[MOC] Everhold Castle

[kodlovag]

I came back from my dark ages at 2011, when I purchased the Medieval Market Village and the Mill Village Raid. These exceptional castle sets inspired me to build my own castle. The castle, which I have never had during my childhood. I can remember the serious sword fights between my city minifigs, holding antennas in hand. So the castle was something missing from my life, and which had to be corrected.

Everhold is the result of the last 10 years. Of course, I built many other things during the years, but always went back to the castle theme. There are old and new sections of Everhold, the old sections has been facelifted to fit to the newer ones. Historically everything started with the Old Tower, closely followed by the port. Then much later I added the Large Gate with the walls and the Tree Tower. Then finally I had a nice, closed castle. And I just recently added the Elven Tower, which must be familiar for many of you, it was inspired by the Krylhan Castle by @Perterz.

Land side view. This is the newer part.

Port side view. This is the older part.

This is the Old Tower, the beginning of everything. One still can find some of the 10 years old original images on my flickr page. Since that, the tower was facelifted two times. First, when I upgraded the battlements to fit to the newly built sections, and later when I added the transparent water tiles, and many colorful details. The Old Tower can be opened, and the internals accessed. I just noticed, that a poor minifig put the red-gold flags over the gate at the wrong order. Someone will be shorter by a head.

The port is modular, connected from four segments. The fifth part has been added later to connect it to the Old Tower. It is possible to arrange the port into several different configurations.

My personal favourite part is the Large Gate. Both the drawbridge and the lattice can be operated through a ratcheted technic mechanism. The wall segments are opened at the back side and contains some play feature.

 

There is a round table at the treetop, where the human, dwarwen and elven kings meet. The tree is the simbol of their everlasting friedship.

You can find many more photos at my flickr page.

[brimbolet]

Wow, this is simply great. And I might say, I like the concept behind this castle much much more than Lego's own anniversary set! Especially the addition of a medieval port, since Lego neglected the sea shores and river banks for years unfortunately, and castles/fortresses were always built to control various merchant routes after all. Also the proportions of the fortress tower with the smaller entry gate are superb and a very realistic presentation of medieval donjon/castle keep. Thank You for sharing your pics!

[SirBlake]

Love it. The round towers of the gatehouse are very successful, the dark grey on top of the battlements is a great look, the port and waterway layout is nice and the treetop round table concept is brilliant. 
 

Both concept and execution are really strong with this castle. The photos are quite good as well, which really helps. 

[Feuer Zug]

So you built this like a real castle, over time with various additions and modifications. That gives it character. For the size, you have quite good details while still retaining the ability to play with it (City minifigs with antenna not included). The modularity is a nice addition, allowing for further expansion or reconfiguration at your whims.

[jtooker]

This is a wonderful castle!  All the components are interesting and you did a great job carrying the style across all those parts. 

[hoppa]

This is very awesome indeed. Funnily enough, the fact that you build on it fur such a long time makes it look like an actual castle that has been added to over the period of decades and ages. Really cool this!

[Yoggington]

Stunning work.

You have a new flickr follower.

[Krol Zmija Sebastian]

Inspiring, I hope to build my own castle someday. It'll be a black castle, too. 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Awesome project!  

[Rjbricks]

Woah, that’s awesome.

Boringly practical question: where do you put it? Do you have a special room just to store it? :) 

[GeoBrick]

A beautiful creation.
Maybe the only thing lacking are underground spaces or a rock riddled with caves adjacent to the castle for the Dwarves? At least, I only see a human and elvish section in the build.
In any case, my hat is off for you, good Sir.

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Fantastic castle. Why did I buy the official one - I should have bought this set!  

[kodlovag]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:29 PM, brimbolet said:

Wow, this is simply great. And I might say, I like the concept behind this castle much much more than Lego's own anniversary set! Especially the addition of a medieval port, since Lego neglected the sea shores and river banks for years unfortunately, and castles/fortresses were always built to control various merchant routes after all. Also the proportions of the fortress tower with the smaller entry gate are superb and a very realistic presentation of medieval donjon/castle keep. Thank You for sharing your pics!

The anniversary castle is limited by it's 4500+ bricks. This sounds funny, because that is a high number compared to an average set, but this castle has 10000+ parts. A bit more, than double of the anniversary castle. But basically I agree, although Lego could make a better one, it is still the best castle set ever released.

On 8/20/2022 at 2:00 PM, Yoggington said:

Stunning work.

You have a new flickr follower.

11 hours ago, Viper Knight said:

Inspiring, I hope to build my own castle someday. It'll be a black castle, too. 

10 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Awesome project!  

On 7/20/2022 at 12:23 AM, SirBlake said:

Love it. The round towers of the gatehouse are very successful, the dark grey on top of the battlements is a great look, the port and waterway layout is nice and the treetop round table concept is brilliant. 

Both concept and execution are really strong with this castle. The photos are quite good as well, which really helps. 

 

On 7/20/2022 at 1:48 PM, Feuer Zug said:

So you built this like a real castle, over time with various additions and modifications. That gives it character. For the size, you have quite good details while still retaining the ability to play with it (City minifigs with antenna not included). The modularity is a nice addition, allowing for further expansion or reconfiguration at your whims.

 

On 7/20/2022 at 4:18 PM, jtooker said:

This is a wonderful castle!  All the components are interesting and you did a great job carrying the style across all those parts. 

 

On 7/23/2022 at 7:29 AM, hoppa said:

This is very awesome indeed. Funnily enough, the fact that you build on it fur such a long time makes it look like an actual castle that has been added to over the period of decades and ages. Really cool this!

Thank you very much for all the comments, I'm glad you like it. There is a lot of work in this castle, and it is a really pleasant feeling that many of you are interested.

8 hours ago, Rjbricks said:

Boringly practical question: where do you put it? Do you have a special room just to store it? :) 

I have no dedicated lego room, I'm so jealous when see what others have. It was placed on my coffee table at the middle of the living room for a year or more. Now I scattered the segments into vitrines, wherever I could find enough space for them.

2 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

A beautiful creation.
Maybe the only thing lacking are underground spaces or a rock riddled with caves adjacent to the castle for the Dwarves? At least, I only see a human and elvish section in the build.
In any case, my hat is off for you, good Sir.

Originally I wanted to add many things to the castle, including a citadel at a raised ground, where there could be underground features. But it would consume too many bricks, and finally I not even started to design it.

But, under the Old Tower, there is a small emerald mine behind the stables. The big rock is visible outside, the internal part is the mine. I'm not sure if it is visible on any of the images, including the old ones, but the mine is there. Unfortunately I don't have many dwarves, the Fantasy Era finished before I started the castle, while the Hobbit ones were too expensive. All the dwarf parts are too expensive now.

[dignow]

Amazing castle - would definitely use this as inspiration for my Bad Guy Base Castle!  

[TeriXeri]

The "outlines" on the top of the towers really make it stand out. 

[Merlo]

This is amazing. The contrast between the two sides, that tree, the port... this is all I ever wanted and Lego never delivered.

[natesroom]

On 7/19/2022 at 2:02 PM, kodlovag said:

I came back from my dark ages at 2011, when I purchased the Medieval Market Village and the Mill Village Raid. These exceptional castle sets inspired me to build my own castle. The castle, which I have never had during my childhood. I can remember the serious sword fights between my city minifigs, holding antennas in hand. So the castle was something missing from my life, and which had to be corrected.

I bought these same sets and i never felt like i could build my own.

[natesroom]

On the turrets, how do they connect? I'm wondering how those have been constructed i find the concentric rings lager then the panels interesting.

Edited September 27, 2022 by natesroom

[kodlovag]

15 hours ago, natesroom said:

On the turrets, how do they connect? I'm wondering how those have been constructed i find the concentric rings lager then the panels interesting.

Everhold_01 by Zsolt Nagy, on Flickr

The dark gray 1x4 brick has 4 studs on side.

Edited September 27, 2022 by kodlovag

[natesroom]

thats phenomenal...did you design all of it before building (and as you remade and added pieces over time) or did you compile the design after building?

[natesroom]

Did i get this right? I didn't add the extra spacer on the bottom. I was fascinated by the bracket use.

 

[kodlovag]

15 hours ago, natesroom said:

Did i get this right? I didn't add the extra spacer on the bottom. I was fascinated by the bracket use.

Seems OK.

I always design first, and trying to match the new build to the existing ones. Then buy the bricks. Later, if I want to upgrade something, I start with modifying the model.