I need suggestions

[Grazingcattle]

I have decided to jump into GoH but before I get to posting I want beef up my castle bricks and figure count.

Any suggestion on what are good entry buys?

Like where can I go to buy a bunch of foliage?

What type of camera should i get?*

Other then Bricklink where can i sale my Star wars lego so I can buy more castle stuff?

Any thoughts would be great!

* As it stands I only have the Camera that's on my Iphone 4.

[Nightstalker]

For general castle pieces, I'd go for the Uruk Army set. It has some good minifigs, and several cool pieces (1x2 brick pattern pieces and cool equipment). Foliage can easily be picked up by getting the Forest Ambush set from the new castle line.

For specific guild building patterns:

Kaliphlin: look at buying some Prince of Persia sets from Bricklink (or just picking up several different shades of tan and gray pieces)

Avalonia: if you can still find some of them, the Kingdoms line of sets are pretty good

Mitgardia: you might be able to pull a mix of LotR sets and the new Castle line to get a good amount of gray bricks. As for the green and yellow, you'll probably have to order them from Bricklink.

Nocturnus: Look at some of the Knights Kingdoms sets on Bricklink, or look at picking up some of the evil villain sets from the Castle line.

I might not scrap all of your SW stuff because you might find have some interesting pieces for use.

[SkaForHire]

Hello Grazing, some people use their Iphone exclusively, so you might not need to upgrade camera just yet. If you are set on upgrading, knowing your budget would help some of us make suggestions.

The first question, what country are you from? That might help some of us give you suggestions.

In the USA, I hit any lego store wall I can, usually a few times a year they will have foliage. In my opinion, this is the best way to beef up on newer foliage. I joined Kaliphlin and though, heck I would never need green or brown, that is a lie. No matter what, get all the brown half arches you can find. I would check the tree guide in the history forum for more ideas on foliage.

As for entry buys, it depends on what you are planning on making. If you want some good classic castle looking stuff, you are in luck -- the new castle line is cheaper than LOTR and just came out. With a few good sales, you coulg get your figure count up quickly (although the blue figures scream Cedrica or Kaliphlin, the red/black figures with new arms could fit pretty much in any of the guilds). If you want that more "earth tone" feel, LOTR sets are going to be your best bet, the first wave should be retiring soon, so there may be some deals to be had. Also, I bricklink a lot of (too much)stuff.

As for selling, ebay is probably the fastest sell.

[Kai NRG]

1. To a certain extent it depends on what guild you join. Kaliphlin is probably the most diverse, you can get away with quite a few types of structures there. Both Avalonia and Mitgardia are more traditional castle, so light bley is really important there (of course it doesn't hurt to have light bley in Kaliphlin either!). Nocturnus seems to admit the most variety in color and shape... if you wan't to build purple and red spiraling towers go for it! In general though, light bley bricks and specialized elements (eg. slopes, jumpers, 1x1 round plates, and headlight bricks), brown plates, tiles and specialized elements (logs and 1x1 round bricks are quite useful), tan and dark tan plates (and I find that tan 1x1 round plates, green (foliage, plates, and a few bricks), dark grey (mostly slopes, but also a few bricks and specialized elements), and a fair amount of blue (plates and bricks both) will be your best friends. Depending on how much and what kind of water you use, trans clear, trans light blue, and trans blue 1x1 round plates and cheese slopes can be useful (red can also come in handy). In fact in general cheese slopes are very useful. White bricks, plates, and slopes are also good for snow especially in Mitgardia and the Kaliphlin mountains. That's about all I can come up with off the top of my head. As far as where and how to get them... I would suggest you start pretty small and MOC a bit, you'll soon get the idea of what kind of bricks you're missing most. Then Bricklink is probably your best bet, but several LEGO sets are quite nice as "parts packs" and you get the figures there too!

(I can't really answer your second question - I've never manged to get enough foliage myself!)

3. I'm not quite familiar with the picture quality from a phone, but I personally use a Sony T90 that cost me about $300. Nothing fancy but if you photograph in good resolution and use good even lighting it works quite well! Plus I generally touch-up a bit on the computer.

4. I'm not sure it's necessary to sell your SW just so you can get castle, as LEGO pieces are can adapt into different themes quite well. Of course, the kind of bricks that could build a SW space ship aren't necessarily going to make the best castles, but there's a lot of other Medieval type structures and landscaping as well that those sort of pieces might be good for. And if you ever wanted to build Sci-Fi, you might regret selling the SW. Of course not necessarily. I've never got any SW so I certainly don't speak from experience!

[gedren_y]

Are you a purist? If not, then I would suggest you check out altbricks.com for a diverse range of plant parts. Many of the other aftermarket retailers have items that can be used as plants in the right context.

Bricklink is still the best used and new Lego online retail market. Ebay has had some fraud issues, where the seller uses your information to steal from TLG (a form of identity theft).

[Grazingcattle]

Thanks for the great replies! Already I can tell that you are all a very supportive sub-forum and I really appreciate all the answers.

To nightstalker- I love your work on multiple forums and you are very prolific. Thanks for the tips! I think I will be getting a few Forest Ambush sets when they hit my local store.

To Ska for hire- I live in the US but the nearest lego store is over a hundred miles away. I was thinking of buying some (1 or 2) of the Chess set on lego.com to get some nice figures. What guild would they be best suited for you think?

To Gedren_y I wouldn't say I am a purist, but I am a high quality ist... if that's a thing. Do you have experience with Altbricks.com?

I was fortunate enough to get The castle and wall from helms deep (no minifigs or accessories) and I have some darK grey from the troll king LOTR set. I like all the guilds, but I would say I am drawn to Kaliphin and Mitgardia the most.

Does anyone know a tutorial on picture taking with the Iphone or if there is any apps you should get that would help with editing?

[SkaForHire]

I know the feeling about the far distance from a Lego store, I spent most of my life in NW PA, there is nothing there but ONE TRU. SInce you are in the USA, look for TRU sales (if you have a TRU). They usually do BOGO 50%, so even with the mark up on non licensed sets you are saving money. On licensed sets, its usually the bigger the set the more likely you will save money.

As for the chess sets, I think those make great Kaliphlin or Avalonian troops. Some people here might trade you for the other half so that you can get double -- or maybe you can go splits with someone from another guild. Unfortunately, since many of the dragon troops have the dragon chest logo, that screams more Avalonia to me. Although, there is no set insignia for any guild, we kind of just gravitated towards certain looks over time. Avalonia went dragons early, Kaliphlin eventually adopted the lion unofficially, Mitgardia doesn't really have an insignia, and anything goes in Nocturnus. But Like I said,people use all of the different heraldry in each of the guilds. Their are black falcons in at least three of the guilds, I use bull knights in Kaliphlin, crownies are abundant in at least three of the guilds. So really, anything goes.

I like Alt bricks, at least the foliage does not look that bad in my opinion. I have some roof pieces that I would not buy again because they look too different.

There are many photo tutorials on this site, I just don't have a link to one. I am guessing there has to be an Iphone tutorial.

[Gideon]

The best thing is to get started building and posting, especially combined with a good story you will see that people here will give you a lot of feedback and if you (like many of us here) are keen to improve your building and photo skills you will get lots of constructive criticism if you ask for that :)

If you want to be able to try various color palettes and building styles I would say that Kaliphlin would be a good choice, but be warned: you might ending up starting to buy more tan bricks than you previously knew you needed ;)

[Str0ngbad]

Hi and welcome Grazingcattle!

I'm a newcomer myself and am in the same camera situation. So far, I'm not terribly dissatisfied with my iPhone camera but a tripod would help my pictures immensely since it is very difficult for me to consistently hold it steady enough. That might be something to consider if you decide that you'd rather not sink a lot of money into a camera right now but would still like to take a step toward better pictures. There are a bunch of tips and a couple links here from when I asked a similar question a few weeks ago.

Regarding entry buys, I would definitely keep an eye on last year's LOTR sets. They will go on clearance at places like Wal-Mart at some point and most of them would be a good purchase. While the chess sets are great for getting a lot of figs at once, you don't see that many of one faction in a build very often so I would think your money would be better spent on sets with a few figures you really like and a bunch of pieces you know you will be able to use resulting in a more diverse collection. As Ska was saying, most torsos can be used in any guild. This works even better if you have a few arms in the color of your guild that you can slap on (a cheap and very useful investment on Bricklink).

I know Kaliphlin would be almost as happy to gain your services as we in Mitgardia would be. However, to make a shameless plug, it seems to me that Mitgardia is much easier to build in with the most common colors (I still have so little tan/dark tan).

I've heard good things about altbricks' leaves. The only negative thing I've heard is that things didn't fit snugly inside the holes the way they would on an actual lego leaf. I am probably going to buy myself a bag in the near future.

I wouldn't sell all your Star Wars stuff off without a second thought but I'm glad I unloaded the few sets I had. If you had 100 posts or wanted to wait until you did (it won't take long if you get involved here), I would suggest listing your sets here in the buy/sell/trade forum. Star Wars stuff usually goes really fast there. Other than that and ebay, you can take your chances with Craigslist. Down here in Dallas, used Star Wars sets don't usually last long if they are priced under MSRP.

I hope you can get started soon. I'm looking forward to seeing your sigfig introduced in the Mitgardia thread!

Edited June 13, 2013 by Str0ngbad

[Kayne]

When I read your top post, the first thing that I thought of was altbricks.com I have been to the Lego PAB wall many times(in Michigan) and have never found foliage in there, other than the grass/flower stems. For actual tree leaves, altbricks is great. They have many different colors, and the packages are $20 for 100 pieces which works out to about 20 cents per piece if that difficult math is correct . As for the quality, they are good quality. They are not quite as flexible as the official Lego leaf pieces, but they are made of ABS like Lego is and they look nearly identical. They fit onto Lego studs, and actually have stronger clutch power than the official Lego leaf pieces. However, the hole through the center of each of the 'stud areas' is just slightly different than the Lego leaf, so they don't fit the same on the tube pieces or rods(lightsabe blades). Overall though, a great place for foliage in my opinion

[Grazingcattle]

Thanks for the feed back on Altbricks... I cant wait to get some more coin in to pick up some of their foliage!

You may be right Str0ngbad, The chess set might not come with a wealth of bricks, but it does have a nice baseplate which is a consideration since I only have some small green ones and no 48*48.

I have been reading the Mitgardia and Kaliphlin forum posts but I still can't make up my mind. I don't have many tan bricks which has me leaning towards Mitgardia, but I like the mid-eastern feel of Kaliphlin

as for selling the Star Wars sets, I feel comfortable letting go of my 02 gunship and a few figures if I could get a nice array of figs and/or bricks. Right now I feel like I don't have many castle type figs and my favorite scenes are small to large conflicts.

Thanks again for the continued support! I appreciate all the feed back and I look forward to declaring my loyalty soon!

[gedren_y]

Think, before you get rid of your Star Wars sets, about the parts they consist of. Figures can be taken apart, and most of them can be adapted for GOH. Fleshies are useful here, as are some of the more exotic colored figs. Just because the sets came as Star Wars doesn't mean you have to use them as Star Wars.

[Grazingcattle]

Ya i like the robes and such, but I was referring primaryily to the clones with their battle armor and the giant republic gunship... I don't have much else

I have been thinking of creating a Highland Clansman named Euan Macpherson after my great great great.... great grandfather

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Macpherson

Which guild would best represent that you think? Mitgardia?

[soccerkid6]

@Grazingcattle: Yeah, that sounds like Mitgardia. Glad to hear you will be joining GoH, the others seem to have covered your initial questions very well

[Garmadon]

... Although, there is no set insignia for any guild, we kind of just gravitated towards certain looks over time. Avalonia went dragons early, Kaliphlin eventually adopted the lion unofficially, Mitgardia doesn't really have an insignia, and anything goes in Nocturnus...

Mitgardia is the Bear and Nocturnus is the Snake (at least in ZC's Challenge VI story). Nevertheless, Mitgardia rarely use bears, and Nocturnus (as you said) uses pretty much anything.

The typical Mitgardian soldier is this:

(Lower left corner).

[SkaForHire]

@grazing A highlander probably fits Mitgardia the best, but my character's family(ies) are actually two bands of highlanders that came down and raided Kaliphlin many centuries ago, so really you can be in whatever guild you want... As for building on tan, again, we have some exceptions. The Withered Woods and the region around Eastgate are all more "green," and of course we have the mountains and the coast. I am just giving some perspective here, either guild would be happy to have you.

@Str0ngbad I didn't realize there were other GoH members in the area. Are you a member of Texlug? I can never make the meetings because I always teach on Saturdays.

[Grazingcattle]

Any other websites other then Altbricks you guys suggest? I have been reading up on camera techniques

[Tazmaniac]

Firstly, welcome to EB and GoH.

For the most part value is in the eye of the beholder, what I see as great parts and colours, others may see a crappy set and vice versa.

I use Bricklink a lot, but I've had time to find my building style, and therefore know which parts appeal to me.

It really helps to have a bit of everything but there will be pieces you want in the hundreds or thousands so again it will depend on what and how you plan to build.

Summing up: what ever appeals to you.

For foliage you have a few options, Bricklink, ebay or PAB (if you're lucky enough to have access to one). They do appear in sets but not at great value.

Camera: in one word, budget.

How much do you want to spend? For maximum fun go DSLR all the way.

I can't help with the selling, I'm a hoarder.

[Maxim I]

Welcome already to goh!

First of all, using an iphone can get you very decent pictures!! Sometimes you will have to retake a picture, but generally seen, the quality is very good.

Only one big tip: take the pictures in a lot of natural light!!

Secondly about the guild:

As you said, you don't have that many pieces yet and you are considering buying 2 chess sets. I would say Kaliphlin then.

Thx to the chess sets you will have 16 foot soldiers and 4 knights fitting Kaliphlin.

Also for Kaliphlin, you dont need to buy that much vegetation. And also, dark tan plates are a lot cheaoer than white ones :)