Book II: Challenge V - Category A (Alliance) - Wetland Delivery

[MaasEffekt]

Welcome!

Would like to present my moc for the Book II: Challenge V - Category A, Alliance side.

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Wetland Delivery

  As the moon kept climbing, and the stars were shining over the dark, hazy wetlands of far eastern Nocturnus, a small wooden boat glided across the wild and hazardous region, called the Eight legged archipelago.
Lothar von Vonnegut scanned the lush shore, and the waters for dangers thoroughly, as the edge of the land was getting closer and closer every moment. Only thing he could see over the side of the boat, was a big tree, with a scarlet magnolia near it. Some red fruit grew on the bush, the blood berry- but the man was unfamiliar with the flora and fauna of these parts. Couldn't identify the blazing stinger reed nor the rusty swamp sedge.
- We are almossst theeere! Welcome to Bygone Bayou! - hissed his makeshift shady ferryman. An interesting fella with lime colored skin, and some red stripes at the sides of the chest. Had some garments, but not much. A green belt, and a few brown leather pads here and there. Sly and fishy visage. They ran into each other back in Skavenport, at the Black Knight's Inn.
Lothar drank some good ale with his brother- in- arms there, before they parted ways. Their mission was the same, but their destination was different. And here he stood now, only a few hours later, on the island of Eeryland, the largest one of the archipelago north of the strait known as Street of Cerberus.
In enemy territory, late night, alone, surrounded by a suspicious kind of a cold- blooded lad, who stated that he will get him to the Queen of Spiders, Lady Ashibikaashi. He loved every minute of these perilous assignments!
Vonnegut carried an important message, which had to be delivered into the queen's hand only! But this was not an easy task given to him by his superiors in Shadowmere. Lord Raavage's forces patrolled these lands lately, and the soldiers of the Spire would commit horrendous things on a spy without any hesitation or remorse. Getting caught was not an option!
- Who is that?! - raised the little bit edgy courier from his seat, because he spotted a shape of some humanoid on the shore. Couldn't make it out in the darkness but it held a spear, that was unmistakable. The boat hit land, with a slight impact, but Lothar didn't lose his footing, he stood solid in his black apparel, one hand behind his back, with a dagger in it, hid by his cloak. It was a cloak and dagger mission after all...
- No need to worry my fffriend! He isss just a commuter offf mine! I will take him to the mahrrrket in Ssskavenport. Trades fruitsss of the ssswamps for thingsss hisss people needsss - answered the sketchy reptile chap from the front of the boat, as he finished up the docking procedures.
- What are you talking about, scales?! You told me, you will guide me to Ashibikaashi! - the warrior of Shadowmere lifted his voice a bit. His shemagh covered some of his shock, and anger.
- Relaxsss! I got you! I do not have a death wisssh to meet that ssspinner! By accsssident you arrive in feeding time, and you are finissshed... But! But! I know a perssson, he resssidesss clossse! Jussst get off the boat, and head eassst for a while! You will sssee a sssmall ssshelter! Sssearch for the light of the fireplace inssside!
- Who lives there?! Speak, or i will cut out your forked tongue! - Captain von Vonnegut stepped closer to the slithering serpent to intimidate it a bit with his robust stature.
- There'sss no need to get physssical! Pleassse!!!
- Gutkeled the Tangled lives there, stranger! A feared, and rather mysterious person in these lands! I reckon he is some kind of elf maybe, with skin yellowish- greenish... His place is a short hike from here, but be wary! The night swamp is full of violence! Always be on your guard! - intervened the next passenger. Lothar slowly turned his head, took his eyes off of the snake, and looked at it- who still stood on the shore, with a sack in his hand, the spear in the other. It had some kind of back pack. The creature resembled a spider.
- Gutkeled can get you safely to my Queen! - added the being, who had brown skin, beady yellowish eyes, two big white fangs, and wore some kind of grass, bones, and web as clothing.
- And will he?! Out of the kindness of his heart, am i right? - leapt Vonnegut ashore, and he was skeptical at this point. Wasn't fancy of lies, deceivers, and changes of plans, and deals. Around him, the swamp was alive and well. Olive green sour snaketail grew everywhere. Between those some sprouts of lavender rush lived, and a magenta mangrove bush bloomed. Under them ebony vipers bed for the night. Couldn't sleep much, since a quag toad performed a concert for some hours now.
- Have no idea. Would never approach The Tangled! I am just an insignificant fruitmonger for my kind. But you had the guts to come to these lands. Why stop now?! You don't look like a human, who backs down easily - replied the merchant.
- Let'sss gooo! We mussst go! The tide is coming sssoon! - whissspered the ferryman anxiously.
- I hope you two speak the truth! For your sake, and mine! - stepped Lothar aside to give way towards the boat.
- Good luck to you! - said the spider guy, as he passed.
- Keep your bootsss dry hoooman! - waved the cold blooded, as the boat slowly disappeared in the murk, behind a giant maroon cypress. Captain Vonnegut could clearly hear the high- pitched sound of the flying mourner mice, as they were eating a midnight snack of tasty bayana fruit. Above them a grey corbie had a nap. It wasn't aware, that a swamp spook lurked close, looking for its prey! Even the sentinel of the swamp, the brown cloaked glider raptor on the top of the cypress didn't detect its presence yet!
The all alone man looked up, and spotted some kind of giant coccoon, hanging on one of the lower branches. He was fortunate, he didn't know, there was a giant spider's dinner in it. Only a few days old. A hapless avalonian adventurer. Probably his party couldn't made it much further neither...

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The pictures:

IMG_20170203_112758_3 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_113011 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_113153 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_113232 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_113435 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_113646 by Erhard Maas, on Flick

The characters:

Spoiler

IMG_20170203_114528 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_114644 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_114752 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_20170203_114707 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

Thanks for watching!

The moc's album on Flickr.

Edited December 19, 2018 by MaasEffekt
Updating image links.

[dathil]

Awesome! its really colorfull, and I like your figs too

[Henjin_Quilones]

I like the story and I like the build! The highlights for me are the trans-green bricks for the water and the lush vegetation on the shore. That being said, the build lacks a certain something (I call it "pop") in its aesthetics. It is filled with many great details, but its composition is off. Perhaps it is that the colors are too varied, and too evenly varied, throughout the palette, or maybe the ground on the shore lacks enough elevation changes to make it more visually interesting, or even that the tree is too symmetrical to be natural. Perhaps there are so many neutral green, grey, and brown colors that the details get swallowed up. I'm not entirely sure myself, but it might be partially all of the above. I had to really look to see what was going on in the build, and with such a small footprint, that means you are trying to do too much. I have been guilty of the same before, so I know how hard it can be. A single bold theme usually works better on such a small base, rather than so many details crammed in. I like it, but it would be better as part of something larger, or else cropped down even further. 

I hope that helps in a positive and constructive way. I do not mean to be overly critical; instead I just want you to improve into the best builder you can be!

[Isundir]

I love how vibrant the build is, maybe like Henjin said just a little bit too chaotic but I enjoy it nonetheless.

[TitusV]

Waw, such an explosion of colours!

Nocturnus is normally seen as the darkest guild, but you showed that it can also be colourful yet remain it's Nocturnianess at the same time, good job!  

[Tezclatipoca]

That is a great representation of Nocturnian flora ! I like how colourful your swamps are !

Good job !

[Grover]

I love the creative use of parts and colors!  This is a great build!  I like the format for the story, too, as I find it easy to determine the speaker.  Great job!

[soccerkid6]

"Cloak and dagger mission" I like the plant combo using the new stalk with rounded top parts in combination with horns or spiky vines A slightly more cohesive colorscheme would likely be an improvement

[MassEditor]

Nice story and entry! Great job tying this personal story in to the larger events and places in Nocturnus.

The swamp looks good but, like SK said, there's too much color. I'd scale back on the red, pink and orange bits (they stand out a bit too much for the swamp atmosphere and its restrained colors). I think you should have given yourself a bit more room to work, to build more contrast between the swamp and bank. Don't be afraid of repetition and less detailed areas - often simplicity in one area really helps highlight the more complex areas. And crop out the areas where the white background doesn't fill.

Overall though, a nice combination of build, presentation and story!

Edited February 6, 2017 by MassEditor

[MaasEffekt]

On 2/4/2017 at 0:17 AM, dathil said:

Awesome! its really colorfull, and I like your figs too

Thanks! These Chima, and Ninjago figs can come in handy!  My fav tribes from Chima were the scorps, and spiders. Too bad, we've only seen a couple of them in sets, and on screen. In Ninjago, the snakes are my all time favs!

On 2/4/2017 at 2:25 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

I like the story and I like the build! The highlights for me are the trans-green bricks for the water and the lush vegetation on the shore. That being said, the build lacks a certain something (I call it "pop") in its aesthetics. It is filled with many great details, but its composition is off. Perhaps it is that the colors are too varied, and too evenly varied, throughout the palette, or maybe the ground on the shore lacks enough elevation changes to make it more visually interesting, or even that the tree is too symmetrical to be natural. Perhaps there are so many neutral green, grey, and brown colors that the details get swallowed up. I'm not entirely sure myself, but it might be partially all of the above. I had to really look to see what was going on in the build, and with such a small footprint, that means you are trying to do too much. I have been guilty of the same before, so I know how hard it can be. A single bold theme usually works better on such a small base, rather than so many details crammed in. I like it, but it would be better as part of something larger, or else cropped down even further. 

I hope that helps in a positive and constructive way. I do not mean to be overly critical; instead I just want you to improve into the best builder you can be!

Thank you for your comments! I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome myself, but this was the best i could come up with. Only had leftover parts, it was a freebuild, no planning. It was too big for me i think, but that was the smallest size i could participate in the challenge with, so i did it. Well, it is my 4th moc or something, so i am happy with it! Only the 2nd where i had to do flora, and terrain! I think it came out better, than i expected. I wasn't sure about introducing the the olive plants, but at the end i decided that different plants should live on the shore, than in the water. So the color can be different too. Went on with it!

On 2/4/2017 at 0:26 PM, Isundir said:

I love how vibrant the build is, maybe like Henjin said just a little bit too chaotic but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Thank you! Wanted to do a colorful fantasy swamp!

On 2/4/2017 at 2:13 PM, TitusV said:

Waw, such an explosion of colours!

Nocturnus is normally seen as the darkest guild, but you showed that it can also be colourful yet remain it's Nocturnianess at the same time, good job!  

Thanks!

On 2/4/2017 at 4:10 PM, Faladrin said:

That is a great representation of Nocturnian flora ! I like how colourful your swamps are !

Good job !

Thank you! Love these wetlands! I hope i can do more in the future!  Like that lime- orange combo!

On 2/5/2017 at 2:00 AM, Grover said:

I love the creative use of parts and colors!  This is a great build!  I like the format for the story, too, as I find it easy to determine the speaker.  Great job!

Thanks! 

On 2/6/2017 at 2:10 PM, soccerkid6 said:

"Cloak and dagger mission" I like the plant combo using the new stalk with rounded top parts in combination with horns or spiky vines A slightly more cohesive colorscheme would likely be an improvement

Thank you for your input! I will try to do better in the future.

19 hours ago, MassEditor said:

Nice story and entry! Great job tying this personal story in to the larger events and places in Nocturnus.

The swamp looks good but, like SK said, there's too much color. I'd scale back on the red, pink and orange bits (they stand out a bit too much for the swamp atmosphere and its restrained colors). I think you should have given yourself a bit more room to work, to build more contrast between the swamp and bank. Don't be afraid of repetition and less detailed areas - often simplicity in one area really helps highlight the more complex areas. And crop out the areas where the white background doesn't fill.

Overall though, a nice combination of build, presentation and story!

Thanks! I didn't have more parts. These were leftovers.  Also, i didn't want to build this big (yet- because this is my 4th moc in my life), but that was what needed for the challenge.

Well i am happy, that i could do this "riders of Historica" with a boat- had to think a wee bit to figure out something, that hasn't been used before.  Wanted to use a dino, but MiloNelsiano beat me to it! 

Edited February 7, 2017 by Lazer

[Blufiji]

I enjoyed the story and I really appreciated the effort you put into implementing this into the larger scale of the events going on right now. I will have to agree with the others however, next time, especially seeing as this is such a small build, limiting it to 2 or 3 major colors would do wonders for this build. In this case less is more and it helps that aesthetically, your builds' colors should be in harmony with each other. No shame in this however, as I think everyone as some point or another has done this, it's just one of those lego lessons that you learn. 

[halixon]

Nice job on the terrain!

[LittleJohn]

You packed lots of details in for such a small footprint! The boat being lowered in the water is a fantastic detail that is often overlooked, and the wake it's leaving is superb as well.
The olive green plants on the shore work well here, though I'm not sure about the few lavender grass stalks. Overall a great build

[en_zoo]

I have to second the others about the colours. I think the orange-lime combo worked well in your first build, but here is surrounded by too many others. To be more precise, I'd take off the pink, red and lavender as orange-lime already is pretty bright itself. I always tend to put in too many (bright) colours myself.. 

As for the rest, I quite like your writing style and enjoyed the story quite a lot. Also nice the description of the Nocturnian fauna and flora ^^ oh and btw, how do you make those little images for the figs? I very bad with softwares..

[The Maestro]

This is a great little build but I agree with the others about the colours. I do like the area where the spider guy was standing but the orange and lime feel a bit bright for it. I also think it may be a little cluttered, although that is probably because of the small size restrictions. A Fine moc overall, and those figures are awesome