Sebeus I

Well, my first one was in 2007 . Thank you, it's going to be tight for sure.

But it's the top part of the round brick that I prefer. With a pin connector the thickness of the barrel seems off. That could be solved by putting in a 1/2 pin. However, neither pin nor connector exist in (old) dark grey. Bredene, yes, the première of the Flying Dutchman, if I don't manage to do a photoshoot before that . And then it's as many events I can handle, hopefully Legoworld as well.

Yes, in the interior scenes, when Davy Jones plays the organ, the window shows coloured panes. From the exterior however, the window appears plain. Since I intend to put lights in the captain's quarters, I figured tge coloured option may work better. I might still replace the pink panes with trans brown or black.

Thank you. Actually I prefer the round bricks over pin connectors, they give that extra bit of texture. Though I do agree that the groove, where two round bricks connect, I could do without . Continuing upwards, drafting the forecastle deck. None of this is final, I just need to get my bearings. I'm going to lower this deck by two plates probably. Need to figure out a good way to attach my cannons to the deck and the staircases will need some modifications. I've replaced the starry blue by coloured bricks in the stern window. It looks a bit too vibrant to my taste but perhaps that will improve once I add everything around the window. The balconies are going to be a challenge, the whole stern for that matter, with the large angled stern window, I'm going to be in dire need of stable anchor points to attach everything to but little room to provide these. I have some ideas though. I've been experimenting with new stern details. The highly decorated stern of the Flying Dutchman will be a highlight of my model. This one is probably a little too big to fit but I'll see. She's becoming an absolute unit! Still much to do... I did set a concrete deadline, the 4th of September.

Those sails are absolutely beautiful! Are they heavy? The booms seem to bend down a little.

That is a very cosy interior! I suppose the cracked bricks are reddish brown ones? .

Thanks, I hope it still works when the ship is complete . Thank you. The motor is very unhappy. Looking back, I might have done better using an XL motor or two. Though that would have brought other challenges for sure.

After many hours of designing, test-building, trouble shooting, optimizing, fine tuning, it is finally done. The Triple Cannon feature is a fact . It's not entirely working as intended. The turning speed of the barrels is a little too high and is not in perfect sequence with the recoil loop. This on itself causes mechanical issues as the friction is rather high when rotating occurs during retracted state. The motor has difficulties handling the variable power curve, which gets very high when running out the starboard gun and very low when both are recoiling (I can smell the motor if I let it run for half a minute)... This was a very ambitious endeavor to begin with. I must say, everything considered, it is quite a neat feature. I will probably leave it like this. Frankly If I want to properly fix these issues, I'd have to start over, the whole thing needs to be redesigned. I want to get this ship finished by summer and there are still many other challenges in prospect.

They are synchronised albeit with an offset of about 1/4 of a sequence. The firing sequence is pretty much like it is in the movies. I did however not include the initial outrunning of the cannons (due to constraints with the visible parts of the forecastle). The sequence goes like this (rotating occurs in pause 1): Sequence: A - B - C - D Cannon 1: Extend - pause 1 - Recoil - pause 2 Cannon 2: pause 2 - Extend - pause 1 - Recoil That means that there is a short interval during phase D, where both cannons are retracted. I decided that was good enough to compensate for the lack of initiation mechanism. I hope to share a video of the thing in work soon . definitely! I might use some door rail plates, brackets and the like to fill those gaps. Since I plan to add a lot more barnacles and other sealife to this deck, I believe I'll have plenty of opportunities to find a solution. My old model actually had those gaps left open, it wasn't that noticable .

I made a little progress yesterday. The lower gun deck is now complete. Unfortunately I was not able to find a suitable place to hide the batterybox for the triple cannon mechanism. It will have to come right in the middle of the gun deck. I had ordered some more little lamps to spread around the ship. The lower gun deck interior will be barely visible on the finished model, you may catch a glimpse, looking through the grates from the upper gun deck, or peering through the gun ports. In the end I had to dismount 2 more 36-pounder cannons from their carriages to make them fit with the triple cannon mechanism in the bow. The thing took more space than anticipated. Of its 20 heavy guns, only 14 are contained in the interior-built part. The tiller room has no interior since I reserved the space for the battery box for the lights. An interesting area I'm looking into now, is the rearward bulkhead. I've extensively rewatched specific scenes from the movies to try and understand how this area is supposed to look. Unfortunately, I have not been able to come to a conclusion. I've built the contours of an asymmetrical bulkhead, based on a very nice sketch from one of the set/prop designers. Below drawing is not of the actual ship but rather a separate set which I believe was used to film the Liar's Dice scene in. The way I see it, I have three options. I go for the asymmetrical bulkhead, as in the sketch. I go for a straight bulkhead, placed more forward to maximize Captain Quarters space. I go for a straight bulkhead, placed more rearward At the moment I feel like abandoning option 1 as I can't confirm this layout in the movies anyway and it would have the disadvantages of both option 2 and 3. Option 2 seems very interesting since that would allow me to contain a broadside cannon in the captain's quarters, which can be seen in the movie (though in the movie they're probably meant to be cannons from the lower gun deck). Once I worked that out, the challenge will be to cram as much of this in as possible . Either way, I'm going to begin on the stern and work my way towards this bulkhead to get a good sense of usable space I actually have in the Captain's Quarters. If I don't work on the stern next, I'll give the bow some more love. The triple cannon mechanism is finished but I cannot show if off yet because I need to reinforce some bits that require a great deal of the forecastle to be completed.

It is a different sight for sure. Though honestly, if I would have had the possibility to use more dark tan on the first version, I would have definitely opted for that. I think the dark tan is more in tune with the darker look of the ship in the movies. While the light grey may better reflect the ship set as displayed in Disneyland. Nevertheless, there is more light grey to come near the upper parts of the ship. I want to reflect the more wet parts below and dryer parts upwards this way. The biggest limitation with using old grey is that there are no new parts available, like 1x2 round plates, wedges, modified bricks and plates, etc. I must say it's a real pleasure to work with new parts and figure out new constructions.

Thank you, that is what I'm going for . Thanks. Thank you, there are 42 gears in there, all put to work to support this particular feature: The triple cannon rotating and recoil mechanism! I'm almost there, it's been rather challenging.

Somewhat . I stripped some parts from it, most of the starboard side is already gone. I hope I can keep at least the port side intact so I can take a comparison picture when the new one is finished. That one is eating parts like there's no tomorrow though. This is true. Thank you, yes the curvature is a great improvement compared to the old version .

A few weekends before I brought some stuff to an exhibition event. Almost all of the cannons (there are 4 heavy ones missing still). And some of the details I intend to use, along with the crew and what's left of the captains' quarters. Since then I've been experimenting with little lamps. I installed two in the aft main gun deck. These are from Game of Bricks, incase you were wondering. I made a short video to show the effect. I'm going to need many more lamps to fill the ship Old dark grey tiles are a little hard to come by these days. I don't intend to cover up all studs though, I kind of like the raw look. I've made some progress with the triple guns. Incase you were wondering why that is taking so long; I've got all of this to manage . It's funny that, even on a ship this big, I'm still struggling to get everything in. Once the mechanism is done, I can cover up the technical spaces and finish the main cannon deck. When that is done, I can get started on the upper cannon deck and the captains' quarters. To start on the prow I really should have the forecastle finished. Or at least the front of the forecastle. I have some idea's for the lower balcony already too. It is still my ambition to have the ship finished by summer.

Looking great! I know the struggle with taking pictures of oversized creations 🙃. I hope you find a solution!.