2391 replies to this topic

[Gabe]

SI-mocs, on 17 January 2012 - 01:55 AM, said:

The SECRET 7th uber awesome tower was of course:

Ra'ad Twur from Tower Lord Wahil Musca!

Yes! Great news, and congrats to Tower Lord Basiliscus/Wahil Musca! Truly such a beautiful tower and a true jewel of the south.     

rogueang, on 17 January 2012 - 02:30 AM, said:

It does not matter to me which way the selection process goes.  

I wouldn't mind seeing a hybrid voting model

Members pick 3 MOCs and Guild Leaders pick 2 MOCs

Each member would get 5 votes they would assign  to 5 different MOCs (I know this is normally 3, but I could have voted for 10 towers last round easily!)

- You cannot assign more than one vote to any MOC
- You cannot vote for your own MOC
- You must be a member, with a sigfig/army pic to vote (some proof that you're actually participating)

The top 3 MOCs from each guild would make it to the final round

Guild Leaders would pick 2 additional MOCs from their guild to advance to the final round AFTER the member voting is complete

The guild leaders would then select the top MOC(s) as they see fit.

It would be nice to give a set week of time for members to vote, say Feb 16-22nd for the Embassy challenge.

If there could be a post setup just like the polling posts are, so that you could select 5 towers off that page, that would probably be easier for the Guild Leaders to calculate, instead of just posting written choices. I don't know how feasible it would be.

That's my idea.

Nice idea, rougeang, like a little bit of the best of both worlds. :)

NiceMarmot, on 17 January 2012 - 10:28 PM, said:

I'm looking for some feedback and suggestions on my design for a Kaliphlin embassy in Mitgardia.  I've created the design in LDD (a first for me) so it's easy to modify. I'll probably place BrickLink orders for the parts I don't have on Wednesday night or Thursday, so I'd need to get any major feedback by then. (Not looking forward to that order; have a feeling it will be $$$!)

I'm going for a bit of a mix between Kaliphlin and Mitgardia styles; right now it's probably a little more Mitgardia than Kaliphlin. In addition to what you see here, I will try to add some more greebling and minor details, plus will populate it with minifigures, and to some extent, furniture and stuff inside. Here's the overall view from the front, street-side.  Note that the tan plates that look like they wrap around the first story are actually the street level; it's got a cellar. The embassy also functions as a trade delegation and has shops for Kaliphlin shopkeepers to ply their wares; those are at street-level, behind the reddish brown palisade bricks.

Comments and feedback welcomed!   Is it Kaliphlin enough?  Should I add more Arabian influences?  Any ideas for further detailing and greebling?  SI-mocs, I'm assuming that like other contests as long as the base is 48x48, I can have some pieces higher up that stick out a bit more; is that right?

I'm really looking forward to this, as it will be my biggest build yet (~4500 pieces currently), my first LDD design, and will really set me up part-wise for lots of great future builds.

Wow NM, this is looking amazing - although as always with LDD i am itching already to see it in bricks! I love the tower especially, and the docks area is pretty sweet too. As for trying to make it more obviously Kaliphlin in style, i reckon it's about right the way you have it - the main building itself being Mitgardian, but lots of little touches to make our ambassadors feel at home. Great work! I hope your BL order isn't as bad as you fear.  

Niku, on 18 January 2012 - 02:10 AM, said:

Hello guys, these days got some spare time, and since I could not build, because my bricks are not at hand, I checked out again the mocs from your guild, a lot of great buildings.  
So decide to make a recopilation for the guild.

Aw Niku! I saw your Avalonian comp and thought "damn, i wish we had something this awesome for Kaliphlin", and then you go and deliver! Thankyou so much for this! Great music too. Are you doing one for all the guilds?

[Niku]

@ robuko and gabe, thanks guys, glad you like it. The music is from them: TSFH
Yes I am planning to do a video for each guild, just felt it was necessary to have a recopilation to watch the majority of the guild builds without passing through so many pages.     
I am also modifying my embassy after some feedback received.
And planning to finish next week.
Greetings.

[Justindale]

Ok I am having a hard time uploading my picture of my avatar. I can use some advice on how to resize it down to 100x100 pixels.

[Basiliscus]

First of all, thanks to SI-mocs for the post about the Ra'ad T'wur! I am honoured to make the top 7 and become a Tower Lord.

NiceMarmot - what can I say? That LDD design is magnificent. The overall look is great - I think it is just the right look between Kaliphlin and Mitgardian styles. The colour scheme is great too. If you wanted feedback I would say think about covering up some of the "bare" areas - such as the base and the area around the 1st floor windows. These look a little basic. I agree with robuko that interiors are a nightmare to photograph - that's why I don't often bother with them! Unless you make the roof removable it isn't worth getting too carried away with.

Finally, Niku, what a great video! Fantastic work.

(PS - I am hoping to enter the embassy challenge)

[Justindale]

ok its a bad pic, Ill work on it, if anyone can give me tips on editing photos it would be a big help.

[Damaximus]

Justindale, on 18 January 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

ok its a bad pic, Ill work on it, if anyone can give me tips on editing photos it would be a big help.

I know someone in Historica knows a good program for it, but I never used it myself.

What you can do is copy paste the original picture into word and then make it smaller by using the corner so the scale won't be changed.
Then copy paste the result in paint, remove the white around the picture and save it as jpeg

[NiceMarmot]

gabe, on 18 January 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

I hope your BL order isn't as bad as you fear.  

Well, I hit a LEGO store today at lunchtime, and bought five cups at the PAB wall, of which only about 3.5 cups worth was really for the embassy (the rest was mostly plants and random stuff).  So that should go a long way towards helping out, as usually the PAB wall is significantly cheaper than BL.  Now I only need 1287 parts (66 unique) out of 4620 total.

Plus I got to see the new series 6 minifigures; bought 16 of them! They are really good; not many that I didn't want. Look for some of them in upcoming MOCs.

Here's a revised photo of the front, showing mainly the addition of some medium blue in between the flesh arches, to nicely highlight the arches and give a bit more Kaliphlin flavor.

Embassy Mitgardia LDD front - revised

For reference, here's the original front design.  Which do you all think is better?

embassy front - original

[CptMugwash]

Niku Thank you for the video it's a great idea to put all/most mocs of each guild into one video and the music is cool too  

NM Your embassy looks great, the 2 styles blend well and the touch of medium blue is much better adding a bit more colour, good job, look forward to seeing it in bricks  

[MikeyB]

NiceMarmot, on 19 January 2012 - 10:30 AM, said:

Well, I hit a LEGO store today at lunchtime, and bought five cups at the PAB wall, of which only about 3.5 cups worth was really for the embassy (the rest was mostly plants and random stuff).  So that should go a long way towards helping out, as usually the PAB wall is significantly cheaper than BL.  Now I only need 1287 parts (66 unique) out of 4620 total.

if you get a chance could you let me know what Lego had at the PAB wall?  I know they are all different but was thinking of making a trip to mine but it is over three hours away.  Don't want to drive to Charlotte to find out all they have are wheels and instrument gauge tiles.  

Looking forward to seeing your embassy complete and in the brick!

[Angeli]

Hear yee hear yee! :)

Regarding Valentines Day that is to fall on us, the Drow of the Historica are organizing Gladiator Games, in tribute to our lovely matron mother, the queen Valsharess!



The games will be held in the city of Rilauvein, in the Nocturnus area. The Drow will provide safe passage in and out of Nocturnus for all participants.

Choose your champion, equip him(her) for fights in the arena pits and send him (her) here to represent you! All guilds invited!

- one champion per guild member

- requires at least one picture of him/her and a name ;) - post them in thisthread -

- everything is allowed - any kind of armor, weapons, magic users, magic items, skills, gun-powder (nobody in the audience will like gun-powder weapons, just so you know:)), any type of race or creature; the arena is with open roof, so height and size also does not matter, and giants and trolls are also welcomed, and creatures with wings!

- there will be a special commentator that will relay us the details of the fights (with all the gore details)


The rules of the fights:
- Everything goes!

- All the teeth lost in the arena are property of the Drow and will be sold to dr Rod for future experiments!

- All the contestants are going to be pared up at 13th February. The paring will be random, and the winners will be chosen random (ever played AD&D games? Well, I will be using dices:)) or some computer program, or we will connect ourselves to some web page and let chance choose "1" or "2" :) in any case, the winner will be chosen totally random, and size and armor won't matter, so, go nuts ;) Do not come in just your bare skin, as much as we Drow applaud to that kind of exhibition, you will be squashed by fans ;)

- We will know the winner by the end of 14th February

- guild leaders can send their champions also, and they will overlook organization and fairness of games (but the Drow can not be controlled, keep that in mind!:))

- The fights will be held only if total of twenty (20) participants sign up - no limits for guilds

- Any guild member can join, even if he/she joined guild after this announcement

The prizes:
- two sets of complete armor and weapons from Drow adamantium - as pictured by our models :) (minifigs are not included, and in any case, would you like to have a couple of Drow lurking trough your castle?:))



Note: helmet, saber and shield are from brickTW, armor is from our guild member Trash and his brickwarriors

- The winner will be given "The lord of the arena" title to boost in front of the girls (or "the mistress of the arena" if the winner is she, so she can glow in her beauty and strength in front of all insignificant others!:))

- The guild from who the winner is will be awarded a certain amount of gold coins, if guild leaders approve

So come all and come now to the beautiful city of Rilauvein and show your skills! Impress the ladies! Earn honor for your guild! And win the arena!

Note: If you like this kind of game, this could be annual event, always related to the minifigs and little-time-consuming mocs, and with small armor/weapons prizes, to sweeten the pot, and next time we could organize the best entertainment minifig or the weirdest resident of the Historica
Important: this is just a game with intent to give us joy and fun :) do not forget that this are lego minifigs, not real people, and it is all just pretend ;)

[robuko]

Justindale, on 18 January 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

ok its a bad pic, Ill work on it, if anyone can give me tips on editing photos it would be a big help.

Justindale, you will find many helpful tutorials on this page.  On Windows Vista I use MS paint and image/resize.  On Windows 7 I use the MS photo gallery editor and properties/resize.
Good luck!

NM, I think medium blue looks great with the Kaliphlin colours, I just picked up a bunch of medium blue tiles, and I see Scubacarrot is using it too.  Maybe you could consider recolouring the exterior columns on the ground floor to match the new polychromatic look?

Edited by robuko, 19 January 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[NiceMarmot]

MikeyB, on 19 January 2012 - 12:35 PM, said:

if you get a chance could you let me know what Lego had at the PAB wall?  I know they are all different but was thinking of making a trip to mine but it is over three hours away.  Don't want to drive to Charlotte to find out all they have are wheels and instrument gauge tiles.  

Looking forward to seeing your embassy complete and in the brick!

You should call them and ask them what they have on the wall, or give them an idea what you're looking for and ask if they have it. I find if you call early in the morning on a weekday, they'll usually check for you. If you get someone who won't bother, then wait a day and call back so you get someone different.

We have three stores within 30 minutes of us here in the SF Bay area (sorry, not to brag), and I find the inventory sometimes to be quite different between them. In any case, I hit the San Mateo (Hillsdale) store and picked up dark bluish grey 2x4 bricks, DBG 6x16 plates, 6x8 green and white plates, medium blue 1x2 bricks, light bluish grey 2x4 bricks, bamboo leaves, plant stems, the red flowers that go on the plant stems, orange flames, pearl gold lattice windows, green 1x4 tiles, orange 2x2 plates, 2x2 white bricks, 2x6 DBG bricks, clear 1x2 bricks, black 2x3 slopes, tan and white 1x8 bricks, and dark red 2x4 bricks. They also had lots of green and orange bricks, 1x2 reddish brown log bricks, 1x4 LBG bricks, 1x2 trans-black bricks, 4x6 white plates, 2x8 black bricks, white horses, some sort of windshield, steering wheels, DBG wheel wells, 1x1 round plates (lime, orange, clear, trans-yellow, trans-red), and a bunch of other stuff I didn't need. And yes, they had the ubiquitous instrument gauge tiles!

[MikeyB]

NiceMarmot, on 19 January 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

You should call them and ask them what they have on the wall, or give them an idea what you're looking for and ask if they have it. I find if you call early in the morning on a weekday, they'll usually check for you. If you get someone who won't bother, then wait a day and call back so you get someone different.

We have three stores within 30 minutes of us here in the SF Bay area (sorry, not to brag), and I find the inventory sometimes to be quite different between them. In any case, I hit the San Mateo (Hillsdale) store and picked up dark bluish grey 2x4 bricks, DBG 6x16 plates, 6x8 green and white plates, medium blue 1x2 bricks, light bluish grey 2x4 bricks, bamboo leaves, plant stems, the red flowers that go on the plant stems, orange flames, pearl gold lattice windows, green 1x4 tiles, orange 2x2 plates, 2x2 white bricks, 2x6 DBG bricks, clear 1x2 bricks, black 2x3 slopes, tan and white 1x8 bricks, and dark red 2x4 bricks. They also had lots of green and orange bricks, 1x2 reddish brown log bricks, 1x4 LBG bricks, 1x2 trans-black bricks, 4x6 white plates, 2x8 black bricks, white horses, some sort of windshield, steering wheels, DBG wheel wells, 1x1 round plates (lime, orange, clear, trans-yellow, trans-red), and a bunch of other stuff I didn't need. And yes, they had the ubiquitous instrument gauge tiles!

thanks for the reply.  I found a blog, Brickbuilder, that individuals can update what's available on the walls.  Unfortunately some of the stores haven't been updated for some time.  I was trying to look to see if their was any sort of trend between the ones that have been updated recently.   I might be better off just buying what I want on Bricklink. Even though it will be more per piece, I will save $60-$70 on what it would cost to drive up that way.  Plus we are going to hit the Legoland in Florida during spring break and I could spend the money there.

[NiceMarmot]

MikeyB, on 19 January 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I might be better off just buying what I want on Bricklink. Even though it will be more per piece, I will save $60-$70 on what it would cost to drive up that way.

Yeah, if you're 3 hours away, you're going to spend more in gas than you would save at the PAB. My experience is that most pieces at PAB are about 25% - 50% cheaper than they would be on BrickLink. It seems like the smaller the piece, the better the deal on PAB. Some stuff is actually more expensive than BL. So you'd have to buy a lot of PAB cups to make up for the fuel costs.

MikeyB, on 19 January 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

Plus we are going to hit the Legoland in Florida during spring break and I could spend the money there.

My experience at Legoland San Diego was not good. I didn't buy anything. They had a great selection -- tons of variety; much more than a LEGO store. However the pricing is terrible; it's not the same setup as the PAB wall at the stores. Apparently Legoland is not owned and managed by TLG but by a theme park company that pays a license fee to TLG. The pricing was so bad that not only was BrickLink a better deal, but even PAB on LEGO's web site was a better deal. That was a few years ago; maybe they've changed it since then, or maybe Florida is different. Sorry to rain on your parade.

[MikeyB]

NiceMarmot, on 19 January 2012 - 07:12 PM, said:

Yeah, if you're 3 hours away, you're going to spend more in gas than you would save at the PAB. My experience is that most pieces at PAB are about 25% - 50% cheaper than they would be on BrickLink. It seems like the smaller the piece, the better the deal on PAB. Some stuff is actually more expensive than BL. So you'd have to buy a lot of PAB cups to make up for the fuel costs.


My experience at Legoland San Diego was not good. I didn't buy anything. They had a great selection -- tons of variety; much more than a LEGO store. However the pricing is terrible; it's not the same setup as the PAB wall at the stores. Apparently Legoland is not owned and managed by TLG but by a theme park company that pays a license fee to TLG. The pricing was so bad that not only was BrickLink a better deal, but even PAB on LEGO's web site was a better deal. That was a few years ago; maybe they've changed it since then, or maybe Florida is different. Sorry to rain on your parade.

You didn't rain on my parade. I've read about the Legoland PaB issues. But fortunately there is a Lego store at Downtown Disney!  They have a huge store there and one of the largest PaB walls in the US if I am not mistaken.  

A few of the items want Ill likely have to go through Bricklink anyhow....

[Kayne]

NiceMarmot, on 19 January 2012 - 07:12 PM, said:

My experience at Legoland San Diego was not good. I didn't buy anything. They had a great selection -- tons of variety; much more than a LEGO store. However the pricing is terrible; it's not the same setup as the PAB wall at the stores. Apparently Legoland is not owned and managed by TLG but by a theme park company that pays a license fee to TLG. The pricing was so bad that not only was BrickLink a better deal, but even PAB on LEGO's web site was a better deal. That was a few years ago; maybe they've changed it since then, or maybe Florida is different. Sorry to rain on your parade.

Yup, last spring I went to the Legoland in Chicago, and it was the same way.  Awesome stuff...but a ripoff.  Luckily the the Lego store is across the street in the Schaumburg Mall, so we went there and loaded up!  I was at Lego Store in Detroit today, since I had to drive over there for work.  I was hoping for some tan, white or light bley jsut to add to what I have and help for future Kaliphlin builds....and they didn't have much of a selection today.  They had the the flower stem, so I grabbed some of those, because you can never have too many of those.  

1x2, they had in Lime Green, Green, Black, Red, Dark Bley and Yellow.  1x2 Reddish Brown Log Brick, 1x1 in Orange, Lime and Dark Bley.  I can't remember all of the rest, but they had 4x4 tan plates and 2x6 tan bricks and that was it for tan I did get some of the 2x2x2 slopes in Light Bley and White which is nice.

Also, I did grab some Series 6 Minifigs as well.  I love that Bandit!

[SkaForHire]

MikeyB, on 19 January 2012 - 07:38 PM, said:

You didn't rain on my parade. I've read about the Legoland PaB issues. But fortunately there is a Lego store at Downtown Disney!  They have a huge store there and one of the largest PaB walls in the US if I am not mistaken.  

A few of the items want Ill likely have to go through Bricklink anyhow....

I was at Downtown Disney last week on vacation, I noticed their wall had many of the same elements the two Dallas stores have that I regularly visit. Of course, their wall is 4 times bigger than the larger of the two Dallas stores. Also, I tend to visit our Legoland imagination center, as it has been noted already, it is ran by Merlin Entertainment. I find that their PAB wall is lacking, but often has different items than the actual Lego stores. Also, a word of caution from a former Disney employee, try to hit Downtown Disney before 11AM, otherwise you will be fighting with tourists, kids, and anyone else that wanted to eat lunch in DD and not one of the parks that day. The Lego store there has a bunch of new displays, so it is worth a peak just for that.

Good luck!

[MikeyB]

SkaForHire, on 20 January 2012 - 01:35 AM, said:

I was at Downtown Disney last week on vacation, I noticed their wall had many of the same elements the two Dallas stores have that I regularly visit. Of course, their wall is 4 times bigger than the larger of the two Dallas stores. Also, I tend to visit our Legoland imagination center, as it has been noted already, it is ran by Merlin Entertainment. I find that their PAB wall is lacking, but often has different items than the actual Lego stores. Also, a word of caution from a former Disney employee, try to hit Downtown Disney before 11AM, otherwise you will be fighting with tourists, kids, and anyone else that wanted to eat lunch in DD and not one of the parks that day. The Lego store there has a bunch of new displays, so it is worth a peak just for that.

Good luck!

thanks for the info.  the last time I was in Florida was about a year ago (My dad lives in Tampa) We stopped at DD and as I approached the Lego store their was plywood over the windows!  They were remodeling the store! My wife saw the look on my face and later told me I looked like a kid who just found out their was no Santa! They did have a temporary tent set up but it was so crowded and was lacking a true PaB wall.  big let down.  I was going to buy the Grand Emporium but they didn't have any so my wife let me get the Emerald Night instead and we ordered teh GE to be delivered.  

Sorry to take the topic off topic.  I am planning on building my embassy in Kaliphlin but hitting a brick wall with my build.  I have started a couple times but have torn it down as I wasn't happy with it.  I have an idea now but I feel it might be a bit plain but hopefully I can spice it up with some details!

[SkaForHire]

MikeyB, on 20 January 2012 - 04:38 AM, said:

thanks for the info.  the last time I was in Florida was about a year ago (My dad lives in Tampa) We stopped at DD and as I approached the Lego store their was plywood over the windows!  They were remodeling the store! My wife saw the look on my face and later told me I looked like a kid who just found out their was no Santa! They did have a temporary tent set up but it was so crowded and was lacking a true PaB wall.  big let down.  I was going to buy the Grand Emporium but they didn't have any so my wife let me get the Emerald Night instead and we ordered teh GE to be delivered.  

Sorry to take the topic off topic.  I am planning on building my embassy in Kaliphlin but hitting a brick wall with my build.  I have started a couple times but have torn it down as I wasn't happy with it.  I have an idea now but I feel it might be a bit plain but hopefully I can spice it up with some details!

Well, it is now twice as big as it was originally. Pretty cool!  THe piece selection last week had some tan and dark blue, but nothing else really screamed Kaliphlin to me. Hopefully you have better luck.

[Lego Pinocchio]

I hope i'm still able to join, because I've been watching this thread for a couple of weeks now hoping that i'll be able to participate in the guild.

Anyway here is my historica avatar:



A snake charming monk from a temple in the Parched lands, Pinocchiolus has lived at the hidden temple all his life hoping to venture out into the world beyond.

(I'll be posting the temple soon)

When Pinocchiolus was young the older monks would tell him stories of distant lands and strange people, trying to scare him. However these stories only made him want to visit these places for himself. Sometimes the young monk would even sneak into baskets of traders so that he could be taken out of the desert prison that he was kept in.

[Kayne]

Lego Pinocchio, on 21 January 2012 - 12:54 AM, said:

I hope i'm still able to join, because I've been watching this thread for a couple of weeks now hoping that i'll be able to participate in the guild.

Welcome to the guild!  We are very happy to have you join us in the desert!

[Axel]

Mini-update on embassy



Just waiting for a BL order to arrive now...

[Lego Pinocchio]

Kayne, on 21 January 2012 - 12:58 AM, said:

Welcome to the guild!  We are very happy to have you join us in the desert!

Thanks, I'm happy to be in the guild finally.

Edited by Lego Pinocchio, 21 January 2012 - 07:32 AM.

[Damaximus]

Lego Pinocchio, on 21 January 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Thanks, I'm happy to be in the guild finally.

Welcome to our most beloved Guild, sir Pinocchiolus !

[Lego Pinocchio]

Thank you for that kind welcome Damaximus.

I, Pinocchiolus wish to prove my loyalty to the guild by sharing the location of the Temple of the scythe:



Deep in the parched lands, the temple was hidden for centuries until about fifty years before Kaliphlin was founded a group of monks stumbled upon this shell of a building with a roof made of gold. The monks knew at once that the gods had brought them to this place, and they settled there restoring the temple to it's former glory.



The temple is only a place of worship and healing now. With the monks living in a small camp nearby, the ground remains holy and untainted.



Everyone comes to the temple to pray, no matter where they're from or what they look like.



The monks are also able to cure any diseases that the desert may throw at you, these include: Snake bites, scorpion stings, heat damage, and mummy curses.

I hope to see you at the temple, but don't forget to bring a worthy donation for the gods.

Thanks for reading! C&C is welcome.