Posted July 8, 20231 yr The Imperial Flagship has gotten a makeover, and is ready to sail the seas again! I didn't have 6271 growing up, but I did acquire it in a used lot in 2010, so it's really one of my oldest Pirate sets at this point, and first classic ship I got since my Cross Bone Clipper in 1998. I just knew I had to update it. It has about 530 parts, plus the minifigs, so around twice the piece count of the original. Not bad when compared to the PoBB to the BSB, or the Eldorado Fortresses Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr I'm extremely happy with how I was able to make the hull essentially the same size as the small hulls, though it really annoys my that a certain inverted curved slope does not appear in reddish brown. Had to use dark brown. Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr I've touched up the headfigure a bit so it's more smooth. Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr It still has the original rudder function Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr I added a compass! Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr The cabin. Imperial Flagship Redux V2 by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr Version 1: Spoiler I'm extremely happy with how I was able to make the hull essentially the same size as the small hulls, though it really annoys my that a certain inverted curved slope does not appear in reddish brown. Had to use dark brown. Next to it's predecessor. The mostly inaccessible cabin, but I filled it out a little bit anyways. The stern. I went with gold windows instead of yellow for two reasons. 1, I had no yellow to spare, and 2, gold is more modern. It still has the original function where you turn the wheel and the rudder moves! It was a bit tricky getting this to work, but I managed to do it in a way I am quite pleased with. The middeck. The bow, with the biggest upgrade of the ship; giving it a figure head. I used the bird part as a slight nod towards the Caribbean Clipper, but I added wings to give it a more dynamic look. Any thoughts or improvements?  EKnight Edited August 20, 20231 yr by Elephant Knight
July 9, 20231 yr Author 21 hours ago, Lyichir said: Oh, I love the figurehead! Thank you, I'm very happy with the results of it. EKnight
July 9, 20231 yr Which is which?-I can't tell! Theme A powerful, 2-cannon vessel with a cabin, a pirate being forced to carry a treasure (at least that's what the original box art suggests), arguably there's no small boat or crocodile-but the original didn't have any. So all in all you really capture the essence of the original-but with new parts. Build The colour scheme is good, but the middeck at the center of the ship ought to be a stud higher , to at least create the illusion of depth and make it easier to move stuff around on the gundeck. There's also the weird gap caused by the use of slopes to create the white and grey sides, I'd try something a little different, maybe with plates instead? There's also the issue of the figurehead ; it looks really good but the support built using wedges is weird, even considering the source material, maybe use a regular 2xsomething plate? Overall there's a lot of nice details to this build, with some nice touches of blue, well-made railings and a general sense of modern parts, without ruining the desired look. Â
July 9, 20231 yr This is one of my favorite sets as my brother got this for Christmas one year and I was so jealous. When I eventually got to play with it, the anticipation build up made this set so much better. Nostalgia aside... Some of my complaints about the original that you have address here that I like: -The hull was curved but the bricks on the top front were at right angles. You have fix this buy putting the guard rail higher up and angling it to follow the curve of the front prow -There wasn't a good forward deck and you've added one and put the cargo there. Though, I think the cargo would be better stowed below, I do like the forward deck. -There wasn't a middle deck on the original. You've added some side decks for walking from the front of the ship to the back of the ship. I like this. -The cannon balls were stacked in the original. You have put them in a crate to store them. Looks great -The rudder in the original was prone to come loose if you picked the ship up from the front and back. You've put a much more stable rudder design. -The figure head is great! Feedback: -The rigging on the old ship had horizontal ropes so that it could be used to climb up to the crows nest. In your design, you have the outside ropes but I don't see how the sailor will be able to ascend it. If you have one more of those rubber cables, maybe adding one more of them to the middle might give it more of a feel of the old one? It wouldn't fix the lack of horizontal ropes but would fill the visual space some. -Missing the compass. For a little kid, the compass was a really cool part of the ship. Maybe add it back in? Great Job!  Â
July 9, 20231 yr Author 37 minutes ago, durazno33 said:  Feedback: -The rigging on the old ship had horizontal ropes so that it could be used to climb up to the crows nest. In your design, you have the outside ropes but I don't see how the sailor will be able to ascend it. If you have one more of those rubber cables, maybe adding one more of them to the middle might give it more of a feel of the old one? It wouldn't fix the lack of horizontal ropes but would fill the visual space some. -Missing the compass. For a little kid, the compass was a really cool part of the ship. Maybe add it back in? Great Job! Thank you! I would have to steal more of those cables from the 3 in 1 Viking ship, which I don't have much issue with. I used two as it emulated what the Creator 3 in 1 Pirate ship did, but I see your point. 3 would also look more accurate to the original set. I completely forgot about the compass! Sadly I don't have any extras, but I may be able to steal from another ship. Maybe. Not sure if I actually have any that don't belong to a built set. @Horation I feel the middeck is tall enough as it is, it already looses some of the sleekness that I feel the original has. Trying to emulate a modern set, using plates I don't think would work, and this is a little tribute to the 10210 Imperial Flagship, which used the same technique. Admittedly it's slightly hidden there. Yeah, I'm not completely sold on the way the figure head attaches either. Needs some tinkering, for sure. EKnight Edited July 9, 20231 yr by Elephant Knight
July 9, 20231 yr I absolutely love this! This was the first set I ever had so there maybe some bias here.... I think you've done an amazing job of modernising this set whilst retaining all the features that made it stand out. I agree with the comment above about the missing compass. I am lucky enough to still have the compass from my flagship and as a play element I feel it's probably one of the best single parts Lego have ever created. I feel like you have nicely balanced the modernisation with playability. The addition of the extra deck adds far more options for play and I like your attempt to add Cabin detail in an almost impossible space! One of the things I love most about the original set is the balance of it's proportions and I think (having tried myself for 3 years...) it's a really difficult task to achieve this without losing this ships character. It's the simple addition of shape and curve's (thanks to the range of modern pieces) that make this a really cool makeover. Great effort and best of luck! PirateHaz
July 9, 20231 yr Author 1 hour ago, PirateHaz said: I absolutely love this! This was the first set I ever had so there maybe some bias here.... I think you've done an amazing job of modernising this set whilst retaining all the features that made it stand out. I agree with the comment above about the missing compass. I am lucky enough to still have the compass from my flagship and as a play element I feel it's probably one of the best single parts Lego have ever created. I feel like you have nicely balanced the modernisation with playability. The addition of the extra deck adds far more options for play and I like your attempt to add Cabin detail in an almost impossible space! One of the things I love most about the original set is the balance of it's proportions and I think (having tried myself for 3 years...) it's a really difficult task to achieve this without losing this ships character. It's the simple addition of shape and curve's (thanks to the range of modern pieces) that make this a really cool makeover. Great effort and best of luck! PirateHaz Thank you for all your kind words! Thinking about it, while the compass is awesome, since this is supposed to be a "What if this set was released today?", I feel the exclusion of the compass piece is reasonable, given the mold has been retired for over 25 years. Though I ought to add a small, printed one maybe. EKnight
July 10, 20231 yr It's one of my favorite set and you made completely remaked ship without old ship parts. to all your tries and efforts to make her. well done. I think these can be helpful for your ship to be more cool. 1. add lifeboat to her stern, lower her rudder and add lifeboat like set 6286. I often use the part 4623 and 14226c11. 2. change upper-hull color I always think the old-ship-parts are good but sometimes limit our build. now you got free, you can consider about match her color. to make her lines smooth. of course without these, still creative and good. your ship is
July 10, 20231 yr It is very hard to find things to criticize about this build. I would swap out the dark bluish gray for white, IMHO it would look a lot cleaner. You can keep the slopes, but consider using 2x2 triangular tiles (part 35787) on SNOT bricks for a much cleaner look. As others said, toss a 1x1 compass tile next to the map. Have you thought about using the Imperial Flagship 10210 lantern design (using part 2654)? The figurehead is probably the single best design I have seen in this contest, it's so simple, clever and perfect. As things stand right now, I think this is probably my favorite build from the contest. Outstanding work.
July 10, 20231 yr Author 1 hour ago, iragm said: It is very hard to find things to criticize about this build. I would swap out the dark bluish gray for white, IMHO it would look a lot cleaner. You can keep the slopes, but consider using 2x2 triangular tiles (part 35787) on SNOT bricks for a much cleaner look. As others said, toss a 1x1 compass tile next to the map. Have you thought about using the Imperial Flagship 10210 lantern design (using part 2654)? The figurehead is probably the single best design I have seen in this contest, it's so simple, clever and perfect. As things stand right now, I think this is probably my favorite build from the contest. Outstanding work. Swapping out the dark bluish grey for white is an interesting idea. I would have to get one of the hull parts used in white first. I never even though about using the 2x2 triangular tiles. It's such a useful and versatile part. I will definitely look into that. The lantern idea is also a good one, and I like the connection to 10210. Thank you! EKnight
July 16, 20231 yr Oh, this is beautiful! The hull looks fantastic despite being a little more angular than the original set's hull. The custom figurehead is also phenomenal, even if it fits the Caribbean Clipper's name from European languages (the governor's ship Sea Hawk) better than the Imperial Flagship's (admiral's ship Sea Lion). The decks and interior have a lot of nice and authentic details in spite of their small size, and it's very cool that you retained the original set's working rudder despite the space limitations you were working with! I do wonder whether you could improve the visibility of the cabin slightly (and also make it feel a little more hospitable for the crew) by replacing part of the deck above with some SNOTted lattice fence pieces like 3185 or 3633. Like the 8x8 "grid plate" used in many classic Pirates sets (which is unfortunately slightly too large for this model), parts like these could be used to represent the grates which were used on real wooden sailing ships to provide light and ventilation belowdecks.
July 18, 20231 yr First I love the updated minifigs, there are some things I would change though. One of them was swapping the sails for a faded white color, second changing the color of the light at the rear of the ship. Besides these small details, the ship looks awesome! Anyway, Happy building :)
July 30, 20231 yr Author On 7/16/2023 at 12:31 PM, Aanchir said: Oh, this is beautiful! The hull looks fantastic despite being a little more angular than the original set's hull. The custom figurehead is also phenomenal, even if it fits the Caribbean Clipper's name from European languages (the governor's ship Sea Hawk) better than the Imperial Flagship's (admiral's ship Sea Lion). The decks and interior have a lot of nice and authentic details in spite of their small size, and it's very cool that you retained the original set's working rudder despite the space limitations you were working with! I do wonder whether you could improve the visibility of the cabin slightly (and also make it feel a little more hospitable for the crew) by replacing part of the deck above with some SNOTted lattice fence pieces like 3185 or 3633. Like the 8x8 "grid plate" used in many classic Pirates sets (which is unfortunately slightly too large for this model), parts like these could be used to represent the grates which were used on real wooden sailing ships to provide light and ventilation belowdecks. I definitely knew one was called the Sea Hawk, but had forgotten which one. and now that you mentioned Sea Lion, I remember that as well. The names make sense in context of the figure head to the one ship. I had the Caribbean Clipper in mind for sure when I made the figure head. I thought it a nice little nod, and adding the wings made different and more dynamic. I don't think structurally I could swap out anything of the deck for a grate of some sorts. The inhabitant of the cabin will have to live by candlight, I guess. On 7/18/2023 at 10:55 AM, Rogue Redcoat said: First I love the updated minifigs, there are some things I would change though. One of them was swapping the sails for a faded white color, second changing the color of the light at the rear of the ship. Besides these small details, the ship looks awesome! Anyway, Happy building :) Swapping the sails for such a colour would be straying too far away from the source material for my liking, plus I would have to go through the hassle of making a set of sails instead of using the pre-existing sails. And same for the lanterns, the blue ones are iconic to me, so I will keep them. I really wish Lego would release that part in that colour again, to be honest. EKnight
July 30, 20231 yr What a lovely recreation! As mentioned it's really hard to tell them apart from afar and that definitely shows how good the remake is. On one hand I would almost suggest making even more changes to distinguish it a bit more from the original but on the other hand it is just perfect as it is. Thinking as TLG might - it's hard to imagine for people that already have the original to buy the remake when so similar. Overall I love the smoothed out lines with more modern parts, the figurehead is really a big improvement and I think that the only downgrade are the cables imitating the roped ladder. Might be suitable for the creator line but in a Pirates set it takes away some of the more fun playability. Also in my eyes the DBG line could be omitted from the hull since the old hull pieces only had limited different options and is not there for aesthetic reasons. Might make the remake hull color scheme a bit more slick? Also using white legs with black boots upgrades the minifig looks quite a bit in my eyes. But that's about it, very nice entry!
July 31, 20231 yr 21 hours ago, Elephant Knight said: Swapping the sails for such a colour would be straying too far away from the source material for my liking, plus I would have to go through the hassle of making a set of sails instead of using the pre-existing sails. And same for the lanterns, the blue ones are iconic to me, so I will keep them. I really wish Lego would release that part in that colour again, to be honest. This is the right call IMHO -- the sails having a large color design on them are not particularly realistic, but they are absolutely iconic and a necessary part of the set. Same with the lanterns. And I agree that Lego should re-release it in blue given the Bricklink price for it right now.  21 hours ago, Elephant Knight said: I don't think structurally I could swap out anything of the deck for a grate of some sorts. On the front deck, where the treasure chest currently is -- can you fit a SNOT'ed Fence 1 x 4 x 1 Lattice there? I agree with Aanchir that it would improve the look.
July 31, 20231 yr 3 hours ago, iragm said: This is the right call IMHO -- the sails having a large color design on them are not particularly realistic, but they are absolutely iconic and a necessary part of the set. Same with the lanterns. And I agree that Lego should re-release it in blue given the Bricklink price for it right now. I see what you mean, sometimes I get caught up between the Lego look and the darker colors that they have introduced with POTC and sail colors in the Imperial flag ship :)
August 10, 20231 yr A nice remaster again! Realy great work. But as with Your other entry ( or at least i think it was You ;) ) it;s a way to smuggle the old ship with new parts so that no fans would find out it's actually not the same ;) I woudln't! It requires a closer look to see what's changed in here. And i like it, i lack the knowledge to realy catch all the differences, but You sold it to me. However, as remakes often tend to be altered when compared to the original, i wonder what could be done with this vessel. You've added the figurehead, that clearly visible. And that's already a nice upgrade. Point for you sir! But maybe what this ship realy needd is finding a new purpose for it, ha? There's already a clipper, similarly armed too, in the soldiers' fleet so perhaps this could be turned into a bomb vessel instead? With one bif rotating cannon? Or maybe this could be a salvage ship? Surely pirates sunk so many of them that soldiers need to dive for parts, cannons and treasure laying in the shallow waters? So there could be a diving bell provided and some sort of breating aparatus powered by crew's muscles ;) Maybe that's how they got that chest, ha? And where there are divers searching old wrecks there are usualy shark guarding the underwater grave...     Â
August 10, 20231 yr Wonderful redesign! I agree with calls to recolor the dark grey hull portions (mostly to white) as I never liked that color on the original hull pieces. Perhaps you could add carronades (or some other type of small brick-built cannon like on 6286) on the stern deck - there already are openings for them! @Mazin I think it is the clipper that needs a new purpose - this boat is already a good sleek sloop/cutter type useful for patrol, customs, transporting dispatches, catching pirates, etc. (single-masted vessels like this were used throughout the 18th century for various law enforcement purposes as well as smuggling/countering smuggling). The larger clipper on the other hand, being fatter for its length (and thus slower than the flagship; also quite opposite that of the long and narrow lines of a true clipper) and having 2 masts (though its rear mast needs sails badly as it otherwise only slows the ship further by increasing weight and drag), seems more suited for some of these alternate roles you have in mind.
August 10, 20231 yr 13 minutes ago, TheCosmicTravelers said: Wonderful redesign! I agree with calls to recolor the dark grey hull portions (mostly to white) as I never liked that color on the original hull pieces. Perhaps you could add carronades (or some other type of small brick-built cannon like on 6286) on the stern deck - there already are openings for them! @Mazin I think it is the clipper that needs a new purpose - this boat is already a good sleek sloop/cutter type useful for patrol, customs, transporting dispatches, catching pirates, etc. (single-masted vessels like this were used throughout the 18th century for various law enforcement purposes as well as smuggling/countering smuggling). The larger clipper on the other hand, being fatter for its length (and thus slower than the flagship; also quite opposite that of the long and narrow lines of a true clipper) and having 2 masts (though its rear mast needs sails badly as it otherwise only slows the ship further by increasing weight and drag), seems more suited for some of these alternate roles you have in mind. Maybe so :) But the clipper is more iconic in the lego fandom, if not in the general toy collectors community, so I'm not sure if it they would be happy with drastic changes and this vessel is not as popular, i'd say it's quite forgotten to be honest, but as with Lego... anything can be done! :) And I woudlnt mind getting a new copy of any classic set with such alterations if it would be a way to put my hands on it ;)
August 11, 20231 yr Author There is definitely a call to eliminate the dark grey. I would have to order parts to do so, but I think I will do it. I'll buy both brown and white to see which looks better. Thank you all for your input! 14 hours ago, Mazin said: Maybe so :) But the clipper is more iconic in the lego fandom, if not in the general toy collectors community, so I'm not sure if it they would be happy with drastic changes and this vessel is not as popular, i'd say it's quite forgotten to be honest, but as with Lego... anything can be done! :) And I woudlnt mind getting a new copy of any classic set with such alterations if it would be a way to put my hands on it ;) The Imperial Flagship is much more near and dear to my heart, for a number of reasons, but I do get that most people prefer the Caribbean Clipper. I personally think 6271 is one of the best ships Lego made, but I do have some rose coloured glasses on. At the very least, it's the best ship that had the small hulls. I just think it's so sleek, and the sails stand out among all the other ships. EKnight
August 18, 20231 yr Author So I went and bought the required part in black, white, and trans neon green, brown, and tried them all out. Imperial Flagship Redux colour options by Elephant-Knight, on Flickr Enough people have asked to remove the dark grey on the ship, and so I have! I have given you four options Option A, Top left. Dark grey is gone, replaced with brown. Too much brown for my taste. Option B, top right. Dark grey replaced with black. I like it more than Option A. Option C, bottom left. White stripe. It's more striking, but it strays more from the original set, which I don't know if I like or not. Original, bottom right. version 1. with the dark grey stripe. What do you all think? which one should I go with? EKnight
August 18, 20231 yr Wow man, first of all a big kudos to you, for doing this with a physical build. Definitely a lot of plus points for the dedication! As for the color scheme, I think I'd go with white. It nicely connects the figurehead white base with the back white topping on the fence. Brown also looks nice, but then I guess that the white area around the cannons is a bit small and looks out of place! Now you only need to fix the ladders (;
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