BillytheKid

@DonQuixote & @Ido, yes the color choice may not be nice. If you look closely to the set itself, than it is a logic colorchoise. It this set is also very expensive, due so rare parts which are used. For a collector a nice addition.

Half year ago I build this set. Actually, the design was very poor, but the colors does look awesome. And few parts are expensive, very expensive. The sails are available as replica's. only the hulls were essential to build this ship. Lucky at bricklink I found one seller who had both hulls and bought them. That was also not a cheap joke with costums declares. I found at rebrickable a desgin for the other small pirate ship, 6268, Renegade Runner. I really love that desgin and would be perfect for the 6280, Coss Bone Clipper. Only need a colorswap and I wanted also a front and back sail for it, for better looks. It looks more like a ship, than the childish build set. I made also small modications to mine own liking. To mine opnion it turned very good. Let's share some pictures and talk you through. First the whole look. I mounted the rope too, started at the back and forward to mount the front sail like set 6271 redcoats ship. In this way the front sail won't fold down. Only needed to make the mainmast a bit higher for it. And added a back sail like set 6280 spanish ship. Well, captain redbeard, why not give him a reb beard . The other side of ship and added a printed tile with setnumber on it. And why not a non-firing-canon that fires. The back looks awesome and added also a printed tile with name of ship. And this was very challanging for designer to put this in back in the ship, but good job form him . What you think, what I have done ?

Prints are done by Rocky Mountain Minifigs, yes very good prints. Too bad no-one in eu can or won't print those. The oranges came after the period of the wooden ships, but hé, it does look good .

Thx for compliments. Well lets share a few more modications I did. The front sail will fold after time, which looks terrible. In set of the redcoats 6271, the front sail is mounted differently. That's exactly what I did with BSB 6285 and CC 6274. In instruction of 6285 you start at front with rope and you go to the back. I ordered a longer rope (funny enough at real shipyard ) and I started at the back and go to the front. Then up to the first mast and straight down in the 1x1 yellow modified plate with ring and put the rest of rope in front of the ship. Where I stored the original flags also. After 5 years the front sail still hangs as at first day I mounted this way. Just recently again by replacing the old dirty damaged sails for replica's. Very cheap and easy solution, just using a longer rope . I changed also the crane at ship with using a winch mounted at a 2x2 turnable plate. And the inverted slope replaced with a net, for more realistic look. In mine opnion it looks way better. Yeah, I know those parts weren't available in 1989. And here a closer look at those cloth flags and the name of ship at the back. Only I need to look for a proper captains hut. Now it's empty. I added those (expensive nowadays) a real compass. That was a real cool part in later piratesets, which I wanted at all ships I have now.

You a bricklinknumber fot this torso? No. I won't building a port for this ship. Is is good as it is. Only a few things needs some attention, but are small details.

I have this set as a child and still have it. Inspired of the comic books of Redbeard and his adopted son Eric. As soon the sets were available, I wanted them. I got all small sets from mine grandma and the big pirate ship 6285 from mine parents as birthday present. Always wanted the 6274 Caribbean Clipper for a good seafight, never got it. Well, later when I was grown up......well, I do ? Some parts of the ship always brothered me, yes even as a child. The sails were hanging out after time, the front sail foiled up down and no properdeck over the guns. And were is the name of the ship at the back, as every ship had at that time? And after time, light grey and white discolors too. So needed to fix that too. First some pictures and I tell what I have done and why. And does it not look awesome: I added a tile with setnumber, I don't remember all setnumbers. And the name of the set at the back of ship. I added a steering sail at the back. Actually in real life not possible, it would have to much stress at the mast. It does look cool. The sail is made by Towarzysz Klocek - Sails and Fabrics for Lego sets. Really good quality. Also the flags are from him, looks better than the plastic lego ones. The original flags are stored beneath in the ship's belly. This looks way better with a proper deck over the guns. Even fitted a small boat as in real life. You can remove it and it does looks like the original set. Even the gunner still fits in this way. What me bugs me were the sails. I needed to replace them with replica's, the old ones were dirty and bad shape. This solution I found to keep them in the wind. More updates are coming............

The first thing I noticed were the discolored parts, exspecially the white. I would change that first for (new) white parts first. And what all ships missed were proper decks over the guns. Yes it is made for kids for easy access. It does look funny. Color change of a set with great value, it decreases it looks. I think replaced the discolored/damaged parts, replace the sails for new ones (some can make really good, maybe even better replica's than original). And add like a proper deck which can be removed, so than it is original. That's a great mod. Than you keep the looks, first reason why you liked the set at first place. And the sails were hanging out after time, I hated that. There are enough solutions for that at internet. Turnable guns is, I think, a great idea to save weight on a ship. Lucky there is bricklink to buy the parts you need to upgrade the ship how you want.

In bricklinkdesigner program there is finally a good looking ship available. It is again a pirateship. I want a dutch voc ship in mine fleet. I have already 3 pirate ships and not nationcolored ones. I got the bluecoats 6274, redcoats 6271 and spanish 6280. Last one actually 2, redbuild then according an instruction from rebrickable. I really NEED a dutch color ship. Dutch were also very well known with their voc ships. Instead of buying in future the privateer frigate Forruna, I decided to build a dutch voc ship with some good canon power. Offcourse all is fiction and not at real facts according timeline. The oranges were after the great time of many voc ships. But Dutch are nowadays know with the orange house of kings. Anyway, a ship with orange striped sails, does look awesome . Also the minifigs colored orange also looks good. Now I need to find a good design, which I found at rebrickable form Itneal (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-199845/itnael/moc-lego-moc-armada-flagship-v20/#details) Only need a colorswap and small modifications to mine own liking. And here it is, a dutch voc ship, KaasKop (or CheeseHead). Nickname for the dutchies at that time. Well I like cheese too, so I'm a cheesehead too, or was it that I'm dutch too....... It is a low frigate with 8 gunports at each side. Idea is that it has turnable canons which can turned easily port or starboard with a good trained crew. It carry less canons and is lighter than other ships. It can sail faster or escape to fight another day. Also less, but better trained crew to save weight. And a good cook and doctor. I used the colors of the dutch flag in whole ship for a recognizable sight at far. I've chosen the name so ridiculous, it should be feared after time. Now let's have closer look at the minifigs, which were printed by rocky mountain minifigs. Only the toro's are printed, other parts are original printed lego. Lets now light the upper deck, to see inside. Not all is finished, but you get the idea. Lets turn the big guns. With upper deck on his place. Only the figurehead need some attention. And also a lower part for under the ship like the black pearl 10365 to give a more better look at bookshelf. I even updated mine little black pearl 4184 with this. And the sails were printed by Towarzysz Klocek - Sails and Fabrics for Lego sets, really very good quality and double sized printed cloth you can get form him. Too bad he didn't have the dutch sails I was looking for. I think in bigger picture, very good looking ship. What you think of this dutch voc ship ?

Yes, yes, very funny . Parts were discolored and needed to be replaced, which I did. Now it's white again. It is a pirate who didn't survive a fight with the natives . Now time to make some pictures of the dutch voc ship.

And this is where both Defenders parked at, on a bookshelf. With offcourse a ucs sign with some details about the Defender itself. Let focus now on the small Defender sets 40650. At rebrickable some people did a very good job for better detail and offcourse the litte Defender Camel trophy. How cool is it to build one sandgreen version . This one is also very cool, buildinginstructions can be found/bought at rebrickable. And the minifgscale Camel Trophy Defender in the proper yellow color.

Although the blue (french), red (english) and spanish were represented in the Lego pirate world. To mine opnion where were the dutch? Holland was also very well known as sailing nation. Yes, were a small country is big at . Yes, I'm dutch . So, here they are. The orange soldiers at the right, the governor, 2 officers, 6 soldiers and 3 sailermen. At the right 5 english soldiers and the yellow proper spanish governar and 2 soldiers. Toro's are printed by Rocky mountain minifigs. A dutch voc is already build with impressive 8 canons at one side. Build for one goal, hunt and sink pirate ships. Pictures will follow later. Just found out that brickshelf is online again for normal use. I have a older picture of the dutch voc ship 'De KaasKop' (The Cheeshead), which is modified a little afterwards. I will explain and show more pictures soon.

The first time I looked at set 10317 Defender, I saw actually a yellow Defender Camel Trophy. Only the color was green instead of yellow. And commercials for tabacco is illigal these days, but in the '90's . It was a lot of money to buy a set which I actually don't like. Than the time came that set was retired and I saw the set again for cheaper than original price. I decided to replace all sandgreen bricks for yellow. I would liked the darker yellow, but not all parts were available in that color. At rebrickable I found a nice mod for the 110 version. I also managed the stickers, which are available here: https://www.brickstickershop.com/Alternative-Sticker-for-Set-10317-Land-Rover-Defender-(Camel-Trophy-Version). Voila, the Camel Trophy Defender 110 . I used soft springs for natural behaviour of the model. During build, the soft spring were too soft . Replaced them with original hard ones. The 110 version is quite heavy afterall. Enough words, time for pictures (so happy that brickshelf is working again . Here is the real version of the Camel Trophy they used: Also added the brand where they got oil and fuel form and flag is for hopefully clear reasons . And the famous TD5 as engine. Also at the other side. I have chosen for liscense plate what Playmobil always does, L for Legoland, 25 they year I decided and build this set followed by setnumber 10317. In this way, the setnumber is on the car. And even Camel Trophy at the roofrack. And the backside. Even started with the minifig scale Defender ones. I will make pic's later when I have time at daylight.

In the early 2000 I bought a book 'Getting started with lego trains' from Jacob H. McKee. I was inspired of the detailed building instructions and guess what, I build them all. After set 10133 BNSF train came out in 2004, in mine opnion the design of the set was not so good as from Jacob H. McKee. Even the stockcars of that book are way better than the set of lego 10170. He even challenge you to build the train in different colors. I build one in white and named it the DB7777. Why not try out locomotives from other countries to see how they works .Too bad white yellowed in time and needed to be repainted and red will be a better choice. But the DB7777 stays on the locomotive and white printed tiles 'GP-38'. There are 3 different locomotives with stronger engine in time. The red DB7777 has 2 12v motors for more pulling power (can be overheated when pulling too much and melt inner part) and frontroof - & taillight. The colors of set 10133 was still interesting, but still didn't like the design of lego. So why not build the design of Jacob H. McKee in those colors. Afterall, that was a very expensive choise ........ (even 2d hand 7750 is less value than mine GP-38 BNSF) Those colors of certain bricks. And it has a double 9v motors (for more pullingpower) and working front- and taillight, all connected to eachother with a lot of wires hidden inside the locomotive . And the stickers, lucky brickstickershop does make excellent repro's for retired legosets, even better than original . Enought talk and picture's please . I add a picture of 10133 too, so you can see the differance of the desgin of Jacob H. McKee and lego. I wonder what you think and share your thoughts .

I searched for this website around here, but couldn't find anything about it. It explains a lot only about the 12v trains form 1980 till 1990, with the grey 12v track, that explains the name of this website. Now I collect also these trains, but have them quite a time complete already and start to moc/build a little with trains running at 12v. This is not mine website, I came it along searching for people at facebook who has the same interest in this system. Some of them want only use those bricks at that area time available. Some people really make very goodlooking models with newer bricks after that area. What me interest most are his moc's including free instructions. I did what I never thought possible, I made all this moc's, with a little rebuild of mine own. I always wanted a real model where the 7740 was based on, the Baureihe 103. I build one in tan/darkred as showcase in mine livingroom and build one yellow/red for mine layout together with the 7740. I already build 2 extra wagons and 6 wagons are too heavy for 2x 12v motors, they can burn broken when pulling too much. Now every train has 3 wagons to pull and an awesome sight to see them running together. I also made a video of that: Baureihe 103 and 7740 together running. And the tan/darkred one in mine livingroom: The 2d train what got mine interest is a dutch train the icm or nickname koploper (headwalker, because you can walk thought the head). I studied his instruction and others at rebrickable and started to pick the best parts of all designs in what I think it will look right beside to the other 12v trains. This is what I came up with: How does it looks beside the 7740? What was also a nice cute train and afterwards not easy to build, the NS600. It was a better version of the NS500, what dutch railways got from England after WO2 and still used this day by several big compagny's. I modified it a little with modern parts to look it more realistic. And than set 727, which I always liked. Only there was no minifig inside what will look odd beside the 12v grey area trains. Why not build a minifig one? Here we go: And than the last, but not least. The Baureihe 41 or would I say the ultimate 7777 in mine opnion. A friend loved it right away and wanted one. After I build it, I used the wheel set-up for mine 7750. After the ultimate 7777 was parked at mine layout for a while I started to like that one and thought, what the heck. Build one for myself. Only the big red wheels was painfull in mine wallet. And also made a video of it. And the 7750 XL has improved a lot with the longer wheel setup: Too bad I never met the person who made this site, but I own him a lot that these awesome trains find a way in mine layout. Exspecially the Baureihe 41 or ultimate 7777 looks awesome. A true steam engine through it basic colors. Still looking better than the emerald night (or flying scottmann) and bigboy. The bigboy is ugly as ugly, but awesome through it's size.

Finally got some time to make a nice video of the red 10233 horizon express. Click here to see the video . And offcourse some nice pictures before movie started: And where the trains are now, after the video :