Sandy's Castle Project of Doom

[Sandy]

Ever since I was little I've dreamt about building a huge castle out of LEGO. Sadly, I never really had the pieces or the knack for it, but after returning to my childhood hobby I've rekindled my dream.

So this is a story about how I've spent this past month to fulfill that dream, and how it eventually fell down the drain.

I started to build a castle - the biggest and the most detailed castle I've ever built - for my Princess Quest-comics. Castle Olegsburg, it was to be called. I had a few requirements: it needed to be modular and build like a dollhouse, so that I can photograph it from all angles if need be. But I also wanted to make a cohesive castle, not just backdrops like I used in my earlier PQ-comics.

I sketched the outlay of the castle in paper, and it looked marvelous, with all the rooms and corridors I wanted to add. Then I started to build it, and quickly ran into a problem: parts. I have loads more of bricks and pieces now than when I was a child, but still I quickly diminished my supply of grey. Now you're all asking, why didn't I just order more from Bricklink. It's probably because I'm both stubborn and poor - I wanted to get by with the bricks I already owned. And that made my project doomed to fail.

The photographs I'm about to show you are actually from the second version. The first version was actually much larger, built upon baseplates rather than brick-plates. But I ran out of bricks with that even before I got to the second floor, so I made the next version much more compact and cramped, but still... Well, here's where I got with it.

Remember that the castle you're about to see is unfinished, unpolished and now totally trashed back into pieces. So it no longer exists.

Here's the front from bird's eye view, with the portcullis and the courtyard visible.

The gate and front wall.

The courtyard. I fashioned it after the one seen in Princess Quest's final chapter, with the armory to the left and the stables to the right.

Just the courtyard module.

The portcullis from the inside.

The armory module from the front and the back.

The smithy inside it.

And the lodging of the dwarven smith. He even has his own door leading to the top of the wall.

The stables module with room for four horses.

The front of the main building. The staircases on the sides are covered by the sidebuildings.

The entrance hall and the third floor corridor on top of it.

The main building interior, with the door to the throne room.

Right side of the main building with the dungeon and the (empty) kitchen.

Left side of the main building with the war-room below and the knights' quarters above.

The main building from the back, showing off the throne room and the two rooms on the third floor.

The dining room.

The queen's chamber.

And this is pretty much where I ran out of parts. Already I was disgusted by the incohesiveness of what I had built, with four differents shades of grey mixed with browns and black. I meant to do a roof to the third floor, and add servants' quarters and the wizard's tower on top of it. So I got frustrated, abandoned my dream of building a huge castle this summer, and decided that backdrops for the upcoming chapters in my comic would have to do for now.

So I'm not really asking you how to improve upon this, because there's nothing to improve upon anymore. I just wanted to show this doomed project of mine to perhaps answer why the next PQ-chapters I promised in May haven't come out yet.

And because I wasted so friggin' many hours on this castle that never got finished.

[AwesomeStar]

I really like this. It's a lot better castle than I could ever hope to do, and it's very detailed!

It's a shame that you didn't continue, but I do sympathise with you, too - bley is hard to get!

Well done.

~A.S.

[L-space]

Too bad it is abandonded now. It look very promissing.

But I will take some inspiration for my own buildings, thanks.

Never give up your dreams, some day....

[UsernameMDM]

I actually like the mixed shades. Love the statues and curtains.

[ADHO15]

This looks wonderful! Congratulations.

The size and the detail is better than anything I could ever come up with.

It's a real shame you had to stop.

[Princess Storm]

It's a shame you weren't happy with your castle - I've had similar experiences with my never-ending quest to build the perfect castle. My main problem is that my requirements are too strict (huge banqueting hall, fireplaces that make sense in terms of lay-out, room for barracks, etc!). I actually never tried to use just one shade, contrary to the majority of AFOLs I just mix all the vaguely stone-coloured bricks together, because there's no way I'd have enough of just one shade to build anything decent.

Anyway, I digress! Good luck for future building attempts, I hope you find a way to build what you want I really like the baseplate you used for the courtyard, also the detailing of the blacksmith's lodgings and the wooden part of the stables looks really cool

[SWMAN]

Very nice castle. Even unfinished it is a great castle. If I were you, I would save it for the future, just in case you can finish it someday.

[Wout]

I find this castle very good looking.

I had this idea first too and build a big keep from my own old classic castle sets from the 80ies. Unfortunally, I had the same problem as you. So I improvised and improvised untill it was quite good. I liked it, but I wanted to build a greater castle. So I collect set after set over the years to have enough pieces to build a great castle (like castles from DNL and Teddy), but now I have not many space to build a castle and to place it on somewhere.

I'm even moccing a town house since januari, but I'm busy with other things that come trough, so it's still not ready.

So, I can feel for your Doomfeelings, but maybe you can make a better castle in the future, when you have more grey. You made great mocs since you came here so keep up the good work.

[Perterz]

The mixed shades deffinatly add some sort off realism to the walls which isn't bad after all.

It's a great start already to something excellent if you ask me! The modularity looks well done with good base shape and divisions. I actually like the interiors a lot, nice little details scattered through the rooms. To bad you're running out off bricks

I also find it hard to complete a castle, heads up for those who do, tending to start all over any time while building..

*sight* maybe it's perfection that overpowers us

Edited July 4, 2009 by Perterz

[posades]

Trust me, I'm not just saying this, but that is better than anything I could ever do. Sometimes I just sit here and wonder how in the world there are so many great MOCers that build amazing castles on this site; sure yours may not be the most elaborate or biggest, but I can tell you really tried to create something that was unique.

Maybe one day I'll be as good as others at building MOCs, but in the meantime I'm glad I'm able to draw inspiration from creations like yours.

[Razzer]

That really is a shame about the death of this promising looking project, but I'm pretty confident that this happens to all of us.

No matter how many peices we have we will always try something that is a bit too ambitious and find that we don't have enough parts and that its pointless buying parts to complete it as we have stretched our current parts too thinly and would have to start again completely. Well maybe that's just me, but I'd like to think I'm not alone .

That being said, I think that this was an awsome MOC and I hope you revisit it in the future because I can see it being a truely EPIC castle .

[Sandy]

Aww, thanks for the encouraging words! But the more I look at the pictures, the more ugly details I find from them. So to me this castle represents just a big doomed failure.

But I'm not taken aback by it, you will surely see the rooms made individually in my future comics! It's just a shame I don't have enough pieces or patience to work them into one big castle yet. But yes, someday I will have my own big castle to show you!

Thanks again, guys, your words are much appreciated!

[Escape The Fate]

Castles are hard to do, since they are so part heavy, but I bet you learned a lot from building it. You have inspired me to finally post a moc. Good luck with Pricess Quest.

[blueandwhite]

That's a nice little castle you've got there.

I think you've hit what alot of castle builders experience: A MOC where the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. What I mean is that there are loads of great details, yet the MOC just feels like it's missing something. This happens alot when your collection fails to live up to your ambitions. The MOC starts out incredibly ambitious, yet as you approach the end the parts disappear and your vision is left on the drawing board.

The outer ward and surrounding walls were quite well realized, however the keep itself seems to have presented a problem as pieces were in short supply. Unfortunately, this is not an easy thing to remedy. It reminds me very much of Bilbo Baggins when he describes himself as being like a bit of 'butter being scraped over too much bread'. When you have a finite number of bricks, often size becomes a big issue.

I've found interiors are extremely parts-intensive. I've actually been stuck working on a castle for the better part of three years now. The majority of delays have been owing to money and parts shortages. Perhaps building an attractive exterior structure and then building a series of interiors is the way to go. I appreciate that it isn't as 'authentic' as a castle that has both, but it could make for a more coherent structure. Many castle builders simply forego the interior for an elaborate exterior. Just a thought.

In any case, I like the work you've put into this castle. It definitely had great potential and was a nice piece of work. It's a shame you had to dismantle it so soon.

[Matn]

Ah, what a shame that it isn't possible to finish it. But it still looks good, and you have even made room for some nice interior scenes. So, I'm looking forward how you will involve this doomed castle project in your new comic.

[Klaus-Dieter]

That's a great and big Castle, Sandy!

I really it!

It looks impressive - especially those very realistic towers.

The most I like the backsmith' shop and the little room for the blacksmith.

Some more interior, some minifigs and some accessory would resurrect your Castle!

Very well done!

Klaus-Dieter

[Duke]

I think you've done a great job with what you've made, the details give it charm. I especially like what I assume are curtains in that final picture, I might have to borrow that some time

[Teddy]

Dear Sandy,

sorry to see you abandoned your project. I really like what you've done so far.

Its interesting to see how you went along with the build.

The emphasis in the initial stages seems to be more on interior, than what I would normally do.

My way of working on a large castle like this, is to start with what can be build from my collection.

Than build that part first to my satisfaction and than add additional spaces on that later on after I collected some more bricks.

I've spend quite some time (almost a year) collecting bricks for my castle. As you might remember from the first photos i started with the front.

In my castle project I started initially with only a gate building. Than I collected some bricks and added some additional walls

After that two corner towers. Than a part of the landscape, etc. And finally a keep.

I started on the interiors of parts i finished, while planning for the next stage.

I've made all the interiors now except for the keep.

But I might alter the exterior a bit if I run out of space on the inside.

What I'm trying to say is, you might want to start with the part you can build.

And build that fully to your satisfaction and look for brick-deals to expand in the mean while.

There are some BL shops who sometimes have good bulk deals.

I have to admit, it is a time consuming project this way.

But, I actually enjoyed doing this, since friends enjoy seeing updates and I had a clear goal when looking for bricks.

Hope this helps?

Kind regards,

Teddy

[Commodore Hornbricker]

I think your castle was a great start. You could totally tell where you were going with it and I have no doubt that had the parts not run out on you that you would have worked it into the castle you always dreamed of. As others have said, I like it when people mix the greys and you did a great job of it. The all light grey castles never look quite right to me. Anyway...Keep dreaming big and adding grey bricks to your collection as you can.

[Sandy]

Thanks, guys! You're all so sweet!

Dear Sandy,

sorry to see you abandoned your project. I really like what you've done so far.

Its interesting to see how you went along with the build.

The emphasis in the initial stages seems to be more on interior, than what I would normally do.

My way of working on a large castle like this, is to start with what can be build from my collection.

Than build that part first to my satisfaction and than add additional spaces on that later on after I collected some more bricks.

...

Hope this helps?

Kind regards,

Teddy

Thanks, Teddy, for your kind advice! But the reason I didn't just continue on this castle is because I tried to build it for my photocomic, which I want to shoot this year. That's also the reason for the castle being shaped like a dollhouse rather than a closed castle - I needed access to all the rooms from as many angles as possible.

So I didn't really have the time, the parts, the money or the patience to make this into the castle of my dreams. I'll just build temporary backdrops for my photocomic with the parts that I have, and push my dream castle a little further into the future.

[Gregorovich]

I know I'm a bit late, but I just had to say how amazing this castle is! I love how enormous it is, and all the little details. I know you didn't have enough pieces to put in furniture, but let me say this: I don't have enough pieces to build one room from that castle! Good work, Sandy, and I hope you eventually continue with it.

[Sirens-of-Titan]

Wow, this project really is ambitious.

You know, I found myself in a similar boat when I realized that I barely had enough blay bricks to build a tower, needless to say not enough for a castle. I am experimenting with techniques that diminish the amount of bricks I have to use, and make the best use of the bricks I have. I can't build a big castle, nor can I build an excellent medium castle, but I can sure as heck build a wonderful small castle, tower, or part of one that will be up to par with my standard of a good MOC.

Beware of building huge walls! Those eat up bricks like there's no tomorrow.

I hope you build you dream castle some day!