Bonaparte

This MOC is just stunning. Seems I missed it when it was posted, but now I'm happy I found it. Overall it looks fantastic. It's like a market place on steroids times 10. The amount of details is just dazzling. Everywhere you look you can seem something. Seems you've put a lot of effort, time and money in this. Most of all I like the hill with the chapel on top. Those stairs and especially the curved walls are the best. I've been thinking about building a fortress on a mountain (at some point in the future) and here I have all the inspiration I ever wanted. Those curved walls will be excellent for a fortress. Lovely work and a deserved frontpage post on Classic-pirates.com. When you say this is "part of" you coastal layout, then I just can't wait to see the rest. How is it going? Are you making good progress?

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According to me he's making the "new" HMS Victory, the one launched in 1765, most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. The "old" HMS Victory was launched on 23 February 1737 and sunk October 1744. An artist impression of how the old victory could have looked:

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The Eurobricks 2009 event has officially started and will continue till Sunday. No less that 24 members and relatives will meet at Legoland Germany (Günzburg) for our 5 day event. You can expect some live coverage and pictures of the event to be posted in our Event Forum.

Zorro, CHG, Kirk and myself will arrive between 14u30 and 15u30 if we don't have too much traffic jams. Does this mean breakfast is available in the hotel and included in the price we paid? Or do we have to pay that onsite?

Park information www.legoland.de Hotel: EUROHOTEL GUNZBURG Spielplatzstrasse 6, 89312 Gunzburg, Deutschland Tel.: +49 (0) 8221 206 66 - 00 Fax: 0049 8221 20666 - 100 Email: info.guenzburg@azimuthotels.eu Practical info: - Bed sheets and towels are part of the Bed and Breakfast, so no need to bring them. - The Eurohotel has free wireless Internet in the public places. - Pack lightly, you're going home with some serious overweight. - Zorro will be taking pictures, so don't forget your sig-figgies!

Errorist worked on the stern in Amsterdam and helped the first day of rigging in Belgium. CGH worked also at those same moments on the ship but besides that the good captain has been guiding me through the entire project and more important, he let be borrow his tumblehome technique and his brand new technique for making the galleries like they've been made on this ship (under 2 angles). He had developed that technique on a small test model, but it was not yet done on a real ship. I'm eternally grateful for being allowed to use these 2 wonderful techniques!

Those are Captain Green Hair's curtains which have been put in a bath of coffee and tea. A three-decker on standard hull is pushing it. Personally I wouldn't advise doing that. My previous ship had cannons on all decks, but in reality I never open the ship so it's a bit a waste to have those expensive Lego cannons hidden like that. For this ship I decided against doing that and only put cannons on the visible parts.

This thread shows the making of the HMS Prince of Wales, featuring myself, Captain Green Hair and Errorist. The pictures also include a lot of beers of course Part 1: Belgium, Antwerp province - My place The very first start of the ship: An early version of the broadside: Version 2, looking more like it already: Trying something out by adding another yellow line: Almost there: A view on the undecorated and rough version of the stern: Part 2: The Netherlands, Amsterdam - Captain Green Hairs place Yes, part of the ship was constructed in Amsterdam, mainly the stern. Next pic shows the stern before it was pimped in Amsterdam. The masters @ work. And there's a view of the pimped stern: You can see very clearly in the following picture that the ship was first build one side only. Once one side was ready it was quickly copied to the other side. This way of working saved me a lot of time. Part 3: Belgium, Antwerp province - My place The finishing of the ship was done in Belgium, the next pics show how the first rigging and sails were made. Here's the captain measuring the ropes. Oh look, there's me And David (aka Errorist): Me again, hidding behind the mast: The rigging is growing and a first sail is on the ship: That's how a sail is made: Many days later I finished most of the rigging as you can see in the following two pictures: And many weeks later this was the result: More pictures of the finished ship are here.

I still didn't start reading the Hornblower books. I'm often wondering if that's still worth the effort now that I've seen the movie and series. I mean, won't there be a big overlap? About the building, a few years ago I couldn't build anything decent. Being around this place and studying the works of others really makes the difference. I'm sure you can do the same over time and if you put your mind to it. I started by building armies, but in my opinion that will only keep you in the hobby for some time unless you evolve into MOC'ing. I must admit I'm fortunate to live a 2 hours drive away from a master ship builder who doesn't mind explaining a few of his techniques (you probably guessed I'm talking about Captain Green Hair). Should you ever come to Belgium again we'll visit the Waterloo battlefield together, a great place to hang out!

I see a lot of similarities between your story and mine dear Commodore. Like you I enjoyed space a lot during my youth, but now I'm going all the way for pirates and whatever set from the other themes that fits in the pirate universe. Judging from your username and signature you're a big fan of the Hornblower series (and maybe the movie?). I adore both (serie and movie), own them both on DVD and have seen them all at least 3 times. Also like you I first found the pirates forum and only later discovered it was part of a larger community called Eurobricks. Like I said, lots of similarities. I hope you continue to enjoy you stay with us

Oh wonderful Let me answer your questions: I didn't used a tiled deck because that reduces playability in my view as minifigs would fall easily. I tried to find a balance between good looks and playability. The big cannons on the gun decks have wheels, the 10 smaller cannons on the upper deck don't have wheels because of the scale in which this ship is build. Giving the cannons on the upper-deck wheels didn't look right as they became too big. That would work if the ship was made in full minifig scale (like the ships under construction by CGH, Teddy, Errorist, Phred), but such ships take years to build and are 5x bigger than this one. This ship is build in what I call "minifig illusion scale" . The door towards the cabin is under the poop deck and not visible from the outside, that's how it was on the wooden models I was using as a basis for this ship.

This ship has the potential to become very good. But you'll need a lot of patience to get it all finished. I'll be following your progress and hope to see it fully rigged and with sails one day.

Happy B-day Shadows

Thanks everyone for you nice feedback It's got 2 gun-decks and 60 guns, well, maybe 62 guns if I count the 2 guns (low) in the stern. That would make this a 4th rate ship-of-the-line which had (in real life) a crew between 320 to 420 souls. If I would add to more guns it could be classified as a 3rd rate ship-of-the-line (those had minimun 64 guns), so maybe I'll find some room to put 2 more guns :-) I've sewed them on the beams, that took a lot of patiences. I tried to make one sail per evening, so cut it, drawing the vertical lines on it and attaching (sewing) it on the ship. So you can calculate how many evenings I've been using to put on all the sails... That's probably why it took me so long to build it. And I've done a lot of re-building the ship to make sure I was happy with everything about it. The prince must be a healthy man who like mermaids A 3 decker would be pushing it, but I've heard a friend of mine mentioning intentions to try it. No, it's a printed piece of paper. I'm planning to do a "making of" in the near future containing some pics while we're building the ship. I'm also on Flickr and MOCpages The problem is the ship being so long and high. I had to use a bed-sheet and that was hardly big enough. I've photoshopped the background of the first pic though. You sound like CGH, he's always talking about ridged hose

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Auch, my head is on a stick Nice work Hinckley, this is your typical (super) funny style which always makes me laugh

I just love carnaval Teddy It's fun to see a parade like this one in Lego form.

Would you like to give it a try? I can give you access if you want. Access granted! Welcome.

I'm soooo very much looking forward to the event. It's the only fun thing I've planned in this month really. I just can't wait for my first EB event to start

Oh, I didn't get the question. You are right, everyone can post reviews. The academy is optional. Granted. Welcome!

What else would you do in the academy?

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That's amazing work Z! I can't keep my eyes of these pictures. All the details and especially the roof make this so very special.