koffiemoc

Thank you for the review. It is elaborate, accurate and to the point, I think, including your thoughts about the cramped Slytherin room, the restricted section and not having a bathroom but a statue hiding Riddle's diary. I lost one pair of cuffs already while finishing the build, because they're not exactly a tight match. And I er, have overridden the piece with my office chair. Luckily there's a spare. I bought this set before the review was posted and I quite feel the same about it as you described. Still, I couldn't resist because one local store in the Netherlands had it on discount - 99 euro instead of 129 - and I don't have any of the prior versions. I wonder why you didn't mention the 2004 version, with a mixture of round and square rooms/towers and some lovely features as the huge doors, the clockwork (prominent in the Azkaban movie), a nice roof, straight instead of spinning stairs and a broaden-your-minds-room in the attic. It was my favourite version in every ebay search for Hogwarts up till now. Did you notice that the first two towers to build (astronomy and Griffindor) have a brick-on-edge sill beneath every window, where the Great Hall and Dumbledore's office lack these? It struck me as inconsistent and I couldn't help thinking TLC developed these parts separately, in time or by different teams or team members. How do you guys all know the cat is mrs. Norris? I thought it to be Crookshanks, Hermione's ginger beast. Your third booklet seems to be a misprint. Mine are all equally dark. For all those in doubt: there won't be a perfect Lego Hogwarts. Ever. Unless you build it yourself. So you might as well get this one, as it's certainly not the ugliest of all four, and it's got plenty of parts (tan, dark tan!, windows!!) and beautiful figs. And it might be the last version TLC is ever gonna make.

Though the ship is rigged like a topsail schooner, the hull isn't like that. It's more a dutch/scandavian galeas, with its round bow ans square stern. The tan string is artificial tendon, it's tough and a bit sticky. I had planned to use thin hemp rope, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the evening I had to finish the ship. I bought the tendon a while ago for sewing leather.

Added two detail pics. I'll try to take some more in the next few days.

@Cdre Hornbricker: I've paid quite some attention to the bow. The bowsprite should be beside the bow, and attached with a sort of thick plate to the hull, as there's a lot of upwards strain on the sprite. @Burman: sails (and rigging) were finished in a hurried rush, in order to make it in time before the contest's deadline. Glad I'm not the only one who sees it. I'll promise next ship will be better finished on this point. @Ratshot: I don't have better photographs of her than the ones already published on flickr. But maybe I can take better ones in the next few days, before I take the ship to parts. Thanks for the link to the intro topic. I know i should've put this topic in the mocs subtheme, it was a mistake. I've reported it already to the admins. Thanks all for the compliments.

Ahoy all, I'm new here on classic-pirates. Been around a bit in the neighbourhood, occasionally on classic-castle and as a reader of the many reviews on eurobricks. Most of my online time I spend on lowlug.nl, a not too big and very nice dutch lug. Only recently I've built my first pirate mocs, with the Jolly Roger Contest on the Forbidden Cove as a trigger. This contest had all sorts of categories, and I tried my hand at first at some small stuff, a vignette and a custom fig. But of course I had just had to build a ship. I've never had a classic pirate ship, but months and months ago I purchased on ebay hull parts, masts, standing rigging and sails. So all I needed was a good idea. Now I don't like to build a ship which looks overlarge or silly small compared to the figs and to the shipmodel it's supposed to be. I had to find a model which would be, on a 1:40 scale, about 16 studs wide and anywhere between 34 and 50 studs long (bowsprite not included). Browsing the worldwide interseas I found an Italian building plan for a wooden model of a 18th century swedish coaster which fitted to this scheme, the Albion. She had no guns, but I thought when it would be taken over by pirates who were looking for a replacement ship they sure would place some guns in it. This is what I finally came up with: my first pirate ship moc ever, the former "Albion". pic+click=link Mind you, now that I've tasted how sweet shipbuilding is like, it sure won't be my last one. P.S.: I didn't find an introduction topic, let this be considered as my "Hello world" statement.

Here are my points, as well as my points of criticism: I Scream Clone - 2 points A vast layout with beautiful treehuts, a magnificent temple, nicely coloured water and hilarious details as the carrot sacrifice. I also like the small vessels. Can't think of anything that could've be done better at this scene. Cap'n Blackmoor - 1 point Good brickbuilt vessel, the scene depicts the backstory without need for further explanation, I like the houses in the background. Nice detail are the sigfigs. The ropework on the ship doesn't look realistic to me though. maydayartist - 1 point I like the bussiness of the constructionwork in the shipyard, and all the details depicting this. The shape of the hull is very good and consistent. Best detail: the captain's organ being craned in. The houses seem to be a bit small and cramped away in a far end corner of the scene. Guss - 1 point Pirates at peace doesn't mean there should be no violence: what a horrific perhistoric monster comes out of the deep! It's really like those sea-creatures on old maps! I also like the shape of the hull and all the minifigs doing their peaceful thing. Best detail is the unicorn head. It's a pity such a big ship has only one mast, I really miss a second one. Dr. Steve - 1 point Now this moc is depicting the theme perfectly. Best detail is the sandcastle. It doesn't look as eleborated as many other mocs though. Fonz - 1 point I like mocs what a clear overall shape, as a sculpture that needs no questioning what it's about. And this balancing boat is exactly what I mean. I also like the gaff sails instead of the obligatory square ones. Best detail is the cat looking longingly to the big fish. The hull could've be done less square & straight. I'd rather been giving more points, for now I had to neglect some really good mocs. But oh well, that's all in the game.

Thanks to all who like my moc, I'd never expected to get even 3rd place seeing all the other great creations! And many thanks to WhiteFang for organising this contest, it was great fun planning and building and all. Well, now i feel really in debt, like I owe you more classic town mocs (contest or no contest), but first I've got some other plans like a sailing vessel and a trial truck.

Very classic and very great! Even if you'd had only created the TV-part of your moc it would have been a terrific set!

Your proof is solid as a stud.

A very original idea indeed! And though some details give a post-80ies impression, like the big transparent elements and some rounded slopes, the overall setup of this moc surely fits the classic theme. It makes me want to play that Andy Irvine song again about the noble horse Stewball and the race at the plains of Kildare.

I certainly like this moc, because of its simplicity and colors, which give it a real early-80ies look. On your first picture the buildings look too flat though, as if they are only theatrical backgrounds, instead of being 6 studs deep. Maybe you could have better taken that picture from an angle,I mean, a bit more from aside. The interiors are lovely I think, especially the bank counter. And almost no post '86 elements as mentioned before (except for that fish bowl, which dates from not earlier than '92 and the vault door which isn't produced earlier than '96), very pure, that contributes a lot to the real classic look and feel. And yet, there is something that isn't classic to my opinion, but I couldn't point it out at first sight. It's so smooth that it's easily overlooked: the gutters and windowsill, they have a studless finishing!

Thanks for all your compliments. When I read the announcement and rules for the contest, that railway crossing immediately jumped to my mind. And it was clear to me that a "six stud wide vehicle" could be a train of course. Puzzling and testing varying layouts with the railwaycrossing on top of the two road baseplates, I concluded that that wouldn't make any sense trafficwise, so I decided to push the moc to the limits of the rules: additional 2 baseplates 16x32. And such a big scene could only be brought alive with quite a lot of minifigs, so I used 18 (19 if you count the statue as 1). I also deliberately used colours that weren't in use in TLC classic town sets, like orange, tan, bley and grey, and -most prominent- green for the truck. The railway crossing doesn't have the original beams (poles? booms? what is their name in english?) because one of the two I own has broken, years and years ago. I'm very happy with the brickbuilt ones, especially because I could make half ones (which permit vehicles to leave the crossing even if they are closed). The crossing is in fact one of the things I finished first, together with the orange busstop, the cars and the train. I gave all buildings an old as well as a newer component, wether looked upon with an architectural view or a Lego-historical view. The station has an old-fashioned look with modern windows on the railway side. Travelers can watch the trains better that way. The oldfashioned look uses some tan bricks, a brown door and brown window panes from a Harry Potter set. The same for the warehouse, with a modernized ground floor (black doors and extension on the left side) and an oldfashioned top part, though it has the new green shutters from set 6117 to obtain that older look. And of course there's the snackbar, with its late 60ies / early 70ies windows on the second floor which gives a 50ies or 60ies impression to me, modern looking glass elements on the ground floor, the classic snackbar sign from set 675 and the roof parts from the 90ies pizzeria 6350. I tried hard to make a natural flowing combination of colours and style elements from different periods in time, and I'm quite happy with the result. It's my nicest moc since my dark years I reckon. And I've learned something new: I thought that adding the building interiors and minifigs would be a less exciting, but short exercise. But it took a little longer and I had much more fun with it than I expected!

Here's my entry for the Classic Town Contest: Little-Station Square. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and comment to them later. (what choices I've made and why etc) More images on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koffiemoc/

Nice interior. Always love to see a decent workshop. And a great nesting tree!

What an idea to build a conference hall using only one street baseplate. It fits wonderful though, very well done! The colours in the conference table match the astronauts, because each is sitting behind his (her ?) own colour. In the car outside this is not immediately clear, because the car colours are not aligned with the space enthousiasts. And the colours aren't unique either, all of classic town is built in 'the five colours of the Spacemen'. Only green and grey were not in use. What I like best is the little scene in the park and the officer eager to stop that vulgarity. It makes your scene really alive and kicking.

I like it a lot, my favourite piece is the kitchen with its dormer.

Very nice, especially how the hotel curls around the street corner. The yellow car jumps into view immediately, for several reasons. First, because I really like it, second, because it's the only yellow object, and third: it has quite some details that make it post-80ies in my opinion. There's the rounded hood, the rounded wings (fenders), the modern grill (well, modern, ahum) and spoked wheels, it's six wide and the spare wheel is mounted on a slope trunk. That's a bit too much for my eyes to place it in the eighties, although it fits in your scene very well otherwise. Very nice car, but another very nice car would fit even more nicely in the theme.

Lovely picture! It warps me way back to my teens, when I wished I could have a building like, well, in your scene. I realise I've got quite a bit of work to do yet to make those dreams of old come alive, especially if I want to make it as nice as the ones already posted.