Dreamweb

The water was very calm that morning, so I was lucky. I was shooting at roughly 6 am on a beach which is very crowded during the day. At such an early hour, there were very few people, but still two guys were interested and asked me what I was doing. I returned to the same beach later that day (without the ship ) and not only were the crowds insane, but the waves were much higher, and even without all those people around, I would not risk taking photos in such weather. I couldn't make another trip to take similar pictures of the second version (I live about 350 km from the shore), but at least the bricks didn't get wet and covered in sand this time. Anyway, thanks for your comments, I see your point, I do, but I don't think I'll be tinkering with the ship anymore... The captain likes his trophies, and the cups are not for drinking, but for display. Besides, today I am going on another trip, and this time in an opposite direction (away from the sea). But I will stay in touch all the time!

I am very aware of this, as I used to be a member of several message boards which died because of it (even a moderator on one of them). Eurobricks is doing quite well given the circumstances. Anyway, the sheer number of entries and the registered creative critics makes me think there will be plenty of votes. I'm pretty sure almost everyone who posted an entry will want to vote, even if they cannot vote for self. And I'm also sure the registered critics will want to vote too. As for the casual lurkers, you may be right that the necessity to vote for a total of 10 entries (5+5) might be discouraging for them, but on the other hand, it would reduce the problem of votes which are not very thought over and accidental, e.g. like when someone has to choose one entry, takes a brief look at all the pictures and picks one based on just the general impression, without really analysing it. What I am sure of though is that providing the ability to vote for 3 to 5 entries would not really be fair. Let's pick one number of votes to be followed by everyone! Well, in this case I can imagine making an exception to the above rule, e.g. 5 votes for those who submitted their entries, and to the registered critics, 3 votes to everyone else. But it raises new problems, like what to do with those who have registered as critics but provided little to no feedback, or those who have not registered but have presented some opinions about the entries nonetheless.

I'm sure a lot of people will vote anyway. Wasn't it always so in every contest in the past?

It wasn't so hard really to make those changes. I'm glad I made it in time though, as tomorrow I'll be leaving home for a few days and will not be back until after the submission deadline. Thanks! I'm not sure about adding more colours as I just removed some to make it less messy. I'm glad you like the figurehead, it turned out... weird, but I guess I like it too. Yes, I was trying to be true to that. Perhaps even too much initially (in the first version of the ship anyway). Now it has more or less the same proportions as the Caribbean Clipper, and I always liked that set. I guess back then LEGO also concluded that wide hulls with one middle section looked 'short', so they introduced the narrow hulls soon after. Maybe I'm just used to the proportions of the CC, because the length to width ratio doesn't bother me. I asked him about it and he said he didn't care.

I'm not so sure about this voting for oneself. It depends too much on the attitude. Some people would never vote for themselves, as they just deem it not cricket. Some probably would have no problem with it. Personally, I would disable this. But that's just my opinion.

OK, thanks for the clarification, in that case by all means 5 + 5 should be the way to go.

I also changed the rudder and the bow from white to blue, as per the advice of @Mazin They indeed blend in much better with the blue middle section. Well, unfortunately green is the colour which I always have too little of. Not counting trees, palm leaves, etc., but those are not really useful when making a ship. And let me just say that removing the green railing was out of the question for me - I consider it the most iconic part of the original set (just like the green door in the Armada Sentry set - to which I paid tribute here by also including green doors, although shaped differently). So I thought: why not make it simply green and white? Well, I always thought it was positioned too high in the actual set. Anyway, I also lowered it a bit so that it would allow the crew to access the ship's bell.

With such an enormous number of entries, I think it's a good idea. Or perhaps 5 votes in the main category (which kind of consists of two sub-categories anyway), and 3 votes in the mini set?

Thank you! It was always supposed to be a remake of 6280, and if I'm not mistaken I'm not the only one who used a name for a remake set. And there's also an entry in here somewhere which uses an old set's name, but it's not a remake.

I understood you perfectly. However, I was trying to explain that although the triangular sail coming originally from the Armada Flagship would obviously fit, in my opinion the Caribbean Clipper sails also work fine. It's all a matter of taste, obviously. ANYWAY... Having given it a lot of consideration, I have decided to follow the constructive comments provided by our great critics. Not every single thing was taken into account; however, those comments inspired a new, updated version of the ship. Although I still like the old, colourful version, which reminds me more of the actual set, I decided to indeed cut down on the colours. After all, the remake is supposed to be an improvement over the old set. So I ditched the red. Virtually all of it, except for the flags and clothes. I have updated the first post to present the new version. The old version is still there, left for comparison, but hidden under spoilers. I have also provided pictures of the gun deck and the captain's cabin, which were missing from my original entry. @Mister Phes sir, could you please add the updated entry to the building entries index, from which my entry is stil absent altogether, as far as I can tell. Thank you! And big thanks to our constructive critics for pointing out the details which needed improvement! Good work lads.

All the sails have vertical white and blue stripes (and they are all genuine vintage LEGO sails, no customs). The only one which has a different width of the stripes happens to be shaped differently, and has a giant Armada emblem covering much of the sail anyway. I think they all match pretty well all things considered. The real problem with the original Armada Flagship's sails was the lack of a jib, and the fact that the aft sail was facing the wrong direction (and had no proper connection to the mast). Those are the issues which I focused on fixing.

Thank you. I use the windows which you showed here all the time, so this time I simply felt I needed a change. My goal was to keep the colours of the original but make them less chaotic. If you think it didn't work, this is your right to think so. It was my conscious decision to use the brown hull instead of white and still try to make it resemble the Armada Flagship. And I'm sorry but I don't understand the comment about the matching sails. Do you want me to use some Friends sails? Anyway, pictures of the interior will be uploaded in a day or two, as promised. I simply wanted to shoot them indoors, not outdoors like the rest.

I think you are referring to the technique which I once described in this tutorial:

Thanks for your comments. A lot of your points about the colours can be simply explained by the fact that, by the rules of the contest, this is a remake of this set: And as I already mentioned in the first post, my goal was not to avoid the colours seen in the original, but rather to use them in a way which would look more aesthetically pleasing. The green, red, and yellow are all there in the original. If anything, I made them more symmetrical, e.g. by using the green railing not just at the bow, but at the stern too. If you look at virtually any of my other ships, I always use less colours, but this time I just followed the original in that regard. The blue part in the middle of the ship is also inspired by the original set, as are the black sections above (I simply added railings to them-also in black). Like in my every other ship, the stern is openable and there is a cabin inside which can be accessed. I will provide more photos of such close-ups, including the gun deck. The gun ports are openable and nothing needs to be removed. Actually, the 'horns' hold them just a little bit, enough so that they could not open by accident. I hope this clarifies things a bit to you. Thanks again for the comments!

UPDATE: I have modified my entry following some of the feedback which I have received. Thank you for your constructive comments. The current version can be seen below. The old version is at the end of this post, hidden under the spolier tag. This is my entry, which is a remake of the 6280 Armada Flagship, less colourful and with more sails. The stern has the same window as the original: The figurehead is inspired by the strange figurehead from the original set. The side of the ship where the cannons are is built with the use of blue chairs - positioned normally and upside-down. The ship has a compass and a bell, like the original, but I decided to make the structures holding them white, for more colour consistency. The anchor has an old-type hoisting mechanism, something which the set was sadly missing. A close-up of the gun deck: This is how the ship opens up in order to access the captain's cabin: And finally, the cabin itself! This is my updated entry, and below you can see the original one if you wish. Thanks!

I agree. That was because I had to focus on the building part of the contest (preparation of my entry which is yet to be shown). If I find the time, I will post more feedback, if not, well, there are those who will get the job done.

My entry is 90% ready, I will surely submit it before the deadline, but hard to tell when exactly. I understand those will not be Pirate sets - as there are currently no new ones available except for the Eldorado Fortress?

I, for one, think this is a very fair distribution of prizes!

Wait, where? I'm from Poland, and I intend to buy it.

Sadly I never owned the Enchanted Island. I don't own a lot of Islanders to begin with. Still I'm quite familar with the set and I think it's very good. Your entry uses the new Eldorado Fortress approach more than any of the other entries I've seen. What I mean is, it is quite similar to the original while using modern parts, colours, etc. And in that respect you've made an excellent job. As far as possible improvements go, I would not place the small waterfall in the corner. The way it is now, it doesn't look realistic. Water doesn't flow like that. Also, there are some large green flat surfaces, especially under the bridge and nearby. You could add some plants or maybe small hills there to make it look more appealing. But I like both of your boats a lot! :) Anyway, it's still very good. Definitely could pass as a modern recreation of the set, and I would probably buy it. :)

Certainly sir. It's this part: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2466&idColor=1#T=C&C=1 The joke here is that when I built my HMS Eternity ten years ago (egad, it's really been that long!), I used the exact same pieces for hammocks, and almost nobody talked about the ship, while everybody talked about the hammocks.

I'd add a bit more grass or leaves on the green part and keep the shape as it is in the last picture, but that's just me.

I don't mind the abundance of green in the last picture, as it is even more reminiscent of the original island. However, because of the different technique used to build the island, it does not seem repetitive. Therefore, the last one is definitely my favourite.

OK, I get it, these are two official sets with your own addition built between them... It's a good thing that you've made this modular and hinged, therefore providing the ability to rearrange the whole structure whenever necessary. This feature also seems like natural continuation of the two original sets. Also, I like the cage with the dead soldier. However, I would suggest making your part resemble a sunken ship a bit more. The original Shipwreck Defense set had something which looked like a part of a, well, shipwreck. Your part has a similar structure, but on a rock and much higher. I would make it at the same level, indicating another part of the same sunken boat, or alternatively make it go up gradually, on a rock that gets higher the more you move away from the original Shipwreck Defense. That would mean it crashed on an uneven rock. The way this is done now, it's hard to see an actual shipwreck here. The skeleton in the bed suggests that maybe he died in the crash, but that's about it. About the skull island, instead of placing it more or less in line with the shipwreck, how about turning it by 90 degrees and making it look like the stern of the sunken ship? A bit like what we saw in the Red Beard Runner set: Now, that would be a combination of the two 2015 sets which the LEGO designers pobably never thought of.

That's quite an improvement with the shape of the island, well done! Definitely reminds me more of the original! But I still think you could extend the water, e.g. to the right of the island (the right of the palm tree) and place the raft there!