Alpine Builder

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Everything posted by Alpine Builder

  1. Alpine Builder

    [MOC] Secret of the Castle

    Hi all! I want to share my classic castle creation "Secret of the Castle". I was inspired by the 35th Anniversary of Black Falcons and Lion Knights / Crusaders (1984 - 2019), and I wanted to celebrate it by creating this MOC. I submitted it to "Lego Ideas" two days ago, so if you like it you can support it there: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/23b323b3-99c8-4427-b89a-0c6a7d3b7cda If enough Historic-themed projects get a large amount of supporters on "Lego Ideas", maybe the Lego Group will realize there is enough interest in those kind of themes and they will finaly release some new historic-themed sets. Story The prince and the princess are in love with each other. Since they come from warring factions, their love must stay secret for now. He came all the way from his castle to see her, bringing her flowers from a forest. But will castle guards notice him? And will he return safely home through the dark forest, where outlaws are preparing an ambush? Design I designed this MOC to be an interesting model as a standalone set, with excellent play value. At the same time, I made sure that it fits nicely with classic Lego Castle sets, by using styles and standards of modular castle design from the 80s. It can be connected to any Castle building from that period (by using Technic pins at the ends of the castle walls). The color palette is limited intentionally so that it reflects the style of the classic Castle sets, because my goal was to give this MOC a strong "retro feel". Minifigures The princess and the prince are new miifigures, and the other minifigures have updated torso designs based on the designs from the 80s. All minifigures have two different faces - a classic "standard grin" face, and a face with modern design. The castle guards, Princess and Prince have double-faced heads (since their hair / helmet / hood covers the back of their heads). Two heads would be provided for the Forestwoman and Forestman (since their caps do not cover the back of their heads). Parts The total number of parts is 925. All parts are current - virtually all can be found in different sets released during 2018 / 2019 (some in a different color than in this set). Therefore, molds for all those parts should be available and so Lego would not have any problems producing them. Only new prints / stickers would be needed. I integrated some of the new elements and utensils in this build (for example, new types of panels and windows, new arches, flames on the torches, sack, pot, new sword, etc), but I chose only those that hopefully don't stand out too much from the "classic style". A new variant of Black Falcon’s shield is included, with whole Falcon in black color on white background.
  2. Alpine Builder

    [MOC] Secret of the Castle

    @Alessandro, @Lordofdragonss Thanks for supporting, I really appreciate it! Here is the new picture which shows how this set would look when joined with several classic modular Castle sets (6074, 6062 and 6040). It can be combined in the same way with many other Castle sets.
  3. Alpine Builder

    [MOC] Secret of the Castle

    @miniman, @RyszardBosiak, @blackdeathgr Thank you very much for your nice comments and support! There are many months left before the deadline on Lego Ideas, but even if this project does not gather enough votes, it is still great to see how many people appreciate this kind of "updated retro" builds.
  4. Alpine Builder

    Hello from Switzerland!

    Hello everyone, I registered here recently, and I just wanted to quickly introduce myself! I am a graphic designer and Lego fan currently living in Switzerland. My first contact with Lego was in the middle of the 80s, when my father returned from a business trip and brought the 6384 Police Station as a gift. I was immediately blown away with the design and the endless possiblities for building and play which Lego sets offered! I was lucky enough to later receive 6080 King's Castle, 6041 Armor Shop, 6392 Airport, 8660 Arctic Rescue Unit, and several other great sets... After reading this great forum for some time, I decided to finaly join. Also, recently I became active on the "Lego Ideas", so I thought it would be interesting to presents my MOCs here in more detail, and get some useful comments and feedback from fellow members.
  5. Alpine Builder

    [MOC] Secret of the Castle

    Thank you all for your nice comments and support! @The_Cook Thanks for your useful feedback. - You are right about the constraints of a real Lego set and its box. But this is a just a first phase, where each author pitches the product idea to the public and to the Lego Group in the best way he can. If the idea gathers enough votes and gets chosen by the Lego, their designers and marketing department will take over the product development. So they will choose the best way to communicate the idea to the buyers, they will probably modify some features of the set and the story behind it (based on their market research), and they will choose what will appear on the box. Many Lego sets have a number of play features, but they always find a good way to show all that on a box. - Since castle sets are in many ways oriented toward boys, I thought it would be interesting to add some elements to this set that are appealing to the girls also. In my view, that can be an advantage of this product idea. - I also agree with what you wrote about medieval conflict - it often involves storming the castle. Since many other Lego castles and fortifications have some kind of gate, I intentionally designed this set to represent the part of the castle away from the gate - the place where the princess would have her room. One can certainly use the secret door as a way for the attackers to enter the castle. Also, this set can be seamlessly connected to many classic modular castle sets, so it's easy to add a set with a gate, if someone wishes to. Of course, if this project gets enough votes and gets chosen, maybe Lego designers will decide to add some kind of gate to it before it is released. - About the stairs and available space in the rooms: I designed this set not just for the kids, but also for the AFOLs who have so many nice memories about playing with classic castle sets in their childhood, and also for the collectors who will maybe see this set as a good addition to their castle collections. Therefore I placed stairs inside, because many AFOLs (like myself) appreciate a higher level of realism. I think there is enough space for the little hands inside, but as you said it is hard to judge without the built model. Making a tower with a larger space inside would result in too wide and too tall tower, which would not look good (because my goal was to make a retro set which looks good when placed next to any classic castle set). As I mentioned previously, all chosen projects will be built by the Lego designers in order to test everything, and anything that needs to be modified will be fixed in that phase of development. Thanks once again for your comments! @Petric_G Now I am really curious to hear your idea :)
  6. Alpine Builder

    Hello from Switzerland!

    Thank you very much for your welcome Petric_G ! Schönen Tag noch :)
  7. For me the fastest and easiest solution for missing parts/prints is to find a good picture of that part on the internet, and add it to my render in the Photoshop. The final result can look great - you can tweak perspective, size, hue (and everything else) of the missing part, add shadows if needed, etc. If I use Parts Designer, it would take too much time to achieve that.
  8. Alpine Builder

    Glenns Tavern

    Great build! I really like the texture and color of the roof. The way you unevenly positoned some elements, for example frames around windows and roof tiles, adds to the realism. If I have to change anything, I would remove the transparent 2x2 dish from the roof - at least for me it looks a little distracting. All mocs you built in this theme look very interesting, they will look great when placed together.