Random terrain advice needed

[AV_Guy]

Hi all.  New poster, long time reader.

I'm currently building a fairly large moc to display all my beloved sets as a kid.

I'm building an escarpment, that will travel over 10 32x32 tiles.  This is what i have so far.  Is it to busy?  My thinking is, since rocks dont look the same, i did some variance of color, but im wondering if it is to busy.

Any advice is welcome!

Thank you

IMG_3348 by Aaron Kutzner, on Flickr

[Nick Wolfe]

I think it looks pretty good! The little bits of color break up the monotony of the grey rock. When I do similar builds I usually use all dark bley with bits of plants to break up that monotony but your technique is a bit more visually interesting. I also like the bits like the dock at the bottom. If you keep adding things like those it'll give the cliffside some personality. Maybe a bird's nest or a pirate's hidey hole.

One thing I would suggest is to use a whole bunch of white and clear 1x1 round plates all around the base of the cliffside to create the breaking water effect. You'd need a lot of them for 10 baseplates' worth so it might be a big bricklink order but it'll be worth it because it'll really make it look like the cliffs are rising out of the water instead of being built on top of it.

Overall good job! I'd love to see it finished!

[deraven]

Welcome to EB, AV_guy!

I agree with Nick Wolfe about adding the right amount of "personality" to the rock face, and especially about the plates at the bottom for the water effect - that will make a huge difference!

There are more advance rock/cliff techniques that you could employ, but if this is a backdrop for classic sets, I think it looks fine but also helps stick with the slightly blockier classic feel... and unless you just really enjoy building rocks this style will be much faster to complete than others.

Looking forward to seeing your display when it's completed!  

[Louis of Nutwood]

22 hours ago, AV_Guy said:

I'm building an escarpment, that will travel over 10 32x32 tiles.  This is what i have so far.  Is it to busy?  My thinking is, since rocks dont look the same, i did some variance of color, but im wondering if it is to busy.

Fellow builder AV_Guy, welcome to this beautiful world of talented MOCers. 

I’m certain you will find plenty of constructive opinions and suggestions to improve your building craft. 

I must say I’m impressed. To travel through 10 32x32 plates is not an easy task.

As for the current building, I like what you’ve built so far, and I do think is has much personality. As others have said above, there is kind of a classic feel to your rockwork that might fit with the sets you plan on displaying. 

If you are happy with what you have (and if you have the bricks to do so), keep on building!

But having built a few rock walls over the past years, I’ve stumbled across some tips that might help adding some texture, depth and reality to the rockwork. 

I understand why you’ve tried to include different colors, but me, I’d prefer to stick with a max 2-3 different colors. Some shades (I see some blue, some dark red and black in your MOC) might look a bit too odd. Brown, Dark tan and greys are excellent choices. And let the scarce greenery of leafs and plants paint the colorful parts of it.

Another thing that helped me a lot in rockwork was to vary between techniques. Keep using brick over brick and, if possible, try to add some SNOT (studs not on top, that consists of using bricks sideways), showing some of their studs. This will add a lot more texture and depth to a rather stiff and slender wall. Of course, this technique demands a lot (A LOT) of the headlight pieces, which may be a struggle to find - but they totally pay out in the end. You can never have enough of them. 

Perhaps you might even use those ugly big rock pieces (I believe people call them BURPS), and add some slopes to them. They can really help when adventuring in some larger projects.

Final thing, I would try to avoid open ended bricks on your wall (like that dark grey 1x2 slope to the right on the higher row). I see how they can add some variety and texture, but to me it just looks a bit sloppy if the whole brick is not connected. That same slope brick would look sweet using the SNOT I mentioned above, however. 

But, hey.. that’s just my opinion and if you are pleased with what you’ve got, just go for it. 

Hope it helped and can’t wait to see the final 10x 32x32 result. 

Cheers!

[AV_Guy]

Thanks for the advice guys.  Great ideas.  Im just out of the dark ages of 25 years, so im behind on newer techniques in such.  I really like the water idea, i havnt really thought that far in advance yet, my main goal is to get the rock face finished, then move on to the next stage.  Regarding the dock or landing, thats actually the secret entrance to the dwarfs mine.  Its so secret it hasnt been started yet  :)  The dwarfs are ready to start building, but they are awaiting supplies from their home land (IE bricklink)

Technically this whole project will be a 12' by 8' display, which i think will be about 180 baseplates lol  :/  ?  The escarpment leads to the plateau where the main castle will hang out. 

Ya this is going to be a long project.  But hey, thats half of the fun!  If it could be completed over night, it wouldnt be called a project  :)

Thank you again, love the ideas!

[MAB]

I think it looks good, but most MOCs can be improved by tearing them down and starting again. When it comes to colours, I'd also stick to a smaller number (2-3) for the majority of the rock and let texture work for you rather than colour. If doing rocks against sea, I tend to use dark bluish grey at the bottom, lightening up to light bluish grey higher up. That way, it looks like the sea has washed up / splashed the base of the cliffs but not higher up. You can always add in extra colours via plants and grass (1x1 cheese slopes are also good for this as moss), the odd flower and so on or white cheese slopes for snow if it is cold.