Derfel Cadarn

A Guide to building a Medieval Village

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I will do a step by step instruction to build 'Ye Olde Forge' which was a moc I posted last year.

That is great news! That forge is one of my favourite mocs!!! :laugh:

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Derfel, do you have all your old mocs assembled?

I used to, I had all my CCC entries still assembled for most of the year, but I dismantled every moc I had in september as I wanted to start planning out my future Camelot build, so I needed to work out what parts I had and what I will need. It was annoying as the following month I decided to do The Great Western Lego Show and I was kicking my self because I could have displayed them there. I only ever posted 3 pictures of each of those entries as that was the rules, but I did actually take lots of photos, so I have lots of references for the Olde Forge. These days, I usually take apart what I build after photographing it. I got fed up with trying to find space for the mocs and trying to stop them getting covered with dust. When the village is done, I will take the houses off and probably have them sitting around on my table for a while, but the landscape will be taken apart straight away. At this current time, the only mocs that are assembled are my two Galleons which are in tall plastic boxes to keep the dust out.

DC

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Hi,

Thank you so much for this guide, looks amazing. Saving up for some bricks and then going to try to build this, thank you for sharing this :thumbup: .

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Great guide, really appreciate the detailed info and pictures.

Do you have a rough piece count? I counted 180-200 1x1 pieces in your first picture and I read you were going with a 2:1 ratio for the grey 1x1 to the black/browns. According to that I went ahead and liberally ordered that amount times a lot but was wondering approximately how many 1x1 pieces you generally use for a medium sized moc? 5000? 10 000? would you recommend purchasing a few more MMV sets for pieces or just focus on bricklink? Thanks.

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Just had a look at your flickr stream and all I can say is WOW! Just love the attention to detail. Its people like you DC that keep me wanting to improve and build new things and not be satisfied with plain and boring grey and right angled straight buildings. Hope to have something to share on Flickr soon.

Going to spend Christmas Eve day sorting out two tubs I took to school this year so I can get stuck into some building in the New Year.

Looking forward to new updates to this growing village...does it have a name yet?

Have a great Christmas all and keep brickin.

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Thank you. Well, the main real reason I used tiles instead of plates is because I've always used tiles for water, and so i've built up a large collection of blue and medium blue tiles to the point where I have more of those then I do of plates in those colours. That's it really, although I think that plates would make the water look slightly more blue because the studs would be pushed up into the trans plate making the colour show through more. You don't just have to use blue underneath either, I experimented with some other colours, and If you put green plates under the trans pieces you get a great turquoise type colour that would be perfect for sea.

As for the part used in the tree, those pieces originally came from the Lego Viking ship, as they where used for holding the sail. I bought a 2nd viking ship off ebay that came with these but some were snapped and broken, which was handy as I then had different lengths. They are 3mm hose on bricklink and are availible in different lengths. Black is more common and ive used that for trees as well, plus grey is another good colour, as you then can have different types of trees with all the different colours.

I will post some other useful tips with my next installment tomorrow.

Thanks

DC

I just wanted to chime in here and say, firstly, incredible guide Derfel. We are working on a stop motion web series and your guide basically saved our set designs and actually helped us come up with creative ways to animate things beyond what we had thought up already.

So to the quote quickly, the brown hose can be extremely hard to find and we are not sure if this would be a substitute for the 3mm brown that was ONLY found in that single viking set, and in very small lengths. Either way wanted to share to see what your thoughts on using this would be as this seller has quite good stock of it.

Since we can't post links yet, the BrickLink shop is BlockBricks Custom and the hose is the 4mm pneumatic. They have enough of it in stock for all of us it would seem and they ship world wide. Hopefully the 4mm isn't too thick to work properly I am sure Derfel can chime in on this.

Cheers

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I just wanted to chime in here and say, firstly, incredible guide Derfel. We are working on a stop motion web series and your guide basically saved our set designs and actually helped us come up with creative ways to animate things beyond what we had thought up already.

So to the quote quickly, the brown hose can be extremely hard to find and we are not sure if this would be a substitute for the 3mm brown that was ONLY found in that single viking set, and in very small lengths. Either way wanted to share to see what your thoughts on using this would be as this seller has quite good stock of it.

Since we can't post links yet, the BrickLink shop is BlockBricks Custom and the hose is the 4mm pneumatic. They have enough of it in stock for all of us it would seem and they ship world wide. Hopefully the 4mm isn't too thick to work properly I am sure Derfel can chime in on this.

Cheers

I might be wrong on this but I'm having the same issue regarding the brown hoses. I haven't tried the 4mm pneumatic for two reason, one the 3mm fits pretty tight and would think the 4 mm would be too tight. Also the pneumatic hose might be too flexible to hold the weight even if the leave pieces fit on.

I use the black ones in alot of my builds right now but have been thinking of getting a few tan ones to see how they work. I also thought about using a light gray or white hose with technic bush 1/2 smooth placed randomly up the "trunk" to give a brich tree effect

Another method I have done with some of my the longer black ones is stack use some 1x1 brown cylinders up the hose. It beefs up the "trunk" and you dont have to lock them into place which will allow the trunk to bend a bit.

good luck and hope to see some of you builds soon.

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I'd just like to take this post to thank you for the amazing tutorial. I found it very interesting to see how you work your magic with the little plastic bricks we all love so much. So, thanks! :sweet:

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Thank you for finishing your incredible guide Derfel, it has inspired me to do my own. I you are taking suggestions for part two I would ask for more landscaping tips for things like forests, I guide for a windmill and tips for minifigure placement to bring the moc alive. I love your style and I can't wait for part 2! default_wubnew.gif

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Hello Derfel

Firstly, your guide has been fantastic and I know many people stand in awe at your wonderful creations.

Secondly, I would like to personally thank you for the time you have taken to share them with the community. I know I have learned a great deal and have been inspired to bring my buildings to a level of detail that I had not dreamed possible only a few weeks ago...and I am only new at MOC's etc.

If you are going to focus on some specific areas/techniques I am curious to see your solution to the "shingle" look on walls. I see at one point you used white cheese wedges to give a shingle look, but referred to another technique that you thought had a better result. I am interested if you have some more info or plan to cover this in one of your future posts?

Regards

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I've been following the tutorial from the beginning, and I found it very inspiring. I am thankful to Derfel Cadarn for taking his time and creating this Guide with many interesting detailing techniques. I've learnt a lot, so a big thank you to Derfel.

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Thank you for the guide, DC. It will help me out a lot with a project that I plan on starting later this month. Can't wait for part 2! :thumbup:

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MAN!

This is awesome!

posted a link on the brikwars forum and the only word people are able to say is just WOW!

I even started finished a little project of mine with your tecnic's and even bought 400 round 1x1!

(quoting somebody on those forums) Im am really impressed. And jealous. And Impressed... (end of quote)

Edited by The WarMocer

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Thank you very much DC, for adding the latest chapter, really useful, now to just get some more hinge plates...

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The last chapter is great! tHat tower is just eyecandy! Hope I can buy the parts used for it cause I would love to build one myself!

Thanks!

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