Dreamweb

This is exactly what the guy on that page wrote. If only I could find it again... I'll try.

What about the Imperial Flagship? I once found a page where a guy who was an expert in sailing described all Lego ships and compared them to real ships, and said which of them were the most realistic, and named the types of the vessels. It was more than a year ago and I can't find it now.

Thanks for the information. What about the one with the bull on his chest? I used it because I thought it would fit a Spaniard nicely (Spain -> corrida -> bulls).

Let me think... They can transport monkeys to Europe and sell them for circuses or something like that. :) Apart from monkeys: money, jewels, horses, weapons, food. They can carry supplies for the colonies for instance.

And who exactly is this guy?

Some of this torsos are of origin unknown to me, probably from Castle, but I'm not sure... I just got them in brick packs I bought from various people. Is there a Fright Knight torso here? :)

It will be universal - the ship can transport money, goods, animals, maybe barrels of rum or slaves - depends on what they wish to trade...

This is quite a nice explanation. As I see it now, it is the same guy who appeared in the previous sets (all the variations shown by mister_phes) and served under Red Beard, then during the crash you mentioned he lost a leg (hence the pegleg in Pirates Perilous Pitfall) and then he mutinied and became a new captain.

Yes, unfortunately such middle sections will always stand out a bit. However that doesn't refrain many MOC builders I know from using them. Note that the big merchantman I'm still working on (I've been today but it's still not ready) doesn't have original middle sections at all.

I have no idea, I just typed "Armada" into the brickshelf browser and found this, no data on email adress or anything though.

That's a good question indeed. Owner of (at least) two Armada Flagships and (at least) one Armada Sentry and who knows what else should have at least 7 Armada minifigs...

The folder's here. I found this one on brickshelf lately and I must say it's one of the best custom ships I've ever seen. And here's why: 1) I've seen many giant ship MOCs using wide hull, but this one uses Armada Flagship's narrow hull, which isn't usually used as base for ships this huge and complex. I'd say it's harder to use the narrow hull and still make a big ship withs lots of details 2) Clever use of parts - there were only two Imperial Armada sets released by Lego and parts of that sets are used here (note the Armada Sentry's green door, plus the MOC is obviously made of two Armada Flagships). 3) Great colour scheme. Just white, blue and green, not like in the Armada Flagship which was a mixture of colours. Here it looks much more monolithic. 4) It represents the Imperial Armada, the smallest of all subthemes (again, only 2 sets), yet it shows a big vessel can be made in this subject. Congratulations to its constructor - Nyanta. Lego should print this picture and hang it on the wall to look at what they might have done hadn't the Pirate line and Imperial Armada subtheme been discontinued.

Well I'm no expert in this terminology but I think the Renegade Runner is a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel, with the sail with skull and crossbones being the main sail and the triangular one being the jib.

Now, before I finish this new ship and post its images, I want to show you something I made about a year ago. This is not a MOC, just a modified Armada Flagship. As you can see the hull is longer, it contains 6 stud long custom made middle section. There aren't really many changes, one of the most noticeable is perhaps the placing of the mizzen sail - the original didn't make sense to me. And there's also a jib the Spaniards stole from the Caribbean Clipper. :) There are some other minor differences, like the construction of the hatch (closed and open). As you can see the crew is made of part of my Spanish army. The brickshelf folder is here.

Only the last one of them is the captain... Well that's one more reason for Lego to continue the Pirate line - they should release more sets with this character and tell us his name :)

Well, those two, as Imperial Armada collectors know, are almost original Armada figures, the only exception being the addition of the epaulettes. So they aren't my idea. However the other officers are made of more freely mixed elements.

I don't quite remember, however I agree with ApophisV. :)

I once wrote in this topic that I'd made a Spanish army. Here is a folder containing pictures of it, go check it out first! I used torsos from many different themes and some cool looking faces. I used three types of hats: (those torsos represent ordinary seamen, other torsos represent higher ranks, and guys with plumes are the captains). I'm not sure if there were female officers among Spanish sailors, I doubt it, however my army has one: :) The army isn't very big but will grow stronger (and pretty soon will that happen)...

Perhaps a ghost with the face we've seen in Islanders sets in different variants as a stone sculpture.

Well, back to my question. I don't know if the spare parts do or do not count, however if they don't and the instructions are the same the only logical answer would be the different quantity of minifig accesories.

And when you imagine that for example Armada Flagship's main sail (the one with the crown) has those stripes on the other side as well, but the emblem on one side only, it will be visible on the reverse side a bit as well but it won't disturb me.

No, in those other sets we had different guys. Only here has he got a pegleg and captain's hat. Can anyone who owns this set (6281) post a picture of his face, or a link to this head piece on peeron?

I'm still thinking what nation's ship will it be. BTW, wasn't it so that even merchant vessels had a few soldiers on board?

Well, it can't be Red Beard in disguise. Doesn't he have to many hands and eyes for Red Beard (and Ironhook as well)? :) It's gotta be somone else.

Don't know yet. I'll take care of the sails when the rest is ready. Generally it's going to be a merchant vessel, hence only 4 cannons and a HUGE cargo bay.