Norrington

Eurobricks Dukes
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About Norrington

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    Azufre Village Idiot
  • Birthday 02/27/1995

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    Male
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    Minneapolis, Mn.

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    America
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  1. Norrington

    Reacquaintancship

    Howdy folks, My name is Didymus (latin for the greek name Thomas) and I was once a regular contributor called Norrington, back in the olden time, where I made myself a nuisance to Mr. Phes and Phred. I've been getting reacquainted with Lego recently, and I'm looking forward to making some friends in this obscure hobby.
  2. Norrington

    WIP: building a brig

    I have to be honest, the first iteration of your ship seemed a bit dumpy and flat and I liked it not at all. However, this version is just really great. You've done a lot and made it a very successful design, imo. It's well proportioned, it's realistic (but not too much so), it's got an accurate design and layout style, and it's got neat features like an actual rudder/wheel assembly. Great work, I can't wait to see it finished.
  3. Norrington

    Pictorial Review - 6289/6290 Red Beard Runner

    Other than the skull on the back (and even that isn't so bad), this is a very well designed and proportioned ship. 10x better than the tosh that's been put out for ships by the Lego company recently (with the exception of the Queen Anne's Revenge, kind of). If one were to flesh it out (remove the destruction features, full in gaps and do a little MODing), this would be one of the neatest offical Lego ships around.
  4. Norrington

    W.I.P Next ship for the Armada

    Wow, wow, wow. WOW! Much like almost everything you build, you really have set an incredibly high standard of realism and attractiveness for your models. What more can I really say? I wish I simply had some kind of constructive criticism to offer, but really, your work is excellent and not much more can really be said.
  5. Norrington

    Sand Blue Green Grocer

    Are you planning to keep them both together in the alternative colour schemes and on the same street? Because I'm put to mind by the "twin" houses or rowhouses throughout the United States that were built to match/mirror each other, but since have been altered enough that they look different, with unique colours and features on their façades.
  6. Norrington

    Need Help and Advise for Building Project

    If you're familiar with the Cafe Corner style of building I mentioned earlier, it incorporates "modular building." So rather than having one block of buildings that are essentially one big building and therefore difficult to move, or loosely connected seperate structures that are difficult to keep together properly, they are connected via technic bricks and pins located at uniform places on each building. If you wanted to build a large diorama or large buildings, my suggestion would be to build them in sections that split via this method for the sheer convenience of it.
  7. Norrington

    MOC: Townhouse Trio - Butcher, Barber, and Laundromat

    Well, I've not had any professional experience with the field, but I'm a student of it and it is in many regards my passion. I'm always a friend to a beautiful building, be it built of bricks and mortar or just of Lego. :) I do my best to give good and constructive feedback from my perspective, especially for people who build such great buildings as you do, so that they might be able to be able to become even better from my having contributed Admittedly, I live in the United States, so most of our townhouses were built in the 19th century, and as a consequence are either one colour of stone or are brick with wood painted in some other colour (well, there are wood ones too, but those are far less common). I usually see them with trim in shades of green, greys, whites, and less frequently other colors to harmonize with brick work. Based on this one's colour (beige/tan brick), I think sort of a dark grey would go smashingly with it, but as you mentioned, the parts don't really exist since Lego doesn't make them. :/ My suggestion in regards to colour scheme (if you want to revise it) is that the trimwork of the building might look best in dark grey, with the windows being black. This would take care of the problem of the lack of dark-grey windows, but also lighten the building a bit. That being said, however, I have to say that looking at the pictures more, the colour scheme has grown on me, I just think it should be positioned a bit differently on your layout (if you have one) by other lighter buildings to accentuate the contrast in its design. With the dark buildings around it, it just seems much too dark and closed in.
  8. Norrington

    A New Sloop

    Well, the ides admittedly feel a bit choppy/blockly/unsmooth in a really distracting way. That being said, however, this is a very good ship, in my opinion. It very accurately captures the general proportions and feel of a ship of this size much better than the average moc does.
  9. Norrington

    Flying Dutchman WIP

    I think that was more in reference to hullshape and general styling rather than armament. Obviously they took the concept and ran with it (it is a ghost ship that submerges at will and is crewed by the damned, after all), but I think there's a pretty obvious influence.
  10. Norrington

    Need Help and Advise for Building Project

    Well, in this context, Georgian is a neo-classical style that I group together with Palladian (and Regency) and other contemporary classical styles. They are all very similar; for example, Baroque architecture (similar but different to the Train station MOC) has plenty of classical elements in it. The Palladian style originated in Italy (you are correct) with the work of Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. One thing you will find is that Palladian style is not always adhered strictly. There are many Georgain buildings that have Palladian detailing and all sorts of other permutations. I should say that the Limestone façades (such as the one you posted) have essentially existed as long as the Georgian and other Neo-classical styles have. After all, it's very similar in many regards to the marble and stone used in Greece and Rome, which is what they are imitating. However, these began enjoying a particular vogue beginning in the 1780s. When I say "Regency," I mean much the same as Georgian, but with the changes that occurred during this period (along with the contemporary changes in actual fashion as well). If you follow American architecture, it follows the same trend. Wooden and Brick high-style buildings till about 1790 or so, and then limestone became most fashionable. I suppose, I should ask, where are you "setting" this MOC? As the country seat in England of a wealthy/titled naval captain, or a home for the captain in the Caribbean where he lives in port? I would suggest building in sections. Much the same way as the modular buildings on Cafe Corner-styled streets work. And are you building this as sort of a landscaped diorama of an estate, or just a single house? Because that will certainly determine what you do to build it.
  11. Norrington

    Need Help and Advise for Building Project

    Well, I would still recomend the book I did since it does include all you desire. You have to remember, at the time (18th century), most of the houses in the American colonies were of English origin, and as a result, are nearly identical to English examples, differing only in regards to things such as materials (i.e., Americans favored brick and wood, while in UK it was mostly brick or limestone). I think it's something you ought to look at, as it will give you a very good idea of how to adapt these things to LEGO. That's bound to happen to any old building, but you're right, many manor houses of that type were built of a sand/tan colored limestone (particularly specimens built around 1780 on). The I've generally seen the limestone homes grouped in with Palladian or Regency (both Neo-classical styles), rather than Georgian, depending on their features. I'd recommend the "Headlight" trick. That is, build a wall entirely headlight piece and then form the actual surface with side-ways 2/1 (or larger, depending on what you like) tiles. Or perhaps just 2/1 plates stacked to emulate brick, the choice would be up to you, in that regard. Well, those are both more Neo-classical Palladian/Regency than Georgian, but they're both very evocative of the type of neo-classical country houses being built from the 1780s on. I guess it depends on whether or not you want a historic floorplan. On a house of this vintage, servant areas/kitchens would be in the basement/ground floor (assuming the foundation is a full first story with the actual living areas for the owners above) or in ancillary wings. If you don't wish to have wings, then I'd just leave those areas out. I think a typical "split in two" plan would work just fine, as that's house it's done on most strict Georgian buildings. That is, a central stair hall with the areas on each side being divided into one or two rooms.
  12. Norrington

    Royal Guards with Imperial Guards?

    I personally don't much like the combination of the IG torso with the RG busby/head. It just doesn't feel quite right to me. That being said, I think otherwise the parts from the RG (busby and torso in particular) are very useful and will probably be very desirable for MOCs and "army stuff". It's a very neat design, in my opinion.
  13. Norrington

    Need Help and Advise for Building Project

    If you want to build it in a modular fashion, with floors separable from one another, that's easy enough to do. I would recommend following the styles of Cafe Corner and the other modular buildings in this regard. As in, the top of all the walls should be topped with studless plates, and the upper-floor should rest upon them, with the same thing applying to the roof and the second stories. I variation on this to get more sturdiness would be to occasionally have 1x1 or 1x2 plates with studs to have a "grasp" on the upper story, but not so firm a grasp that they're difficult to separate. PIctues 8 and 9 in this thread should give a better idea of what I mean. Now, as to design, I would suggest consulting architectural reference works. Thankfully, with it's preference for right angles and relatively simple forms, the Georgian/Neo-classical style of the 18th century lends itself wonderfully Lego! I would recommend A Field Guide to American Houses, as it contains a lot of useful information in regards to common floor-plan styles, decorative details/elaborations, as well as copious amounts of pictures of various historic façades that show the style in particular. Looking through my copy just now, I'm seeing a good selection of Georgian houses in their various forms, so I'm sure you'd be able to draw something useful from it. :) It's particularly suitable, since if you're doing it to overlap with the Pirate theme, the architecture would be slightly specialised to be adapted to the Americas. This is MOC of a British streetscape, and since it represents some typically Georgian style buildings (as well as some Flemish/Victorian Gothic styled ones), it would be worth a look, though they are town houses rather than free-standing manors as you wish to build. The grey townhouses have their own topic as well, and though it's a bit simple and stylized, it does show the "major" detailing in this style. It also shows some of the modular floor techniques I was talking about earlier. This is a link I would also recommend. It represents a building of a later age and slightly different style (a European permutation of the neo-Classical styles, identifiable by their trimwork commonly being white and their bodies a lighter shade), but it has many features in common with the Georgian style (the Central "block" with wings, quoins, etc.) and would be a good reference as to how to render some features in Lego, especially if you're going for a more realistic style. I hope you find all this information at least a bit helpful, this a project I would like to see!
  14. Norrington

    Peril in Pirate Cove comic...

    I'm not sure if these comics are wonderful or awful. "Man, this LEGO System Pirate Set is way cool!" Oh, heavy-handed 1990s advertising campaigns.
  15. Norrington

    Full Barrel Tavern

    Very cute! Reminds me of some of the games for Nintendo 64, with it's style. Very neat little MOC!