GoH 10 C : The Wayfarers' Den

[LittleJohn]

Winter time means castle building time! Isaac and I collaborated on this tavern, building it over a three week period. Building time was pretty sporadic in those weeks due to the holidays, but we had lots of fun with it. We were primarily inspired by this artwork from Jinwon Yun. All the windows are lit to add to the inviting warm look contrasting with the frigid winter environment. It is an entry into the Trading Places category of Brickscalibur and the Miscellaneous category of Guilds of Historica anniversary challenge.

We’d be curious to hear if you can pick out what sections each of us built!

The Wayfarers’ Den is a well known tavern nestled into a wooded valley near the crossroads between Valholl, Omurtag, and Daydelon. Being a full day’s journey from the nearest town, it provides a natural rest point and warm refuge for the tradesmen and travelers trekking through Mitgardia’s frigid mountains. And with its well equipped larder and large central hearth, customers are often tempted into staying an extra day or two.

While Glorfindel has often stopped there on his journeys, he always eagerly welcomes the sight of its sturdy walls amidst the pines. Due to his young age, Eryl has seen comparatively few taverns. And most were modest affairs when compared to the Den's three stories. His first visit was an experience he will always remember. Cold and exhausted from a day's journey, he was relieved to hear Glorfindel say they would stop for the night. So weary was he , that he hardly noticed the inn until a stable hand helped him off his horse and urged him indoors. The warmth, light and laughter inside quickly reinvigorated him - along with a heaping helping of stew. The night progressed and he listened in rapture to Mitgardians from all over the country swapping stories and telling tall tales. Finally he followed Glorfindel upstairs and tumbled into a bed beneath thick furs to sleep soundly.

Thanks for looking, feedback always welcome!

[Simon_S]

Wow, this is such a masterpiece. The whole build is just full with fun details. I love the structure in the walls. Also using lbg plates and tiles incorporated in a dbg wall works really well and gives the feeling of larger bricks. I also like what you guys did with the triangular shield thingies - that works really well and looks so cool! The snow on the roof is so nicely done with many many different tooth and horn pieces. They work well. I was wondering if you guys tried to make them vertical on the angled roof on the right. It's a problem I've encountered myself... that an angled roof gives angled snow / icicles. It would be cooler if they would point straight down and not be angled like the roof... but I didn't come up with a cool solution yet.

BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO on this incredible masterpiece! It looks awesome. And the forest is an awesome backdrop for that legendary building. Greetings, Simon

[T-86(swe)]

Really nice build! Especially the variety of windows, I dont think I’ve sen minifig-hands in windows before. Very well done! Also digging the NPU of hammers for the doorframe. 

[NOD]

This is a beautiful tavern in a winter landscape!   I really like the architecture of the building.

[Kai NRG]

A wonderful build--some really brilliant techniques in here.  Great combination of arches and curved slopes on the right wall for the tudor, brilliant way to do the overhanging roof with brackets, and hats off for managing to create a new stonework technique after all these years of castle building!  Also gotta mention the arch around the door with hammers and the triangle texture on the overhanging bit of the second story.  The overall impact of the MOC is really fresh and crisp!  And I really love how you guys have built yourself a niche of winter themed collab creations and become masters at it!

[Vliebricker]

Right, LittleJohn, what an awesome detailed winter build you've made here! Great. I see a lot of interesting used bricks in your tavern. Love to see more detailed pictures. 😃👍

[zoth33]

Did you get the name Glorfindel from LOTR inspiration?  The building looks great.  I like the colors used and the texturing of the walls is nicely done.  The snow looks fantastic here and really is the standout part of the build for me.  Great job.  

[Umbra-Manis]

You have been absolutely knocking it out of the park lately John, this is the kind of work I'd love to have on a nice puzzle for the holidays! The snow, the hammer arch, the different textures, so many good details!

[LordDan]

Wow! The whole scene is just full of great details! Some favorites are the various window techniques, the triangle road sign woodwork, and the inverted brown slopes incorporated into the wall for angled tudor sections. I'm also intrigued that you guys incorporated aqua into the white snow section, I usually only do that by accident  but it looks great here!

[Grover]

Wow, this build is crazy!  The size, and all the detail!  I love the detail on the tudor style, from the dormer windows to the triangle pieces.  The brick built doors are superb, and I like the firewood outside.  The steep roof comments on how much snowfall the area gets and the snow looks good on the ground around.  I'm not entirely sure how I like the aqua implying ice on the main part of the roof since I rarely see ice like that there (although trans clear may work), but it does look good on the ground.  I would love to see the icicles vertical since they would be dripping to the ground, but I'm not sure how I'd do that given the pieces available.  The second picture with the mini shoveling snow, with the building out of focus in the background looks like it's out of a movie!  Really amazing work.

[Exetrius]

Only 9 replies so far?! Either this build got snowed over by all the other entries, or people just lost their tongue at the sight of this.  The latter happened to me. My goodness guys...  This could come is straight out of a picture book, the whole thing just lives when looking at it! Architecture is top notch of course, and also my congratulations on the state of the art stone technique!   Also, is that light royal blue you used on the roof? Looks great! You aced the landscape and editing too, and some great writing to boot! 

Also, let's give this a go:

On 1/9/2023 at 5:50 PM, LittleJohn said:

We’d be curious to hear if you can pick out what sections each of us built!

John:
- Second floor and up for the main section of the tavern (roof slope facing forward)
- Roof of the stables
- Snowscape
- editing

Isaac:
- Left section of the tavern (roof facing sideways)
- ground floor of the main section
- trees
- minifigure arrangement
- photography

Please tell me if I'm remotely close! 

[Ecclesiastes]

As a moc it's already stunning, but the editing takes this one to a whole different level. It's just beautiful all over, well done!

[soccerkid6]

On 1/9/2023 at 7:32 PM, Simon_S said:

Wow, this is such a masterpiece. The whole build is just full with fun details. I love the structure in the walls. Also using lbg plates and tiles incorporated in a dbg wall works really well and gives the feeling of larger bricks. I also like what you guys did with the triangular shield thingies - that works really well and looks so cool! The snow on the roof is so nicely done with many many different tooth and horn pieces. They work well. I was wondering if you guys tried to make them vertical on the angled roof on the right. It's a problem I've encountered myself... that an angled roof gives angled snow / icicles. It would be cooler if they would point straight down and not be angled like the roof... but I didn't come up with a cool solution yet.

BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO on this incredible masterpiece! It looks awesome. And the forest is an awesome backdrop for that legendary building. Greetings, Simon

Many thanks Simon! Stonework of this general style has been something I've had in mind for years, but the introduction of 1x1 brackets made it so much easier to achieve
Good point about the icicles, it was bothering me too, but didn't have time to try and find a better solution to get them hanging vertically. Something to keep in mind for next time

On 1/9/2023 at 9:54 PM, T-86(swe) said:

Really nice build! Especially the variety of windows, I dont think I’ve sen minifig-hands in windows before. Very well done! Also digging the NPU of hammers for the doorframe. 

Thank you, minifigure hands can be great for some extra fine detailing

On 1/9/2023 at 11:27 PM, NOD said:

This is a beautiful tavern in a winter landscape!   I really like the architecture of the building.

 

Thanks!

On 1/9/2023 at 11:44 PM, Kai NRG said:

A wonderful build--some really brilliant techniques in here.  Great combination of arches and curved slopes on the right wall for the tudor, brilliant way to do the overhanging roof with brackets, and hats off for managing to create a new stonework technique after all these years of castle building!  Also gotta mention the arch around the door with hammers and the triangle texture on the overhanging bit of the second story.  The overall impact of the MOC is really fresh and crisp!  And I really love how you guys have built yourself a niche of winter themed collab creations and become masters at it!

Thanks Kai! The brackets under the roofline were one of those 'aha' moments

John came up with that triangle pattern and it looks so good as elaborate wood carving

On 1/10/2023 at 12:22 AM, Vliebricker said:

Right, LittleJohn, what an awesome detailed winter build you've made here! Great. I see a lot of interesting used bricks in your tavern. Love to see more detailed pictures. 😃👍

Thank you, we didn't end up getting a lot of different photos of this model, but will likely cover some of the designs in future tutorials.

On 1/10/2023 at 4:42 AM, zoth33 said:

Did you get the name Glorfindel from LOTR inspiration?  The building looks great.  I like the colors used and the texturing of the walls is nicely done.  The snow looks fantastic here and really is the standout part of the build for me.  Great job.  

Yes I did take the name Glorfindel from LoTR, way back in the days I first joined Guilds of Historica...
Thanks!

On 1/10/2023 at 4:46 AM, Umbra-Manis said:

You have been absolutely knocking it out of the park lately John, this is the kind of work I'd love to have on a nice puzzle for the holidays! The snow, the hammer arch, the different textures, so many good details!

Thanks a lot, we had a blast making this and were super pleased with the final result

On 3/24/2023 at 1:23 AM, LordDan said:

Wow! The whole scene is just full of great details! Some favorites are the various window techniques, the triangle road sign woodwork, and the inverted brown slopes incorporated into the wall for angled tudor sections. I'm also intrigued that you guys incorporated aqua into the white snow section, I usually only do that by accident  but it looks great here!

Thank you, the inverted curved slopes were something we table scrapped, and then immediately knew had to be incorporated in the tudor sections.
Aqua was a nice way of adding a little extra icy pop to the snow here.

On 4/2/2023 at 1:16 AM, Grover said:

Wow, this build is crazy!  The size, and all the detail!  I love the detail on the tudor style, from the dormer windows to the triangle pieces.  The brick built doors are superb, and I like the firewood outside.  The steep roof comments on how much snowfall the area gets and the snow looks good on the ground around.  I'm not entirely sure how I like the aqua implying ice on the main part of the roof since I rarely see ice like that there (although trans clear may work), but it does look good on the ground.  I would love to see the icicles vertical since they would be dripping to the ground, but I'm not sure how I'd do that given the pieces available.  The second picture with the mini shoveling snow, with the building out of focus in the background looks like it's out of a movie!  Really amazing work.

Thanks a lot Grover! We tried to put lots of love into every area of the building which led to lots of different details and designs fitting together.
We'll figure out something better for the icicles angle eventually

On 4/6/2023 at 12:48 PM, Exetrius said:

Only 9 replies so far?! Either this build got snowed over by all the other entries, or people just lost their tongue at the sight of this.  The latter happened to me. My goodness guys...  This could come is straight out of a picture book, the whole thing just lives when looking at it! Architecture is top notch of course, and also my congratulations on the state of the art stone technique!   Also, is that light royal blue you used on the roof? Looks great! You aced the landscape and editing too, and some great writing to boot! 

Also, let's give this a go:

John:
- Second floor and up for the main section of the tavern (roof slope facing forward)
- Roof of the stables
- Snowscape
- editing

Isaac:
- Left section of the tavern (roof facing sideways)
- ground floor of the main section
- trees
- minifigure arrangement
- photography

Please tell me if I'm remotely close! 

Aww, thanks so much Exetrius! It feels extra special when we get to collaborate now, living so far apart, and it always seems to bring out the best in both of us as builders.

As for your guesses, we had an unusual approach for much of the tavern this time. With John building different detail chunks like the timber sections and dormers, while I then built the main bulk of the structure incorporating his work. So second floor and up were more of my work, with sections from John included.
The roof of the stables was the first roof built, and was indeed made by John as was the rest of the stable. Snowscape and editing were also his handywork.

I did make most of the left side of the tavern, with the exception of the timber addition. I also did the ground floor with John contributing the stairs and small shed.

Trees, minifigures, and photography were all John! And actually completed after I had to return to Denmark.

On 4/18/2023 at 9:55 PM, Ecclesiastes said:

As a moc it's already stunning, but the editing takes this one to a whole different level. It's just beautiful all over, well done!

Thanks Ecc

 

And thanks once again to everyone from @LittleJohn and myself, we greatly appreciate your comments

[Exetrius]

2 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

Aww, thanks so much Exetrius! It feels extra special when we get to collaborate now, living so far apart, and it always seems to bring out the best in both of us as builders.

As for your guesses, we had an unusual approach for much of the tavern this time. With John building different detail chunks like the timber sections and dormers, while I then built the main bulk of the structure incorporating his work. So second floor and up were more of my work, with sections from John included.
The roof of the stables was the first roof built, and was indeed made by John as was the rest of the stable. Snowscape and editing were also his handywork.

I did make most of the left side of the tavern, with the exception of the timber addition. I also did the ground floor with John contributing the stairs and small shed.

Trees, minifigures, and photography were all John! And actually completed after I had to return to Denmark.

Thanks for the breakdown, nice piece of insight! Well, I must say my guesses turned out to be quite accurate, with a score of about 5/9!  

Edited April 25, 2023 by Exetrius