The Crimson Dragon (Coming out of a mini-dark age and posting again)

[Tycho McKorley]

[pid][/pid] 157C

Hello Eurobricks!

It has been far too long since I was involved in the Lego world. Graduate school necessitated and marriage necessitated that I leave my collection of Lego at my parents' home while I moved across the country (I live in the US). That said, I did complete one MOC about a year ago (though most of it was put together in 2010) that I would like to share with you. I call it the Crimson Dragon. Here is a link to the Flickr Gallery. Here is a link to the Brickshelf Gallery. It sports twenty-five guns per side makes for what I think is a rather imposing fifty-gun frigate (though the two gun decks might disqualify it from that designation).

Note that the pictures are links to Brickshelf images.

Here's a view of the rear:

Here's an overview of the ship:

Here's an interior shot of the captain's quarters:

Here's the front:

These redcoats look like they're about to march into a cannon:

Here it is next to Fortress Redband, my previous Pirate-themed MOC:

I made this MOC as my first attempt at a large Lego ship. Building a ship was very different than anything else I had done before so let me say that it was a significant learning challenge. If I could do it over again, I think I would ditch the prefabricated hulls and do custom rigging and I would seriously rework the size of the sails. I would also work for more historical accuracy since, if it's not obvious, my current creation is almost in the fantasy realm. All in all though, I'm happy with how it turned out. I am still away from my collection, but I eagerly await the day I can build again. Until then, I'm going to be more active here at Eurobricks as a way to sate my Lego hunger.

[Kolonialbeamter]

Hi,

You're right, since a classic frigate is most commonly described as a ship, carrying it's armament on a single continuous gun deck, she doesn't qualify for that designation.

But here's good news! 50 guns make up for a fourth-rate ship of the line, as you can see here. Congratulations!

She looks great to me. In fact, she isn't too far from a true ship of the line design. The overall dimensions feel right, she's got two gun decks, proper stern galleries, the sail plan is about right. True, the bow could need a touch of reality, and you should definitely change the gun pattern to a quincunx-design. But in terms of a fantasy-ish ship she is marvelous! I like the figure head and her colors. But I love the impressive stern decorations! She would make a worthy predator for ships like for example Hass Kabal's Scorpion's Soul.

Next to your Fortress Redband she looks really majestic and matching in style, they're a fine combination. I remember seeing your fortress some years ago, and even now I'm not less impressed by it's size and strength.

Looking forward to your future projects, a brick built hull will be quite challenging but all the more rewarding!

Welcome back!

[Tycho McKorley]

Thank you for the kind reply. I'll definitely be implementing something like the quincunx-design you mentioned in my next go at a Lego ship. After making it through the Aubrey-Maturin books last year, I'm heavily inclined to inject as much realism into my next project as possible. In fact, I just discovered a helpful frigate building tutorial while revisiting some older threads on Classic-Pirates. I hope to have a fleet on my hands someday.

[Captain Becker]

Oh I remember that fortress. Massive and imposing.

Anyway back to the ship itself. Well, obliviously its a large red ship whit a lot of cannons on it. It seems much more like a pirate ship to me at the first sight, and its quite obvious that you didnt try to achieve realistic look on it wich I like because it feels like everyone is trying to make their ship realistic as possible, and I kinda miss the Imagination so to speak if you understand what I mean.

Great to see youre back, and hope to see some more works from you in the future.

Captain Becker