THE IDEA

This design was made by me from scratch, inspired by quite a few sources.

I've always been fascinated by the old Lego Pirate sets, I love the ships, but was under the impression that the pirates were never getting any proper buildings.

My intention is to change that.

For quite some time now l've wanted to build an island that captures the very essence of being a pirate. I also wanted to try to build a realistic looking scenery for pirate stories. I think a lot of people (including myself of course) would be thrilled to get new and exciting Lego Pirates sets.

So when I saw that the Bricklink Designer Program was accepting contributions again, it quickly became clear what I wanted to build. After 2 months in the studio I can proudly present the end result:

The Crimson Outpost with the Ghost Runner.

THE STORY

The Crimson Outpost is located on a small island not far from the pirate town Port Sauvage somewhere in the maze of Caribbean archipelagos. The tower of the old pirate fortress stands firmly, whitstanding the waves, and can be seen from afar.

The rest of the fortress, on the other hand, has slowly decayed over the years. The fortress was abandoned and uninhabited for a long time. The ravages of time have clearly taken its toll on the old ramparts.

Not long ago, however, the rogue pirate Captain Crimson Rose and her Buccaneers found the tower to be the ideal base for their raids. So they took over the remains of the empty fortress without further ado. But not all of them found room in the tower (and nobody wanted to settle in the dungeon, obviously), so they built a new house adjacent to the tower, with Crimson Rose now taking up most of the space for herself.

From the island, which from now on became infamous as the Crimson Outpost, the Ghost Runner, the interceptor of the Crimson Buccaneers, regularly sets sail to spread fear and terror. The small ship specializes in fast and unpredictable attacks, so it doesn't need cannons at all.

THE BUILD

When I first started, the island alone (without the ship) had over 4200 pieces. Fortunately, I was able to drastically reduce this number with various modifications and optimizations. The Crimson Outpost, together with the Ghost Runner, now consists of a grand total of 3880 parts in its final form. The depth of the model is not much more than a normal baseplate, so it should be able to be

displayed on a shelf without any problems.

All modular floors are removable, allowing unhindered access to every nook and cranny of the Outpost. Also, all interiors are appropriately furnished. On the ground floor of the tower, there's the dungeon, and the crew quarters are on the upper floors. The main house consists of the kitchen on the ground floor and Crimson Rose's room on the upper floor. In between the buildings, outdoors, there's the common area. The ship of the Crimson Buccaneers, the Ghost Runner, is a small interceptor that, as a separate side build, contributes significantly to the model's playability.

A total of 9 pirate minifigures (including 2 children), an ancient skeleton in the dungeon, 4 seagulls and few critters are included.

I really enjoyed to create and design this build for the BDP Series 1, and I hope you like it as much as I do!

Thanks, Brickjester