Wurger49

[MOD] Grand Castle Upgrade Modifications From Two 31120 Medieval Castle Sets, No Extra Pieces Required

Recommended Posts

Love the 4-legged dragon update, more Warcraft Drake-like, and also the classic LEGO green dragons have 4 legs.

Edited by TeriXeri

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Love the 4-legged dragon update, more Warcraft Drake-like, and also the classic LEGO green dragons have 4 legs.

I didn't know the difference between dragons and wyverns until this week, haha, reading up on reviews on the 31120 and researches online, I thought Smaug in the Hobbit movies was a dragon, but it seems Peter Jackson created his own version compared to Tolkien's 4-legged dragon.  Four legs made the model more substantial and balanced.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

With time, I try to see if I can improve on my designs, as LEGO blocks do not need glue, a lot of building and dismantling before coming to a satisfying solution. I wanted to increase floor space of the ground floor by filling up the spaces between the buttress corners. I studied the instructions of the LEGO Model B, learning how its ground floor is enlarged.

My main concern is still whether I have enough dark bluish gray bricks for the expansion. Each six stud wide tower wall requires a space of twenty four 1x1 dark bluish gray blocks in the middle; by expanding to an eight stud wide wall, thirty six 1x1 blocks are required, I don’t have enough. I designed an opening with one 1x4 arch and two 1x1 round bricks, that frees up eight bricks of space. I moved one light bluish gray 2x2 brick from the first floor to the ground floor, as I wanted no more than three 1x1 round bricks on each corner of each floor, to create a coherent look. With two 2x2 bricks used as foundations for each corner, this saves another four blocks of space, so I am back down to twenty-four blocks of dark bluish gray bricks for each ground floor wall, success!

51273284306_2723e845b2_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

The door frame is made with reddish brown bricks and arches, the gaps between the buttress are filled in with 1x2 slopes. I expanded the bow window recess by three 1x2 bricks in the middle, I can’t believe I didn’t do that from the start, as my first attempt left a big gap below the corner window frames. The base of the recess is raised by a stud as I pushed the recess out over the cliff edge by one stud, the connection is done by a dark tan 2x4 plate onto the ground floor. The black 1x4x3 window frame is moved down one block, to create a coherent line of light bluish gray blocks beneath the battlement.

51274011809_05f6bec8c7_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

51272534027_57ee5dc49f_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

51273284396_aa0229c2ca_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

51272534097_f52d7663ef_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

51274011909_95dfc0b942_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

51274311190_6c765c69d2_c.jpgImperial Watchtower Version 3 by R Y, on Flickr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 hours ago, Brickander Brickumnus said:

Amazing! :knight::dhappy:

:pir-love:

Thank you, hope it's useful to you if you bought the castle set.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I stare at my creations quite a lot, a bit of self-indulgence really. It comes with the problem of realising things are not in the right place and needs to be changed. When I did cliff base, using the original LEGO corner with dark and olive green slopes, the rest the of the base are made with dark and light bluish gray bricks and slopes arranged with no regard to the tower as it wasn’t built yet. Now I have created base of the tower buttresses using light bluish gray bricks, ones on the cliff base don’t match up for the weight transfer. I had to rearrange the bricks and slopes, so the light bluish gray slopes line up beneath the buttresses on three corners, and left the green slopes as they were. I opened up the base so you can see I used some inverted and slope pieces to fill in the gaps on the face of the cliff.

51277044944_db90b8051f_c.jpgImperial Watch Tower Version Four by R Y, on Flickr

51275567407_946168c201_c.jpgImperial Watch Tower Version Four by R Y, on Flickr

51276486213_d9afbb7bb2_c.jpgImperial Watch Tower Version Four by R Y, on Flickr

51277045134_1f43e90863_c.jpgImperial Watch Tower Version Four by R Y, on Flickr

51275567542_51b6c26c2e_c.jpgImperial Watch Tower Version Four by R Y, on Flickr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After seeing some great MOCs and MODs from other AFOLs on the 31120, I decided to improve my own MOD. I raised the battlements by two bricks in the first version, but they were still not tall enough. After debating with myself whether to take apart my Imperial Watchtower which I spent many hours building and changing using the spare pieces from the two sets, I finally talked myself into taking it apart.

I wanted to raise the ramparts to the same height on the second level of the four towers. I started on the section next to the five-storey great tower. I built a second set of clip and bar to secure the wall connections, with machicolations on battlements. I tried different arrangements of 1x3 and 1x4 arches, but only the 1x3 arches allow for the even spacing with no overhang onto the next section, I wanted to keep the castle in three sections for ease of move and storage.

I lengthened the rampart on top of the market stall by two studs for the alignment of machicolations. A second set of clip and bar was also added for the wall connections. The hinge mechanism on both sides of the gatehouse was removed to sturdy the connections for the two stud long ramparts, the four stud long rampart on the side of the tree was reduced to two stud long so the machicolations don’t overhang. LEGO left a stud width of dark bluish grey bricks with the green rocks, so the hinged sections can open up; I removed the gap and moved the green pieces together. I added more branches, leaves and flowers to the tree. The windowed wall of the yellow keep was removed and replaced with an archway.

After these changes, height of the ramparts look in proportion to the height of the four corner towers.

51302111699_2fc27f04ca_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51300650902_91a2d3b2fc_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51301398111_1be289b534_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51302427840_26216f28f2_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51302411890_5883f51ed4_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51301584483_5eeb99cdcc_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51300650787_65b2b39545_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51302111604_f515a35ab9_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51302412140_56eb0909f3_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

51302412160_309b7e1574_c.jpg31120 MOD Version Three by R Y, on Flickr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Some mistakes were found after I finished the last post, I have corrected them and retaken photos again.

-          2x8 tan plate that connects the well are one stud off, moved it out so it sits below buttress.

-          The wall connector on the green cliff side is off by one stud towards the outside, leaving unsightly gaps when connecting all three sections of the castle. It was due to the wall was not offset from the towers like the other two walls, to keep in line with the yellow timbre keep. The ground floor wall is now moved in one stud, while the rest remained one stud out to go with the yellow keep walls. I removed the 1x2 dark tan plate beneath the battlement, keeping the same look as the same walls.

-          I had to rearrange the olive green and sand green slopes next to the grey wall.

-          I removed two 1x10 black plates on the first floor ceiling of the yellow keep, one 1x2 dark bluish grey plate off the chimney; they added an unnecessary one plate height to the building. I kept the two black plates under the roof. I added one 1x2 reddish brown plate and one 2x2 dark orange corner tile each to the two floors connecting the keep and great tower, reinforce the tower.

-          I added one 1x2 dark tan plate to the underside of the second floor rampart to reinforce the connection, where the 2x4 plate and 4x8 plate meets.

With the remaining pieces, I rebuilt the Imperial watch tower to three floors.

51302917747_d586d06560_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

51302917692_4309c42c0a_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

51303857963_2326792c61_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

51304679035_da624b83e9_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

51303858213_93818596c6_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

51303663461_69bbd58a9a_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version Three, Fixed Errors by R Y, on Flickr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

are the front and back of the castle "connected" together using multiple baseplates? am i right that the watch tower is a building on its own and not connected to the castle?

 

have u ever thought about buying an additional disney castle and mod it to have a complete castle? 50% of the disney castle bugs me lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, tihehe said:

are the front and back of the castle "connected" together using multiple baseplates? am i right that the watch tower is a building on its own and not connected to the castle?

 

have u ever thought about buying an additional disney castle and mod it to have a complete castle? 50% of the disney castle bugs me lol

Nope, they are connected by clips and bars. 

Yes, the watchtower is a standalone model.

Not really, because the Disney Castle is huge and very expensive, the open back showcases rooms with different disney princess stories, very cool. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, this is great! Always love multi-builds. You can do so much with just two of these sets!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, danth said:

Wow, this is great! Always love multi-builds. You can do so much with just two of these sets!

thank you, getting the most out my money, haha. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I always thought the five-storey great tower is bit top heavy, due to the raising of the crenels by one brick, I resisted changing to the original height of the LEGO design, to keep the same style as the gatehouse towers. This week, it dawned on me that the great tower does not need any battlements as it is completely enclosed room and cannot use any of the machicolations. It was an easy fix; I swapped the stone battlements with the yellow wattle and daub boards. I added a brick high of yellow and brown bargeboard to add a splash of colour to the otherwise entirely grey corner.

I wanted to incorporate the bay window section I designed in the now disassembled Imperial Watchtower MOC into the castle. I changed out the 4x8 dark tan plates with 6x6 plates, so the footprint of the space is the same as a tower. Before I started, I changed the base of the corner tower section to the 8x16 tan plate, so there is enough depth for the columns. I did not use the brown window round corners for framing, instead stuck to the 1x1 round open studs for the window supports. For the connection of the round bay window corners to the square battements, I tried a few variations, I decided on the sloped version using 3665 2x1 inverted slopes; I used one 3676 2x2 inverted double convex slope for the connection of dark tan plates.

There are ten furnished spaces inside the keep tower and the corner tower sections: most of the designs are taken from the original LEGO model and modified.

-          Double beer barrel dispenser

-          Kitchen with bench and fire stove

-          Fruit stall

-          Well with a bucket

-          Blacksmith workshop

-          Phoenix shrine

-          Dining room with a tapestry table

-          Throne room

-          Lookout room with a monocular

-          Alchemy study

The treasure chests are moved to the gatehouse, tree branches and leaves increases to four at three different heights. I was running low on 1x1 light bluish grey bricks, so used two 1x1 brick with hole at the base. I remade the trebuchet, after moving some pieces around the castle.

I tried a different combination of the two sections, the two 8x16 tan plates makes 32 studs, perfect the LEGO 32x32 base plates. This also shows other combinations are possible for others to try when they buy more than two sets, though I am sticking to just the two sets of 31120.

51316206311_e29ffb1197_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316206256_7a9a18930b_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316206096_1feab79a2f_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316936159_3c0252a9f5_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316206551_6b593c7086_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316936539_427e1e04d4_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316418708_e56e34fa9e_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51315472612_ef53b0711f_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51317215695_0f791e1979_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316418628_39dd823305_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51317216020_3a2fca77da_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51317216150_7677802fd0_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316936599_b236d92a6f_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

51316206461_621297fbda_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 4 by R Y, on Flickr

Edited by Wurger49

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was looking at the enclosed castle this morning, I realised I can now connect the dark azure plates together to form a continuous river as the sections cannot open out anymore. I took out two round corners and one 2x4 plate, replaced them with two 4x6 plates, added some waves and medium azure 2x2 round tile for support. On the gatehouse wall section, an olive green slope was used to swap out the 1x1 brick to secure the plate. I reinforced the second floor plates of the yellow keep with one reddish brown 6x10 plate.

Here are also some close-up photos of the kitchen.

51318901249_1073cda433_c.jpgIMG_6343 by R Y, on Flickr

51317442857_e854d47c4e_c.jpgIMG_6342 by R Y, on Flickr

51318901369_73d5c8b46c_c.jpgIMG_6340 by R Y, on Flickr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
50 minutes ago, Judge of the Wastelands said:

this is a pretty neat project all things considered

Thank you, literally speaking, I also tried to keep the patterns the same across the whole castle.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Version five is mainly cosmetic additions to the castle, I want to utilise as many of the left over pieces to touch up the exterior.  
-    The dragon gargoyles made it! My friend convinced me that they are too good to be left out of the model. I added an extra 1x1 slope to smooth out its neck. With arches gone, the kitchen is now supported by a column of 1x1 bricks. 
-    Used one 4x12 dark azure plate instead of two 4x6 plates, bigger plates are sturdier. 
-    I wanted to increase the river length by two studs, to allow more water under the watermill, that created a problem while the tower stone buttress sits on water. 
-     I expanded the base of the tower by building green mossy rocks, like the one on the gate house, it sits on top of the dark azure plate.
-    The three great tower buttresses now sit on four 2x2 bricks.
-    I removed another remaining legacy of the original LEGO design, the 4x8 dark tan plate that sits between grey wall and reddish brown plate underneath the yellow keep. It frees up plates that are required to prop up the brown columns on the ground and the floors finally line up with the rest of the castle. Two inverted 2x1 reddish brown slopes are used for the column connections. 
-    I added a second 1x8 reddish brown brick as a beam to the floor, rearranged them both so they are spaced equally from edges, moved the grey bricks to fit accordingly. 
-    The front of the gatehouse remained relatively untouched up to till now, I decided to tile the drawbridge.
-    Replaced all three reddish brown tiles with 2 studs tan plates on the staircase. 
-    Used those 1x4 reddish brown tiles, combined with 1x6, 1x3 tiles and 1x2 ingot bars to completely cover the studded surface of the drawbridge. 
-    I used four olive green round half plates and one 4x8 dark tan plate to build up the outside moat bank, used slopes and double convex corners to secure the plates.
-    A 2x6 light bluish grey tile is placed where the drawbridge lands, provides a good stone footing with the two 3x1 olive green slopes on the sides. 
-    I used the barred door horizontally to create a protruding portcullis, it is connected to the base of the gatehouse floor via two 15712 dark green clip tile connected to two 36840 dark bluish grey inverted brackets. Due to limited space, the door needs to be clipped on before attaching, the spacing of three studs between the brackets needs to exact, I connected the two brackets onto a spare plate to get the right distance, then they are easy to connect to the bottom of the gatehouse floor plate.
-    I used two 22385 2x3 light bluish grey pentagonal tiles to replace the 2x2 dark bluish grey tiles above the gate. Those two dark bluish grey tiles went to the pavilion roof of the great tower, I didn’t like how the pentagonal tiles stuck out of the roof. 
-    The apple tree moved into the wall by one stud, has five 6x5 leaves, two green apples with four arches acting as branches, using a twig to connect two 6x5 leaves that are offset on top of each other. 
-    Changed all pink studs to yellow studs on the ground, so apple tree has pink flowers, and the ground has yellow daisies. 

51332027650_1fd70b5b08_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr

51332028240_1fb97885da_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr

51331242553_000a2a0451_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr

51331031906_c7578c2804_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr

51330298667_a109969f2e_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr

51330298862_0b6925e5e2_c.jpgLEGO 31120 Medieval Castle MOD, Version 5 by R Y, on Flickr
 

Edited by Wurger49

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I appreciate your mods now that I assembled my castle, everything you added to the castle makes sense!!! Thanks for the inspiration!  Although I probably won’t buy another set until a month from now, i am taking notes and placing my bricks and pieces order!!!  My favorite set so far, oh by the way your modified DRAGON looks freaking AMAZING and more BEASTLY now hahaha, it didn’t make sense until I built the one from the set to understand your mod to be honest and it’s glorious!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, eldiano said:

I appreciate your mods now that I assembled my castle, everything you added to the castle makes sense!!! Thanks for the inspiration!  Although I probably won’t buy another set until a month from now, i am taking notes and placing my bricks and pieces order!!!  My favorite set so far, oh by the way your modified DRAGON looks freaking AMAZING and more BEASTLY now hahaha, it didn’t make sense until I built the one from the set to understand your mod to be honest and it’s glorious!

Thank you, my notes only make sense to people who actually built the Lego set, if you experienced problems while modding the item, I would most likely experienced them too. I highly recommend people to read the design notes from the first post. There are limitations and restrictions to the number of studs length, if you change one thing, it affects the others. Version five is the accumulation of the side steps I took over weeks. Let me know if you have any questions, I will reply with photos. 
It’s probably cheaper to wait for a sale then buy the 2nd set, the problem with bricks and pieces is that you don’t know the exact pieces to get, if you miss a few, there is another shipping and wait time.

Edited by Wurger49

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I used my photos to create my second Youtube Video on Windows 10 Video Editor, please check it out. 

 

 

Edited by Wurger49

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've been waiting on this set to go on discount for a while, which hasn't happened in nearly 3 months, but with the sailboat GWP ,I do have 2 sets now and built 1 of them so far and don't regret it, this set has it's value for sure.

I love this MOD , the multi-layered builds are great, but long-term, I think I'll go for a wider approach instead of taller, also planning to downscale the Medieval Blacksmith set and use it's parts for walls/forts and some smaller single-floor houses, maybe a different take on Guarded Inn / Medieval Market Village, I don't plan to build very large scale/modular sizes.

31120 to me is among the best sets of the last few years, and one of the best parts packs, I still don't mind the yellow, as the other colors are well balanced around it, sets always have some flaws, and this one could use more figs and horses but I hope LEGO doesn't stop here.

Currently I've been experimenting turning the second set into something styled after 7079: Drawbridge Defense which I never got (I still have the original 6078: Royal Drawbridge but I keep old (20+ year) LEGO seperated)

Edited by TeriXeri

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 8/20/2021 at 9:37 AM, TeriXeri said:

I've been waiting on this set to go on discount for a while, which hasn't happened in nearly 3 months, but with the sailboat GWP ,I do have 2 sets now and built 1 of them so far and don't regret it, this set has it's value for sure.

I love this MOD , the multi-layered builds are great, but long-term, I think I'll go for a wider approach instead of taller, also planning to downscale the Medieval Blacksmith set and use it's parts for walls/forts and some smaller single-floor houses, maybe a different take on Guarded Inn / Medieval Market Village, I don't plan to build very large scale/modular sizes.

31120 to me is among the best sets of the last few years, and one of the best parts packs, I still don't mind the yellow, as the other colors are well balanced around it, sets always have some flaws, and this one could use more figs and horses but I hope LEGO doesn't stop here.

Currently I've been experimenting turning the second set into something styled after 7079: Drawbridge Defense which I never got (I still have the original 6078: Royal Drawbridge but I keep old (20+ year) LEGO seperated)

Oh noes, still no discount at Netherland, but good that you got rewards points plus the sailboat!

As a playset, the LEGO castle walls are always 1 storey tall, which is rather low, especially when comparing it after I built mine up to 2 storeys, so I would still recommend building the walls taller to go with your single-floor houses. You definitely need to downscale the Blacksmith set to go even with a MOD that is my scale. The Medieval Castle's floors are 6 bricks tall, the Medieval Blacksmith's floors are 7 bricks and 2 plates tall, with the brown frames, it's very hard to downscale... I am looking forward to your changes and learn from them!

31120 is indeed an awesome set, I love the vibrant yellow, would recommend to anyone that likes buildings. 

Looking forward to your drawbridge, I started LEGO only in 2019, so missed out on the old sets. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well done, I am enjoying seeing all the versions done with 2 of these sets.  Recently got a set of instructions off rebrickable that used 2 sets, but I am thinking now of adding a 3 set to the mix and seeing if I can come up with my own design...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 hours ago, SuperSirLink said:

Well done, I am enjoying seeing all the versions done with 2 of these sets.  Recently got a set of instructions off rebrickable that used 2 sets, but I am thinking now of adding a 3 set to the mix and seeing if I can come up with my own design...

Thank you! With different designs there are different reasons and justifications, hopefully I explained why the changes and placements are applied across the different posts, I try to avoid being different for the sake of different. 

Try your hand on the 2 sets first, before adding a third set, as LEGO is expensive, takes up space and there are always new sets coming around the corner. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.