Frank's LEGO^® Pirate Creations

See my LEGO® Pirate Links page for general pirate links.
See my LEGO® Pirate Ships page for information on pirate ships.
See my LEGO® Pirate Gaming page for gaming links and discussion.
See my Pirate Gaming at Brickfest 2000 page for a report on the Pirate Game I ran at Brickfest 2000.

THE GREEN MENNACE (aka The HMS Squished Bug)

This ship starts with a hull from 6250, but doesn't follow much else (I think I sort of followed the first couple of steps [not even exactly, I substituted black 2x4 bricks for the underside, why waste grey bricks where no one can see them?]). This ship has been outfitted for Evil Steve's Pirate Game. It has two cannon and a crew of 12 on board.

Click on thumbnails below for full sized images:

Side View	Side View	Bow View	Stern View
View of Cabin	View of Cabin	View of Cabin	This image shows how the Green Mennace compares to a stock 6250. It's quite a bit more massive.

THE RED SEAS BARRACUDA

I used 6289 Red Beard's Runner hulls, but basically followed the 6285 Black Sea's Barracuda instructions. I modified the gun deck to hold 3 cannon, and moved the upper deck gun port so a cannon could actually be fitted there. I also worked on the cabin, and especially set it up so another cannon can be fitted in there. This is all to get the 5 broadside cannon the pirate game allows. I had hoped to use dark grey almost exclusively, unfortunately, there were many dark grey parts I just couldn't find, or ran out of. I need to get more red 1x10 plates so I can make the spars red (I broke open 6 Axe Carts to get the 1x4 plate with rod, note that I used this instead of the 1x2 plate with rod so that the spars are studs up so pirates can stand on them, I'll be modifying all my older ships to studs up spars).

Click on thumbnails below for full sized images:

Side View	Front Quarter View	Bow View	Stern View
Top View	View Of Cabin From Stern	View Of Cabin From Top
Comparison of The Red Seas Barracuda with a Stock 6285 Black Seas Barracuda	Comparison of The Red Seas Barracuda with a Stock 6285 Black Seas Barracuda

Here's More Construction Information

This weekend I finally sat down and started on my "Red Seas Barracuda". My original intent for the RSB was to use Red Beard Runner hulls, and build a ship using the BSB directions but using dark grey instead of black as much as possible, and red instead of yellow, and green trim.

Some discoveries I made:

In my parts bins, I have a pretty good selection of dark grey except:

• NO 1x2 bricks
• NO 1x3 plates
• very few 1x6 plates
• NO 1x10 plates

I knew I was going to have a problem with the 1x2x3 inverse extreme slopes used in the window frame.

What I ended up doing because the limitation of dark grey was to put a white band around the windows and make the poop deck railings white (perhaps the captain's parrot has been taking the term poop deck a little bit too much to hear?). Once I did this, I realized that I had definitely made the right choice in leaving the white band along the hull (by my original plan, I actually should have made that green).

I made some modifications to the ship:

• The gun deck has 3 gun ports on each side (part of my motivation is to run Steve Jackson's Pirate Game, a BSB size ship will mount 7 cannon, with the side firing cannon being able to be moved from side to side as I understand - this is something I'm not absolutely clear on).
• I moved the masts so those platforms on the side which mate with the ratlines line up properly (the bracing there is supposed to support the mast stays in a real ship).
• I moved the gun port just fore of the rear cabin forward one stud so a cannon can actually use it.
• I decked over the bow area, and have mounted two cannon on swivels.
• I lowered the rear windows a bit (which helps line up the colors better the way I did the white band), and modified the inside decking of the cabin so that a cannon can be placed in the cabin and fire out any of the windows)
• I put a trap door in the floor of the cabin.
• I enclosed the areas under the 4 trap doors on the main deck so that cargo (or prisoners) can be put in there without having to play "shake the coin bank to get the money out".

CUTTERS

I have built several ships based on the small ship in 6277 Imperial Trading Post. These ships are called cutters in the Pirate Game. Here are some pictures:

© Copyright 2001, Brad Hamilton
The Red Vulf (left) and the Black Vulf (right), along with the merry band. These are actually built for my castle theme, but they will find service in the Pirate Game also. The sails were made by Sheree Rosenkrantz.

© Copyright 2001, Brad Hamilton
A green and yellow cutter.

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© Copyright 1999 Frank Filz. All Rights Reserved.

Page last updated November 2, 1999

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