The Neighborhood Merchant

I think that Bregir's method worked really well. As for the overall flatness, I think what you want is a wind blown effect. My guess is this can be achieved by making the sails larger and then tying each corner to the yardarms. You'll have to make sure not to make the sails too much larger, because all you're doing is just basically folding extra sail to give a wind blown effect. Also, make sure to tie the knots extra stiffly so that way your sails would be nice and tough. Hope this helps! Also, just want to put an emphasis again on how well done this ship is. Sails or no sails, this is one beautiful vessel!

There is an entire library on Eurobricks that contains most the sails Lego has produced. They should all be 1:1 scale. From there you just click on whatever sail you want to edit/print and then when you're in the new tab, download it to computer. All you got to do from there is just go on photoshop, select the lines on the sails and then change the hue to whatever color you desire and then you're done. You can always edit more if you'd like, but that's the simplest version. After that just buy printable fabric and print your sails on it. This is how I'd recommend buying sails for ships, as you can add a custom look to your ship and only have to pay one tenth as much. Here's the link to the sail library: Hope this helps!

I enjoy the more minimalist look of the back when compared to the original. It's also nice to see some love shown to the Red Beard Runner's sail, but personally I think it throws off the Blue coat look a little. I believe the sail itself would look great if you could change the color. If you know how to use photoshop, I'd recommend tinkering with the sail a bit and getting a nice vibrant blue to match the clipper's sails. Other than that, It's still a wonderful vessel and I look forward to seeing what else you do. The clipper extension you did is beautiful and really captures the ship's potential. Also, where did you get the black hull for your ship from? Thanks!

Wow, what an absolute beauty! I can't wait to see her with cloth sails! Seems like the HMS Effortless takes a lot more effort than the name would imply ! Haha, don't worry, we've all been there!

If you want a ship to match the descriptions you listed, than I'd go with Bregir's suggestion. If you're worried about the cost then just note The Imperial Flagship itself is really expensive, but this is mainly due to a few pieces such as the reddish brown masts. By having a different color you'd be able to condense the cost a lot (just try to avoid buying the black pearl hull pieces). Personally, I think that even though you want it to be smaller, it'd be doing the HMS Victory justice if you had at least two decks. I don't think making it big has any downsides to a child (when I was a child I always dreamed of having a big ship). I'd recommend starting from the Imperial flagship with a new color scheme, then double deck it with modular supports, then just adjust the back to make it look correct. For the sails just use thick paper or even just pickup cloth at your local crafts store. This way you don't have to destroy your beautiful Imperial Flagship, you don't have to touch your BSB or it's sails, and you don't to worry about having expensive sails on a ship which can be stained or ruined.

Sure! I know you've done a jousting tournament MOC before, but with the the old castle minifigs I've always thought they would look amazing in a sort of jousting challenge since the old minifigs from 375-2 have such distinction. Mabye set up a bunch of medieval pavilions/jousting tents for each sub-faction within the set (example: the faction with the crown and pink backround would have a pink and yellow tent with their heraldry displayed). It would be great to see all the sub-factions in a tournament like this. Also, perhaps using a royalty stand like the one used in set 383-2 but just bigger would work well. I'd think that the color palette of the old pirates sets would fit the moc well, but I'd think bright green would work better than normal green. Anyhow, thanks again for showing us this beautiful MOC and I look forward to seeing whatever you make next! Have a great day.

Thanks for the link! Just checked out a several of your ships and they look great! I'll be using them for inspiration (especially the small one) for future MOCs. Thanks again for the input, and always a pleasure to see a fellow stud.io user! Thanks so much for the nice words, Mac!

Oh my goodness pantelis, every time you build something like this my heart skips a few beats. I've always loved MOCs that show a scene and make you wonder the story behind it. The castle is great and your stone work is always a pleasure to see! Love everything about it! Needless to say your daughter is very lucky! Also, do you plan to do anything else with the original castle theme as in set 375-2?

Wow, many thanks for the very descriptive advice! I'll definitely work on it a bit and try what you said. I really appreciate you taking the time to suggest these fixes. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go ahead and look at a few of your ships! I'd recommend a topic post about this question so you can get answers from various people with various opinions. As for my opinion, if you plan to make the entire hull including the bottom then I'd personally recommend a white bottom, as I believe not only does this achieve a pure look but also nostalgia for the Imperial Trading Ship and realism. If you'd like an example for a white hulled Brig, check out Wellesley's Ymir. As for accent colors, I personally think gold and or yellow is necessary in at least some places. Black can be used as a main color as it goes well with white as long as you don't use too much. And for my last opinion, I'd recommend looking at your different browns because I believe that even if you have an entire white hull, it's important to also emphasize generic wood. While looking at your browns make sure to choose your color based off your accent colors as dark brown can either be incredibly nice or too dull, reddish brown (the color I used for this ship) can accent bright and colorful pieces but can look too bright if used with dark colors, and generic brown can help accent more basic colors while providing a vintage feel. Last thing, if you're building your first ship, don't worry too much about the details and just try to build something that you are connected to and that you'll be happy to have. Cheers!

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the constructive criticism and I'll try to improve the height of any future ship I'll make. I really wanted to use the circle plates for the sides of the ship, but by doing so I removed a lot of possible curves. Do you think that it is a worthy trade, or should I focus more on angles and curves then on hull decorations? If you have anymore feedback on how to improve the hull, feel free to let me know. Thanks again! Glad you like it! If you're referring to the top hatch that was made using the headlight bricks, then I did it in black because that seems to be the most common color for it.

I've always thought that the Flickr page was one the most useful social medias for Classic Pirate Mocs. It's nice to check in when you're low on time and want to spare the details, or just need quick inspiration.

Awesome! I've always loved checking in on the social media pages, so I'm so honored! Thank you so much for the kind words! Looking forward to seeing your next moc! Yeah, I love the way it turned out! I've always liked the little ship from the Forbidden Island set so I figured it'd be a nice tribute.

Boreas's Haul Hi everyone! Long time viewer, but I just joined recently. Thought I'd share one of my first ships I've made with you guys and get some input from the masters ! I've always felt bad to know that poor little merchant guy (he deserves a name) was on his same tiny little merchant ship for a whole 27 years, so I decided to build him his own regal trading fleet. Even though his little plastic face still shows the same expression, I know deep down his smile is a little wider now. Anyhow, here are some some pictures of the ship: IMG_2779 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2799 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2805 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2807 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2787 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2813 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2816 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr He probably should think of investing in to cannons, but lets just say he was too greedy to get any (truth is that I forgot to build them). Also, I've always been a huge fan of modular sets so I also included a full interior: IMG_2817 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2820 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr For the hammocks, I used the ones used in set 60153-1, and I highly recommend them for pirate builds. When at the proper width, they fit minifigures in so well that you can move the entire ship several times and they wont fall off. COMBINED by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr I have an obsession with the old 2 x 3 printed books and old castle shields (anyone else?) so I tried to incorporate them in to my Captain's Quarters. Do you guys think they fit or should I remove them? IMG_2829 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr The line for the top of the ship is connected to the bow and stern and held up on the top with two clips, so even though it looks like a pain to get inside it only takes a few seconds by just lifting the line off the two clips. Here's the crew and the rest of the "fleet": IMG_2832 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr IMG_2836 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr If anyone wants to know, I designed the sails using photoshop and I made the sails using printable A4 pre-treated canvas paper, and then just doubled them. Anyhow, thank you so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful day! Also, to all of you are wondering, don't worry about the old merchant ship! I put Fraunces in charge of it and it seems that he is enjoying his time on it . IMG_2837 by Neighborhood Merchant, on Flickr

Wow, what a wonderful little vessel ! I love how much of the old aspects of the ship you kept while adding so many small details to really make the ship stand out. I really enjoy seeing the new lantern being used as a back light, it works very well with these smaller ships! Now that you've recreated this beauty, do you plan to recreate the Crossbone clipper? I think it'd be amazing to see a recreation of that from you, and I think that ship always needed some love.

I'm no expert, but I think that that balcony area would be great for an Officer's Quarters, the entrance would be nice for an armory and the portion with the reddish brown window sills would be a wonderful mess hall.

Looks great! I like the usage of all the various round elements instead of just sticking with a one or two for the path, and the stonework is very appealing as well due to the more 3d aspect instead of sticking with just the masonry bricks. Also, great action shots at the end! Always a pleasure to see what a MOC with some action. Do you plan to add an interior?

Wow! She is absolutely stunning! The small details of the stern really complete the ship. I also love your color palette for the ship (notably the dark green) and I think it's a very fitting color palette for a galleon. Her crew is very lucky to have such a beautiful ship to sail. On a quick side note, what are the pieces you used that are placed to the left and right of the windows? They look like sprues, but I'm not entirely certain. None the less, I think they look excellent!