'Beer Belly' Bellamy

My favorite movie on this topic is Polanski's "Pirates" and it sets me in a good mood, because it's a very well made movie although the story itself is a little to thin. They did a very good job in the casting for even the smaller roles and Walter Mattau is outstanding in performing his Captain Red. I was very suprised how well Mattau did his fighting scenes, he was 65 then and had to perform with a pegleg. In my oppinion the costumes were very good and the ship (The Neptune - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_%28galleon%29) itself looked very accurate. For sheer entertainment I like "The Crimson Pirate", it's a lot of fun and the music is quite inspiring.

Thank you! But this is only a small prelude. Wait until I start my Autum/Winter project (or maybe late Summer?) As I would need a befitting my rank (or shall we say a befitting to my cockiness) seating for future camps (and as justification to tell another big story of my pirate's jarn) I plan to build myself the golden throne from Polanski's "Pirates". This will be so much fun, I hardly can wait Did I ever told you that Walter Matthau's Captain Red is my pirate No. 1 - he did such a fine job portraying this character, he was so awesome!!!

As a succesful pirate I would need to have a treasure. First item of 'Big Belly's' Treasure is an Aztec Artefact. Made in an one day tinker project out of plywood, cardboard, toilet paper, lots of wood glue and gold color. Over all it took me about 12 hours of work with some freewheel time in between for a little dry off. The toilet paper is fully soaked with water-diluted wood glue, so the whole thing will need several days to dry completely. The inspiration

The stiching of the fringe is yet to be made on my flag. It's a real pain to get both sides of the applications lined up eactly and it won't work every time, but the fringe stiching should cover up most of the unaccuracies But after all it's a pirate's flag, so some unaccuracies should make it just more accurate Your flag looks very good Mr. Pete, I also like the design, it feels quite period.

Unfortunately I forget also to make enough pictures mainly when I do "miracles" (or as another would say: "when things come/fit together just a miraculous way by sometimes pure incident" ), because I am too focused and deep in "the world of arts and crafts ZEN". Later I will post some more pictures.

After several (thick) coats of paint you won't tell the difference between this glue "refined" ropes (or cardboards) and wooden ornament strips

I will answer here. Thank you Mr. Hook! The main material is cardboard (2mm thick). The background was glued on a plywood plate with addidional wodden strips left, right and center to give the background a slightly wave. The letters are cardboard too. All brush-painted serveral times with PVA glue (the glue you use in woodworkings - we call it white glue = "Weißleim"). The cords were fixed also with PVA glue and the ropes were heavily brush-painted with it too. This unusual covering with PVA glue "turns" all materials in a kind of "plastic", pores and small gaps got filled well with that glue and you even can shape (or mold) a little so all gets a good blending. Later all will look like lacquered wood and after several weeks it became very hard and durable. The rope is an ordinary rope from a local hardware store. In real life I am an educated joiner, so I had to deal with this PVA glue very extensive and I lerned to love this kind of glue.

As a pirate one should have a pirate flag. That sounds easier than it is to achieve, at least that's my experience. There are lots of templates out there, but I found it very difficult to find a pattern that suits my taste and needs. I don't want a too complicated design, because such don't feel very period, if you consider that a sail maker had to make such a flag back in the 1700's. And I don't want to just copy one of the better known designs like that of Calico Jack, although I like the crossed sabers more than the crossed bones (because in my oppinion the ratio between the head and the sabers looks better than between head and bones - just a feel of design). And then a flag design really hit me. It's from Roman Polanski's "Pirates". Who ever came up with that design did a really great job. It looks handmade, it feels period and it have some humor just sewn in. The teeth missing skull is less scary and more funny! I first thought of making my own design based on this flag but then I decided to just copy it one to one, because that design just feels perfect (and it could be seen as an homage to the original designer). My flag is made of linen and has the measures 135 cm x 250 cm (about 53" x 98"). The inspiration (a srceenshot from Polanski's "Pirates" title sequence) my design made in corelDRAW (I have made the sabers a little bit wider) the layout for printing the pattern on cardboard the cut-out pieces of linen positioning on the black linen the obverse layout on the reverse - back-to-front spray adhesive comes in handy when you do not like pins to attach stuff down I still have to made the hem by hand

more rope attached the backside

there are still more rope onraments to attach to the locker, but first the several coats of red has to dry more rope ornaments added yesterday I ran out of rope (because it was a holiday in Germany so I had to wait till today to buy more rope) I am still working on the locker. More pictures will follow

more cord attaching around the letters another coat of primer First six coats of golden color (the hour glass was first supposed to be blue, but I changed my mind later) more color added the nameplate attached to the locker

The design was made in corelDRAW cutting out the letters and glueing them to the sign attaching of the rope attaching of a cord to the hour glass first coat of primer

Maybe one of my primary skills is to pattern (or talking big?), I think that is a good skill for an old pirate like me. You know, the looting ships business is more for younger lads, telling the tales is more appropriate for riper dudes. A few days ago I started to renovate me a chest (or a locker) to use it at future pirate encampments. While I was thinking how to alter an old wooden locker to my new needs I started to spin a backstory of this locker, how I got it, who the prepossessor was etc. And suddenly a muse was kind enough to me to make up a really nice story (at least I believe so). But this is another story I have uploaded some pictures here: https://pyracy.com/index.php/gallery/album/657-making-of-davy-jones-locker/ Later I will post the pictures in this topic (as soon as I have the time to upload them somewere else. I somehow are not allowed to link the picture from my members gallery in this post?)

Thank you very much Mr. Hook!!! (Somehow I hadn't noticed that I had recieved a message) I recently uploaded some pictures of the still in progress "Davy Jones' Locker" here: https://pyracy.com/index.php/gallery/album/657-making-of-davy-jones-locker/