ZCerberus

A couple of Notes on some of things I like about the Harbor that I would like to direct your attention to. One thing that I like is that many of the levels are removable. Here is a shot of the separate levels... Though not modular or anything, I did make large sections of the harbor connect technic pins so that I could more easily move sections without having to actually disassemble them. I also like the magnetic roofs on the stockade and store house. Roofs are a pain in the neck to get on and off, with the magnets not only were they easy to get on and off, but they sit at just about any angle you want! And though I didn't do a lot of work on the interiors, the ones I did put some work into looked pretty good. Here is a shoot out on the top level of the store house. The Imperials have tipped over the table to take cover.

Okay, I got the harbor completed. It is pretty much what the CAD is with some small exceptions. View Brickshelf Folder EDIT: With the whole Brickshelf thing going on, I wanted to at least get a few pictures of this old harbor up because it was the featured MOC in this month's classic-pirates.com newsletter!! Next month hopefully there will be a new MOC based on this harbor to display (well new in the sense of newer than this MOC is)

Indeed! Pics to come soon!

The New Aquaraiders is full of trans green seaweed! Also, there were trans green flames out in some older underwater sets, that would work well too I think! Not that you need me to tell you that!

Okay lots of small points here. I think I have a light gray chest somewhere, but I am not sure where! There are lots of darkstone ones with the Vikings line. The Aquaraiders line is out, and there is not one with a light gray chest, as was pointed out, the set was considering using it as a prototype doesn't even have a chest in it anymore! The whole aquaraiders line was available at my Lego Imagination Center here in MN. I live pretty close to the Mall of America, and even though the mall as a whole is somewhat useless, the Lego store there has Pick-a-Brick, the sets available "only" on shop-at-home from the Lego website and the earliest releases of new sets. No new Star Wars there yet, but ALL the Aquaraiders sets and all the new mecha guys... ExoForce? are there too. I like the look of the Aquaraiders overall and they are using some classic pirate pieces... like gold coins, chests, and brown muskets in various sets. Maybe they are paving the way for the return... Oh, I probably shouldn't get started! Anyway... Just though I would comment POTC 1 was pretty good. POTC 2 was okay, but there were too many scenes with the Kracken trashing a ship. One extended time of seeing it break down a ship would have been plenty. I still think production wise, it was better than most movies. I would have to say some people who hadn't seen the first one a few times, were a little lost, as the plot was weaving around a little too much for some people. I think you also have to appreciate that a lot of the second movie was well set up in the first movie. There were things in the first that played well into the second. People can love Pirates and Pirate Lego's without loving POTC, so that is that. Let's just say, oh, I am sorry you didn't appreciate the movie... now check out my moc! Let's all be friends. Except Whipstick, who is still off my Christmas list ;)

... time period of.... Lego Pirate Ships... Seriously, it isn't designed after any other ship or type of ship. It is just from my brain. It doesn't have the same design elements as any other type of ship. The cabin, for example, isn't flat in the back with lots of windows, instead it extends off the ship. So no period really! hah! I never even thought of that. I named the Flagship 'The Arbiter' because that is a powerful, yet just judge, and that was the kind of the feeling I wanted her to summon. The 'Covenant' was originally named 'The Dauntless' but there are too many ships with that name. I needed to rename it, and 'Covenant' just came to mind. I have played Halo and Halo 2 though, so I get the references and why one might think that... perhaps I will name my next ship 'Master Chief' or 'Flood' or 'Spartan'! They aren't sister ships. they are the two largest Imperial ships I have, but they do not look alike or anything. I am considering retooling the Arbiter though. My thought is to Widen the deck on top, remove the top cannons, move boats onto the deck, pull the middle mast forward and make the rear cabin more accessible. We'll have to see how that pans out, but that is an idea. I would also rework and redecorate the railings on the decks etc. But that is just a thought. EDIT: Okay, so instead of retooling the Arbiter, I made a completely new ship. It still needs some design changes, but here is the link to what ended up happening... Arbiter II

This one?? I think this one is fairly nice as well

Yeah, I am not entirely sure how I feel about "bley" (I suppose more accurately blAy in the States) in general, I wish Lego had stuck with a single dark gray... I also dislike having too shades of brown, and both "light gray" and Mid-stone" now too. Oh well, what can you do. Anyhow, I think the two shades are okay, and I think you agree they need to be mixed in there pretty well to work, or strictly seperated. Mixing in the bley a little more could be good. I guess it just really jumps out on peices that are a large and not "normal" like the little cats etc when they are tow different shades of the same color.

A might be a little late here, but I like the detailing here. You are correct, you certainly use pieces in ways most of us don't (cats and shark heads even!) As I am sure you are aware, two different shades of dark gray in there... I have the same problem with an AT-ST I built. I think it works okay on a ship such as this though, as it is kind of old, decrepit, and under water half the time anyhow!

Willy... where is the update? *wacko*

Bloody scummy Pirates... :( You are off my Christmas list.

While I SHOULD make you apologize for saying we were all Pirate scum or some such thing in your first post on the site, I am going to forgive you as a fellow Royal Navy fan. Yes, the house is in disarray, however, the lighting in our "great room" is now complete which means 16 lights in one room for better picture taking! There is also an adjustable scaffold in that room while they are working on the ceiling, so I should be able to take more pictures at better angles now... assuming the scaffold is wide enough to fit the whole harbor on. Hopefully it will turn out well, and Photoshop can assist me in adding a nice background.

Minor update. I got a Bricklink order today of about 40 yellow 1 x 4 arches, and they are in excellent shape! Looks like Nov. 19th is looking good for completion.

It is only because he likes me better. We are close personal friends. Okay, so we have never actually met, but it is nice to hear an thank you (unwarranted or not) every once-in-a-while! Maybe he took some of my other advice to heart, and he is thanking me for that! I did see the axel thing mentioned a couple of times, and it apparently didn't work for him. Oh well! perhaps the plate Idea I suggested worked out. Yeah, I am not such of fan of the logs, you are right, they do not run in the right direction. The inverted slopes do okay, but they are too "sharp" to double as boat hulls. What Lego really needs is an inverted ROUNDED slope. We would have huge. super long Pirate ships then!

Sweet! I will retake the pictures and post November 20... 20/11 for all you non US peeps out there. I might retool it a bit too- but I will get some shots of some of the detailing, one of two without the sails, and a few of the interior. It is also the target date to build the harbor out of bricks! I will also take some pictures of the other Imperial ships. The Covenant, The Sienna, The Fortune and The Adventure. The Fortune and Adventure are very similar single cannon ships. The Sienna is a two cannon cross between the Imperial Flagship and the Caribbean Clipper, and the Covenant is sort of the Imperial version of the Skull's Eye Schooner (sort of indeed) I will also try to remember to snap of few shots of the various sales, and comparisons between the Lego ones, the Painted ones and the ones that were designed with marker.

Okay... but then you would have to promote me ;)

The sails... Well it has been a while... I believe they are made of a material called Burlap. The material was white so I dyed them. I am not sure what color the dye was. I considered using coffee, but I do believe I used an actual dye. I scanned the I Imperial guard logo onto a computer and converted it to black and white. I resized it to fit with the sail size (which is probably the same size as the lower sails on all the Pirate ships) and printed it onto a tee-shirt iron-on transfer. I then ironed on the logo and painted over it with the logo. I believe I used that tee-shirt paint that comes in the squeeze bottles, my mom was a big arts and crafts kind of person so she had some I could use. It worked just fine. I think that the detailing on the crown was too hard to do with paint, so it might be done with a thin black marker. If I recall, sharpies tend to bleed a little bit, so I used some other marker with a harder, smaller point. After the paint dried, I decided I needed to stiffen up the sails a little bit so they didn

By Lego direct, I mean they are from an actual Lego set. In terms of the customs... On both the masts with 2 sails on them, the lower sails are custom made. The second of the two sails at the very front of the ship. You will notice it is a little different in color.

ha, quality. I like the extended Lego arm being used in the shots there. What do you say to 3 shillings and we forget the name!

Well I made the sails BEFORE I changed the hull over to white and blue. After I changed the hulls, due mostly to the practical consideration listed before, then I changed some other parts over to the white, like the whole center section. With the exception of the hull color, the scheme is pretty standard Lego Imperial Guard I never saw anyone else's ships. There were only two options for center hull sections in that size are white or brown. It was easier at that time to get white, so I rolled with it. I would also point out that the Imperial Armada's scheme was actually white and blue with green and red accents. The Imperial Guard used black, with blue and yellow highlights, and though they had no red in their ships, they used the same sails I am using. The big difference I think is in the amount of white used. I guess it is mostly an unfortunate side effect of the hulls I had to use. With the white hulls I had to increase the white and blue use. I stayed away from the green though, and still tried to use some black. I hesitate to change the sails because the sails on my other ships match the ones on the Arbiter... though some of the Arbiter's sails are Lego direct, you will notice 3 of the ones on the arbiter (and ALL of the ones on the other ships) are custom made. I thought about using the larger red ones but hulls are pricey on Bricklink, and I would need to get rid of almost all of the white on the ship. Maybe there are a few different alternatives. I could try to incorporate some Red into the design, or use essential the same background design on the sails, but maybe make the sails all white and make the stripes behind the cannons blue. We'll see. I am very aware of the dust. My dad is a dentist, so I have all kinds of access to tooth brushes, and completely plan to 'undust' them before the next round of pictures. I do not live near the Lego mocs themselves, I am in school about 180 miles from where the mocs sit. Hence the reason for the MLCAD on the harbor. That is also why I rushed taking the pictures of both the harbor and the ships and they aren't the greatest of quality. I have mentioned my awareness of the dust several times, and it won't be a problem next time I take photos. The ship itself has interiors but they currently aren't overly accessible. That is in stark contrast to the Harbor which has magnets and technic pins holding on roofs and various levels.

I am aware of the dust. The white hulls were used because it was initially made of the brown hulls you speak of, but they were the ones from the Imperial flagship (the skinnier ones) and as such the only choices in that size were brown and white. Since I didn't have either enough brown ones, or enough white ones, there were black inverted slopes making up the hulls in the middle, which did not look particularly good. Then after I discovered part shopping on the internet, it was easier to get white hulls because it wasn't too long after the release of the Armada flagship. Hence, I got enough white ones to make the blue inverted slopes that I still have to use not look too out of place. As you will notice, I am still two and a quarter hulls away from having the ship be completely made from Lego hulls. that would mean I would need 7 1/4 middle hulls to change the color scheme to some thing else. I actually like the color scheme, but you can disagree. Plus, after I changed the hulls over to white, I had enough brown ones left over to make my second ship, the Covenant. Yes sir. I should get a few new, less dusty picks next weekend hopefully...

So now that I have the CAD finished on the harbor ( http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...?showtopic=6681 ), I am going to share a couple pictures of the ships that will be patrolling the friendly waters. I have 5 Imperial "ships" in all, but only two have any pictures, and the pictures are only so so in terms of quality (and dustiness). I hope to retake them next weekend. But until then, a few pics of the Arbiter. Brickshelf folder when it become available... Arbiter

I actually commented on you YARR thread that I liked your use of the rock on the harbor. I just thought I would reiterate that here. Man, I like that the new version of FireFox has spell check built in. I can type reiterate and not wonder how to spell it. Though I suppose I will still miss some 'u' in words like harbour, colour, and neighbour... pesky USA.

My bad... get a normal name would ya! :-P Well it is nice that you brought the tourist with you, not slap them in irons and make them walk the plank!

Well I think harbor updates will be scant the next week or so as I am done with the CAD, at least until I get the actual thing built (yeah, I think I can do it in 2 days next weekend, if some BrickLink parts get here!) Though I don't have a ton of pictures, should I start a new post for my ships? I am hesitant because I am not really planning on changing them much... At the same time, I guess suggestions could always be made even if I don't plan on changing anything! I have 5 imperial ships in my fleet. The Large White one in the above pictures is the Arbiter. I also have the decently sized one in the actual pictures of the harbor... This one is the Covenant. I also have a modest 2 cannon ship (the Sienna) and two single cannon fellows (the Fortune and the Adventure). I will start a new topic for these guys.