LEGO 10320 Eldorado Fortress - MOC / MOD Thread

[eldiano]

6 hours ago, Ido said:

@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.

It looks fine the way it is, I was debating on buying a second set so i can try to imitate the trading post but the pier is what got me, it has more buildings and the guard tower and extra storehouses is what got me! It looks fine

[Arjo]

Ytb channel bricksonville combined two sets. I’ve known him for expanding Modulars (which he does pretty well). Either he rushed (was uninspired) on this one or merely buying a second set is no silver bullet to crank this fortress to 11. He even added parts of his to no avail (imo). Twice the price not twice as good… until a creative soul proves me wrong in the coming weeks and months.

ps: no disrespect to Bricksonville, I would probably do worse myself. My reaction to his video is that to a cautionary tale whereby I shouldn’t buy two sets and expect guaranteed fireworks!

[CvS]

-Nobody else thinks the 'gaps' on the corners of the governors balcony (wall) are a bit strange?
I filled them with a 1x1 brick with a tile on top. That way you have a continuous wall, with the front part -with the muskets-
being a bit higher (for protection(?)) than the corner and side walls.

-Also changed the double red plate, round 1 x 2 with open studs in that wall and in several other places.
For just one red 1x2 plate, or one red 1x2 plate and one red 1x1 round plate.
The double 1x2 plate looks ok in some places, but really strange in other.

-That brown, round 'blob' at the base of the palm tree on the beach, needs to resemble the bottom piece of the old palm trees?
I think it looks quite strange and removed it.

-The gangway leading from the governors balcony to the other module, is too narrow and the walls too high to properly place a minifig....

-And some further, minor adjustments:
- added some greyish tiles and slopes here and there on the rockwork.
That rockwork is ok, but really simple. Quite repetitive with a limited number of different types of bricks.
- added quite some small plants and green stuff, on the rock work and edges of the fortress.
- Changed the court yard from black to grey and added wood printed tiles to the hatch.
- added some minifig. accessories like barrels, lanterns, food, animals.
- added black tiles on the central point of the crane.

And changed the minifigs: heads and hats.

Need to order parts to change the front gun placement to yellow.

Edited July 20, 2023 by CvS

[eldiano]

9 hours ago, CvS said:

-Nobody else thinks the 'gaps' on the corners of the governors balcony (wall) are a bit strange?
I filled them with a 1x1 brick with a tile on top. That way you have a continuous wall, with the front part -with the muskets-
being a bit higher (for protection(?)) than the corner and side walls.

-Also changed the double red plate, round 1 x 2 with open studs in that wall and in several other places.
For just one red 1x2 plate, or one red 1x2 plate and one red 1x1 round plate.
The double 1x2 plate looks ok in some places, but really strange in other.

-That brown, round 'blob' at the base of the palm tree on the beach, needs to resemble the bottom piece of the old palm trees?
I think it looks quite strange and removed it.

-The gangway leading from the governors balcony to the other module, is too narrow and the walls too high to properly place a minifig....

-And some further, minor adjustments:
- added some greyish tiles and slopes here and there on the rockwork.
That rockwork is ok, but really simple. Quite repetitive with a limited number of different types of bricks.
- added quite some small plants and green stuff, on the rock work and edges of the fortress.
- Changed the court yard from black to grey and added wood printed tiles to the hatch.
- added some minifig. accessories like barrels, lanterns, food, animals.
- added black tiles on the central point of the crane.

And changed the minifigs: heads and hats.

Need to order parts to change the front gun placement to yellow.

To be honest the entire governors balcony and room need to change haha, but I always wondered if Eldorado was meant to have gold bricks or just yellow to simulate gold? It could be interesting to explore and combine the lower levels to match the older set I think. 

[Ido]

update:

I worked more on the pier/dock:

• I made the transition from the fortress to the pier more organic, by extending the rocky terrain a bit into the pier area
• I modified the transition between the fortress walkway to the pier to consist of some planks in an angle
• I've completely redone the guard post: it is now bigger and taller, and has some area for storage and even a table for the guard
• I tried to make the color transition of the water more gradual by including the brighter shade of blue immediately after the sand.
• I added more goods to be unloaded from the merchant ship.

I left the photo of the old version of the pier in the album so that you can compare the two.

BTW: I tried incorporating the tear-shaped machicolations from original fortress into the new fortress and the guard post, and they looked a bit out of place.

Enjoy!

link to photos

 

[Arjo]

You’re going to need more blue baseplates:) you seem to be having good fun with 10320, it’s nice to see for those of us who are yet to pull the trigger!

[Filibbooo]

I also decided to return to the 1989’s color scheme of the front cannon base. It’s worth it, in my opinion. 
I ordered the replacement parts very early before I ordered the set itself!

Link to the photos on my Instagram

 

😜🤩

Edited July 21, 2023 by Filibbooo

[F1stzz]

11 hours ago, Filibbooo said:

It’s worth it, in my opinion. 

Most definitely, m8, one simple move lifts the overall aesthetics up on a different level 

[Khargeust]

On 7/17/2023 at 2:34 PM, F1stzz said:

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  

 

14 hours ago, Filibbooo said:

I also decided to return to the 1989’s color scheme of the front cannon base. It’s worth it, in my opinion. 
I ordered the replacement parts very early before I ordered the set itself!

Link to the photos on my Instagram

 

2 hours ago, F1stzz said:

Most definitely, m8, one simple move lifts the overall aesthetics up on a different level 

 

This modification is just essential. It brings so much to this point I think there's a kind of visual anomaly without it (it really jumped out at me when I discovered the first visuals of the set. The rendering here is really superb. Really strange that LEGO didn't put yellow parts in this place like on the original.
However, it didn't shock me that much that they lowered the level of the yellow color on the whole frontage. Maybe I even prefer this distribution with more white.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Khargeust

[Filibbooo]

9 hours ago, F1stzz said:

Most definitely, m8, one simple move lifts the overall aesthetics up on a different level 

So true!!!

7 hours ago, Khargeust said:

This modification is just essential. It brings so much to this point I think there's a kind of visual anomaly without it (it really jumped out at me when I discovered the first visuals of the set. The rendering here is really superb. Really strange that LEGO didn't put yellow parts in this place like on the original.
However, it didn't shock me that much that they lowered the level of the yellow color on the whole frontage. Maybe I even prefer this distribution with more white.

Definitely. And the parts which have to be swapped out are standard parts. For LEGO this should be quite easy to reproduce them in yellow again?!

But, as you said ... This jumped out at me as well when I saw the promo pictures the first time!

[jodawill]

I do like that version with the yellow under the cannon. Replacing the yellow panels with white isn't a bad decision since all of the other walls in the set are white, but it's a bit odd to have white along the bottom in only one spot. I imagine they did it because that piece is currently only produced in white and light bluish gray and they had more important parts to spend their allowance on. Well, Bricklink shows that part appeared in yellow in 2022, but it's not on Pick a Brick, so I imagine it's being phased out. There's probably a lot of nuance to part selection like this that we aren't aware of as outsiders.

Since everyone else is modifying the new set, I decided to use some of the parts from the new set to improve on the original. I'm starting with that platform that holds the front cannon. That's probably the weakest part of the original set. I tried to just move that round section from the new set to the old one. It kind of works. The quarter round plate on the front right sits one stud farther forward than the original, but you can work around this without any additional parts. The most difficult challenge here is the gap formed by the baseplate. You can't just put those round bricks on there. It looks weird with that huge gap. I found that it looks a lot better if you just add one of those 1x2x3 inverse slopes to the right of it, with the slope going up the baseplate. But this exposes the anti-studs on the back of that part, which is fine for the side, but I think is a little onsightly on the front of the building. It's not that bad, but I'm going to try working with it in Stud.io and see if I can come up with something better.

[thewatchman]

4 hours ago, jodawill said:

I do like that version with the yellow under the cannon. Replacing the yellow panels with white isn't a bad decision since all of the other walls in the set are white, but it's a bit odd to have white along the bottom in only one spot. I imagine they did it because that piece is currently only produced in white and light bluish gray and they had more important parts to spend their allowance on. Well, Bricklink shows that part appeared in yellow in 2022, but it's not on Pick a Brick, so I imagine it's being phased out. There's probably a lot of nuance to part selection like this that we aren't aware of as outsiders.

Having watched the old modular creator interviews I think your 100% right about having to make do with current parts in current palletes.

[Ido]

I summarized my mods in a video. I think the video shows them more clearly than the pictures I posted earlier, plus I've made extra mods since then. Please excuse the camera work, I'm really not experienced in making videos. Enjoy!

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Ido

[F1stzz]

Here's another take on improving the governor's office by Trikus, available on Rebrickable 

[CvS]

Has anyone already had a go at tiling the courtyard?
With similar stone tiles like the ramp, or square tiles?

Something like this, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Charles_(Jamaica)#/media/File:Port_Royal_Fort_defenses.JPG

I think most Caribbean forts had some sort of paved courtyard(?).

Edited August 13, 2023 by CvS

[zinnn]

Has anyone seen any more cool, small yet effective MODs to this set?

[Cearthenn]

Hello, I wanted to share my Imperial Trading Post remake from the new Eldorado Fortress and the island from PoBB.

This is my first adult MOC so as you can see I reused a lot of the design from Eldorado Fortress but adjusted it where it was needed/possible. I'm still reworking it and will probably add some islands since I have a lot of sand and stone left from PoBB, but this is the version that is the closest to the original. I had a lot of fun with it, I can definitely recommend this as an entry level MOC.

 

 

[Mazin]

3 hours ago, Cearthenn said:

Hello, I wanted to share my Imperial Trading Post remake from the new Eldorado Fortress and the island from PoBB.

This is my first adult MOC so as you can see I reused a lot of the design from Eldorado Fortress but adjusted it where it was needed/possible. I'm still reworking it and will probably add some islands since I have a lot of sand and stone left from PoBB, but this is the version that is the closest to the original. I had a lot of fun with it, I can definitely recommend this as an entry level MOC.

 

 

Wow! This is great! Your project looks even more awesome than the Fortress itself, seems much more playable now with open spaces, when compared to Eldorado's boxiness ;) 

That brown warf and water and all the details look fantastic. And i absolutely love the staircase with flowers :)

Could You say what parts did You use or even make a tutorial? Did You combine it with any other specific set or did You just experiment with random bricks? 

If i could i'd buy me a second set of 10320  just so that i could build Your own design :) 

[Yperio_Bricks]

3 hours ago, Cearthenn said:

Hello, I wanted to share my Imperial Trading Post remake from the new Eldorado Fortress and the island from PoBB.

This is my first adult MOC so as you can see I reused a lot of the design from Eldorado Fortress but adjusted it where it was needed/possible. I'm still reworking it and will probably add some islands since I have a lot of sand and stone left from PoBB, but this is the version that is the closest to the original. I had a lot of fun with it, I can definitely recommend this as an entry level MOC.

Wow, yeah, the whole build with the fortress and port looks fantastic! I even like your fortress more than the EB because it looks much less cramped and with the port and water space you get much more space for playing. I'm curious to see what you will do with the rest of the parts!

And welcome to the forum @Cearthenn

[CaptainMoore]

4 hours ago, Cearthenn said:

 

Welcome! This is a great moc! I was waiting for someone to try this and it's brilliant.

On my end I don't have the POBB leftovers, I love the island too much

Edited January 31 by CaptainMoore

[Cearthenn]

Thanks for the great feedback!

20 hours ago, CaptainMoore said:

Welcome! This is a great moc! I was waiting for someone to try this and it's brilliant.

On my end I don't have the POBB leftovers, I love the island too much

I love the whole PoBB as well but when I got the new Eldorado with the merchant's ship I just couldn't resist to attempt the remake :)

20 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Wow, yeah, the whole build with the fortress and port looks fantastic! I even like your fortress more than the EB because it looks much less cramped and with the port and water space you get much more space for playing. I'm curious to see what you will do with the rest of the parts!

And welcome to the forum @Cearthenn

I already have a fun idea for the sand and stone parts, I'll share it with you when it's done.

20 hours ago, Mazin said:

Wow! This is great! Your project looks even more awesome than the Fortress itself, seems much more playable now with open spaces, when compared to Eldorado's boxiness ;) 

That brown warf and water and all the details look fantastic. And i absolutely love the staircase with flowers :)

Could You say what parts did You use or even make a tutorial? Did You combine it with any other specific set or did You just experiment with random bricks? 

If i could i'd buy me a second set of 10320  just so that i could build Your own design :) 

The docs and water are made from Pirates of the Barracuda Bay island, the rest is pure Eldorado Fortress. It's a really simple concept, even the individual buildings are just reworked versions of the ones from Eldorado. The governor's office still has an open back ;)

[MightyThorngren]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:49 PM, CvS said:

-Nobody else thinks the 'gaps' on the corners of the governors balcony (wall) are a bit strange?
I filled them with a 1x1 brick with a tile on top. That way you have a continuous wall, with the front part -with the muskets-
being a bit higher (for protection(?)) than the corner and side walls.

-Also changed the double red plate, round 1 x 2 with open studs in that wall and in several other places.
For just one red 1x2 plate, or one red 1x2 plate and one red 1x1 round plate.
The double 1x2 plate looks ok in some places, but really strange in other.

-That brown, round 'blob' at the base of the palm tree on the beach, needs to resemble the bottom piece of the old palm trees?
I think it looks quite strange and removed it.

-The gangway leading from the governors balcony to the other module, is too narrow and the walls too high to properly place a minifig....

-And some further, minor adjustments:
- added some greyish tiles and slopes here and there on the rockwork.
That rockwork is ok, but really simple. Quite repetitive with a limited number of different types of bricks.
- added quite some small plants and green stuff, on the rock work and edges of the fortress.
- Changed the court yard from black to grey and added wood printed tiles to the hatch.
- added some minifig. accessories like barrels, lanterns, food, animals.
- added black tiles on the central point of the crane.

And changed the minifigs: heads and hats.

Need to order parts to change the front gun placement to yellow.

Share some pictures my friend!

[MightyThorngren]

On 1/31/2024 at 5:51 AM, Cearthenn said:

Hello, I wanted to share my Imperial Trading Post remake from the new Eldorado Fortress and the island from PoBB.

This is my first adult MOC so as you can see I reused a lot of the design from Eldorado Fortress but adjusted it where it was needed/possible. I'm still reworking it and will probably add some islands since I have a lot of sand and stone left from PoBB, but this is the version that is the closest to the original. I had a lot of fun with it, I can definitely recommend this as an entry level MOC.

 

 

This is hella sick bro!

 

 

 

 

 

On 7/17/2023 at 9:27 AM, iragm said:

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

 

This is awesome looking. But did I miss a ladder on the tower, or was that omitted? I saw there was a gap built in it all the way up. I downloaded the instructions and read through, but maybe I missed it. Seems that was tge intent, or did I misunderstand?

If you've built it, I would love to see it attached to the Fortress build. I don't have the parts to build it myself or an ability to use the studio program to preview.

Edited February 4 by MightyThorngren

[iragm]

11 hours ago, MightyThorngren said:

But did I miss a ladder on the tower, or was that omitted?

There's definitely a ladder in the tower.

11 hours ago, MightyThorngren said:

If you've built it, I would love to see it attached to the Fortress build

I haven't had a chance to build it IRL yet, I only got around to building Eldorado a few weeks ago.  I believe I have all the parts for it, just sadly, not the time.

[Cearthenn]

So I added the island and put a captured Redbeard on it, Gulliver style :)