Keymonus

I'm not a great fan of LDD builds, but the visual impact is surely impressive! Nice plantation and nice idea!

Nice build! Honestly I do not know what is more disturbing, the shrunken head stall, the Doctor with an axe or Callaghan disguised… probably the last one!

Welcome in brethren of the brick seas and to the glorious and enlightened faction of Oleon! As you probably know, the first class 1-2 ship you license and the first small land property are free, it could be a good place to start from. Currently we are focusing our building efforts on Astrapi and Fatu Hiva, but I think that also Breshaun or the little settlements of Acropolis and Cecropia would be “eager to benefit” of a tough inquisitor!

Nice build Mesabi, probably your best architecture here in BoBS! Your collection of shields is a nice touch, but the globe and the way you realised the roof are great. Your story is nice too, I like the idea of fleshing out non playing nations, even if my Varcoastan storyline was completely abandoned… sooner or later I should continue it

Ok, thank you! I’ll edit the post with the right bird!

Thank you! No problem about the name: any other sea bird will fit as well! In order of preference: Cormorant, Seagull, Pelican, or, if already taken, another one

Thank you for your comments! About the ship details: at first I tried a tiller stick but, since the helmsman would have been in a strange position, I preferred a “safer” wheel; to be honest the third sail is more an aesthetic touch than a realistic detail, and should also have had a more useful angulation, but I’ m satisfied by the overall result.

Great idea! I’m quite sure that my main character didn’t attend university at all (he was too busy slaughtering barbarians and raiders on the Eastern border), but (if I can find time to do it ) his attendant probably completed his studies in Corrington!

Thank you! The core of the hull is a couple of flexible tubes with panels attached; I used hinges too, to shape the upper part. Sails are made up of paper, and probably are the most elaborated I've built up to now.

You say commercial routes, and you imagine the huge Eslandolan tresure galleons sailing to motherland, Oleander wines, peppercorn and silver, or the agile Corrish merchant ships full of sugar and cocoa. You imagine goods loaded by dozens of day laborers, pirates lurking, and cargos worthing centuries of a sailor's wage. Believe or not, more than an half of what is bought and sold in the archipelago, more than an half of the doubloons exchanged every day, have a completely different appearance: the lifeblood feeding large cities and desolate outposts needs arteries and veins as much as tiny capillaries. The Cormorant is one of the ships (the best, according to its captain) giving life to the web of small but essential web of trades connecting the islands. Far below pirates' predatory gaze, the Cormorant carries small cargos of humble goods, 50Dbs of worth at most, but distributes anything that is produced or imported to the ones who need it: if you can find rum and ale in your favourite tavern, if you don't die of hunger or scurvy on an arid island, if you can sell your vegetables to someone else than your neighbours, probably you should thank men like captain Moreau and his guys... remember that before aiming the Cormorant with your guns! More pics:

Nice prospect, the explosion in particular seems so safe and calculated...

Even if I probably wouldn’t like to know where all the skulls come from, this is surely a very nice ship, and surely a great improvement if compared to the previous version! Keep it on!

Wonderful build, in particular the wave is great! Since those Corries do not exactly own the best ship, I wish they are all talented swimmers!

Thank you for your comments! It was one of my first builds with an irregular base, and I’m glad you liked it. Stalls and minifig posing were funny to realize, but taking close pictures without killing anyone/destroy anything wasn’t easy! Who knows, kebab-eating pirates are surely something new...

I assume the Corries can swim quite well... Great use of your port, the details you added (the piano and the boat in particular) are very nice!

Funny scene and great architecture! The house with the lion is great, but the other ones are well built too. The cart in the backstreet is another (great) addition!

The increase of maritime commerce in the area and the development of minerary activities on île de Zeus are transforming the once marginal city of Astrapi in a higly populated and lively colony. One of the most evident sign of this change is the growth of the market, held twice a week by arisans, farmers and merchants: where a year ago you would have found only a couple of rough stalls, fresh fruit and some fish, now you can see, all around the main square, a number of well refined stalls, covered with colorful cloths and selling almost any good cultivated, crafted or woven in the archipelago. Here you can see a man selling wines and liquors produced in Breshaun... ...a greengrocer showing a pineapple, a quite expensive delicacy since there is only one large-scale plantation of this tropical fruit in the area... ...a local fisherman... ...a cart with fresh bread and sacks of hardtacks from a near bakery... ...a foreign food seller, with his embers-heated rotating meat (inspired to @Legostone's one), typical of Southern Oleon... ...and a strange man selling strange maps, showing (as he says) "the routes towards the golden kingdoms of the South". An overall view:

Thank you for your comments, I’m glad you like my build! Light was surely the greatest problem and, even if I’m satisfied by the result, finding the right balance between a dark mine and something to see was difficult! About the bolt: I always like inserting some Oleander mythology in my builds, but I’ve not planned the discovery of the artifact yet... maybe in a future amrca or, as Bregir suggested, in a challenge!

Thank you for showing it, it's exactly what I did. Thank everyone for your comments! Building round Towers is something I learnt here in Eurobricks, but this was my first attempt The chain wasn't a very common defence, but was very effective! I know it was used to defend Constantinople port, but also near to West Point during American Independence War, but "real" chains were bigger and heavier than the one I used, probably a Bionicle chain (part 53551) would be more appropriate

Thank you @Mesabi! Even if it is a quite simple build (basically minifig posing, landscape and a crane) I liked the idea of portraying the area at the very beginning of the works and show the changes

Thank you for your comments! The digging of the new port was freely inspired to something similar done in Genua during the late Middle Ages to avoid the silting up of the port. The ceremony, even if based on real traditions, was completely invented... I'm glad you enjoyed it!

After a long interruption due to technical problems and to the employement of many Astrapians in the building of the Royal Arsenal, rhe silver mine was finally completed. As expected, silver nuggets were just a minimal part of the lore: silver was mainly conteined in galena veins, foremd by a mix of lead, sulfur, silver, copper, zinc and pyrite, and required additional refining steps. A series of meandering tunnels was excavated, following the richest veins: the rocks were slowly crumbled with hammers and pickaxes, metre after metre, digging deeper and deeper into the bowels of the island. The rock fragments were then brought with panniers to a mine cart and then pushed outside, ready for the refining furnaces. Mining is surely one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the New World, but the pay is accettable and the ones who leave, for example to take to the sea, are easily replaced by someone desperate enough. Sometimes the miners daydream about finding the legendary Zeus' artifact hidden, according to the legends on (or maybe below) the island, soon after the fall of the Empire... They dream about finding, beyond one last rock wall, a long forgotten tunnel, maybe a walled door... ...and, overcome this last obstacle, finally finding an underground temple. According to the legends, the ancient artifact, the Bolt, was hidden centuries ago on an island beyond the sea, considered, until the discovery of the New World, a mere myth; it was walled in a small temple, almost impossible to find, together with a sentinel, large food and water supply for him and (for many the most interesting part) a fabolous treasure. Unfortunately this is nothing but a nice legend, and probably the artifact does not exist at all, but who knows... dreaming costs nothing!

There is so much to say about this build: seeing so many inhabitants of the Bick Seas gathered in the same place was absolutely impressing, but the huge number of minifigs and their (great) posing is only a part of what you did! The details and the furniture in particular are great, and the short description of each picture are a very nice touch. Thank you for having included Monsieur Rimbaud (and not having included him completely drunk, duelling with somebody for the honour of Oleon or something similar )

Thank you for your kind comments, it means a lot to me! Probably not a good idea mixing sparks and loose gunpowder... Red cape? I didn’t notice that, I think it’s only for better visibility... About the rockets: keeping the flames in the same orientation, you can slot one of the little bars mentioned by Drunknok in the second recess (starting from the base). The connection is stable but too flexible to substain anything, but orienting them in the right way gravity will help

Astrapi,an evening at the beginning of March 618. Immediately before the changing of the guard, an allarm was sound: the hour was perfect for a raid into the military port, with the tired gunners blinded by the low sun... or at least it's what an invader usually thinks. The Oleanders moved quickly, lead by their Gunnery Officer: the 36 pounder cannons were loaded and fired aganist their targets. Meanwhile, volleys Congreve Rockets were shot from the towers of the fort, laying down a heavy barrage fire. This modern weapon, extensively tested by Corrington and Oleon, can easily set ablaze sails and riggings... a terrible danger for a wooden ship! A Hades of fire and iron was falling on the raiding fleet, the fearsome squadron... ...led by Admiral Jimmy, as the puppet on the first target boat was called by the gunners. "Bob and Billy are burning, Sir, and James has just been hit by a cannonball!" Exclaimed the officer "Only Jimmy would have survived to the first volley, and we are not even using wall muskets". "Well done, Lieutenant! Your men are perfectly operative even if we made them exercise at the end of their shift." Replied Captain Rimbaud "And what we have seen right now is only a part of the defensive system... What about the chain?" "As you can see, Sir, it has already been laid down. It is raised and lowered twice a day, according to the tide, and obvioulsy whenever our ships enter or leave the bay. To avoid accidents in case of low visibility the chain was marked with yellow bouys, but in case of fog we will also use longboats and light signals. In case of attack, the defensive chain would probably block the enemy ships under our fire, but with a bit of luck it could also cut like a blade the hull of smaller ships: only a large battleship at full speed could break the barrier, but not without being severly damaged." An inspection of the armory A soldier wrapping gunpouder cartouches for the cannons Additional pictures: An overall view: