Converting the Mega Bloks Predator - WIP

[warrenpeace]

Astor, that is looking quite sublime!  I'm sure you've put in more than 10-12 hours.  The effort will make your pirate games look really good.  As is that looks better than most pirate ships that I've seen live or on the web.

You are right that railings would help the look of the fore castle, and you might as well put a short railing between the ladders to the stern castle when you do that.  Perhaps you can find a plastic model railroad ladder in one of the bigger scales at a hobby shop that you could cut in half to make quick railings.  I think some of those ladders are made for railroad water towers.

Are you planning to fill those holes on the sides, or just leave them as is?

Look forward to seeing what you do with the masts and sails.  I recently noticed a cloth paint medium for use with accrylic paints.  I guess it's supposed to make the paint stick to cloth.  I'm thinking of trying that stuff out as a way to weather or detail cloth sails.  Don't know if you have access to cheap lightweight chopsticks, but many of those are a good size for spars and yardarms.

[warrenpeace]

The Mega Bloks ships new on the toy store shelf in the US cost anywhere from $30 to $60 depending on the size, with the Flying Dutchman being at the high end.  Grooved wood or styrene for decks, smaller ships' wheels, anchors, guns, etc. all add up.  But ultimately the price is less than any of the resin ships, and the time to convert is less than that of a full scratchbuild.  Sinewgrab benefits from having a good plastic cutting tool which speeds up the removal of the numbs and the reshaping of the interiors.

The Flying Dutchman and Dread Eye's Phantom are mind bending glorious fantasy, and the Black Pearl is nice.  But my personal favorites are the Empress Junk and the Stormstalker/Predator.  The junk and the ship Astor is almost finished with have great hull forms which would be very difficult to match in a full scratchbuild.  The Stormstalker/Predator hull also has the advantage of having a single piece lower hull with small wheels underneath, like Playmobil ships.  That beats gluing hull sections together.

Speaking of Playmobil, if the work to convert a Mega Bloks is daunting, then Playmobil would be the way to go.  Those can go on the table right out of the box, after about and hour to snap them together.  They require a lot less work to convert.  The hull forms are good.  Some colors could stand a repaint.  They are generally available on ebay and at garage sales (a US summer tradition) as the kids outgrow their pirate toys.

[Poiter50]

Do you have progress pics of the Empress Junk? I just got one recently and have been contemplating the work needed for the conversion.

The Mega Bloks ships new on the toy store shelf in the US cost anywhere from $30 to $60 depending on the size, with the Flying Dutchman being at the high end.  Grooved wood or styrene for decks, smaller ships' wheels, anchors, guns, etc. all add up.  But ultimately the price is less than any of the resin ships, and the time to convert is less than that of a full scratchbuild.  Sinewgrab benefits from having a good plastic cutting tool which speeds up the removal of the numbs and the reshaping of the interiors.

The Flying Dutchman and Dread Eye's Phantom are mind bending glorious fantasy, and the Black Pearl is nice.  But my personal favorites are the Empress Junk and the Stormstalker/Predator.  The junk and the ship Astor is almost finished with have great hull forms which would be very difficult to match in a full scratchbuild.  The Stormstalker/Predator hull also has the advantage of having a single piece lower hull with small wheels underneath, like Playmobil ships.  That beats gluing hull sections together.

Speaking of Playmobil, if the work to convert a Mega Bloks is daunting, then Playmobil would be the way to go.  Those can go on the table right out of the box, after about and hour to snap them together.  They require a lot less work to convert.  The hull forms are good.  Some colors could stand a repaint.  They are generally available on ebay and at garage sales (a US summer tradition) as the kids outgrow their pirate toys.

[warrenpeace]

Sadly no.  Sinewgrab converted my Empress Junk for me, and I don't think he took shots along the way.  Maybe he did and can post them.  I messed up his pretty dark grey deck paint when I tried to lighten it, so it looks very unfinished right now.  Maybe I can get him over to my place with a camera so that he can show off the work he did on my ships.

One thing we agreed to about the Empress Junk was to reduce the masts to two.  We needed a mast for the Stormstalker, and the Empress Junk is so short it seemed like a bad idea to have three masts.  One reason to use these plastic ships is to have deck space for melee between 28mm figures, and the Empress seemed to lack that room.  Unfortunately, the removal of one mast makes that ship look unbalanced.  There are some two masted junks, but most of the pictures you will find of junks on the web have three masts.  The sails that come in the box almost demand use of all three masts.  So I'd recommend that you use all three sails, even if you switch to smaller masts to make more deck space.

[Hawkeye]

Excellent ship! Looking at it, and reading this thread, it's clear that you and Sinewgrap are the people to ask this question, since you mention the Playmobil ship in a previous post - which of the playmobil ships should a prospective ship-owner in LoTHS be looking at?
I'll be looking at the Mega Bloks ships as well, but if you know anything about the Playmobil one, that would be great. After looking at your work, the Stormstalker/Predator is clearly the one to look for in Mega Bloks!

[Doomsdave]

Does anyone know if the MegaBloks POTC "Battler" ships are a useable size? 

[Astor]

Thanks for all the compliments and remarks, guys. Warren - i'm definitely looking into adding some handrails now - if I can't find any plastic ladders like you suggest, i've found some nice little wood columns that would look great.

Excellent ship! Looking at it, and reading this thread, it's clear that you and Sinewgrap are the people to ask this question, since you mention the Playmobil ship in a previous post - which of the playmobil ships should a prospective ship-owner in LoTHS be looking at?

The playmobil ship I have is known as the 'Dinghy', although i've seen it called the 'Gunboat' as well - it's a fair size, although not as big as the Stormstalker (or anywhere near as big as the other playmobil ships). It's this one below.

[warrenpeace]

There are five main types of Playmobil pirate ships that I'm aware of:

1.  The dinghy pictured above by Astor.  It's new.  It cost me only $20 US.  It's got deck room for about 20 to 25 figures depending on basing.  It's deck is not level, but is molded as planks, so there really isn't much needed conversion other than replacing the oversized tiller.

2.  The single masted sloop.  This is a great ship that has been around for many years.  It keeps getting rereleased in different colors.  I got one with a brown hull, grey deck, and red sails and stick on bits.  I got another one with a black hull, dark blue deck, and white sails.  Both cost me $30 US.  This ship will come around again and again I suspect.  I would guess these are available from time to time on ebay.  I'd estimate one could put 30 to 45 figures on deck depending on presence of cannons or other stuff.  The railing is high for 28mm, as on most Playmobil, so the choices are to cut the railing down all around, which would look like crap probably, or to raise the deck with a layer of foamcore and styrene or wood, or just to play with it as is.  The decks are molded as planks.

3.  The recent two masted ship.  This new one sits a little lower in the water than the previous two masted ship.  The first release had a red hull and light tan upper railing and deck.  I do not have this one, as it cost $110 US.  It has a skull for a figurehead, which could stand to be replaced.  It generally has a good shape, although there is a wierd feature, cannon decks forward that recess to hide the cannons.  I believe this ship is currently pictured on the Playmobil website.

[warrenpeace]

(Had to break up this post about Playmobil ships)

4.  Slightly older two masted ship.  This one is a big beast, with hull taller than the Flying Dutchman by Mega Bloks.  My intention is to use that one as a big East Indiaman, the prize the pirates are attemting to take.  My copy has a dark grey hull, red railings and deck, and sails that alternate between ivory and tan vertical sections.  This ship has a really great hull shape, and the decks are expansive, probably able to hold 55 to 60 men on deck.  I've seen it for $85 to $95 US.  It's out of production, but I suspect Playmobil will rerelease it sometime in the future in new colors.

5.  Much older two masted ship.  This one has been around for many years, even decades.  I've seen it in at least three different color schemes, including a brown one pictured here on Lead Adventures Forum under either swashbuckling or workbench (conversion in progress).  It has enough deck space for perhaps 40 to 50 figures.  It's the least pleasing of the lot in terms of realistic hull and stern castle shape.  Most of the problem is that the stern castle is too high.  I suppose it could be cut down, but what I'm going to do with my copy is turn it into an Arab pirate ship by putting big lateen rigged sails on the two masts.  That way the high stern castle will just fit in with the exotic look.  My copy is all black, and came with some crap red plastic furled sails which are completely useless, and some red and yellow stick ons which I probably won't use.  It only cost me $30 US, so I can't complain.

[warrenpeace]

Astor, sorry about hijacking your thread with all this talk about Playmobil ships.  But I like to describe these things.  I wish I had a digital camera and the ability to just post pics for everybody.  But I want to offer some general notes about Playmobil:

The hull typs I described above numbered 1, 2, & 4 are some of the most pleasing pirate ships I've seen.  I just love looking at them, and keep them out just for inspiration, much the way some people keep out much finer and more realistic wood models.

The ships are not waterlined, and are more like the hull of the Mega Bloks Stormstalker/Predator, in that the hulls are mostly flat to the water, but not quite, and they have either little wheels or smooth bumps on the bottom that make them easy to move accross a game mat.  If anyone insists on a waterlined hull, then I'd recommend sticking with resin or scratchbuilding instead of trying to cut down these plastic toys.  The lower hull of the Playmobil ships have screw connections that are part of the structural integrity of the toy.  I personally like the look of them.  But not everybody would.

Some bits like the ships wheel and anchors are way oversized, much worse than the Mega Blocks, because the Playmobil figures are so much bigger.  The most essential conversion work to be done for adapting these ships for use with 28mm figures involves replacing the oversized bits.

Sails are a soft foamy substance.  They are functional.  But purists might want to replace with cloth.

Masts have a groove in the back, so decide to live with that or to wrap something around the mast to round it out before fully assembling the toy.  Masts snap in and are very hard to remove later.  This is in contrast to the Mega Bloks masts, which almost fall out if you sneeze into the sail.  If you want to be able to take the masts down for transport or to represent damage, then it would be necessary to modify the way the masts attach.

There are a mass of photos of Playmobil ships on the web.  Just do a Google Image search and the many generations of these ships will show up.

Decks are molded as planks, and look pretty good to me.  If one wanted to paint the deck, because of the colors in some of the production models, I'd recommend spraying the deck and railing piece with a plastic primer like Rustoleum and painting prior to assembling the toy.  Also, the railings, as mentioned before, are high, so decide whether or not to live with that prior to assembling the model.  It would be much easier to raise the deck before assembling the toy.

[Hawkeye]

Thanks Warrenbruhn, and thanks Astor - that's all very useful knowledge to have. I didn't mean to hijack the thread, it's just that the pictures of the ship here have really inspired me to get into Legends of the High Seas, and I know ships are an important feature of it.
Thanks again!

[Golgotha]

Thanks to all this pirate ship talk I now have 2 MegaBlok ships on the way from ebay - can see my days being filled with planks masts and rigging me hearties... Thanks for some of the construction suggestions I am sure they will come in handy.

Lets not forget that the 19th September is talk like a pirate day see http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html - so I propose we all make sure we are playing pirates around that time and trying to press gang others into our pirate games. 

[logan8054]

Hi Guys,

I am new to the Lead Adventure Forum, but I found the site by looking into the Mega Bloks Conversions.  Is their anyone making any tutorials or any advice you could offer to someone new to starting up a conversion.  I just picked up a dremmel and I want to convert the empress and possibly a couple more PotC mega bloks ships.

Thanks.

[wolfie907]

I did a stormstalker about a year ago im willing to tell about what I did. What exactly do you need to know?

[War In 15MM]

The Leeuw looks great.  Very nicely done.  I've worked over a few toys ships myself and I know it can be both fun and challenging.  You did a wonderful job.  Richard