Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category B: How to Play the Old Tusk Horn

[Simon_S]

Far in the frozen north of Mitgardia, the people once lived in constant danger. They never knew what to expect next. Danger was never far. Raiding Orc parties. Wild animals. Ice cold storms suddenly appearing out of nowhere. So the hunters who lived in the harsh wilderness came up with an idea. They took a mammoth tusk and carved a beautiful ivory horn out of it. At first, it was blown only as an alarm to warn the folk of danger. But with the time, people began to play the horn because they liked the sound. Soon, its deep tones made everyone feel at home, from the poorest farmer to the riches noble. That's how the Old Tusk Horn became a symbol of Mitgardia.

Today, the richest parents send their children to music school. There the old Bard Runar - with small braids in his beard - shows the children how to play the Old Tusk Horn. Carefully they carry the heavy instruments into the music room. White a lot of patience, the bard teaches them and keeps this old tradition alive. 

 

 

And here some flooring because it took so long 

Looks like I'm the first for this category, but somebody had to open it hehe . I actually didn't expect to have any time to build for this contest. But today afternoon and evening were still free and so I found some time to spontaneously build this one. It was such a cool challenge and building for the guilds again felt great. Thank you for the challenge! Now I'm really looking forward to Book 4 .

 

Thank you for looking! Simon_S

Edited August 26 by Simon_S

[Gideon]

Lovely build! I love the concept of Mitgardian music culture with ties to its wild past 👍

The details in the build are just top notch, great use of the small footprint.

[TalusMoonbreaker]

This is such a cool build, Simon! The Mitgardian tusk horns are a neat concept. Runar looks like he enjoys his job. Does the cat get to learn how to play the old tusk horn? That floor looks like it must've been a headache to build, but the result is fantastic. I really like the cheese slope mosaic on the door and the border, which, while simple, works really well.

[SimWies]

Awesome build @Simon_S, I love the design and especially the floor is great. I also love the walls, while rather simple in design, they look really good and real with just a simple technique. Love it!

I also see where the inspiration for the tusk horn came from. Great idea and lovely to see that you found some spare time to join in on the prelude challange! Looking forward to your builds for Book IV.

[LordDan]

Lovely build! I really like the use of rubber bands on the horns as designs. The door mosaic and floor patterning are also great. I can only imagine how much of a pain the floor was though 

[Simon_S]

21 hours ago, Gideon said:

Lovely build! I love the concept of Mitgardian music culture with ties to its wild past 👍

The details in the build are just top notch, great use of the small footprint.

Thank you for the kind words Gideon! Means a lot to hear from such a talented builder :-)

 

18 hours ago, TalusMoonbreaker said:

This is such a cool build, Simon! The Mitgardian tusk horns are a neat concept. Runar looks like he enjoys his job. Does the cat get to learn how to play the old tusk horn? That floor looks like it must've been a headache to build, but the result is fantastic. I really like the cheese slope mosaic on the door and the border, which, while simple, works really well.

Thank you. The floor took quite a while, especially filling the gaps in the end so that it couldn't move anymore. Haha and the cat just laid on my desk because I didn't sort it yet and I thought it would be a fun detail if she plays with the music notes which fell down. 

 

14 hours ago, SimWies said:

Awesome build @Simon_S, I love the design and especially the floor is great. I also love the walls, while rather simple in design, they look really good and real with just a simple technique. Love it!

I also see where the inspiration for the tusk horn came from. Great idea and lovely to see that you found some spare time to join in on the prelude challange! Looking forward to your builds for Book IV.

Thank you :-). I actually used this wall technique in my first GoH build and also my first post in this forum back in 2012 . Hehe yeah I had to use some real life influence here. I know some people who play the alpine horn a lot and they will always bring them to birthdays and festivals and stuff like that. So I guess that's where my inspiration came from. 

 

 

5 hours ago, LordDan said:

Lovely build! I really like the use of rubber bands on the horns as designs. The door mosaic and floor patterning are also great. I can only imagine how much of a pain the floor was though 

Thank you! I think it might actually be the same in real life and this kind of flooring is also difficult / exhausting to do with real wood

[MrLind]

Lovely diorama. I love the colour in the green glass windows. The green window and the red floor, works really well together. You have also a nice story to your build.

[Ben S]

Love it! It's incredible how many details you have fitted inside a 16x16. And it's crazy that it's a one day build lol.

I especially like the walls technique, very simple and neat, I might use it in the future. 

[T-86(swebrickLUG)]

Sweet build Simon! The concept here is truly amazing. Highlights in the build for me is the flooring, window and horns on the wall!

[Simon_S]

On 8/28/2025 at 9:08 PM, MrLind said:

Lovely diorama. I love the colour in the green glass windows. The green window and the red floor, works really well together. You have also a nice story to your build.

Thank you! I actually even put a small lamp behind the window so the light shines through it and this made it much „greener“ on the pictures.

 

On 8/30/2025 at 7:28 PM, Ben S said:

Love it! It's incredible how many details you have fitted inside a 16x16. And it's crazy that it's a one day build lol.

I especially like the walls technique, very simple and neat, I might use it in the future. 

thank you! Well it was a lot of time in one day… I left the office early and finished writing the story at midnight, so it took me maybe around 8 hours for everything together.

 

8 hours ago, T-86(swebrickLUG) said:

Sweet build Simon! The concept here is truly amazing. Highlights in the build for me is the flooring, window and horns on the wall!

Thank you! 

[Seagull King of Vaughan]

I wish I had enough tiles to do this, though the floor and door look nightmarishly complicated. Good work! Happy to see more Mitgardian culture.

[jtooker]

I like all of the horn variants and the floor technique is superb!  The wound up scrolls are neat too, I'll have to remember that piece combination.

 

[mrcp6d]

Great build!  I love the details all around and the slice of lore this adds to Mitgardia.

[Kai NRG]

That door looks like such a pain to open and shut!   Great build, I love the horn cabinet and the subtle floor design is excellent.

[The Stad]

The details in this build continue to reveal themselves the more I look at it. I love the SNOT techniques in the floor, walls, window, and door, and the music stand with scroll is particularly clever. 

[Grover]

What a spectacular build!  This really packs a ton into a tiny scene.  I appreciate the closeup of the floor, since it's a great texture, and there's so much other fantastic work going on that it could easily be overlooked.  This is really a tour de force in techniques, many of which are quite subtle. The not pressed all the way down gold plates, the mosiac door, the perfectly blended SNOT walls and brick walls, the arched doorway technique, and the stained glass fence windows are awesome.  The music stand is great, and the violins along with the various horns are quite nice. The rubber bands around the horn for leather straps is great, and I love the idea of the old horns being taught. You do a great job describing the history here, which is not dissimilar to many historic horns.  The photography is fantastic, and you have some nice closeups.  Outstanding work!