Ares Refuge

[Thrash]

I

[slimer]

Sweet Man Keep Up The Awesome Work! :happy:

[Chuck]

It seems a little bland and too many BURPs for my taste.

-l2k-

[Thrash]

I only used 3 of the bigger BURPs and 3 of the smaller ones, the rest of the mountain is made out of bricks. I guess you are right about the outside being a little bland...I didn't really include many flowers or other foliage to spice it up at all. Thanks for the helpful criticism.

Anyone else have any ideas of how I could fix it up?

[SuvieD]

Anyone else have any ideas of how I could fix it up?

Sure do. Good effort all around and with a few little touches it could be great. I will give suggestions for each category you listed.

Overall View of the landscape Fairly bland. First you need to access the believability of the surround. Water does not, even in fantasy stories, travel above or on the level with the ground around it. Water erodes everything around it. Since your MOC has a prominent water stream going through it only makes sense this is addressed. You should have the cliff look like this ---__------ where the lower lines are the top of the water. You also need more foam or froth of some kind as a waterfall will always have it and the higher/faster it moves the more it will have. You may also try to get creative and get some sort of spray as the water fall comes down. The rock piece sticking out is very "romantic" but highly improbable. It would be so slipper that even if the water hadn't eroded it would be impossible to walk on. The doors indicate an entry and obviously not a hidden one. You should add a gray or brown frame around them to protest against falling debris from the cliff face and also to ensure the strength of the door in the rock face. You need more colors in the ground and maybe some variance in elevations. A few brick or plate built rocks to stick up out of the ground and maybe a few moss covered ones near the stream. Plant life will help but don't rely on it to get by. Your cliff face is very flat and the top of it is almost level. Make some parts the jut out in places or have some crevices. If it is meant to look like it was cut (which it kind of does then use plenty of vertical and horizontal unnatural lines and make them into shapes like actual blocks. Using grooves would work well also. The top bothers me most though. to straight and flat. I need to emphasize that the water would be cutting into the rock and making channels, valleys and bowls as it did so. If you get this right much of the MOC will fall into place. Consider changing the dirt path to tan to make it stand out from your bridge. Consider adding some other greens or some 1x1 plates in rock colors to the ground to help the look. If something looks too much like what is next to it change it. No two 4x4 sections should be the exact same unless it is a man made (minifigure made) area. Nature simply does not do that and with billions of part combinations in LEGO neither do you.

The interior Again somewhat bland. It looks more like the interior to a castle than a cave. I am not even sure you would have walls in such a place. Either way there is not enough support for the immense weight of the ground above them or the many heavy gallons of water on top of it. You need walls double or twice as thick or even better pillars and no walls. Huge pillars with arches in between them to give added strength. You may even want to have a few spots where water is leaking into the cave making puddles. The floor of the interior is way to flat. You should have little dents and holes and mini hills and ruts going throughout the whole thing. Even carved floors have imperfections or at least rounded/sloped edges. The whole thing is very gray. Your gold mining area looks nice though. You need more torches or lamps (think Aladdin) to help keep the place bright enough not to trip on everything.

Dinner time and then bed time Consider making bunks for sleeping. or at least have an elevated place to sleep in case the water overflows from the indoor stream. More furniture would lessen the whole empty look of the cave. Use some barrels somewhere to show they have stores of food.

The Blacksmith shop and the secret fireplace/door Where does all the smoke for the fire go? Consider having some sort of way to get the smoke out, clay piping or a chimney of some sort. The fire place is much to large and would never be used by a blacksmith in that way. I know for the door you wanted it like that but consider having the door next to the fireplace instead. The actual fire should be in a trough like area with enough room for the blacksmith to work around in. It should also not be on the floor but a little higher up and it should not have actual flames in it. Consider having some weapon racks setup and you need a water trough! You will need to be making more spears than anything else. Have a break or space to get around the "counter". Include a wall with various tools for special craftsmanship and etching. A blacksmith uses more than just a hammer.

Ares Temple Kind of boring. Maybe use some colors here or add some banners. I have no idea what Greek temples had so I don't know what it should look like but it is too boring.

As for the rest they are sort of moot points. Obviously, the more detail and things you can add without making it cluttered the better. As for the hunting try having the kill next to the water as that is when an animal is most vulnerable.

Gallery

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=169556

A very good MOC that could easily be great. More variety a few changes and a little more realism (though not too much as this is LEGO after all) would go a long way. If you do rework it make sure to post pictures.

I hope this helps you.

MOC on!

[Thrash]

Thanks for all the good suggestions SuvieD. I have a bricklink order that should be coming in soon, so I will probably try to work on this MOC next weekend. I'll post pictures so you can see how it turns out.

Anyone else have any more ideas?