GoH 10 B: New Belynia

[Simon_S]

NEW BELYNIA

This is my entry to the celebrating guilds of historica, final contest, category B "Old but gold". As you might know, I've had a long time in which I didn't build anything... also I didn't lurk around. I just thought that was it and I didn't really expect to come back to that hobby again... but now I'm here and when I saw that category I knew that would be a lot of fun. I decided to build Belynia, the first build that I brought to a convention. It was exhibited at SteinCHenwelt 2014, organized by SwissLUG. Now almost 10 years passed since then, and there's a lot to improve about this build.

Here's the original one:

You can see more pictures of the old one in my flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjTtv9B3

I tried to improve this by making the buildings more clean. They don't have that many different textures as the original and so the buildings look pretty clean. I tried to include some details, footprints and even minifigure placing from the first build. Also, the first build was placed in Avalonia, so I "mitgaridified" it. Can you spot the simmilarities between the two builds? Let me know in the comments - that would be cool.

 

Here is a link to the flickr album for more photos: https://flickr.com/photos/buurli_burri/albums/72177720303805456 

 

I also wanted to use this build for my ongoing story, so here you go ;-).

 

 

Chapter 1: A Mitgardian Adventure https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/191046-a-mitgardian-adventure/

Chapter 2: Meeting with Haldor, the Master Builder of Bridges https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/191588-meeting-with-haldor-the-master-builder-of-bridges/

Chapter 3: The Hideout https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/192000-the-hideout/

Chapter 4: The Cake https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/192047-the-cake/

 

...

Simon, Ingrid and Stephan were still on the run. Simon knew that he had to prove his innocence and that he needed to show the world that Haldor was the bad guy. So they looked at the map he still had and they went to the castle...

Stephan: Do they know who we are? Do they know that their allies are chasing us?

Simon: I don't think... not yet. Otherwise we couldn't have walked through that village without that the soldiers followed us. They didn't recognize us.

Ingrid: Not yet. It won't take long until messengers or soldiers arrive. We should use our time before they find out who we are.

Stephan: You are right. We should just try to get into the castle by looking friendly. He made a weird grimace.

Ingrid: Good morning Soldiers.

Guards: Stop! What are you looking for?

Simon: We want to talk to the ruler of New Belynia

Guards: He's in the tower, you're allowed to pass.

Simon to Stephan and Ingrid: This all feels so familiar. I think I have been here before. I know these buildings. I've seen this small pond in front of the castle. I just can't remember when. I guess it must have been in a different life...

Ingrid: Stop being so sentimental. We have a mission to complete. I think the best thing would be to split up.

Stephan: I agree. Simon, you should meet the prince and talk to him. Ask him why they have built this caslte. Ingrid, you go and look in the house in the front. Search for anything suspicious. And I will do the same with the house in the back. We will meet here outside of the castle in one hour.

Simon, he subtly lowered his voice to sound more serious: Good day. My name is Maximilian. I'm a wealthy businessman from the northern shore of Mitgardia. I'm here to seek your advice.

Prince Harald: I'm Prince Harald. And this with the blue robe is my brother Prince Hendrik. What are you looking for exactly?

Simon: I see that you've made a lot of money. I only have a small sheep business and not much assets. But I would like to expand my business... how can I start this?

Those three, Harald, Hendrik and Simon talked a lot about money. Simon looked around in the tower. He noticed how much gold they have. And it wasn't cast to coins but looked like it was in its natural state. How is it possible that somebody has so much gold and silver he asked himself.

In the meantime, Ingrid visited the house in the front with the beautiful blue and yellow banner on it. There she found a true berserk.

Ingrid: Wow, you look so strong. Are you working out?

Frans: I don't work out. I fight. In battles. I also don't talk. I hit. With my axe.

Ingrid: Oh I see. Your axe looks very sharp. Where are all these helmets from? And this silver? Is this your prey from the many fights?

Frans: Frans doesn't like to talk. You go away now, stranger.

And without finding out more, Ingrid had to leave the house. But she wondered: Why does he have three dwarven helmets? There has never been a war between dwarves and humans right?

As Stephan came closer to the house in the back, he could already smell it: roasted chicken!

Carefully he peeked through the door. There were two beautiful rich ladies. And they had so much food. More than they could ever eat without their corsets exploding. They talked in a language that was way too difficult for Stephan to understand. But what he saw was impressive: They live in abundance. He had seen enough. He left.

Some time later, the three met again.

Simon: They have gold. So much gold!

Ingrid: And silver!

Stephan: And food!

Simon: Could you find out, where it comes from? It's not yet cast into coins... I have no idea where it could come from. But there must be a mine or something near this castle.

Ingrid screamed: I know it! I had a flash of inspiration. I met Frans and he didn't want to say where the silver comes from. But he had three dwarven helmets as trophies in his room. They must have allied dwarves who gave it to them.

Stephan: No dwarf would ever give away his gold. If it comes from the dwarves, they must have taken it away from them brutally.

Ingid: But you can't just defeat the dwarves in a battle... they are way stronger than we humans and everybody knows it.

Simon: Wasn't there a small cave behind the haven? I have the feeling that this could be the solution for our mistery.

Stephan: That's impossible! They enslaved the dwarves and now they have to work for the humans. To make them even richer than they already are.

Simon: Now we know. That's why Haldor built this castle here. It's not about controlling the villages of the region. It's all about the dwarves and about the gold.

Ingrid: But why aren't they fighting? They could easily overpower those few soldiers and take the whole castle.

Stephan: Because they are drunk. Haven't you seen and smelled the distillery in front of the mine?

Ingrid: I'm going to take a look.

She sneaked up and looked in the house. There she could see a pot full of blueberries. And right next to it a pretty huge distillation kettle.

Ingrid was very excited as she came back: It's right. Stephan was right. They have build a distillery. And they make schnaps out of the blueberries. It's so clever. You can find those blueberries everywhere in Mitgardia. And everybody ate too much of them as a child and that's why many grown up men don't like them anymore. But when you make schnaps out of them, you can...

Simon: You can easily get a whole dwarves tribe addicted. And once they were addicted, they couldn't live without that blueberry schnaps.

Stephan: That's so mean. They knew the weak point of the dwarves and now they are all slaves.

Simon: But not only the dwarves. Have you seen the humans at the dock?

Simon: They also have a problem with blueberry schnaps. They are also addicted. It seems like that alcohol has destroyed the whole culture of this village. We have to do something against it, and I also have an idea...

Stephan: Let's burn down everything! We storm the castle. And burn the distillery and all the schnaps.

Ingrid: Yes let's burn it!

Simon: No, that wouldn't help much. We need a long-term solution. You remember, we still have that good old wine with us. It is like a magic bottle. Whoever drinks of it, will do whatever we say to them. We could change the mind of those two princes, Harald and Hendrik.

Stephan: That sounds good. And if it doesn't work, we can still kill them. I watch from the back and I'm prepared for everything.

And with this great detailed plan, our three heroes went back to the castle. They came to the princes...

Prince Hendrik: It's you again. What do you want? I think I've wasted enough time with you.

Prince Harald: Go away, low-income earner!

Simon: We've got a gift for you, prince. I wanted to thank you for your advice you gave me earlier. It's a great bottle, which aged for many years.

As they drunk from the wine, their eyes started to turn rapidly. They looked very confused. Their whole bodies started shaking.

Hendrik: What should we do?

Harald: Please give us your order.

Simon: Prince Harald, prince Hendrik. From now on, you will free the dwarves. You will no longer produce blueberry schnaps. You will no longer enslave anyone, be it humans or dwarves. You will take care of the widows and orphans. You will share all your wealth. And this castle will no longer be a military base, but a refuge for the homeless.

Hendrik: As you wish, milord.

Surprised by what just happend, the three heroes left the castle. While leaving, Stephan whispered to Ingrid: Crazy, it worked! I wouldn't have expected that.

Ingrid: Yes. I'm curious how this place will look in a few years. I bet this is going to be the most peaceful village in whole Mitgardia. Imagine a ruler who really does what Simon commanded. A ruler who doesn't oppress his people, but cares for them. One who takes care for the poor. A king who's not making war, but peace. That would be a great king. I would surely follow him...

As she was talking, many soldiers appeared.

Soldier: Stop! Halt! No step further!

From all sides, soldiers surrounded them. They had no chance and dropped their weapons.

Their persecutors have catched up. They finally found them. Is this the end? Will Simon and his friends die now?

Then they heard a voice from the castle walls:

"Let them go! They are innocent..." Prince Harald cried. He explained them everything what was going on and that Simon made him a better prince. He gave order to stop looking for those three. So they finally could be free again and visit every place they wanted. This was Simons chance to set out for his home. But first, he needed to prove his dignity to inherit his fathers flock.

To be continued...

 

 

Here is a link to the flickr album for more photos: https://flickr.com/photos/buurli_burri/albums/72177720303805456 

Thanks for looking and reading ;-).

 

Edit: Forgot to give credits... credit for the tree design to full plate (https://fullplatebuilds.com/2018/04/14/spruce-tutorial/). And the staggered roof is something that I've done many times. But I've never done it as good as Sean and Steph Mayo ;-) (https://flickr.com/photos/legocy/19464267321/in/dateposted/)

 

Edit 2: Here some more detailed pictures of it ;-). I thought I add these since many cool things haven't been shown by the ones I could include in the story.

Edited November 19, 2022 by Simon_S

[Kai NRG]

What a great upgrade!  It's really cool what you did to the colors and textures, the new houses look so good especially that one with a curved roof!  The sheep pens are also cute and I like the move from green to sand green.  Great rockwork and some excellent interiors.  Your X in the tudor walls also looks pretty complex.  I think the only thing I liked better about the old one was the castle wall, it was a bit more interesting with the arches and the slopes on top, but the size of the new castle and the two buildings on it are very cool!

[Petric_G]

Simon thats great!

I can good remember your Avalonian Belynia, whitch I saw live back in 2014. I meet you there first and I also remember your legendary MOC-Table-drop-off 

 

I like your story telling and of coures all the smal details in your build. I saw you still make this trans chees slope mosaics… And your little sheeps. And the green swampy pound👍🏼
 

This build somehow force me to build something for Historica again…

Edited November 20, 2022 by Petric_G

[Vliebricker]

What a great settlement you've created, Simon_S, 😃👍and a dito story with so many nice details, like the duck in the pond. I find your roof of the X-shaped a splendid job. Can't wait for additional chapters.

[Simon_S]

On 11/20/2022 at 12:37 AM, Kai NRG said:

What a great upgrade!  It's really cool what you did to the colors and textures, the new houses look so good especially that one with a curved roof!  The sheep pens are also cute and I like the move from green to sand green.  Great rockwork and some excellent interiors.  Your X in the tudor walls also looks pretty complex.  I think the only thing I liked better about the old one was the castle wall, it was a bit more interesting with the arches and the slopes on top, but the size of the new castle and the two buildings on it are very cool!

Thank you for the kind words :D. The original Castle was actually a bit larger than this one (though not highter). I intended to go for a simpler / cleaner style with this castle instead of just copy what I did with the old one. So I built like something quite different from the original (also by using old grey bricks). What makes it look similar for me is especially the angled timbered house in the front and almost everything else is changed.

 

On 11/20/2022 at 6:37 AM, Petric_G said:

Simon thats great!

I can good remember your Avalonian Belynia, whitch I saw live back in 2014. I meet you there first and I also remember your legendary MOC-Table-drop-off 

 

I like your story telling and of coures all the smal details in your build. I saw you still make this trans chees slope mosaics… And your little sheeps. And the green swampy pound👍🏼
 

This build somehow force me to build something for Historica again…

Thank you :D. It means a lot to hear these kind words from you. You should totally build something for the guilds too . I remember back in the days, the guilds were the place to be where so many great builders showed of. And also a place of inspiration... And now it's just so quiet around here. Let's change that again .

The storytelling was actually difficult in this one... I had an idea how I wanted to continue with the journey of my sigfig and there was also the idea of building for this category in the contest. so combining these two interests was difficutl at some times.

21 hours ago, Vliebricker said:

What a great settlement you've created, Simon_S, 😃👍and a dito story with so many nice details, like the duck in the pond. I find your roof of the X-shaped a splendid job. Can't wait for additional chapters.

thank you :D. the tudor crosses where a pain - especially in the castle. They were difficult because I also wanted them to be visible in the interiors... that meant that there was no support in the back. The haven doesn't have an interior, so the X were much easier there.

[NOD]

Great ending to the story!  I like the many different buildings. I like the castle and the houses in both versions. But the mountain with the waterfall is nicer in the new diorama.

[zoth33]

Just wanted to say everything looks great.  Loads of details and great looking scenes.  I will be taking a closer look and comment further on all the great little details and designs in these builds.  

[Krol Zmija Sebastian]

Great intentions, superb. I like it!

[_TLG_]

Very nice build with lots of details! I like the different roof techniques and the water technique especially.

[Grover]

Wow, this build is outstanding!  There are so many great details here that I love to go back and look at repeatedly.  There are some marked topographical changes as well as structural changes (the castle is the most pronounced), but the idea still feels the same, which is great in my opinion.  The change in color palette (I'm assuming due to the greater abundance of specific colors now) adds some nice texture and mood to the new build.  I love how you have made the 'weep' effect from water running down under the windows in the castle to make it appear older.  The larger mountain I think is a good change as well, in part due to making the spring and waterfall more believable in an otherwise flat landscape, but it also helps break things up without dominating the build.  The old fantasy era mini torsos look great, and I like the cheese slope timber in the Tudor frame construction.  The full interiors are fantastic, and you have some NPU (the goggles as smoke) as well as some nice techniques that add to a realistic look (the leaf woven pine tree with bar trunk), and some nice architectural features like the barrels as ornately carved corner timbers.  The brewing contraption cracks me up, and I like the mermaid tail stuffed into a crate to make it look like part of a larger fish.  The waterfall looks a little unusual in that the final fall appears to rise up just before the spill over, which doesn't quite look natural to me.  The water would likely either fill up the dip before it or pour out the lower sides if there are some, but this is a pretty small point in a large build and not easily seen.  I love the brick built sheep, and the wheat field is spectacular.  I may have to borrow that technique for one of my builds!  You do a nice job with the brown foliage by the waterside as well, and I really like the brick built tapestry hanging down.  Although the 'not fully pressed down' and 'staggered' roof tile techniques aren't new, you do them well, and it's great to see them combined for variation.  And on top of this we get to read a fun story too!  Love it!

[Simon_S]

On 11/21/2022 at 10:20 PM, NOD said:

Great ending to the story!  I like the many different buildings. I like the castle and the houses in both versions. But the mountain with the waterfall is nicer in the new diorama.

 

Thank you :D. The mountain is also way bigger than the last one. I remember how I was short on parts when I built the first one... now my dbg parts also run out, but the whole thing is much larger. Also, in the previous version the backside of the mountain was just a plain gray wall - now it has the dwarves mine in it :D.

 

On 11/22/2022 at 1:49 AM, zoth33 said:

Just wanted to say everything looks great.  Loads of details and great looking scenes.  I will be taking a closer look and comment further on all the great little details and designs in these builds.  

Thank you :D: Looking forward to that comment ;-). It's hard to take pictures / show all the details of such a large build.

 

On 11/22/2022 at 11:56 PM, Viper Knight said:

Great intentions, superb. I like it!

Thank you :D.

 

On 11/24/2022 at 10:31 AM, _TLG_ said:

Very nice build with lots of details! I like the different roof techniques and the water technique especially.

Thanks :D. I like builds with variety, so I don't like doing the same roof rechnique for 5 houses and try to do something different with every house ;-).

 

On 11/26/2022 at 4:26 AM, Grover said:

Wow, this build is outstanding!  There are so many great details here that I love to go back and look at repeatedly.  There are some marked topographical changes as well as structural changes (the castle is the most pronounced), but the idea still feels the same, which is great in my opinion.  The change in color palette (I'm assuming due to the greater abundance of specific colors now) adds some nice texture and mood to the new build.  I love how you have made the 'weep' effect from water running down under the windows in the castle to make it appear older.  The larger mountain I think is a good change as well, in part due to making the spring and waterfall more believable in an otherwise flat landscape, but it also helps break things up without dominating the build.  The old fantasy era mini torsos look great, and I like the cheese slope timber in the Tudor frame construction.  The full interiors are fantastic, and you have some NPU (the goggles as smoke) as well as some nice techniques that add to a realistic look (the leaf woven pine tree with bar trunk), and some nice architectural features like the barrels as ornately carved corner timbers.  The brewing contraption cracks me up, and I like the mermaid tail stuffed into a crate to make it look like part of a larger fish.  The waterfall looks a little unusual in that the final fall appears to rise up just before the spill over, which doesn't quite look natural to me.  The water would likely either fill up the dip before it or pour out the lower sides if there are some, but this is a pretty small point in a large build and not easily seen.  I love the brick built sheep, and the wheat field is spectacular.  I may have to borrow that technique for one of my builds!  You do a nice job with the brown foliage by the waterside as well, and I really like the brick built tapestry hanging down.  Although the 'not fully pressed down' and 'staggered' roof tile techniques aren't new, you do them well, and it's great to see them combined for variation.  And on top of this we get to read a fun story too!  Love it!

Thank you very much Grover. I really appreciate a comment like this. Crazy! I've rarely read something so encouraging as what you just wrote. I love that you took the time to look at all the details and to point them out. Thank you! Also, you are totally right about the waterfall. Even some friends wo aren't AFOLs noticed that. Since the first person said it it bothers me too hahaha.

[Divine]

Hey @Simon_S this is incredible, amazing work. You've really inspired me and I'm sure many others to follow and do something similar of our own. May I ask out of curiosity, how did you do the wheat field? I love it and am trying to figure out how it's done can you please explain how you managed it? 

 

Great work again and Merry Christmas!

 

Sincerely,

Divine

[Simon_S]

Thank you for the kind Words :-). The wheat field technique is very simple. The bricks are just placed upside down / inverted and then the round part of the technic connector is put in there... sometimes more sometimes less to get some variety. I was lazy in this part of the build so the bricks just really lay stud on stud in there. I didn't even care to put tiles in between or to build a 180 degree snot. since I just built this to display at home and for the pictures I thought that gravity would work enough in this case.

Have a nice day and merry Christmas! Simon

[Divine]

Oh fair enough I thought it was just that, though regardless it's very smart! 

Thank you for the response Simon :) And you're very welcome!

 

[soccerkid6]

I remember Belynia well, so it's super fun to examine your new rendition! The updated houses are incredible, especially the one with the
steep arcing roofline

Smart choice to add more elevation to the cliffs this time, and your dirt paths and animal pens make for a lovely pastoral setting outside the fortress. Very cool details in the dwarven caves too!

Edited January 14, 2023 by soccerkid6

[Simon_S]

On 1/14/2023 at 4:30 PM, soccerkid6 said:

I remember Belynia well, so it's super fun to examine your new rendition! The updated houses are incredible, especially the one with the
steep arcing roofline

Smart choice to add more elevation to the cliffs this time, and your dirt paths and animal pens make for a lovely pastoral setting outside the fortress. Very cool details in the dwarven caves too!

Thanks mate! It's nice to hear such kind words from you. I also remember Belynia well, since it was the first build I brought to an exhibition. I also remember how I used such a large part of my collection back then... and now I'm even able to build a MOC on this scale without normal green and everything in sand green. Crazy!

[Ecclesiastes]

Awesome entry, so much to see. I always enjoy dioramas like these. It's easily recognizable as a remake, although that old one was already stunning. And it's fun to see how your techniques have evolved over the years as well by seeing details like the rockwork and the roofs.