Avalonian Second Task: Departing for Albion

[Gilbert Despathens]

"You have your instructions: Keep vigilant, both for the Drow and this plague, and continue to increase the defenses of the castle. With luck, I will be back in a month. With less luck, perhaps I will be gone until the summer's end*. In either event, Iremons is in your hands as a council."

Lord Collis' cabinet, who had always relied on his moderating influence to keep them at peace, did their best to hide their unease.

"Goodbye, father," Linda said, and the rest of the party hastened to follow with good wishes.

His county in safe hands, Lord Collis Greenplate turned and walked to his boat.

Now for some names, from left to right in the above picture discounting Lord Collis:

Far left, front: Dalen, or "Dale", Greenplate, Lord Collis' son** and steward and Linda's twin brother. Dale has little taste for soldiering, preferring numbers (especially those referring to coin values). Local merchants fear his abacus.

Next left, back: "Guaire", a tall, taciturn wandering warrior housed by Sir Steven and named for a city that no one's ever heard of. His survival and combat skills are numerous.

Center left, bull shirt: Sir Steven George's Son, one of Lord Collis' loyal knights. Sir Steven's clan dates back to before the coming of the Dragonflight and has customs all of its own. Sir Steven takes little of the codes and bonds of knighthood seriously, and is always one for drinks and cynicism on the march and a dirty trick when he gets to the fight.

Center right, plate armor: Sarah MacFiercest, a member of the clan of the same name and a guard captain of Sir Ducan MacFiercest. As with many rolls in her clan, it has been in the bloodline for decades.

Second to right, front: Linda Greenplate, Lord Collis' daughter** and captain of Castle Iremons' garrison. She mostly fell into the roll because her twin brother was repulsed by it, but takes the task very seriously and rather enjoys it.

Far right, back: Sir Ducan MacFiercest, one of Lord Collis' loyal knights. Clan MacFiercest, like much in Lord Greenplate's domain, was caught on the wrong side of the border when a line was drawn between Avalonia and Mitgardia. Sir MacFiercest is an impulsive and compulsively-chivalrous knight who enjoys battles, brawls and being courteous to women. It is worth noting that Clan MacFiercest (lions) and the other major clan (bulls) have a long-dormant blood feud.

*No, Lord Greenplate has not heard that Albion is in quarantine

**Please ignore anything that is said about the previous steward and his magnetism

~ ~ ~

In case you were wondering, this build was heavily inspired by the works of Derfel Cadarn.

Ignore the bad picture...

I think I have a good idea of how to fix those gaps you saw next time I try this style of building, but C+C is welcome! (C+C does mean "critiques and comments", right?)

Edited June 4, 2014 by Gilbert Despathens

[Tomsche]

That is very beautiful, great build!

[robuko]

Lovely build. The angles, rockery and wood framing are all outstanding.

[Gunman]

Nice angles and beautiful texturing Gilbert :) Well done!

[Gideon]

Very nice house and rockwork, excellent details! The angled wall looks very "DC-like" and fits very well in this build

I think however that the ground could have used some more details when the rest of the build has such "high resolution".

Edit: You havn't thought about claiming some University of Petraea credits for the build?

Edited June 4, 2014 by Gideon

[Torgar]

I like the stone and rock work, and the angles look great! nice job.

[Infernum]

Awesome! Some of those figs look familiar... . And Guaire?

[mccoyed]

Lovely. My favorite part is the guy rolling the barrel down onto that (neat) dock. Oh, and the torch post (if that's what it is) is awesome.

[MassEditor]

Excellent stuff again Gilbert! I'm really digging that rockwork and the house design is absolutely gorgeous. The dock is ingeniously done too.

Like Gideon said, the ground could use a little churching up but other than that this is top notch!

[ZCerberus]

Very DC-esque with the sloped walls. Nice build.

[Lord Vladivus]

Great work! The Moc is fantastic but I do feel the photos for the story part make it seem a little like the characters are just on a green baseplate- maybe as Gideon said some more ground details? I love the stonework though, the leaning walls are great- I can see DC's influence!

[Gilbert Despathens]

Very nice house and rockwork, excellent details! The angled wall looks very "DC-like" and fits very well in this build

I think however that the ground could have used some more details when the rest of the build has such "high resolution".

Edit: You havn't thought about claiming some University of Petraea credits for the build?

I completely forgot about UoP credit! I'll get some requests in quickly.

Also, thanks for the advice on the ground. Landscaping has never been my strong point, but I have a lot of green parts written into my next Bricklink order, so hopefully I can change that in the future.

For this build, I would like to claim UoP credit for:

Architecture

- Roofing

- Walls

Landscaping

- Studs-up rocks and cliffs

Geography

- River Scene

[de Gothia]

I really love the house!

Though I don´t understand your post though... The first pics are for the challenge? The remaing are just to show the house? In that case I think that you should take some more pics of the house with the "right" minifigs on it... The perfect house is missing in the pics for the challenge...

[Scaevola]

Great work; nice job with the Derfel-style stonework and tudor-style techniques. I'll give you +1 UoP credits for all the claims except for the river scenes. A little more than a few studs will be needed to tide me over for that one, but really good job with the moc

[-Carson Haupt-]

I'm in love with those stone walls.

[Gilbert Despathens]

I really love the house!

Though I don´t understand your post though... The first pics are for the challenge? The remaing are just to show the house? In that case I think that you should take some more pics of the house with the "right" minifigs on it... The perfect house is missing in the pics for the challenge...

Too late - the barn was taken apart before I started my GNAR entry. I'm behind on my posting. Also, I wanted to show only Lego in the scenes with story to them, but I see your point. Thanks for the praise.

[de Gothia]

I see your point as well but then I think it will be hard to judge your moc since you don't see it..?

[Gilbert Despathens]

I see your point as well but then I think it will be hard to judge your moc since you don't see it..?

It's only being judged for freebuild points, right? This isn't my Category B entry to the challenge, it's my second task for joining Avalonia combined with a freebuild. I wouldn't have thought that my minifigures would make a difference in that case.

[de Gothia]

Aha! Now it make sense! :) well then, all I can do now is praise that great house!:)

So many things going on in historica these days!:)

[Thomas of Tortuga]

Gil, I predict your GoH story is going to get extremely confusing soon Those mixed-up names- it's like some weird parallel universe to Lands of Mythron!

[Maxim I]

Very nice MOC!! The house and rockwork is absolutely amazing!

[soccerkid6]

Lovely house and the landscape is just as good! Your windowframes are really neat and I like the little dock

[Ecclesiastes]

Overall stunning! I think the angled part of the landing stage is very nifty solution!

[HammerBro]

Great story, and the building is fantastic!

[Kai NRG]

I'll give you UoP credit for roof, walls, and rocks, but I don't think the water there is quite enough to claim river scene, especially as you just have one bank, and no indications of another one.

Since you posted the credits in a rather late comment it's likely that they went under the radar a bit. I'd suggest posting in the UoP thread or in the Kali thread (or both), + editing the first post here.