[Freebuild - Mitgardia] Abandoned Kirk

[Spud The Viking]

Last time we seen Amos Lachlan leave his home parish in search of other settlements and their stories.

After a few weeks, Amos discovered an abandoned kirk building. Strange, the building was sizeable and yet there was nobody to be seen around the church. No clergyman inside or any village surrounding it. The roof had began rotting and partially collapsed at one end. Many stones had began to crumble and some vegetation had started to grow between the cracks. Something must have happened to cause this flight of people, and to let this building fail into dilapidation. 

"Who worshiped here? What happened to them?" Amos asked himself as he lit the front sconce, "I will need to find these people, and restore this place of worship to its proper function."

Does Amos know what he's getting himself into? You shall need to wait and see where this search takes him next...

____________________

More pictures:

Spoiler

 

A little 'kirk' I built, when procrastinating revision for my university exams, that I'm now getting round to photographing 

Edited December 20, 2018 by Spud The Viking

[zoth33]

Nice little build, I like all the crooked pieces to assimilate an abandoned building.  The roof is nicely done.  The landscape is simple but not too much either.  The story is interesting also.  Can't wait to see where you go with this.  

[Basiliscus]

Really nice work, I particularly like the wooden bit exposed at the back of the roof in the hidden shot. The overall architecture is nice, and as a fellow Scot I've seen hundreds of these around our shared homeland, and it fits that aesthetic well.

It's a shame the base wasn't a bit bigger to see more of the landscape, with the building so close to the border it's hard to get the bigger context.

Nice work though! 

[mccoyed]

I definitely think a bigger base/landscape would help sell this building more. I think your top-down shot really shows what you did but your "main" shot's perspective doesn't do all that work justice. It's a bit too close, maybe?

My favorite technique here is the broken roof.

[Muakhah]

An interesting start with a nicely detailed and worn down Kirk. It will be interesting to find out what caused the people to leave.

[en_zoo]

nice build! I'd personally avoid the round tiles/plates sticking out on the wall and use them within it, instead of the bigger round bricks - but that's just my taste. What's really a pity, is that the tree is at the back! It looks good, but I can't see it very well. Intriguing story! can't wait to see where this goes - keep it up!

[Spud The Viking]

On 12/21/2018 at 3:57 AM, zoth33 said:

Nice little build, I like all the crooked pieces to assimilate an abandoned building.  The roof is nicely done.  The landscape is simple but not too much either.  The story is interesting also.  Can't wait to see where you go with this.  

Thanks! Hopefully I'll meet your expectations. 

On 12/21/2018 at 8:59 AM, Basiliscus said:

Really nice work, I particularly like the wooden bit exposed at the back of the roof in the hidden shot. The overall architecture is nice, and as a fellow Scot I've seen hundreds of these around our shared homeland, and it fits that aesthetic well.

It's a shame the base wasn't a bit bigger to see more of the landscape, with the building so close to the border it's hard to get the bigger context.

Nice work though! 

Cheers! I far prefer building structures than landscape, but I'll try to push myself. 

On 12/21/2018 at 7:49 PM, mccoyed said:

I definitely think a bigger base/landscape would help sell this building more. I think your top-down shot really shows what you did but your "main" shot's perspective doesn't do all that work justice. It's a bit too close, maybe?

My favorite technique here is the broken roof.

Thank you! Good idea about taking photos further back - I'll keep it in mind next time. 

On 12/22/2018 at 12:47 AM, Muakhah said:

An interesting start with a nicely detailed and worn down Kirk. It will be interesting to find out what caused the people to leave.

Thanks! 

On 12/23/2018 at 10:33 AM, en_zoo said:

nice build! I'd personally avoid the round tiles/plates sticking out on the wall and use them within it, instead of the bigger round bricks - but that's just my taste. What's really a pity, is that the tree is at the back! It looks good, but I can't see it very well. Intriguing story! can't wait to see where this goes - keep it up!

Thank you! I get what you mean about the round studs, I'll keep experimenting. There's more photos on my Flickr, but I'll work on capturing it all next time.

[Spader]

A slightly bigger base would have served you well here, but I like the building and other commenters are dead on about how good that crooked tiling looks. 

[Henjin_Quilones]

This is a nice little kirk, to be sure! I wish that you photography allowed you to show it off a bit better, mostly as regards the camera angle; as it is, we can barely see the tree in the back, and the ruined portion of the roof is almost completely hidden. I would suggest two things: one, begin a build with particular camera angles in mind, allowing you to focus your energies on detailing the parts that will be seen, rather than the parts that will be completely hidden (for example, if you are like me, the back walls of this are also textured and in grey, even though they could be completely absent or made of pink and orange bricks for all we see them). Two, play around a bit once it is built to try to get all the best parts in the main image. A bigger base would be good, as it allows us to see it more in context, and an irregular base could work well here. Also, for the wall textures, I agree with en_zoo about the 1x1 round bricks in the walls - it can work, but usually on a bigger scale; I think 1x1 round plates would be better, as well as setting the plates and tiles in the walls back a half-plate by mounting them on headlight bricks. They stick out too far right now, in my opinion. That said, I am glad to see Amos walking about and seeing the sights, and I hope he'll have more adventures soon!

[Grover]

I agree with some of the others, the up top perspective shot is actually the best of all your pictures.  The roof is great, especially with the hole, and the overall design is nice.  The stones up front seem a little plain to me, but not bad; it might benefit from a little decoration, although if it's an older church with small windows, it may have less decoration.  I like the priest out front as well. Nice work!

[soccerkid6]

I like the very solid down to earth look to the kirk Lovely roof and the portion missing its shingles is especially neat.

You've already been given plenty of good advice, so I'll just mention that it's often a good idea to have your border color not match a color heavily used in the actual build. Especially if the colors are almost adjacent to each other, like your bley walls and bley border here.

Can't wait to see more of Amos and his adventure!

[Spud The Viking]

On 12/31/2018 at 4:32 AM, Judge of the Wastelands said:

A slightly bigger base would have served you well here, but I like the building and other commenters are dead on about how good that crooked tiling looks. 

Thanks! I'll be sure to extend the base next time 

On 1/2/2019 at 8:20 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

This is a nice little kirk, to be sure! I wish that you photography allowed you to show it off a bit better, mostly as regards the camera angle; as it is, we can barely see the tree in the back, and the ruined portion of the roof is almost completely hidden. I would suggest two things: one, begin a build with particular camera angles in mind, allowing you to focus your energies on detailing the parts that will be seen, rather than the parts that will be completely hidden (for example, if you are like me, the back walls of this are also textured and in grey, even though they could be completely absent or made of pink and orange bricks for all we see them). Two, play around a bit once it is built to try to get all the best parts in the main image. A bigger base would be good, as it allows us to see it more in context, and an irregular base could work well here. Also, for the wall textures, I agree with en_zoo about the 1x1 round bricks in the walls - it can work, but usually on a bigger scale; I think 1x1 round plates would be better, as well as setting the plates and tiles in the walls back a half-plate by mounting them on headlight bricks. They stick out too far right now, in my opinion. That said, I am glad to see Amos walking about and seeing the sights, and I hope he'll have more adventures soon!

Thank you fr the feedback! I just tend to start building and never consider the camera work later - which you are right in saying really shows. This one was particularly hard to photograph because of the size, so I will definitely take your advice on board next time!

On 1/5/2019 at 6:13 PM, Grover said:

I agree with some of the others, the up top perspective shot is actually the best of all your pictures.  The roof is great, especially with the hole, and the overall design is nice.  The stones up front seem a little plain to me, but not bad; it might benefit from a little decoration, although if it's an older church with small windows, it may have less decoration.  I like the priest out front as well. Nice work!

Thanks! Don't tell amyone but the hole is there because I began to run out of black 1x1 cheese slopes 

On 1/14/2019 at 10:03 PM, soccerkid6 said:

I like the very solid down to earth look to the kirk Lovely roof and the portion missing its shingles is especially neat.

You've already been given plenty of good advice, so I'll just mention that it's often a good idea to have your border color not match a color heavily used in the actual build. Especially if the colors are almost adjacent to each other, like your bley walls and bley border here.

Can't wait to see more of Amos and his adventure!

Thank you! You're correct about the borders, I'll make note of this!