Jacob C.

Vote for the 48 x 48 Tan baseplate in the various elements category. Regardless of whether you build castle, pirates, wild-west, or city, we can all use tan baseplates! Thanks.

Taking that thing apart is going to be hell! It looks very beautiful though, I think its better than the original.

The part I'm most interested in is the shield in the top middle section: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/grogall/oddsandends/10214_hr.jpg Almost looks like a Knights Templar shield! I'm running out of room for more Lego sets, but I might have to get this.

I definitely agree, a new Forestmen or Wolfpack line would be a great compliment to the Kingdoms theme. Overall, my favorite sub-theme is the Wolfpack.

Brilliant! This is actually superior to the original (see here: LINK) The brown looks much better on the trees than the original black. I like how you used smaller plates for the grass and river bank. The base plate that came with the original was rather bland, so your looks much better. Excellent work

Nice thread! The most effective type of fortress is one that is self-sufficient. I suppose having a well, gardens, and small farms within castle walls would be a huge +, since you wouldn't have to worry about resupplying food stocks during a siege. Though it would probably be illogical to build castle walls around huge slates of farm land since it would use up a ton of resources. A castle next to the water, like Ulmaris, would be great since you would have an abundance of fish to pluck out of the sea. (assuming that's a lake or sea and not just a moat) A concentric design is always better since you have multiple rings of walls to get through. Circular or polygonal towers are always better than squares, since square towers have blind spots at the corners. Moats and glacis are great for keeping attackers at a distance from the walls. Well hidden sally ports are also good to have for escape and launching raids against the sieging force. So a list for the most effective fortress would look like this: -Self-sufficient -Concentric -Circular or polygonal towers -Moat and glacis -Hidden sally ports There are probably many other things to add to the list as well. My favorite concentric castle/fortress would be Krak Des Chevaliers: http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett...ia/pics/m74.jpg http://classes.bnf.fr/idrisi/pedago/images/3_25a.jpg http://www.dickemauern.de/krak/plan.jpg

You can add my Grand Cog to the index if you'd like. It's not a pirate era ship but it might inspire some of the builders here.

Hey, that's a really cool castle. Its design is much better than any castle lego has released recently. * UPDATE! * A disaster of natural origin has struck at El Katar: Deeplinks: -http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9b/a5.jpg -http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9b/b2.jpg -http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9b/b7.jpg Gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=217510 Those lads on the dock are gonna be swimming with the fish X-D

Thanks! The whole moc would feel kinda empty without the ship. They do go together very well. I usually keep the mocs up for a few weeks at the most. To build new mocs, I have to take the older ones apart. My piece collection is big but not infinte. Thankfully, that's where the digital camera comes in! I keep back up pictures for all the mocs I build, just in case some disaster were to happen (Brickshelf closes down, nuclear war, etc.) I usually start out with just a picture in my head of what I want it to look like. Sometimes I'll make very brief drawings but nothing detailed. This castle took about 4 months from start to finish. During that time I also built the ship. My building times are very eratic. Sometimes I'll build for 3 hours straight, other times I might not build for an entire week. I bet you could.It just takes practice and becoming familiar with all the different pieces. Thanks for all the compliments guys!

My newest moc, El Katar Castle: Deep links: 1http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/002.jpg 2http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/003.jpg 3http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/008.jpg 4http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/010.jpg 5http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/015.jpg 6http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSpook/Castle9/34.jpg 7http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSpook/Castle9/43.jpg 8http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...Castle9/e33.jpg Majisto's on vacation: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RabbitSp...le9/majisto.jpg Brickshelf Gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=216520 Interior pics of the keep are in this gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=207084 Pics of the ship: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=212291 Enjoy!

Hey, excellent video find! I probably never would have seen it if you guys hadn't posted it on the front page. I was hoping the pirates would win though. :-( I loved the animation. I hope to see more videos like this in the future!

Here's a cog (Medieval cargo ship), I recently built: I call it a "Grand Cog" because its slightly larger, with three sails instead of one. Another pic: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/2958/c8dj5.jpg In the cargo hold: http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7171/i1aq3.jpg Gold and other valuables are stored in the front compartment... http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3970/i6yv0.jpg ...with a guard to protect it: http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8543/c13pk9.jpg Here's a pic of the sail design I used: http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9972/sailie4.png I printed it off on normal printing paper and it came out looking nice. I got the idea for the sail design from this pic I found on the web: http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5764/s5yv7.jpg Brickshelf Gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=212291

Thanks for all the compliments on my keep. I know I'm kinda late giving a reply to this topic. In the mean time, I've been working on a ship which I'll post pics of in another topic.

The movie is a bit "abstract." I like it though because the meaning of the movie is something that is not given to you, its something you have to think about. Excellent movie. I just bought the musical score for it recently. Movies that have inspired me include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Kingdom of Heaven, and Lady Hawke.