Capn Frank

Here's a pic of some of the 20 carronades and 2 non-moc cannons that will populate the spar (top) deck. The gun deck will contain 30 non-moc cannons. I've got all the brown carriages and wheels i need on the way in B-L orders. I would like to put the new cannon in the brown carriages. I don't think that little sub will ever be parted out. Hopefully by June for the Brickworld Convention. It'll be a good way to commemorate the return of Pirates! NO! I think he does need some persuasion. Well its been great talking with you Captain SlyOwl, but unfortunately the deck is not going to be tiled. When it's fully complete, i don't want to carefully pose 400+ crewmen on a tiled deck. Dusting will probably be done with canned air and Q-tips. Or i could pull a Z, and never dust it. Eh... ...no. The masts will be semi-removable, but not collapsable. I do plan on having the chain pumps fully operational though. Thank you YnyklY. And yes it is in real lego scale.

I know. I was going to finish that later.

Alright, last time i talked about this a lot of ppl seemed to be in disagreement with my reasoning. So i've hit the books since then and came up with some information. Ppl didn't like it when i said that the HMS Sophie (14 guns @ 8 knots) has a lower top speed than the HMS Victory (100 guns @ 9 knots). After some reading, i've come up with this table. First my assumptions (which can be fine tuned later): Frigates or smaller move at wind speeds lower than 3 knots, while ship-of-the-lines do not. A Brig must bring in all sail when winds are more than 30 knots. A frigate must bring in all sail when winds are more than 40 knots. A ship-of-the-line must bring in all sail when winds are more than 50 knots. In other words, a smaller ship can't handle faster winds compared to larger ships, (which i've read, but no exact values were given). Once the max speed has been made, the high waves decrease ship speed. The brig (HMS Sophie) was the fastest ship below 6 knot wind speeds. (or a smaller ship can move faster in light wind) What do ya think?

I asked them to have Pirate Lego available at in more stores than Lego or Toys R US stores.

The Evil Captain Phred will always be Pirate! I just need a ship. Maybe i'll make one once my other ship is complete. (if i have any bricks left ) It appears we pirates be out numbered, but that's never stopped us in the past.

Yeah, no kidding! I can't have a ship of this size being complete before mine. I must be sure that mine is going to be done before yours.

Me too! Alrighty then, My brother Duke (who has seemed to enter his darkages ) came over and i had my Constitution set up to show him. (Hopefully he'll actually unpack his bricks from moving. ) Anyways... I took some pictures of the ship all put together and all the carronades on the spar deck and the two small vessels i've got built so far. That's a 19 inch (48 cm) tv in the background. I wanted to get a picture of myself holding the ship, but the stern is a little flimsy since it's not complete yet. Also, the stern is not complete enough to mount to the spar deck which will then be able to strengthen it much more. The red will be gone when the ship is complete. There's a layer of gray plates on the underside; then two layers of red or black, with black on the edges of removable pieces; and a layer of rown. The rown doesn't add too much strength right now since i've ran out of plates larger than 4x6 (more are on the way though!). Just a couple more views. Enjoy!

I've recently read Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution: Vessels, Crews, Weapons, Gear, Naval Tactics, and Actions of the War for Independence (Hardcover) by Jack Coggins. It was published in 1969, but it was very relevant and an interesting read. This book talked about many things that were helpful for building more realistic ships and types of dress sailors, marines and officers wore from the American Continentals and the Royal Navy. Here some scans of the most helpful illustrations for ship building: This one I never knew! There is no crane device or anything. There's just rope and tackle to lift boats out from the center of a larger ship. Not exactly an illustration on how to build better ships, but it was interesting to realize what ppl mean when they said these terms in books and movies.

Hopefully you'll get the opportunity to get some of the newer sets They're lightyears i mean leagues better than 4+... ...eh stuff. No you don't. My brother has one, and it's pathetic. Just when i thought lego couldn't do any worse than with the Cross Bone Clipper for ships, they made this set.

Can my brother buy a raffle ticket? J/K I didn't see that part. Nevermind.

1st Place Vote:22. Lego Joe 2nd Place Vote:28. 74louloute - When I grow up, I wanna be a pirate... 3rd Place Vote:41. Captain Zuloo - Dinner Time! The musket up the toilet is priceless. Very well made and creative! The dreaming to be a pirate MOC was great. It's a very innovative idea for a pirate contest. Dinner time was very sick and gory, which is exactly what was needed in this competition. It took me a long time to chose which ones to vote for. There were A LOT of great ideas in these entries.

May i still buy a raffle ticket?

Thank you Teddy. The stern has a a lot of crazy curves right at the water line. I've completely remade the stern once already, so it may be a while before there are pictures of the stern. If i did post pics, you'd see a lot of pretty colors right now. They'll be covered up eventually, just like on the rest of the ship.

Rown decking is a great idea. I've got the same decking. Now don't go buying all of the rown plates in the US; I still need some too. Looking forward to the upgrades and pics!

I'd suggest adding a gangway on top of your gun deck. and have a railing for the gangway. Similar to the BSB: Then the stern and forecastle would fit a lot better with center portion of the ship. Good work so far!

Thank you Cap'n Blackmoor. What do ya mean? I've never heard of anyone having problems with power going to their head.

I'd be ok with that. After all, Hinckley never did give an end date. it's interesting how you build your mocs. I've never heard of anyone building them like that before. I've never tried having pics come out of my... ...my anything before.

Only a master of evil darth aaron. Thanx Aaron.

Or get them for less than $0.10 each on BL. Sir, yes sir! I was wondering if i could get a close up of your rigging. (when you have time of course)

That's a lot of helpful information! Thanks Z. The channel (or the area that the rigging is connected to on the hull of the ship) is a very long for the fore and main mast. The foremast one i have made already is about 35 studs long! (this was according to the reference book i used) If you look at this top view of the Constitution from its home page, you'll see that the channels are very long compared to any type of channel made in lego sets. Your Phantom's rigging looks awesome. You may want to have your rigging have a longer channel and have your rigging be run further back from each mast if you'd like to go super realistic. I wouldn't worry about it though. It serves the function it's supposed to and looks great.

Hey Z, What type of knots did you use on those ratlines? I was thinking of using the Fishermen's Bend knot for the ends (the one on the right): The "hoop" in the pic is where the vertical lines are going to be and the free end of each ratline was going to face down.

Yeah, it's me. In Hinckley's mind anyways. I have no idea how i've come from the Evil Captain Phred, to a bus driving fish here at EB. I wonder what type of muffin Ras' hat is.

Probably not. Z can probably attest to this, rigging takes a long time to do. (lots and lots of knots!) The knobs are connected to axles, which can slide laterally 1 brick length. This axle is also where the lifting lines are wrapped onto. When the axle/knob is pulled out, it is no longer connected to the gear housing at the center and is locked by another brick to keep the string from uncoiling. (or it's disengaged) When the axle/knob is pushed in, it is connected to the gears that are moved by rotating the capstan. (or it's engaged) Each axle/knob has one string connected, and each one can be engaged or disengaged individually. There are four anchor lines and two heavy lifting lines for the main and foremast. Hopefully that explains things better.

The sails look great Well the shape of them. A frigate or a ship of the line had a standard of 3 main sails per mast. This was even true on the mighty HMS Victory.

Great work CGH. If you ever ask me to come over, i'll be sure not to make a visit on a training day.