Sebeus I

I've been looking into the Flying Dutchmans' unique gallery turrets. My old model had large cone pieces to serve the purpose. Which I must be able to do better this time. I tried a couple of things, didn't like most of them. Eventually I settled for this one. I'm struggling a bit with the colours though. I'm looking for some consistency and dark green is prooving to make things difficult. It doesn't blend in as well like gray, dark tan, sand green or olive green. If only those quarter dome pieces existed in old dark gray... Yet it does have more advantages in the front of available pieces The rearward turrets have little doors to access the balcony. My previous model had these doors actually connected to the interior. However, since these passages are not shown im any of the interior movie scenes... And I could really use that particular area to place a supporting strut for the superstructure... I've decided to forego the passages alltogether. Instead I intend to put some coloured glass in the doors and have a light behind it. That should look pretty slick. To conclude this update, I've a little something from the other end of the ship; the Grim Reaper's skull. I anticipate redesigning the bowsprit to be another challenging undertaking.

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!.

It's great to see you're picking up again on this one!

Thank you! Inherited from the old model I'm happy with the staircases, I made a pair for the upper deck as well and added some seaweed, more pictures soon! I was looking for a printed tile, featuring dice but the best I could find was this: A Liar's Dice scene will probably be limited to some cups (or simple 1x1 round bricks) and a barrel with plate to serve as table. If I can fit it in, the area below the quarter deck is going to be quite cramped I imagine, with the staircases (one up, one down), which are left out in the movie and the rearward bulkhead, for which I will probably place the doors in such a way that they fit my other design needs best. Now it's time to finalize the triple cannon mechanism so I can finish the lower gun deck. Because next, I want to begin on the visually more interesting area's, the upper gun deck and the captain's quarters .

I made a little progress this weekend. I've gotten started on the staircase, connecting lower gun deck with upper gun deck. Steeper than those on the previous model. This is still a prototype, I'm considering making it 3 studs wide instead of 4. It sits after the main mast, right after the staircase leading to the quarter deck. My previous model had them right on top of each other. I imagine there would be another staircase connecting lower and upper gun deck somewhere near the bow as well. However, since that area is taken by the triple cannon mechanism, this center staircase will be the only one I build for this deck. I fiddled around with some ideas for the battle tops as well. I'm considering using a flex tube to create the railing. An impression of the outer hull: Quite similar to the previous model. Though most bricks have been replaced by a combination of plates and the outwales are more prominent. The hull shape is keeping up so far. I might get into light functions next.

I'm still waiting for a moment of hyper-focus to finish the Triple Cannon mechanism. In the mean time I gave the aft hull some more attention. While I still prefer to have the galleries in dark/light gray, I do think that the dark green curved arches work well, a little too clean perhaps though. I may remove an arch here and there to allow for some crusty barnacle attachments. I'm loving the hull shape so far, my best ship so far. My supply of jumpers and headlight bricks is depleting fast. While my previous model had around 7000 pieces, I think with this one I easily go over 9000.

Not much to report for last weekend. I worked a little on the stern. On the previous model I used a pair of standard sharks to portray the demon fish sculptures that support the lower balcony, which I quite liked. However, since there are supposed to be 4 supports, rather than 2, I needed something else now, given the limited space. Quite challenging at this scale.

Progress is slow but steady. The bow section was going to take much time and study, I anticipated that. The Tripple Cannon mechanism is not finished yet but I had to make certain that the barrel positions were correct relative to the gun ports first. It's a tight fit though it's supposed to be. Must remember to swap the brown chains with dark grey ones still. It's all a bit messy still but it will get better once the mechanism is finished. I expanded the crew, along with the official minifigures the Dutchman will have 22 crew members. I hope that will be enough to populate the weather deck. Much to do still...

Not much to report as this point. Lot's of celebration to be attended . But my bricklink orders have been coming in and I finished the outer shell of the lower hull. There are well over 1500 pieces in there already and I still need to add some reinforcing inner structures. It is a slow and cumbersome work, building a custom hull of these proportions. But it has to be right from the start. Adjustments will not be possible later. I am satisfied with the result, an excellent hull will make a great ship! That rudder end of the keel is attached via 3 different anchorage points (the one on the old model fell off every time so this time I want to make sure it doesn't ) Furtermore... Two more crewmembers have presented themselves, they are very enthusiastic about joining the Flying Dutchman. I couldn't wait to get started on the doors to the cabin. I had this design in mind ever since I laid eyes on those fender pieces. The 2x2 half round tile allows for a compact design. I'll need 6 of these doors since I'll be paying a little more attention to the bulkheads as well this time. I've been studying all Flying Dutchman movie scenes the last couple of days, including the deleted scenes. As was to be expected, more inconsistencies surfaced. This means choices will have to be made. A rather special part in my bricklink order, were these chain links with bar, I do hope they prove to be useful for the triple cannon mechanism. Another interesting part are these arches. One of the area's I look forward to revising, are the side galleries. In a perfect world, I'd use old light and dark gray arches. However, we don't live in a perfect world, cost-wise these are simply not viable. So I'm giving it a go with sand green and dark green, hoping that they won't stand out of the ship too much. With most of the needed parts at my disposal, there's nothing stopping me to continue building this ship. I've decided to have the ship in two parts, much like the old one, for transport reasons, that will bring challenges for the rigging but I'm confident that I'll manage to figure out a good system. Still need to figure out were to place the battery boxes though . The intent is to either turn the window around or have the flex tubes in a position were they won't be seen, such as behind the upper balcony. I don't have the space for a double window though, due to a consistency error in the movies, the captain quarters' interior is longer on the inside than it is on the outside. So I'll need all the space I can get . I made a quick sketch to get my bearings on the interior,I took some liberties in deciding where some area's are, begin and/or end.

I've decided to build a Captain's Quarters vignette first. I figured it would be a shame to hide away all of this in the ship before taking good pictures of it. Since the accessibility of the interior will be limited on the finished ship (if even accessible at all), It makes sense to take out and highlight the most famous part of the interior this way. I designed a new organ, which I'm very happy with. This vignette may also serve as a benchmark on Rebrickable to see how realistic it is to expect to sell building instructions of the Flying Dutchman. I gave the anchors a makeover. They are more consistent in colour. The previous ones were hard to spot since they blended into the the rest of the ship very well. Not necessarily an improvement, more like a personal preference. Not a very urgent matter but I have been looking into the planking of the weather deck. I hadn't really paid much attention to it earlier but upon closer study of the movies I noticed the weather deck isn't as dark as I imagined. This picture gives a good impression of what it really is (but I've confirmed this colour with movie shots as well). Building a deck out of medium nougat tiles and plates is perfectly viable. All though I'm not sure I want to. In my mind the colour doesn't fit so well on the ship. Anyway, lots of time to reconsider, I haven't even started on the lower decks yet. That would be an easy way to enlarge the crew though I think the presence of "normal" people on board, would weaken its ghost ship appearance. I already ordered some transparent yellow and orange to replace the starry window panes . The vine pieces are not really the main limitation for the cannon flap mechanism, what makes the whole thing very complicated is that the sides are angled, already reducing usable cannon barrel length. I tried, instead of using a brick wall, using plates and brackets but I end up not winning any space at all . I have been a bit too ambitious with this Idea. Perhaps the scale is just too small to make this work. That, my friend, is thanks to the wonderful D-shape SNOT brick. A real game changer in the world of MOCing, if you ask me . These connect to the tiles while 1x1 clip plates connected to flex tubes behind the window, keep the thing together. this means there's the backside is the ugly side though. Well, counting from the waterline it's the exact same height as on the old model. However, since my new model includes a significant part under the waterline, which amounts to about 3 bricks, the total height from the bottom to where the hull ends and the superstructure begins, is exactly 10 bricks high (if that is what you meant).

I figured I can keep the old one intact for a bit longer, at least until I finish the lower hull. I'll have to dismantle it at some point though. Or at least strip some essential parts from it. The comparison is a little bit distorted since the old one was a waterline model while the new one has a significant part of the submerged hull built as well. Which makes it about 3 bricks higher. I considered to stick with a waterline model, they work great on layouts after all, engaging into battle with other ships... However, the new rounded underside does provide additional strength. Much needed strength if I ever were to, for instant, set it up in a mealstrom scene. Not saying I will but If I do get such crazy idea in my head, at least the ship will be able to handle it. I threw some money at this project. Partially spent on a missing crew member, Hadras (on the top right). Hadras is the only one that is still somewhat affordable, I'm glad I already have Davy Jones, Maccus and Bootstrap Bill. Below the official crew, there are some of my own and below that some other POTC figures. The Flying Dutchman will need a much bigger crew though, to man this 52-gun ship. I'm considering using these fish people as well. A bit early perhaps but I tried my hand at a new stern window for the Captain's Quarters. The sparkling transparent purple is only temporary, the intention is to replace those with transparent yellow, orange and maybe pink. Though I've got to say, I do like the starry appearance as it is now. I placed some large bricklink orders to get going, mostly dark tan parts but also some specialised Technic parts to enable the triple cannon mechanism. Which still isn't ready but I'm confident I'll get there. I did decide to have the triple cannon hatches mechanism independent of the firing mechanism, there simply is not enough space in the forecastle to make it work otherwise. I'll have to forego the broadside cannon mechanism, unless I leave out the front 2 cannons (on each side), I can't make it fit along with the triple cannon mechanism. I might explore the concept one final time when I get the triple guns working but I doubt I'll come up with something. The big one yes. But the small ones look rather derpy though I don't think they embody the haunting impression I want to display with this ship. Not all of them look angry for sure, some have a rather sad expression.