One of the most used class of battleships used in the High Times of Piracy were Sloops, small and fast ships. Pirates used them to attack merchant vessels, Armadas from different Nations used them as Gunboats and Landing Vessels for attacking and capturing enemy strongsponts.

This sloop-of-war, the "Le Scorpion" from the Grand Republican Navy is equipped with a 12 pounter canon and two swivel canons. The crew consisted of up to 24 soldiers and sailors

20230826_164736 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

20230826_164853 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

20230826_165136 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

Commanding Officer Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont has a high value and high risc freight:  Élisabeth de Bourbon, High Princess of the former Emperor, seeking for a safe haven in the Carribean Seas.

20230826_165309 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

20230826_165345 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

20230826_165352 by Jan Südmersen, auf Flickr

 

 

 

Wow! What a great last shot! 

This could be reviewers' favourite if You could only upload it earlier, as it's finally a type of boat we've been waiting for :) I've seen more variety of water crafts in Lego Castle sets than we've seen here, and Knights are not exactly associated with ships, but finally we got this. Awesome :) Very nice design. Interesting choice of colors, carefully planned, i love those sailors and guns, and those sails, awesome, and that stern with so many flags, even tho some might say there are way too many flags ;)

There might be way too many people included on the other hand, definitely Lego wouldn't go with that many minifigs, some of them would probably have to go, after all, it;s not a big ship... tho i like the way it is and would take them with all still sitting in there. At least those rowing boys, they do look great in those top hats. And the officers at the bow. Damn, how cutr that bow is. Not sure about those guys at the back tho, but i can;t see them too well on those photos. 

Anyway... straight to my favourites it goes.

I wonder if there;s anything below that stern? It seems there's a bit of space and there are some bags stored? Maybe there could be few muskets and swords in there too, cause i haven't realy seen them anywhere, and Your crew would have to fight with something eventually. Tho i love it so much i don't mind it not being there :) 

I only wish there could be some mechanical feature to operate those oars only by pulling one of them, cause obviously no one is gonna do the hard work for all these galley slaves ;) At least i always tried to row my lego boats, from time to time, as it would be weird if it wasn;t done, and with so many oars here it would be hard ;) 

Hope You will do some mocs with this color scheme and types of uniforms in the feature. I'd realy like to see more sets like this, a boat, a yacht, whatever, a bomb vessel, retrieval vessel, whalers' ship etc. :) 

This ship is definitely a different class of ship. Like a more nimble fast craft for navigating in and out of combat.

One thing I will add is that the back sail would mostly likely cause more problems than help. Since it is smaller than the large main sail, I'm thinking it would simply turn the ship than help it move forward. From what I understand, triangle sails need to be pointed into the wind to create a 45 degree movement to the wind. It is the special nature of a triangle sail that allows it to sail into the wind rather than from behind. (they kind of act like an airplane wing) Here you have it facing backwards which would create drag and a list to the left.  I suggest moving the triangle sail to in front of the large square sail.

Edited August 26, 20231 yr by durazno33

Love the realistic scale and the Minifigure choices. The top hats are a nice touch. 

Awesome, all I would add er or rather take is some of those minifigs Lego would not go for that, and what's up with that flag, I seem to recall that a flag flown upside down was a sign of surrender or a distress signal. Other than this the ship looks perfect, but what color is the bow of the ship, anyway happy building :)

1 hour ago, durazno33 said:

From what I understand, triangle sails need to be pointed into the wind to create a 45 degree movement to the wind

I have owned more than one boat that had a triangular main sail like this and as long as it's on a boom as shown here, it's fine.  However, behind a square rigged sail, you are correct that it would do little.  While a fore-and-aft rigged system was not common in the age of sail, it's no more inaccurate than many other things found in official sets.  Actually, given the Caribbean not-a-Clipper, the Skull's Eye not-a-Schooner, the Imperial I-sure-hope-that-isn't-their-Flagship and many others, perhaps you are alluding to these by referring to this ship - with a square rigged main sail, as a sloop :)

I like the cannonades, the use of blue torso pirate figures as rowers, and many of the fine details of this ship.  The colors don't really work for me, I think mostly the red sails are a bit much and don't fit with the white and blue rest of the ship. And it bothers me that every single one of your bluecoat flags is upside down.  But still, this is a great build, very innovative and full of amazing details.  Very nice!

Damn. The flag upside down is my fault. The kids played their first battle with it and I did not check the flag before taking photos. No I am sure the Grand Admiral will take notice and my fate is to end on the knees in front of a Gilloutine!

Yepp, Sails were an issue. I tried to make it somehow looking like a sloop:  https://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/mitglieder/modelle/schaluppe1834/ 
but I could only use the sail cloths from older ships. So I had to improvise - no historical or technical accuracy gramnted.

Thanks for your wonderful comments!

As mentioned before, not a ship expert here. But I do love the color scheme and the overall looks of this build! The dark blue works really nice with white and going for the blues made the transfer of the molded blue part look smoother. Even if it's a bluecoats ship, the dark red sails work rather well. My only visual complaint would be the inconsistency in the flags. It would be nice if in the back and the top flags matched each other!

HERE ARE MY FINAL THOUGHTS AND REASONS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO RANK THIS SET AT THE 1ST PLACE IN THE MAIN BUILDING CATEGORY

I'e decided to give my own gold to Le Scorpion for one simple reason - Pirates and their opponents were and are associated mostly with SHIPS, Treasures, and Lonely Islands, as it's all about those galleons, frigates and seabattles, cannons exchanging fires and bordages,  that we look in pirate adventures, whether they are movies, comic books, games, cartoons, toys. Everything else is just a bonus. Baracuda and Carribean Clipper were THE SETS of the classic Lego, way ahead of Eldorado and other hideouts, and pretty much the same goes with all other associated franchises - POTC, Crimson Pirate, Cutthroat Island, Polanski's Pirates, Pirates of Dark Water, Water World etc. Story can have all sorts of different scenarios, but it's the ship or two ships battling each other that we all look for in those intelectual properties.

And Le Scorpion is the closest thing we've got. I emphasize "closest" cause i'd point to the fact that we din't reach anything that could be as good as the original Baracuda or the original Carribean Clipper. Furthermore, if i'd have to guess which ship among entries would get the biggest chance to be greenlighter and become a bestseller i'd go with the Imperial Flagship Remake, but that build was just too similar to the classic version, not to mention that it was always kinda a dull copy of the Clipper to me. The problem is that most of the vessels provided in entries were either Mocs, or oversized, overbuild, overshiny, overarmed, or chose a color pallete that couldn't go well with the classics. They were all impressive builds, but not something i'd like to green light as an official set. A golden ship by a kid could be greenlighted, cause that's some original idea, but it would still need a lot of work... Le Scorpion on the other hand fits very well with the franchise, got the proper look, got the soul, and brings novelty into the series, as there's been plenty types of crafts sailing on the Carribean back then, and this one decided to use it, instead of mimmicking other famous ships of the line. It doesn't have a great number of cannons, it's not big, but it still can provide a lot of fun, it's unique in colors and brings new type of crewmen, all that fit well wiht the franchise and are very appealing. And i'd add it, it still probably wouldnt become the fan favourite, should it be released with the line of legit sets, as it's still only the galley, and i feel we could get more attractive ships or more playable types. 

Still, the fact that this is the baby that would not only look great as a display piece, the fact that it is a ship and that this is a set i could constantly return into, that it's simplicity and universalizm could help use in all sort of scenarios, makes it number 1 for me.