting rid of the net in front of the ship, unless there is a purpose for it (but is sort of obscures the figurehead), and make those flags face the opposite direction to make it look like the ship is sailing ;) Other than this the color palette is nicely done, so anyway, happy building :)

[TheCosmicTravelers]

@ Rogue Redcoat:

The flags are pointing the correct direction, with the wind (sails catch the wind and propel the boat in the direction the wind is blowing). Unlike non-wind powered vessels, square-rigged sailing ships cannot move faster than the wind and thus flags would also be blown by the wind in the same direction as movement (i.e., forwards).

Edited August 26, 2023 by TheCosmicTravelers

[Mister Phes]

6 hours ago, Stoertebricker said:

am not an expert on pirate lore from old cassettes, comics and so on. Thanks for this information! Should I rename the entry?

It may help your entry gain more attention from crazy die-hard LEGO Pirate fanatics...

[Slegengr]

47 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

It may help your entry gain more attention from crazy die-hard LEGO Pirate fanatics...

Agreed, this ship is similar to the Ironram!

@Stoertebricker This is a nice ship and styled in a believable manner to a classic set!  The removeable deck is a nice inclusion.  Hinges on the cabin corners for play access are also great to include.
The figurehead is a design I've always liked, and the net on the bow is not something I've seen often on MOC's but should be included more often, in my opinion.

I think there are too many cannons, especially for a representation of what could be an official set.  The cannons on the poop deck seem to take up too much space and seem especially out of place to me, even though I've wondered why more actual sailing ships did not have front- or rear-facing cannons to cover more sides than just the broadsides.

[MstrOfPppts]

Nice ship, I like the color scheme, fits very nicely into the old era bluecoats. As in your other entry for an official set you're far too generous on the minifigures.

I do prefer the back version to the right. Although the build is the same, I guess that only one tube looks a bit lower and does not give the elongated feel since the cabins on the ship were not really known for spacious interiors. So I'd definitely go with the version with just yellow.

[Fraunces]

Very nice, really classic. Especially with the fortress.

[Mazin]

Very interesting moc, with some extraordinary build, but i think You might have overdone it a bit, even more than with Your bastion ;) I mean, the number of cannons in Bastion set was somewhat escused, even tho there was still probably too many of them, still, they all seemed to provide a great playvalue. And here, although i'm a big fan of galleons, ships of the line, etc, and i absolutely love two-decker, doubledecker, tripledeckers etc, i don't think that they make good toys, cause they come with very repetitive accesories - cannons, that look great, but there's no way anyone is gonna use them all in play. And double decks are even tougher for a toyset, as they force to do a lot of planning on their accesibility. And to be honest, i'm not sure if the accesibility is good  ine here. Removable decks were used in few entries already and they never seemed to be a good choice, always a forced decision, rather than something actually cool. I would prefer to see either openable sides, or a ship that could be OPENABLE IN HALF, so that we could play inside, like a longitudinal cross section, so that we could operate those cannons from the interior, and with ease... It would be cool, wouldn't it? I'd like to see this option in some set some day. If it's doable of course ;)

Still, the ship itself doesn;t look bad. It's actually very nice. It's one of the moast appealing vessels in these  entries in my humble opinion. That netting below the figurehead is an interesting idea, and miniflags on the bow, quite thoughtfull. And colors that Tou've chosen are also very good, not that they are original or anything, but look very well, all sections are were planned, in short, they make it look like a proper classic Lego ship, unlike many other entries that tried to be maybe a little too unorthodox in tones ;)

I like the stern too, those flags, that's a historicaly quite accurate element so i guess You did some research. Tho it might be a bit too crowded in there with them. And i won't even mention the number of people onboard. But these cannon on the stern might be too much. I like the idea, but there's very little space because of them being there, and it's not the biggest quarterdeck already. 

I wonder if captain's cabin is easily accesible too. You wrote about those openable sides, and i can see them on photos, but it looks like those are very narrow? 

Still, who on Earth even bother to play with captain's quarters? ;) I remember that we rarely ever used it in Baracuda, as it had plenty of more attractive playfeatures and storytelling possibilities :) 

[iragm]

This is a great update to the original 6274 that fixes a great many issues the set had.  The awkward ratlines running down the middle of the ship, the unenclosed captain's quarters, and the lack of guns on both sides.  One issue from the original ship remains, and that's the useless mizen mast; as others have said, this needs a spanker.  If you want to stick with official sails, I wonder if the sail from 6273 could be repurposed?

I also agree that a jib is needed.  And, to me, the brick-built spritsail clashes with the cloth sails.  On its own it's nice, especially how you recreated the blue and white striping, but it stands out as a weak part of the build.

And yes, there's too many minifigures and cannons, especially above decks.  But I love the use of the 6081 queen torso as a bluecoat, not something I've seen before, but she fits perfectly and is era-accurate.

The rest of this build is really nice.  I really like how the hinged doors shape the cabin, the railing design, and how nearly everything is done with bricks that would have been around in the 90s (with a couple minor exceptions, of course).

I might get rid of the blue and yellow flags on the stern; they clash with the white and blue flag on the main mast.  And swap the gray bird out for a parrot.

But all in all, these are very minor complaints.  This is a fantastic build that captures the spirit of classic pirates excellently.

[Aanchir]

Lovely work! I agree with the folks who'd compared it to the Ironram. I especially love the unique details like the spritsail and sprit topmast — they really help it stand out from other LEGO sailing ships!

While you've clearly been very conscientious about adhering to the parts and techniques characteristic of the classic LEGO Pirates era, the end result is a model which is impressively close to the features would be expected from this set as a modern-day set: a full main deck, a well-furnished captain's cabin, etc. In fact, I didn't entirely realize this was built for the "new Classic-Style set" category until I noticed that you used the old-school mast pieces — before that, I was nearly ready to question why the lack of smoother curves/angles for the quarterdeck railings! It really gives a great taste of what might have been possible if "premium", AFOL-targeted sets like Barracuda Bay had existed in the 90s!

With all that in mind, the one biggest criticism I have is that the two stern cannons make the quarterdeck look really cramped. Smaller brick-built guns might be more fitting there, like the ones from the quarterdeck of 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner or the bow of 6296 Shipwreck Island (unless the latter was meant to be a spyglass/telescope? I was never certain about that, and I don't think any of the catalog descriptions ever provided much clarity). After all, with nine full-size working cannons already, the model is hardly lacking for play value in that regard!

Outstanding work overall. While many of the more modern-style Imperial vessel entries draw a lot of appeal from how long it's been since one of the imperial factions got a full size ship, you've done an amazing job making a model that stands out as a masterpiece even for an era that DID have multiple other imperial ship sets to compare it to!

[Stoertebricker]

Ok guys,

because you all postet so kind comments,

I tried to do best to all of them and made some last minute changes:

I am very sleepy and its dark so please do not judge the fotos to hard:

Stern with only yellow tube, white instead of yellow flags, brick build small cannons:

Brick build cannons at the stern detached:

Jib sail and more railings at the bow:

And  I removed a part of the crew (that was an easy one... )

 

I am really sleepy so do not bother me to not answer to all your comments directly. But just one thing: Why the heck is everybody complaning about to many big cannons?!

Me as a child: GIVE ME MORE CANNONS, LEGO! At least enough to fill all *** gunports of this pirate-ship-set!

 

Thanks for this awesome contest. Good luck to all contestants!

Edited August 26, 2023 by Stoertebricker

[Rogue Redcoat]

19 hours ago, TheCosmicTravelers said:

The flags are pointing the correct direction, with the wind (sails catch the wind and propel the boat in the direction the wind is blowing). Unlike non-wind powered vessels, square-rigged sailing ships cannot move faster than the wind and thus flags would also be blown by the wind in the same direction as movement (i.e., forwards).

Aye, indeed your are right I don't know much about ships :)

And the updates look great, albeit, it doesn't really look like the iron ran because of the colors, but I don't really care it still looks somewhat like it so keep the name 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Rogue Redcoat

[Stoertebricker]

@Mister Phes, sorry but did you enter this entry on the entry page? You answered to the topic so i thought you recognised it. I can not find it :/

[Slegengr]

On 8/26/2023 at 4:08 PM, Stoertebricker said:

Spoiler

 

Ok guys,

because you all postet so kind comments,

I tried to do best to all of them and made some last minute changes:

I am very sleepy and its dark so please do not judge the fotos to hard:

Stern with only yellow tube, white instead of yellow flags, brick build small cannons:

Brick build cannons at the stern detached:

 

Jib sail and more railings at the bow:

And  I removed a part of the crew (that was an easy one... )

 

I am really sleepy so do not bother me to not answer to all your comments directly.

 

But just one thing: Why the heck is everybody complaning about to many big cannons?!

Me as a child: GIVE ME MORE CANNONS, LEGO! At least enough to fill all *** gunports of this pirate-ship-set!

 

Thanks for this awesome contest. Good luck to all contestants!

All of the updates are improvements in my opinion!  The stern cannons look much better and more reasonable in scale now.

Since this contest is centered around making something that could be an official set, this is my reason and likely the reason for others that we complain about too many cannons.  Official sets have never included enough cannons even to fill all of the gun ports.
Of course, all of the cannons should be a sure inclusion on a MOC!

[Mister Phes]

9 hours ago, Stoertebricker said:

@Mister Phes, sorry but did you enter this entry on the entry page? You answered to the topic so i thought you recognised it. I can not find it :/

Aye, she's all hooked up now!