rupi

actually I learned the both ways, i started in 1990 and in my college there was only one mac for about 100 students so nobody could touch it and we did all the work by hand, you know with rotring pens, pencils, brushes, getting our hands dirt...and the cut & paste in that time was really with scissors and glue...but in a coulple of years everybody was using the computers for everything, the transition was really fast. now I'm glad that I learned that way because these days with all the possibilities of computers we sometimes seam to lose the ability to think...

not much really, I am graduated in graphic design but know I am a highschool teatcher.

I would like to ask a favor to Mr. Phes or other user who could do it. Is it possible to put here pictures of all the pirate and soldiers minifigs and their names (the ones who have names). I am realy interested in knowing better the characters of the pirate theme and I think a lot of people would find that interesting to. I often see the name of Gov Broadside as a rare and valuable minifg and I dont know who he is (I may have a dozen or so at home and not even know it :-) ) I'm kidding...I wish.

Well, I have a home made light table but I didnt used it because it is stored in the garage and I didnt want to take the time to get it and clean it... Most of the times I also try to make everything I can using a computer, but sometimes its faster and cheaper to use the old methods. The cheap and efective solution that I used in this case was a window with good sun ligth behind. Its convenient to use tape to hold the materials to the glass and then it is easy to trace the design. As for the sails, I soaked all the fabric with white glue mixed with water, (and not just the edges as in evil willy tutorial) For the holes I used a tool (dont know the name) for making holes in belts, a paper puncher also works good but the holes are a little to big. I plan to do some sails for the black sea barracuda when I have the time, if possible I will try to make a tutorial of how to trace drawings and paint the sails.

Yes that was it.

Thank you all for the nice comments. :-) This isnt the first fort, I tried other designs, but like I said with the pieces I have right now I couldnt do anything better. In deed the flag is upside down... And thank you Mr. Phes for the suggestions. I just dont have those fences or enough slopes to use, but it would really look better ...

Thank you for the comments. The material is some kind of fabric I dont know exactly, I used what I had at home. The cannons are hand painted with acrylic and a thin brush. Of course I traced the lines with a pencil before, I use the original sails and a backlight to do so.

This is not a moc just some custom sails I made for the Imperial Flagship. I didnt like the original ones very much so I made plain white sails and painted the cannons pattern on the big one. I folowed the evil willy tutorial to make the sails and I used acrylic paint.

Hi I just wanted to post some pics of my modest little moc, I get really inspired when I see some great mocs here but for now with the pieces I have this is what I could do. It is a small fort, it has a prision cell and a tower where the treasure is guarded, besides that is empty inside. Thanks for looking.

I just made a good buy in Ebay, compared to other prices for the same sets in the same conditions, I spent about 3 euros and the same set in other ebay auction was sold for 12 euros! It's not much, it was a small pirate set but it had two imperial soldiers so I expected the price to be a lot more, and I stil have to add the postage costs. This make me start thinking... what is the price for used lego? I mean there are people buying sets for a lot more they costed when they were new, and a lot more then a set of the same size costs new today. Ok, I know that are some sets and themes that are rare and will not be made again, but I try to keep in mind that I'm buying a used toy not an art work or a gold object... so I bid usualy low. that's why most of the times I don't win, but when I do, I get a good price (I think...of course to some relatives I am crazy and spend a lot of money in used legos). In this moment I am buying pirates and castle sets and lose lots. I wanted to buy the new vikings theme sets but I am spending all the money in used lego... Maybe in ten years I will be buying used viking sets for a lot more the price they cost today, but what can I do...

I too have complaints about today's lego boxes, only recently I started to collect lego again (I'm 33) and when I opened the first big set I bought in many years (8654)...what a disapointment. I have some sets from the 80s and even in some smaller sets the boxes were good, with slide trays, and the bigger sets had plastic trays. I wonder if the boxes in the 80s were like the new ones, if any of my vintage sets would have survived, and they were all very used when I was a kid. It's a design problem and not costs, an acceptable box this days wouldn't cost 10$ like someone said, and it could be all made of cardboard, (plastic should be saved for the lego pieces). In my opinion a toy like lego which is meant to be build and rebuild and stored... must have a boxe that is reusable to store the pieces after, if the box is not capable of that this is a major design flaw and of course people will throw it away. Hey, and lego doesn't have to invest in new designs for the boxes, use the old slide tray design it's way better.

Hi I just made an avatar last nigth, nothing special it didn't took much time i used one of the backgrounds in the forum. You were talking about software like photoshop and corel, witch are very expensive, if you like to give a try at free software you have GIMP, it is very complete and almost as powerfull as photoshop. Gimp

they all look great! I wish I had so many soldiers to do somethig like that... were this mocs made before or after lego sarted to make the chess and other games sets? I am waiting for the vikings chess it looks awsome.

Can you be more clear next time? *wacko* I don't know what you mean with this and they and all that, just use old lego, lego, and china things, okay? *pirate* I'm sorry if my english is not very correct, but I don

I don't want to start a war here but when I compare the older 80's lego pieces and the today lego pieces, this ones feel like chinese to me... the wheigt, the colors are not so opaque, the feel is diferent, but I think they connect better.

About the ships colors the most likely is that they were in the color of the wood maybe some kind of primitive painting with some protective coat but not really in color since pigments were rare and expensive to be used to paint ships and sails. The sails were almost exclusive white or the color of the fabric they were made, not painted. I know that in traditional costumes in my region the most used pigment was red because was the more easy to obtain but also the most efemeral because it died fast whit exposure to sun ligh and washing, Black and blue were the rarest and to be used in the best clothes. Just to say that lego toys and art paintigs of ancient ships are not supposed to be that realistic and thats the beauty of it, use your imagination.

I recently bought the Imperial Flagship , I was bidding on ebay on both, but I only got this one. In my oppinion it is the better of the three, both in colors, shape and features. the Armada is the ugliest, and the Caribbean Cliper is to wide for the size, so I prefer the Imperial Flagship.

hi everybody I have been folowing this forum for some time, but only now I registered to post messages. well my modest pirate collection started in the 90s with the 1713 Shipwrecked Pirate, and only two months ago it started to grow again (yes I'm just coming out of the dark ages...) Thanks to a lot a hours searching on ebay I now have: 1713 Shipwrecked Pirate 6268 renegade runner 6285 black seas barracuda 6245 harbor sentry 6271 imperial flagship 6265 Sabre Island 6244 Armada Sentry 6247 Bounty Boat and some lose pirates, soldiers, cannons and small boats.