Zilmrud

CHALLENGE III: Category B: Reinforcing the walls of Zamorah

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After the death of Zamorah’s ruler, Zull af Drachen, The Aurum Order took over the power in Zamorah. They decided that Historica should be aware of the hidden city. So the mages lifted the dome of concealment and the city was there for everyone to see.

The war was over and The Aurum Order saw a chance to find new ways of trade with Historica. But after some time there were rumours coming from other parts of Avalonia, Mitgardia and Kaliphlin about dark creatures and a rising threat. The citizens of Zamorah was talking about these new rumours and the word spread like wildfire in the city. The Aurum Order felt the concern from the citizens and gave the order to reinforce the walls of Zamorah, starting with the eastern walls.

47924427223_cb37cce5e4.jpg The walls of the mountain city Zamorah

Zamorah is on top of a mountain and the only way to access it is by air or via lifts from the docks in the caves under the mountain. The walls around the mountain city is already high and only a small strip of land is outside the walls. To strengthen the wall armoured plates of Aurumium, the strong and gold coloured metall of Zamorah, is being mounted on the outside of the wall. The plates is made in pyramide shapes to avert incoming projectiles and to distribute the force of the impact.

47924424862_09713f3dff.jpg

To reinforce the defence of the wall big ballistas is built to fight of enemy dragons and other big flying threats. And to fight of any enemies that may land outside the walls the walls is fitted with outlets for spraying Dragonbreath, a highly flammable liquid, on the enemies.

47924425727_4e02fdc518.jpg The ballistas fights of dragons

47924429731_fa9157e592.jpg Outlets that spray "Dragonbreath" on enemies on the ground

To get the work done properly two members of The Aurum Order, a elven mage and a druid, were sent out to monitor the work. The wall had to withstand fire from dragons and trebuchet projectiles and also bombardment of magic spells.   

47924424507_1b6ef97c9a.jpg An elven mage (elves is Flesh in my MOCs) and a human Druid helps the builders

To insure that the workers were safe during the work outside the wall archers from the elite force called Guardians of Zamorah.

47924429366_022d4a82a3.jpg Elite archers protect the workers

47924426248_004db77358.jpg ...and also Elite swordsmen

 

Do you want to learn more of Zamorah, Check this out: City of Zamorah, The hidden city in Avalonia

Extra pictures:

47924424087_071a3ca885_q.jpg  47924423897_2855277386_q.jpg  47924425403_940ca9a38e_q.jpg  47924425863_732339c541_q.jpg  ]  47924427293_9d87fb0a56_q.jpg  47924429101_2d38a9fa10_q.jpg  47924430011_e01c463ea6_q.jpg

Here you can see more pictures of the MOC: [Flickr]

 

 

 

Building the Scene 

It’s nice to be back building on GoH again. I have been away from Lego since October. And now when I got my first Lego Room I felt a urge to build again. But first I concentrated on other projects. So now I’m planing to build more GoH.

When the challenge came I got a vision of the build at ones. The thing is that I had a thought of building a smaller scene like this to show reinforcement of the walls when I wrote the first post of Zamorah, But i didn’t have the time for it then.

The walls is only walls to protect the city behind, therefore there is not so many openings, windows or other apertures. The city inside of the walls is not in this scene.

The Ballistas was made with JK Brickworks Ballista as an inspiration. It was at first made to work with the tension in the pearl gold pieces, not as good as the string version that JK did. But I was getting tired of it, and it was only built for the pics anyway, so i didn’t do the wind up construction.

The walls is made mostly of 1x2 plates and 1x2 jumper plates. A technique that  @ZlatanXVIGustaf showed me.

The MOC is L-shaped and got some overhang on the plateau compared with the actual footprint at the bottom. It’s also rounded on the plateau edges. So to be absolutely sure of the size of the MOC I counted the studs. The total area of the MOCs upper plate is 3243 studs. Not counting a bit overhang with the leaves on the tree. So it’s within the range of 4096 studs (64x64) even if you also count the leaves overhang.

…. Next time I’ll build a square one :wink:

 

I hope you like it, be free to comment but be kind ;)

 

 

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Oooh, this is fantastic!  The layered dark green terrain, tree, and rock-work are excellent, but the visual interest you've managed to give to the wall is what really stands out to me - and that ballista! :wub:  The flags and dragon hilts are great (and spraying Dragonbreath on the enemies from them is a wonderful idea! :laugh: :grin:), and the angled plating is intriguing as well.  Top-notch entry all around! :thumbup:

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10 minutes ago, Garmadon said:

Oooh, this is fantastic!  The layered dark green terrain, tree, and rock-work are excellent, but the visual interest you've managed to give to the wall is what really stands out to me - and that ballista! :wub:  The flags and dragon hilts are great (and spraying Dragonbreath on the enemies from them is a wonderful idea! :laugh: :grin:), and the angled plating is intriguing as well.  Top-notch entry all around! :thumbup:

Thanks alot man! Haven't seen the last season of GoT yet, but many have said that they are reminded of the Ballista there. The dragonbreath is like when they pour tar on the enamies. But I thinks this is a little more fluid substance. 

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Something tells me no one's going to be busting into this city anytime soon! :laugh:  I agree with Garmadon about the balista, and the use of arches for the wall coupled with gold detailing (brilliant use for those dragon head sword ends!) and the Avalonian colors makes for a great wall!  But my favorite thing is probably the tree with the roots dangling over the side - the roots look really cool!

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15 minutes ago, Kai NRG said:

Something tells me no one's going to be busting into this city anytime soon! :laugh:  I agree with Garmadon about the balista, and the use of arches for the wall coupled with gold detailing (brilliant use for those dragon head sword ends!) and the Avalonian colors makes for a great wall!  But my favorite thing is probably the tree with the roots dangling over the side - the roots look really cool!

Thanks man! The city also got dragons for protection. One of my coming projects is building a dragon.

The tree har a hard time growing in the winds at the top of the mountain. So it's kind of short. I was thinking that it should have more roots. But after those I kind of left it there.   

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What a wonderful build!  The size is huge, too!  There's so many good things to notice: the awesome plate/jumper plate brick structure that you used to give texture to the wall without making it too busy, the arrow loops, the fantastic color choices.... I will try to choose only a few of my favorite things, as the whole build is fantastic from top to bottom.  First, I will say that the scaffolding is spectacular.  Trying to get a good looking scaffolding is really tricky, and you did a great job with it.  Superb!  The tree, as Kai mentioned, is awesome, as is the ballista.  One of the more subtle features that I love is the height of the wall.  Some of the old Lego sets and some MOCs I see (not as much on GoH, but other places) have these wimpy 5 stud tall walls.  I mean, really?  That's supposed to repel an invader?  No, you nailed it: real walls would be tall to pose an actual challenge for invaders.  Yours also have overhang to as to drop rocks (or some highly flammable liquid) onto attackers.  I also really like your use of the red leaves for ivy, and the small amounts of oddly colored bricks that you add for texture--just enough to break it up, not enough to make the build look crazy.  Then the whole thing sits on that awesome rockwork base... very cool!  Glad you're building for Avalonia, as that's some steep competition!

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6 hours ago, Grover said:

What a wonderful build!  The size is huge, too!  There's so many good things to notice: the awesome plate/jumper plate brick structure that you used to give texture to the wall without making it too busy, the arrow loops, the fantastic color choices.... I will try to choose only a few of my favorite things, as the whole build is fantastic from top to bottom.  First, I will say that the scaffolding is spectacular.  Trying to get a good looking scaffolding is really tricky, and you did a great job with it.  Superb!  The tree, as Kai mentioned, is awesome, as is the ballista.  One of the more subtle features that I love is the height of the wall.  Some of the old Lego sets and some MOCs I see (not as much on GoH, but other places) have these wimpy 5 stud tall walls.  I mean, really?  That's supposed to repel an invader?  No, you nailed it: real walls would be tall to pose an actual challenge for invaders.  Yours also have overhang to as to drop rocks (or some highly flammable liquid) onto attackers.  I also really like your use of the red leaves for ivy, and the small amounts of oddly colored bricks that you add for texture--just enough to break it up, not enough to make the build look crazy.  Then the whole thing sits on that awesome rockwork base... very cool!  Glad you're building for Avalonia, as that's some steep competition!

Thanks man! I checked the hight a few times in the way. I wanted a tall wall that was higher than most other walls/castles bit not so high that the MOC would look odd. The rock base helped so I could build it higher than if it would only stand on the "ground plate". It was quite boring in the end to put those 1x2 together :laugh:

The colours I choose is all in the darker side. I wanted dark green because it's one of Avalonia colours. But I didn't use sand green as I first intended because it's not as dirty as olive green. My next HSS MOC will be more colour full.

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Very nice, indeed! The siege engine is amazing!

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Just now, Aine said:

Very nice, indeed! The siege engine is amazing!

Thank you :classic: :thumbup:

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Wooow! This is big! 
These walls will definitely repel any thought of breaking into the city. 
Wonderful MOC. The wall textures are really well done. I like how you carefully included these golden details and the colors of the Avalonian flag throughout the walls. The dragon figures sticking out are incredible!

The fact that everything is still in the process of being reinforced is a nice touch. Very well thought to include The Aurum Order (druid, elf and mage) discussing the project in front of the scaffold. 
But it sure looks like an expensive reinforcement project. Of course these armored plates of Aurumium are easily found in the lands of Zamorah. But still, with such big walls, you guys must have very very deep mines!

Awesome addition of the overhanging tree and the base really stands out.
The ballista is wonderful and very threatening.

Great work! Very inspiring. 

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Great build overall and lovely texture of the walls! I like how you've managed to make the transition to the angled part almost without a gap :thumbup:

Photography is excellent as usual (although a different color of the backdrop might have made the build "pop" slightly more than on a gray background?).

Building wise, the only thing I find a bit odd is that the top of the tower feels very exposed with limited crenelation to hide from arrows (or dragonfire?) behind.
But on the other hand it's such a high ground that no one probably could get a good shot at the ballista operators anyway :wink: 

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2 hours ago, Louis of Nutwood said:

Wooow! This is big! 
These walls will definitely repel any thought of breaking into the city. 
Wonderful MOC. The wall textures are really well done. I like how you carefully included these golden details and the colors of the Avalonian flag throughout the walls. The dragon figures sticking out are incredible!

The fact that everything is still in the process of being reinforced is a nice touch. Very well thought to include The Aurum Order (druid, elf and mage) discussing the project in front of the scaffold. 
But it sure looks like an expensive reinforcement project. Of course these armored plates of Aurumium are easily found in the lands of Zamorah. But still, with such big walls, you guys must have very very deep mines!

Awesome addition of the overhanging tree and the base really stands out.
The ballista is wonderful and very threatening.

Great work! Very inspiring. 

Thanks man!

They take that they have a lot of. The metall is precious and one of the lands biggest sorce of income. But to protect what they got in the mines and the city they have to send some also :grin:.

I was a bit worried that it would be to much with the Pearl Gold parts, but in the end I'm pleased with the result.

2 hours ago, Gideon said:

Great build overall and lovely texture of the walls! I like how you've managed to make the transition to the angled part almost without a gap :thumbup:

Photography is excellent as usual (although a different color of the backdrop might have made the build "pop" slightly more than on a gray background?).

Building wise, the only thing I find a bit odd is that the top of the tower feels very exposed with limited crenelation to hide from arrows (or dragonfire?) behind.
But on the other hand it's such a high ground that no one probably could get a good shot at the ballista operators anyway :wink: 

Thanks man! 

I see what you mean about the backdrop. It's a bit gray with all the gray in the build. I will think about that next time. I'm not used to build with so much gray

Maybe I made it easy when I used 45 degree angles in the transition. But I tried other angles in the start and thought that this would have more wall without extend the footprint to much.  

I tought about the tower as well. But in order for the Ballista to move around I had to lower the walls I had built at first.

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This question comes out of ignorance of how the city is set up, but where does the elevator lead?  Inside the city our outside?  I ask because if ground forces can't come up the hillside, then the only way is through the elevator, and if that leads inside the town walls... why are there town walls?  They seem to be mostly for ground forces.  It would seem that an aerial attack would logically be able to sail over the walls (the ballista notwithstanding).  Or is the mountain so high that flying forces can't clear the walls?  I have these weird logicistical questions sometimes... :classic:

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Super cool!  I love the idea of plating it with the pyramids, and also the use of the dragon handle part! Also it's a very impressive scene, great landscape and scaffolding!  Well made! 

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On 5/26/2019 at 10:16 PM, Grover said:

This question comes out of ignorance of how the city is set up, but where does the elevator lead?  Inside the city our outside?  I ask because if ground forces can't come up the hillside, then the only way is through the elevator, and if that leads inside the town walls... why are there town walls?  They seem to be mostly for ground forces.  It would seem that an aerial attack would logically be able to sail over the walls (the ballista notwithstanding).  Or is the mountain so high that flying forces can't clear the walls?  I have these weird logicistical questions sometimes... :classic:

Haha great question! It's a bit landingplace for dragons in one side. But there is not any easy way to come up on the outside. The most of the mountain is hollow. And under it there is a port and som fortifications. Sonyou have to fly ore take elevators from the port up. So It's mostly airial attacks to fight of and protect the city from. The ballistas is air defence against dragons and such. 

I think the walls where built  before the mountain was hollow. So then it was ways to come up the the hill side I guess :sweet:

 

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Makes sense!  I think that it's interesting to ask questions like that sometimes because it can spark new ideas!   Well done!

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Really lovely build.  I like the texturing in the wall by using plates and bricks.  The scaffolds are well done.  The arches are a nice touch.  The battlement look great with the gold accents and the dragon hilts used for dumping fluid on enemies below is a great idea.  The rockwork below is great, along with the layering of the dark green plates.  The tree is fantastic, especially the roots draping over the side.  Excellent looking figs to support the build.  

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16 hours ago, W Navarre said:

Super cool!  I love the idea of plating it with the pyramids, and also the use of the dragon handle part! Also it's a very impressive scene, great landscape and scaffolding!  Well made! 

Thank you very much! 

5 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Really lovely build.  I like the texturing in the wall by using plates and bricks.  The scaffolds are well done.  The arches are a nice touch.  The battlement look great with the gold accents and the dragon hilts used for dumping fluid on enemies below is a great idea.  The rockwork below is great, along with the layering of the dark green plates.  The tree is fantastic, especially the roots draping over the side.  Excellent looking figs to support the build.  

Thanks :classic::thumbup: 

The rockwork is a fun thing. I ran out of inverted slopes. So I built 60% of it upside down :grin: 

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Really cool stuff mate! I was too thinking, to build a large ballista, to protect my towns against, evil or untamed dragons. But it wouldn't work in a smaller community. My country doesn't have larger towns and cities. I had to think and build smaller.

The stonework is really good. The progress too.

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Turned out great buddy! Well balanced texture and that ballista is top notch :wink:. Looking forward to seeing your city grow! 

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On 5/28/2019 at 8:30 PM, kahir88 said:

Really cool stuff mate! I was too thinking, to build a large ballista, to protect my towns against, evil or untamed dragons. But it wouldn't work in a smaller community. My country doesn't have larger towns and cities. I had to think and build smaller.

The stonework is really good. The progress too.

Thanks man! 

1 hour ago, adde51 said:

Turned out great buddy! Well balanced texture and that ballista is top notch :wink:. Looking forward to seeing your city grow! 

Thanks Bro! 

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Zamorah is coming along very nicely, and strongly too! :wink: I don't think there's any feature that I like which has not already been mentioned above, so I'll just go with the stand-outs: the old tree, the (angled) scaffolding and the dragon hilts used as outlets (NPU!). Love the wall texture, too. Fantastic work and superb entry! :thumbup:

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The scaffolding stands out quite well here (well built too) and yet doesn't take away from your excellent wall.  Texture looks nice in the wall at this scale, though I KNOW I don't have the patience to do something this big using mostly plates! :laugh:

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On 6/16/2019 at 9:35 PM, mrcp6d said:

The scaffolding stands out quite well here (well built too) and yet doesn't take away from your excellent wall.  Texture looks nice in the wall at this scale, though I KNOW I don't have the patience to do something this big using mostly plates! :laugh:

Thanks. It take some time to build plate by plate. I don't know If I would build a  big castle like this ?

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