LEGO 10320 Eldorado Fortress - MOC / MOD Thread

[CAESARBLACK]

Hi Everyone,

received my 10320 today (2 of them) and one is destined to be modified . I know this thread is a bit premature considering most people are now just getting deliveries from Lego but I will be show casing my mods in this thread for all to judge / replicate :)

If you have any ideas to share please post away!

[F1stzz]

Gotta wait a little before people fill this thread with their creative takes on modifying/improving 10320, but once it all kicks off — I believe we'll have a GREAT time here  I personally have quite a few ideas in my mind, like merging 2015 Imperial Soldiers sets with 10320; mirroring (& therefore — widening) the governor's office & that lookout with a mounted cannon nearby using the second copy of the set; making an inner part of the fortress actually playable & valuable by adding barracks, arsenal, wine vault/cargo hold sorta things while providing an option to open up the whole structure in a Lion Knights Castle manner; instead of rebuilding the dock with reddish brown pieces (which won't match too well with yellow, imo) — actually scrap the whole idea of the wooden dock & continue on with the cobblestone motif of the ramp; bringing back some of the signature design choices of the OG Eldorado Fortress such as teardrop-shaped gunports, adding more of the yellow, etc.   So I rly can't wait for this thread to come alive in full force

[Marooned Marin]

So the question was... is it a bit premature to start MOD-ing the new 10320 Eldorado Fortress?

Nah! I don't think so.

Like the last iconic pirate set (21322 POBB), reimagined Eldorado Fortress also comes with the completely useless dinghy. To make matters worse, AFOLs are led to believe that two daring pirates are more than capable of attacking the fortress and getting away with it by rowing into the sunset!

Luckily, with only 195 extra pieces we can turn this far stretched LEGO fantasy into a plausible scheme by giving pirates a sailing ship!

 

[RichardGoring]

Nice connection of two sets on Reddit - (1) I don’t make poor financial decisions, I make financial decisions that make me poor! : lego (reddit.com)

[Jack Sassy]

1 hour ago, Marooned Marin said:

Luckily, with only 195 extra pieces we can turn this far stretched LEGO fantasy into a plausible scheme by giving pirates a sailing ship!

A fine idea indeed! 

[Arjo]

I am surprised not to see more content of multiple builds so far. Guess people go crazier on battle packs (!). Having two sets next to each other looks nice enough from a distance but I am sure some will come up with more “integrated” combinations. I will not buy the set before Majisto so I have to live vicariously through you guys:)

[LegoAUT]

3 hours ago, Arjo said:

I am surprised not to see more content of multiple builds so far. Guess people go crazier on battle packs (!). Having two sets next to each other looks nice enough from a distance but I am sure some will come up with more “integrated” combinations. I will not buy the set before Majisto so I have to live vicariously through you guys:)

I agree, combining two sets without changing much seems a bit pointless to me..

[F1stzz]

Here's a nice little upgrade for the governor's office made by ohmbricks  Nothing too intricate, but imo this particular area now carries a whole lot more purpose  I'd make this one completely monolithic with a removable roof, but then again — my plans for the main tower section are different, while the example provided by ohmbricks should be going along with the modularity of the original build quite well, I guess

[zinnn]

1 hour ago, F1stzz said:

Here's a nice little upgrade for the governor's office made by ohmbricks  Nothing too intricate, but imo this particular area now carries a whole lot more purpose  I'd make this one completely monolithic with a removable roof, but then again — my plans for the main tower section are different, while the example provided by ohmbricks should be going along with the modularity of the original build quite well, I guess 

Fantastic fix, so simple yet lifts the whole set so much. I'm still mind blown Lego messed this one up so bad.

[Arjo]

Yep, nice and easy, a few additional pieces (at the same msrp) would have placated most critical voices. Impossible the designers didn’t see it (and missing bricks elsewhere). Working to a budget is fine but not to the obvious detriment of the end result when so little can have such an impact.

[F1stzz]

For those who wondered how 10320's looks would've changed if it had some more yellow to it — capt.dark.shark is happy to satisfy your interest  Just notice how a single colour swap for a front cannon platform can positively affect the overall appearance of the set. It's a simple cosmetic change — but it smoothes out the whole colour palette & brings this remake much closer to the classic exactly in the area where it's needed  

[iragm]

I created an expansion which is available for free on Rebrickable.

[zinnn]

5 minutes ago, iragm said:

I created an expansion which is available for free on Rebrickable.

Would you be able to show how it looks with the set? Providing you have it already...

[iragm]

I am waiting on purchasing the set for the Majisto GWP.  I have a backlog of several hundred pounds of Lego to sort before I build anything new, so it may be a while.

[Arjo]

Any chance you can post pics in this thread? For anyone interested in online privacy RB is a nightmare of a website (dozens and dozens of cookies, some installed for decades on one’s device, impossible to reject bar for painstakingly and manually changing default settings… at which point the site starts acting up). Not sure where RB is hosted but pretty sure it is not complying with data protection laws in many jurisdictions. Sorry for the odd comment… just very eager to see what you did without compromising my device for the rest of my life😁

[Ido]

Hi,

I got the set about a week ago and I've been modifying it lightly since then. Everything you're about to see is work in progress.

Overall, I love this set. It is beautiful.

The changes include:

• enclosing the governor's office and adding a ladder to the top tower
• broadening the top tower so there's more room for minifigs (this is basically part of enclosing the governor's office)
• adding a small balcony next to the governor's office
• adding a palm tree near the entrance
• adding a lantern towards the end of the wooden walkway to the right
• adding some seaweeds/roots near the palm trees at the left of the entrance
• moving the governor's office canon to the jail tower
• adding a small ladder at the back beach, mounted by the pirates for invading the fortress
• replacing all the black floor at the fortress main yard with a grey one with a see-through piece so that you can see the pit below
• adding a wooden pattern to the treasure hatch door
• and, lastly, adding a dock, a-la imperial trading post. This one's really in progress.

I hope you enjoy.

link to album

Edited July 17, 2023 by Ido

[F1stzz]

Good stuff @Ido, keep it coming! 

[Marooned Marin]

5 hours ago, zinnn said:

Would you be able to show how it looks with the set? Providing you have it already... 

5 hours ago, iragm said:

I created an expansion which is available for free on Rebrickable. 

@zinnn you can easily try that in Studio.io since @iragm made the studio.io file also available with the instructions.

If anyone needs the fortress in digital, you can download it HERE from my GoogleDrive. I gave my best to follow the instructions to the letter.

[F1stzz]

BTW, gents, since Marooned Marin has already proposed the Warty Crab as a nice accompaniment to 10320, I think there's another GREAT idea for those of you who own a 31109 Pirate Ship (or maybe just planning to get it ) — I present to you the Imperial Clipper (the creator of this MOC didn't name the ship, so I took my liberties here ), courtesy of sir_bricksafol  I'm amazed by his execution of the Imperial Soldiers insignia on sails & I really think this model could serve as a great source of inspiration for 31109 MOCs and possibly Imperial fleet building (thankfully the Pirate Ship is still available ) 

Edited July 18, 2023 by F1stzz

[iragm]

9 hours ago, Arjo said:

Any chance you can post pics in this thread? For anyone interested in online privacy RB is a nightmare of a website (dozens and dozens of cookies, some installed for decades on one’s device, impossible to reject bar for painstakingly and manually changing default settings… at which point the site starts acting up). Not sure where RB is hosted but pretty sure it is not complying with data protection laws in many jurisdictions. Sorry for the odd comment… just very eager to see what you did without compromising my device for the rest of my life😁

Incognito mode will clear those cookies and any cached files when you close the browser.  But if you'd still prefer not to patronize them, I have posted a pic on a thread here:

 

[zinnn]

13 hours ago, Marooned Marin said:

@zinnn you can easily try that in Studio.io since @iragm made the studio.io file also available with the instructions.

If anyone needs the fortress in digital, you can download it HERE from my GoogleDrive. I gave my best to follow the instructions to the letter.

a-mazing, thank for the Studio file, I was actually thinking about creating it in Studio myself - you saved me a ton of time!

Offtopic - but do you also happen to have the POBB studio file? I started to work on it, but it takes a long time.

[Marooned Marin]

8 hours ago, zinnn said:

you saved me a ton of time!

Actually, it took me somewhere around 12-14 straight hours, I think.

Anyway, here is the POBB file which you so nicely asked for: LINK

I skipped some parts on the 'Island version'... didn't found energy to switch those decorations, but as a whole you will find it useful.

[eldiano]

I have a dumb question, would anyone reconsider at least redoing the walls to replicate the original 3 sided arch/slope? Whenever I think el dorado, the wall is the first thing that pops up to me, the rectangular ones don't really fit the theme I think. 

On 7/17/2023 at 10:47 AM, Ido said:

Hi,

I got the set about a week ago and I've been modifying it lightly since then. Everything you're about to see is work in progress.

Overall, I love this set. It is beautiful.

The changes include:

• enclosing the governor's office and adding a ladder to the top tower
• broadening the top tower so there's more room for minifigs (this is basically part of enclosing the governor's office)
• adding a small balcony next to the governor's office
• adding a palm tree near the entrance
• adding a lantern towards the end of the wooden walkway to the right
• adding some seaweeds/roots near the palm trees at the left of the entrance
• moving the governor's office canon to the jail tower
• adding a small ladder at the back beach, mounted by the pirates for invading the fortress
• replacing all the black floor at the fortress main yard with a grey one with a see-through piece so that you can see the pit below
• adding a wooden pattern to the treasure hatch door
• and, lastly, adding a dock, a-la imperial trading post. This one's really in progress.

I hope you enjoy.

link to album

amazing work! it reminds me of the Imperial Trading post with the extended pier! 

[F1stzz]

44 minutes ago, eldiano said:

I have a dumb question, would anyone reconsider at least redoing the walls to replicate the original 3 sided arch/slope? Whenever I think el dorado, the wall is the first thing that pops up to me, the rectangular ones don't really fit the theme I think. 

I'm actually thinking about it & even more: I'd like to find a way to incorporate those trademark teardrop-shaped gunports into a sloped wall structure. I mean, real forts had their walls angled a bit starting from foundation & up to the middle at least, so that cannonballs would kinda be ricocheting off of them (the principal is similar to the construction of a post WWII tank armour, "structural angles of inclination" & all that — here's a great example displaying my point by eddo.lego). I really want to take a chance & try to merge the OG design with my own vision of how the defensive walls of the fortress should look like 

Edited July 18, 2023 by F1stzz

[Ido]

13 hours ago, eldiano said:

amazing work! it reminds me of the Imperial Trading post with the extended pier! 

@eldiano thank you so much. I intend to rebuild that dock from scratch, as it looks too basic compared to the fortress. Maybe I'll adapt the water/wood colors to better match the ones of the fortress. I hope to post another update once done.