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Located just off the eastern coast of Mitgardia among 2 dozen or so sea stacks and islets, Sea Haven is the small keep of Lord Askvoll and his family. The castle is centrally located among one of the larger rocks jutting out the sea, while the other islands shield the keep from the high waves of the many storms that pass through the area. 

Inspired by the coasts of Oregon and Scotland. 

Happy building and thanks for looking!

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Wow. Just wow. :drool:

First of all, some things I've already said before, but I can't help repeating: your landscaping is just gorgeous. The multiple shades of water work very well, and you defenitely showed mastery of the rockwork-technique. :thumbup:

Secondly, some (maybe) new things: the colourscheme is absolutely fantastic. The bright green-olive green combo works far better than I would ever have expected. Though wooden buildings would be quite unhandy IRL, as you told me yourself, the reddish/dark brown just adds that tiny bit of flavour needed.

My last remarks go to the building. I know how you've struggled with them, but man, in the end they turned out sooooo lovely :wub: Splitting up the main keep into multiple smaller towers accomplished miracles, and the wooden sections are ingenious! I also really, really like your roofs :wink:

Keep surprising me, good sir

 

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Wow that dark blue water! :wub_drool:

A very awesome and impressive build, Blufiji, those small rock outcroppings look great, and the color-scheme with the greens, greys, and blues works way better than I would have expected!  That pathway up to the door/opening in the rocks is fantastic as well! :thumbup:  The little boat is a neat addition too.

If there's one thing I'd nitpick about, it'd probably be the amount of stone-work you have in the buildings - I think it just puts the light grey content of the build a little high; it may be just me, but I would have liked a higher ratio of woodwork to stonework in there.  For instance, the house furthest on the right looks spectacular, and I think the build would have turned out looking a bit more Norse/Mitgardian if that (more browns) had been continued a bit more into the rest of the buildings.  That's all a fairly small detail, though, and overall this is a very impressive build!  Great to see another Mitgardian MOC from you! :wink:

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Blufiji strikes again! :grin:  Great build, the water is really cool, and the lime and olive greens work really nicely for rock-clinging vegetation.  The trees look really good too, and excellent job on the dark to light grey rockwork!  I feel though like the roofs of the houses should be a little steeper, since the impression I'm getting is a rather cold winter climate (snow needs to slide off the roof).  But great work nonetheless!

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8 hours ago, TitusV said:

Wow. Just wow. :drool:

First of all, some things I've already said before, but I can't help repeating: your landscaping is just gorgeous. The multiple shades of water work very well, and you defenitely showed mastery of the rockwork-technique. :thumbup:

Secondly, some (maybe) new things: the colourscheme is absolutely fantastic. The bright green-olive green combo works far better than I would ever have expected. Though wooden buildings would be quite unhandy IRL, as you told me yourself, the reddish/dark brown just adds that tiny bit of flavour needed.

My last remarks go to the building. I know how you've struggled with them, but man, in the end they turned out sooooo lovely :wub: Splitting up the main keep into multiple smaller towers accomplished miracles, and the wooden sections are ingenious! I also really, really like your roofs :wink:

Keep surprising me, good sir

 

Yea the build really lacked color in earlier versions, and while not exactly realistic or practical, it did flow with the overall concept. When I split the buildings up, I thought about the concept of a lighthouse tower or something of the like. Ill do my best to keep surprising you lol.

4 hours ago, Garmadon said:

Wow that dark blue water! :wub_drool:

A very awesome and impressive build, Blufiji, those small rock outcroppings look great, and the color-scheme with the greens, greys, and blues works way better than I would have expected!  That pathway up to the door/opening in the rocks is fantastic as well! :thumbup:  The little boat is a neat addition too.

If there's one thing I'd nitpick about, it'd probably be the amount of stone-work you have in the buildings - I think it just puts the light grey content of the build a little high; it may be just me, but I would have liked a higher ratio of woodwork to stonework in there.  For instance, the house furthest on the right looks spectacular, and I think the build would have turned out looking a bit more Norse/Mitgardian if that (more browns) had been continued a bit more into the rest of the buildings.  That's all a fairly small detail, though, and overall this is a very impressive build!  Great to see another Mitgardian MOC from you! :wink:

Thanks Garm, as far as your nitpick goes, that is a clever observation. I try to be relatively realistic in my builds regarding stonework, shaping etc, and I did not think about that. Probably because I was worn out in trying to get a concept down I liked. Maybe next time haha. 

3 hours ago, Littleworlds said:

Beautiful scene! The rocks are really lovely and look so natural.:classic:

Thanks LW!

3 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

Blufiji strikes again! :grin:  Great build, the water is really cool, and the lime and olive greens work really nicely for rock-clinging vegetation.  The trees look really good too, and excellent job on the dark to light grey rockwork!  I feel though like the roofs of the houses should be a little steeper, since the impression I'm getting is a rather cold winter climate (snow needs to slide off the roof).  But great work nonetheless!

Yea I think Garm was in a way pointing that out as well. Another issue I had was with balancing the size of the buildings with the size of the rock itself. Titus will attest to this, in earlier versions the buildings nearly over powered the landscape, so i had to tone it all done to make it seem somewhat harmonized. Thanks for your observation Kai!

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Wow mate... another lovely build here... the dark blue sea is amazing... also the lime? green grass blends wonderfully with the rest of thee landscaping. Awesome job... :wub:

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The two+ brick thick base adds a lot of heft and color that I really like!  Another great build. :thumbup:

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On 12-8-2017 at 0:46 PM, TitusV said:

Though wooden buildings would be quite unhandy IRL

 

Could you elaborate on this? I quite often build wooden structures so maybe I might miss some aspects :)

Its always great to see you building in Mitgardia Blufiji :) As said on Flickr, I love how the light bley topping on the rocks brightens the whole color scheme.

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Just now, dathil said:

Could you elaborate on this? I quite often build wooden structures so maybe I might miss some aspects :)

Its always great to see you building in Mitgardia Blufiji :) As said on Flickr, I love how the light bley topping on the rocks brightens the whole color scheme.

Well, the salty sea water would quickly tear away the wood

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Bravo!! :)

 

The rockwork is the main thing here in this build I think! The different colours and the natural look they have are just so impressive! The buildlings on top are also excellent! :)

I get a feeling of the Iron Islands in GoT!

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This looks great, Blu! I think your work with Titus on the scale of the buildings has paid off. They are sizable enough without looming over everything. I love the rockwork, and am currently building a sea-cliff face very similar to this, in fact. The dark bley as wet rocks and light bley as dry is a good move, one that I have used as well, though I think it would be more convincing with two small tweaks: first, the smallest islets, in front of the main one, would be taking the brunt of any oncoming waves, and thus would not have any dry spots on top, certainly not lower than the height on the main island, and should be all dark bley; and second, the light bley stairs would have benefited from also being wet on the bottom to match the rock. As others have said, if the climate is snowy, steeper roofs would have been better, but if it is more often than not just raining due to the effects of the surrounding water, it is not so big of a deal. Aesthetically it is very pleasing, and I love the detail of the underground entrance to the buildings! Great work!

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A superb entry to this fantastic series, and it is nice to have a break from the snow of mitgardia's far north. I think lie everyone, I admire the brave choice of colour, it works very well here and the landscaping of course is spot on. I also love the dark blue as water :thumbup: Although maybe some wave shapes could help.

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That is some absolutely tremendous landscaping! Amazing use of color, the rock islands are gorgeous, and the water is quite pretty too :wub:

I think the castle itself could benefit from a better layout, perhaps with the bigger building in the back, or having both sections connected by some small curtain walls.
The dock/stairway area to a tunnel entrance is quite stunning :thumbup:

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On 8/12/2017 at 2:06 PM, Gunman said:

Wow mate... another lovely build here... the dark blue sea is amazing... also the lime? green grass blends wonderfully with the rest of thee landscaping. Awesome job... :wub:

Thanks Gunman, the lime was something I stumbled on and just kinda ran with it!

On 8/12/2017 at 6:17 PM, mrcp6d said:

The two+ brick thick base adds a lot of heft and color that I really like!  Another great build. :thumbup:

Thanks Mrc!

On 8/14/2017 at 6:47 AM, Faladrin said:

Wow !

Excellent build !

The rock work is top notch ! Congrats !

Excellent build ! What else to say...

I appreciate it Faladrin, though I will admit the back section (what you cant see) is lacking a bit. 

On 8/15/2017 at 12:45 PM, de Gothia said:

Bravo!! :)

 

The rockwork is the main thing here in this build I think! The different colours and the natural look they have are just so impressive! The buildlings on top are also excellent! :)

I get a feeling of the Iron Islands in GoT!

There was some inspiration from the Iron Islands in this, thanks Goth!

On 8/15/2017 at 1:11 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

This looks great, Blu! I think your work with Titus on the scale of the buildings has paid off. They are sizable enough without looming over everything. I love the rockwork, and am currently building a sea-cliff face very similar to this, in fact. The dark bley as wet rocks and light bley as dry is a good move, one that I have used as well, though I think it would be more convincing with two small tweaks: first, the smallest islets, in front of the main one, would be taking the brunt of any oncoming waves, and thus would not have any dry spots on top, certainly not lower than the height on the main island, and should be all dark bley; and second, the light bley stairs would have benefited from also being wet on the bottom to match the rock. As others have said, if the climate is snowy, steeper roofs would have been better, but if it is more often than not just raining due to the effects of the surrounding water, it is not so big of a deal. Aesthetically it is very pleasing, and I love the detail of the underground entrance to the buildings! Great work!

Once again, I always appreciate your in depth critiques and thoughts. As a counter to your first tweak, my mind had this build oriented with larger islands further out and the building facing the shore. In that regard, the islands in the front are actually more inland vs the main island. However i see your point as if you are looking at the front of the building facing out to see. In that regard you are absolutely correct! In regards to your second tweak, you are spot on and it that was something I had to compromise with in the end. Thanks Henjin!

On 8/15/2017 at 11:32 PM, The Maestro said:

A superb entry to this fantastic series, and it is nice to have a break from the snow of mitgardia's far north. I think lie everyone, I admire the brave choice of colour, it works very well here and the landscaping of course is spot on. I also love the dark blue as water :thumbup: Although maybe some wave shapes could help.

Thanks Maestro! who knows, there might be a series 2 on the horizon...

On 8/21/2017 at 7:40 AM, soccerkid6 said:

That is some absolutely tremendous landscaping! Amazing use of color, the rock islands are gorgeous, and the water is quite pretty too :wub:

I think the castle itself could benefit from a better layout, perhaps with the bigger building in the back, or having both sections connected by some small curtain walls.
The dock/stairway area to a tunnel entrance is quite stunning :thumbup:

Thanks SK! I thought that details would be pretty cool to have.

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That rock work is excellent, lovely little islands you got there! The water around them is simple but very effective and looks great.

The combination of olive and lime green looks amazing 

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