Kwatchi

I think I'd start with the present pirate ship as a base. Then take a look at the instructions for the OOP Imperisl Flagship (10310?) and use that for ideas on what extra bricks you'd need to extend it and put main deck on. Then finally use Bricklink or Lego parts order to acquire those parts. Assuming you get the present ship for $100, that leaves you with $80 before shipping to truly make it your own. I'm presently starting a similar process with a 95% complete Caribean Clipper I got last year. I found a little too 'stubby', and extending by a hill section is turning out to be a fun little project.

The synopsis diary/timestamp idea seems like a great solution to the barrier faced by late coming, curious builders like myself. I know it seems silly to veterans, but GoH can be rather opaque at first glance. It takes a couple of hours of drilling down to really start getting a feel for what has happened previously. This idea could only help in that regard. My 2 bricks.

Not so much a rumour, but Toys R Us Canada just put all the Pirates line a 20% off this week. Trying not to read anything into it, but figure I'd share the info all the same.

Picked up this set on the weekend with a 20% off coupon. Came with the proper Capt head and ,more importantly, no visible hull gap. Not sure what to make of it as I had been expecting the gap flaw.

It turns out there old brown mast bricks and they tend to be far more reasonable and are slow close in colour you cannot really tell. I'll try to post a pic of my 95% "Bricklink" Flagship. One bit of advice. The 4 mast bricks which sit on top of the 3 masts and front spar all connect with technic rods. But there are two designs of the piece: one where the rod hole is an 'x' and one where it is a '+'. You want the latter, so make sure you grab the right one.

That is a very impressive build. Were it not for the fact I can barely move after a long weekend of house painting, I'd be digging into my bricks right now having been inspired to do something in the same vein.

Great idea and execution.

Sabre Island was the only set (other than minifig packs) from the Pirates line I had when I was a child, so that would be my nostalgia vote. Having just assembled a Imperial Flagship 10210 to 95% completion and a BSB, I'm torn over which is my true favourite presently. The flagship hull is gorgeous but I prefer the BSB mast structure. 1st world problems :)

A little late commenting, but your write-up had me chuckling out loud when I read it just now. Well done.

When news of this first broke, I was dead set to play Corrington. However, I find myself reconsidering as Olean and Pirates are also appealing and my collection supports these two better tbh (I only own 4 redcoats compared to a dozen old school blue coats). So my vote was Corrington, but I can easily slide to another faction for the sake of balance. Well, except for those money grubbing Dons of Eslandola! :)

Well done! Had me chuckling.

I like it. Eslandola was always going to suffer a bit from the lack of a true solider print, but I think that one captures a good look. Question: Is the bayonet an after-market piece or is it constructed out of existing bricks? Or is it possibly Playmobil? Finding decent bayonets is the one of my little side projects on the go.

I've just started assembling my Bricklink accumulated IF. It took me about a year to find everything, and I only learned recently that the set is still listed on the Lego missing brick/pick bricks page. Finding that out sooner would likely have saved me time. The killer pieces are the red-brown masts and large plates. Both are unique to the set and therefore ungodly expensive, to the point where it would be cheaper to buy the complete ship itself even with the speculator's markup. This will be where you'll need to do your colour substitutions. Good luck.

I like the direction this discussion took over the last few days. Either concept (1: Mysterious island/archipelago where things are more fantastical, 2: further you get from civilisation, the more fantastical it can get) is something I believe I'd enjoy being part of. As a fan of the CS Forester and P. O'Brian books my initial preference would have been historically driven only tbh, but I can appreciate how some would like to be more creative. As long as the world doesn't simply become a high fantasy-on-water, I'll be happy to join in as my first foray into "serious" MOC'ing.

I'm not that experienced a builder (more of a collector), but this has me rather excited. Being a big fan of the Hornblower books, I've always wanted to try my hand at historic british-like builds. I won't commit yet of course, since things are still in development and I have far more Oleon blue related minifigs in my collection, but hopefully Post Captain Odysseus Pelter will be hoisting the Corrington colours sometime soon.

There is always the Lego Friends/Tarzan Minifig series chimp.

Well done!

I really liked the raft for a reason I can't put my finger on. Regardless, I'll enjoy following this thread until December 24. Who says my kids can have all the fun? :)

I'd concur. Those are very accurate reproductions, but Lego minifgs are very simplistic which causes a clash of asthetics for me. Not worthwhile to replace all my bell ended muskets at this point. One new thing I wouldn't mind are some clip-on bayonets. I can make my own of course using a grab tile and a tooth tile, but I'd rather have something a bit thinner; pure wishlisting on my part though.

I recently did the same and there was no issue for me as well.

Thanks for the taking the time to do the write up. I'm afraid I am personally a bit of a purist, but I still appreciate the effort you put into this.

I let my son make the decison for me. PS: Sorry. Not flogging my blog (which is more a personal diary), but I couldn't figure out how to post it directly in the forum.

I've been watching this thread for while as well (guess that makes a lurker), and I am also curious if this will ever materialize. I'd also like to know why it was titled "guilds of" rather than "fleets of"; the latter seems more appropriate imho.

Being in a somewhat similar situation Diggydoes, I may be able to pass on some advice. I am a long time castle/space collector, though I did have a few of the original smaller pirate sets from my childhood (Sabre Island and smaller). My son recently got into tall ships so a spent an evening pricing out the cost of buying the Imperial Flagship (10210). Just the pieces for ship alone came up to a whopping $365 US. Now over $120 of this was for the six mast pillar pieces, who's red-brown colour was unique to that set (the incoming ship may have them as well, so that price might eventually come down from ludicrous levels). With some judicous colour subsitutions for the sake of finanacial sanity, it comes down to a more palatable $250ish before shipping, which is still quite the investment. I had been slowly collecting bits via small orders once a month as a project, and keeping to a set budget was proving a fun challenge in itself. But, I had a huge stroke of luck last month and managed to acquire both the Black Seas Baracuda (6285) and smaller Carribean Clipper. The BSB is one hull section and one mast smaller than the IF and immensely cheaper on Bricklink. Were I to do it over, I would have simply bought the BSB (which is big already) and expanded upon it while using white sails I made myself. It would be far cheaper in the long run and I think the BSB had a better build concept for the mast/sails/rigging anyway. Speaking of which, there are a couple of good tutorials to read in the Pirate Index: "Building Frigates" by Captain Green Hair and a few making on your own sails. They gave me a better comprehension of what I was getting into, along with a touch of inspiration. Best of luck.