Marooned Marin

ORIGINS For this ENTRY I collaborated with Mighty Oscar, age 12. Not to be outdone by Lorenzo (age 10) and his Sin Island, and inspite of my suggestion to keep with the land-based builds, Oscar (the stubborn) embarked on a perilous journey across treacherous shipbuilding waters... and lo and behold, he was not capsized or lost at sea. He drew much of the inspiration from my Triton, easily noticeable in the bow design, while the stern and the rest of the ship, including the choice of all colours, is all him. He laughed at the idea of adding more ‘happy LEGO colours’ with a sardonic laugh. None of that for him. I provided guidance and help in time of need, mainly fixing holes and gaps in the curves, and especially with renders and obvious CAD sails, but all the heavy lifting of building was done by him. Far from being seaworthy by my own ship standard, and yet still farther of being MOC-winning design, with the contest deadline closing in, I think he managed to do outstanding job in the last five weeks. In short I’m proud of him, and if he keeps at it, in a year or two he will be a force to be reckon with.

Oh I never had this set growing up, I only got Forbidden Island and Caribbean Clipper, but I'll take your word for it. As for suggestions for improvement, I'm many things but not very good critic. I think you pretty much nailed everything but the sails on the raft (huge anti-fan of brickbuilt sails) but that's entirely subjective. Many people really do prefer brickbuilt sails over the cloth! However, there is a chance you used them becasue Studio does not come with readily available library of sails. But really, this is not something even worth addressing from your side. Again, great work and great entry!

Thank yee kindly for your suggestion. While this would save some parts, and indeed in real life sails don't have this kind of support, the trade-off is that the sail would fall down on the boat and looked flaccid - as there is no wind around to hold it blown upward. The 3xpiece support is there mainly to achieve the effect of a full blown sail. UPDATE 24. August -> Added new renders at the top of this topic -> First version hidden inside the spoiler at the top

Oh that's easy. Because 16x16 plate does not come in any brown, and even though we could use 8x16 plates, the little designer behind the whole thing (my 10year old nephew) chose dark-tan so the main building can have some contrast to the ground. If it was up to me, I would have made all the ground from the dark-bluish rock, with wooden pier at the side. Thank yee _R_R! At this point there will be no more re-designing, I have already purchased all the brick for the real build (for his upcoming birthday). As for the colours, I noticed a number of comments and suggestions to make it more live like LEGO, but he as a designer and future Pub owner had veto on the final pallet.

Pure delight to see this kind of entry. Great job!

I can only applaud at the sheer amount of playability presented in this set! Great entry!

Fantastic entry @MontyMatte Question: what is this part which you used on the chair, some kind of tile-modified? I'm not able to find it Studio, do you have a bricklink number?

Ahoy, Looking for 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay located in Europe, with shipping to Croatia. Condition: new, almost new... or used - but well maintained - with all the pieces inside. If you don't have a box, or instructions, it's OK, I'm not a box collector. Thank you! I'm NOT looking any more.

I have made pdf instructions available for download on Rebrickable. Yesterday I've ordered the parts, and eventually I will test both the design and the sails. At this moment the instructions come only with the A4 format ready-for-print untested sails template. Also, this 'downloadable' version differs slightly from my ENTRY-version as I've added two additional lift-arms for more secure boom pivot solution, and a lantern on the mast. Feel free to add more pieces and parts as you see fit during your assembly and play. DOWNLOAD

Fine entry Jack!

Amazing as always. There too many great little details here but I'll highlight one or two: the water pipe, with water flowing, on the side of the building... the new crane design and the furniture. Awesome work! @Cincinnati what is the total piece count?

I only hid the images in the spoiler at the end of the first post, there all still there for everyone to see. Thank you Mazin for all of your kind words, I'll give your compliments to my nephew. I didn't know this and I'll check it out. Thanks!

UPDATE 12. August 2023. - what's different? Following the suggestions of the most kind and helpful creative critiques, here be the list of changes: -> Removed five minifigures, as the set looked overcrowded -> Made a new fireplace with flames and removed the grill -> Added more weapons around the ground floor, mainly cutlasses and muskets stored in barrels. Added swivel gun on the first floor -> Changed the colours of the rocks, darkbluishgray on the bottom... lightbluishgray on the top -> Added technic brick with pin on the rock to allow easier rotation of the plant covering the hidden chest -> Removed the bed from Captain Redbeard's quarter and added table and his chair instead. Added telescope on his fence -> Replaced the rock bricks on the top gun-nest with wooden bricks -> Replaced the string on stairs for a real wooden rail -> Updated all of the renders ------- Now to questions & answers: @Cincinnati Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you like it and I'm looking forward to your 'Pirate Shipyard'. From what I've seen it looks mighty good! @Mister Phes If you can, please add this design to the list of Building index ENTRIES . Thank yee! @Mazin I've followed several of your suggestions, as listed above, and thank you kindly for your extensive review. Here I'll address some of things I choose not to do. - The prison can be accessed from behind, as the whole rock wall rests on hinge-bricks. This makes it very convenient for play while the rest of build does not suffer any structural loss. Making entire side 'swingable' would at this point require complete overhaul of the build which would take enormous time and by the end the build would look pretty much the same. As I'm immersed in new-ship project, I can't find time to go into another re-design. - Majority of this build was done by my nephew, he chose the colours and disliked the idea of adding bright playful LEGO pallet. He said that's for babies, and the pirate nest must look dark. Mind you he is only 10 years old. He even dislikes the BSB solely because of the red/white stripes because, again, it looks too childish and prefers solid colours. If you recall, the original Pirate Bay by Pablo Sanchez was also dark and gloomy, and yet it succeeded getting 10,000 votes. I also remember people disliking the official POBB version and asking Pablo for instructions of the original. So, the choice of dark colours is a voluntary gamble from our side, and it would be up to voters to choose what they like. - As for the boat, with BlackSeasBarracuda safely anchored just nearby off the island, the purpose of the rowboat is for pirates to be able to reach the jetty in the shallow islands waters. Even in Nassau pirates had to use rowboats to get on&off the shore. I thought of replacing it with the Sloop Windy, but that would be kinda against the rules, right? Perhaps Windy could be sold as GWP with this set. - Raft! Yes, it was built by my nephew in one earlier version, but we sacked the idea because we didn't want to go over 1000 parts. Even 962 parts is pushing limits of a LEGO pirate set.

Possible copy/paste error spotted, I think you meant Mini Set Category?

@Slegengr you are a legend! Of course, the 8L bar with Stop Rings and Pin! It does make the lower yard shorter, but not that much, and with that we have exactly 50x parts. As for pivot solution, as you also noted, for my own build I will also go with pneumatic T-Bar and two lift-arms, but here in this ENTRY I will take the compromise as shown above. @MstrOfPppts @Rogue Redcoat and @Mazin Thank you for your vote and opinion on extra-part dilemma. @Mazin The trouble with seagull is, I don't know where to put it/attach it on the ship. He requires one free stud well away form the sailor. If I had two extra parts, I would rather add good old shark around the boat. I think this is going to be final design, and with that I will move on to write and produce the mandatory comic book, and make new renders!

Perhaps you already learned this, but if you want to know true piece count in Studio.io, regardless of the numerous sub-models used, you simply click -> Model ->Model Info and in the new window, at the bottom left, is the real number of pieces. Mind you, the legs with hips are counted in this contest as one part. Also torso+arms+hands are also considered as one part.

Ahoy @ed4becky and welcome to the forum. I will point you to two additional tutorials worth of your time: 1 -> on FLICKR by @Dunkleosteus 2 -> here on Eurobricks by @Captain Green Hair Hope this helps

As I found a way to reduce piece count to 51, only one has to go now - and given over the thought, I would rather discard paddles and keep the bag as it might serve as a food provision. The paddles/oars were added yesterday at the suggestion of another member when I had only 46 piece count. Oh yes, almost forgot, the short comic will come for this ENTRY, I just haven't got around to produce it. You'll be notified.

Ahh yes, we already went through that approach earlier in discussion above and found it impractical as the flag goes below the bottom of the boat, hence this required you to use 3x round boat plates. But thanks! BACK TO DESIGN / RE-DESIGN Instead of the T-Bar I found this solution which reduces part-count by another 2x lift-arms (it comes in pearl dark gray). Now only one part needs to go, but which one?

@Slegengr -> Rudder made out of slope and wedge is phenomenal solution which I have incorporated in this updated design. Thanks! -> I made a new boom pivot-solution, see below @iragm -> You gave me an awful fright! I wasn't reading text and saw your images and thought to myself oh no... someone made exactly the same boat and well before me. Upon second look I realised you actually made it out of real bricks. It looks superb! -> I made a new boom pivot-solution, see below @Elephant Knight -> Thank you fellow shipbuilder @Horation -> I 'axed' the axe and Slegengr rudder idea took place. @hikouki @Mazin @MstrOfPppts -> Adding more parts for play are all good advices which come with great difficulty of implementation as we are limited to only 50 parts/bricks within this Mini Set category. Any addition requires sacrifice of something already there, and I already pushed past the limit to 53 parts as it is. @Mazin -> The hut /Curved-slopes) in the bow of the boat is there only to hide all the technic pieces which are used to mount the front jib and mainmast. Sadly this does not allow any free storage space for play there, but thank you for your input. @CDKiii -> I had time just enough to see three of your images (before you pulled them away for re-work) but I could not see on any of them your rudder design, they were all taken from up-front. Let me know when you re-release your design DESIGN UPDATE (morning after) Ok, I found a new and better way to pivot the boom and made corrections on the original design. I used technic liftarm, pneumatic t-bar, and technic linker. Here be the images. The unfortunate trade-off is that I have pushed past 50x parts, and now I need your help to help me decide which parts will be excluded. I considered using ball&clip to attach jib-sail to the top, but that adds another 2x parts, so back to the piece of string. I could use only one lift-arm for boom, and spare 2x parts, but I don't like the looks of it.

Not necessarily. If we push two technic bushes firmly enough from top and bottom of technic pin connector used to pivot, they should provide just enough friction to avoid 'flimsy' feeling. This needs to be tested with real bricks. Sorry Iragm, I forgot to get back to you regarding this. I made it intentionally big because I drew inspiration from traditional Dalmatian (Croatia) fishing boat from 16th century - Falkusa. I wanted to give Windy that same feeling, like it's almost able to fly over the water.

Thank you @Mister Phes Please add this humble sloop to the list of entries. Ok, now to the questions and answers. @Rogue Redcoat @Slegengr -> yes, little bit of string should be used to connect jib-sail to the mast, I forgot to draw some while editing images in photoshop. -> Having few spare parts, I've added two red oars (as suggested) and a bottle of rum/water, as a provision for our thirsty sailor. Thanks Rogue! @Quotenotto -> I considered the ball and clips solution. Even though folding mast could be a good thing, my instincts tell me that the whole thing could be too flimsy, and constant correction of the mast would eventually turn out to be nuisance. -> As @iragm pointed out, the use of flag is a great idea, but it goes below waterline. I tried the axe and I don't know, let me hear all of your thoughts. I kinda like the brick-built rudder, but I'm biased in my opinion so that does not count. I invite all to give their opinion on the rudder: brick-built or axe? @Quotenotto and @iragm -> You make excellent point on making the boom able to swing, so with some minor replacements, I made it just that. -> The sloped bricks in the bow cover all the technic pieces used to mount the bowsprit and the mainmast - so unfortunately no hidden compartment there. Here are the quick images, and new renders will come soon. Please, let me know of your opinion on the rudder dilemma: axe or brick-built. And thank you all for positive feedback regarding the overall idea of this sloop.

While thank you dear Governor for my review, but I may have unintentionally registered for this category when expressing my surprise at Piraten registration for this category. All of mine useful (and one or two less useful) comments were given for the benefit of the overall contest. So please, feel free to remove me from this list so we can have better view at the fine members who are doing most excellent job at giving constructive feedback, especially to those three in leading position.

ORIGINS I got inspired by the topic of mysterious letter in Eldorado Fortress when a nagging question occurred, what if the letter contains some information of unparalleled value, and Governor Broadside needs to be informed right away? Problem is, Governor was last seen cruising down the Forbidden Island archipelago on Caribbean Clipper in search of the Sin Island and his runaway niece Camilla. How do you go about delivering the news? There are no phones or satellites, no Big Brother (yet) following you every step of the way. It seems the only way to transfer intelligence is by the sea, and perhaps best way to do it is by a quick and nimble sloop which can sail directly into the wind, which is also light and shallow enough to sail over the treacherous coral reefs - if pursued by much bigger pirate sloop or enemy warship, and is inexpensive for the King's treasury as it's built of only 40 pieces (+6 pieces for sailor on board). THE BUILD I intend to build this crafty sloop out of the real bricks, as soon as I get them, and make instructions available for free on ReBrickable in the near future. This could be of some interest to all of you pirate fans who own one or two row boats which come with a great number of pirate sets. With a small BrickLink purchase you can easily turn a useless dinghy into a useful sloop. Be sure to follow me on Instagram or Rebrickable. Lastly, by a closer inspection of digital renders, you can easily spot that the aft mainsail is intended to go over the balls. I have only so much time and patience in CAD to make sails, so I skipped this small detail and left it for the real build. .......... FIRST VERSION HIDDEN INSIDE THE SPOILER BELOW

Beautiful!