Gnome's Door - The Lion's Eye Chapter 5 - Freebuild

[mccoyed]

Previously...

The Highridge Foothills, Eastern Varlyrio

The journey from Illyrian was long and Fel was in a hurry, setting a quick pace that set Fizzum to grumbling the whole way. When he finally took over, far outside of the city and away from any road that Fel knew, his pace was no less relentless. She expected the Lady Tisha to complain, but she never did. Every time Arrea offered to carry her pack or help her in any way, Tisha happily ignored her and walked a little quicker. She prattled and questioned in an endless wave, wanting to know everything about everything. It seemed that she was stopping every few feet by the time they reached the end of their path.

Fizzum had led them down a what was once a busy road, now returned to the land by time and disuse.

"Fah! We'll never get there if you don't pick up that child and drag her along!"

"I'll do no such thing. My lady, please ignore that fool."

"Fool is it? Fool? Look before you, we've finally arrived and it's pretty flowers and insects that you're concerned with."

"I hate to admit it, but he's right. That's got to be some kind of door."

"It doesn't look much like any door I've ever seen."

"On account of it being a gnome door!"

"It's got no latch or hinges, Fizzum."

"Fah! Of course it has. You just can't see 'em with your baby eyes. Door operates by steamworks. You just got to know how to talks to it."

"Well, let's not keep our guide waiting you two. It'll be dark soon and we don't know what awaits us inside."

"You don't, but I do."

"I'll bet it's not so bad."

"If you're lucky, you won't have nightmares the rest of your days."

"I'll ask you again not to speak to the Lady that way, Master Gnome."

"I was talking to all of yous!"

"Well, that's ominous."

"More like exciting!"

"Fah! Fah, I say! Let's us just get on with it."

 

Spoiler

 

Builder's Notes:

-Another smaller build. This is not my best. I think I burned myself out working on Halloween stuff and I've had a lot going on in November, keeping me from my Lego. Not least of which was a bout of builder's block.

-I initially wanted the Gnome Door to be much more detailed, more like an ancient steampunk ruin. I may try to channel some of those ideas into later builds since the immediate future of The Lion's Eye will be spent in the Sunken City.

-I think the flora are nice, but everything else is kind of lame. Not my best work. Hope the story makes up for it.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by mccoyed

[Grover]

Ha ha!  Freakin' gnomes!  Love it.  The story is great, and although the build, is, as you say, not your best work, it is still quite good.  There are a lot of standard techniques that are used to great effect.  I think my favorite part is the door, although the foliage, particularly the flowers, is quite nice.  I especially like the plant stems coming out of the leafy plant parts.  I haven't seen that before, but it works well, especially for a leafy shore plant.  There's stuff that could use a little work, like maybe a border made from wedge plates and the path could be spruced up a bit, but for getting something out there, it's just fine.  I'm interested to read more of the story!

[Basiliscus]

Nice build @mccoyed! Once again the writing is great and really gets the viewer involved in the MOC.

The gnome door is nice, love the exhausts coming out of it, just how you'd imagine a steam door!

As you have said yourself the flora is a bit untidy and has too much going on to be coherent.

Hope to see more from you because Varlyrio needs you!

[mccoyed]

17 hours ago, Grover said:

Ha ha!  Freakin' gnomes!  Love it.  The story is great, and although the build, is, as you say, not your best work, it is still quite good.  There are a lot of standard techniques that are used to great effect.  I think my favorite part is the door, although the foliage, particularly the flowers, is quite nice.  I especially like the plant stems coming out of the leafy plant parts.  I haven't seen that before, but it works well, especially for a leafy shore plant.  There's stuff that could use a little work, like maybe a border made from wedge plates and the path could be spruced up a bit, but for getting something out there, it's just fine.  I'm interested to read more of the story!

Haha. There may be a lot of gnomes sprinkled throughout this storyline. Thanks for the kind words. I would definitely say this is a build with a lot of standard techniques, largely because I was so impatient to get this done.

What do you think would work for the path? I always struggle with stuff like that.

11 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Nice build @mccoyed! Once again the writing is great and really gets the viewer involved in the MOC.

The gnome door is nice, love the exhausts coming out of it, just how you'd imagine a steam door!

As you have said yourself the flora is a bit untidy and has too much going on to be coherent.

Hope to see more from you because Varlyrio needs you!

Thanks, Bas. I wish I could have thought of more to do with the door. I pictured it almost like a submarine hatch or something like that -- hermetic kind of thing. It's hard to decide where gnomes should be at with their technology so I'm trying to stay on the right side of that.

I tend to agree about the foliage. I think there's some good stuff in there but I was definitely just throwing ideas and trying to make it look overgrown and untidy in the way real flora is (but this doesn't always translate nicely to Lego). I also think the incoherence is partly down to the poor photography. I should probably have gotten a better shot of the pond and foliage but oh well, I'd rather move on haha!

[zoth33]

Nice little scene.  I like all the vegetation.  The door is neat.  I like the use of the sidepipe muffler pieces.  The figs are cool and I like the story.  

[Basiliscus]

3 hours ago, mccoyed said:

Thanks, Bas. I wish I could have thought of more to do with the door. I pictured it almost like a submarine hatch or something like that -- hermetic kind of thing. It's hard to decide where gnomes should be at with their technology so I'm trying to stay on the right side of that.

I tend to agree about the foliage. I think there's some good stuff in there but I was definitely just throwing ideas and trying to make it look overgrown and untidy in the way real flora is (but this doesn't always translate nicely to Lego). I also think the incoherence is partly down to the poor photography. I should probably have gotten a better shot of the pond and foliage but oh well, I'd rather move on haha!

For me the incoherence is caused by the path and foliage having too many shapes and colours. The path has light bley, dark bley, reddish brown and olive green, on a base of green. I'd have stuck to two colours and used them more extensively. Additionally (and this is one of my pet peeves), the path is higher then the landscape, which looks really unnatural.

Whilst it's realistic to have many different colours of flowers mixed together, sometimes (like the path) too many colours make it hard for the viewer to see what's going on. Again, I'd have probably chosen one colour of flower and used that more extensively.

At the end of the day it's still a nice MOC and I definitely get the "cut your losses and move on" approach (been there a million times myself), just some thoughts for next time.

[mccoyed]

7 minutes ago, Basiliscus said:

For me the incoherence is caused by the path and foliage having too many shapes and colours. The path has light bley, dark bley, reddish brown and olive green, on a base of green. I'd have stuck to two colours and used them more extensively. Additionally (and this is one of my pet peeves), the path is higher then the landscape, which looks really unnatural.

Whilst it's realistic to have many different colours of flowers mixed together, sometimes (like the path) too many colours make it hard for the viewer to see what's going on. Again, I'd have probably chosen one colour of flower and used that more extensively.

At the end of the day it's still a nice MOC and I definitely get the "cut your losses and move on" approach (been there a million times myself), just some thoughts for next time.

That's all pretty useful feedback. Especially about colors, which is something I think I've got poor instincts for. Your sense of color in your MOCs is pretty great so I will try to limit to two colors per element next time. Please keep me honest on that, if you don't mind!

One thing I wonder about is the path thing because I've heard that before. I've always thought old roads, like the Roman roads, rose off the ground because of successive layers, like modern asphalt roads. In any case, the idea here was to have it be an ancient broken road that is starting to become overgrown. I was hoping the foliage on either side would help sell it, but them plates just feel too much like actual terrain grading and not enough like a representation of different grass heights.

Edited December 2, 2018 by mccoyed

[Grover]

I agree with Bas, there are a lot of colors going on there.  In many cases, paths are lighter colors of dirt than the surroundings, as it gets dried out from sunlight exposure and being beat down by those walking on it.  In this case, the path will definitely be sunken below the surrounding dirt and grasses.  Googling "deer trails" and looking at the images gave me some of my first ideas of what I wanted to do with some of my builds.  On the subject of roads, I don't know if the old Roman roads were built directly on the ground or if they dug out a flat surface.  Regardless, the grasses surrounding the roads will be higher than the roads themselves.  What you have built here looks more like a dirt path than a road, so I'm guessing it will be lower than surrounding.  At least that's the way I'd approach it.  Others here have done a lot of different things that have looked good as well.  In any case, nice work, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the story!

[Basiliscus]

10 hours ago, mccoyed said:

That's all pretty useful feedback. Especially about colors, which is something I think I've got poor instincts for. Your sense of color in your MOCs is pretty great so I will try to limit to two colors per element next time. Please keep me honest on that, if you don't mind!

One thing I wonder about is the path thing because I've heard that before. I've always thought old roads, like the Roman roads, rose off the ground because of successive layers, like modern asphalt roads. In any case, the idea here was to have it be an ancient broken road that is starting to become overgrown. I was hoping the foliage on either side would help sell it, but them plates just feel too much like actual terrain grading and not enough like a representation of different grass heights.

No problem! I hardly consider myself a colour guru (yesterday we put up our Christmas tree and my wife said that I could only recognise colours from the LEGO colour palette  after I referred to a decoration as "dark tan") but happy to offer unsolicited advice as required.

So yes, the Romans did build elevated roads to help with drainage, but they were a historical anomaly and in any case I always imagine that the green plate is supposed to represent grass stems and they are almost always higher than the path itself. Here's a few examples of what I mean:

    

To shamelessly plug one of my Brick to the Past cronies, here's a good example of a footpath at a larger scale:

Hope that helps!

[mccoyed]

That's all a great help, Bas. I totally see what you mean now.

[Henjin_Quilones]

I like the story, and I am glad that you decided to push forward despite being less-than-thrilled about the build itself. I've had to do that before, settling for a small vignette that I did not care much for just to get the story going a bit, filling in with extra dialogue to mask the build's inadequacies.

As for your build, though, there are some good things going on, and the things that have already been pointed out. The door itself is the best thing about it, I think; it gets the gnomish-steam-punk vibe without crossing too far out of the Guilds' generally understood parameters (i.e. we don't condone steam punk, but there is some wiggle room for gnomes as long as it does not get too technologically explicit and keeps a sense of magic to it). The flowers and plants are all individually nice, but together, with so many colors, it tends to come across as too busy, despite being closer, perhaps, to what one would encounter in the wild - but I think real-life wildflowers have the advantage of being viewed in a wider context and blending into a more natural shade of green that complements them better. LEGO colors are their own thing, and correspondence with the real world is limited at best. The previous comments about the path are spot on, so I will not say more about that. Keep the story coming, and keep showing us the builds even when they are not perfect!

[mccoyed]

On 12/4/2018 at 2:54 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

I like the story, and I am glad that you decided to push forward despite being less-than-thrilled about the build itself. I've had to do that before, settling for a small vignette that I did not care much for just to get the story going a bit, filling in with extra dialogue to mask the build's inadequacies.

As for your build, though, there are some good things going on, and the things that have already been pointed out. The door itself is the best thing about it, I think; it gets the gnomish-steam-punk vibe without crossing too far out of the Guilds' generally understood parameters (i.e. we don't condone steam punk, but there is some wiggle room for gnomes as long as it does not get too technologically explicit and keeps a sense of magic to it). The flowers and plants are all individually nice, but together, with so many colors, it tends to come across as too busy, despite being closer, perhaps, to what one would encounter in the wild - but I think real-life wildflowers have the advantage of being viewed in a wider context and blending into a more natural shade of green that complements them better. LEGO colors are their own thing, and correspondence with the real world is limited at best. The previous comments about the path are spot on, so I will not say more about that. Keep the story coming, and keep showing us the builds even when they are not perfect!

Thanks for the in-depth comments as always, Henj. I find that I was more comfortable with farting out substandard builds in AG, which was actually a common criticism of the way the game mechanics affected quality of builds over there. At GoH, I want to push and try things every time but have to accept that it's not always feasible.

I've been around for four years so I know the general policy well and respect it. My intention with the gnomes is to keep things pre-industrial and definitely not full blown steampunk. They are tinkerers but they are too individualistic to be hegemonic. Every machine made my gnomes is a hand-made work of art in itself, just like pre-industrial machines generally were. For example, other gnome holds might have steamworks doors, but they wouldn't look or operate exactly the same. If that makes sense.

[pombe]

Next stop: the ruins?

[mccoyed]

Yeah. A little dungeon crawl. I have to decide how many dang builds I wanna do for it but I have some plaaaaans.

[en_zoo]

Nice vignette here! And I can now see Fel (which I had missed before..) - awesome stuff, love the story going on. Uhm, I think that path might have looked better without the 2 bleys - only olive green and RB.  <-- I was gonna comment on the path, but then realised you already got a better advisor there, so scratch that! One other thing is about the base - I often make the mistake of keeping it too regular, when it's supposed to be irregular - you might wanna look out too. Finally, your photography doesn't look bad to me at all, even though you mentioned your difficulties with it - I think you got a nice angle, plus it's clear and bright enough

 

On 12/3/2018 at 9:46 AM, Basiliscus said:

yesterday we put up our Christmas tree and my wife said that I could only recognise colours from the LEGO colour palette  after I referred to a decoration as "dark tan"

LOLOLOL

Edited December 7, 2018 by en_zoo

[mccoyed]

On 12/7/2018 at 1:33 AM, en_zoo said:

Nice vignette here! And I can now see Fel (which I had missed before..) - awesome stuff, love the story going on. Uhm, I think that path might have looked better without the 2 bleys - only olive green and RB.  <-- I was gonna comment on the path, but then realised you already got a better advisor there, so scratch that! One other thing is about the base - I often make the mistake of keeping it too regular, when it's supposed to be irregular - you might wanna look out too. Finally, your photography doesn't look bad to me at all, even though you mentioned your difficulties with it - I think you got a nice angle, plus it's clear and bright enough

Not sure what you mean about now seeing Fel? She's been in every Lion's Eye build. I left her out of the family build because of an oversight. Is that what you mean? Haha, a bit confused.

Thanks for the comment about the photography. I think I should have said staging. Like the figs and path sort of block the cornerstone "build", which the pond and foliage. Took the most time, is where the best work is, etc... and it's not really well executed. Anyway!

[en_zoo]

43 minutes ago, mccoyed said:

Not sure what you mean about now seeing Fel? She's been in every Lion's Eye build. I left her out of the family build because of an oversight. Is that what you mean? Haha, a bit confused.

As I was back only recently, I missed all your builds with Fel, that's what I meant - I'll go explore your Fllickr ^

[mccoyed]

Ohh. A better way might be just to check out the threads on GoH cuz they include the story. Most of them should be linked in the Varlyrio thread's first page and/or the Freebuilds thread.

[Gideon]

I think what I'm seeing and reading here regarding the level of Gnomish technology seems very fitting for GoH. Similarly to Kaliphlin sometimes having had for example quite advanced optics described, I think that there definitely might be places in Historica where craftsmen (perhaps with the help of some magic?) are pushing the boundaries of medieval technology. As long as it doesn't break the general fantasy setting too much and don't go full "WoW gnome steampunk style" I definitely think there is room for some Gnomish tinkering in Historica

[mccoyed]

On 12/9/2018 at 4:11 PM, Gideon said:

I think what I'm seeing and reading here regarding the level of Gnomish technology seems very fitting for GoH. Similarly to Kaliphlin sometimes having had for example quite advanced optics described, I think that there definitely might be places in Historica where craftsmen (perhaps with the help of some magic?) are pushing the boundaries of medieval technology. As long as it doesn't break the general fantasy setting too much and don't go full "WoW gnome steampunk style" I definitely think there is room for some Gnomish tinkering in Historica

Really appreciate your thoughts on this as a GoH veteran, Gideon!

[soccerkid6]

Always good seeing another installment in your story! Good idea to include a small pond in this scene, and the lush foliage looks nice.
Really excited to see more Gnome worksmanship in your future builds

[mccoyed]

Hey @soccerkid6. Thanks for dropping by, haha!

I'm busy with the Challenge but plan to return to Fel and Friends soon. I need to study more of your rockwork tutorials too...

Edited December 31, 2018 by mccoyed