[Freebuild] The River Journey to Faeril

[MrLind]

Gyrdher has left his parents and the family farm to seek adventure in Avalonia. At a market place near the river, he met a merchant who was getting ready to travel with his goods to Faeril. Gyrdher asked to come along and offered to row as he has no money to pay with. The merchant, who did not want Gyrdher to row, let him come along without payment.

The journey went through the landscape of Avalonia. The river wound its way through a beautiful landscape of green fields and huge oak forests. Gyrdher stood in the stern and took in everything he saw and enjoyed the journey. He has never before been this far away from home. His stomach tingled with excitement and curiosity. During the whole afternoon they were rowing quietly down the river.

At one point, the river narrows and the water starts rushing. A ruin from an older fortification was located on the river bank. Gyrdher was fascinated by the ancient ruin. The crew on the other hand did not have time to take in the view. They had total focus on the river. This was the most difficult passage of the entire journey. The narrow river and the ruin that has partially fallen into the river creating an underwater reef, makes this part extremely difficult to pass.

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The crew has made this trip many times before. But their concentration were on the edge. They know of countless of other boats that have sunk due to inattention at this location.

After a few intense minutes, they passed the narrow rushing part of the river. They leave the ruin behind and the boat floats ones again on the quiet and calm river. The forest thinned out. Further away beyond green fields, the outlines of a town was seen.

The merchant turns to Gyrdher.

“There Gyrdher, you have your city, Faeril.“

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by MrLind
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[Kai NRG]

I was hoping to get a better look at this boat and it doesn't disappoint, the front curve with those new angled slopes is really neat!  I love the little bit of foam at the bow and the trees are great too!

[NOD]

Very nice diorama! I like the boat a lot too, it is very well built.

[Simon_S]

wow thats a very nice boat. the curves look awesome! and the landscaping is also beautiful! great first freebuild, it's nice to have you here at the guilds :D.

[MrLind]

Thanks for all the positive comments. I am thrilled you love the boat. The angle slopes are very nice to work with and are well suited for the bow.

The boat is inspired by a boat found in northern Germany. It is from around year 320 and it was a rowing boat for the Baltic Sea with 30 oars!

The Nydam Boat

My original MOC has 10 oars, to give the right proportion. But to fit into a baseplate (32 studs), I reduced it to 4 oars.

[Grover]

This is a brilliant build!  You are new to us, but it is obvious you are an experienced builder.  There are a lot of great techniques in here, and some subtle aspects to the build that are really nice.  First, I really like your water.  You did an amazing job with the wake of the boat, and the staggering of the tiles helps break up a repetitive scheme.  A bit of color layering under the trans pieces helps with depth.  The snot tree trunks look good, and the regular square shape to the ruins help them look like ruins and not just rocks.  You also did well to limit your greens, which makes the scene more believable.  I like your color choice for the boat, not too bright, and as others have said, the detail on the hull is very impressive.  I particularly like the all Lego picture through the trees (pic 3).  If I would have any suggestions it would be to add a bit of light for the photographs to show a bit more contrast, and perhaps add some foliage to the trees.  That last bit is something someone told me years ago, and I found to be true: you can't have too many leaf pieces on the trees.  Overall, this is a fantastic build, and I enjoyed the story as well.  I look forward to seeing your next builds!

[Gideon]

Lovely build! I particularly like the shape of the boat and the great looking bow wave

(Once again, great to see more Swebrick builders in GoH  )

[MrLind]

On 11/15/2022 at 4:49 AM, Grover said:

… That last bit is something someone told me years ago, and I found to be true: you can't have too many leaf pieces on the trees.  Overall, this is a fantastic build, and I enjoyed the story as well.  I look forward to seeing your next builds!

Thanks @Grover for your detailed review of the build. It is this type of elaborate reviews that makes me evolve as a builder. And feel at home within the Eurobricks community.

Building trees was a new experience. To create an organic, natural form, was hard. The tips to add more green leafs shall I definitely do next time. I was also struggling with branches. They are all branching out from the same level of the main trunk. A variation of the branching point may also improve the build. Also something to work with in the next build.

Edited November 20, 2022 by MrLind

[Grover]

8 hours ago, MrLind said:

Thanks @Grover for your detailed review of the build. It is this type of elaborate reviews that makes me evolve as a builder. And feel at home within the Eurobricks community.

Building trees was a new experience. To create an organic, natural form, was hard. The tips to add more green leafs shall I definitely do next time. I was also struggling with branches. They are all branching out from the same level of the main trunk. A variation of the branching point may also improve the build. Also something to work with in the next build.

You are welcome!  I joined Eurobricks because I wanted to grow as a builder, and there are a lot of really awesome builders on here who provide feedback, so I try to give as detailed feedback as I can.

Trees and other organics are the hardest thing to make, anyone here can tell you.  We all struggle with it.  Trying to make a full leaf, branching tree that has the strength to hold the leaf pieces and still looks good is really hard.  Full Plate has some tutorials out there on some smaller trees that look good, so it may be worth a look if you have some time. 

[LordDan]

Great build! As others have mentioned, the shaping of the boat is great, as is the detail with the wave and wake in the water. As for the trees, I really like the one on the left, although it could benefit from some more leaves as Grover said. I’m not a fan of the middle limbs on the left tree, I think they stick out too far and are too straight, they look a little unnatural. I also struggle with building trees , I usually just use thin small trees to try to avoid the problem . Also, for the photos embedded in the post, you can remove the part that says “IMG_0428.jpg by Mattias Lind, on Flickr” , which I think improves the presentation a bit, by deleting everything after in the code that’s posted when embedding the image. 

On 11/20/2022 at 4:05 PM, Grover said:

You are welcome!  I joined Eurobricks because I wanted to grow as a builder, and there are a lot of really awesome builders on here who provide feedback, so I try to give as detailed feedback as I can.  

In my opinion that’s the best part of GoH, the community of builders that give feedback and help you to improve your building skills.
 

[MrLind]

Thanks LoardDan for the tips to remove unneeded links at all images. The images are more clear without them.

I agree that the limbs are too straight out of the trunk. I will act as an alborist and with my axe cut down limbs which grows unnaturally.  As you write, tree is not easy to build. Time to rebrick.