Derfel Cadarn

This is a lovely ship! The colourscheme works well and you did a good job with the sail plan. Its nice to see some different techniques here, the use of the bottom half of the new bow/stern piece works well, and I think its a technique that will be used quite a lot in the future. I also like the sloped part of the bow which looks interesting, as well as the gold tridents on the stern. Nice job! Ive been a fan of your ships for many years from mocpages, and you have always tried different interesting techniques! Keep up the good work

This is looking rather interesting! I like the shape and colourscheme, look forward to seeing this complete. Any chance of some clearer shots?

Yes I remember this one, not sure if Sly posted it here or not. As always, the part usage is excellent and that cannon is deffinitly a great design!

Sooo bad but funny, whatever next? viking pirates with armoured Tanks instead of boats? or perhaps a pirate playset that comes with a car and Mcdondalds drive thru!

Looking good! I really like the hint of old classic pirates in the ruins, nicely done. The cliff is a good basic shape, but maybe you could make it look a bit more natural if you added some plates and slopes to get rid of the 'blockyness'. Other then that, the beach looks nice and the cannons look menacing enough to keep pirates away, although it wont stop my crew from attacking Nice work! DC

Very cool! The idea is a good one and you have added some nice details. The little building fits nicely into the scene as does the addition of a small crane and the little look-out post. Very piratey indeed! The only thing that I think you should add would be a background of sky and clouds rather than plain white. I think that would bring the scene to life a bit more. Other then that, nice work on a great little moc.

This is a really great moc The landscape is nicely done with some great details, the trees look nice and the cross being hauled upright is a great scene and looks great with the use of string. The ship looks really good too, its obviously out of scale, but it works and can be interpreted as in the background and thus smaller For a small scaled ship it really does look good as you have packed in enough detail to make it recognizable. Great work all round, expecially as its your first pirate type moc. Keep 'em coming!

So, you're going to mod the Imperial flagship into a Galleon? Well, the first bit of advice would be to find a good picture to give you an idea of the shape you should be aiming for. Here is a nice side view of a four masted galleon which shows a good clear view of the shape from the side. There are many great pictures to be found on the internet and they can be very helpful. You have a good base to build on, so the first part to do would be to change the stern. Galleons tend to slope inwards and get much narrower near the top, as well as sloping out towards the back. This can be achieved with various sloped bricks or using hinges. Its a case of what bricks you have at your disposal. You will also need to add a bit of height at the front of the ship by building a fore-castle. If you try to build up the sides of the ship to a similar shape of those in the pictures then you'll have something that looks more like a Galleon rather then a Imperial Flagship. As for rigging and sail making, there are some great tutorials to be found in the Lego Pirate Index thread. Im planning on starting a tutorial in a few weeks time on how to build a Galleon similar to my Princess Ceinwyn, so you might find that helpful. Good luck with your ship DC

Thankyou for your kind words, I admit that I agree with both of you about the 'gluein'. It seemed like a good idea at first but when I look at it now it bugs me. Yes there are ways around it, I would have to make sloped walls on hinges so I can incorperate a 1x1 clip, instead of a sloped brick. They will stick out a bit but at least I dont have to worry about glueing them back on every time I knock them off! The tooth plates do work well and are a much underused part for ships, they come in quite a few colours and you could create some great patterns with them. Im working on new ship now, so I will make sure everything is legit on this one, as well as making the masts better. Thanks for you comments and advice, always appreciated.

You have done very well for a first moc! The building looks nice with just the right amount of detail and the colours you have chosen always contrast well. To make it better you have even added an interior which a lot of people dont bother with and it looks a nice busy tavern scene. Nice work!

Looking very impressive mate! Deffinitly the best building ive seen from you as I can see you have actually spent some time to add in lots of detail all over. There isn't a bland area anywhere on this building and thats exactly what I ment by character, lots of interesting features. The angled idea is interesting as im planning a large medieval moc and ive been experimenting with ways to make the houses look crooked and leaning at odd angles. I think its a logical next step to medieval house building and its great to see you have tryed something different and its worked rather well! Now you have to keep up this level of detail with every building now but the extra time and effort will be worth it in the end. Seeing this all come together really makes me want to build something big again but im short of time and patience at the moment, maybe in when winter sets in As always, feel free to pm me if you need any help. Great work!

Congratulations to all the well deserved winners!

Simply stunning! The slightly larger scale allows for more detail and you have taken full advantage of that! Most excellent!!!

This looks awesome! I love the whole style of this castle and the different angles really make it stand out. Its always nice to find lots of hidden details when you have a closer look, and this is no exception. The monster beneath the gate is very nicely done and you cant beat a good little back story. Great work!

Excellent work! A great idea an you have pulled it off well especially the shape. The small door and little window at the top give it a very quaint feel and the green surroundings contrast well and allow the tavern to stand out. Nice one!

Thankyou, I'm glad you picked up on the toothplates as that was the exact reason I chose to you them. I did originally decide to use all old brown, but a loot of parts I needed are not available in that colour, plus it's quite pricey. The red brown worked out quite nicely. Well, it will take a while to build enough ships for a decent Spanish Armada sized battle, but I have sorted all the lists of parts I need for each ship and will use this ships design to work from. I go on holiday for 2 weeks next week and when I come back I have 3 weeks to get the second ship build in time for display at Steam show. I will take pictures of each point of construction and post them here for those who would like to build this sort of ship. Many thanks for all your great comments!

This is looks interesting! I like how the shape is starting to take form, the stern is looking good and has a nice shape. I know from making my galleon that a lot of changing and rebuilding is needed when trying to get a good shape. Galleons arnt easy and it's good to see someone else making one. Is there any particular ship you're basing it on and are you going for 4 masts or 3? Keep up the good work, this looks like its going to be a great moc!

Very cool design! I can use something like this as I'm trying to push the Tudor era forward a bit. Most people here build more in the later century's. Maybe you could look into building the famous ship herself. I'm surprised no one has built the Mary Rose yet! Great moc, it would be nice to see some more designs like this from you.

Cool, nicely done, I've also given my sigfig a redo but just havnt go round to uploading. The pumpkin will return! May a sigfig thread would be a cool idea.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments, they are very much appreciated! Thanks for the blog, its nice too be back building pirates again as ive been away for aquite a while. This forum is where I first started out and I hope to get a few more piratical mocs done this year! Thanks very much for the frontpage and being a great source of inspiration with your ship building. Thanks, yes the glueing part kind of bugs me as I like to build in a 'legit' way. As I said, I tryed attaching them with the clip piece but that ment they didn't sit flat against the side and you also have the 'clip' part itself showing around the whip which again ruined the effect. Still, it gives a nice effect and is really the only way of doing it. As for minifigs, I chose to leave them off as I wanted to give it a more 'model ship' appearence. But she will be crewed when you next see her! Thankyou! Well, like I said, I don't intend to take her apart, so there will always be photo opportunities. I intend to add some more deck details like cannons and also new sails and flags, which you will see when she appears in my next moc. Thanks, that sounds like a great book, Im forever delving into books as they are such a great source of info and inspiration. As for Drake and the Armada, it will be a tough build, expecially the Golden Hinde as I have to get that just right as its one of the main stars. Will the Princess Ceinwyn be one of the ships that survive the battle? who knows... Thanks all, she will appear at port in my next moc being prepared for war as tension mounts when Spain launch an Armada Which also means she'll be hunting down 'Cagafuego' with Drake.

105b Hi there, this is an English Galleon, currently a privateer in the service of the queen of England. Ive wanted to have a go at building a more realistic ship for ages, but ive never really been a ship builder as I have always prefered landscapes. However, this has changed! Ive really enjoyed building this ship as it was a refreshing challenge. Usually I power build a moc and finish it in a few weeks, but I started this in March and took a bit of time working an hour here and there on her. Its my first try at a Galleon and even though im quite happy with how shes turned out, there are a few ideas and techniques which I'd like to try instead on my next one. My long term vision is to recreate part of a battle in the Spanish Armada, so I need a few of these and then a few big Spanish Galleons. That will take time! I used CGH's tutorial to get me going then built her up from pictures of the Golden Hinde, as there is a lot of info and pics of that ship. I wanted to try a different technique for the colours, so I used the tooth plates instead of a checker pattern with plates. The sails are test ones, as I plan to make some with a printed Elizabethan design in the future. I chose to sow all the sails and ive also sowed them onto the yards. For the rigging I have just gone with the basics, although I really wanted to go all out and add as many parts as I could, however, anyone who builds ships will know rigging is tricky and time consuming. I'd like to thanks CGH for his great tutorial, Admiral Croissant for his great sail making thread, and all other members who have given me info and ideas! The next ship is already under construction! The ship has been photographed without figs as I thought it was best in this case. Enough talking, heres the pics: There are larger versions of the pics at my Flickr, plus I hope to upload some more shots of the decks, rigging and bow soon.

I remember this, it's actually quite old now as it was built for the first Jolly Rodger Contest over at Forbidden Cove. A very impressive moc and one that was hard to beat in that category. I thought it had been posted here before, but maybe not. Either way, it's a great moc worthy of Classic Pirates!

This is looking interesting! I like the idea of the rope bridges from rock to rock, it's something I like to do on pirate mocs. If you have enough 1x4 tiles another way to make the bridges is with these and string. Just tie 2 pieces of string with a gap of 2 studs between them, then put the 1x4 tiles on top and secure them with 1x4 plates underneath. This looks good and allows you to have more freedom with where you place you bridges. Just remember to use small fine string so you can clap them between the tiles and plates. The building looks great, good old fashioned colour use and you've given the building some character which is important as a lot of people just build a square building with no other quirky features. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for your great feedback. Regarding the whips and muskets, this was a pain. I tried every possible way to connect them with different clips but that caused problems. There isn't a large selection of bricks with clips in brown colour and they also stick out so that the whips were not sitting flat against the hull. This made them look more like random things stuck to the side rather then wood carvings which is the desired effect. So in the end I desired to just glue them as it's impossible to attach one to a sloped brick. I bought the pieces expecially for this moc which I don't intend to take apart, so it didn't bother me to much. However, glueing them wasn't easy as you can only use the smallest amount and if it smudges you are left with a unsightly mark. So it wasn't easy, but the effect is well worth it. Im not a big fan of cutting and gluing bricks, but in this case there was no other way, but I don't intend to take it apart so it's not a problem.

Interesting design, the mechanical aspects are cool and add something different to the norm. I don't think the ship itself looks too blocky but there's room for some improvement. The colour scheme is nice it would deffinitly be great to see you incorperate your mechanics into your new Dutchman. Maybe some string rigging would look better, although it's an absolute pain to do! Nice work and keep them coming.