Freebuild : Harvest season in Avalonia

[Tezclatipoca]

The Restauration of Falahuas :

Harvest season in Avalonia

 

Since the defeat of Ravaage, Avalonia can breathe and the retreat of the forces of the Evil Lord hopefully helped to secure the Falahuas countryside.

It was the first great harvest in the little principality since the Drow invasion and it was promising !

The mills were already at full time work and the last fields were not even fully harvested !

It's in the middle of this bright country around the city of Falahuas, a Green Rider passed by.

He seemed quite in a rush and did not took time to answer to the hands waved at him on his way.

The horse seemed tired too, but kept a good pace.

The rider wanted to reach Falahuas before nightfall and seemed to have to deliver an important message.

Even the little pig keeper had to let him pass through his herd when, usually, riders slowed around the pigs and managed not to scatter them in the fields...

 

I am back in Avalonia with a new little build to continue my storyline.

This build will help me to make a little transition to my challenge build (which I hope to finish in time...)

Hope you'll like it !

Any comments or criticisms are always welcome !

Edited September 29, 2018 by Faladrin

[mlongworth]

Nice build faladrin. Love the little bird's nest in the trees consider them stolen. I also like the wheel you used on the windmill. However I am not a fan of the roof on the stone section of the windmill. It could have used some more plates layered so there weren't so many gaps.

[Gunman]

Cute build mate, I really like those nests :)

[Henjin_Quilones]

Nice harvest build, Faladrin! I enjoy all of the bustle that you have placed in the scene, with harvesters and riders and herders and millers. It is awesome that the mill can spin around to ensure that it catches the breeze, though I think it would look a bit better with more substantial vanes (maybe with cloth or something) rather than just the bare ladders. I do like how long the vanes are, though; so often we see short stubby windmills around here. I like the proportionality between the tree canopies and the trunks, though if it is really harvest time why are the leaves so green, rather than orange and red? I am not sure birds are still sitting on nests at this point either, since (at least where I live) they need to fly south for winter, or at very least are not in the business of rearing tiny chicks still. I think the scene is a bit too crowded with different things, making it hard to see what is going on exactly, even though the bustle of the figs gives it life. I would try to reduce the number of things going on, like skipping the man harvesting the bit of wheat there, since it seems odd that the field would be going all the way to that spot, with no sign of the stubble that would link it to a larger field. The swineherd is nice, the rider is good, and the garden is good, too, but I think showing the wheat harvest with the rest just makes it too busy. Speaking of the garden, my favorite part of the build is your awesome pumpkin vine! That is just the best. And I also like the way you make the tower round, rather than a simple square or rectangle. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing more Avalonian builds from you!

[zoth33]

Good build.  I like the compact size of the windmill.  The path is done nicely.  I like the minifigs and how they are all involved in the scene.  The birds in the nest is neat.  I think that a few more pieces of grass or different plants would really help the landscaping.  

[mccoyed]

Lots of details fit into a very compact build. I think the windmill itself could use some finishing touches. The "vane" part seems very weakly attached to the tower, which I know is supposed to resemble reality, but still comes off flimsy here. I can also see some studs popping up off the base of the building that would probably be better off covered with a tile or something. The animals, birds, and plants are vibrant and lifelike and add a lot to the scene overall.

[Gideon]

Some nice details, I like the closeup scenes of various parts of everyday life

As I've probably said many times already, I like when different parts of the build is emphasized by shooting a minifig or a few of them with a short depth of field where the point of interest of the particular picture is what's in focus.
Unfortunately, in a couple of the pics the focus is a bit off so I'd encourage you to really make sure you are locking on to the right spot next time. For the overall shots, increasing the depth of field (higher f-number) and locking the focus about 1/3 into the build will help to get the whole build in focus.

[halixon]

"It's almost harvesting season!"

Love the build Fal! Good to see you back in action!

[W Navarre]

Cool windmill, there is also a generous amount of detail here! 

[soccerkid6]

A busy time of year! You did well handling the round roof between the stone and wood portions of the windmill

Good minifigure activity throughout, and that's a very clever sickle design. Nice way of showing the roots for each of the trees too

[Tezclatipoca]

On 9/29/2018 at 2:11 PM, mlongworth said:

Nice build faladrin. Love the little bird's nest in the trees consider them stolen. I also like the wheel you used on the windmill. However I am not a fan of the roof on the stone section of the windmill. It could have used some more plates layered so there weren't so many gaps.

Thank you !

Feel free to use the bird design, as I've taken it from another great builders, I know @soccerkid6 used this design too...

On 9/29/2018 at 8:00 PM, Gunman said:

Cute build mate, I really like those nests :)

thank you mate ! just a good old minifig hair with a little bird design... 

On 9/29/2018 at 8:07 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Nice harvest build, Faladrin! I enjoy all of the bustle that you have placed in the scene, with harvesters and riders and herders and millers. It is awesome that the mill can spin around to ensure that it catches the breeze, though I think it would look a bit better with more substantial vanes (maybe with cloth or something) rather than just the bare ladders. I do like how long the vanes are, though; so often we see short stubby windmills around here. I like the proportionality between the tree canopies and the trunks, though if it is really harvest time why are the leaves so green, rather than orange and red? I am not sure birds are still sitting on nests at this point either, since (at least where I live) they need to fly south for winter, or at very least are not in the business of rearing tiny chicks still. I think the scene is a bit too crowded with different things, making it hard to see what is going on exactly, even though the bustle of the figs gives it life. I would try to reduce the number of things going on, like skipping the man harvesting the bit of wheat there, since it seems odd that the field would be going all the way to that spot, with no sign of the stubble that would link it to a larger field. The swineherd is nice, the rider is good, and the garden is good, too, but I think showing the wheat harvest with the rest just makes it too busy. Speaking of the garden, my favorite part of the build is your awesome pumpkin vine! That is just the best. And I also like the way you make the tower round, rather than a simple square or rectangle. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing more Avalonian builds from you!

Thank you !

A great constructive comment ! wow ! 

What a good Guild Leader you are ! Any litlte detail has been passed in review ! 

And yes, you're probably right, birds shouldn't been in their nests at this period of the year. But I really wanted to try this old design I saw in great builders MOCs, I couldn't resist the desire to put them in my build.

Concerning the trees : they are still green in my place, but sure, a red foliage here or there could have been useful.

Feel free to use my pumpkin design. I think it's new (well for me it is) and never saw one like this before. 

On 9/30/2018 at 5:24 AM, zoth33 said:

Good build.  I like the compact size of the windmill.  The path is done nicely.  I like the minifigs and how they are all involved in the scene.  The birds in the nest is neat.  I think that a few more pieces of grass or different plants would really help the landscaping.  

Thank you ! More grass patch would have probably help but with the dense activitty we see here, I avoid adding too much stuff in the build.

On 9/30/2018 at 8:53 PM, mccoyed said:

Lots of details fit into a very compact build. I think the windmill itself could use some finishing touches. The "vane" part seems very weakly attached to the tower, which I know is supposed to resemble reality, but still comes off flimsy here. I can also see some studs popping up off the base of the building that would probably be better off covered with a tile or something. The animals, birds, and plants are vibrant and lifelike and add a lot to the scene overall.

Thank you ! The vane part of the mill could be a bit weak but strangely it's fine, the mill is quite solid and is openable and quite playable. My children of 4 and 6 made it roll and didn't broke it, so, for me, it's a good test of solidity. 

On 9/30/2018 at 10:54 PM, Gideon said:

Some nice details, I like the closeup scenes of various parts of everyday life

As I've probably said many times already, I like when different parts of the build is emphasized by shooting a minifig or a few of them with a short depth of field where the point of interest of the particular picture is what's in focus.
Unfortunately, in a couple of the pics the focus is a bit off so I'd encourage you to really make sure you are locking on to the right spot next time. For the overall shots, increasing the depth of field (higher f-number) and locking the focus about 1/3 into the build will help to get the whole build in focus.

Thank you !

I always like your photography advices and I am happy to have one. It's something I missed here, many comments are not oriented towards photography, it feels good to receive advice from an excellent builder and photographer. 

I will try to take care of my focus then... I am not a good photographer so I'll have to improve this way...

Once again, thanks !

On 10/1/2018 at 6:41 AM, Windusky said:

"It's almost harvesting season!"

Love the build Fal! Good to see you back in action!

Thank you ! Good to see you too ! Even if you seemed to have changed Guild.

On 10/1/2018 at 3:42 PM, W Navarre said:

Cool windmill, there is also a generous amount of detail here! 

Thank you ! Yes, it's a little bit charged... 

13 minutes ago, soccerkid6 said:

A busy time of year! You did well handling the round roof between the stone and wood portions of the windmill

Good minifigure activity throughout, and that's a very clever sickle design. Nice way of showing the roots for each of the trees too

Thank you ! I tryed to keep a functional and playable mill, so it is openable and we can put minifigs activity inside it too... It is at the risk of a lighter structure and some fragility but as it passed my children test, it's fine... 

[The Last of Nergoue]

Very nice windmill 

[Grover]

First, I would like to say I enjoyed the scene.  I think it's a great representation of harvest time.  I would second a few of the others' comments, however, with birds nesting in the trees (usually spring), green leaves on the trees (usually spring/summer), and the large amount of detail going on (can make it hard to see some aspects).  I know it's hard to get some of the dark red and dark orange leaves for the trees, but swapping out those and removing the bird nests would help a lot for the idea of fall.  I myself run into cluttering up scenes with too much detail, but perhaps some spacing out of the various workers would help.  In any case, these are small details, and I really like a number of things in the scene: the windmill actually looks like a windmill (we have a lot of stumpy ones here that would never catch the wind), the pumpkin patch is great (I'm totally going to steal your pumpkin idea sometime), the stone road looks good, the use of the new Mt Clutchmore sign and the sign post is fantastic, and the action of the minis is superb.  The top of the windmill has some nice detail on it as well.  Over all, very nice work and I look forward to seeing more from you!