De Rode Draak (The Red Dragon)

[snefroe]

18d

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Dreamweb writes

This ship is probably a light frigate. It belongs to the Dutch navy. The crew consists of about 40 people, including the captain, first and second officers, the surgeon and the chef. The ship is armed with 10 standard cannons and has a total of 13 sails. While playing, one can easily access the lower deck (with cannons), the galley, the mess hall and the commanding officers' quarters.

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I think it's one best ships I've seen in a long while for two things, really:

Love the sails! :biggrin:

Love the over all look of the ship. It doesn't look like an apartment block, masts are where they supposed to be, the length of the hull compared to the rest is good and there's "a balance" in the over all design...

The castle could have been better and I think he should have added more smaller details like the official models.

[Dreamweb]

Hahaha! I was going to post it today, really! But you were faster. Anyway thanks for that. And thanks to another Eurobricks member Kahgarak for helping me translate the ship's name to Dutch. Because the ship is supposed to be Dutch, you see :)

Well, tell me what you think and I'll post some more info about the MOC soon.

[Mister Phes]

Ahhhhhh!!! Mr Dreamweb's finest creation yet (that I'm aware of!)

[Dreamweb]

I think so as well. And it's also the biggest one so far. And having build this I can assure you my next custom ship is going to be SMALL :-D

[Evil Willy]

Oo very nice mr dreamweb, it really is! Fantastic job on the ship mate, althought is it just more of does it look a lot like your old ship?

[Dreamweb]

Which one? Please explain. It doesn't look a lot like any of my old ships to me. This is my first ship with 3 masts, the first ship that uses red and gray hull (poor Red Beard Runner... I bought it and never cared to build it according to instructions :-D )...

Oh, and everyone remember there are two pages of this ship's photos at brickshelf, so make sure to check them both out!

[tophdawg]

i love the front of it. that is such a good idea. i will defenitatly try it

[Dreamweb]

The figurehead is obviously slightly inspired by 6493, and one of the dragon's heads and dragon's wings come from this very set.

[Sir Dillon]

Fantastic ship Dreamweb, it's most def your best (Well, IMO it is). You did a great job on the sails, the colours, everything. :smile:

Keep up the great work.

[Norro]

A really nice MOC! I must admit the rigging layout is even more impressive than the ship itself (which is nice in its own right...). The Sail layout is one of the main factors that keeps me away from ship MOCs...

God Bless,

Nathan

[Mister Phes]

Mr Dreamweb how long did it take to build the ship and how long did it take to configure the rigging?

[Dreamweb]

I started building the ship near the end of December 2005 and finished in the beginning of February 2006. So it took be about a month. A month and a week maybe. However the first half of that time was really crazy - I had nothing else to do, no job, nothing, so I would just sit and build this thing for 5 hours a day - almost every day! The second half was different - I had other things to do so I wasn't spending so much time working on the ship anymore, just 2 -3 hours every now and then.

It took me two evenings to configure the rigging, making sails included.

Here you can see my ship compared to Black Seas Barracuda:

I remember how enormous the BSB seemed to me when I saw her for the first time (the real thing, not just pictures). It doesn't anymore :-D

[Hobbes]

Phew... impressive... and I agree with Norro, I like the sail layout and the rigging, too. Very nice MOC

[Mister Phes]

Mr Dreamweb, are you still about? If so lets discuss the sails - how did you make those? Is it just paper or a really stiff linen material?

[Dreamweb]

The sails are paper - I tried canvas as well but they were too heavy and I just couldn't cut them without fraying. So I finally gave up - I'm not a tailor :)

Mr Dreamweb, are you still about?

I'm here, just not as often as I used to - due to some other activities. But I'll be back for good when my new MOC is ready - but that's going to take some time since I haven't started making it yet. It's going to be... you'll never guess... another ship! Bigger than this one. So I'm currently preparing myself mentally for this difficult task :) I'm waiting until I have enough energy to begin.

[Sting]

I am very happy this thread was raised from the dead. I love this ship! I love the colour scheme and as everyone has said, the sails are awesome. The size is amazing because the proportions the work. I can't see anything wrong with it, but I will be picky and say that I think the front could be built up a little more...

...okay, actually its 100%. LOL. Amazing. I want to see someone beat this.

I have an idea, perhaps their should be a CAPITAL SHIP Thread in this forum, where people try to build or show the greatest MOC Pirate ship... there could be a few categories - small (a ship with none of the Lego Boat Hulls used (like the small ship in the Imperial Trading Post, or the 7416 Emperor's Ship), medium a ship the size of the Renegade Runner/Crossbone Clipper/Evil Willy's Lotus... actually, anything with the smaller Boat Hulls, a Large (anything using the Larger Boat Hulls... from the size of the CArribean Clipper to the Skulls Eye Schooner, and VERY large (anything the size of the Red Dragon and bigger ... anything quite larger than the Skulls Eye Schooner).

My only problem with this is that when people make Pirate ship MOC's they tend to go all out and make massive ships... i havent seen many small or even medium sized ship MOCs.Oh well... just an idea.

[Dreamweb]

I've seen many great smaller ship MOCs, it's obvious that usually huge ships just look better because of their impressive magnitude, but if you make a smaller ship it's sometimes very hard to find room for all the details - while on a big ship you have plenty of room for that. So making a great-looking small ship is also a difficult task - just maybe not as time-consuming as building a big one. I myself am planning on making two Renegade Runner sized ships, three Imperial/Armada Flagship sized ones (perhaps with a little longer hull) and one using Emperor's Ship's hull. But all of this will have to wait because my current strategy is to start with bigger ships and then, when I have less bricks available, move on to the smaller ones.

[Mister Phes]

Mr Dreamweb, why did you choose red and white for the colour scheme? Was this intentional or did you have an over abundance of red and white pieces so you thought you'd use them as best as you possibly could?

[John475]

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Edited November 18, 2017 by John475

[Mister Phes]

Yeah its a pitty that The LEGO Company never got any bigger than the Skulls Eye Schooner or Black Seas Barracuda - it would seem that the ships only got smaller after 1993. Its also a pitty that The LEGO Company never produced naval frigates or something larger than flagships for the Imperial forces. Its a pitty that never created a proper galleon... Its a pitty The LEGO Company didn't explore the possibility of smaller craft like pinaces and cutters...

AHHHH!! Feck! Its a pitty The LEGO Company cancelled the damn theme in the first place without exploring all the posibilities...

[Darth_Ewok]

Ooooohh Aaaaaahh! Wow, that's one cool ship. I never realized that Pirate MOCs were that cool, I might just have to buy a LEGO Pirate set from bricklink. *pirate*

[Mister Phes]

Darth Ewok, its taken you this log to realise that Pirate MOCs can be cool? Where have you been hiding? There are other Pirate MOCs in this forum which are almost as cool...

[Dreamweb]

Mr Dreamweb, why did you choose red and white for the colour scheme? Was this intentional or did you have an over abundance of red and white pieces so you thought you'd use them as best as you possibly could?

It's quite simple. If you look at the hull you will see that it's made of Red Beard Runner's hull (1 bow section + 2 middle sections + 1 stern section) plus a long custom middle section made of many red inverted slopes. Red inverted slopes are much more common than their brown counterparts so it was easier to get as many of them as I wanted. I also had quite a lot of spare white and black bricks, hence the colour scheme. The custom red middle section has the length of 3 5/8 standard middle sections (29 studs), so together with two Red Beard Runner's middle sections it gives a total length of 5 5/8 standard middle sections (45 studs). In the future I'm planning to build a ship with 7 standard middle sections (brown hull), I already have the necessary parts.

[Dreamweb]

And now a little quiz for careful MOC watchers. Look at this picture:

Just next to the lower window, the one with the white lattice, on its right side you can see a little hole. It's adjacent to the window's upper right corner. It's not completely visible so I'll make it easier: this is the back side (the rectangular opening) of this brick:

(the piece also known as the washing mashine).

My question is: what is this? I didn't put it there because I lacked normal 1x1 brick, this little element serves a purpose. You can find the answer if you take a close look at some of the other pictures in the gallery (and remember, there are TWO pages of thumbnails in the gallery!).

Anyone interested in the challenge?

[Mister Phes]

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at Mr Dreaweb! This particular piece was common throughout the Pirate theme as it was used to mount torches to the walls of buildings. I've also seen it used to attach head lights on to the front on vehilces in the town theme. Is that the kind of answer you were looking for?