kurigan

This certainly is a swell model. The attention to detail is great. So many small thing were worked in from the surviving frigate, like those brass frames on deck? What I find strange is using Lego shrouds even after all the effort of the rest of the rigging in string. Besides the plastic, pre-fab Lego shrouds,, the builder has even added supplemental shrouds/back stay of string. I would love to chat with elephant night about this and some of his other decisions. Nice find, thinks for sharing.

Seems a little haphazard, but ok. I'll see what I can do to contribute in time as I would enjoy having a small part in this. As for theme focus, I alaways figured that was up for interpretation (particurally as Legos are all about imagination). Perhaps I missed something but, the characteristics of the earlier themes were not idiosyncratic to the Caribbean. Generally European to be sure, but that would certainly have warranted for contact with middle eastern or Asian people. To further my point, the islanders are distinctly more like Polynesian cultures than those of the West Indies. As long as you have the option open for custom mini-figures, it seems hypocritical to exclude those cultures one could reasonably imagine their generally European pirates/sailors coming into contact with. For my own part my limited custom work does not even include non-English seamen, so I have little steak in a change, I simply don't understand the policy.

Two questions: What is the deadline for submissions? Why are pirates from outside the caribbean being excluded?

http://www.examiner.com/article/fund-for-bounty-families-black-armbands-donned-as-search-continues-for-captain

This is very well made. I would enjoy seeing her developed more.your hull technique is interesting as well I'd love a chance to disect her. Which program do you use?

Though this is not exactly Lego related, i thought this community might care to hear the tragic news. Famous movie replica HMS Bounty has sank in hurricane Sandy, some 90 miles off the coast of North Carlonia. After loosing power, the ship began to take on water forcing her crew to abandon ship. As of the posting of this topic 14 of her 16 man crew have been rescued, US Coast Guard are still searching for the missing members. I'm sure we all can agree on the gravity of the loss of such an iconic vessel. For the crew, however let's hope and pray the sea and storm have mercy on these brave mariners. Don't know how long the article will remain posted, but here's a link to an official news story. http://fox4kc.com/20...es-around-them/

This is brilliant! The damage to the ship is very convincing. The tattered sails and split boards a particularly well done. Would like to see the creator become a member and share more of this caliber. Thanks for sharing.

Wait, what!? Destroy her, after only two weeks? Why? More importantly, I can't fathom bothering with such effort and expense for something you won't allow to last. I'll grant that most models don't last forever, but it seems you've put a lot into something with such a short lifespan. Though there are some points that could bare improvement, you've got a great model here. To me she seems worth keeping. Perhaps you could follow in the good admiral's foots steps and find somewhere to host her as an exhibit?

There appears to have been a typo some where along the way as Constellation, Constitution, Surprise, Trincomalee, and Dom Fernando all have there capstans abaft the main, before the mizzen.

Design considerations aside, I'll attempt to offer some clarification. The term brig refers to the configuration of masts and sails. The number of guns is typically only a consideration in military terms. Two masts, square rigged, is indeed a brig. According to the British standard of the late 18th - early 19th century, any commissioned vessels under 20 guns are rated sloops, be they rigged as a cutter, schooner, bark, lugger, brig, etc. Only broad side guns, those pointing out the side, are counted in the rating; chasers, guns pointing forward or aftward, do not factor in. On many smaller vessels the bow chasers were installed atop the focsle. In the case of small vessels like most brigs there just wasn't room enough on the gun deck and ports for the chasers would have to run through the head rails. Not only would this make it difficult for the crew to " use the facilities" but with a bow so close to the ocean's surface, the extra openings might make the vessel less water tight in high seas. As for the gun ports, I have to agree that spacing is peculiar. I'll just quote my self from another thread that had the same issue. " The issue with the gun ports, from my perspective is not so much visual, though I do wonder what’s inspired you to place them as such. The real problem is the space in-between, with which to operate the artillery. Cannons are not fired from behind by one man, but rather a crew of as many as 6 (or more for bigger guns) standing to either side. Your most aft ward ports just look wrong as they don’t account for that necessary space between; that is with reference to the more forward ports. Because all the guns of a broad side should be the same size, or similar enough, they would require the same crew and therefore the same amount of space to operate." Are you using anything for reference or inspiration?

Thanks for the kind words guys. Yeah Bjornu, I've seen those some where before, when next I come across em I'll have to pick a few up. As you can see the flash lights are great because they are so bright, but they're bulky too. I kept playing with the theory on a different moc, of a smithy for my black smith mini- figure. While at it, I found some settings on my camera which allowded me to get better low ligt shots, but ultimately if I had the money for a fancy camera I would have blown it on bricks a long time ago :D You can see some of the improved quality in these shots I grabbed for my new avatar. I figured, since I plan to change my sig-fig in the future why not put my black smith up for a while since I am one.

[pid][/pid]219B This is really my first attempt as such a thing. I suppose it’s more of a vignette than a MOC, but I just needed a change of pace and really wanted to mess around with the lighting. In the scene are a few of my “Prince of Persia” figures which I’ve been saving to make into Barbary Pirates. They are sitting around a campfire near the beach planning their next move. The one on the left in the turban is holding a map, but I’m not sure it came out well. The whole thing is lighted with LED flash lights. One shines from underneath through the red coals, while the other is in my hand with a blue gel over it. I took a lot of shots, but only got two I was really happy with. I welcome input from those with experience in this sort of thing, lighting Legos that is. It was a rather impromptu project but I thoroughly enjoyed the experiment, and am enthused to refine my technique for future attempts.

Seems a shame to leave those Lego guys boxed up in the dark all these years. At the very least it's bad form and worse luck not to accept a gift in the sprit it is given. Don't sell it, keep the set in one form or another.

He's awesome, I what one of my own now!

I saw this in you signature on pirates, and I didn't quite believe the roof on that small scale, but wow! That really works to trick the eye. It took me a moment to figure out where you staggered the bricks to make the contours. That's a great job, is it your own technique?

I'm not one to be particularly negative, but I find a few things about this technique your developing particularly auk ward. For one I have to agree with Becker, it doesn't appear to achieve anything that pre-fab hulls don't already. In that same light it certainly won't save on parts or expense. I can't imigane it's any more stable and the transition from bow to sides just doesn't seem to work, yet. I love innovation and would hate to discourage you from developing a new and unique technique, but I just don't get where this is going. Would you be so kind as to share some of your thought process? Perhaps you'll get some helpful input from the community if you did. If they will be of any help, I'll also, humbly, suggest looking over my own LDD designs for some ideas.

This is painful to see, espically since she took the brunt of it on her gorgeous bow. I'd suggest securing a better place to store and build befor rebuilding her. That's what I did after the destruction of Hawk and Scorpion and I've had a lot more sucess and far fewer accidents. Sympathies though, and keep at it. It would be a crying shame to loose her.

I like the color too, red for Raven where they might wind up, but yellow on a Man of War. Problem is I only have three of four of those wedges in red that I can find, while I have a sandwich bag full of black . Good question about wheels, I had only briefly considered them. Best I came up with so far is to prop up or glue to the side some 1X1 round plates. I don’t much like this prospect, but don’t see another way on the scale or deck space I’m stuck with.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the best. This is a great little MOC and a nice use of those Lego boats. You can call almost any boat with a single mast and sail a skiff and get away with it, but cogs are single masts with a single square sail. I always understood them to be larger and far more ancient though. Thanks for sharing.

I’m a little tardy to the conversation here, but wow, that rigging looks great! I may have to borrow some of your concepts for my next project. If I’m not mistaken, your lower shrouds are all one section of cord, which doubles back, extending all the way up to the fighting tops? Did you not have trouble getting them taught without canting your masts out of position? I tried something similar before and it was an utter nightmare. The whole ship is fantastic and I honestly hope to have a chance to see her complete and in person some day.

Simple enough to test, I just grabbed a good old fashioned protractor and my handy-dandy I pad. Rather quickly I found some images of the three most inspirational ships which served as reference for this build and one extra for good measure. Zooming in close and finding the most level point by placing the protractor along the imaginary line between the channels I came up with the following measurements. Sultana- 80 degrees Enterprize (Melbourne)- 85 degrees Pride of Baltimore II- 80 degrees Calfornian (for good measure)- 85 degrees I then did the same on Raven, an even easier task what with Legos being inherently square, and found the rake of her main mast to be 85 degrees. No I don’t think it leans back to far at all. Thanks for the compliments, the dead eyes are indeed handy, but require a very thin cord. I don’t think they’d work on your SoL for instance Wesley. To thread them I have to wick the end of the thread down flat so it will fit the narrow holes. It has to be stiff like a needle as well, otherwise the other lengths block the ends path out and it all just gets jumbled up in side. I use Elmer’s glue to wick and stiffen the thread, making sure I have plenty of slack to trim off later. For cord I use embroidery thread found really cheap at most hobby/ arts and craft stores. Perhaps I should take a moment aside to make a tutorial?

Though some of it may seem a bit subtle, I’ve made a lot of progress on Raven and want to share. What’s new? For one some more bracing was added below deck when weak points were discovered as I replaced her old all black deck with gray. I know gray is not a favored color for decking around here, but I much prefer it to black and find that only new or well kept decks appear tan or brown. Since Raven isn’t likely to be a very “spit and polish” kind of ship, let’s just say her decks could use a good holystoning. The stern has also been completely redone. The old transom hung on hinges to give its characteristic lean out over the water, but this method left an unsightly gap on the sides. The hinges also took up space where I wanted to run a rudder till through in order to string it to the wheel. The new transom fits a lot better without the gap and is wedged in place. The till now runs through the hull and should operate just like the real thing save that the string I used is to slick and won’t grab on the spindle. I’ll revisit this in the future, but for now the ship’s wheel just spins without pulling on the till. I abandoned the old technic peg concept for the chain plate and went with what you see now. I’m not as fond of the look, but the old concept just wouldn’t work. As the rigging on this vessel is intended to function as the real thing would, the chains are important. More than that, these chains hold down more than just the shrouds. If the chains were not in place the sides where the shrouds are connected to the channels would collapse inwards with tension on the shrouds. The gray and red masts are gone and I’ve opted for white. I was very impressed with Constellation when I visited. I very much liked how clean the white paint on her masts made everything look and because of the contrast of black rigging on the white I was able to see a lot of detail in the rigging plan. I actually learned a lot from my photos of her, that was previously unclear form drafts, drawings and models. The standing rigging for the lower masts is about complete. Connecting the shrouds to the chains are functional dead eyes made from car wheels. They are a little tedious to string but the end result is fantastic. First as Hawk and now as Raven, this project was started as an experiment to solve a lot of the problem I ran into on Snake, such as tension and counter tension in the rigging. Using these car wheel dead eyes has proven to work remarkable well. Using a pair of tweezers I was able to snug up the shrouds without any trouble. I also used small technic gears like bull’s eyes or blocks where I didn’t have room for more dead eyes. The shrouds do not run around the lower mast, as they should. I did have a plan in place to install them in such a manner, but for the sake of scale and simplicity I decided to pass them through a gap in the lower mast above the cross trees. To have done it right I would have needed to simulate the gap that tends to occur between joined masts on real ships. For future vessels I’ll likely revisit this, but on raven this method works well and looks very clean. She’s not even half way done, and there is a lot more to figure out once I complete her standing rigging, but I’m still rather proud. I hope to post an update with all her standing and running rigging complete very soon. As always more images on my Photobucket Edit: You may note that there are some rather unconventional methods put to use on this build. For one the car wheel dead eyes are, as far as I know, my own innovation, and though anyone should feel free to adopt them I would appreciate due credit. The lower masts are in fact wrapped in tape as are a portion of the bow sprit and the transom. On the masts this is simply compensation for a lacking of bricks in any one color as to accomplish the construction with the proper effect. The tape is a temporary measure until I can acquire enough white cylinders to replace the rainbow hidden underneath. On the transom, I found that I would need a brick made with two different colors to accomplish what I wanted to do there. The windows on the stern although of Lego origins are not attached according to that system, but rather are simply adhered to the side of the bricks. I tried many different configurations but found no other way to have windows that don’t look ridiculous and fill the gaps on the sides at the same time. As a policy I refuse to reject non-Lego solutions to problems where the system fails. There were no windows that fit properly, so I went a different route. Note that I do not make these decisions lightly; I’ll only take such measures once I feel all other options at my disposal have been exhausted. If you mean to comment on the project, I’ll thank you to look past these elements.

While waiting for glue to dry I started experimenting with my swivel gun prototype as a carriage mounted ship’s gun. I came up with two basic concepts so far, but I’m just not quite sure about them, so I’m seeking opinions and input. I’m in need of advice on the carriages to mount my hand carved guns, not the barrel it’s self. As always my limitation is bricks; I just don’t have what I’d like to use. My question is: Does either of these really trick the eye into seeing a realistic carriage or is there something more I can do to improve that effect? More images, of course, on my Photobucket

Sympathies, I know your pain all too well. I've found that great things can come out of small tragedys though, so " chin up". I've no doubt you'll get her rebuilt, and perhaps even better than before!

Wow, that's great! I love seeing anything new and different. This is much like what I'm doing on my own Dhow. The rigging is awesome, I have a particular interest in accurate rigging, but I'm afraid it's a little over bearing on this model. For one it's all monochromatic, with white sails and white rope it is hard to make out all the fine detail. I also noticed you have a lot of loose ends. Perhaps you left these to give her a more ragged appearance but it may just be ruining all that detail, consider belaying these or just sniping them off. I'm guessing the hog pog of colors on her sides are intentional, meant to represent repaired sections but I'd also suggest that there may be a few too many colors present. If you have the bricks available, perhaps try her with only two or three colors. I really like how you put this together and used this technique. Thanks for sharing.