SlyOwl

Really good work here, Dave. I like how you've still gone for a studsy aesthetic on the headdresses, even though it could have been easier not to - but it makes them look more uniform. My favourite is the little guy on the right - very cute. I can't help feeling the one in the middle's face looks like some sort of SW clone (I know very little about SW, so forgive me if I'm wrong!) Keep it up!

Tip everything into a big mess on my bedroom floor! It's how I've always built sets, no matter how big or small, and it kind-of sets it apart from MOCing, which always takes place at my desk. But first, before even opening the box, I pore over the box pictures. I recall looking at my Skull's Eye Schooner box for more than two hours when I first got it a couple of years back. I do like to take care opening the polybags, making sure I tear them along the rim: because it feels right that way. So yes, I indulge my nostalgia when opening sets - and it is ritualistic!

Whichever of you took all the spartans, feel my wrath! There's two boxes about 1/3 full each in WHSmith. Toy City hasn't got any in yet - but they said in the next day or two they would. WHSmith has got 25% off some Lego - but given that it's overpriced in the first place, it's not worth it (eg. Army Men on Patrol, with 25% off, was £11)... When you buy anything there, you get a flyer, which has a voucher in it for 10% off toys (and some other stuff) and 20% off everything else. But still it won't be much of a discount, given the original mark-up! Also, there's a voucher in the Lego club magazine for £1 off Hero Factory sets at Tesco... should you want it!

Thanks for the comments everyone! Yes, the windows are ductape; I would have brick-built the windows entirely, but I didn't have enough small trans bricks. The beard is from Brickforge (I never thought I'd find myself saying something like that!) Thanks for the blog mate Yes, I built this back in March for the MOCathalon, but never got round to publicising it properly - it's been stuck in the dingy backwater that is my MOCpages since then.

I realised I never shared this with Eurobricks -

Could be slap-bang in the middle of my exams, but I aim to be there!

Loving it, Mark! Lots of great colours used; I especially like the tan/dark tan highlights. Very quaint as usual, and as normal, it's triggered me off MOCing again... Is the stonework chimney a technique you're experimenting with - to get more standard brick dimensions? I like it, although it's too parts-intensive for me. And where's the Fabuland Edge?

Congrats, Redcoats! And also to the Bluecoats - for taking part... even if they lost. Special props to Fugazi for his well deserved win - some excellent MOCing going on there

Bricklink will cover all your needs. Simply sign up and start buying - it may seem confusing at first, but once you're into it, it's an invaluable resource.

Hadn't thought of using flex tube - good idea! White's quite rare - but not too expensive. STEAM is the big UK convention, run by Brickish (link). It'll be my first one, so it'll certainly be an experience worth having. And now I have to learn how to build reasonably sturdily!

Thanks for the feedback guys, it means a lot! I must confess that I sneaked a peak at the MB set when building this - the work was half done for me! Thanks Cam! I meant a personal MOC drought - I haven't built anything since March! I know there's plenty of MOCs around at the moment, which I have been enjoying thoroughly. I have tried to build those so many times... but always failed. I think if I bulk-buy skeleton arms in all varieties, it may be possible, but they always end up too fragile or non-spherical. Fat Tony's got a pretty good one here, which I mean to adapt for my own purposes at some point. I'm thinking about what to build for STEAM (in October), and I'm considering a large POTC-inspired dio, with all the famous bits included - the bone cages, water wheel, donkey, a bit of Totuga, pigs, wedding in the rain, all mashed together... we'll see how it turns out.

Very funny, well done! Did you buy all that pink specially, or are you a redcoat in disguise?

An afternoon's build to alleviate my MOC drought...

1 point - Solidbrick: Farm House Excellent, truly excellent, building techniques. And a great aesthetic overall too. 2 points - Saracen: Irish Troubles I love how daring you were to attempt a) this period and b) a realistic MOC you wouldn't expect to see in LDD. The layout of vehicles and people is great too; good job on making the people with a relatively limited parts palette (in comparison to decals, custom parts etc) As with the other category, I was blown away by the high level of competition, which, truth be told, I hadn't expected. I'm sure others would agree that LDD probably needs a shift in the AFOL mindset to its capabilities!

1 point - private_lego: Winny the Pooh Excellent representation of these characters - good technique, and wonderful expressions. I love Tigger in particular. 1 point - lisqr: Micro modular houses I'm a sucker for miniature versions of sets, and these are really well done, very recognisable. 1 point - Igorlando: Anastasia Astoria International Hotel Incredible detail - you must have had a lot of patience to do all that in CAD! Nice complex techniques too, and the lamposts are gold (metaphorically). What a great set of entries by everyone - tribute to LDD's capabilities, and the talents of Eurobrickers! There were a lot of entries I could have picked, but these 3 really caught my eye.

Sure, use them to your heart's content! I'm not sure if you've come across the Sail Library - all the official and some custom ones there. Mine are just edited versions of them, on the whole.

They're custom on both the smaller boats. Here's the original files (haven't got one for the triangular sail on the medium ship) - 1. Paint cloth (reasonably thin cotton, but tight grain) with 1:5 PVA glue to water solution. Let it dry. 2. Open sail in Word. Zoom out until the A4 page is the same size as a real A4 page. Resize the sail to how you want it. 3. Put the cloth in the printer, and let it print. Pulling the back of the cloth gently as the printer is printing helps smooth it out, for some reason. Cut it out (the PVA makes this easy, as it stiffens the cloth) 4. Punch holes with a hole punch or leather punch. 5. To waterproof, paint again with (non-dilute) PVA. 6. To do double-sided flags, PVA glue the two sides together, then trim (I tend to leave a border around the edge on the original cut-out, so that I can trim them easily). That's how I did all the flags and sails here, apart from the original BSB ones.

I'm currently building up an imperial and a pirate fleet to be used in Brikwars (mixed with ESPG). However, I only own the SES and BSB. Hence, a similar dilemna over weighting. The solution? Change the BSB flags to imperial ones, and you're done. (apologies for the photo!) In the foreground, you can see how I expanded my fleets: simple, brick-built smaller ships. All I bought for the one in question was the bow pieces (6 wide), rigging and ship's wheel; the rest are just basic bricks, on the whole (sails were home-made). And on the left is yet another cheap way of getting a bigger boat: adding sails to a rowing boat. They follow the same pattern as the one in Enchanted Island, only they're home made too - hence much cheaper. So in answer to your question, keep them all. 1 X BrickBeard's Bounty - keep it pirate. 1 X Caribean Clipper - keep it pirate 1 X Armada Flagship - keep it armada (although troops are very expensive...) - or turn it imperial. 1/4 X Skull's Eyes Schooner Hull - possibly make it imperial (build it up, but give it blank sails) - but probably keep it pirate 1 X Red Beard Runner - keep it pirate, but give it a more realistic look 1 X Black Seas Barricudda - make it imperial by changing flags Incidentally, did you win that SES on eBay? Had my eye on it

As said, Bricklink is run by people who are as passionate about Lego as you are, on the whole. I would trust it with my life (well, not really - but you get the point). Living in England, if you're looking to get into Bricklink, I'd recommend SimplyBricks and YellowFarmBricks - I've had flawless transactions with both sellers, and they seem like a good starting point. Moreover, they're two of the biggest stores in the UK, so a great brick selection

Young man, it's about time you took some credit for yourself - you're good enough Gotta love the overall scene, great composition and technique. From experience, with larger MOCs it's easy to get bogged down in small areas, and leave expanses neglected and marginalised - but here you've got a good spread. In terms of an overall scene, I'd have liked to see non-square edges which meander down to a plate or brick thin - the harsh cutoffs here feel a bit strange, particularly given that trees tend to have that grass-less patch underneath that fades into grass the further out you get; you could have mirrored this in the way the base is constructed. Naw, I'm getting too arty - it's cool as it is Nice use of those Kranx heads (or whoever they belong to) - nice 'n' organic. Rabbit-wise, what's on the anti-stud of the travis brick? I'd guess it's a 1x1 round plate? Now, to make me a rabbit...

Looks like they've updated their barcodes too, since I did mine. They seem to be roughly the same (main difference being the widths of the thicker bars, although they are still recognisably the same). There is a mistake on Disco Stu, though - from right to left, there are 4 thick bars at the beginning, whereas bricks.inof have merged two of these together.

This thread may be of help for modifications. In terms of totally new MOCs, it's got a lot of pearl gold, brown and tan - what's not to like? MOC away, my son!

I assume shipping would be extra to the UK? Is that Brickfest model glued?

Thanks for the review. Spartan looks great, and I may just have to get a sombrero dude. For easy reference, I updated the barcode sheet from this site - The grey line indicates where the barcode stops being the same.