Inspired from the Havana of the PC Game Assasins Creed Black Flag, set in the Golden Age of Piracy. For the blue building in the centre 10252 VW Beetle was disassembled and many of its parts are used to achieve the rounding of the building.
These buildings will be used as part of a much larger port town layout for future episodes of stop-motion animation series Being Pirates.
Here is a current episode of Being Pirates:
Have you ever been to Forbidden Island? If your love for LEGO Pirate began a few decades ago, then chances are, yes, you have been there numerous times. After all, 6270 Forbidden Island is a classic set, but what’s happened on the island during the past 30 years?
The Indigo Islanders have taken over! Why do you think Captain Redbeard relocated to Barracuda Bay? It’s because the Islanders mean business! Any pirate caught lurking on Forbidden Island will receive a free chest massage… with the sacrificial blade!
Cube Brick MOC demonstrates the Islanders all new temple of doom visitors centre which he has shared in the LEGO Pirate MOC subforum!
After 2 years being in the game, I decided to remaster one of my first vignettes I did, after my dark ages.
Cube Brick is a versatile MOC builder who explores a variety of themes. You can observe his first (and more pirate friendly) interpretation of Forbidden Island and admire the broader range of his skills by following his Flickr stream.
Ah, sugar, sugar… You are my candy girl… Ok, that’s not the usually the way you’d expect to start a blog post focusing on a LEGO Pirates MOC… but here we are.
Have you ever done business with Oilskin Johnny? Probably not, and with a name like that you already know you’re missing out on a great opportunity. But he’s so absent minded he’s lost of track of his assets, one of them being this sugarcane plantation. And as we know, sugar is a highly addictive substance which can lead to serious health implications for your crew if they consume too much. It’s also an important ingredient Aguardiente – that’s the popular beverage known as rum before it’s been aged.
Due to some house situations, I’ve been stuck primarily using Stud.io. I’ve been frustrated not being able to use actual bricks, but the number of palm leaves in the build would have made this an impossibility. Plantations can be tough… The allure of ‘copy paste’ is strong and the repetitiveness of the build makes it a challenge to vary the terrain to keep it interesting. I’m tired of rotating the stupid little plants. I’m glad it’s done.
Let me know what you think!
It’s hard work harvesting cannabis sugarcane
Oilskin Johnny’s business interests are so widespread he doesn’t even know they exist… If only he followed the Classic Pirates blog, he’d have a much better chance of keeping up with what’s going on in the world. Just wait till he finds out what the windmill is actually used for…
It’s quite a productive place
The meth lab sugar refinery
Tom has been sailing the Brick Seas for a quite while now, contributing to the ever expanding storyline with creations in both the digital and physical realms. You can follow the adventure through his photos on Flickr or join the fun in the Brethren of the Bricks Seas forum.
It’s time for Dreamweb to be repent! Not that he’s done anything wrong, there’s just been a long absence since a new ship came screeching down the rails of his slipway (out of context that may allude to something else!).
His latest, in a long line of brick built vessels, is the Repentance, a ship build utilising both custom sails and custom hull modification. And no, not a single piece of Duplo was used in the construction.
Hello there. Like always, it has been some time since I posted a new ship MOC, but, well, it’s finally here.
With this ship I started experimenting with Instagram membership, so any feedback there will be highly appreciated.
She uses custom sails made from some very nice thick and slightly embossed paper.
The ship was built to be eventually used in my COMIC SERIES. When it’s back… One day. And when this happens, this weird-looking crew (I mean those guys in white seen in the first three pictures) will be explained. But that’s another story. For now, that’s it, please leave your comments here and follow me on Instagram if you wish. I’m planning to repost some of my older stuff there soon, not just pirates, other things too.
The hull was customised using this procedure…
Not much room for a captain’s cabin, but at least he has a bed and some rum. 
Can you spot a scallywag when you see one? Well, it’s not always obvious, is it? Let’s just say these are “merchants” who’ve been hired by the people in white for a very specific mission. “Mission” being the operative here… so maybe they’re actually mercenaries. Who knows? Dreamweb does, so you’ll just have to wait for the next installment of his comic series to find out.
Dreamweb as old as time itself. Well, maybe not that old, but he’s been contributing to the LEGO Pirates Forum since the mid 2000’s so he’s no spring chicken! During that time he has shared a plethora of stunning ship MOCs which you can find in his Brickshelf gallery. He’s also the author (and builder) of the long running comic series, “Kings And Queens Of The Sea” and if that’s not enough, he’s recently sailed into Instagram, so check out his profile there.
Tall ships are alive and well in the world of LEGO Pirates! More than three decades after the height of Pirate theme’s success we’re still seeing these fantastic vessels being constructed, some builders even going to the extra effort of crafting their own sails (let’s face it – there are more than enough red striped LEGO ships on the market!)
The La Flora has endured a slow gestation, languishing in development for around two years (it was try docked on the shelf), before it’s builder, Legostone caught his second wind and completed the missing sails and rigging. It was certainly well worth the wait, with it’s intricately woven Jacobs ladders and brick built hull.
Even though she’s crewed by blue coat Soldiers, the La Flora flies the Imperial Armada flag, suggesting more is at play here… or maybe not!
Started in early 2019, this ship stood on my shelf unfinished for almost 2 years at this point. I finally decided to complete the rigging and add the missing sails the last couple weeks. I think this might be my most elaborate rigging job yet, hope it shows!
La Flora is inspired by mid 18th century french frigates. First started but abandoned by Captain Green Hair, I purchased the parts from him and tried to stay close to the initial idea.
Sails are old curtains, coloured with coffee. Not a single reddish brown piece was used in this ship. Ratlines are glued.
No time for long description, here are the pics!
Extra thanks to Sebeus I, kabel and CaptainGreen Hair for their quick feedback whenever needed!
Legostone is a regular contributor on Eurobricks and a talented builder of ships. You can view more of his builds on Flickr.
Have you ever wondered what would have happened if the LEGO Group had continued the Pirate theme beyond 1997? What direction would the sets have taken? Would new factions or sub themes have been introduced?
Jason B of The Brick Stop offers speculative answers to these questions by exploring new possibilities through his digital design skills. He’s produced a couple of Imperial Armada set concepts, Armada Cove and Prison Island, a pirate cove named Wreckers Bay (to show everyone how 6281 Pirates Perilous Pitfall should have been done), and The Queens Guard, a MOC based on his first original sub theme of the same name.
He has now expanded his repertoire with “Royal Marines Broadside Bay”, a fort manned by a new faction which repurposes classic LEGO Town firefighter torsos as military uniforms.
Welcome to the Royal Marines Broadside Bay!
I’ve given my black uniform soldiers a home!
Recently I’ve been taking old town firefighter torsos and converting them to imperial guards from the pirate theme!
I thought it would be fun to see what a set would look like if they had gotten one! 😄
Here is what I came up with.
The rear review – watch out for the alligator!
It was named “Broadside Bay” after Captain Redbeard unloaded a full broadside on an imperial port town located in said bay. After that, the Royal Marines constructed this fortification to protect the bay. But the name stuck for good. Needless to say, Governor Broadside thinks the bay was named after him. Just wait until he finds out the truth!
Jason Brown is a masterful digital builder who creates LEGO designs in the style of the official sets released during the mid 90s. He often (but not always) limits himself to using the pieces which were available at the time for that added level of authenticity. You can acquire building instructions for some of his masterpieces from his Gumroad store or peruse his Instagram profile to enjoy the full gamut of his work.
Creating a Brick Film requires immense patience and dexterity, employing meticulous stop-motion animation that requires each element within the shot to be minutely adjusted by hand. Once, adjusted the camera rolls for a single frame, before stopping so all the elements can be minutely adjusted once again. This process repeats until there are enough frames to animate an entire sequence – and usually, animation requires at least 15 frames to look reasonably smooth. So a single minute of footage can accumulate up to 900 frames!
Now imagine the amount of work that goes into a complex naval battle, with multiple ships, crewed by multiple minifigs, with explosions and other visual effects… Well, that’s exactly what Captain Edward has achieved at the tender age of 16 with this recreation of a battle from the 2003 film, “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World”, starring Russel Crow and directed by Peter Weir.
Captain Edward has depicted the scene (see video below) in which the crew of the HMS Surprise sneakily allows their enemy’s ship, the Acheron to approach… before opening fire.
I was cleaning up my YouTube channel and thought I’d share it with you all. So here it is, for those that haven’t seen it yet!
I was quite inexperienced when I made this, and I am not at all happy with how it’s turned out, but for nostalgic reasons I decided to publish it anyway. Enjoy it for what it is; it was my first experience working with a green screen, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
During the Napoleonic Wars, a British captain. Jack Aubrey pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America. The film’s plot and characters draws inspiration from three novels in Aubrey–Maturin series by in author Patrick O’Brian’s which features 20 completed novels centering around Jack Aubrey’s naval career.
Here is the scene which inspired the brick film:
And if you’re interested in historic recreations of tall ships blasting each other to smithereens, here is the final battle, which, at the time of writing, has not been depicted in LEGO form.
Captain Edward (also known Jiskodisco on Twitter) is a lover of LEGO and pirates (who in their right mind isn’t?) and you can watch more of his highly skilled brick animations on his YouTube channel or visit his Flickr stream to see some skills.
NOD is a master at creating digital LEGO designs! His contributions to the Brethren of the Brick Seas game in the LEGO Pirates Forum have been nothing short of impressive! Not long after demonstrating his skill at virtual ship building with the frigate named “Estrella” he has wowed us once again with “Paraiso Bay“, a port containing a house, shop and factory… it even includes a fountain which is always a nice touch.
Paraiso Bay is also well defended with three gun-stations manned by cannon happy militia, who are all to eager to send a servo of hot iron raining down upon potential intruders.
A new district has emerged on Poppy Port settlement. On House, shop, factory and a fountain were built.
WELCOME TO PARAISO BAY!
The Sea Rats are a friendly, neutral and a helpful faction. Passing merchant ships ask the Sea Rats for a modest donation. The Sea Rats are happy to borrow items from the neighbors in other faction settlements.
Good, neutral and peaceful Sea Rats live in this bay. They are very happy to exchange goods with merchant ships. These exchange exclusive, high-quality and valuable air guitars for other modest goods.
The weather is inconsistent and there are frequent storms at sea. It is quite possible that ships get into distress or sink. The Sea Rats are always ready to help.
The factory is on the left. The cotton comes from the plantation on the island. Many designers of well-known fashion companies work in the factory Dolce & Bananas (D & B), Giancarlo Versaze (Versaze) and Gabrielle Schanel (Schanel). The factory also consists of other buildings. Unfortunately, the space was too small to show everyone. So, believe me because I never lie.
Top right is a shop for clothes. The designer dresses were made in the factory opposite. This shop also sells clothes from donation collections (the Sea Rats helped ships in need, as thanks they also got high quality clothes). In order for everyone to make money, designer clothes and donation collections have similar prices. Actually, everything is expensive in this shop. But the Sea Rats are fortunate. They have enough money because on the sea voyages they will always find someone who wants to donate Doubloons.
There’s a house at the bottom right. It’s a house with walls and a roof. It has a large and beautiful balcony.
In the upper right corner is a fireplace. It’s a popular meeting place. Some residents grill fishes. A singer plays the guitar and sings.
There are positions with cannons on the coast. These are controlled by attentive citizens.
Poppy Port should have risen to Large Town. “This is Poppy Port!”
NOD (also known as Phillipe) is a star contributor of the Brethren of the Brick Seas game in the LEGO Pirates Forum. Sail by his Flickr stream to observe more of his great digital builds, along with some traditional builds, you know, the ones using physical LEGO pieces which have been captured by camera.
Behold the Charlemagne! A Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy in service between 1807 and 1814 before being transferred to the Dutch Navy. Ordered by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte himself, this vessel was packed to the brim with firepower and now reimagined in LEGO Soldiers form by BrickDuvel.
Here’s my minfig scale MOC of the Charlemagne. (Charles The Great)
I’m posting my MOC on this great Pirate MOC forum so this can also inspire other builders in the future.
It’s a 3rd rate Téméraire class 74 gun ship of the line of the French Navy. It’s big brother was launched in 1807 in Antwerp under the Napoleonic rule in Belgium. It had a length of 54m (177ft) and a beam of 14,3m (47 ft).
This MOC at about minifig scale counts 150 studs long from stern to the bow at it’s longest point and 42 studs at its widest point at the lower gun deck near the main mast.
Don’t know the brick count (never made it in digital form) but it took about 2-3 years to finish of which several months were spent on the rigging.
I want to pay a small homage to the builders of these LEGO ships who inspired me to build this LEGO ship which gave me hours of fun:
- Achille
- Gallus
- HMS Bulwark
- HMS Lively
- HMS Prince of Wales/Minerve
- MS Victory
- Le Fleuron/Prins Willim
- Le Fourageux
- Phantom
- Pinnacle
- Rapscallion
- Revenge
- VOC De Ruyter
- USS Poseidon
(And I’m sure I forget to mention quite a few superb ships on this forum, sorry guys)
And a special thanks to the builders of :
- HMS Agamemnon for it’s colour scheme and stern technique
- HMS Enterprize for it’s hull technique and steering mechanism
- HMS Persephone for it’s modular build technique and it’s perfect composure at a it’s own (smaller) scale.
You can view more pictures in the Flickr album.
BrickDuvel occasionally contributes to the forums on Eurobricks and you can view more of his superb builds on Flickr.
“It’s not enough!” yelled the Canon. Monsieur Gallo knew better than to interrupt him. “Meloche’s influence still lingers over those Isles. Heresy is everywhere, and all we have to fight it are spies among our own people? A lowly rat-catcher?”
“He is dedicated…” the notary volunteered, reluctantly.
“And so he should be!” his master retorted. “Bertrand would’ve swung for murder if not for me. But that is not the point! How are we going to convert the heathens if we do not take action?”
Gallo shrugged inwardly. It was not his place to strategise.
“Then what does your eminence intend?” he ventured.
“More,” Canon François responded, “we must do more…”
Another exciting LEGO ship has docked at the Pirate MOCs forum! But the HMS Unsinkable II is not just a MOC build, it also includes a stop animated video titled “Being Pirates: Battle at Sea” to provide some insight into the challenges faced by Soldiers when dealing with LEGO Pirates (even if they claim otherwise). So if you’ve never heard of “flying the Jolly Roger ironically” you better watch the video right now!
I present the Unsinkable II, a 40-gun imperial ship of the line.
After the terrific Barracuda Bay got me back into buying LEGO for myself again and led me down a LEGO-nostalgia rabbit hole I decided to get all the LEGO from my childhood out of my parent’s basement, sorted it and started building again. I wanted an imperial ship as an antagonist to the Black Seas Barracuda, so I built this ship of the line, using mainly parts from the 90s and early 2000s. It’s not built on prefab hull pieces, instead the hull is completely brick-built.
The Unsinkable II is not modeled on any specific ship, but I did use the HMS Victory, the HMS Vanguard and the HMS Melville as references.
The Unsinkable II and Barracuda Bay then inspired me to resurrect another old hobby: making stop-motion animation. Watch the Unsinkable II and Shippy McShipface (Black Seas Barracuda) battle it out in this new episode of Being Pirates:
For more pictures, visit the Flickr album.
VaneStream is a regular contributor on both Eurobricks and YouTube. You can see more of his fantastic brick films on his YouTube Channel or more piratical photos in his Flickr stream or Instagram.
BrickHammer’s project “Imperial Island Fort” is the latest project to reach 10K supporters on LEGO Ideas. This 1,500-piece build is a remake of 6276 Eldorado Fortress and includes 4 minifigures which makes it suitable for playing. This project will be the first to join the Second 2021 review stage.
You are currently browsing the Pirate LEGO® Information Resource & Forum blog archives for May, 2021.
