Meet Marin, one of our MOC designers whose two ships, Warty Crab and Ferry Boat, made our MOC fleet significantly stronger. He excels in making high quality building manuals, and not only that but also he is capable of creating short comic stories which feature his MOCs in the playful narrative. You can find one of such stories within the building instructions of the Warty Crab, or on his Instagram account. He also made an in-depth review of the Black Pearl MOC, and pointed out in detail the problems which were immediately revised by BrickMOCBay, the original designer. You can find out more about him in our interview.
1. Self-introduction (name, hobbies, growth experience, etc. )
My name is Marin, I hail from Dubrovnik, a city on the Adriatic Sea (for GOT fans known better as the King’s Landing). Growing up in the town enriched with naval history and the stunning medieval architecture, my main interest lies in ships from the time of the age of sail and discovery, and of course, Pirates!
Having a master degree in mechanical engineering and years of experience in several advanced CAD software, I rediscovered my love for bricks and plates during the summer of 2020, when I decided to use Studio and build something unique for my nephew’s Christmas present.
2. What do you think should be paid attention to when designing a MOC?
There are two key elements which I hold above the rest: it must be sturdy enough to survive play, and it must be a playable MOC.
Too many designers go too big with their MOCs, believing that more is better, where in truth too big ship (or castle) is highly unattractive for both kids and parents. They use too much space in already small apartments, they are expensive, and kids find it hard to play with them since they are too heavy!
The top-designers know how to pack everything inside 2000k pieces, or even 1000k pieces. If you need 5000k pieces to make your design cool, you are not doing something right.
3. Which is the latest design, what is the source of inspiration?
At the moment I’m finishing a new ship named Triton. It’s a two masts brig which sails under the Soldiers (Bluecoats) flag. It’s loosely based on the real historical ship (which blew up and sank near the cursed island – I’m not making this up) and so far it has around 2,500 parts.
Once I obtain all the necessary parts for the real-build design test, I plan to produce final instructions and show it to the world.
4. Which MOC do you like the most (designed by yourself or by other authors)
There are so many talented builders out there, but if I had to pick one MOC which I like the most it’s the MOC-71657 Sabre Island Anno Domini – By SleeplessNight. It’s simply terrific design, and the daring use of colours makes it stand-out in the sea of more-or-less same designs.
The other one which blew my mind was MOC-105796 Medieval Pirate Skull Island (known as the Redbeard’s house) by Massenzio. It’s big, too big for my taste, but so clever and full of small details that I simply love it and would like to have it.
5. Can you speak about special experiences or ideas about MOC?
Anyone can have an idea for a MOC, but the real challenge is to transform that idea into a real build. For me it starts with a rough image of what I would like to achieve. In the beginning I don’t care about small details, I focus my energy on the major outlines of the future MOC. This phase involves building and re-building until I get the shape just right. Then I move to the small details and the hard questions of how exactly do I plan to build it.
As for Ideas, they simply popup in my mind every now and then. When I get an idea, I rarely write it down, because if it’s a good one it will stay in my mind long enough until I make a project out of her. If it’s a bad one, well, she’ll be gone by the next day. Never write your ideas down. I got this lesson from Stephen King, and he is someone we should listen to.
6. What are your thoughts and impressions of the Medievalbrick website?
First of all, I’m impressed by the quality of the bricks and plates. They are really good in contrast to the world leading brick manufacturer from Denmark.
Second, I’m pleased to see that Medivalbrick uses professional delivery service for their packages. In my case, here in the EU, they use DPD service.
Third, the price range of the MOCs is just fantastic.
7. Do you have any good suggestions for medieval websites?
I really like the speed-build videos of a few MOCs you sell, and that animated video of Charon’s Chest by Barbatos, that was awesome and it would be cool if every set had that kind of material.
Other than that, I really have nothing more to add, you are doing an overall great job as it is, and I wish you to continue to improve on your game and stay long in the brick-business.
You can find the author through the following link:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-94318/Marooned_Marin/warty-crab/
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