kurigan

I've though about this and I have thoughts. My assessment is that it's Lego's influence. There's the same amount of customizers out there as 10 or so years ago, nut few new ones. Of those new to the craft they tend to have a more technological approach, incorporating things like 3D design and printing rather than sculpting and painting. The rest is because the community is saturated with purists, people who are fans of Lego and licensed products before the system and what they can do with it themselves. It's just symptomatic of Lego becoming less about creativity under the guise of being more accessible. I think a lot of us are just giving up,on sharing if not customizing entirely. There just isn't a community for it anymore because of prevailing attitudes towards purism and a desire to have rather than make. Heck; I shared the result of a afternoon's distraction, tickled that it came out as well as it did and hoping other here would share my amusement. The post went largely ignored but to be told I should have just ordered an after market part from a third party or not bothered at all if I wasn't going to 3D print it, or what ever. Seriously, some user actually DMed me a link to their store. This is the first time I've checked this forum in months and while I'm not surprised to see that the first offering is purists, I am to see this topic broached. Oh well, I'm used to being the black sheep at this point. I'm sure I'm in the minority and completely out of line and will likely be told so, but I'm betting my file transfer on the other system is done so I'll log back for another few months and get back to what I was doing. Cheers!

Well now I have a mold problem and I'm ashamed. Marvelous! Thanks for the link.

I came looking for a definitive guide to cleaning the sails from the Classic Pirate ships (BSB, CB, SES, etc.) and was surprised to not find it. I really thought there was one pinned years ago, but I never yet needed it. A few months ago, my sump pump failed and my basement, where my office/craft space is with all my Lego, flooded several times. Now there's a mold problem I only starting to get ahead and I noticed spots on the sails of my precious originals. What can I do?

Neat! I feel a certain personal responsibility to chime in and show support here. Not everything needs to be hyper accurate or intricately detailed. I've been tempted in the past to just lop the bell-ends off the old muskets but could never bring myself to do it. These are a great compromise! Cheers!

He's missing an epaulette... on his left... Edit: I've actually thought about this. If you took and cut one side of a 2526 nice and round, it might not look terrible.

I’m having a bit of a bad day today and I thought “Lego used to make me feel better…” So, I sat down to try and build something, just something, anything, just to do it. There sitting in the way, though, where she’s been for, literally, years, Chaser. Unfinished, dusty and neglected. Not what I want to work on. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to work on any of my ships again. I just can’t care; I can’t find that love in my heart anymore. They just sit there collecting dust in this state. I actually worked on Chaser a little bit late last year, but I couldn’t tell you where that motivation came from. Here they are, then, in their current and perhaps final state. I don’t know what to do with them anymore or why I bothered.

Here's what I've come up with. Cheers

Cool! Love the custom sword. Custom mini-figs are always neat. Took a peek at your Flickr, lotta cool ones there to. Thanks for sharing!

https://modelshipworld.com/ Enjoy the rabbit hole! Ships to consider referencing would be USS Ontario, HMS Speedy/Sophie, Badger and Supply as well as the Cruizer and Cherokee class brig sloops of the Royal Navy. There's a lot mire, but that's what I can think if off the top of my head right now. All those mentioned are well documented and often modeled as commercial kits and plans are available from a number of companies. Cheers!

I didn't have a particular problem with the font that started this thread, but I do rather like what I'm seeing right now.

The first thing you need is reference material. Not, necessarily for accuracy or realism, but for a clear vision and example of what you which to achieve. Don't get me wrong, I always say "When in doubt, do it the way they did it back then." But, even if you say you want to make a Black Pearl, even though she'd sail about as well as a brick in a real-world setting, she's great choice in that there is so much reference material available. From the movies to other media from the franchise to other builder's efforts, there's no need to re-invent anything you don't feel a creative itch to do so about. In the same vane, if you do go real-world, starting small is a good idea. I'd suggest one of the popularly modeled naval cutters, like Alert, for much the same reason as Black Pearl. Once you pick a design, technique starts to solve it's self. Cheers!

Tried it out, wound-up going a very different way with it Look here!

Neat! Thanks I'm gonna have to try this, and I may even have all the parts

So cool Please show us a break-down of your gun's construction

Well I do like to keep comments like this generalized so they're useful to the boarder audience as well, but there is advice in there for you, even if I did glaze over it a bit. Go for a mottled effect of different browns (like I did with gray on Nonesuch) and then you get both the run-down look and can match whatever parts in what ever brown is most handy. Thanks, it gives me a chuckle too