Bonaparte

Aha Mr Phes, I have questions about the origin of your picture. It doesn't look like France ;-) This is the flag we should be looking at: And this is the full size lego version: The little flag is just a smaller version designed by lego.

Since this flag is supposed to represent an royal french flag, the symbol in the middle is a lily (fleur-de-lis). So indeed, it should be turned. Maybe you can print this flag and put it on the fort :-). The uniform are napoleonic anyway...

Well I think that it looks great. Reminds me of the little Black Falcon castle, but in a imperial version. This would work well as an outpost to a bigger fortress.

Very well, Bonaparte. Is there any chance that you will design differing versions in the near future? nope. Once I can buy the parts for my 10 black watch soldiers, I will start designing some english cavalry. Recently I could buy quite some minifigs on ebay. I finaly got my napoleonic officer corps. Also i reached my target of 30 red imperial soldiers.

Sorry to hear that. I hope you can make your collection complete again. I like the big ship, but I wouldn't put so many pirate flags on the masts. Think it will look better if the mast had a slightly different height. B.

Do you have an image this alternate model of the Barge (as a pirate ship) ? Are these building instructions also included in the set?

Bonaparte, how do those stickers fair? Well, I have printed the french captain and it looks great on a minifig. Only problem is that the blue color from the print doesn't match the blue from the lego-torso. And since the torso is visible at the sides, this is noticable. So now I'm redesigning it a bit so the paper will also cover the sides of the minifig. Here you see the french captain as it is today, together with my union colonel. The colonel has actualy a yellow torso. I hope to finish the french captain by the end of the week. Will post some picts if it is ready.

I was experimenting a bit with adding a scottish regiment to my english army. This is my first attempt of making a "Black Watch" soldier (found the colors at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_watch ): Once I'm sure that I'm satisfied with how it looks, I will make 10 of them. Here's the best image I could find after a quick google search: (They feature a different hat, however) I'd say you've done a very good job. Will you design a hat that resembles the above image? Aha, the hat... Indeed, I've been investigation this. It seem that during the Napoleonic wars, the hat war was a busby. The hat and uniform from your image dates from the 1750's I guess. All these uniforms changed so frequently, so I decided to use the period 1800-1815 as a reference.

I guess my original pics didn't give the right view of the ship as it would be seen at sea. That's how the ship looks like when it's at sea: The cannon in front and at the back can be turned. This is a picure of the real CSS Virginia:

If lego would make a new Roman theme, I will for sure buy it. I might even try to build an entire roman army (would look great). To be honnest, I don't like most of the current lego themes. I think the knights from the 80's and 90's looked much better than the current ones. The vikings is a theme that I like, but why must there be dragons everywhere :-X Another great theme is ofcourse Star Wars. I would like to know how lego decides on future themes. Can't they just organise a vote ?? I'm also interested to know the average age of people that buy sets like Vikings and Star Wars. What would be the percentage kids/adults ?

Out of curiosity how much did you pay for these soldiers? Was it the US$160 after postage making them US$4 each? That sounds like a reasonable price to me for a lot of 40 because I don't often see that many in a single auction. If you bought them in lots of say 3 to 5 you'd pay a lot more on postage. What do you mean by 25 to 35 cents the whole way through? 25 to 35 cents for what? I think I've missed something here! I think the c means Celcius...

I was experimenting a bit with adding a scottish regiment to my english army. This is my first attempt of making a "Black Watch" soldier (found the colors at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_watch ): Once I'm sure that I'm satisfied with how it looks, I will make 10 of them.

The making of a new lego pope: This is a link to a high resolution picture of the design if you would like to try it yourself. The design: His underwear :-): More underwear: The printed hat: The uniform ready to be put on: Preparing the uniform: Almost ready: And the result: The uniform is also useful for making priests. Enjoy, B.

Have a look at these imperial ports I found on brickshelf: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=bidault I like them a lot. Seems like a real pirate fan made them. Maybe someone already on the forum ?? They have a lot of minfigs and a powerfull garnison to protect them from pirate attacks. I saw them while I was looking for inspiration for my own imperial fort that I plan to build soon. B.

If only lego would have made this set.... Looks really great. I envy your talent. I'm afraid I could never make such a nice design with so many original details in it. I see that you are also a Star Trek and Star Wars fan. If you lived in Belgium, I would invite you. I think we could talk for hours :-).

Without any doubt, the Imperial Flagship looks much better than the CC. Also there is a imperial guard with shako in this set! But both ships are a bit to small in my opinion and should be enlarged. Anyway, I have both. But they are disassembled since i have not enough space to display them :-$

woooow! Really a great MOC. But I especially like the minifigs. It's great to see such a fine army on display. Do you intend to expand your army still ? How long have you been collecting these minifigs to get so much of them? B.

I always keep my MOCs. I still have a ship (Ironclad CSS Virginia) that I build 15 years ago. Another (Ironclad USS Monitor) is already 6 years old. However, sometimes I still make small improvements to these ships. The only problem is the dust that they collect over time :-).

Looks good. However, I think it needs a crew :-) . I prefer to buy lego at second hand markets. Here you can sometimes do interesting deals for a large amount of lego. Prices at ebay and bricklink will be much higher. B.

I've added some hussars to my army. I decided to use existing torso's (since they look better than the ones I had made 8-| ). Still need to buy some more to make a complete regiment. This is the torso I had originaly designed: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ench-hussar.jpg B.

Wow, I love these stickers. I'm gonna print them tonight and try them on some minifigs. I was planning to make a british captain and lieutenant myself, but I will use these instead. Thanks for sharing them! B.

16c Suppose this ironclad would fall into the hands of some pirates ... . They could really kick some ... and destroy those wooden ships :-). This is a ship that I build about 15 years ago (and I still have it). However, the gundeck has been redesigned about 5 years ago. It is a replica of the confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. Don't pay to much attention on the colors, the Klingon flag and the Union crew :-/ I had to build it with the bricks I had at the time. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0104.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0141.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0142.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0143.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0152.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0145.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0147.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0148.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ac/pict0149.jpg B.

I've redrawn the admiral with coreldraw (took me some hours) so I could make some minor changes. Looks really great. I would like to make a captain, lieutenant, midshipmen, ... Does anybody know a great site where i can find some good reference pictures of these uniforms (from the period 1795-1815). Maybe I should just watch the hornblower movies again... Have a look at: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jeanmark...ish-admiral.jpg The left one is redrawn. The right one is the original. B.

I didn't bid on this one. But i was watching it. You're spending serious money to build your lego empire. Do you have any pictures of your army (or fleet)? Bony BTW, did you like the Reggae Roots CD ?

Indeed, I'm planning to add a scottish regiment (Black Watch and/or Gordon Highlanders). But I think the Black Watch sounds the coolest :-).