Perfectionist

Neither. Use Bricklink and some creativity! As a set I like the QAR more, but I still don't think it's worth the money. The Pearl is a pretty poor design! I think any decent MOC would be closer to the movie version, but I haven't seen one so far!

Yumm! 100% agree! Not on Bricklink as we speak, but they will be there eventually!

Hmm strange I don't see any Flying Dutchman set when clicking that link... I'm quite interested if there are useful parts in it!

100% agree here! Another issue I'm having all too often is the colors, I've been struggling with that a lot. There is few decent footage available on the web and all kinds of different colorschemes exist, often within the same time frame. Everything is made more difficult by the limitations of Lego colors available, I have a lot of useless bricks because I bought them in the wrong colors! Making tutorials is always a good idea, and if they are well made, they can be really helpful! Don't let yourself be demotivated by a lack of feedback; not everybody who uses your tutorial will post here! Keep it up!

I'm quite disappointed by that stern which is located so low above the waterline - and so bulky! Also there's no rigging on the front mast; instead it has been made stable by that ugly extension. On the prelim images with 3 windows at the stern it looked much better! Overall the set seems to have been designed either very lazily or in a haste. The only thing that's good here is the availability of black hull pieces(!), the minifigs and the name "Black Pearl" of course. The build itself is crap below average I mean. Because PotC is so popular it will still sell well... EDIT: I still have to thank you for the review though - very good pictures!

Yumm ... nice Army collection! It is always good to know a fellow Frenchman in heart filled with combat spirit to fight those nasty British cowards! I have to nipick a bit though: the napoleonic French uniforms were quite dark blue, so you'd have to use decals to portray them accurately.

I'm really glad you finally found some real bricks! I think LDD is a great developing tool, but only bricks can really make something a true MOC! The brickbuild hull is rather interesting on that small scale as are the capstan and the inverted build. I don't quite like that weird mast design, since it doesn't look quite smooth. Any reason you didn't use 2x2 round bricks? I also have to agree with Admiral Croissant on the stern. Some gallerys would be nice too! Overall it looks a quite like the Grand Turk, so that inspiration is very visible; and it's a very decent MOC Keep it up!

That's a very, very nice tutorial and I'm really glad to see it posted! I also used to take prefabs apart this way and put them together differently in the past, especially for an all red hull with the RR and SES hull parts, but I didn't like how it looked in the end! It's not quite easy to figure it all out by yourself and I also guess a lot of people didn't even know that it can be done, so your tutorial comes in quite helpful! The white/black looks really nice IMO.

Thanks, for finding this creation and sharing it, Z! I think the editing of that picture is exceptionally well done! One of the best I've seen so far! The ship itself seems far less amazing, but it's very decent and you can clearly see it's a frigate. Athena is a great name by the way!

First of all congrats on finishing her! By far not every good WIP on this forum ever gets finished You've given her very good proportions and a flawless colourscheme, so from distance it's a superior ship. However there isn't much detailing, so looking closely, it all looks a bit simple; no shaping of the hull, only moderate detail on the bow and stern, the gallerys are rectangular, relatively simple mast and yard design, no rigging(!)... and so on. However you've been stating that this is intentional, so I don't want to nitpick on it too much! Admiral Croissant is right about the lowered yards though. You could also make full sails from white Lego plates and tiles in LDD; that might loook a bit better. In representing the basic impression of a 18th century frigate she is doing a very, very decent job though, so I'd say: goal achieved! In case you might be able to build her in real bricks some day; I'd be glad to see her and very sure she'd turn out a lot more detailed, since you apparently got the skills it takes!

That's a groundbreaking technique you developed there! It is extremely well fitted to this xebex kind of ship, bit I could also imagine it to work really well on a galleon or a flyt or any other heavily curved ship! Too bad it doesn't really allow for any real interior workings! What makes it even more awesome is the fact that it is very very similar to the construction of a real ship with the framework, so even unfinished it makes a great "ship under construction" MOC. The proportions and hull design are superior! Is it made in any specific scale? There's just one little thing you need to do to make it perfect: TILE IT! Thanks a lot for sharing, I'm sure this will inspire a lot of people (including me)!

Way too much black IMO, even for a fantasy ship. The swivel gun and overall proportions are quite good though!

Nice little battle scene! It's very interesting to see the combination of fleshies and the good old bluecoats! The musketeers fit in quite well too. The variation of torsos and faces for the pirates make them seem quite realistic.

Beautifully made with a lot of in-dept detailing! Way superior to any fortress TLG made. The wooden roof looks really good in combination with the stone base.

Lovely idea for keeping the famous Admiral in our minds! Your giant army is put best into place like this! The golden base looks very good too!

Congratulations! You've been a blogger for so long, you really deserved it!

Hmm to be honest I think a custom decal would work much better here, however with the existing Lego torsos in mind I can understand your choice as it has something like the fleur-de-lys in it. The musketeers look great though! I do spot that only the first row has the new white printed hats! Maybe it would be a good idea to paint the rest by yourself? if you do it properly I think nobody would see much of a difference! By the way, the size of your army is very, very impressive!

Well the picture is quite blurry, but from what I can see the hull shaping looks quite promising indeed. I do think however you should lower the lowest line of bricks at the keel astern, so that the transition from the keel to the underwater part of the stern becomes smoother. Hope to see some better pictures soon! Keep it up!

Your houses are getting better and better with every update! However Fort Brighton East still seems to be one of those "never ending" projects. Is there going to be any sort of an interior? Would be quite a waste otherwise. I think dark red would look much better on the last house instead of the normal one. I would also either add window shutters or change something about the window frame color (black?). But it's still looking very good! I'm just nitpicking here. Keep it up!

Quite nice! I really like the custom dark blue French uniforms! The minifigure posing looks very natural to me. Maybe you could improve on the dead tree a bit, but apart from that it's a very nice battle scene.

Very nice to have such a tutorial! I imagine it to be a lot of work and it's great you share it with the Lego community! Since you are a designated landscape expert I couldn't imagine a better person to do this.

NOTE: This thread should be used for indexing purposes only. All discussion can be done in this thread. When I visited HMS Victory in mid-February 2011, I also took a look at the figurehead collection at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard opposite of the famous vessel. HMS Princess Alice (steam-propelled packet vessel; 1844) HMS Glasgow (50-gun fourth rate; 1814) HMS Malacca (sixth rate frigate; 1853) HMS Albatross (steam-propelled sloop; 1873) HMS Illustrious (74-gun third rate; 1803) HMS Calliope (brig sloop; 1808) HMS Apollo (fifth rate 46-gun frigate; 1805) HMS Minerva (fifth rate 46-gun frigate ; 1820) HMS Actaeon (sixth rate 28-gun frigate; 1831) HMS Eurydice (sixth rate 26-gun frigate; 1843) HMS Orestes (18-gun sloop; 1824) HMS Centurion (second class twin-screw battleship, 1892) HMS Espiegle (10-gun steam sloop; 1900) HMS Warrior (74-gun third rate; 1781) HMS Bellerophon (74-gun third rate, 1786) HMS Black Eagle (Admiralty steam yacht; 1831) HM Yacht Victoria and Albert II (Royal steam yacht, 1855) HMS Grampus (74-gun third rate; 1784) HMS Carnatic (80-gun third rate; 1823) HMS Asia (84-gun second rate; 1824) HMS Bellerophon (80-gun third rate; 1818) HMS Blazer (steam sloop; 1834) HMS Madagascar (43-gun fifth rate frigate; 1822) HMS Rolla (10-gun brig; 1829) HMS Victory's original figurehead before her great repair in 1800 (104-gun first rate; 1765)

Very, very nice looking ship with a lot of detail. I'm in awe of your capstan design; i like the second one best! I followed your build for a while and it's certainly one of the most impressive here on the forums with comparatively quick progress! I would also like to add that the size of your ship is just about right; looks really good! Not quite as monstrous as a minifigure scale one, but it looks really nice and realistic for the size of a minifigure plus the proportions are pretty sweet too! I can't add much here; personally I would go for headlight grates and some sort of modularity. I'm always using the pearl grey Lego guns, but your MOC cannons look great too; and much more to scale.