Laura Beinbrech

If you look closely, he's clipping them on with one of these 1x1 clip tiles: There's a ridge along the front edge of the wing (representing the bone) that is just about thick enough for a minifig to grip....

Very nice! One of my favorite parts of this build is the technique you used to build the palm trees... Then again, I am a huge palm tree fan.

I always liked these vintage diesels, and you definitely got this one spot-on!

I don't know how many here have seen these, but Mark Stafford (a.k.a. Lego Nabii, the twisted genius behind some famous Cthullhu MOCs floating around the net) has made an awesome Friends-based attack sub called the Dolphinex and a pink battle mech called the Ultra Violet... I don't know about you guys, but I definitely want to get me a pink battle mech.

Yes, I know, more of my lame ship MOCs, but you get a two-fer this time: Introducing the Federal Navy Ship Inferno and the Republic of New Jersey Ship Thunder Child PT Boats Side View by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The FNS Inferno is the lead ship of the Inferno-Class Coastal-PT boats deployed by the Federal Republic of America and in fact, pre-dates the Final War. The Inferno was originally a cabin cruiser that was purchased by the North American Union in the early stages of the Final War and armed with heavy machine guns for fighting Blackgaard loyalist insurgents in coastal and river engagements. After the cataclysmic Anti-Matter missile exchange initiated by the maniacal Dr. Regis Blackgaard, the Inferno was the only surviving Naval asset for the remnant of the North American Union that would eventually become the Federal Republic of America. Over the years, the original Twin-.50 caliber machine guns forward were replaced by a 1.5" (38mm) auto-cannon, a side-mounted twin Merculite Missile launcher was added, then replaced by the MK-50 sonar-guided torpedo racks and the aft .50 caliber machine gun was replaced by a BA Heavy Industries 7.62mm NATO minigun (this replacement occurred shortly after contact was made with the Free State Redmond, which has since joined the Federal Republic as a full member state). PT Boats Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The final modification to the Inferno was the new superstructure configuration that was added during its latest shipyard overhaul. This superstructure was designed by the Republic of New Jersey when they developed their Lightning-Class PT boats based on the Inferno-class (which at the time still had an open upper-deck/bridge), as part of the tech-trading deal and alliance the two nations signed after discovering that their mutual enemy, the Grand Duchy of New York, was led by none other than Dr. Regis Blackgaard, architect of the Final War. PT Boats Aft by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The RNJSThunder Child is typical of the Lightning-Class PT boats, and has virtually identical weapons systems to the Federal Navy Inferno-Class. The main differences are the fact that the Lightning Class boats' hulls are narrower and longer than the Inferno-class boats, giving them greater speed, but somewhat less maneuverability and a greater tendency to roll about in heavy seas. PT Bridge Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr In addition, the bridge area of the Thunder Child, like all Lightning-Class PT boats, only has one watch station (Conning officer), whereas the Inferno, like all boats in its class, has two watch stations: Conning officer and Weapons Officer (who has a small sonar display/torpedo launch conrol pad) Further differences are in the layout of the area below decks: PT Boats Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr In the Thunder Child, you can see Chief O'Brien manning the master plot, with an enlisted sailor manning the radar console. In the Inferno, you can see the duty engineer manning the engine control board and Lt. William "One-Eyed Willy" Jensen at the master radar display. Finally a picture of the two boats' crews: PT Boat Crews by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The three sailors to the far left are NJ Navy enlisted/junior NCO's, 2nd from the right of the NJ Navy personnel is Chief Petty Officer O'Brien and the furthest right of the NJ Navy personnel is Lt. Hermione Ginny Wells, the Thunder Child's CO. The left most of the Federal Nay sailors are enlisted/junior NCO's, second from right is Chief Petty Officer Jackson, and at the Far Right is Lt. William "One-Eyed Willy" Jensen, the Inferno's CO. Well, I hope you guys like my PT-Boats! I had fun making them. Fun Fact: The Inferno is, in fact, an ORIGINAL 4011 Cabin Cruiser that has been modified, and is one of the few sets of my brothers and mine to survive my first dark age, and I also started modifying it as soon as my brother relinquished his claims to it, and in the general order of upgrades that I outlined above. BTW, free cookies to whoever gets the various movie/literature references I threw in here (to be fair, Captain One-eyed Willy was one of my brother and my first custom pirate captains, along with Captain Admiral James Hook and Captain Long John Silver....

Thanks, Lightningtiger! Glad you like them... Believe it or not, but the RNJS Thunder Child was a semi-table scrap.... I decided to buy the new City Fishing Boat just to mess around with the hull, and due to my current set budget, decided to see what I could do with pieces that I happened to have on hand. It took a while to get her together, but I liked the results enough to see if I could modify the Inferno to have a similar super structure.... Also, as you can see, both the Federal Republic of America and the Republic of New Jersey are very tolerant societies and have an equal-oportunity policy when it comes to military enlistment. Oh, and since nobody seems to want to guess the references, here they are: The Inferno and One-Eyed Willy are both references to the old 1980's movie, "The Goonies", which helped fuel my brother and my passion for pirates... As a matter of fact, we saw it as a re-run on TV, "Captain Blood" (old movie with Errol Flynn) and the theatrical re-release of Disney's "Peter Pan" about a year before LEGO Pirates came out.... Chief Jackson is a reference to "Down Periscope" (one of the two quatermasters driving the sub was seaman Jackson, the former Navy Academy basketball player). The Thunder Child is a reference to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds and is named after the torpedo boat that managed to destroy two Martian Tripods before being destroyed itself, allowing a refugee convoy to escape. The captain's name (Hermione Ginny Wells should have been a dead giveaway). Chief O'Brien, of course, is a reference to Star Trek, Deep Space Nine.

A worthy flagship for the original LEGO pirate captain! Excellent work.

I just love this! It's steampunk and has dinosaurs in it, two of my favorite things... It it was any more awesome it would explode! I love how you used the bronze BA miniguns for the vertical boilers. I also like your BAP flintlock pistol.

Heh, I remember seeing the Dino Riders Toys way back in the day (gad I feel old!), and I'm happy to see someone bringing that series to life I LEGO... I was actually planning on doing something similar to the Pterodactyl that I got with the Tower Take Down set (albeit the armament would most likely be a Brickarms MG-42)... Good work on them, especially the Triceratops.

Personally I'd like to see a return of the ORIGINAL space throw-down: Futuron/Classic Space vs Blacktron: Those two themes (along with the Forestmen, but that's a different story) were what got my brother and I into LEGO in the first place, during the summer of 1988... Our first two sets ever were the Blacktron Alienator and the Forestmen's Hideout.... As a matter of fact, I've done my best to kind of reconstruct the Futuron/Blacktron themes within my larger LEGO setting (the elite forces of the evil Grand Duchy of New York are the Blacktron Guard (which uses Rench torsos and Space Villian parts, along with some of the World Racers black helmets with skulls and Aquaraiders II helmets with black visors), and the the space fighter division of the Federal Republic of America Air Force uses the Futuron color scheme on their space ships and this torso for their space suits, to kind of give a neo-Futuron look....

I've had the locomotive for this train done for some time now (like since August of last year), but was having some difficulty with the rolling stock. Seeing the Mining Train in the leaked pics of the LEGO City mine sparked my inspiration, and I spent the better part of this evening after work making some mine carts to go with the loco. The mine carts are based on the ones in the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom set, but using sturdier overall building techniques. Anyways, without further ado, here's the train: NG Train by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Along with some closeup shots of the locomotive. You can see my attempt at duplicating the look of the drive shafts for the wheel bogies in the first pic. This Loco is a Heistler-style geared Locomotive, but with multiple speeds, meaning that on a straight, level stretch of track, it can get up a pretty good turn of speed. NG Loco by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Front view: NGTrain2 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr ...I Might have to see if they start making those 1x1 round tiles with numbers so I could use it as a proper number plate. Here is an interior shot of the locomotive, with Ori manning (or more properly, dwarfing) the controls: NG Loco Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr ...And now on to the ore carts themselves: NG Ore Cars 1 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr ....and a shot of the dumping action of the ore carts: NG Ore Cars 2 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr This is handy for unloading the ore at the junction with the standard-gauge line so you don't need one of them crazy rotary car dumpers like AussieJimbo made a while back. Now for a little background information: Balin & Sons is a large Dwarf-owned Mining Conglomerate based in Harrisburg, PA, Richmond, VA, and Cincinnati, OH in the Federal Republic of America. They have built miles of Narrow-Gauge track to facilitate hauling Mithril, Iron and other minerals from their various deep-shaft mines to standard-gauge lines nearby. This particular train belongs to their Harrisburg Division, which has been in continuous operation since before the Final War, and mainly serves the Mithril Mines near Halifax and Duncannon, PA. Mithril is only found deep in the crust (far deeper than most humans are capable of mining) and is a small, but key ingredient in the manufacture of the important Unobtanium alloy. In keeping with the Federal Republic of America's policy of using renewable energy whenever possible, most of the locomotives are wood-pellet burning steam engines, although they do have some biogas-electric locomotives for use on their busier lines. Comments and criticism are welcome! The ore cars, BTW, are sorta Table-scrappy builds, since I didn't really order any parts special for them, but rather used what I had available in my parts bins. I think they turned out rather well regardless, and I kinda like how no two ore carts in my consist are exactly alike.

Thanks for the info, Roamingstudio, but I was already aware of at least two different attempts to use PF on the NG track... Both this one and Aussiejimbo's. I, however, am on a fairly tight budget, and a single PF unit would cost my entire monthly budget, not to mention that I generally prefer to push my trains around by hand, or just have them set up to look pretty anyways (I don't even have enough curved pieces to make a full loop of standard gauge track at the moment). I might see about doing something down the road (most likely if/when I get around to modelling East Broad Top RR's M-7 55-ton GE center-cab diesel), but for the foreseeable future, I'm going to be prioritizing my budget for actual bricks to build rolling stock and such over PF stuff....

I second this comment... Your locomotives are amazing!

Wow! I've always had a soft spot for center-cab electric locomotives (Swiss Crocodiles, Steeple Cabs, PRR GG-1's, etc), and the Swiss Crocodile was one of my favorites, right after the GG-1. You did an excellent job of capturing the look of that particular locomotive, I must say.

Hass, I've been lurking this thread pretty much since the beginning, an I must say that you have done an outstanding job! One thing I love about this MOC is the clever use of the Pharaoh's Quest golden scorpions. I also like the overall Scorpion motif: it is not one that is usually associated with pirates, but it definitely works! I may have to finally get around to registering with Cuusoo so I can vote for this project.

Thanks for the kind words, fellows! Yes this is an interesting scale, but as I said before, living near one of the oldest continuously operational Narrow Gauge railroads in the world has kind of given me a soft spot for Narrow Gauge trains. ...Not to mention that it's different than your run of the mill standard gauge stuff. Anyways, I was at the fiance's place all weekend otherwise I would have replied sooner. Now, as promised a quickie LDD screenshot of some of my other Narrow Gauge WIPs, including a very WIP-y Balin & Sons electric Mine locomotive (for use in the mines), based on the LEGO City mine's NG mine train: WIP Narrow Gauge stuff by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The hopper, as I said, is loosely based on the East Broad Top Railroad hopper cars (even though most of theirs are 3-bay), and the intermodal car is meant to hold containers like in the LEGO City Harbor set that came out in 2007 (7994), which I've decided to adopt as my standard shipping container size (I already have one on the MV Merry Maid, my armed merchant ship).

This is one slick moc! I'm normally not a huge fan of SNOT (mainly because it makes the project entirely too flimsy), but this is just brilliant!

Oh heck yeah! I'd totally support a Blacktron I version of this thing on Cuusoo! Heck, I figure that LEGO owes us some Blacktron stuff with all the teasing they've done over the past two years (i.e. the Blacktron torso on Rench and the Space villian CMF)... Dr. Nightmare: The pink version would probably look better with a trans light blue cockpit.... The Friends Fighter.

Nice piece of Maintenance of Way equipment. It's definitely a lot snazzier than the flatbed car with a utility pole bucket attached that we use at the Rockhill Trolley Museum!

Thanks guys! Glad you like it. AussieJimbo: The coupler device was kind of trial and error: I initially tried to use the ball-hitch and socket devices available through Pick A Brick, but the ore cars kept derailing on the turns, so I tried to combine two ore cars into one, but it would derail on S-curves with the semi-rigid coupler, so after thinking hard for a few minutes, I realized that what I needed was a coupler that was, in essence, a Universal Joint, so I happened to have some technic axle-ball sockets and axle joiners, and there you have it. I just last night finally decided to take another look at my Narrow Gauge train and see if the improved U-joint couplers would work with the 8-long ore cars and they did! LightningTiger: I've got some LDD files of other NG rolling stock, such as an intermodal car, a 2-bay hopper (based on the East Broad Top Railroad coal hoppers) and a caboose. I'm also analyzing pics of the upcoming LEGO City mine train (as well as downloading the LDD file that was recently uploaded onto EB) to come up with an improved in-mine locomotive, preferably in the Balin & Sons Red & Black livery.... I MAY actually have enough parts to make one of the 2-bay hopper cars... I'll have to see. The rest I can't really even start building.

That is one sweet, swooshable heavy fighter! I'm kinda curious how it would look in the classic Blacktron I color scheme? Perhaps a spiritual successor to the Aerial Intruder?

I just love this lavender batmobile! It has the look, but in a new Bat-Girl color.

looking good, so far! I'm not sure how well it will handle standard curves, though.

While it's a shame that the set doesn't look like it will have any new narrow-gauge straight tracks that work with the current NG stuff, I am rather excited about this set: While I've made a mining locomotive, it's of the type that hauls the ore/coal from the mine to a freight terminal to be loaded onto standard-gauge trains, wereas this set has an actual in-mine locomotive! I'm thinking about modding it to work with the coupling rigs I use for my NG trains so that the mine loco can haul the side-dump hopper cars from the depths of the mine to the surface, where the Heistler locomotive can haul them down to the standard gauge exchange....

Well, even though I'm not a huge fan of the spinners, I've bought three of these ones, thus far: Not only does it have the awesome female samurai, but it also has a black scimitar (which I combine with the 4-L sticks to form a Naginata/Guangdao), red fang thingy and black lightsaber handles, among other things... Also I'm still in the early development stages, but the Spinners look like they would make a good light gun turret base.