AoM Mill Phase 1: Labor Intensive Flour

[The Stad]

While larger towns might have horse mills, water mills, or even wind mills, Sorgheim was not situated in a way that would allow any such luxuries.  It had no stream running through it, felt little wind, and was lacking in ground level enough for a team of horses to turn around a post.  Thus, its people had built a small mill in one of the few relatively level areas in their mountainside village so the townsfolk could grind their wheat into flour, though it required slightly more effort than they would have preferred.

  

Many hands make light(er) work.

 

An old traveler stops at an ancient shrine to thank its forgotten gods for his safe journey.

Spoiler

  

 

Some other views.

Another section of my Sorgheim layout.  I have two big exams coming up, then I'll (hopefully) finally have the time to finish this little project!

Edited June 18, 2018 by The Stad

[TitusV]

I pity the man turning that stone around, it defenitely looks like a heavy job!

Though I feel like the dark tan wedge plates make the ground just a bit too regular, you have used them very well in the little rockwork patches  I also like how you've evaded a flat roof by putting some additional tales on top of it, nice job!

[mccoyed]

I really like the thought you put into the backstory of this build. Enriches what would otherwise be a low-key vignette. I really dig the Conan the Barbarian reference with the grindstone, too, though that may not be intentional. :P

[de Gothia]

Lovely moc here! The minifigs posing are great!!:)

[Puvel]

Very clever! I've been thinking about making a phase one mill for over a year without coming up with a slightly original idea.. and you found one, well done!

Lovely little build again, love how the flowers are spread over the rocks

[Henjin_Quilones]

The mill structure is great, especially the guy pushing the thing around. I am less of a fan of the shrine, as the large blocks of sand green, light bley, and dark bley make the thing seem disjointed and lacking in unity. It's not the colors, but I think the textures are off for me. The octagonal shape and construction of it are lovely, however. The ground also seems a bit plain, but if all of your modules connect together, it can be a pain having a high level of detail over so much space (and a pain in the wallet, too!). Looks good so far!

[soccerkid6]

The mill looks well kept sturdy Great mix of stone and wood sections, and the roof is excellent too.
I like that you included a portion of rock and some flowers in this landscape, as it helps break up all the dark tan. I'm excited to see all the modules together!

[Rogue Angel]

I really like the wood framing, combination supports and roof on the building. The manual Mill is a great concept that we don't see enough in builds. Great work! I

[Grover]

Nice build!  I like the idea that there was some manual labor going on (i.e., not powered by water, wind, or animals), as I'm sure that really went on in the medieval world.  Two small critiques: The shrine seems busy to me; I think it is because there is a lot of detail packed into a small area, it's hard to tell what is going on inside.  I wasn't sure what it was until you described it.  I run into this problem in my build... there seems to be a fine balance between trying to pack in the detail while still leaving things open enough to see all of it.  The other critique is more to my eye, which is not as refined as some of the others here, but there seems to be a lot of dark tan.  I like the detail of the stones added from some of your other builds, but maybe addition of some grasses or built up darker brown near the edges of the paths could help break up the dark tan?  I'm not entirely sure.  In any case, I really like the details of the guy shoveling the grain out of the sack with the pitchfork and the open timber structure is nice.  I think many people want to make enclosed structures and it's nice to see an open one.  One of the aspects I really like is the rockwork with the white flowers.  It looks very organic to me, and gives the feel of a mountain setting.  Great job!

[The Stad]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

On 6/20/2018 at 2:13 AM, TitusV said:

I feel like the dark tan wedge plates make the ground just a bit too regular

I think when all sections come together it should look better.  If you look at the contour lines on a topographic map they tend to be pretty regular and generally parallel to each other, which was what I was aiming at.

On 6/20/2018 at 11:05 PM, mccoyed said:

I really like the thought you put into the backstory of this build. Enriches what would otherwise be a low-key vignette. I really dig the Conan the Barbarian reference with the grindstone, too, though that may not be intentional. :P

Thanks, I try to have a reason for everything I build, it tends to make people question it less .  I'm not familiar with that Conan movie (I think I've only seen the Destroyer) but I can imagine Arnold in such a predicament, now that you mention it.

On 6/25/2018 at 1:37 AM, de Gothia said:

Lovely moc here! The minifigs posing are great!!:)

Thanks dG, that means a lot coming from a posing master such as yourself!

On 6/28/2018 at 11:28 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

The mill structure is great, especially the guy pushing the thing around. I am less of a fan of the shrine, as the large blocks of sand green, light bley, and dark bley make the thing seem disjointed and lacking in unity. It's not the colors, but I think the textures are off for me. The octagonal shape and construction of it are lovely, however. The ground also seems a bit plain, but if all of your modules connect together, it can be a pain having a high level of detail over so much space (and a pain in the wallet, too!). Looks good so far!

Thanks HQ, I agree with the comments on the shrine.  Working with just 1x1s on each pillar made the texturing a bit difficult, but I have a few ideas for improving it...

On 6/29/2018 at 6:37 AM, soccerkid6 said:

The mill looks well kept sturdy Great mix of stone and wood sections, and the roof is excellent too.
I like that you included a portion of rock and some flowers in this landscape, as it helps break up all the dark tan. I'm excited to see all the modules together!

Thanks SK, I'm excited to get them all together too!  Just one more to go...

On 7/8/2018 at 2:55 AM, Rogue Angel said:

I really like the wood framing, combination supports and roof on the building. The manual Mill is a great concept that we don't see enough in builds. Great work! I

Thank you Rogue, it was certainly a fun little challenge.

2 hours ago, Grover said:

Nice build!  ...  Two small critiques: The shrine seems busy to me; I think it is because there is a lot of detail packed into a small area, it's hard to tell what is going on inside.  I wasn't sure what it was until you described it.  I run into this problem in my build... there seems to be a fine balance between trying to pack in the detail while still leaving things open enough to see all of it.  The other critique is more to my eye, which is not as refined as some of the others here, but there seems to be a lot of dark tan.  ...  One of the aspects I really like is the rockwork with the white flowers.  It looks very organic to me, and gives the feel of a mountain setting.  Great job!

Thanks Grover, I think you're right from a photographic composition standpoint, as this module does seem a bit cluttered.  I want the village to feel like it's been built a couple times over, with the new being set right on or around the old.  The problem is that that style doesn't always make for the easiest pictures. As for the dark tan, we'll see how the whole layout comes together.  There may be some more mountain flowers around the village...

[mccoyed]

Oh man. Destroyer is pretty bad but Conan the Barbarian is a classic. In my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made.

[TitusV]

@The Stad okay, I hadn't noticed there were more sections - that would indeed make a lot of sense. And I understand what you mean with the 'map-effect', but still I think some variation in wedge plate kinds may not hurt