A Guide to building a Medieval Village

[lorax]

Thanks Derfel. You really have inspired me to build more in the medieval theme (as opposed to town for me).

I really love how you have so many wonderful details and everything is so perfectly built. I have done my first attempt, but I already am thinking about trying something better again (maybe trying a bigger building, my medieval buildings never quite turn out right).

Cheers

[TheBoyWonder]

I am working on a Medieval Village, albeit a small one. How long will your next post be?

[Derfel Cadarn]

The next post will be tomorro, will be showing different ways to build houses and placing them at angles on the landscape.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Hi

I have added a new update to the guide. It shows you how to build this:

This is a slightly more trickier house to build as I have not used any standard bricks for the walls. I plan to keep building more technical houses as the guide goes along, starting with this 'intermediate' build, then a 'hard' build, then 'insanely detailed craziness'

As the guide goes along I will try to tackle all the main buildings you would expect: Church/chapel, Inn, Windmill, Forge, other Trader's buildings, as well as ponds, swamps and ditches, burial grounds and gallow's pole etc.

Stay tuned for another update at the weekend.

Thanks

DC

[de Gothia]

Really great Derfel! (whats up with your changed name?! )

It´s fun to see buildings that is not normal "putting bricks on each other". The result is stunning!

After my Royal Knights moc that is soon to be done I have to build some houses from your guide!!!

[Speedboat]

Absolutely amazing! If you consider this an intermediate level build, I can't wait to see an expert level one. :)

[Khorne]

I'm amazed at your building skills . If this is "easy" I wonder what will be considered "hard"!

[tedbeard]

This house is fantastic and the detailed pics and description are, again, really appreciated.

Using the tooth pieces as decoration AND to secure the infill is a great idea.

I did wonder what the poles in the last step are supposed to be?

[dwarf-brik]

Loving the tutorial. Really giving me some inspiration to start building.

Though I gotta ask, how many pieces went into that house you just built? Over 1,000?

[Evil Stu]

Brilliant tutorial, I am loving every update. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful building techniques with us all, and for the tremendous investment in time you are making in taking all of the photographs and preparing the write-ups (Not to mention the actual build time...).

Additionally, your excellent suggestion to keep the sprue from the large green leaf piece triggered something in my memory - many years ago I was talking to a guy who had a scale model plastic motorcycle kit that he had built. He had custom made realistic shock absorber springs by cutting off a piece of the sprue that the kit came attached to, heating it with a cigarette lighter and then stretching and wrapping the heated plastic around a pencil until it cooled and looked like a coiled spring. I have just tried something similar with one of the leaf sprues and have had some interesting results. The sprue already had some flex so I just slowly heated each part and wrapped it around the pencil in turn, being careful not to overheat or over-stretch the plastic (which appears to have very different properties to that used for the model bike shocks).

Link to a few bigger photos:

If anyone is going to try this please do not attempt it indorrs - the fumes are not pleasant. I have been unable to locate a tutorial on the above technique on this site so let me know if anyone is interested and I will prepare a more detailed guide.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Tomorrow I will be posting the next update, which will now bring the village up to this stage:

I'm amazed at your building skills . If this is "easy" I wonder what will be considered "hard"!

I think a 'hard' build will be similiar, but with a more complicated roof made from tiles and different angles rather then a square shaped house etc.

Loving the tutorial. Really giving me some inspiration to start building.

Though I gotta ask, how many pieces went into that house you just built? Over 1,000?

Quite a few pieces! Wouldn't like to guess.

Brilliant tutorial, I am loving every update. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful building techniques with us all, and for the tremendous investment in time you are making in taking all of the photographs and preparing the write-ups (Not to mention the actual build time...).

Additionally, your excellent suggestion to keep the sprue from the large green leaf piece triggered something in my memory - many years ago I was talking to a guy who had a scale model plastic motorcycle kit that he had built. He had custom made realistic shock absorber springs by cutting off a piece of the sprue that the kit came attached to, heating it with a cigarette lighter and then stretching and wrapping the heated plastic around a pencil until it cooled and looked like a coiled spring. I have just tried something similar with one of the leaf sprues and have had some interesting results. The sprue already had some flex so I just slowly heated each part and wrapped it around the pencil in turn, being careful not to overheat or over-stretch the plastic (which appears to have very different properties to that used for the model bike shocks).

Link to a few bigger photos:

If anyone is going to try this please do not attempt it indorrs - the fumes are not pleasant. I have been unable to locate a tutorial on the above technique on this site so let me know if anyone is interested and I will prepare a more detailed guide.

Thanks, this is another interesting way to use these spare cut-offs, and I have tried it a few times and it works well. Like you said, best done outdoors and remember to be careful as its easy to over-melt the piece.

[Viceroy]

This is such a great contribution, tutorials like this can only serve to really raise the standard of Historic MOC's. Thanks Derfel, for helping me to build decent roofs! As usual, I cant wait for the next installment.

[Dr Rod]

Thoroughly enjoying this guide, thanks heaps!! :)

[Brinstar]

Reading this guide was one of the things that inspired to to join these forums. I think its wonderful that you selflessly share your techniques with the rest of the community. I really like the way you take seemingly redundant pieces like the round 1x1 and use them as the basis for your models. I've learned so many new building techniques from this guide and I hope to use some of these in my own MOC's one day.

[Asper]

Thank you so much for sharing this! There are so many ideas and techniques included. Your trees are great!

Thank You!

[C.J.Cutrone9]

THANK YOU!

This will really help me build a village, I can't wait till you get to that part.

BTW, what set do those blue 8x8 plates come in? The ones you used in the river.

[legobodgers]

The trans-blue 8x8 plates come in a couple of sets such as this one but never in numbers. If you want to do something like Derfel has done you will need to bricklink them.

[narbilu]

Wow, this guide is really awesome. Derfel Cadarn, you rock. I'm gonna start my (inspired by you) Medieval Landscape today. Will take a bit longer than you, but I will start. Avalonia will rize and grow.

Hail Avalonia

Edited December 5, 2011 by narbilu

[Hersbrucker]

BTW, what set do those blue 8x8 plates come in? The ones you used in the river.

You can order this plate directly from Lego.

I phoned them today

It cost 1,84 Euro

I will try to put them on our LugBulk order, from Bricking Bavaria Club

Edited December 6, 2011 by Hersbrucker

[C.J.Cutrone9]

You can order this plate directly from Lego.

I phoned them today

It cost 1,84 Euro

I will try to put them on our LugBulk order, from Bricking Bavaria Club

Excuse my ignorance but... What would that do?

[Hobbestimus]

This guide is incredible. Thanks so much for the resource.

[Hersbrucker]

Excuse my ignorance but... What would that do?

What do you mean??

I ordered 10 of these plates over Bricklink for 2,- Euro a piece.

I doesn`t know before, that it cost by LEGO 1,80 Euro.

And if its possible to put these Plates an our LugBulk order, the price getting lower than 1,80 for me

And I need more plates than these 10 pieces

[Derfel Cadarn]

Glad to hear the guide is helpful and giving people inspiration.

Well, I will finish this village soon, just a few more buildings to do. However, I have also decided to still update it with other useful things.

Some buildings really need a lot of explaining, so every noun and then, I will add a instruction for a large building. So when this village is finished, I will do a step by step instruction to build 'Ye Olde Forge' which was a moc I posted last year. Then I will add new helpful tips and techniques whenever I find them. So basically, this will serve a overall medieval guide. I realized I will not be able to fit in a lot of the stuff I wanted to on the village, as I havn't made it big enough. So churches, windmills and everything else will be covered separately after. That way I can go into more detail on them. I will also look at storage and useful part selections for medieval builds.

If there's anything in particular anyone would like to know/see, just let me know.

As for the 8x8 plates, I started buying them a good year ago now, and they were pretty cheap as no one was really after them. They give an interesting effect, as you can add many different colors underneath to get different effects. I am also messing around with putting lights underneath them to create a mystic glowing stream. They are expensive now, so if you can get them cheaper anywhere then go for it.

Thanks for your great comments everyone!

DC

[C.J.Cutrone9]

This guide is incredible. Thanks so much for the resource.

I meant what is a LugBULK.

[Hobbestimus]

I meant what is a LugBULK.

Sorry, I was just making a general reply to the OP. I don't know what a LugBulk is, either.