Captain Dee

You have certainly mastered the art of the brick, and developed a very recognizable style while doing it. This is simply beautiful, but that's true of everything you build. The architecture, colors and textures, and lovely irregular base all add up to a lovely composition. Well done. I assume the pile of plates with cheese slopes is supposed to represent bark from the logs? If so, that's clever. I'll have to remember that. And the stone wall is nice too. My favorite feature has to be that water wheel. By coincidence, just last week I was envisioning the same hub design in your link (1x1 clips attached to a standard wheel, rather than the better-looking bar clips like you used) while working on my own water wheel project. I struggled to produce a suitable smaller design with the techniques I'd already used (especially the ship's wheel hub which limits the number of spokes) and while thinking about this type of hub I guessed it could be done well on a smaller scale, and you definitely proved it! That's an extremely good design. I can't quite tell in the photos, but it appears you used half Technic pins to reverse the direction of the small round bricks in the spokes? That's what I had envisioned, anyway. I'll keep this topic in mind as a reference. Congrats on finishing Age of Mitgardia. It always looked fun, but I simply don't have time to participate in GoH. Good work. Keep it up.

Good news!! I finally got the rest of the photos posted in the original topic. Here's one: The doors are about the right width, but they're a lot taller than they need to be for wagons loaded with components to fit through. But I tend to think big, and a big building needed big doors.

I'm not fond of that floor technique either, and I agree, tiles would look a lot better. I wanted to use the flesh / nougat color, and I don't have anywhere near enough tiles in that color, so I used the round plates instead. It's... tolerable. Those pieces work better for other things.

It would be a lot more "grand" if the photos weren't so bad. I'm trying to correct this. As for style, it's nothing special, and perhaps even a bit lazy. I like a textured look as much as anyone, but it doesn't make as much sense for a new building. Neat and clean is usually pretty easy, and with my lack of building time I have to compromise somewhere. No, I'm not building a paddle wheel boat. That would be beyond the technological realm of BoBS. I was just referring to the use of the ship's wheel for the center hub of the water wheel. It has 8 handholds, which limited the wheel to 8 spokes.

I'm happy with the build, but not the photos. I just don't have adequate lighting for something this size. I wanted a good accent color for the floor, and medium dark flesh / medium nougat was handy, so I used it. I really like those black framed, pearl gold windows (no surprise there, right?). I struggled to build a suitable small wheel, but these bigger designs came together pretty easy. The trick is to design a workable segment and then replicate it. The big wheel looked better with its original 9 sections, but I downsized it to 8 as shown to fit the ship's wheel center hub. I like white / black / gold for buildings, but the colors of the wheels were somewhat determined by what I had available. The big wheel would look better with black hinges, but I didn't have enough, so I used the flesh / nougat color instead. The whole project is about showcasing the wheels. I didn't measure them, but they would be pretty tall beside a minifig! No, the wheels can't fit through the doors. Everything started getting big - wheels, building, windows - so it had to have a giant set of doors to match. Technically I suppose you could roll a mill wheel to its job site, but it might be a bit difficult, and dangerous! I plan to use these wheels in some forthcoming builds, so you can see them in action then. Thanks all for the input.

Sir Dee was primarily interested in operating and expanding his small foundry, but his position as leader of the family's operations in King's Harbour meant that he occasionally took the role of supervisor or inspector of other works. Today he is visiting the newly-opened Dee Wheelworks Waterwheel & Treadwheel Factory to inspect a pair of giant waterwheel prototypes that have been pre-assembled before being dismantled into manageable sections for shipping to their final destination. If the designs prove satisfactory, future copies will be built as modular pieces that can quickly be assembled in the field. The building is largely non-descript, with whitewashed walls, lots of windows to provide plenty of natural light for the workers, and a row of large cupolas atop the roof for ventilation under the heat of the tropical sun. A giant pair of doors allow easy access in the front: The wheel on the left is complete and has passed inspection, and the workers are applying the finishing touches to the wheel on the right: The so-called "big wheel", close up: ...and the other wheel: Meanwhile, Sir Dee speaks with the manager (on the left, with the red plume) and one of the senior workers atop the large central hub of the smaller wheel: Looking through the big front doors: The mighty King's River will provide the flow of water to turn these wheels, which will in turn power the mills of various industrial endeavors. Sir Dee needs these wheels... lots of them... Game Notes: This will be licensed as a Large Factory. Build Notes: I built the water wheel with the grey Technic brick outer rim a few years ago, and never finished the intended project. I really wanted to get on with it, but thought a water wheel / tread wheel factory would be a good way to show the design first. I have 4 completed wheels, and I will show all 4 in this topic (plus a design breakdown of each) when the photos are ready. Building them was a fun challenge, but it takes a lot of parts! The biggest one has ~650 pieces and the grey-rimmed one has 500+. In reality, it makes no sense to completely build them in a factory, take them apart for shipping, and then re-assemble them on site, but I wanted to show a production facility, and showing all the modular pieces, unconnected, would be an incomprehensible mess... hence the prototype designation in the story. Thanks for viewing. Bonus Pics show wheels in detail, plus their design breakdown:

Excellent outpost. I like the style - similar, but a lot better, than official sets. And the playable modular design is great. You have plenty of cannons and plenty of internal details. Looks like a fun build, and the fisherman's face is great.

They aren't new. Those are pretty old, actually. Yes, "Categories" definitely gives you more options.

Nice build. The clouds really transform the look vs just building them flat into the backdrop. I like the smoothness of the sand, but one must wonder if the treasure will be waterlogged when they return to fetch it, or whether the beach might have washed/shifted away! And it's cool to see Captain Cookie is still at it, with the help of the mandatory mischievous monkey mates. Looks like fun.

Not really a pet peeve, but the fragility of the 3-leaf bamboo plant piece (whatever it's called) does irk me. The stems should be 3x thicker. They snap off way too easily, and I have too many 2-leaf variants as a result. Also, the bottom lip of small round bricks break off really easy if you put sideways pressure on them when disconnecting parts, as I have unfortunately discovered...

Nice dressing room, and cool idea for a build. For him, number 1 is out of place, and No. 5 looks too plain. I don't think a bicorne fits his style. The musketeer hat is great, but I'm going with No. 3 top hat and green cape. It's a little harder for her, but I'm guessing 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 12. The rest look a bit eccentric or out of place for the ball. If I had to pick one I'd say... No. 4.

Totally understood. I've been grappling with how to do this very same thing within the limits of my own collection. Allow me one small correction: due to its very high carbon content (which is absorbed from the burning coke/charcoal that fuels the blast furnace), pig iron is far too hard and brittle to be forged; a blacksmith could heat a pig iron ingot properly and hammer it endlessly, and rather than forging into something useful it would eventually just crack apart. To be forged, first it would have to be refined (decarburized) in an air furnace (chafery/finery furnace), yielding wrought iron, which is the material of choice for a blacksmith. Raw pig iron ingots could be melted and cast into useful objects without further refining, but sometimes it was slightly decarburized even for casting purposes. Other than that (and the lack of lime for flux) this is an accurate portrayal.

@Drunknok , very nice depiction of a blast furnace. It's fairly simple but I'm impressed with your building speed. It may be a bit small, but of course there are lots of reasons to build at reduced scale. The pigs being cast in the sand are a particularly nice touch, and the shed looks nice too. Generous initiative! Oh, and it looks like you bought Clayface, too... And to whoever was involved, building up the settlement to "Large City" status was quite an achievement!

Thanks. And yep, I bought the set. As the review here on EB states, it offers lots of parts in Medium Dark Flesh for the first time. I'm not at all interested in the set (I'm no fan of Batman, superheroes, or comics in general), but it makes a nice parts pack. Thanks. Technically it's an artisan property; true factories almost seem too modern for the time period, although there are many smaller-scale options. And yes, there are lots of MDF parts here. I wish I had more! I can't take credit for the cobblestone; it's been done many times before. Stay tuned for a better depiction of this whole process.

As a resident of King's Harbour, Sir Dee would be delighted to attend the Great Ball, provided that all Great Ball Contraptions are banned from the premises. They scare him. He doesn't usually dance, but he's been known to perform a wicked 2-step when he accidentally walked into a bed of hot coals at the foundry. He freely associates with all well-mannered persons. He prefers good food over alcohol, anytime, anywhere. He is currently single, but certainly not averse to conversing with young ladies should the occasion provide the opportunity. @Bregir as discussed elsewhere I would like for my main character to attend. I believe his attire has been confirmed. WIP looks great.

Thanks for the input. The roof has ~1500 parts. I wish I had more! I think the depiction of the whole process would be somewhat easier with custom guns, but for this first try I wanted to use the old standard cannon design. I think the main colors go well together too, but it's hard to go wrong with white and earth tones. As for the windows I had no option since I only had enough lattice pieces in gold. A real foundry might not be so clean, but it mostly appears this way because of the tiled floor. Before placing those pieces it didn't look so clean. And it wouldn't be very dirty right after startup either. I need to show the process on a larger scale to show more details. I couldn't really fit everything in this small scene. And the A-frames are indeed very simple, but they work well. Steal away! I've never seen a LEGO depiction of this type of cannon-production before. The casting pit was a compromise; I wanted to show depth but it would be far more part-intensive to do so, and it was much easier to show the pit filled in. The molds should be below the level of the sand/clay, and I experimented with it but finally decided to just put them on top to show their shape better. And I really like your "process" builds; I never commented on your excellent powder mill, and something like this would pair well with it. The roof was somewhat fragile when the only connection point was across the back, but connecting the plates and tiles across the front made it very sturdy. I was trying to achieve something like your signature style with this. Of course photography and presentation make a big difference. And the process was an essential part of the build. Corrington should have no shortage of cannons with all these foundries. I liked your depictions too, with the later and more advanced techniques. And I plan to expand this concept so stay tuned! Hmm... no, I haven't posted any pics elsewhere. I've thought about joining Flickr but just haven't done it. I'm sorry you can't see the photos. Sometimes my old phone wouldn't show pics from certain hosting sites either.

Looks great. And the first pic with the background is beautiful. But what does bananarite look like?

Thanks for the input. The cobblestone works, but there are better ways of doing it. I think it looks better in bigger scenes and from a distance. Up close in smaller scenes doesn't look as good to me. But it is nice and bumpy, just like the real thing. And we can always use more foundries. Go for it! Yes, it took a long time to build the roof. But it was worth it in the end. And my goal is to make some kind of impression. With so much material being posted, I try to focus on something unique. The roof, yes, the roof. It's the main external focal point for sure, just like the build that inspired it. It was the limiting factor: I exhausted my supply of those pieces and sized the building to match. I wanted the photos to appear in a certain order, which meant that the description of the process is all out of order, but I think it gets the point across. I left out most of the finer details - that will be for another time. Yep, it's real bricks. The photos are better than usual, but I wouldn't say phenomenal. I took these outdoors under very good lighting conditions. And I try to keep dust blown off, but you just can't defeat the stuff entirely... You noticed everything to spot that pose. Minifigs obviously can't stand on those pieces unaided, so he's propped against the columns, but he never fell except when I accidentally knocked him over. Speaking of which, I had 4 other minifigs that were supposed to be inside working, but with the entire floor tiled - and no jumpers to attach them to - I knew they'd never stay upright while I moved the build around (and modified the scene) while taking photos, and at the last minute I pulled them out entirely. Details make the difference, but of course you know that already. And I did "put a lot of love into" it: four years of research, to be exact. And yes, Sir Dee is very much in his element! I really wanted to use the small round brick terra cotta technique, but I wanted this color, and I had all these small round plates, so this is the result. It's nothing new - historic builders have been making walls of stacked small round plates for years. I really like the look for either application. Hmm... I'm certainly not a genius, so that must mean... It's a simple build, really. Those colors just go together really well, and tiling the whole floor transformed the overall appearance. I think it's one of my better builds. I'm glad you all like it.

I'm a day late, sorry. I just submit the form, so @Bregir you can license it as planned. Thanks.

Thanks all for the input. Well, I can't really take credit for the carriage design. I just modified it slightly. The official set is really quite good. The loose parts are supposed to be gravel, bringing the surface up level with the cross ties. I imagine horses would have a hard time pulling heavy loads if they had to step over the cross ties. For some reason I just wanted to build a flashy scene. But it didn't make sense in the middle of nowhere, hence the story placing it near the gardens. Details often make a critical difference, at least for me. With only the main structure built I couldn't shake the feeling that this was going to be one of my worst builds as an adult, but when it all came together I was pleasantly surprised by how it looked. The landscape is perhaps too orderly, but I couldn't help myself. The red wall behind gold arches was originally supposed to be a part of the Majestic Gardens last year, before I scrapped it. The two vehicles built entirely by my hand are pretty much just form following function; I built a third but it wouldn't fit the scene! And I keep reusing that tree design; nothing fancy really. My style... dump out a pile of bricks and stir in gold! No, not really. I just wanted to make a colorful architectural statement of some sort. Medium Dark Flash is such a cool color - too bad it isn't available in more parts. I think nearly any color will work as the focal point, if matched with the appropriate accent colors. And gold matches well with most bright colors. With all the parts close at hand, building something to match the gardens was pretty easy. And it simply had to have 2 sets of rails - travel would be difficult otherwise. As for the trees, I planned a second, taller row in the back, but that was just too much... my poor eyes didn't know where to focus. So, after placing them all, I took them back down, and its much better without them. I suppose it may be my signature style, and while I like it, I think there's a point where relying too heavily on it could lose some of the appeal. My planned projects will be more conventional, but I ain't giving up this style entirely! Thanks again everyone for the input. P. S. No one is calling me out on the name? The words "Majestic" and "Gulch" don't belong in the same dictionary, much less the same sentence or phrase!

Permit me to bump this 8-year-old topic with a remake of the beautiful original build, which was the deserving winner of the Community Build contest. My version is 32x32, rather than the original 16x16, but I tried to mimic the overall layout. I realize @exotrator hasn't been around since then, but I thought I'd share this here. For more photos and a description of the inner workings check this topic.

Sir Dee has finally opened his cannon foundry in King's Harbour: What on earth gave you that ridiculous idea? Actually that's exactly what I had planned. Yah-hahaha!! Yes, the more the merrier!! Well, if you're a Corry, that is. "Blues" get charged double (since we're sworn enemies) , "Greenies" get charged triple (just because they can afford it) , and if you fly the Jolly Roger, well, we might need some, how you say, "creative accounting" so come prepared.

Sir Dee was a man of mystery. His arrival in King's Harbour had been largely without fanfare, and though he had made a few notable public appearances (having assisted with constructing the Majestic Gardens, the Department of Time bell tower, and a portion of the Royal Wagonway connecting the two coastal settlements) he usually kept to his own affairs. He had quietly gone to work at something secretive in the jungle just beyond the edge of the settlement. He spent most of his time there, beyond sight of prying eyes, and finally the time had come to unveil his efforts to the world. And thus the first colonial division of the Dee family's famed Dragonfire Gunworks Cannon Foundry entered into public service producing cast-iron cannons. Overviews: Overview, minus loose barrels and complete cannon: Close-up of the front: Top view, minus roof. On the left is the furnace. In front of it (left rear of building) is the casting pit with two freshly-cast ("poured") cannon barrels pointing upward, cooling. In the left-front is a new cannon on a large sawhorse after having its mold broken up, waiting to have its casting bell/sprue (the grey minifig head piece) sawed off of the muzzle (after which it will be ready for the boring mill, which isn't shown). In the right-front, just behind/beside Sir Dee, is a short breech end mold, which goes in the bottom of the casting pit, facing upward as shown. Behind it, a long barrel mold (which will be vertically mated to the breech end mold in the casting pit) slowly cures over a bed of coals. In the right rear and side room, a single-use barrel-shaped clay pattern (over which a mold will be formed) sits atop its sawhorse supports. In the center of the main room is the post and beam supporting the chain hoist which is used to handle the molds and cannons: The entire chain hoist removes easily for better access and much better views inside: Close-up of the casting pit. This pit is deep enough to stand the molds vertically. The molds are packed into place with sand or damp clay using the shovels and tamping bars in the barrels beside the furnace hearth. The long lever on the left is used to open the furnace tap, and the molten iron flows through channels formed in the sand/clay and into the mouths of the molds by gravity. Excess iron is ladled into cannonball molds (not shown): Another view of the barrel-shaped clay pattern (left) and the mold curing over coals (right). The pattern is precisely formed from clay over a wooden mandrel (smooth tapered rod) which extends out both ends for easy handling. The single-use mold is constructed from a mix of clay, sand, and fibers, and is formed over the surface of the pattern. (Not shown is the series of longitudinal iron bars and hoops clamped onto the exterior of the mold for support and easy handling by the hoist.) The pattern remains encased inside the mold until curing is complete. Then the mandrel is pulled out by its wide end after being hammered several times to break it free from inside the pattern, and the entire pattern is broken up and removed from inside the mold cavity. The mold cavity is then cleaned and brushed with a non-stick material to minimize the amount of mold material that cooks to the surface of the molten iron during casting: Another view of the new cannon with intact casting bell (left), breech-end mold (right front), and long barrel mold: Looking in from a different angle: Here are the major molding components, lined up in the order of operation. Left-right are the bare mandrel, a partially-completed pattern, (Sir Dee and a new cannon), a completed pattern, a partially-completed mold over a pattern, and a completed mold before the mandrel and pattern are removed: And finally, a look at the other side of the building: And that concludes our little tour of the cannon foundry! Game Notes: We finally see my sigfig in his official capacity. This will be licensed as a Medium Artisan property, which means King's Harbour is now a City! Hooray! General Build Notes: Here's the important part, folks. When I discovered the old Classic-Pirates website (which eventually brought me here to Eurobricks) I spent quite some time looking through all the different MOC indexes. Besides the ships, out of all the material I saw, the Community Build-winning Cannon Foundry by long-inactive member @exotrator has always remained fresh in my memory. It's simply a great composition, a bit small perhaps (per the contest rules) but still a beautiful build . It provided the spark of inspiration to research the colonial-era cannon-production process, as described above. (Incidentally, most cannons produced in Europe and the Americas during the 1600s and 1700s were built using this basic method, plus a central core mold that produced a hollow bore that was drilled out fully by the boring mill. Solid casting and boxed sand molding were developed in the mid-to-late 1700s.) I have long wanted to build my own version of exotrator's foundry with a more functional interior, and this is the result. The furnace should be much larger at ground level, and I almost built it that way, but finally decided to stay true to the original with an unrealistically small furnace - basically just a chimney, really. Despite this intentional flaw I'm very happy with the final result. This Episode of "Ridiculously Part-Intensive Roof Techniques" is brought to you by LEGO Batman Movie 70904 Clayface Splat Attack (and other sources.) There are more parts in the roof (small round plates in Medium Dark Flash color) than everything else combined. Comments and questions are welcome. Thanks for viewing and I hope the text was understandable.

Brilliant! My favorite shovel, and it looks just about perfect. I'm very impressed with the smooth shaping of the bucket and boom in particular. Replicating all those curves so realistically took some serious effort. And the teeth, and functioning ladder and service port... such attention to detail! Magnificent creation, and good job with all the powered functions. I assume the TriPower is a real work-saver; I run a self-leveling front end loader daily and it sure makes things easier. Your video is great. I especially liked the ground-level dig/crowd sequence at the end... you made that look easy! One question though... I thought Bucyrus' hydraulic shovel colors were dark purple and grey on white? (I know they shipped several of the smaller units... don't think they sold any RH400s during their brief ownership... pics online are digitally recolored Terex...) This red/black/white color scheme (which I like better) reminds me of the first 4 units that went to Syncrude with the O&K name. But regardless, this is probably my favorite Technic build here on EB. If it was a set I'd buy it. Excellent work. Oh, and seeing all the fans running made me smile.

Ah, more monkey business... The rocket suit as a distant rocket is great and fits the baseplate well. And the stars in the background look nice. Is the monkeynaut on planet Simia, or somewhere else? Perhaps he's looking for precious minerals like bananerite?