Hogwarts Castle

[RubeusHagrid]

Ever since Lego started making Harry Potter products I have wanted them to make an Ultimate Hogwarts. Now we have come to what I expect is the final wave of sets, so I don't think my dream will come true. I decided a while ago that I would build my own Hogwarts Castle, but I keep putting it off as I don't have a clue where to begin. There are two options: #1 - UCS - Lots of detail, realistic scale, every room that J K Rowling writes about (lots of empty classrooms etc etc etc) #2 Is basically a larger version of the Hogwarts Castle sets that TLG have made, but with all the different rooms, but not the true size that Hogwarts Castle is to a person (in the books and films)

You can see which sets I have here http://www.brickset.com/search/?OwnedBy=LegoCoastGuard I do have most of the Harry Potter sets, but they are all complete and stored in there boxes, and I am hesitant about parting them out. I also have 4842 ordered, which should be arriving in the next couple of days. I'm debating buying some more copies of 4842 (and selling the figs) but I don't know if there are enough pieces that could be used outside of that model. If anyone can offer me any help or guidance please reply in this thread. This is going to be my first non LDD MOC.

This leads me on to the second part of my request for help - If anyone has any Hogwarts sets, or tan, sand green or dark bley bricks, or HP student figs, that they have no use for I would be only too delighted to hear from them, as I am going to need a lot of bricks, just for building walls etc.

Thanks for your help

Matthew

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/526/hogwarts-castle-building-the-set-i-have-always-wanted-lego-to-make.

[Vindice]

Good luck with the Hogwarts Castle! I'm trying to do something similar myself but am altering bits slightly to give it a more open layout for stop motion filming.

4842 is a great set in my opinion. I'd suggest waiting for a big retailer (sorry i didn't see which country you are in) like Tesco, ToysRus or Argos to do one of there 3 for 2 sales and gettign at least 3 and selling off the minifigs and instructions and possibly even some accessories you may not need.

I did this myself and ended up paying just over £200 for 7 castles worth or bricks and a full set of minifigs!

Also get ready to place a large brickorder on S@H for a lot of tan bricks, baseplates etc.

You will probably also want to make some custome decals and minifigs so do check out the customising forum here on eurobricks. People like LuxorV and Tin7 are incredibly helpful and have doen some great designs.

[RubeusHagrid]

I did this myself and ended up paying just over £200 for 7 castles worth or bricks and a full set of minifigs!

You've got to be joking??? Where did you sell them? I've just bought 1 4842 from Amazon an have another £101 of disposable Lego income at the moment.

I really like Dave V's work and would like to do something similar, but imagine that with 7 castle's worth of bricks!

Edited April 29, 2011 by RubeusHagrid

[Gregorovich]

I've got a few tan bricks and a sand green cone. I'd be happy to trade them for something. If you're interested, please just give me a PM.

[Eskallon]

Hey there RubeusHagrid

Well, I am a good fan of the Harry Potter series, but mainly Hogwarts fascinates me. I have my own drawn very basic layout of the castle and its architecture amazes me. I do love seeing the castle recreated in Lego but if you do want to take this seriously then there is only one way to do it. UCS scale. If you try to make a large castle with just the sets they provide it will end up uneven and TBH not the most interesting creation it could be. Below are some examples and links of what you could base it on.

The above are Hogwarts creations belonging to Allen Hall who created them for his daughter a long time ago. He recently decided him and his daughter would re-create the castle for one last time and that is the last two pictures from above. If you look at those two pictures I think you can take much inspiration from them. If your's was like this, it would be UCS scale and still be great to kit out the rooms and have fun with it. The newer version so far is also very accurate so another. Here is the link to all his creations: Clicky

Sorry but I am not sure who made this one, however it does have certain things that work well. For instance the main grand tower is the right type of size and shape, also the round towers are amazing, they use certain techniques which look good but only work if you are only doing it at a really bigger than UCS size.

An example from our very own Sandy. This one has your 2nd option in it and has full accessibility to all the rooms inside. I like the fact that Sandy managed to include all the major rooms in it and it also folds out for accessibility. Here is the link.

Also Here

And Here

Overall, I think that if you are going to take the build really seriously then you need to do it UCS scale like Allen Hall, but if your heart calls for playability then go for that. Also unless you want to pay for shit loads of parts you will have to take apart your current HP collection, the sets provide excellent parts and accessories and it will save you money when it comes to it. Good Luck for your future project.

Eskallon

[RubeusHagrid]

I think you've convinced me. It needs to be playable, but there's no reason why it can't be like some of those first few and still playable right?

I will have to start small, by doing some parts of the castle at a time. I would also like to use this idea, of different levels, inside the rock that Hogwarts stands on

[Eskallon]

I think you've convinced me. It needs to be playable, but there's no reason why it can't be like some of those first few and still playable right?

I will have to start small, by doing some parts of the castle at a time. I would also like to use this idea, of different levels, inside the rock that Hogwarts stands on

*SNIP*

Good idea but still bear in mind that it isn't as simple as that. Depending on how large you make it, they will be dotted around and you will certainly need to make sure the whole model is fully supported by the rocks underneath.

To start with I would begin making some basic drawings of the floor plans to give you a starting point. Also if you don't already have it, Harry Potter OOTP and HBP game are really useful as they allow you to walk around Hogwarts at free will giving you an idea where everything is and looks like.

[Sirius Black]

Seems like UCS Hogwarts are springing up everywhere! I just started work on one, and have part of the great hall entrance and one of the gryffindor dorms done. The picture below is a floor plan that is fairly accurate. The classrooms and dorms are not accurate, but the exterior is accurate and very close to scale.

For information about what rooms go where, check out these two links here and here. The first link is to a map of hogwarts from the top based on the movies. The map itself is alright, but what really helps is the information on what goes where. The second is information from the books, not the movies, on room locations.

Hope that this helps you! I know it has for me

Sirius

[The Flying Dutchman]

Thanks for the nice lay-out. It's helpfull info for making a setup in scale. Too bad, not all the sets are adding up to this idea.

[Marco Cancellieri]

I'm very interested about this discussion because I built too my own Hogwarts and I did a presentation in this forum some month ago.

There are some problem that you have to considerate before begin to build a big project:

1) Space, it never seems to much building large Mocs

2) Choose an Hogwarts map, because in every films and book Hogwarts isn't the same. Some rooms and places moves in different parts of the castle.

3) Choose if use sets or build more mocs. When I begin my moc, I see that I just some parts or some ideas were good for my Hogwarts. You can use 4757 for the back and it is perfect, but from the other castles you can use just some rooms like Great Hall (you have to rebuild the most!)

4) You cannot build like it is in the book because you cannot build seven floor and dungeons under them because then the building will be really too big and high! At the third floor you'll have already a big building that has a good weight and the other parts have to be in the same scale!

5) You have to buy thounsands of parts, the most bricks, because in the sets you don't find to much of them... but You'll have really a big number of arch!

6) It has to be modular to see the interior

7) Finally, I choose to buy many sets at least 2-3 times, so I keep the collection of HP sets plus my Hogwarts.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Marco Cancellieri

[Legomaster34]

SNIP!

I do agree with Eskallon that all of these Hogwarts MOCs are amazing, and some of them were part of my inspiration while building my Hogwarts:

As you can see it's still a work in progress, but I still think you might be able get some inspiration from it.

My Hogwarts

Another awesome Hogwarts MOC is built by Matn here on Eurobricks, which was my main inspiration for building my Hogwarts :

Matn's Hogwarts

I wish you luck in this project!

Edited August 26, 2012 by CorneliusMurdock
trimmed quote

[Hoboman]

Good Luck RubeusHagrid. I think this will be a real effort on your part. But once you have finished, I am sure you will be glad you did.

Looking forward to seeing your final product.

[Vindice]

It is a huge undertaking for anyone to make a MOC of hogwarts that looks authentic and is also playable. I started mine with the idea of ticking all the boxes but it just wouldn't work like that unless I spent a ludicrous amount of money (which technically I had, even though i made plenty back) and had loads of space.

in the end I settled for something playable and with plenty of space at the back for animating with a camera. Unfortunately now, almost everything is in pieces due to moving house.......... and now my boy wants to build a moc of the Jedi temple! Which to be fair would be a helluva lot easier.

[RubeusHagrid]

Well, it's been a while, and I'm afraid I haven't made much progress in that time, except printing loads of maps and documents about the layout of Hogwarts, and spending a small fortune on Hogwarts bricks! I'm hoping to actually start building soon! I'm a bit lost where to begin really though, I really wanted to base it on the books, but I think that to be recogniseable as Hogwarts, I need to incorporate elements of the films (all these courtyards everywhere, the covered bridge, the gorge etc. I'm just after guidance as to whether anyone else has done a Hogwarts since last April, and whether there is anyone out there with a bunch of Hogwarts bricks they can give me for a half decent price? I'll upload my (rubbish, looks like it's been done by a 5 year old) sketch of the layout of the castle buildings, but I'm still very undecided about what goes where inside.

[CorneliusMurdock]

You can ask for building advice here but your thread in the BSTF forum will suffice in asking for building material. I've also merged your thread with the old one.

[Oky]

Hi, RH. I'm glad you're still working on this and haven't given up. I don't think there were any complete Hogwarts MOCs since you last posted in here (unless you count the Hogwarts Community Build), but there are two other great Hogwarts MOCs that I haven't seen mentioned in here yet. First, there is this playset. It's not highly accurate to the movies, but it has some nice interior detail which might be inspiring to you. Click the picture to see the Flickr set.

And then there is this beauty! This is probably out of your league, but might inspire you nevertheless. Again, click the pic for more.

[Ferrik]

This sounds like a great idea. Good luck with making Hogwarts Castle as this will be a huge project.

[RubeusHagrid]

And then there is this beauty! This is probably out of your league, but might inspire you nevertheless. Again, click the pic for more.

Now that is nice! I was a bit lost where to begin, but I've decided today just to give it a go (if I can find any parts in my non existent filing system!) I'm going to try the entrance hall, having seen a version in the community build, mine is going to be bigger and better I hope! Then after buying some more bricks I might start on the great hall.

[RubeusHagrid]

I've done a (very!) small amount of building and added some photos and a write up to my flickr. Comments welcome.

[kaitain]

Hi All,

I noticed this thread yesterday, and thought everyone might like to see my take on the "Defence against the Dark Arts" classroom, which I built for last year's "Great Western Lego Show".

Here's the link to my photo album for the show where you'll find some more Hogwarts related MOCs among the displays, and the final display version of my MOC with a borrowed Gilderoy Lockhart.

Great Western Lego Show 2011

Here's are the last WIP shots I took before taking it to the show.

Defence against the Dark Arts - WIP 28th Sept 2011

I would have entered it for the Hogwarts community build but it was a bit too big .

TTFN

Kaitain

[RubeusHagrid]

Hi All,

I noticed this thread yesterday, and thought everyone might like to see my take on the "Defence against the Dark Arts" classroom, which I built for last year's "Great Western Lego Show".

Here's the link to my photo album for the show where you'll find some more Hogwarts related MOCs among the displays, and the final display version of my MOC with a borrowed Gilderoy Lockhart.

Great Western Lego Show 2011

Here's are the last WIP shots I took before taking it to the show.

Defence against the Dark Arts - WIP 28th Sept 2011

I would have entered it for the Hogwarts community build but it was a bit too big .

TTFN

Kaitain

Thanks for posting, but it would be better in it's own thread rather than hijacking mine

[kaitain]

Thanks for posting, but it would be better in it's own thread rather than hijacking mine

Sorry . I just thought you might find the reference material useful for your build.

Kaitain

[RubeusHagrid]

Sorry . I just thought you might find the reference material useful for your build.

Kaitain

Nah, only joking, thanks for posting anyway, but it's a bit buried in here, so if you do want to show it to the world, it's probably best in it's own thread.

[RubeusHagrid]

I've done a lot more building, and a writeup in the photo descriptions.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50809886@N02/

[Ojik]

This looks like an interesting project. I will keep watching. Can't wait to see a result. Just tell me, do you base it on the look in movies, or desciption in books (that means mostly on your fantasy)?