ZCerberus

Heehee... let a fan be a fan man! Or give him a 'tox-screen'!

There doesn't appear to be too much on the bow right now! Maybe we should give the Admiral some more time... Hey... you know what the bow needs? A HEADLAMP!

Yes. Phes, can you 'lock' threads so only a certain person can post/edit the indexing thread while everyone can post finds in the discussion and contribution threads? To me, an indexing thread needs to be arranged in a set way, i.e. alphabetical by user name. I think that would really go a long way to help in identifying people/members with their work as well as leave a place where we know we can find a reference to a ship we would like to discuss. Like is said a 'sub-forum' may be needed... but I think it might be worthy of that!

It is the attic of my parents' house. There is a singular pirate MOC fort there, but it is nothing special. I hope to come up with something with a little more pizazz for El Trotuga Oscura to call home!

Getting away from the crew and back to the head lamps... they are a valuable tool and they can even be found at hardware stores, super stores and medical and military surplus supply stores (dentists and grunts use them too!!). You can get them with bright white LEDs. They are not all that expensive, 10-20 bucks American, unless you feel the need to get an L L Bean ninja edition (I made that name up so don't ask for this version or whatever) for 30! Now to the crew-- Even numbered freaks. From now on, all my crews will have an odd number of crewman just out of spite!! Take that anal retentive... pirate... scalawags!

Small bit of news... the Arbiter II is being Stretched by another 20 studs. That essentially means by 2 more middle sections. This isn't going to happen for a while, but I hope it will not be too big of a chore! I also intend to add some things to the interior of the lower deck. Also, I am going to need to make new sails for the Venganza as well as the Covenant, so I might retool a few sails (especially the spanker sail) on the Arbiter II as well! Thanks for your interest!

I said 'top sails' and not 'topsails' so I meant the sails on the top. Some people don't know there are topsails and topgallant sails, so moving on to royals and skysails would be even more confusing. I would consider the sails I am speaking of to be a topgallant sail, as it is above the topsail, which is above the main sail. I see you are considering the Brig to have topsails, topgallant sails, and royals, because you are saying you are missing the mainsials (courses) which would be the lowest sail as there is no good way to attach them at this point, hence making the sail I am refering to a royal. Anyhow, that sail is NOT a LEGO template, and to me it just seems too small. I am not big on realism in LEGO ships or anything (as I made a 'Xeballey'... a two deck Xebec that some said was really a galley), or even on using the right terminology all the time, but I will remeber from now on that Legeaux knows the difference in sails... Still, even if they are roylas, I still think they might be a little undersized. If there were a large main sail on the bottom, you would have to increase the size of the masts as I had mentioned anyways. Ultimately to me, since it is LEGO... I prefer sail plans that look good as opposed to ones that are real, The Skull's Eye Schooner certaily didn't use a real sail plan, (and most certinaly was NOT a schooner) and I think it looks fantastic, so I shoot for form over function when evaluating these ships!

Maybe he meant the spanker sail on the mizzen mast.

A yes, very nice, though as you said, a bit stuby. I do like how it slopes out and then back in, and I also like the placement of the guns facing forward (runners are in front, chasers are in back?) and a nice chain connected anchor(s). The windows and the double cabin is also very nice. I hat having to use white latticed windows after the rest of the ship is all red and black, so good move there! Anywho, red, black and dark gray has become rather popular as a color scheme lately, but I really like the colors together on ships, so no complaint here! I am not a huge fan of the light grey flooring though. But if that was all you had, so be it! If it were longer, that would help with the stubiness of which you refer, but I would fear that the masts would not be tall enough for a two decker. The top sails get VERY small when using a mid piece and a single bow spirit piece, so if you decided to make her longer, consider also making her taller in the mast department for some larger sails! I am not sure how I feel about the large breaster, armless figure head... it is okay, but a little strange!

He didn't even yell at me! It was my first attempt at a story, but I think it worked out well.

Right, like I said, if you can, I realize there is an issue with too many pictures. I wonder if there is some better way to post them... like alphabetical by member in the brickshelf folders... we could even do it simply by a-d, e-h, etc., etc., etc. but it might require a 'sub-forum'

Hmm... maybe I should clarify... Cerberus is a mythical three headed dog from Greek mythology. I always liked the idea and some of the imagery surrounding the beast. I would give you a picture if I were sure I had one that was not copyrighted... but since I don't... how about this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus 'Fluffy' in Harry Potter is a rip off of Cerberus. The 'Z' in front came from constantly trying to use the name and not having it available. The 'Z' in front always made it available, so there you have it, 'Z Cerberus'. and hence the reference to having three heads!

Yes, well Part 1 definitely includes ships that have been on the Forum as the Arbiter II is the first picture, so they aren't in any order other than that of which bonaparte said. I did notice that the Sienna is not on the lists though. But since I read the whole posts, I know of the reason for the split and the issues surrounding it, so add it if you can! Link is http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=223159 Hmm... this gives me a suggestion for Phes...

Yes. Using these works well. I have had to cheat myself in the past! You can't tell when they are inside the rails, so it is an excellent idea!

Yes... at the expense of ALL other themes though,except star wars models, which for the most part remain as Lego had designed them... Yes, I have been sticking with the prefab hulls. I actually have a white fore and stern, a black fore and stern, and a gray fore and stern left over (all the smaller width). No mid hulls though. I could make a couple of sloops or hoys from them to supplement my pirates, but no mid hulls. Actually the Arbiter II and a few small sections of the Vanganza don't use prefab mid hulls, they use inverted slopes. I think if I ever build a large pirate ship, I might have to make my own hull... but I like the smaller ships fro my pirates as I had mentioned in your thread. Though a few pirates liked the big ships (Teach and Bart Roberts for example) I think shall stick with the smaller guys for their plundering and hit and running skills!

That is a general Cerberus reference... even though I am no longer using the strange three headed CAD thingy! I still think it is a little funny ;)

Alright, my full bevy of Pirate Ships and structures. This is were I store them, unfortunately. You will notice, no Covenant yet. I am will eventually be working on it. Target completion... sometime in 2007 ;) You can also see that the Venganza is there and mainly intact, just without sails, and missing several guns. The RedBeard Runner and the Skull's Eye Schooner are slightly modified versions of the official sets. Perhaps someday I will get around to revamping them, but I rather like the Skull's Eye Schooner, so it may remain the only official Lego set in my collection. The RedBeard Runner, on the other hand, could certainly stand an overhaul! Okay some pics of the whole collection!

I got one as a gag gift from a college roommate about 4 or 5 years ago. I quickly discovered it was excellent for late night reading when he was a sleep and for working inside computer cases. I do a lot of tinkering and it is SOOO much easier to see inside the case with it on. It is a great little device, I recommend everyone go out and get one right now!! NOW I SAY!! *y*

Yes!! Or they are just close to the shore!

Well I like this Avatar better than the last, and I think it is focused enough on one figure that it works okay. On the second point, however, we are in agreement. Maybe I will try a darker background and move the figures up more, so their feet are less in the shot. Thanks for the advice! Let's see if this is a little better...

Well I believe I said I liked the crew, even if manned with scalawags! The photos also seem a bit dark, I suppose that is because it is a camcorder instead of a camera, but is there anyway that your next set could be a bit brighter? I see you used some external light source, but that casts shadows everywhere! May I make a strange suggestion? Okay then... Use a head lamp! There are tons of them out there and you can place the head lamp on the camcorder itself, or around your head, so whatever you are looking at gets well lit and will be lit from above and in front of the item so the shadows don't overpower the pictures. I think the one downside to the approach is that when you have the head lamp on your head and you try to take pictures of the Legos, you will be looking at the camcorder and not the Lego, but maybe you can make it work! Like I said, it is a strange idea! Some camcorders have lights built into them, but if yours doesn't, this would be my idea! Ah, yes, this would be an excellent idea. I just have them in several rubbermaid (sp?) tubs, sorted by color. If I were to sort them by type as well (plate, modified plate, brick, modified brick, etc.) then maybe building would be faster. I am not sure what they cost, but they look like organizers my mom used to have for thread and buttons and what not.

So after a lot of futzing around, I finally have an Avatar I like, and a signature I am okay with... What does everyone think? Yay? Nay? Neither? Ideas? Here are the pics in full size in case I should change the avatar some day rendering this post pointless! Avatar Signature

Very cool. I am not a huge fan of minis, but this one is very neat. I vote *y* for a mini, very surprising.

Ah, excellent question! Well if you read the first post, you will notice I say I was unsure if I wanted to use this technique for the Covenant or a rebuilt Arbiter. I went with the Arbiter. My main thing on this ship is to use some of the new colors to see how they work. I think this means the ship is going to be brown, Midstone and Blay. We'll see how that works out. The Sienna and the Arbiter turned out very well if you ask me, and part of that I think is that they use some unique ideas. As such, I want to come up with something different, again, for the Covenant.

Well Like I said it was pretty continuous... and I might have spent some time on it the December 23rd too... so maybe... 15-20 hours? That is a decent amount of time! I, since I had pre-designed the Sienna in CAD it only took a single day of building. I helped my dad work on the house most of Friday, and worked on it Friday night and part of Saturday. I may have been a total of 8 or 9 hours... not including the CAD work! I think if you have a design and know you have the parts, it isn't TOO bad!