Challenge III - Category B: Palisade

[Grover]

Spoiler

 

The Tales of Lady Gwenllian

0. Introduction
1. The arrival of Lady Gwenllian aboard the Cedar Serpent
2. Scouting a Site

3. Early Spring in Prenmôr

4. The Fishery and Shrine at Prenmôr
5. Opening of the Prenmôr Quarry
6. Concert in Prenmôr
   6a. Fish Fryday!
   6b. Highway From Hell
   6c. The Dead Drop
7a. Rumors

 

 

7b. Palisade

As the summer began and more people began to settle in Prenmôr, the peasantry became a little more anxious about their safety.  Rumors abounded of lizard people taking human form, drow looking to invade again, the Mitgardian civil war reigniting, and to top it all off, there were rumors of the nearby Enchanted Forest harboring an evil elven sorceress who had been twisted by magic into a grotesque beast.  A town wall was planned for around the community, but it would be a few years before all the stone could be quarried, cut, and finally built into a permanent stone structure.  In the meantime, a temporary palisade was built, made of logs sunk into the earth with the skyward ends sharpened into points, held together with boards and tied near the top with rope.  Unlike a wooden fortress, this temporary wall lacked wall walks and other features of a permanent structure.  Simply meant as a deterrent to any potential attacks while the stone walls were being built, the palisade had a rudimentary wooden gate and was shored up with supports from the rear.

While the foundation of the castle rested mostly on solid bedrock and overlooked steep embankments, the town wall was different.  It was to be built surrounding the adjacent farmland with a foundation on the flat earth there.  Thus, the laborers dug a ditch in front of the wall foundation where the palisade now rested, carrying out dirt and rock to be piled behind the palisade.  This ditch would remain once the stone walls were in place, forming a dry moat around the town to add to the layered defenses.

Spoiler

Notes: This has been an incredibly busy time for me, so I haven’t had hardly any time to build.  I wish I could have built something more substantial, as I love the fortification category, but I’ve been able to build for about 2 hours total, so this is it.  Nothing exciting, but at least it’s an entry.

 

[Eoin Wallace]

Nice build  I like the little flag!

[kahir88]

Nice little build, reminds me, someone else's palisade :D

Maybe, it would be more realistic, if the pales aren't the same size.

Saddens me, you weren't had enough time for your build. :( But I think both of them nice little entries, and the huge duplo chicken is hilarious :D

[mrcp6d]

I agree with kahir88 that a few more pales on the left side being a plate higher/lower than the rest would have added some additional visual interest.  Also, some more variation in the ground cross-section itself such that the dark tan isn't a constant 2 plate thick barrier at a constant height would lend some realism perhaps.

I do think that the minifig choices and posing is perfect however.

[Grover]

6 hours ago, Eoin Wallace said:

Nice build  I like the little flag!

Thanks!  I wish I had more time to put in more details.

5 hours ago, kahir88 said:

Nice little build, reminds me, someone else's palisade :D

Maybe, it would be more realistic, if the pales aren't the same size.

Saddens me, you weren't had enough time for your build. :( But I think both of them nice little entries, and the huge duplo chicken is hilarious :D

Yeah, I wonder where I got that idea? :-D  I had originally thought to make the ground uneven so that it would have variation in the pale heights, and then to move some back or forward a half a stud with jumpers, but it all ran out of time.  Oh well.  Really glad you liked the chicken!  It was a last minute throw together that I found very amusing.

43 minutes ago, mrcp6d said:

I agree with kahir88 that a few more pales on the left side being a plate higher/lower than the rest would have added some additional visual interest.  Also, some more variation in the ground cross-section itself such that the dark tan isn't a constant 2 plate thick barrier at a constant height would lend some realism perhaps.

I do think that the minifig choices and posing is perfect however.

I agree, there was a lot to be desired in the build, especially with the ground.  It's pretty much just out of time for me.  Hopefully next time.

Glad you liked the minis, though!  I was at least happy with how they turned out.  I'm also feeling like my photography is getting better, so it was at least a little decent practice there.

[Louis of Nutwood]

Nice one, Grover.

Though it is a small MOC, it is packed with neat details.

I love how strategic a temporary palisade can be. And I appreciate how detailed your approach is to each aspect of the palisade. 

The dry moat is clever, and I can’t wait to see the final stoned walls.

I like how there’s a girl serving tea (or tonic?) to the workers, and how you positioned the blackbird/crow (something I’ve done a couple of times).

Keep it up!

[Captain Dee]

Neat palisade.  The uneven lengths on the one side look more natural to me, but perhaps different members of the crew had different ideas regarding the required level of precision...

Nice job with the minifigs, and the dry moat is a good idea. And I hear you about being busy and lacking building time. 

But... why is there a ship's wheel in the background of the last photo? 

[zoth33]

I like the build.  The palisade is nice.  I like the trench, with the guys picking at the terrain.  The use of the grey pieces to represent stones is nice detail. Neat looking figs too.

[en_zoo]

Nice job, Grover! I guess the orange part is there to represent the rope? I like the ditch in front as well as the appropriate description of what happened and why. Overall, simple and effective

[adde51]

Nice one man, liking the ditch as well as the posing of all the figs  . Though somewhat small, the scene does capture the challenge well and in a realistic way, keep it up 

[de Gothia]

A small moc packed with details! Like the root coming out and the uneven palisade. 

 

The minifig posings is the eye candy though! Great work!

[Grover]

On 6/16/2019 at 4:10 PM, Louis of Nutwood said:

Nice one, Grover.

Though it is a small MOC, it is packed with neat details.

I love how strategic a temporary palisade can be. And I appreciate how detailed your approach is to each aspect of the palisade. 

The dry moat is clever, and I can’t wait to see the final stoned walls.

I like how there’s a girl serving tea (or tonic?) to the workers, and how you positioned the blackbird/crow (something I’ve done a couple of times).

Keep it up!

Thanks!  I wanted to do something larger, but just didn't have the time.  I figured more detail in a smaller MOC was better than less detail in a larger one.  I think the serving girl is handing out water, but it could just be moonshine!

On 6/16/2019 at 8:19 PM, Captain Dee said:

Neat palisade.  The uneven lengths on the one side look more natural to me, but perhaps different members of the crew had different ideas regarding the required level of precision...

Nice job with the minifigs, and the dry moat is a good idea. And I hear you about being busy and lacking building time. 

But... why is there a ship's wheel in the background of the last photo? 

I think if I do a palisade again, I'll make it a lot more uneven, especially since it is a temporary wall and not something anyone would bother to make uniform as if it were a permanent wooden fort.

What you see in the last photo is a vine, not a ship's wheel.  You can see it a little better in some of the other pictures.

On 6/16/2019 at 9:42 PM, zoth33 said:

I like the build.  The palisade is nice.  I like the trench, with the guys picking at the terrain.  The use of the grey pieces to represent stones is nice detail. Neat looking figs too.

Thanks a bunch!  I had fun positioning the minis who were digging.

On 6/21/2019 at 5:44 AM, en_zoo said:

Nice job, Grover! I guess the orange part is there to represent the rope? I like the ditch in front as well as the appropriate description of what happened and why. Overall, simple and effective

Yes, the Med Nougat was supposed to represent a rope.  I'm not entirely convinced by it myself, but it added some texture, so I left it.  Hopefully we will see more of the dry moat when I eventually build the full town wall.

On 6/22/2019 at 12:41 AM, adde51 said:

Nice one man, liking the ditch as well as the posing of all the figs  . Though somewhat small, the scene does capture the challenge well and in a realistic way, keep it up 

Thank you!  Hopefully next time I'll have something larger.

On 6/22/2019 at 2:11 PM, de Gothia said:

A small moc packed with details! Like the root coming out and the uneven palisade. 

 

The minifig posings is the eye candy though! Great work!

Thanks a bunch!  I enjoyed posing the minis and was glad to have at least one substantial entry to the challenge!

[Captain Dee]

15 hours ago, Grover said:

What you see in the last photo is a vine, not a ship's wheel.  You can see it a little better in some of the other pictures.

Yes, I saw it in those other pics. I was just messing with you! 

[soccerkid6]

The moat is well constructed and I like how you used an ice skate for an alternative pickaxe head The fig posing easily tells the story on its own, so well done with that

[Blufiji]

Very nice palisade, I can imagine the ditch being filed with pitch and spears. 

[Grover]

On 6/27/2019 at 3:34 PM, Captain Dee said:

Yes, I saw it in those other pics. I was just messing with you! 

Gotcha!

On 8/5/2019 at 12:01 PM, soccerkid6 said:

The moat is well constructed and I like how you used an ice skate for an alternative pickaxe head The fig posing easily tells the story on its own, so well done with that

Thanks!  I always want more time for these things... I'm hoping to throw some freebuilds on here soon that I've been able to take more time with, but I'm glad that the mini posing looks good.  I think it's the easiest for me to do on limited time.

On 8/5/2019 at 4:15 PM, Blufiji said:

Very nice palisade, I can imagine the ditch being filed with pitch and spears. 

Thank you!  I am thinking about doing a ditch build once I have the full walls done, and it will definitely include some menacing options!