[Book 3] Challenge IIB: Highway from Hell

[Grover]

Lady Gwenllian gave some thought to the Queen’s decree that all municipalities should participate in some sort of revelry.  Prenmôr was still a fledgling community, and practical considerations had to be made.  There weren’t enough townsfolk to staff an elaborate fair, jousting tournaments required large prizes and housing for more guests than Prenmôr could accommodate, and there were no traveling circuses at the time on the western coast of Avalonia.  Thus, Lady Gwenllian settled on a concert.  The stage was relatively simple to build and was adorned with the flags of each Guild.  No seats were needed as the grass field served as a suitable seating arrangement while a special raised platform was constructed for invited guests of Lady Gwenllian.  There was plenty of room for the crowd to camp on the undeveloped surrounding land, while Lady Gwenllian hosted as many of her invited special guests as she could in homes of her household.  Two bands from Nocturnus were hired for the event: a zombie band, the Grateful Undead, opened for the headliners: the famous, ever-touring, centuries-old Rolling Bones.

The day of the concert, commonfolk swarmed in from the surrounding countryside in the morning.  The crowd swelled with the monstrous horde that followed the Grateful Undead from show to show.  As the day wore on, fans from farther away, including Mitgardia, Kaliphlin, Varlyrio, and Nocturnus, began arriving to hear the famous bands play.  Many of the lords and ladies of Avalonia made an appearance, and even some from Kaliphlin and Mitgardia as well.  A few were flown in via dragon (courtesy of Lady Galaria, the mistress of dragons).

The night grew dark and the skeletal band from Nocturnus made their way onto stage to the backdrop of magical fireworks provided by the band’s roadcrew wizards.

The crowd was surprisingly large, having drawn from across the land.

Lady Gwenllian’s family fortune had been built on brewed drink, and although she was unable to brew her own beer owing to the fact that Prenmôr had not yet seen its first harvest, she picked out the finest local beers, meads, and ciders for the concert, with some special wine in reserve for her invited guests.

Some of the ladies of the guilds, Lady Eleanor of Bluevale, Lady Gwenllian, and Lady Galaria mistress of dragons, toasted one another with some spiced wine.

Lady Seren poured wine for Lord Faladrin while Conrad the Sly waited patiently in line behind him for more drink.

The guard lets Count Julian Arfelan back into the private section with his food.

Naill chatted up a member of the local stonecutter's guild for leads on skilled labor for his community.

Not all the concert libations were about the drink...

Card tricksters hawked their game near the concession stand.

A few of the concertgoers got a little wild.

Visitors appeared from all over the realms.

As the band played on into the night, a good time was had by all!

Spoiler

 

I had this amusing idea for a skeletal band for a while, and just had to use the play on words for the band names.  I had a good time making the band and am rather proud of the upright bass, even if it is a little large for the player. 

I know that the instruments are anachronistic for the medieval time period, but I think it’s an amusing take.  As for the scenery, the dirt paths are a little plain, but I figured the commotion from all the concertgoers would cover any deficiencies there.

Overall shot with more light:

I had to include the after effects of drinking too much.

Last but not least, thanks to soccerkid6 for the idea of the keg stands, and thanks to HQ, kahir88, TitusV, de Gothia, Faladrin, Brandon Stark, Niku, Wineyard, Lord Bevis, Bracari, Basilicus, The Last of Nerogue, and adde51 for permission to use their sigfigs in my build.  See if you can spot them all!  My apologies to those of you whose sigfigs I was unable to represent adequately.  I made a few Bricklink orders, but they did not arrive in time.

 

Note: this build is 41x49

Edited February 3, 2019 by Grover

[adde51]

haha, nice one! Fun idea and very glad Tabib was able to attend the festivities

[Muakhah]

Nice one! liking the general vibe and the crowd of minifigs in various states of celebration!  Its also cool  you  put in so many sig figs.  Thats a really good turnout of Avalonian lords.  Here's hoping you keep  up the growth of Prenmor!

[Grover]

7 hours ago, adde51 said:

haha, nice one! Fun idea and very glad Tabib was able to attend the festivities

Thank you for permission to use him!  I thought it was fun to include spectating sigfigs.

5 hours ago, Muakhah said:

Nice one! liking the general vibe and the crowd of minifigs in various states of celebration!  Its also cool  you  put in so many sig figs.  Thats a really good turnout of Avalonian lords.  Here's hoping you keep  up the growth of Prenmor!

Thanks!  I wanted to include some Nocturnus element, and the concert had a good opportunity.  I had fun piecing together so many sigfigs, but I make sure to ask permission for their use first, as I don't want to mess up anyone else's story by including them outside their story.  I'm happy to include anyone's sigfig I have parts for, or side characters into my builds if anyone wants their characters to show up in Avalonia for some reason, so if anyone is interested, just PM me and I'll add the character.  Hopefully I'll continue to have some time to build up Prenmôr; I was lucky to have had a lot of time over Christmas to do most of my recent building, so will probably slow down significantly again soon.

[zoth33]

Neat idea.  Band looks good on the spooky stage.  I like the crowd and the variation in figs you have here.  All the little transactions are a nice touch too.  

[kahir88]

Great idea making a concert! And also great idea, to show many sigfigs as possible in one build.

[Basiliscus]

Really enjoying the wide variety of characters in this one! I especially like that you made it collaborative and included a bunch of sigfigs. Thanks for including Gisela Conzaga in it - given the family's recent troubles in Varlyrio I might request that she can extend her stay with Lady Gwenllian for a bit long if it works for you (I might even build a scene in Prenmor if it was acceptable to you?).

Love the punny band names, they work perfectly with the Nocturnus origins of a few of them. Great brick build instruments too, especially the drums and bass guitar.

Once again, like your other entries, the darkened lighting helps set the scene. Great job! 

[en_zoo]

hahaha good one! the drummer must be my fav, as they usually are, indeed. Again, really nice lighting, I'm guessing it's just a lamp pointing in the middle? And whoa, that's a whole bunch of figs you got there!

[Bracari]

Great build. A 'Rock' concert is something I wouldn't think of but it works well. The lighting is great. I can spot my sigfig sharing some kind of cherry drink with Lady Gwenllian. Nice.

[W Navarre]

Very good work, I like the lighting! 

[mccoyed]

Awesome idea and execution. Thanks for including those insert shots with the figs, too. I try to do stuff like that because I try to make the fig posing and stuff interesting and it can get lost in wider shots. Always like to see other RBG players doing similar things with big, intricate builds like this one.

 

[The Last of Nergoue]

great work, i love the lighting!

[Brandon Stark]

I like the idea and the way you presented it. The stage and drums are nicely done, and I like the interesting band names as well. You did a pretty good job with the fig posing, as it seems that every figure in the build is in a smaller scene. Thank you for including my character, and I especially like how he's posed. 

[Spader]

masterful lighting, and that's alot of minifigures!

[Tezclatipoca]

Nice idea this Rock band !

I like the presentation, good lighting for a show.

Nice panel of minifigs too ! I am happy to see that Lord Faladrin is enjoying a good drink 

[Rogue Angel]

Great idea and great execution!  The first picture alone makes the build.  You've used the lighting well, and the dozen or so in depth pictures you added to flesh out the scene beyond the first 2 make a huge difference in how much I enjoyed your build as a whole.  I am one for puns myself, so the bands were well-played.  Great work!

[Grover]

On 2/1/2019 at 8:04 PM, zoth33 said:

Neat idea.  Band looks good on the spooky stage.  I like the crowd and the variation in figs you have here.  All the little transactions are a nice touch too.  

Thanks!  I had a lot of fun with the stage and the players, getting them looking just right.  I tried to include figs from all 4 realms.

On 2/2/2019 at 9:06 AM, kahir88 said:

Great idea making a concert! And also great idea, to show many sigfigs as possible in one build.

Thank you, and thanks for letting me depict Conrad! 

On 2/2/2019 at 8:30 PM, Basiliscus said:

Really enjoying the wide variety of characters in this one! I especially like that you made it collaborative and included a bunch of sigfigs. Thanks for including Gisela Conzaga in it - given the family's recent troubles in Varlyrio I might request that she can extend her stay with Lady Gwenllian for a bit long if it works for you (I might even build a scene in Prenmor if it was acceptable to you?).

Love the punny band names, they work perfectly with the Nocturnus origins of a few of them. Great brick build instruments too, especially the drums and bass guitar.

Once again, like your other entries, the darkened lighting helps set the scene. Great job! 

Thank you!  I had a lot of fun with the instruments.  And thanks for letting me put Gisela in the crowd!  I think it will be a great start for her adventures in Prenmôr...

On 2/4/2019 at 11:37 AM, en_zoo said:

hahaha good one! the drummer must be my fav, as they usually are, indeed. Again, really nice lighting, I'm guessing it's just a lamp pointing in the middle? And whoa, that's a whole bunch of figs you got there!

I was happy to have had one of the old skeletons with the swivel arms.  He was my only one, but it worked perfectly for the drumsticks (Harry Potter wands in case you can't see them well).  The lighting was interesting.  I took the pictures at night on a tripod, with ambient light from 5 fake battery operated candles, then the main stage spotlight was a LED penlight that was filtered through some trans-neon orange bricks.  Finally, the green behind it is a laser pointer run through a diffraction grating that is shining on a black piece of flexible foam I have behind the build as a backdrop.  And yeah, this used a lot of my figs.  I had fun putting them together, but it was kind of a pain to tear it down!

On 2/4/2019 at 12:01 PM, Bracari said:

Great build. A 'Rock' concert is something I wouldn't think of but it works well. The lighting is great. I can spot my sigfig sharing some kind of cherry drink with Lady Gwenllian. Nice.

It's a little anachronistic, but it was fun!  Thanks for letting me add Lady Eleanor!  I think the ladies of the guild should have fun together!

On 2/5/2019 at 8:16 AM, W Navarre said:

Very good work, I like the lighting! 

Thank you!  It took some work, but I think it was worth it.

On 2/5/2019 at 5:43 PM, mccoyed said:

Awesome idea and execution. Thanks for including those insert shots with the figs, too. I try to do stuff like that because I try to make the fig posing and stuff interesting and it can get lost in wider shots. Always like to see other RBG players doing similar things with big, intricate builds like this one.

 

Thanks!  I really liked the way you did the same with your build for this challenge as well.  It lends to some of the more intimate shots with the figures as you've noted.

On 2/5/2019 at 7:41 PM, The Last of Nergoue said:

great work, i love the lighting!

Thank you!  Thanks for permission to use Darion, too... don't know if you caught him in there in front of the Mitgardian family!

On 2/5/2019 at 9:07 PM, Brandon Stark said:

I like the idea and the way you presented it. The stage and drums are nicely done, and I like the interesting band names as well. You did a pretty good job with the fig posing, as it seems that every figure in the build is in a smaller scene. Thank you for including my character, and I especially like how he's posed. 

Thanks, and thanks for letting me use Brandir!  I had a lot of fun trying to jam as many sigifgs on the stage as I could!

On 2/7/2019 at 4:00 PM, Judge of the Wastelands said:

masterful lighting, and that's alot of minifigures!

Thank you!  It did take some work, but I think was worth it in the end.  I think there was something like 95 minis in this--so less than @MiloNelsiano 's build, but perhaps in a tighter area.  I tried to group the minis according to area--there's a nocturnus crowd of monsters, a bunch of elves from Avalonia, dwarves from Mitgardia, a few from Kaliphlin and Varlyrio as well.

On 2/8/2019 at 1:06 AM, Faladrin said:

Nice idea this Rock band !

I like the presentation, good lighting for a show.

Nice panel of minifigs too ! I am happy to see that Lord Faladrin is enjoying a good drink 

Thanks!  I am hoping to get a closer head for Lord Faladrin eventually, so maybe next time he's at an event he'll be a little closer.  Thanks for letting me use him!

15 hours ago, Rogue Angel said:

Great idea and great execution!  The first picture alone makes the build.  You've used the lighting well, and the dozen or so in depth pictures you added to flesh out the scene beyond the first 2 make a huge difference in how much I enjoyed your build as a whole.  I am one for puns myself, so the bands were well-played.  Great work!

Thank you!  I had a lot of fun with it, trying to make kind of an interesting mix of the Stones and AC/DC (noting the bus driver's cap on the singer and the do-rag on the guitarist).  I was hoping that the thread wasn't too picture heavy, so I'm glad that folks liked the close-ups!

And oooh, we shall have to have fun with puns now.  'bands were well-played'.   oooh.  *rim shot*

[soccerkid6]

Super unique approach to the entertainment category! Excellent brick built instruments, fun storyline, and loads of intriguing minifigure interactions makes for a very engaging scene

Fun to see the Storrars enjoying the concert

[Henjin_Quilones]

Glad to see Henjin and Galaria there at the concert, and Galaria is of course more than happy to serve as a shuttle service for a great ally like Lady Gwenllian! The concert looks like lots of fun, with a great rock-concert atmosphere. The dark pictures are particularly appropriate for the scene. Nicely done!

[de Gothia]

Wow! de Gothia shaking his old behind! =) 

Funny idea with concert theme in the dark ages! 

 

[Grover]

On 2/27/2019 at 6:43 AM, soccerkid6 said:

Super unique approach to the entertainment category! Excellent brick built instruments, fun storyline, and loads of intriguing minifigure interactions makes for a very engaging scene

Fun to see the Storrars enjoying the concert

Thanks!   I had a lot of fun with this one, and thanks for letting me use the Storrars!

On 2/27/2019 at 12:01 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Glad to see Henjin and Galaria there at the concert, and Galaria is of course more than happy to serve as a shuttle service for a great ally like Lady Gwenllian! The concert looks like lots of fun, with a great rock-concert atmosphere. The dark pictures are particularly appropriate for the scene. Nicely done!

Thanks for letting me use Henjin and Galaria, and thanks for the comments!

10 hours ago, de Gothia said:

Wow! de Gothia shaking his old behind! =) 

Funny idea with concert theme in the dark ages! 

 

Ha!  Part of me wonders if he wasn't more there for the drink... :-)  Thanks!