Inside Kaliphlin: Day 13 - The Fighting Pit of Mophet

[Gideon]

The Fighting Pit of Mophet

The oasis town of Mophet is situated along the oil road and is an important stop for travellers of all sorts between Petraea and Barqa. Its foremost attraction to visitors is the fighting pit, where fights against animals or even between gladiators take place. Betting is big business and after every fight substantial amounts change hands.

Today, the fierce old Mitgardian bear Bruno fights a bestiarius who seems to have gotten himself into a tougher fight than he expected and have already added some of his own blood to the already bloody sand.

Fights between gladiators also happen, but are a much rarer occasion. Today's highlight is a fight between a retiarius (lightly armored, but armed with a net and a long-reaching trident) and a secutor (heavily armored and with a sturdy shield and a sharp sword). Here, the retiarius has caught the secutor in his net and tries to take advantage of the situation. Whose blood will be next to color the arena sand?

Mophet is situated along the oil road about half-way between Barqa and Petraea (not shown on this map):

A painting of the pivotal point in the fight between Bruno and the bestiarius, who do you think won this fight?

The previous days on the tour:

Day 1 - The Withered Woods

Day 2 - The Jungles of Gorr

Day 3 - The Lone Mountain

Day 4 - The Qar-Akhen Marshes

Day 5 - The Dune Sea

Day 6 - The Great Dragonboat Race

Day 7 - Arkbri Falls

Day 8 - Okatowan Gardens

Day 9 - The Triumphal Arch of Petraea

Day 10 - Amrakect Market

Day 11 - One Year Party

Day 12 - The Lion Dance

[-Carson Haupt-]

Is this a render? I can't quite tell. Regardless, excellent Moc! Very awesome!

[Gideon]

Is this a render? I can't quite tell. Regardless, excellent Moc! Very awesome!

Thanks! It's definitely ABS plastic The lighting might be a bit weird since I had to use flash, but I bounced it of the ceiling.

[-Carson Haupt-]

Thanks! It's definitely ABS plastic The lighting might be a bit weird since I had to use flash, but I bounced it of the ceiling.

Ok!

[Infernum]

My money's on the Mitgardian (even if he's a bear).

Very nice MOC! Love the sand! I also love the curve. The rails are great! Really love the covered seat for the noble too! Amazing work, if a few hours early. I guess Kaliphlinites like to get an early start.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Infernum

[Captain Nemo]

Sweet build! The whole curve of the wall is great; and I have to say the bear fight does give me a Game of Thrones feel. Great job!

[Gideon]

Very nice MOC! Love the sand! I also love the curve. The rails are great! Really love the covered seat for the noble too! Amazing work, if a few hours early. I guess Kaliphlinites like to get an early start.

Thanks! It's Friday already here in Sweden, can't help that you are a bit behind on the other side of the pond ;)

[Garmadon]

Stupendous build, Gideon, the curved shape is excellent!

The gate (how did you build that, I'm not quite sure, though I have a guess ), the rail, and the blood on the sand are great also.

The steps look a little steep, though, and I personally would prefer the flags up-side down

Great photography, as always, too .

[Mike S]

Awesome MOC! Like I said on flickr everything looks perfect and this is such a great addition to the tour.

[kabel]

wow, what a curve, looking spectacular! And it looks very ASOIAF, sort of like I would imagine the fighting pits of Meereen. Excellent job!

Kaliphlin, you guys really outdid yourself!

[SkaForHire]

Excellent work! So, did the bear win?

I take back what I said on the group board, that gate really put it over the top. Wow, so many good builds from you!

[Covi]

Wauw! This is simply astonishing! I love all the little details like how you have put a little gate to enter the pit! The wall textures are also very well done.

[Wedge09]

Great work, very well detailed :thumbup: At first sight it seems a rendering Congrats to be on TBB

[soccerkid6]

Congrats on TBB! The build itself is magnificent, the curved walls, texture of the walls and ground, and entrance are all top-notch

I do wonder if the Mitgardian bear was come by legally however

[ZCerberus]

Awesome work. It's even up on The Bothers Brick. Love the look of this a lot!

[Gideon]

Thanks all! Not least you in Kaliphlin who persuaded me to join this free-build project! And without hanging around here in GoH in general the last few months I would never have developed my building skills to be anywhere near TBB-worthy

I must admit I was a bit inspired by GoT for this build, but the arena technique itself is something I have had brewing in my mind for quite a while without being able to figure out how to build without too much gaps somewhere. The "Alexandrian solution" was as you see to cut away half the arena and leave it to the viewers imagination.

At first sight it seems a rendering

Is this a purely good thing do you think or should I be less hasty in removing all the natural variations in lighting of the backdrop around the build another time?

I see that many of the best photographed builds out there use the actual backdrop in its presentation and not a careful cut-out after shooting with the approximately right color in the background as I did here (to eliminate wrinkles in the sheet behind).

I'm thinking of getting a better backdrop which is less wrinkle-prone than this, maybe with a slightly fuzzy surface. What do you guys think of that?

Edited June 28, 2013 by Gideon

[Ecclesiastes]

I can imagine that this is blogged, it looks really good. The shape, the textures, the colors. All so very well combined. And I would put my money on the bear!

(I don't wanna go ZCerberus on you(sorry Z )but the minifig with the cowboy hat feels a bit misplaced. Looks like Indiana Jones is visiting)

Is this a purely good thing do you think or should I be less hasty in removing all the natural variations in lighting of the backdrop around the build another time?

I see that many of the best photographed builds out there use the actual backdrop in its presentation and not a careful cut-out after shooting with the approximately right color in the background as I did here (to eliminate wrinkles in the sheet behind).

I'm thinking of getting a better backdrop which is less wrinkle-prone than this, maybe with a slightly fuzzy surface. What do you guys think of that?

In my opinion your photo's look great! Even when you use flash, something that always ruins my photo's

Edited June 28, 2013 by Ecclesiastes

[Kai NRG]

Congrats on being blogged Gideon! No surprise, as this is an awesome build, love every bit of it!

...Is this a purely good thing do you think or should I be less hasty in removing all the natural variations in lighting of the backdrop around the build another time?

I see that many of the best photographed builds out there use the actual backdrop in its presentation and not a careful cut-out after shooting with the approximately right color in the background as I did here (to eliminate wrinkles in the sheet behind).

I'm thinking of getting a better backdrop which is less wrinkle-prone than this, maybe with a slightly fuzzy surface. What do you guys think of that?

Your photos are great, it's a good thing that they look like a render! I don't see why you should go for something with a fuzzy surface, white paper seems to work really well. For some people... I have trouble keeping the paper white...

[Gideon]

(I don't wanna go ZCerberus on you(sorry Z)but the minifig with the cowboy hat feels a bit misplaced. Looks like Indiana Jones is visiting)

In my opinion your photo's look great! Even when you use flash, something that always ruins my photo's

I had some thoughts about that hat as well, but as it is on one of my side characters and this place suited him perfectly I couldn't resist putting him in the crowd. Had I known this would have ended up being blogged and therefore spread to a non-GoH crowd I wouldn't have put it there.

For the lighting on this I used a mixture of natural light shining in through quite big windows (behind the camera) and flash bounced off the ceiling, but I had to try several different angles of the flash (giving different positions of the bright spot in the ceiling) before I got satisfied with how the balance between illumination of top/sides on the bricks was ok. I still think I got a tad too much light on the top of the bricks, but I figure that it could be the bright Kaliphlin sun high in the sky shining through light clouds

I don't see why you should go for something with a fuzzy surface, white paper seems to work really well. For some people... I have trouble keeping the paper white...

I am using a simple white sheet, but I have removed everything and replaced it with a simple graded background in GIMP.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Gideon

[TheLegoDr]

Great little build. I like the idea and execution, even if it is a ruthless blood sport...

The hinged curve works really well here, especially since we see the inside instead of the outside per the usual tower. The railing worked well here too.

To be honest, I didn't notice the man with the hat at all. I had to scroll back up to look at him. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Keep up the good work.

[NiL_FisK_Urd]

Great build!

[SkaForHire]

You are very patient with your photography, and it pays off. Your photo editing skills are top notch too. It was your excellent presentations that put me over the edge to stop being lazy and actually present at least one edited photo per build.

As for the light, I had to double take to find what you were talking about, I don't think it is that noticeable, and your light is all coming from one angle - presumably the bounced flash, I think it looks natural enough. I bought a light tent to control my light, but then I found out I build too big usually for it... I think something that absorbs light might be your best ticket, a felt like darker color might serve you well -- especially since you edit most (all) of your shots.

[Balthasar]

Beautiful build! Love the floor in the arena

[de Gothia]

Wow Gideon, in record time you have became one of Kaliphlins best builder! And they sure have some great mocers!

I really like this idea and the way you put the idea into bricks. The rounded shape of the pit as well as the round ground makes this moc very eye pleasing! Great work!

[Str0ngbad]

That bestiarius was dead the second he walked into that ring. He just didn't know it yet. Great build. Totally deserving of the attention it has gotten. Like TheLegoDr, I too had to scroll up to see the cowboy hat. The round wall is done so well and the textures on it and the ground are so perfectly varied that it doesn't feel like it was built with a bunch of bricks.