AardWolf

Hey all, it's been quite awhile since I was last able to build, but I just couldn't miss the Colossal Castle Contest - especially with a warship category this year. So, Instead of building a handful of rushed entries, I decided instead to pour my heart and soul into a single entry. (Pictures link to Flickr) I decided to revisit an idea I had when I built my first ship a couple years ago. I hadn't managed to make it work then, but I have come a long way as a builder since then. The technique ended up working even better than I had hoped, allowing me to build a sturdy, frustration-free hull with multidirectional curvature and minimal attachment points. This enabled me to make the sides of the hull removable, and to add an interior. The walls you see belowdecks are actually attached to the backside of the ship's frame, meaning that no matter which side is removed, the cabin will always appear as a complete cross-section. In addition, the entire ship is modular, allowing for the removal of the mast and rigging, forecastle, stern decks, hull, and even the main deck, which slides up over the mast. I really wanted to go all-out this year, and, inspired by JKBrickworks' working torsion-spring ballista, I decided to add a functional artillery piece to the deck. This was very challenging, as JKBrickworks' model is over 16 studs wide (much too big for mounting on the ship). Effective torsion springs took up too much space, so I instead lashed together flex tubes and built a scaled-down winding/ratcheting system that is similar to JKBrickworks' original design. It worked, and the ballista you see will wind, hold, and launch multiple projectiles across a desk. Finally, the ship features a working rudder and tiller, all-LEGO rigging (including the rat-lines, which are cut and sewn-together nets), deployable anchors, three projectile types for the ballista (bolt, harpoon, and ball-and-chain), crow's nest mounted crossbow, working doors and hatch, and a full crew including the VIP passengers, captain, navigator, sailors, cook, naval warfare officer, ballista crewmen, marine detachment commander, marine boarder, "Leatherhead" marine sharpshooter, and expeditionary marine. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I enjoyed building it! As always, comments and criticism are welcome and appreciated, and there are (and will be) more pictures on Flickr. Happy New Year!

Thank you very much! Thank you! Thanks Graham- much appreciated! Thank you Patrick! I've been a fan of your builds for quite some time, so it's great to get your feedback. Yes, it's totally fine to shorten the name too haha. Those trees each probably took an hour to build and perfect. As I've mentioned, when I get the chance I'll post a tutorial, so it'll be evident how long they take. I'm probably not the fastest builder, though. I have thought about joining GoH and I would certainly like to. Right now is a really bad time, as my wife and I just bought a house that we're fixing up, and I have finals coming up in a few weeks (I'm going back to school). Sometime in the future though!

Thank you very much! I will certainly post a tutorial, just as soon as I can get the time! (My wife and I just bought a new house, so we're working hard on that right now) Thanks so much - I'm glad you like it! The interior of this house is not viewable, since I decided to go with the Power Functions lighting instead. So, inside this particular MOC you'll find only a big Power Functions battery box and a frame that makes the whole house quite sturdy. I have done interiors in many of my builds, however, such as these, which also feature some mechanical moving parts:

Thank you very much! I appreciate that! I've been wanting to do a MOC with dark colors and this seemed like a great time. Thank you very much! I appreciate that! Thank you! Thanks so much! I definitely prefer making 360-degree viewable MOCs - It's just so much more satisfying that way. And you know what, with how my LEGO area is set up, I actually couldn't see the back of this thing straight on until I took the pictures. For not having a good look, I'm pumped about how it turned out.

Saw this on Flickr and I love it! All of the detail and history you managed to pack into microscale-style building is really impressive.

First off, I'd like to say that I need to carve out some more time to get on Eurobricks. It's a great site with a ton of great builders and I should make more time to comment. I've been very busy with life, but I managed to finally finish a large build I've been working on. Here it is. It's a beast, packing a full Power Functions battery case and lighting inside the house, with on/off switch accessible through a slide-out panel in the back wall. That panel is also built to blend right in with the rest of the wall, so as not to affect the look of the house from the back side. The house itself is very sturdy, and most of the walls are several studs thick. There's an internal truss as well that supports the overhanging area and connects it to the far wall. I have no idea how many total bricks are involved here, but I'll put it to you this way: the roof alone involves about 2,000 pieces, each black-trunked tree involves about 300 parts, and the ground across the front half of the MOC is built completely from 1x2 and 1x1 bricks. That's right, besides the pond, there are 0 plates involved in ground in the entire front half of this build. I've had a couple of requests for roof and tree tutorials, so I'll post those as soon as I can. The roof is really based on Luke Watkins' design in his "Where the Wild Things Are," but altered to remove the seams between net sections and to accommodate a window cutout. Also, if you're sharp-eyed enough, you can spot: A fishing rod A flesh-colored head 4 rotten bananas 2 Series 12 Huns' cloaks A small train wheel 7 assemblies that use minifig hands 14 nets A mischievous cat As always, check out more pictures and the story on Flickr!

Hey everyone! This is my first space MOC, so any tips and feedback are appreciated. I'm going for realistic future space style, trying kind of a different space route than most I've seen. If you're interested, the start of a story is available on Flickr. Anyway, here it is:

Hey all! Here's my third entry to this year's CCC, for the Medieval Dungeon category. The Chamber of Unspeakable Horrors holds such appalling tortures as the Forbidden Feast, Trial of Terrible Taunts, Tortugan Tickle Torture, and, worst of all, the Abominable Accordion. Click the picture for a full description and more pictures.

Even unfinished it looks great. As I said on Flickr, I love all the little caverns and hideouts, especially that tomb. Awesome!

Really nice! I especially like how you did that recessing around the corners of the woodwork and how you did the windows. Excellent!

Thank you! I actually just used Google Images, including these:http://https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Kieler_Hansekogge_2007.jpg and http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/History/Ships_Discovery/Ships/Northern_cog.jpg Thank you very much, and I really appreciate that! Thanks man! Thanks! Unfortunately, it would be nearly impossible to make an interior in a vessel with this kind of hull design. Not only is the inside crisscrossed with Mixels joints and technic liftarms, but it also must be pretty solid to counterbalance the stress of the curved hull pieces. Thank you! Thank you very much, glad you like those windows! Thank you very much! Thanks a ton! Thanks Drew, I really appreciate that!

My second entry to this year's CCC on classic-castle.com, I present the English Trading Cog. More pictures and a more detailed description can be found on Flickr. This build was particularly challenging, perhaps even more so than my Spirit of Lenfald, because of the CCC's size restrictions. This made it very difficult to achieve good curvature in the hull, but with the help of some newly acquired Mixels joints, some Technic liftarms, hinges, and jumper plates, I made it happen. The rudder works and the spar and sail swivel with a range of motion of about 60 degrees. Overall I am very pleased with the result. Let me know what you think!

Ladies and gents, here is my most recent build for the Colossal Castle Contest XIII and for Lands of Roawia's LC 20. I present Linvale Falls:

Wow, great job on your first MOC in this theme! I especially love the transition from dirt path to stone courtyard and the bridge joining the two houses. Awesome!

Another excellent diorama, Gary, and one of my absolute favorite historical battles. I can't believe this only took four hours!