The Cedar Serpent

[Grover]

Lady Gwenllian of Albers did not know what to expect from Avalonia, other than from stories she had heard of a land filled with chivalrous knights.  Her homeland Albers was a matriarchal society, where only the women could hold property and pass down lands, but very diverse, with elves, dwarves, hobbits, and humans all living peacefully.  Lady Gwenllian was trained as a knight, even dabbling in the art of magic, but she cherished her time in the forests of her homeland, where she learned the ways of the woods and the stealth inherent to them.  Lady Gwenllian served as a knight in the military of Albers for her conscripted time.  It was during this time that the evil emperor Lantz staged a coup d’état and claimed rule of the nation to himself, shredding the laws of matriarchal succession and throwing much of the country into chaos.  Without a clear plan in mind, Albers had plunged into chaos and civil war.

Lady Gwenllian returned home as quickly as she could, only to find her parents assassinated by the cronies of the new emperor.  The emperor had spies everywhere, and some of those in her own had household betrayed Lady Gwenllian's parents, who fought against the usurper.  Her household fought amongst themselves, distrustful of one another. 

Her family gone, and knowing not who to trust, Lady Gwenllian vowed to escape and rebuild her family legacy and power with the hope to one day return to her homeland and right the wrongs there.  She quietly gathered her most trusted servants and boarded her ship, the Cedar Serpent, to sail to a new life in Avalonia.  Her companions on her voyage included: Myellan, the elven archer originally from Avalonia; Seren, her lady at arms and master of the household; Chwyd, one of her men at arms (although he is not particularly sea-worthy); Alis, daughter of Seren and the lookout for the ship; Castwyr, the wily and somewhat vulgar bard; Sven, the oldest member of Lady Gwenllian's servants, who captains the ship; and Floro, the faun, an adventurous and free-spirited companion.

The Cedar Serpent

Myellan and Seren near the prow.

Seren, Chwyd, Floro, and Castwyr on the deck.

The seasick Castwyr blowing chunks.  (I think this is probably my favorite Lego face).

Alis peering for land through her spyglass from the mast and rigging.

Lady Gwenllian watching over her crew with Sven in the background steering the ship.

 

******

Now for the caveat: I know this build is kind of crappy.  I have recently moved, haven't unpacked all my bricks, and can't find all of them right now.  I did find a large supply of dark orange, which had a lot of pieces but only a few types: 1x2, 2x2, and 2x4 plates, and some 33 and 45° slopes, so I wanted to try and build a ship with it.  I had only two of the bricks with the side studs that I used for the serpent's eyes, akin to the old 90s Battle Dragon, which I always liked.  The dark blue waves didn't show as well on the pictures as I planned.  I wanted to do some gold studs as accents, but couldn't find them, so went with the silver stud tiles instead.  I mostly wanted to get something posted for Gwenllian to start to move the story along for her.  I've also never really been good at building ships, so was actually kind of happy with how this attempt at a cog, although I know it's sub-par for around here. 

Kind of funny, I've actually been building since the 80s, but only recently gotten back into it, so the bulk of my bricks are from the old color palette that is much more basic.  I have been trying to buy up some of the more interesting shades of colors (the dark shades, new foliage, etc.), although it's going slowly.  Some of the new building techniques are awesome and I am here to have fun and learn from everyone else, so I welcome the criticism and comments, although bear in mind I have a long way to go and probably don't have the same colors available as everyone else yet.

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Grover
Fixed grammar and formatting

[TitusV]

Nice ship! Though you say the waves don't come through, I think are awesome!

[Grover]

Thanks!  I liked the whitecaps on the waves, but the 1 1/3 brick tall dark blue waves underneath got washed out in the picture I think.  It's more obvious in person.  I really need to learn how to photograph better.

[soccerkid6]

I can't recall ever seeing a ship built in dark orange before, it works pretty well! The upside down approach was a good choice considering your part limitations.

Nice part use for the furled sails too

[Exetrius]

I agree, given the circumstances, this is a good build. As SK says, dark orange is really a unusual choice which turns out well. I think if the lighting were better, the build would come out better too. Nice waves, minifig activity and silver detailing on the side. 

Btw, if I remember correctly, this is a bit of prequel to what you have written previously for your story of Lady Gwenllian, right? It's been a while but it's nice to see development. 

[Slegengr]

Nice ship, Grover!

The use of dark orange is great for this ship, and I think the shaping turned out well for LEGO piece limitations!  The waves around the ship really add to the appearance.  Your cast of characters is quite interesting, and the development of Lady Gwenllian's story is nice.  I am looking forward to more as you get your LEGO stock organized!

[Grover]

On 12/20/2016 at 8:51 AM, soccerkid6 said:

I can't recall ever seeing a ship built in dark orange before, it works pretty well! The upside down approach was a good choice considering your part limitations.

Nice part use for the furled sails too

Thanks!  The dark orange is kind of a weird and interesting color and I am glad it worked out here.  I was wondering what I was going to do with those oddly colored blue parts and thought they looked like sails.  Glad you did, too!  (Although there is a logic fault here... why is the ship cruising forward creating a wake if the sails are furled and no one is rowing...? I joke that the ship is going downhill! lol)

On 12/20/2016 at 10:10 AM, Exetrius said:

I agree, given the circumstances, this is a good build. As SK says, dark orange is really a unusual choice which turns out well. I think if the lighting were better, the build would come out better too. Nice waves, minifig activity and silver detailing on the side. 

Btw, if I remember correctly, this is a bit of prequel to what you have written previously for your story of Lady Gwenllian, right? It's been a while but it's nice to see development. 

I have been reading up on taking pictures on the forums here.  It seems there are some tricks that can be done relatively inexpensively, so I will probably play with that.  I notice with some of the contests that it's usually the models that have the best pics that win.  Definitely something that needs work.

And yes, this is kind of a prequel.  I had introduced Gwenllian with a sigfig pic and claimed some territory earlier, but wanted to throw this out there to start the storyline of her arriving in Avalonia and then establishing her lands later.  I haven't figured out exactly where the story is going to go from here, but I want to show some progression of her starting off and building up if I can.

15 hours ago, Slegengr said:

Nice ship, Grover!

The use of dark orange is great for this ship, and I think the shaping turned out well for LEGO piece limitations!  The waves around the ship really add to the appearance.  Your cast of characters is quite interesting, and the development of Lady Gwenllian's story is nice.  I am looking forward to more as you get your LEGO stock organized!

Thanks a bunch!  I'lll try and keep it interesting for everyone.  I'm looking forward to getting organized as well, although the holidays are going to knock me back a bit as I'm visiting family until after the new year, but look for more after that!

[Demetreous]

Honestly, I find this so inspirational. I see MOCs on here that I am so envious of because their creators seemingly have an endless supply of LEGOs to perfect even the most minute of details, and seeing something like this (without a conventional ship piece or brickbuilt hull) gives me hope for my abilities again. I love how the hull was built upside down, the sides are sideways, and everything else is right side up: makes me want to experiment away from the conventional right side up building techniques.

-Deme

[Exetrius]

11 hours ago, Grover said:

I have been reading up on taking pictures on the forums here.  It seems there are some tricks that can be done relatively inexpensively, so I will probably play with that.  I notice with some of the contests that it's usually the models that have the best pics that win.  Definitely something that needs work.

Your background is fine already. Finding the right angles can work wonders (I like the picture looking up at the ship from the water). I'd recommend never using your camera flash. Lighting from above, slightly behind or to the side of the creation (if you have more than one spotlight, you don't even have to choose between those), looks much more natural. Furthermore, especially with dim or not perfectly white light, you can adjust things like brightness, saturation, contrast and hue, to make your presentation more vivid. 

Also, top-class builders are perfectionists, so they want to make sure the pictures do justice to their work. 

[Brandon Stark]

For a first build, I think this is a really great start. The way you completely brickbuilt the ship without those "ship pieces" is cool, and the waves are also really well done. I think you did a nice job on the prow too. The ship is also pretty accurate to the medieval era. 

[LittleJohn]

Excellent ship, the hull shaping turned out very well!   As others have said, the dark orange fits quite nicely, and the foam created by the boat is superb as well 

[en_zoo]

awesome! nice to see that someone else is putting a story together to get their character to the claimed Avalonian spot! I did come to think I was doing something crazy.. don't feel alone anymore! 

as for the ship, I think it's really neat. you normally see curves at the prow, but your way of building it really worked out!

oh and as for the palette - if it's the new reddish brown that you're looking for and you happen to have some 1 or 2xwhatever old brown plates to spare, feel free to contact me to organise a nice across-the-pond exchange  [just assuming that you're in NA..]