Tomcat RIO

great Jarl, I accept the challenge of the Siege master and Economy titan mini-build challenge. Building them at the moment. Will submit in about a week or 2, but definitely before the deadline..

yea I thought so too myself, I'm so not gonna win anything with the mixed reception.. Well was basically trying out a very non-purist minifig for my (first) contest too, putting in some of my warhammer painting skills and venturing into the unknown so to speak. I kinda agree that more purist (with a bit, or big load) of non-official fan-made Lego parts is more popular or easier way to go, but at the end of the day, to each his/her preference and I can't force others to choose purism issue :) You have a very great knight entry too! Elven prince and the whole setting is beautiful, ala flowers and the whole farewell theme. Looking forward to your upcoming elves contingents! P.S, now you've got more stuff to customise them with, from Ryan's Brickwarriors prize!!

Oh man what did I miss! Congrats to all the winners!! Great entries all around and inspired me to make more custom minifigs and keep up the good work! thank you to the sponsors and organiser LuxorV, looking forward to next contest theme! :)

Well that ought to scare yer off the chair abit. Intro Introducing my entry for MCW contest category 1 Globetrotters. This figure is based on the Maori tribes, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand. They are a warlike people and best known for their elaborate face and body tattoos and war paints, as well as their songs and war dance called the "Haka". Inspired by a travel brochure "Visit New Zealand!" Well the front of it was a Maori tribe, kiwi birds, river rafting and bungee jumpers, and the back of the brochure was epic landscape scenes from Lord of the Rings. Lol! Cost Cost of making this figure was about $7, the Dastan minifig head and muscular chest from BL cost $2. A set of flesh legs and cheeseslopes from the spares box. Sculpey was from my knight project so it isnt counted. Lastly $1 for a wide brush, which I used to cut off the bristles for the skirting, and $4 for greenish black and flesh colour paint. The most difficult aspect of this project was painting the tattoos. I do not know how to operate the decal printer program and I'm bad with drawing with a mouse, so I went the old school brush and paint. This one was much more difficult and thinner than my knight's. A unique aspect of the project was using brush bristles for the grass skirt. I glued the hairs together, then taped over it to create a sash. The hair braid was sculpted with epoxy putty, taking note of the rather curled and dense hair locks. Thus it is distinctly different from the ones provided by Lego Islanders. The external link to more pictures can be found on my flickr Flickr account link On to the pictures, well since the front picture is already on top, I move to the sides. note the motifs on the arms, thighs and the Taihaha - the Maori double edged spear. Back Lastly the vignette, this one is for another of New Zealand's most representative figures, their All Blacks Rugby team, which just won the world cup by the way :) The All Blacks also had their legs slightly modified. They are shown doing a 'Haka' War Dance, which is a Maori custom before going to war. You can easily youtube it for clips. The Maori sometimes make appearances in traditional garb on the pitch, a good number of New Zealand's rugby players are also descended from Maori. Thanks for looking, hope you all will enjoy this entry! Comments and critiscm welcome!

Gold golems! HAHAHA Brings me back to Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Tower race.. Golem manufacturers.. Time to make us some strong Iron golems and steel golems from the Ore that is rich in the mountains and owned by our friendly Mitgardian dwarf lords. And Stone gargoyles born from the Northern cliffs! Maybe i'm moving too fast ahead into fantasy , in this rather historic castle setting? But imagination and builidng them has always been a part of Lego, isn't it? I've got a few Jotun Frost giants at the moment being built, they could be on our side, or as wild population. That said, Pengus, I'll order 2 gold golems please. and fit 1 of them with a translator head that knows 6 million languages that I can bring about on our economic trade across Historica :) ->c3po lol..

Well, from the north Mitgardian perspective, its Just Ice for us! Nice vig, though it be gruesome.. I also didn't know the clip holder could attach to the skeleton arms until now. Opens new possibilties for my MOCs

interesting mountain mummy scholar hair!! i wonder what new resource Abu Ali has imported? The EMTC shall dispatch a caravan of seal meat, fur rugs, timber, ice, and as a bonus on the house, some live pine and conifer trees for you desert people to celebrate Christmas. Caravan will reach in 3 weeks. - Seaburn La Flaga, on behalf of EMTC, Hykerbia Castle East, Mitgardia Avenue 2 , Block 4 level 1 (Main Branch).

good towers and MOCs all around! fantastic!! I shall tear down mine and build another! -Sirens of titan - the distance peaks was what i had in mind but couldnt achieve, very nice MOC!!

Hi all MCW and Eurobrick members I am very excited to particpate in my first MOC/customization contest online. Had a few ideas for bayonets at dawn, classic castle, but never got around to building, and I also missed the EB underwater theme "underwater version' build deadline too. Ah well. Time to get done on my 1st online entry ever!! Backstory: It is 1808. I am Commodore La Flaga, of the Bluecoat French Imperial Soldiers Fleet. Whilst digging up the attic in my seaside castle Chauteau, I chance upon an old family heirloom of a sword crested with a fish. And with it also a colourful painted tapestry of one of my forefathers. Baron Maude is my great-great-grandfather several times over, living at Castleon in the 12th century, during the age of knights and chivalry in Europe. In old French, spiced with old Teuton and german and Latin, was an account of this ancestor's jousting prowess, as well as a full coloured woodblock print of the visual spectacle of this multi-trophy winning champion. Baron Maude contributed greatly to the wealth of our family, and a proud tradition we still carry in our fighting armies and ships today with the Fleur De Lis as my family's herald.. Inspiration: I was greatly inspired by medieval knights since I am also a Castle fan. The bright colours and audacity, flamboyance of this custom figure is no doubt a mixture of inspiration from Dynasty warriors, and Warhammer's Bretonnian Knights. Indeed, the poise of 1 of the vignette is modelled after a charging pose of a jousting Airfix 1/32 Teuton Knight Templar. The painting of the custom was a nightmare. I used lots of tricks from my miniature modelling and tabletop gaming to achieve what I desired. A super fine brush tip worked slowly on spots, stripes, chainmail, crests, heraldry etc.. Cost and Materials: Approx $35-40 ? I had 8 bottles of paint for this project, namely blue, yellow, green, red, black and silver from Tamiya. The browns and gold was from my Citadel paint. Epoxy sculpy from the hardware store, a MF4 Ice skater's skirt, keychain from Lego Star wars keychain. The rest of the parts came from sets. The superfine brush tip I bought for this project cost $10! A complete work in progress can be found on my flickr set. flickr link gallery In addition, you can find the entire set of 4 different Vignettes, more closeups of the details of this custom minifig, and more angles of shots of the vignettes and horse. It will be worth a look and hopefully inspires you people with my use inventive or unheard of techniques.. check out the rubber band legs for exampl Without further ado, Here are the pictures. Front side Back Vignette 1 - At the joust That is all. Hope you guys enjoy my entry. If any moderator or the contest organizers feel I have breached some rules of entry, do let me know and tell me about changes that have to be made. I will then modify the figure or vignette accordingly. Thanks for looking! - Kevin (edit post script, now its time to start on the alien for category 2, stay tuned!)

Phew, managed to do my alien entry in time, though it seems shoddy. Good Luck to all contestants and have fun! Don't stop customizing! And most of all thank you to LuxorV for being patient and hardworking on maintaining the rules, answering questions, organising the sponsors etc. Grazie!

done up the set with a few extensive modifications - essentially a total new built on top of the black hulls. lengthen the hull rear the number of gun ports and profile of the ship also modified and built up tp be similar to movie upper deck is built up to cover the open space deck design of the original modular design allow removal of upper decks back of the ship and captain's cabin, poop deck. Completely rebuilt and redesigned to look more like movie and lego POTC computer game motif decoration on the rear deck and more windows chandelier captain's cabin completely new built and modular design outer hull with slanted windows.. not attached to stud, but held in place by grey panels

Backstory In the alternate universe, on the planet on Faeritail.. I am Astrich Wingbane, half cyborg, half ostrich, and work as a bounty hunter mercernary in this quadrant of the galaxy.. A while ago, I received a big bounty for the head of a certain Big Bad Wolf who was terrorizing the space colonies in the rim regions. The reward was offered by what seem to me an innocent girl and 3 little pigs. Little did i know of the trouble it will cause. I killed the Wolfman abroad the FS BBW starship, and he makes a fine chain around my neck and a furcoat for my skirt. But that is when the trouble began. The other bounty hunters told me that a little girl dressed in red hood had risen to power in the dark crime of inter-stellar piracy. 3 little pigs in glass helmets had also monopolised the spice trade in the rim and they were in cahoots.. I knew I had to stop the trouble I started, and i will stop at nothing until I am killed or my cyborg portion runs out of energon or mechanical failure. Cost - $6-8 About $4 for the ostrich, and $2 for the police dog, which i cut off for the head. The rest were from sets such as Atlantis and Blacktron2. Paints were from my other projects. Inspiration - Just trying to spoof on the alternate universe where ostriches can fly and pigs rule the world, and the red riding hood is queen of the crime neighbourhood. More pictures of the vignette and closeups can be found here flickr accnt link front sides back vignette - Ok Red Riding Hood and Little straw Pig, where are the other 2 Pigs. I can do this the easy way or the hard way!

ho wow! Is that really real spagetti!>? Nice!!

I like that mini-moc of Urkcape, Darkdragon! Seeing that many watchtowers are now in the midst of construction, and improving on mine before a vote by the guild for the 5 best. I have taken the time to introduce some new characters.. Peace has lasted for centuries in Historica. Trade and commerce prospers between all guilds. Mitgardia is no exception. Rich in timber, ore and fur, she grows strong and mighty with wwealth of colonists, Norse, Orc and Dwarf empires sprouting. In wealthy Hykerbia, Baron La Flaga commissioned the setting up of a financial and trading company to exploit the lucrative trade routes that ply the Rakath mountain valleys into the Great Oil road to the South, and for daring interprid merchants that travel through Krela Labyrinths and can afford the Minotaur's tolls. As such, he appointed his youngest brother, Mr Seaburn La Flaga, to act as CEO of the consortium. With him are First Mate of the EMTC fleets of merchant vessels, and Mr John Timberman, a renown businessman and good friend of the dwarf kingdoms. The East Mitgardia Trading Company, EMTC in short, operates a medium sized fleet of longboats and medieval cogs, sailing the Eastern coasts of Mitgardia for the rich fish shoals. They also travel between the ports on the Eastern coastline, supplying valuable trade and goods from North to South. From the Southern Kaliphlin and Nocturnus they bring black oil, precious jewels, exotic and medical potions, tropical and desert delicacies to kingdoms as far north as Northridge Castle, Pikesteel mountain etc. From these North ports, they bring back mineral ore and gold, to be smelted and minted into gold coins that are used throughout Mitgardia. Of course, this minting is done at Valholl under the very very close supervision of the Minister of the Treasury Pengus Penguinus .. Every 6 months, the ships do the "Barrel Run", loading up on the high good quality annual production of Dwarf Mead, beer and Ale form Omurtag and Pikesteel and transporting them back to the Southern Mitgardia where it is worth its weight in gold! Also, by the permission of Jarl Nibelung, the EMTC particpates in the Bi-annual Seal hunt in the Bay of seals, along with the native Norse clans and Tundra peoples. This keeps the seal population under control. The seal fur pelts are highly prized amongst the noble elite in Valholl and the freezing sentry guards at Hergelstorpe. Lastly, the EMTC knows that the other great trading company in Mitgardia, the World's End Caravan owned by Hvar Icewind, has wealthy and vast caravans that travel West and South via other routes, hence they do not compete, but rather cooperate to fill up all aspects of the Mitgardian economy.. The next exciting venture for the EMTC is the opening of a textile and garment mill in Hykerbia, using green dyes from the pine forest leaves and cotton from the temperate farms in Urk'cape to make green sleeved torsos for the armies and citizens of Mitgardia guild, at afforable prices! :)

On second thoughts, yea maybe it wasn't Southern pesky nomads that were looting our mutual trade routes. It might be more Drow tourists dressed up in Mitgardian and Kaliplinian attire, trying to decieve and fool us into attacking each other!! Maybe I build a replica of 1 of the Kaliplin caravans this week, and incorporate into a Mitgardian trading town vignette. A possible Moc idea?

Great to see you here Penguin! Any chance that the knight from MCW'11 be joining Mitgardia? :) Love to see some bats flinging and attacking the pesky South too! I was going to ask for the same for my watchtower.. Well i could add a few white tiles or cheese slopes to the top of the tower and the railings, to represent some fresh fallen snow that has not been cleared. Good one Hvar Icewind, that was exactly where I wished Hykerbia would be! Thank you very much! True that Winterfell's design and the whole Wall thing can be useful for Mitgardia, I just rewatched some episodes.. Itching to make a few white wolves! I like it very much! That is an amazing entrance gate, possibly suitable for a dwarf kingdom entrance. I would add a heavily built gatedoor though to block out the cold wind and Drow raiders. I might borrow upon your design to build, if there is a challenge in future, because I have about 75% of the bricks in those pictures..

Nice work on the sculpting and the paintwork is also nice! Especially the hand print, though in Lego world i think it is just 2 horizontal rectangles or a 'c' shape.. Lol. but I love the tree design in your vignette, looks like a Baobab tree of sorts.. Good luck for the contest!

Nice, I like this. I have a friend who does cosplay and the little 'Neko Neko' ears are very cute!

tough luck indeed for your vegetarian cave bats. It is good lunch for my griffin . And you drows might need a more muscular fury drake! Or he needs to go to the gym more often!

So it seems Nocturnus has begun raids to pillage our eastern villages. Well as a self-appointed guard on the Eastern border of Mitgardia, none shall pass while on my watch.. We are sorry for the loss of your village Prvi Imena, this proves that we must hasten building more sentry posts and watchtowers and amass our Mitgardian armies against the Drow and any other enemies! Guild Task Challenge 1: Build a watchtower of power A series of watchtowers and outposts has been built along the entire southern borders of Mitgardia from the west near Avalonia's big island, running along the great mountain range and the Siccus badlands, and over the northern part of the Rakath mountains to the Eastern seas of the Abyssan and Krela darklands.. The sentries will watch day and night, from high mountain peak to tundra and grass wasteland for anything that moves by land or air. And we will warn the Guild members. a shot without the figures - to the left is krela labyrinth and the lightning that goes to the dark sky of Nocturnus, to the right is the Siccus Badlands of Kaliphin.. This is actually from the Northerners perspective, looking southeast.. hence the orientation. I used , or tried to use, optical illusion technique as i do not have enough grey bricks for a whole mountain (yet) 3 sentries are posted. 1 is resting in the small hut below the roof. they keep a tree, which provides nourishment and leafy greens for diet. water is obtained by melting some ice. every fortnight, the Griffin Flight Services deliver rations, new clothing, and mail, or occasional replacement for sick sentries. A disturbance has been felt in Nocturnus.. dark troops and drows move.. We must warn the other Mitgardian guild lords!! THe fire beacon is unique as it usually burns orange with white smoke. However, by adding oil and brinstone to it, it burns a sooty black, and the change in colour is noted very easily by the other outposts and alert is sounded. Even when attacked, the fire will consume and burn up the wood stacks below it and turn black, so if all the sentries are killed and no one can pour oil, alarm is still sounded. If the sentries freeze to death or assassinated by Freeze spell by the drow, the fire will run out and be extinguished. The other watch towers will see that there is no flame and something is wrong, they will sound the alarm.. Great job Krela and Prvi Smog Imena! while the Drow spies had been captured, a routine griffin knight patrol found the Drow vegetarian cave-Bet he was riding on, and it was promptly eaten dealt with. Also, in response to the Nocturnus raids, the Baroness has led a daring counter attack. Alcasora successfully killed a black drake, despite all the muscle that was touted. Credits to Waterbrick Down for the Griffin design, I slightly improved my version after seeing yours. to Siren-of Titan aka Jarl Nibelung's decision on gunpowder weapons - Hooray for the Dwarves! We get big carronades! so big that we need a snow troll to help us push it. Send word to all dwarf clans of the North, we must defend Mitgardia with these new weapons!

Great MOC there! Was working on my version of the griffin but you got there first! Nice leg design, may I borrow upon it and credit you? Loving the friendly competition amongst the guilds which pushes MOC and creativity to the new boundaries!

Aye so figthing has begun and Nocturnus has struck the peaceful North first.. And not to mention the burning of Avalonian watchtowers the past days. Time for Mitgardia to show the Eastern Drows that we yellow bunnies bite back hard. ( Youtube Monty Python Holy Grail Killer Bunny - yes that's what we are like.. Send yer trolls and drows coming! We will return them as skeletons! And then if they come back as undead we will send out our Artic dogs :)

Thanks guys I think I might have overdone with the custom creatures but mitgardia tundra suits them well. I will start planning and building watchtower and a few more ship if needed. Edit - Exalted Monarch Jarl Nibelung, the 3 Mighty and valiant Hersirs, and all honorable High Lords, Knights and Guildsmen of Mitgardia. 1. Have we amongst us a cartographer to map out the known regions of the North and the empire of Mitgardia? The other guilds have begun charting out the land.. 2. If we have new ideas and fresh MOCs for the army can we introduce them along the way throughout the campaign, or do we focus mainly on the Guild task and challenge for the month? Or would it be best to leave it a flexible, know thy guild priorities first and build own structures at your leisure and pace thing?

LOL ok!! Edited.. Can he be a cousin twice removed from Gorkill's mother's uncle's stepsister!

Mitgardia Orc clan-chief from Hykerbia, Bronto Wolfowner rides to join his men.. After a feast of drumstick and beer he woke up late.. A distant cousin of Orc King of Mitgardia Gorkill, they work together to out-orc the orcs from the other guilds.