Quotenotto

Hello! I would like to start this topic to discuss the typical structure of pirate ships designed by Lego and compare them to historical ships. I have drawn a quick sketch, it represents the biggest, usually two-mastet pirate-faction playset. Being sets designed to play with, they do have their limitations in design and accuracy, but some of the earlier ships capture the essence of actual ones quite well. It is however hard to put them into a fitting historical frame. The original Black Seas Barracuda fits in somewhere in the late 17th and maybe early 18th century. In my opinion, its silhouette resembles actual ships of that timeframe closer than any other lego ship. Here is an example of an actual ship from the early 18th century for comparison (althoug it is rigged with only one mast): The Black Seas Barracuda has a similar hull shape and its stem and beakhead try to imitate actual ones with the limited possibilitys of a playset from that era. You can clearly see the inspiration for this model were actual ships. Subsequent models, especially those after the original theme look more like stylized versions of the Black Seas Barracuda rather than actual ships. They lose key features like the beak and the aftercastle develops more into some sort of cabin like on some modern cargo ships. Developing ship mocs is a difficult task, due to the many curves a ship has and the huge amount of details in their designs and there are a lot of sources for inspiration. There is a huge variety of different historic ships and a lot of fantasy designs aswell. Creating a moc is a personal task and everybody should always do what feels right for them, Lego is a toy to express creativity and not just something to recreate reality. That said, I personally like to draw inspiration for my mocs from real examples. For ships, that isn't as trivial as one would think, because there are many inaccurate examples from pop-culture, just google "pirate ship". A good place to start for actual ships is with model ships, as they are usually build with actual plans from that era, like the examples on this website: https://www.modelships.de/ Some key features for a typical "pirate" ship (2-3 masts, square-rigged, late 17th - early 18th century) I try to incorporate are as follows: A proper beakhead with curved rails and a fitting stem, the bowsprit isn't connected to the stem and angles upwards (smaller ships can have a bowsprit that is fixed on the stem and no beakhead), optionally with a spritsail A small raised section on the bow (forecastle), but not to pronounced A continous gundeck The foremast is a little shorter, the main mast (2nd mast) is not to near towards the rear (somewhere between the middle and last third of the ship) The quarterdeck should not be to short, usually it would start behind the main mast, ideally the ships sides start to raise here aswell towards the stern The captains cabin should not be to high, it can have side pockets, side pockets are usually connected to the rear mirror (but not always) The most ornate parts of the ship should be its beakhead and rear mirror What are your thoughts on this subject, what do you think about Legos designs and what are design features and philosophies you try to adhere to?

This is my final update, the ship is complete and ready to set sailt. There are some minor corrections I am going to make to the build further down the line, but those shouldn't be noticable. This is going to be my entry for the contest, a remake of the classic Skulls Eye Schooner. Sporting 4 cannons, three masts and striped black sails, the Skulls Eye Schooner outgunned and outclassed the Black Seas Barracuda. The dashing colorscheme strikes fear into the hearts of merchants and soldiers alike! A remake of this beloved classic seems almoust sacrilegious, though I never owened it myself and don't want to start a collection of vintage sets. Therefore, a remake has been in the back of my mind for quite some time. The name of the ship is rather inacurate, not beeing a schooner at all. Nevertheless, I decided to keep its original sailplan with its square-rigged fore- and mainmast and a lateen sail at the mizzen. The original set is typically stylized, with its high fore- and aftercastel and a low waist. I interpreted my version as an early 18th century corvette type vessel (e.g. https://www.modelships.de/L_Anemone/L_Anemone_photos.htm ) with an open gundeck like the original. I used a slightly updated version of the hull construction I developed for my bluecoat sloop and elongated it a bit. I changed the original colorscheme to some degrees, i replaced the brown hull with dark tan (out of necessity, due to the parts not beeing available in reddish brown) and the red accents with dark red. The green gunports were a bit to much for my taste, so I changed them to black (also because the only set to ever feature the green flag pieces was the original and because I don't own it and don't want to pay the prices for those pieces). The build has 1800 - 1900 parts, wich doesn't seem to much out of proportion for a Lego-Set (Considering that the original Eldorado Fortress had <500 parts and the remake has >2500). I don't have the energy left to edit some kind of box art, but I have made some sails (still wip, I'm gonna digitalize them to correct the designs, but the dimensions are fitting). IMG_0070 IMG_0072 Here are some details of the set: A hidden treasure on the island IMG_0074 The open gundeck, the cannons can be run out or pulled back to close the gunports IMG_0075 Storage compartments IMG_0077 The captains cabin IMG_0078 And finally some hidden gold onboard IMG_0081 Thank you all for your suggestions and may the tides be with ye.

A lot of amazing creations! Main building Category Saber Island 2023 by TomSkippy Cross Bone Clipper Remake by Elephant Knight 6278/6292 Enchanted Island Remake by Danny_Boy4 Short Pork Island by Yoggington 6244 Armada Sentry Remake by Brickshipyard Mini Set Building Category Treasure Surprise Remake: Rum Rock by Fraunces Shark Cart by TomSkippy King Kahuka's Outrigger Boat (Mini Set) by kritch Treasure Island by Oky Sloop Windy (Mini Set) by Marooned Marin

Thank you, I'm a terrible photographer. Yes, the sails are handdrawn, but I have scans of them and I'm gonna get some help to properly digitalise them. Before I put the instructions on Rebrickable (or some alternative), I need to figure out, how property rights work with those kinds of builds, because I remade an original Lego creation. Worst case scenario, I'm just gonna sell the imperial corvette version and everybody who has purchased that, can message me and I'm gonna send them the instructions of this set with parts list aswell. But first, I need to make some corrections to my instructions and highlight some difficult parts and then I'm gonna testbuild this moc again, before I can make them available.

Finished the build and sails, final update is in the main post.

By some miracle the missing parts have arrived! Now the race to finish the build and make some pictures is on.

A ghost- or skeleton crew would be an interesting option, together with torn sails, a few holes in the hull or something simlar, I think I'm gonna try that down the line. If TLG would produce something like that, I fear nowadays they would just have one ghost- and one normal side (like the terrible lastest fluffy design from the Harry Potter set).

Unfortunatly, it is not easily possible to exchange the hull colour pieces, so a two in one variant is not really an option. The imperial corvette is just another project of mine, for which I used the structure i developped, because I think it it quite customizable. I totaly understand the criticism concerning my colour choices, but I stand by my point, the rugged, worn down look is something I wanted to capture, it should be quite period accurate, because pirates had little to no acces to extensive maintanace and would just capture the next best ship and abandoning the old one. As for more colours, in design theory, three main colour types are optimal, anything more can be irritating (yes, accent colours are possible, but I chose not to use them and the pirates are quite colourfull themself). Here is a good explanation of the concept (starting at 4:13): For design, capturing the shape and silhouette is the most important part and that was my main goal. Big mocs can often be really detailed, but a very fine level of details can distract from the overall picture. Therefore, Lego-sets often use details sparingly and in fitting places (like the brick detailing in the new eldorado fortress), something I try to recreate in my designs. I have used the standard Lego hull pieces for mocs, but they are to rigid to work with for my taste. the biggest Lego ship (10210) uses two bow pieces on front and back and four hull pieces. That was for a flagship, I wanted something smaller. With the usual numbers of 2-3 hull-pieces, the ships do look more like swimming bathtubs than sleek and fast sailing vessels and don't get me started on those high stern castles, they remind me of modern cargo ships with masts, but not pirate ships (as mentioned before, there are ships from the 16th and 17th century with beautiful high stern castles, but they rise up more gradually and dont look like somebody placed a castle on the back of a boat). I know that a lot of period art does depict ships in that way, but that has different reasons, for example, the stern of a ship is quite an identification mark and for artists depicting the ships, it was important that they were recongnisable, therefore they accentuated those parts, but in reality, ships build in that way would capsize pretty easily (there are even real examples of ships capzising without looking that ridicoulus like the Mary rose or the Vasa). If you compare them to actual period plans or models, they look really different. But that shall be enough ranting about ship depictions for today. My hull is actually as long as the new black seas barracuda, but a little slimmer and with the tapering towards the stern sleeker. I wanted to create something that is a little smaller an therefore better sizes up with the eldorado fortress. Unfortunatly, my missing parts havn't arrived yet, therefore I am going to create some more renders for the final presentation, also with more details. In my opinion, Stud.io renders don't present colours acurately, or if somebody knows how to adjust the settings, tips are greatly appreciated.

This corvette is obviously a slight variation of my skulls eye schooner remake (hitting to ships with one shot, as a pirate might say). The hull structure is exactly the same, only the mizzen mast has a more modern rig with a gaffe sail and some variations on the stern build. Therefore, inspiration-wise there is nothing much to add, this is simply an alternative version with a more navy-like colorscheme (instead of typical english colors, this time I chose red for the gunports, but the possible color variations are very easily achieved). Corvette build 1 Corvette build 1_2

This is not for the contest, it simply is a "byproduct" of my skulls eye schooner. If I might build this down the line, there is some crew already waiting for a vessel to command in my collection (the pirates chess set is really usefull for that purpose). Sails are definatly something I have to create, but they are not my favorite thing to make (I have already two other ships waiting in line to be equipped). But if the missing parts for my skulls eye schooner arrive soon, I am going make some.

A good way to start with custom hulls is, as @boeing_787_8_dreamliner showed, to use lego bricks sideways (= snot: Studs Not On Top). There are a lot of different curved pieces that can be combined in different ways to create the desired shapes, the tricky part is to combine them in a stable fashion. Therefore, it can be helpfull to learn, how different snot pieces (Brick modiefied, headlight bricks and brackets) fit together. Another possible way is to incorporate hinges. you dont have to use the classic Lego hinges, there are many ways to achieve such an effect. Another good approach is to print out an outline in the size you want to build the ship and then start to fill in the oultline with plates, this way, you can create a skeleton on wich to build the rest of your ship. There are many possible ways and it is an interesting challenge to try to achieve such organic shapes with a building system that is based on squares.

Nice little boat! You can use either of those pieces as a rudder: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3835#T=S&amp;O={"iconly":0} https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=44676#T=S&amp;O={"iconly":0} and this piece for the mast: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=476#T=S&amp;C=11&amp;O={"color":"11","iconly":0} You can attach that piece with a balljoint connection and use clip pieces to attach the spars. Using those pieces, you can save some others for more details and have a movable sail as a play feature. Also, the mast would be collapseble, a neat feature to row under bridges.

Thank you One of my goals with those brickbuild hulls is to more accurately recreate actual ship hulls. The Lego hulls are nice for easy building and to some extend modifiable, but if you compare builds on Lego hulls to massive builds with entirely brickbuild hulls, they tend to look rather simplyfied. Another goal was to achieve a size of hull that is smaller than the current Lego options (with the older ones, there are smaler ones available, but they are less customisable with their dedicated bow and stern pieces). I do like big, epic builds, but they don't go well with my bank account and building just digitally is not an option, because I want builds that are actually viable and have a certain amount of structural integrity, I want them to still be playable and having a function beyond just decorative purposes. Therefore, this hull design is actually possible and quiet sturdy (based on my previously build sloop, this version is mostly just elongated). Espacially challenging was the stern cabin and in the pictures above there is still an error in that design, wich I have already corrected. The hull is build with an odd number of studs in width to accommodate the one stud wide stem (to studs wide looked verry odd for the hole ship), but the cabin is on an even number of studs (as is the stern mirror). Another version of this ship I might want to try out would be with a flush single deck and a fully enclosed gundeck, but for that, I want to build this version first to experiment with its design physically to maintain playability. But before i build this colour version, I am going to build my skulls eye schooner. Structurally, if there are no more design errors in the skulls eye schooner, this one should be buildable aswell, because the differences should only be "cosmetic". I have tested what parts ordering via bricklink would cost (including used parts, because the shrouds I used are discontinued since 2004) and it was about 150€, so not as expensive as I have preveously thought. Building this might be earlier than I initially considered (but I don't think this year).

I have finished an instruction file that I might sell. But first, i want to create custom sails and create some image files for them aswell, so that I can attach those to the instructions. And I am not quite sure yet, how I might want to sell those instructions, I have to look further into the possibilitys.

This is going to be my presentation setup for the finalized set design. The bickbuild sails are just for the rendered version (althoug they are technically possible, they would probably bend the masts with their weight), a first batch of parts has arrived, but I'm still waiting for a second order containig some structurally importent parts. I'm gonna try to create the sails and building instructions in the meantime. Skulls Eye Schooner Remake presentation render Instead of some soldiers as antagonists, I opted for just Pirates, as the original contained just 9 pirates aswell. Therefore, there are 9 minifigures in total, physically i am going to use some different ones, because I don't have all of those torsos. For some added drama, the pirates are currently marooning one of their own on a tiny, deserted island, who knows what he might have done to upset the rest of the crew? Hopefully, he can reach this little piece of land, before the shark catches up to him! The former inhabitant left a bottle of rum for him, hidden under the rock. As for more added play-features, the plank is on a hinge and can be used to fling people overboard. The crane is movalble and can also function as a rope to swing onto other ships.

Thank you for your opinion on the matter. You are right, it is less of a "remake" and more of a "reinterpretation", my goal was to put this ship in the context of my growing collection, focussing on ships of the mentioned time period. The claim that the original model is perfect is as debatable as wether a reinterpration pays hommage to the original or drags its good name through the dirt. I am quite aware of my controversial choices and I am willing to discuss this topic further. Your stern problem with the rowboat is easily adressed, as this can be customised with only removing the supports and reapplying the flower pieces. A darker hull colour is unfortunately not possible, due to a lot of those parts not beeing availible in the required colours, only black might be possible (before u used those colours, I checked if dark red might have been an opion). Going back to the original, i realised that it didn't have a skull aswell, just a plain black head, i preferred white in its place. And a pirate ship shouldn't be identifiable as such, only in the opportune moment it reveals its true nature with its flag. Well, there are a lot of 16th and 17th century examples with such a high aftercastle and they are quite a sight to behold (e.g. Francis Drakes "Golden Hinde", a pirate ship of quite some historical significance: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Hinde), but I am also a fan of later period ships with a sleeker hull structure. Yellow, occre, white and black where classical british navy colours, but other colours like red weren't uncommon. Pirates would have had to use whatever they could get there hands on, with docks and shipyards rarely beeing an option for repairs. Grey could be some thinned down white paint, meant to cover parts that were originally black. Or it could be an aged white part, that wasn't touched up yet (some lead-based common white pigments darken with age). But the main reason was to keep some resemblence to the original.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I created some renders with some of te suggested colours. As a remake of a classic lego set, those colours reclaim the cartoony vibe the ship originally had (unfortunately, those colors would be impossible, because some pieces do not exist in red). I get why this might be prefered, but I did not create this set just for the contest, but for my collection as well and for that, I prefere the muted and rugged look of my colourscheme. Like https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/profile/24236-eggyslav/ pointed out, my intention was, as with some other projects of mine, to take an exisiting set and ground it in realism. This ship is supposed to be a pirate ship as it might have been towards the end of the golden age of piracy (~1700-1720). It would have been a merchant or military vessel, that pirates captured and customised (like removing decks to lose weight and gain speed). Therefore, the muted colours add to the aged look of this vessel. As for play-features, i added quite a bit: The cannos are on wheels and can be run out or stored with closed gunports, there are two small compartment hatches for some cargo and a hidden compartment for tresure under some floorboards, the poop deck can be lifted up and reveals a furnished captains cabin and on the foremast is a capstan to hoist the anker (the ankercable in the physical model is giong to be a normal string and not a piece with studs and will come out of the white, unused barhingeplate on the stem for accuracy). With this version, I already added the rowboat at the stern, I am also going to add a crane to the backside of the foremast and a removable plank for unfortunate soldiers to walk. This is not the final model, wich hopefully will be physical before the contest ends. I am going to put together a fitting crew and some opponents (maby with an extra rowboat) and create a final presentation. Here are the colour variations: Skulls Eye Schooner Remake 17 (different colours) Skulls Eye Schooner Remake 18 (different colours)

Hello, I'd like to show you my latest WIP. As a vessel for my bluecoat faction and being of comparable size (two masts, single deck) I consider it to be an hommage to the Caribbean Clipper. It is a snow (because of the third mast directly behind the main mast for the spanker) and in military classification it would be considered as a sloop. The hull is custom build and I tried to incorporate al the typical curvatures in all three dimensions of a ship. As usual, i haven't found the time yet to create custom sails (definitely not a task I am comfortable with): I am also not sure, if the spars are wide enough for the square sails, also I am considering to add studding sails to the main- and the topsail. The interior, accesable through a hatch to lift up the rear part of the continous single deck, is still WIP as well. For armorment I'm considering carronades, I already tried to come up with a small fitting build. I used the HMS Onterio as a historical reference. IMG_1702 IMG_1705 IMG_1706 IMG_1707 IMG_1708 IMG_1709

WIP Lego Frigatte, auf Flickr WIP Lego Frigatte, auf Flickr WIP Lego Frigatte, auf Flickr WIP Lego Frigatte, auf Flickr This is a work-in-progress project of an 18th century 26 gun frigatte with 14 heavy guns on the gundeck aswell as 10 small guns on the upper deck and two foreward facing chasers. I chose the dark-red color sceme as a tribute to the 2009 Brickbeards Bounty, because i liked the dark-red and gold colors and I used one of those as a base with two added hull-parts. Next, I'm giong to start on the masts and connect them to the rigging and figure out the dimensions of the sails. The upper deck will be modular and easily removable for access to the gundeck. I have yet to work on the interior.

Update: I am now mostly fineshed with the design of the build, i just need to make the sails (the part i hate the most...) and add the small upper deck guns for wich i'm missing some parts. The ship is designed modular, the upper decks are removable while the two big masts stay connected to the hull, wich makes them relativly stable. The guns are on wheels and moderately secured, they roll out easily when the gun ports are opend and the ship is tilted. The two quater deck guns are able to be pushed out by levers. The anker can be hoisted and the wheel actually turns the rudder. WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr WIP Lego Red imperial frigate, auf Flickr

I've got some fine cotton cloth wich I'm either gonna starch or maybe apply some acrylic color to strengthen it. For a different ship I used transfer paper to iron on a red striped design onto the sails, but I'm not really 100% satisfied with the results, because the color wasn't as bright as I had hoped it would be. But if you know better ways of making sails I would be glad for some insight. I have started on an .io file, but it is in a verry early stage in wich I haven't completed the bow and with a totally different stern. But I plan to create instructions for this ship, once I've finished it.

This set was one of my favorites when i was young. It was my first "big" lego set and Orient Expedition was one of my favorite themes. Therefore i started to recreate this set in Stud.io and maybe I'm gonna get the parts to build it. I started with Sam Sinisters (or Baron von Barons) biplane, this is my first prototype: Doppeldecker, auf Flickr Doppeldecker_2, auf Flickr Doppeldecker_3, auf Flickr Doppeldecker_4, auf Flickr Let me now if you have any suggestions. The next part is going to be the ropebridge.

Thank you all for your comments, here is the next part of the set: The ropebridge. I added a trap/playfeature where the icicles can fall onto the path below and of course the ropebridge is collapseble. Temple of Mt, auf Flickr Temple of Mt_2, auf Flickr Temple of Mt_3, auf Flickr

I changed the design of the biplane a bit as recommended: Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V_3, auf Flickr Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V_5, auf Flickr Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V_4, auf Flickr I also created some alternate versions: Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V.2, auf Flickr Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V.2_2, auf Flickr Temple of Mt. Everest with Biplane V, auf Flickr

Thanks for your suggestions, the modified slope piece is indeed realy chunky, I‘m gonna try to find something better, but it should be something stable aswell. For the engine i went that way at first, because I wanted a clean look, but I‘m gonna create some alternate versions, maybe even something a little more cartoony with an oversized engine.