Dee Shipyards of the Empire of Corrington

[Captain Dee]

Thanks for the replies.

kaiju - ""Crazy awesome' is a new one on me. Probably more "crazy" than "awesome."

SkaForHire - Yes, Corrington should rule the waves. Either that or the 2013 Dragon Knights in tricornes and wigs!

Kolonialbeamter - Whoa now, easy there my friend. What you can't see in this pic (not very well anyway) are the ten cannons sitting by the port-side slipway rail. The barrels may not be attached to the carriages just yet, but I think that could be quickly remedied considering the number of men in the scene. But if the tax hog doesn't mind the thought of a broadside - then bring it on! (Either that or we'll just string 'em up using the cranes...)

Ayrlego - Thanks. I know 120x50 sounds big, and it may look big in the photo, but it doesn't really seem that impressive to me viewing it in person. It must be because I know a proper shipyard would occupy an entire tabletop...

Captain Genaro - Thanks, but some of the details could also be called clutter. I'm pretty sure you can't see much of the actual scaffold because... it's out of sight on the starboard side! But you can see a few heads peeking up from the men standing on it. I'll give you a good look when I get the rest of the pics posted.

Captain Braunsfeld - From whence came the clips? How well do you know your sets? Study the minifigs veddy, veddy carefully...

Kai NRG - Thanks. Besides just building a shipyard I wanted it to be crawling with workers, so if you think it looks really busy then I was successful.

[Captain Dee]

Ahoy mateys!!

Apologies for the double-post, but I'm here to announce:

Ask and ye shall receive! More pics, everyone! More pics!

I added them to the first post and will add some more comments later.

Thanks for viewing.

[BrickOn]

So many photos, definitely worth your effort. I really like the ship's cross-section and the framework photos. Thanks for sharing.

[Captain Dee]

So many photos, definitely worth your effort. I really like the ship's cross-section and the framework photos. Thanks for sharing.

Hey... you were first to comment both times! The question is, are the pics' quality acceptable or should I be hung from one of the cranes and given 50 lashes?

[Vedauwoo]

Hey... you were first to comment both times! The question is, are the pics' quality acceptable or should I be hung from one of the cranes and given 50 lashes?

Very nice...thanks for the extra pics....I love the "plywood" piles and your sawhorses....plus, that hull framing! Super!

For photos....generally good, though a bit grainy/soft on focus in some....what sort of camera are you using?

[Captain Dee]

For photos....generally good, though a bit grainy/soft on focus in some....what sort of camera are you using?

2008 Nikon P80 with wide-angle 18x zoom. I bought it for landscape photography and that's mostly what I've used it for, specifically Cahas Mountain, of which I've taken pics from all seasons because it dominates the skyline in my area. But that's a different world than Lego photography, and the P80 has always been a poor low-light camera in my opinion (reviews complain about it's noise sensitivity and "unusable" high ISO perfirmance). I didn't think I could justify an SLR but now I wish I had gotten one - my brother showed me his at Christmas and I was blown away with its low-light performance. I don't want to blame the camera though - I need more light. These were shot with a bunch of overhead flourescents and I need something to supplement them. Ironically the very first pic was worst in my mind until I'd finished editing it - and now I think it's the best of the bunch.

[BrickOn]

Hey... you were first to comment both times! The question is, are the pics' quality acceptable or should I be hung from one of the cranes and given 50 lashes?

Yes I realised I was first both times and decided to plough on anyway. Definitely acceptable quality, can see all the details :-) Although I am not the person to judge photo quality since all mine are taken with my phone (I broke my camera last summer and have not fixed it yet) and I have never built nor attempted to photograph something that big.

I think I like the saw horses best, after the ship itself. But I have a question, how did you acquire all the wigs was is from the last pirate wave or the CMF soldier or some other mysterious way?

[Ayrlego]

. But I have a question, how did you acquire all the wigs was is from the last pirate wave or the CMF soldier or some other mysterious way?

I wondered the same thing, that is a crazy lot of wigs! The new photos show just how much serious detail you incorporated and I especially like the inclusion of the photos without the ship frame and the ship frame by itself. I definitely think the time you spent on the additional photos was well worth it. Again, fantastic job!

[Captain Dee]

I think I like the saw horses best, after the ship itself. But I have a question, how did you acquire all the wigs was is from the last pirate wave or the CMF soldier or some other mysterious way?

All these wigs have the black ribbon (the CMF soldier's is blue). I got them through Bricks & Pieces last year. My reason for doing it is waiting to be built - and what you see here is less than half of what I have! Yeah, I love those things. I'm wearing one now.

I like the sawhorses too. I had planned to scatter them all over the ground around the ship and ran out of room. The boats being constructed at the bow used up the modified plates that otherwise would have been used for more sawhorses.

Thanks for the comments.

I wondered the same thing, that is a crazy lot of wigs! The new photos show just how much serious detail you incorporated and I especially like the inclusion of the photos without the ship frame and the ship frame by itself. I definitely think the time you spent on the additional photos was well worth it. Again, fantastic job!

Why does the word "crazy" keep coming up?

I didn't have room for as much detail as I wanted but I'm happy with it. If you had viewed this yesterday you would've seen more pics, but I knew it was way too many and trimmed it down. What's left is a lot better on average than the whole group.

By the way, congrats on your contest entries. They were both really good.

Thanks for the kind comments my fellow Corries!

Edited March 1, 2016 by Captain Dee

[Kolonialbeamter]

CD, finally some pics! More drooling material.

Looks crazy busy, great job there!

My favorite however, is the 'Corrington Centipede'. Might come in handy to deceive rival nations about your intentions to end a war But, I'm not pulling this one in!

The question is, [...] should I be hung from one of the cranes and given 50 lashes?

Definitely! No matter the context, just yes! Right away! Repeatedly!

[Mike S]

Why does the word "crazy" keep coming up?

I didn't have room for as much detail as I wanted but I'm happy with it. If you had viewed this yesterday you would've seen more pics, but I knew it was way too many and trimmed it down. What's left is a lot better on average than the whole group.

This is "crazy" good! Anyway glad you removed some of the pics. I tried looking yesterday and was completely overwhelmed. I kept scrolling down and down and almost gave hope I would ever reach the end. The amount of pics now is perfect for us to see all the great details you crammed into the build.

[Vedauwoo]

2008 Nikon P80 with wide-angle 18x zoom. I bought it for landscape photography and that's mostly what I've used it for, specifically Cahas Mountain, of which I've taken pics from all seasons because it dominates the skyline in my area. But that's a different world than Lego photography, and the P80 has always been a poor low-light camera in my opinion (reviews complain about it's noise sensitivity and "unusable" high ISO perfirmance). I didn't think I could justify an SLR but now I wish I had gotten one - my brother showed me his at Christmas and I was blown away with its low-light performance. I don't want to blame the camera though - I need more light. These were shot with a bunch of overhead flourescents and I need something to supplement them. Ironically the very first pic was worst in my mind until I'd finished editing it - and now I think it's the best of the bunch.

The first thing I would try is the tripod mount it, then go for a low ISO and long exposure....may need a remote shuttle release, as pressing the button can sometimes move the camera.... Getting that ISO value down to the sub-400 range...preferably 100-200 should reduce or eliminate the noise. I have a Canon 50d that I use still....it is true that newer digital SLRs have superior low light performance....but I can't afford anew camera all the time either....lol

I have great luck using my iphone 5's camera....it's quite good at low light and does automatic color balancing...

[kurigan]

*Sorry for the bump. I just haven’t had time to comment on everything I want in a timely manner. The game just moves too fast for me.*

Wow, so glad you posted the broken down shots. There is just so much going on it’s difficult to take it all in. It’s an ambitious project at the very least. I like the cranes and think them a clever use of what I find to be inconvenient pieces. The ships boat construction is neat too; makes me wonder if there is something to that as a small boat building method. The dark tan plates registered in my mind as lumber right away, but hadn’t thought about the relative dimensions until you sad something about it. But hay, who’s to say the Corrys haven’t figured out ply wood yet? They’re build a lot of replicas that way anymore.

Though the finished vessel would be something of a “butter box”, the method is still interesting. Real-estate management in MOC-ing is one of the greatest challenges. The more detail or realism you want to put in, the larger they seem to get. By not having more curve you save on a lot of shelf space. Had you not said something I would have assumed that was your intention and approved all the same. It only has to be so convincing and everything else can be explained away by her incomplete status. The flipped studs with technic pins, as you will well know, doesn’t bother me at all. Other bricks that may work though would be: 4274, 32002 or even 4081. The gap doesn’t bother me, but if you had the parts and it so bothered you, those may help limit or eliminate said gap.

I rarely read the word before I look at the pictures. If what I interpreted from the images matches up with the builder’s descriptions, I consider it a success. If all you posted was the one shot no one would be lost as to your intent. You’ve done a great job here, thanks for sharing!

One final note though:

Why are you forcing all those gentlemen to get their expensive tie wigs filthy laboring away in plate armor? The poor guys must be exhausted. Good thing they’re only plastic and can’t unionize against you!

[Bregir]

Great to see more pics, Captain! (And glad you cut I down again - I too was overwhelmed :P)

As others have said, it's a brilliant build with a lot of things going on all over, and an endless number of details to take in! I am going to go over it a few more times, to see what I can "steal" :P

However, the pictures are generally grainy, and it looks like too high ISO setting.

The first thing I would try is the tripod mount it, then go for a low ISO and long exposure....may need a remote shuttle release, as pressing the button can sometimes move the camera.... Getting that ISO value down to the sub-400 range...preferably 100-200 should reduce or eliminate the noise. I have a Canon 50d that I use still....it is true that newer digital SLRs have superior low light performance....but I can't afford anew camera all the time either....lol

I have great luck using my iphone 5's camera....it's quite good at low light and does automatic color balancing...

I quite agree: Tripod, low ISO and ling exposure works for me in almost any light :)

I don't have a remote release, but use a two second delay to avoid shaking the camera with my fumbly fingers!

[Captain Dee]

CD, finally some pics! More drooling material. Looks crazy busy, great job there!

Thanks. Yes, finally. Fifty lashes? Argh!!

This is "crazy" good! Anyway glad you removed some of the pics. I tried looking yesterday and was completely overwhelmed. I kept scrolling down and down and almost gave hope I would ever reach the end. The amount of pics now is perfect for us to see all the great details you crammed into the build.

Thanks. The number of pics I first posted was "crazy bad" but it was intended as a joke for everyone who was originally clamoring for "more pics!" I knew it was ridiculous, which is why I deleted most of them so quickly. You're not the only one who got tired of looking - I got bored too from all the redundant viewing angles. I took photos from just about every angle and posted them, but it was of course unnecessary. What's left is more than enough - in fact I've cut a few more, like the additional head-on views and one of the views minus the ship.

I wouldn't say there are a lot of "great details" just because most of the components are pretty simple. But I'm glad you like it.

The first thing I would try is the tripod mount it, then go for a low ISO and long exposure... may need a remote shuttle release, as pressing the button can sometimes move the camera... Getting that ISO value down to the sub-400 range... preferably 100-200 should reduce or eliminate the noise. I have a Canon 50D that I use still... it is true that newer digital SLRs have superior low-light performance... but I can't afford a new camera all the time either...lol

I have great luck using my iphone 5's camera... it's quite good at low light and does automatic color balancing...

Make no mistake, every one of these pics was shot from a tripod. It's a pretty good one - not professional grade, but reasonably heavy with 3-section legs and telescoping neck. For the elevated views I had the camera mounted well over my head and stood on a chair with my head about a foot from the ceiling.

I'm fully aware of the need to keep that ISO number down. The camera goes all the way to 6400 but anything over 400 is useless. My exposures varied, and I believe the longer ones were slightly better. I've long wanted a remote shutter control but don't think they're available for my camera. I know all about shaking the camera despite being on a tripod - my brother and I used to shoot 8-sec exposures of Independence Day fireworks shows and quickly learned that the slightest touch almost always caused vibration which appeared in the form of tiny zigzags.

My Nikon does pretty good in good outdoor lighting, but I've always noticed two things when editing/cropping pics: it's almost always too soft on contrast and the saturation of colors.

From what I've seen, in person and otherwise, I think many mobile device cameras are better than my dedicated camera - but that's just a testament to how quickly things advance. My sister and brother-in-law have iphones and their cameras are, as you say, really good.

Thanks for the input, and keep up the good work with your MOCs - they've all been really good.

Great to see more pics, Captain! (And glad you cut it down again - I too was overwhelmed :P)

As others have said, it's a brilliant build with a lot of things going on all over, and an endless number of details to take in. I am going to go over it a few more times to see what I can "steal." :P

Thanks. See above comments regarding what was obviously an excessive number of pics. As for the details, I think it needs closer detailing throughout to be accurate but I'm saving that for later. And feel free to "steal away" because I've drawn inspiratiom from lots of sources as well.

I appreciate your photography input too; see the prior comment for my response.

Kurigan, my friend, I'm granting you the honor of "Top Comment" for your well-written reply. I'm going to have to dissect it piece-by-piece.

*Sorry for the bump. I just haven’t had time to comment on everything I want in a timely manner. The game just moves too fast for me.*

You touched on a ticklish issue - due to the level of participation, it feels like bumping sometimes when the topic in question may not be more than a day or two old. Good members understand this, and obviously you care. Yeah, the pace can move too fast for me to keep up at times, too.

Wow, so glad you posted the broken down shots. There is just so much going on it’s difficult to take it all in. It’s an ambitious project at the very least. I like the cranes and think them a clever use of what I find to be inconvenient pieces. The ships boat construction is neat too; makes me wonder if there is something to that as a small boat building method. The dark tan plates registered in my mind as lumber right away, but hadn’t thought about the relative dimensions until you sad something about it. But hay, who’s to say the Corrys haven’t figured out ply wood yet? They’re build a lot of replicas that way anymore.

The cranes indeed use some "inconvenient" parts. I don't mind the upper pieces, as they work reasonably well as mast tops, but the lower masts and shroud pieces are good for their intended purpose and... not much else. They work well here I think. I think the ship's boats under construction are kind of crude, but they were a last-minute addition to use up some extra parts. Otherwise I had planned to just use the official rowboats, but now I'm glad I didn't and I'm glad you like them. I should've used lots of narrow plates for the stacked lumber just to create a more realistic look but none of this project is strictly realistic!

Though the finished vessel would be something of a “butter box”, the method is still interesting. Real-estate management in MOC-ing is one of the greatest challenges. The more detail or realism you want to put in, the larger they seem to get. By not having more curve you save on a lot of shelf space. Had you not said something I would have assumed that was your intention and approved all the same. It only has to be so convincing and everything else can be explained away by her incomplete status. The flipped studs with technic pins, as you will well know, doesn’t bother me at all. Other bricks that may work though would be: 4274, 32002 or even 4081. The gap doesn’t bother me, but if you had the parts and it so bothered you, those may help limit or eliminate said gap.

Yep, detail takes space, which I didn't have enough of despite the base dimensions. She'd be pretty crude if finished in this manner, but I'm convinced it could be done. I'm aware of the "legal" way of switching from studs down to studs up and how to address the gap; using the bricks with studs on two sides would also allow affixing external planking, but there are better ways of building the basic structure for that level of detail. It ain't perfect but overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

I rarely read the word before I look at the pictures. If what I interpreted from the images matches up with the builder’s descriptions, I consider it a success. If all you posted was the one shot no one would be lost as to your intent. You’ve done a great job here, thanks for sharing!

Well said. My thoughts exactly.

One final note though:

Why are you forcing all those gentlemen to get their expensive tie wigs filthy laboring away in plate armor? The poor guys must be exhausted. Good thing they’re only plastic and can’t unionize against you!

I find it surprising that you're the first person among all these comments to bring this up. I acquired these minifigs (2013 Dragon Knights) specifically for scenes like this, and I fully expected someone to question it. It may seem odd to use Castle-themed figs in armor for a colonial-era setting, but I wanted to build a scene with lots of workers and most of the Pirates-theme figs that have ever been released just don't do it for me. The best minifigs for civilian builds in this theme often come from the licensed sets - LotR, the Hobbit, PotC, etc. I have several of those but not enough to do this how I wanted, so I used the Castle figs instead. I envision them as members of a craftsman's guild with uniforms, and I just pretend the armor is silver-colored cloth of some sort!

The matter of the wigs is pretty simple. Originally I planned to have every worker wear a black tricorne, but I wanted to use some of the Dragon Knight heads too - and most of them have back printing, which I can't stand. So I decided to use some wigs, which I really like, and then decided to split them 50-50 which is quite literal in this case. Again it isn't entirely realistic, because I suspect they'd ruin their wigs working in a shipyard, but they sure stand out!

Kurigan, that's the type of input I'm looking for because it sparks a good conversation. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your comments. I've made a few small updates and will probably tinker with this a little while longer.

[Elostirion]

Great to finally see more pics, you really did an absolutely amazing job with this build!

[Dzoni90]

WOW

This is truly amazing creation. Love all the action, minifigs' uniforms and that ship in making.

[Captain Dee]

Elostirion and Dzoni90,

Thanks. You both use the word "amazing" which might be overly generous. Shipbuilding depictions interest me greatly, and partly because it's such a rare thing in Lego. There are thousands of completed ships sailing the online seas, but very few shipyards showing them being built. If there were lots of Lego shipyards to pick from this might just be average at best. Because there are so many of them, a ship has to be really great to prompt this kind of response, and I don't think you'd be quite so excited if this was common material. But I'm glad you like it all the same.