Mister Phes

And here are some Man O' Wars in battle - or should that be Men O' War? X-D

SlyOwl, you're a legend! Thank you for taking the time to do such a comprehensive review. You've captured Enchanted Island in impeccable detail and anyone who doesn't own this set should know it inside-out by now. I shall write my thoughts on the set itself, directly.

Why would you feel awful? The Pirate Forum doesn't have that petty rule where it's forbidden to post in a thread that hasn't had any activity in x amount of months. In fact the way Classic-Pirates.com is setup, it encourages people to post in any thread, at any time. So I'm going to add this one to the New Users page X-D

What an evil looking vignette this is! But to clarify things - are those parts in front of the cannon suppose to be metal or the remains of an unfortunate mini-figure, the "gore" if you will?

Yes, you can enter entries that are pirate sub-themes like Islanders and Armada, or you can invent your own sub-theme. Just so long as your entry looks like something the LEGO Group would release.

Well it's not quite "anything" because the creation must pass for an official LEGO set - or at least attempt to.

Treasure you say? Now this sounds interesting. I wonder what the prizes are... Surely not REAL LEGO this time... |-/

I do indeed agree with everyone that this is a magnificently built ship and I suspect it's the sails and rigging that give it that aurora of authenticity. But now to my favourite area of criticism - photography X-D Is it really that hard to frame a MOC so it fits within the entire picture? The top of the middle sail is cut off and there is a disproportionate amount of space between the the stern and the right side the picture. The model "Chebec" the Tessel is based on demonstrates the best way to take a picture of a Xebec close up, to ensure it all fits within the frame and uses the space within to it's full potential.

This certainly is an interesting creation you have PSP Guy. It is indeed a very interesting concept to utilise a variety of spare pieces. So what happens in someone accidentally treads on the chain that connects to the wall? X-D

Well I'll say a big Homer Simpson DOH to that because I always though you built it, which made me wonder why Captain Green Hair said he'd post it Anyway, I'll go get 40 winks then come back and constructively criticise this wonderful creation.

Wait a minute! I'm having a moment of confusion. Was The Telesell built by Mr Tiber or Captain Green Hair?

It would be great if we could get more of these stunning Pirate MOCs into conventions, but obviously that poses some logistical problems, especially considering Mr Tiber is in Europe and Phred in USA. Nonetheless, I think it'll make the frontpage of Classic-Pirates.com in the very near future. The frontpage is like a convention X-D

Indeed it is a nice assortment of mini-figures! Are these custom torsos you've created?

Obviously no other LEGO ship can compete with the Black Seas Barracuda... Well, apart from the Skulls Eye Schooner. But I wouldn't say the troll ship is totally pathetic because it looks like it could do some damage if it collided with the Black Seas Barracuda. Come to think of it, if the sails were removed from the Troll Warship it would look like a barge.

I like your ship better in this image: I think the composition of the photography is much better, and I'd use this one in the first post if I were you. But it just so happens I'm not you X-D

Billund just conveniently being the name of the town where the LEGO Group headquarters is located. I think it's quite a clever idea actually.

Ok, I'm not going to create a complete tutorial right now because that'll take hours. So here's a few steps to get anyone who wants (and anyone currently using MS Paint should) to learn Illustrator CS3. Let me know if you're using another version. You'll probably find it helpful to look at the Illustrator file I was modifying. Here is what I started with. Here is what I finished with. From left to right we have have the Tools palette, the Layers Palette, the Work Area and the Color changer Palette. If you don't see all these palettes do the following. Tools: in the pull down menus go to Window -> Tools Layers: Press F7. If it doesn't appear press F7 again. Color: Press F6. If it doesn't appear press F6 again. Look at the layer palette You'll see I've broken this flag up into layers. 1 layer to house everything called Flag of Old France 1 sub-layer for the Border 1 sub-layer for the Flag Material 1 sub-layer for the Fleur de Lis containing 3 sub-layers for each individual Fleur de Lis. I.e. Fleur de Lis 1, Fleur de Lis 2 & Fleur de Lis 3. At the bottom of the Layer Palette are a row of buttons. Hover the cursor over them for a few sections and a Tool Tip will appear to tell you what it does. DO THIS IMMEDIATELY. If the cursor appears disabled (I.e. a circle with a diagonal line through it) you must select a layer to enable it. Simple Task 1 - Duplicate Flag To do so: 1) We need to create a new layer: To do so click on the Flag of Old France layer then click the Create New Layer button. A new layer should appear called Layer 3 (or whatever number layer you're upto) Double click on that layer and the Layer Options dialog should appear. Name your layer Test Flag 2) We need to copy and paste the contents of Flag of Old France into Test Flag In the Layers Palette, click the circle to the right of Flag of Old France What this does is select EVERYTHING (all objects and sub-layers) that isn't locked in the Flag of Old France layer. Now Copy. I.e. CTRL C or Edit -> Copy. Then click Test Flag and then Paste. I.e CTRL V or Edit -> Paste. You should see an exact duplicate of Flag of Old France slightly offset the original. Open up the layers within Test Flag by clicking on the triangle next to it. You'll notice the sub-layers are gone, but never mind as it's not important to this exercise. You can figure out how to add them yourself. It's simple. Create sub-layers using the Create Sub-Layer button and then drag layers into them. Simple Task 2 - Change the Flag Colour 1) Lets change the Fill Colour of the Flag Material in the Test Flag Layer. Select the Flag Material by either clicking on it directly in the Work Area or go to the Layer Palette and click upon the circle to the right of Flag Material. Now go to the Color Palette and select a different colour, like red. MAKE SURE it's the Fill Colour you're changing. You may need to select the Fill Square first by simply clicking on it. Your Flag Material should be a different colour 2) Lets change the Outline Colour of the Flag Material in the Test Flag Layer. The Flag Material Layer should still be selected, if not repeat above steps. On the Color Palette first click on the Outline Square to bring it to the front. The Outline Square is the one with the smaller inner square. Now choose a different colour, like Black. Your Flag Material should now have an outline around it. Simple Task 3 - Reposition the Fleur de Lis 1) Let's make the middle Fleur de Lis invisible: Look at the Layer Palette Click on the Eye in the Fleur de Lis 2 layer. The layer and eye should disappear, leaving an empty box where the eye. To make the layer visible again simply click the empty box, but for the purposes of that exercise don't do that. 2) Let's reposition the remaining Fleur de Lis: Select Fleur de Lis 1 (you should know how to do this by now) Holding down the left mouse button drag Fleur de Lis 1 where you want to position. For the sake of this exercise move it to the top left. Now do the same with Fleur de Lis 1 and move it to the bottom right. 3) Let's add two more Fleur de Lis: Select the Fluer de Lis of your choice, copy and paste (make sure the test Flag Layer is selected before you paste) Drag it to the bottom left. Do the same again and move the new Fleur de Lis to the top right. You'll notice the new Fleur de Lis layers have the same name as the layer you copied them from. They can be easily renamed. Instructions for that are earlier in this lesson. TIP: Always give your layers meaningful names because it's much faster to find a particular object. What you should have now is this: To get you started If you want to create flags from scratch then you'll obviously need to know how to create new shapes. To do so click on the Rectangle Tool If you want to select a different shape then hold down the cursor over the Rectangle Tool and a menu of shapes will appear. Ok, this will do for now. If it would be really helpful to others I'll create a more in depth Illustrator Tutorial Series demonstrating how to use the program from start to finish.

You found them yet? Exactly what kind of set was this?

The Colonel's work will not be wasted. Eventually they'll be added to Classic-Pirates.com and be frontpaged and circulated in the newsletter. Although it would be preferred if they're vectorised so as to remove the jagged edges from them. Fortunately the good Colonel is making an attempt at this but if he fails his mission then I'll guess it is up to me.

SlyOwl, you are certainly a master of vignettes! Classic-Pirates.com needs images like the one you've created above, so would you be interested in creating some more when you return from where ever you've gone?

The person to ask that question to is ZCerberus as he's designed some quite impressive creations in MLCad and then to top it all off he actually built them. He hasn't visited the forum in a while so you may need to PM him and bring this thread to his attention.

What does using a sail like that do to it's condition? I imagine in the longer it would put an annoying curve in the sail down the bottom there.

You should bring this thread to the attention of Eurobricks co-founder, DoubleT. He's Danish and I'm sure he'd love to give you some suggestions.

A mighty fine review you've created SlyOwl! *y* After some sleep I shall immerse myself more fully within it.

I haven't checked out LEGO Digital Designer in years now but last time I did mini-figures weren't even an option. Nonetheless I think it's a great concept but too limited in it's current form for my liking.