SlyOwl

Hey Nannan, this is a really good idea. Everyone wins It would certainly be interesting to see who bids on these - are they from the more active online community, or not?

So far, 5 out of the 40+ entries are by so-called MOC Experts. The suggestion you put forward appears good on first inspection, to balance the playing field. However, there are a couple of problems with it. The MOC Expert tag is very subjective; there is no set criteria to qualify for it; the staff allocate it on an "oh, he's done quite a few great MOCs" basis, so there is a grey area between definitely does and definitely doesn't qualify. Moreover, what's to stop lurkers/new members with no MOCing history walking the competition (and promptly being declared a MOC expert...)? There's also the fact that not all MOC experts are interested in Pirate MOCing/have the time; there's only a small group of them after all, so it may not get many entries (and thus be even easier to win). Ultimately it's not a fair contest - people have different amounts of bricks/money, time and talent. The Creative Critic Contest does help those who aren't so good at MOCing - they are given constructive feedback, and, in the best scenarios, guided through a series of improvements to their MOC(s). Those giving the feedback are also required to look at building in an analytical way, which thus develops their own buildings skills (more so if they go so far as to build a small example of what they mean e.g. a design for a lantern). Should EB and CP expand to such a size that separate categories according to past MOCing experience are necessary, I'm sure it'll be considered; thanks for the suggestion

Looking good! A nice blend of steampunk, realism, new and old parts, and techniques. River Expedition is a set I really should have got at the time, lots of great stuff going on in it, not to mention Gabarro.

Well, I'll start by (as I often tend to do) directing you to the Ship MOC Index. We also had the Pimp your IMTP Ship contest, based around that hull size. Some of the pics are missing, but they start in the above Index at around 40d, so should be find-able.

Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion Bonaparte and Captain Green Hair's Spanish Imperial Galleon is surely one of the best ship MOCs out there - See more in the Pirate Forum now!

Thanks everyone That looks really neat I'd like to do something like that sometime. I had put some human prisoners down there too, but it seemed too nasty, so I just reverted to species-ism A fair bit of stuff... but it's my new efficient sorting system that lets me build quickly now. Tan, green, greys - all close at hand! Whoops Should have thought about that! I know, it looks almost steampunk in its colour. Bummer. Just had a brain-wave. Wind the cord from a Legoland gold-panning medal around the wheel. I ran out of crates Must buy some more sometime. Last Saturday, so a little headstart. I don't want a repeat of all the late-night builds of last year! I would definitely have used a forestman hat on one of the archers if I had one... it reminded me of the RH story The Silver Arrow a bit. Official stickers, from a set I shouldn't really have bought - it was over-priced, and didn't work that well, but I keep finding uses for the pretty awesome sticker sheets! Sorry bro, I'll think of you next time

Mmm, lovely. The sky on drugs Went to see the Lord Mayor's Fireworks on the Thames last year - immense! I should really get round to going to the Alexandra Palace ones sometime... Catharine wheels never work, eh?

Fantastic MOC, to be sure, and a good use of those baseplates! So mayn pretty trans colours - my favourite sort candy It's a pity droid arms don't come in trans orange, to complete the loops in this pic. Don't ask. It ended up with the judges declaring neither won, and it's best to leave it at that.

Very smoothly built! Love the helmet/box integration, and the way the smoke blends together is really nice.

Here we go, no break for 2 months

Cheers! I had thought about renovating the whole thing, and doing a Jack and the Beanstalk version, but I couldn't get the stalk right (needed some Duplo creepers). Thanks Batbrick! The pipe was supposed to be a fence, but as I started out with a slightly bigger scale, it's too big for the current one...

Very nice ship, and a lot of detail too! I like your use of the Ogel Drones for armada troops, although the red does blend into the ship a bit. Is the sail a custom one? BTW, 800x600 is the max image size; please resize them. Thanks

More comments? Wow Sure thing! Parts were the problem here. I'd used up all my tan, and the wall behind it was white, so I couldn't use that. I plan to buy bricks in more neutral tones (not owning many at the moment), to enable this in future. It was supposed to be ox-blood plaster, which can be quite vivid, but yes, you're right, it is too bright, and some variation would be nice. Well, my original plan was to have another building slightly behind the other two, without the wall, and just a small tower on the hill. I built the buildings first, and then the wall, thinking that it didn't quite make sense. Something to bear in mind, definitely. Thanks for the advice

Check out this article on Classic-Castle. DNL covers the basics of rock-scaping, and I mention a few other tips. As Copmike said, you'll need large quantities of various slope bricks (cheese slopes aren't that important, and are more expensive, so only a few are needed in reality), as well as a fair amount of filler brick (personally I use a technic frame (overlapping 1x16 bricks), with normal bricks to pad it out to join with the rockface).

Modifications - Brickbeard's Revenge by Blackheart Brit Super Brickbeard's Bounty by Dr Lucky Syren by CVSPIS_CELIDVS Brickbeard's Bounty gets a deck by Rick Bounty II by Joe Nicely Upgraded Brickbeard's Bounty by Ugva Upgraded Brickbeard's Bounty by General Armendariz You may find some inspiration in the Ship MOC Index, particularly the latter ones, since BB came out. Guss' L'indomptable is a good example of a ship built using many of the parts from the BB, but not basing it on it.

Wow, more replies - ta! Yes, I wish there was more variation in skele faces... so I had to make do! I can generally get the slope right first time; normally it's a "straight-up" slope, without any dips, so it is pretty straight-forward. With more uneven surfaces, I have to re-build them a couple of times to get them the way I want them. I used a mix of the old trans-orange and the new dark-orange flames, but it doesn't really look much better in real life (worse perhaps, as the gaps between each chain of flames shows more). I want to get my hands on some of the new bright orange flames (I only have one at the moment), which could add some more variation, but I don't think it will have much impact. I'm thinking about getting some of the larger flame pieces from Agents/the new Castle sets to integrate, which should make more of an effect. As far as I'm aware, though, there isn't a way to connect them together to make bigger flames. Definitely something I need to work on

Decent LEDs are reasonably cheaply available at most good electronic/hardware stores - in England it can be problematic, but Squires is a good place to get them. Many have just the right diameter to fit into the hole in a technic brick. Wiring is a problem, but with a bit of ingenuity, and perhaps some customization, it's possible to hide them successfully.

Thanks again for the comments Hmm... it does look like it. Must be the natural light coming through the trees in my garden. Green? Stupid being colour blind, I thought it was yellow! Must have taken me 10 hours or so overall (my collection is geared up for exactly this style of building, and I'd done a fair bit of "mental construction" beforehand - that is, working out what I know I can build and what will fit in etc.). Parts-wise, I haven't got a clue, but it's probably in the region of 2500 bricks... but as I get more parts (e.g bigger plates), the number of parts I use, and thus the time spent building, decreases. For example, I recently got 5 6x12 bley plates off BL, all of which I used in this MOC. Before that, I would have had to use bricks and small plates (up to 2x4) to do the same area.

Hey Svelte, great review! Now, I bump this because I'm curious about the flame pieces in the set, having read an interesting article on Klocki Did yours come with the new style on the left or not?

The "prong" on the lid fits into a 1x1 cone (does need a bit of rotating to get the max friction point), and these are just built onto some tilted plates. Underneath each vertical row of flippers, there is a 1x10 plate. The flippers fit into the underside of the plate, alternating between on the "pin" (between the studs on the other side) and the "hole" (directly beneath the studs on the other side). And this is repeated, but with a different offset for each vertical row. For the curved roof, I used horizontal flex tubing with 1x1 clips. And some more... By Marian19, using popsicles - I'm pretty sure I've seen someone using bars, flex tubing and string to make a roof, but that may have been a table scrap of mine

Hey Tony, looks great! I'm a big fan of tilted brick building, and it's good to hear it's durable too. Pity 1x10/12 tiles don't exist...

@Bonaparte, it is also possible to overlap the lids, so that the studs don't show, to give a different effect. I didn't use it as it uses many more of the part, and I ran out... Straw roof using hands - Using technic chain links - Using technic axles threaded together with string - Using 1x2 bricks in zig-zag format Using flippers - Curved roof using not-pushed-together-properly-bricks - Using chairs - By Mister oo7, using 1x1 rounds - By Adrian Florea, using horizontal 2x3 slopes - By SirNadroj, using 2x3 modified plates - By Sir Nelson, using tooth plates - By TheBrickTime, using lots of cheese slopes I've also considered using overlapping plastic capes as roof tiles, but they are unfortunately very expensive in bulk. To be honest, it is very part-effective to make a normal plate roof, and add grill plates/cheese slopes/1x2 tiles/1x1 round plates to add texture. Most of the above techniques are considerably weaker than a more commonplace alternative.

I think this thread is intended to be about possible future Exclusive Sets (e.g. new Imperial Flagship), rather than "what I would like to see about pirates at some point". I'd like to see a blend of the Cafe Corner style modular buildings with the MMV baseplate for the individual buildings. Think a 32x32 water-front, with 2 buildings on it, built around MMV specifications, which can be removed/swapped around/swapped with the MMV buildings. Comes with MMV-esque array of figs and accessories.

Preferably just edit your first post in the thread, and one of the staff can add an Updated: or something into the topic title, but if the revision is very major (i.e. practically a new MOC), then starting a new thread is fine.

It would be simpler, and thus more eco-friendly, to not use sprues at all, surely, as they will almost always go to waste? Perhaps. There are a lot of factors that affect the environmental impact and cost of any Lego part. Sending the sprues back to Lego to be recycled would use fuel and manpower to do so - why can't you just stick it in the plastic recycling? Getting rid of the sprues may result in a more complex production process, to ensure that e.g. one of each type of coin is included, which may or may not harm the environment more. Personally I'd like to see TLG become more eco-friendly. The obvious solution to this is to reduce packaging size, but as said, there are numerous things to be considered, such as removing excess/useless inclusions (e.g. adverts are now included in the instructions, not separately, as they used to be). One could argue that ultimately, not buying Lego (and buying second-hand if at all) is the solution to the environmental impact... just a thought