TomSkippy Posted January 7 Posted January 7 (edited) She's done. It took a bit more time than I thought. I was a bit slow to get back to her after she missed out on BDP approval. But the new design is significantly better. Spoiler Improvements list: Fewer random pieces Front sail is SO MUCH BETTER/LESS JANKY Better proportions Coloring improvements (yellow railings are plate/cone/plate) Improved front curve (moved forward by half of a stud) Cheaper (@$30 less) Better rigging Simplified Mast better Crow's Nest Better armament (fun stubby gun/swivel cannon) Improved cabin Back angle. Much cleaner. Forgive the missing parts/mismatched colors. Here's the cloth conversion proof. Th square sail is unfortunately a custom (reasoning is below). The good news is that it is the same dimensions as the square sail from the Eldorado cutter. This means with some recoloring and a little crafting, you can easily convert it to a merchant or imperial vessel. Just about everything that bothered me about the build has been fixed except the following: 1) The brickbuilt gaff sail's connection has some stress and is likely illegal. To me, the simplicity of the design and the angle of the gaff are more important than a little stress on a technic 4 axle. 2) To get the sexy front hull curve without gaps on the outside, I needed to use jumper plates. so there's a little half step offset on the wall behind the ladders. There's probably a way of using some technic technique, but whatever, it's behind muskets, ladders, rigging, and similar color parts, nobody cares. 3) The front cannon has a stud that attaches into a round tile with technic hole. Illegal. 4) I wanted to get the part to lot ratio of 3:1. Couldn't get there. The double build and specialized ship parts killed the dream. Overall price is shockingly good. If you cut the dragon plume, muskets, swords, and make the cannon/swivel black you can hit 10 cents per part before shipping. 5) The curved up aft section. I love them, but it's a stupid number of plates and the bottom part (brown wedge and black wedge plate keel) doesn't attach well to the top part of the section (one 2x3 plate). Thankfully the rest of the attachment holds it into place. The build is solid. A kid could play with it. The back might get lose with rough play, but I'm not worried about a kid picking it up. You can pick the build up by the mast and it holds. but I wish it was more satisfying. 6) Some parts of the instructions need callouts instead of individual pages. Moving them, moved other things. I'm so tired of instructions. I left them in. 7) My original goal was to use a renegade runner style sail plan with no custom pieces, only the fore/aft sails from the Barracuda. There may not be a good way given how small they cut the gaff sail. The gaff is either comically low compared to the fore or ridiculously high compared to the stern. To make matters worse, the zip hoses TLC uses for rigging now are almost too long for this ship. Without a square sail, the rigging is way too high. This forced my hand, there needs to be a custom sail. Perhaps the saddest part is that the OG plan was to do a fore/aft for the sloop, then lengthen the hull and add a square sail for a bluecoat version. Now they'll look too similar. There you have it. She's done. More photos here. Instructions can be found on my rebrickable Thanks for your support! Let me know what you think! Edited January 7 by TomSkippy formatting Quote
berninhr Posted January 8 Posted January 8 This is a lovely build! the hull shaping is just perfect Quote
Governor Mister Phes Posted January 11 Governor Posted January 11 On 1/7/2025 at 4:56 PM, TomSkippy said: It took a bit more time than I thought. I was a bit slow to get back to her after she missed out on BDP approval. But the new design is significantly better. Nice updates! I'm actually working on a blog post for Scalawag Sloop in support of BrickLink Designer Program Series 7. So I'll incorporate the updated version of the ship into that blog post as well. Quote
NOD Posted January 11 Posted January 11 I like the Scalawag Sloop II they are very good improvements! Quote
Quotenotto Posted January 11 Posted January 11 I love this build, the hull shape is excellent and great use of the banana piece. I also like the only one stud wide bow, that fits very well. And theleaf piece works perfect as a hammock. Great build! Quote
TomSkippy Posted January 15 Author Posted January 15 On 1/10/2025 at 9:25 PM, Mister Phes said: Nice updates! I'm actually working on a blog post for Scalawag Sloop in support of BrickLink Designer Program Series 7. So I'll incorporate the updated version of the ship into that blog post as well. Thanks a ton! @Quotenotto I had originally used a yellow animal tusk part, but it wasn't available in yellow for the BDP. The bananas are so much more pirate-y! Quote
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