Bracari

As Sir Loth Strongarm approaches the House he notices that his grandson, Tarrys, has returned with the goats from the pasture. Soon it will be time to join the herds of the community and move them to the Summer pastures. This year will be the first time Tarrys will spend time as a helper in the high valley shepherding with the older men. The Strongarm's house is divided into the family hall and the animal enclosure with a pantry, dairy and overhead storage. Tarrys is excitedly talking about his first outing alone without the family to his grandfather while his mother Skyra and older sister Yura tend to dinner. Have been sitting on this for awhile, still struggling with scene composition, lighting and photography but have spent too much time with it and post-editing and want to really start a new project. The house is easily detachable and pivots on two hinges. Opinions and criticism are welcome. A few more pictures below.

Just a couple of quick images of the connected build Orchard, Produce Garden and House (the best I could do with limited display space). Learned a lot during the build. The comments and tips were and will be very helpful. Already started to dismantle and re-sort. I spend a lot of time with this build, almost 4 months, as i am a slow builder and also had to keep ordering new parts as my collection was (and still is ) very small. There are never enough bricks just lack of space or money . Time to start the next build, which will require new part orders .

The credit for the roof must go to @davee123 and his excellent viking village. It is very part intensive and I probably won't use this technique for such a large house anytime soon . I had that hole in the roof intersection and thought, naturally, to use a shield then I remembered the snitch. It's a part that I thought would have not much use outside the Potterverse but it fit nicely into this build. You are completely right, you can see in the pantry the utensils are hanging down. This was an oversight, in the Kitchen nook they should be too, there is actually space for it. Actually, I did some research and fireplaces and chimneys as we know them are a later middle age feature: "... there were only two ways to keep warm in a medieval winter: fire and the animal heat of other living creatures. We take fireplaces for granted, and indeed fireplaces were a medieval invention. They came in originally during the twelfth century but did not become common until the thirteenth, and were very much something for the elite. Before then, and for peasants throughout most of the rest of the Middle Ages, the normal source of heat was a fire pit in the middle of the room. The smoke found its way out through small holes under the roof..." From http://cdalebrittain.blogspot.com/2014/11/keeping-warm-in-middle-ages.html This is just one source among many others. One of the images I used as inspiration was this: Thank for the comments and tips @mccoyed, @Grover, @zoth33, @W Navarre.

An impressive collection of works and awesome collab. Really displays the themes and feel for Kaliphlin. Enjoyed viewing each of them as they were posted for the past couple of weeks.

Strongarm Farm House | Mitgardia | Bracari Clifftop Riders | Mitgardia | Bracari

My entry for Farm Phase Three consideration:

An great and inspiring build. Love the roof texturing. One of these days I need to buy a cow, just one grazing lazily gives such a nice country atmosphere to the whole (and the chickens too, of course).

The path out of the orchard leads Sir Loth Strongarm by the family's produce garden, lush with crops. There he sees his granddaughter Yura, the middle child of his son Stenon, harvesting vegetables. Hard working, strong-willed and beautiful as her mother. She is of marrying age but, like her older brother, does not seem to give much thought to it yet. Granted, the current small Vale community does not have many potential compatible suitors. Another thing that might change with the return of Lady Eleanor, with the possibility of the return of some of those who left the Vale and the arrival of new settlers.

Nice trees and snowscape. I do like the roof and its angles. The path does seem to have a little too much color variation to me, but that is something I am struggling with also as a novice builder.

Nice build. Simple but effective texture, with the masonry contrasting with the round bricks. Would love to see one of the mini-horses poking its head out of the pen . When combined the building fit very well together.

Thank you for all the comments. Still a lot of experimentation and learning so i tried to incorporate three ways to make the flowers, traditional flower on stem, the lever base and round plates with both 4 and 5 petals (although there are some issues with color availability) and the new 3 leaves plate with friends flowers.(7 petals). The stone wall was assembled, partially disassembled and re-assembled several times . The idea i that the rock outcropping will continue on the next adjacent build, so for now it is only a part of the whole. The one stud gap is meant to be an irrigation ditch but again it will depend on the next build for it to be fully visible (and I don't know if it will work or not yet, so there might be changes). I think it turned out good too and it wasn't even planned. I wanted some different colored vegetable planted, so I used a white open stud round plate with a twig on top on the base. Then when I had the minifig harvesting the garden my first thought went naturally to the usual carrot, however that day I had just received an order with white small horns so i tried it out and the twig and horn actually fit nicely in the open stud and the parsnip was born . Again, thanks for the comments, tips and suggestions.

I do like the trees, very nice. Great texture and color pallet on the path and landscape.

My little garden: Thread: Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmrHD9xL

AoM: Farm Phase 2: Strongarm's Homestead Produce Garden: Now it's time to start the big build, Farmhouse and animal husbandry

Very nice little build with so many interesting elements. Seems to fit well in the overall city layout, like a small park/plaza surrounded by bigger buildings.

Sir Loth Strongarm walks through the Apple Orchard of his family's homestead and reminisces on the past. He lost his wife, daughter and most of his family when a volcanic eruption destroyed his home village, while he and his two eldest sons where on a mission patrolling the high passes of the mountain ranges that surround Bluevale. Luckily his youngest son, Stenon, survived the natural disaster. He stood by his Lord, Brius, when Brius' brother tried to usurp his place. In the ensuing conflict both his eldest sons died in combat. Although victorious Lord Brius departed to the Capital leaving Loth Strongarm as Steward of Bluevale and protector of its people, the few that remained after the hard times fell on Bluevale.He trained his youngest son as a tracker and warrior as himself, to one day replace him.When his son married Skyra they settled in a small clearing on the slopes of the northwestern mountains of the vale.In the intervening years the farm has grown and prospered and so has the family. Strenon now has three children of his own, Robb the eldest son, a daughter named Yura and the boy Tarrys. Returning his thoughts to the present and to Lady Eleanor, Lord Brius' grand-daughter, who is returning to reclaim her dominion of Bluevale. He sent Stenon and Robb to escort her party through the mountain passes. They should arrive soon and one thing he is certain of is that life in Bluevale will change yet again. A few more photos can be seen at https://flic.kr/s/aHskDb2fP2 Any comments are welcome. Pretty new to this world and eager to learn and improve my skills.

Nice, kinetic scene. Good color scheme with the green shades and olive. Especially liked the mushrooms, will try and pick-up some in my next order for landscaping. They do give a 'wilderness' sense to the field.

I agree, you can never have enough leave parts . I am still building up my collection and when thinking of other mocs I want to do I find I am missing so many parts the leaves get forgotten when ordering. This is 1/8 of the planned farm layout, a daunting task for a newbie but i like the challenge. I think your advice is good, as I am going to build it in sections I think I'll incorporate some kind of border (even though they'll be temporary) when each section is completed. Will, certainly, give the individual sections a better look than the exposed connection substructure. Seems as I was doing it completely wrong. I was using as much light fixtures as possible from different angles to flood the build and get rid of shadows. You're advice is great and I'll spend a lot more time with the photography settings in my next build. @Grover, @Henjin_Quilones, @mccoyed, @Gunman, @narbilu, @Gideon, @de Gothia, @soccerkid6, Thank you all for the comments and advice.

Very interesting build. Nothing to add as everything has already been commented upon by much more experienced members. Has certainly inspired me as I am also considering building a Mitgardian Hut soon-ish.

Thanks for the comments, this is exactly what I was hoping for. Yes, I kept the trees short thinking of that and it's still early/middle of the season so the apples are not fully grown. I agree that the path could be lowered and the base green colors switched. Darker below the lighter one, the plates aren't sand green that's just a trick of the lighting and post-processing. Unfortunately, don't have enough light green except big plates, could use reddish-brown for the base instead with green on top. I actually took out some detailing as it seemed too 'busy' and I didn't want to overdo it. This is part of a larger farm moc idea so the technic connections are there for a reason. Thanks again.

My first entry, an apple orchard. Only now read about the naming convention. Will use it in future builds.

I really enjoyed the intro, as a big comic-book fan it is nice to see the use of that format for storytelling. I think the minifigs are where nicely put together. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Hi there, new member and would like to join the Guild and have fun building and creating stories. My SigFig: Lady Eleanor of Bluevale  Title: Ruler of Bluevale Not so Short Bio: The Bluevale country is Lady Eleanor's ancestral home. Nestled inside a mighty mountain range it is a long valley with a large lake in the middle, fed by a myriad of small streams which spring from the surrounding mountains. A river flows from this lake carving a small pass through the eastern part of the mountains. The southwestern region has hot springs and geysers due to volcanic activity, this gives the valley a special micro-climate. The valley is fertile and was famous for its Orchards whose Apples were then distilled into cider, appreciated throughout Mitgardia. The Lords of Bluevale prospered from this trade for centuries, acquiring land and businesses even in the Capital itself. Unfortunately a volcanic eruption followed by a war between brothers took a heavy toll on the community as many died or fled. Although triumphant against his brother, Lord Brius (Eleanor's grandfather) moved the family to Valholl being able to maintain a noble status due to his wealth. Eleanor was born there, her mother dying in childbirth, and raised surrounded by finery, a melancholic grandfather and often absent father. However, without the steady income from Bluevale's products, some bad investments and general squandering of money by Eleanor's father, Lord Firth, after her grandfather's passing the family lost most of its wealth. When Lord Firth died just a couple of years later, the family status gone and looked upon with a certain disdain by other nobles a young Eleanor decided to sell the little holdings she still had (even the family's house in the city where she grew up) and with a small retinue of faithful servants return to Bluevale to reclaim and rebuild the family's domain. Parts: Hair, Head, Torso, Arms, Hands, Legs and Hips, Cape.