Sign in to follow this  
Etzel

The "Kalabalik" at Bender

Recommended Posts

4584542798_520cda2145.jpg

After the great defeat of the Swedish Carolean army at the Battle of Poltava and the Surrender at Perevolochna in 1709, the Swedish king Charles XII fled with the small remains of his once great army to the Ottoman Empire. The Swedes got to stay at the village of Warnitza near the town of Bender in present day Moldavia while the king and his diplomats tried to intrigue the Ottoman Grand Vizier and Sultan to engage at war with Russia. After more than 3 years the Turks became tired of their guests and on the 1 of February they attacked the Swedish camp to throw them out. The Turkish army is estimated to have been about 6000-10000 men strong while the Swedes only had about 1000 men. Most of the Swedish soldiers realized the hopeless situation and surrender to the Turks before any fighting begun, but the ever so stubborn, brave and somewhat reckless Charles XII refused to surrender. Together with about 50 soldiers he barricaded himself inside the King's House, a large building that the Swedes had built in their camp.

The fight continued the whole day as the king and his brave men fought of wave after wave of Turkish soldiers. Eventually the Turks managed to set the house's roof on fire. The Swedes tried to put out the fire but to their misfortune the only liquids they had available was liquor and wine which only increased the fire. This was also the only beverages that the Swedes had to drink and some sure got a bit too fussy to fight properly after that. As the fire spread the Swedish soldiers decided to leave the house for another building on stone that was placed not far across the courtyard. During their break-out the king, maybe a bit tipsy from the wine, tripped on his own spurs and was quickly captured by the Turks. The aftermath became that the Swedes eventually had to leave the Ottoman Empire but also that a new word was brought into the Swedish language. The Turkish word for crowd was kalabalik, which after this event became a word also in Swedish, here however with the meaning "confusion" or "great disorder".

I hope you managed to read the whole background because I think it's a very humorous historical event and I tried to include many details from the historical sources in the MOC. :pir-classic:

Close up front:

4584448972_2a4aff2d24.jpg

The barrels in front of the entrance was filled with water that had frozen and served as barricades.

Inside the King's House:

4583821769_28a6935845.jpg

Middle floor of the King's House:

4583822101_f6fc15f49c.jpg

Ground floor left:

4584450616_d5ec59a546.jpg

Ground floor right:

4584450684_0952329b43.jpg

More pictures can be found at my flickr here: LINK

If you have any questions about the MOC or the battle, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for watching! :pir_laugh2:

/Etzel

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh this is great, I love the fire coming out of the roof.

A great touch, expect to see it soon.

blogged.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fantastic entry! The fire looks great but so does all the crates and overturned carts and fighting in the front. The building is really nice and I like the colors a lot. I was blown away that you included an interior. Your efforts here have been tremendous. Excellent MOC. Best of luck with it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey, what happened? Why has my topic been moved to Historic Themes forum? It is a historical event but it's supposed to be in the Pirate MOCs forum where I posted it since it's an entry for a contest there. :wacko:

Could the staff member that moved it (or some other staff member) please move it back to where it belong, thank you very much :wink:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hey, what happened? Why has my topic been moved to Historic Themes forum? It is a historical event but it's supposed to be in the Pirate MOCs forum where I posted it since it's an entry for a contest there. :wacko:

Could the staff member that moved it (or some other staff member) please move it back to where it belong, thank you very much :wink:

I'm a little confused myself. It seems to fit here fine, but considering it's pirates contest entry it should be in the pirate forum. I'll move it back.

The creation looks good, by the way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hey, what happened? Why has my topic been moved to Historic Themes forum? It is a historical event but it's supposed to be in the Pirate MOCs forum where I posted it since it's an entry for a contest there. :wacko:

Could the staff member that moved it (or some other staff member) please move it back to where it belong, thank you very much :wink:

My bad :pir-cry_sad:! I didn´t know that it was an entry for a contest, I thought you just posted it in the wrong forum. I mean, how smart is a duck really :pir-tongue: ?

As for the MOC - I love it!!! Great detail on a small baseplate, nice colors and good building techniques! The fire in the corner on the roof is super! And of course the Swedish flag above the door :pir-wink:! Keep this one together please for the Swebrick event this autumn!!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Amazing really really amazing, I love all those details. oh and btw are these all Fezes you used!?! :pir-oh3:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a amazing MOC! :thumbup: All the details make it look very nice, and the action makes it look even better! :pir-sweet:

-

General Redwater

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great MOC, loved all the little details inside, like the broken bust. I wish I would have that much brown stones right now, would give my W.I.P. Moc for the contest a bit more realistic ... But I Love yours, one of my favorites so far. What did you use for the Turks Headgear? :thumbup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, this is really something, Etzel. This MOC is absolutely full of good stuff. I'm really a fan of the contrast between the outside and inside of the building, the outside being more simple compared to the very ornate nature of the inside. The dark brown wood work inside, in addition to all the colorfulness of the tapestries and carpets just looks fantastic. :thumbup: I also like seeing the different nationalities at action here. Your Swedish Carolean army is a great alternative to look at, compared to the somewhat typical Red and Blue Coat representation of British and French troops. The Ottoman troops look neat as well with that fez/tire combo for the headgear.

However, what really makes this MOC so great for me is the history it displays. As far as Swedish history goes, I'm pretty familiar with Gustavus Adolphus, but I'd never heard of this particular incident. Just the fact that the Swedish army ended up in Moldavia is kind of crazy itself. :pir_wacko: The details like the barricade being made of barrels filled with frozen water is pretty interesting too, and the frustrating fact that the only liquid available to fight the blaze was incendiary itself. :pir-laugh:

Thanks for the history lesson, and excellent job Etzel! :pir-sweet:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great work Etzel. I really like all the detail you've put into all the floors, especially that trophy in the corner. :pir-wub:

The blaze looks realistic (as realistic as little plastic flames can get :pir-grin: ) Another thing I noticed is that chip at the corner of the building in the first pic. Just marvelous! I also love those little statues, that one that's tipped over looks nice.

Are those really all fezes you used, or just burgundy cylinders? (My guess is cylinders, the tire widens out like that cause it goes down around the head.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
My bad :pir-cry_sad:! I didn´t know that it was an entry for a contest, I thought you just posted it in the wrong forum. I mean, how smart is a duck really :pir-tongue: ?

Smarter than a bulldog apperntly :pir-tongue:

No worries, thanks to Sir Dillon! :thumbup:

As for the MOC - I love it!!! Great detail on a small baseplate, nice colors and good building techniques! The fire in the corner on the roof is super! And of course the Swedish flag above the door :pir-wink:! Keep this one together please for the Swebrick event this autumn!!!

Thanks, keeping this intact until the autumn will be tough, it contains almost all my tiles in good colours and my brown and tan bricks that are left can almost be counted on my fingers :pir-cry_sad: But I'll do my best, expect my forthcoming MOCs to be green, grey and red :pir-tongue:

Wow, this is really something, Etzel. This MOC is absolutely full of good stuff. I'm really a fan of the contrast between the outside and inside of the building, the outside being more simple compared to the very ornate nature of the inside. The dark brown wood work inside, in addition to all the colorfulness of the tapestries and carpets just looks fantastic. :thumbup: I also like seeing the different nationalities at action here. Your Swedish Carolean army is a great alternative to look at, compared to the somewhat typical Red and Blue Coat representation of British and French troops. The Ottoman troops look neat as well with that fez/tire combo for the headgear.

However, what really makes this MOC so great for me is the history it displays. As far as Swedish history goes, I'm pretty familiar with Gustavus Adolphus, but I'd never heard of this particular incident. Just the fact that the Swedish army ended up in Moldavia is kind of crazy itself. :pir_wacko: The details like the barricade being made of barrels filled with frozen water is pretty interesting too, and the frustrating fact that the only liquid available to fight the blaze was incendiary itself. :pir-laugh:

Thanks for the history lesson, and excellent job Etzel! :pir-sweet:

Thanks for your kind words Mac-K! I really appreciate that you liked my history teaching, I didn't write that long back story for nothing then. This event is just so crazy in every way that it makes a good story anyway you tell it. :pir_laugh2:

Amazing really really amazing, I love all those details. oh and btw are these all Fezes you used!?! :pir-oh3:
Great MOC, loved all the little details inside, like the broken bust. I wish I would have that much brown stones right now, would give my W.I.P. Moc for the contest a bit more realistic ... But I Love yours, one of my favorites so far. What did you use for the Turks Headgear? :thumbup:
Great work Etzel. I really like all the detail you've put into all the floors, especially that trophy in the corner. :pir-wub:

The blaze looks realistic (as realistic as little plastic flames can get :pir-grin: ) Another thing I noticed is that chip at the corner of the building in the first pic. Just marvelous! I also love those little statues, that one that's tipped over looks nice.

Are those really all fezes you used, or just burgundy cylinders? (My guess is cylinders, the tire widens out like that cause it goes down around the head.)

Thanks guys, I happy you liked it! The headgear of the Turks are made of a tire (30028 on BL) and in most cases a fez. 4 of the Turks got a dark red cylinder instead because I ran out of fez's (I bought a bunch from BL but they weren't enough). The three black dressed Turks have two white round plates instead of a fez, that makes about the same hight.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lovely work Mr. Pretzel! :pir-cry_happy:

That roof design has a great shape, don't see one like that too often. Nice work with the flames as well, as well as the interior.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

First of all, you chose a very funny and great battle to make your MOC of.

The MOC itself is perfect.

It's full of nice building techniques (like the windows with the jumpers, the swedish flag, and the carpets) and the fire is also nicely done.

I only have one question. If they had so many barrels with ice outside, why didn't they melt some to stop the fire?

Good job anyway :thumbup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
First of all, you chose a very funny and great battle to make your MOC of.

The MOC itself is perfect.

It's full of nice building techniques (like the windows with the jumpers, the swedish flag, and the carpets) and the fire is also nicely done.

I only have one question. If they had so many barrels with ice outside, why didn't they melt some to stop the fire?

Good job anyway :thumbup:

Because the barrels where down on the courtyard and the fire was up on the roof. Try taking a +100 kilo barrel and carry it up two stairs while 10 000 Turks are firing at you and you'll see why they didn't do that :pir-tongue:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A very nice build PrEtzel! Great details and the interior is really appealing to me. Nice action scenes as well.

Certainly one of the best entries so far. Keep it up! :thumbup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A very great and funny MOC Etzel. Nice to finally get to see it in its fulll glory.

I would agree with CM to at least try to keep it intact til the event.

All the details and good use of parts is both cleaver and funny as mentioned.

The head of the fallen soldier used from some HP set is really good for instance.

This is definatley one of my favorite battles of all time.

One for it is in our Swedish history of course. But also because it was such a crazy event.

There are several different storys to this battle, and I don´t know what is truley true, or somewhat made up afterwards.

One is said that the Swedes that did barricade themselves couldn´t be harmed since the King was in there as well.

So pretty much the Turks had to be somewhat carefull and not use firearms.

One also talks about when it all looked hopeless and the King almost had no choise more than surender or keep fighting.

He asked his men what to do. They all decided to make it to a close by building and one of them is supposed to have say as well,

"Lets go out and fight with bright weapons" (meaning their swords). The King then just would have replyed "Pluck!" And out they went.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, what a lovely creation! I agree with Erdbeereis on the roof: it has a very nice and realistic shape. The interior is awesome, i esspecially like the fact that you tiled the floor :pir-classic:

The jumperplates above the windows look good as well :thumbup: nice touch!

And there a lot of action going on... great fire!

Well, to sum it all up i cannot think of any true improvements when looking at this MOC.

The background story is quite interesting as well, although that doesn't affect the MOc istself, it make it seem even more interesting.

I think you have created the best entry so far... if voting would take place, you'd have my vote. :pir-cry_happy:

I'm still curious to see more entries coming up.

I really wish you good luck in the contest though!

-Perfectionist

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am pretty much speechless.. The burning roof is stunning, along with the interior which is also great. The tiled floor is nice, and all the broken wagons outside at a more

"warish" touch :pir-classic:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, a great moc to be sure, I love all the details and the Turkish head gear is superb! (mind if I use it in some Ottoman stuff I'm planning?) I love this, and you have my vote for sure! Keep bricking :pir-classic:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thats a really really great scene you did there.

I love all the details and especially the arranging of all those many many minifigs :thumbup:

Everything you just have is there... those who are fighting, a drunk one, some dead people etc etc.

The building style of the roof is really cool too; looks a bit like those old "Fachwerkhaus" (frame house) roofs we know in Germany which are made of some sort of straw...

--> simple but very effective

And the fire is great too of course as mentioned before.

The graveyard and especially the crows/ravens are cool.

-Aredhel

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fantastic!!!

So much detail in a small space, I especially like the fire on the roof and the whole front part of the MOC.

I've always enjoyed seeing creativity when it comes to headgear for minifig's tire + round stud = win!!!

I'm a conformist!!

Pirate

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.