Derfel Cadarn

Durnovaria

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Well, I have finished the village. But the guide is not over. Originally I had planned to build something twice the size of this, but building huge projects can become tiresome and tedious. Whenever I build something large I always seem to lose interest after a while, due to the fact that I always seem to get really good ideas for other mocs while im building, and so I get bored and want to build the other ideas instead. So I stopped at this size and everything that I didn't cover, I will now do so as individual builds here and there. This basically means that my Guide will no longer be just a village guide, but a Guide for everything medieval.

So there will be more interesting sections of Medieval moccing added to the guide next year.

In the mean time, I present Durnovaria. A peacful country village, located not too far from Albion in Avalonia.

Enjoy :classic:

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The pictures are not the best quality, unfortunatly the weather here in the UK is dark and gloomy and not much good natural light.

Thanks to ISC for editing the backgrounds:thumbup:

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Absolutely stunning Derfel Cadarn! Well worthy of your "MOC Expert" title. The details are awesome - the natural colours used in both buildings and minifigs make it seem so realistic. :thumbup:

I know what you mean about large projects - they sometimes burn you out! But glad to see you build something this big!

Tremendous :wub:

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Awesome! I hope one day to be able to take on (and have the pieces) to do something this large and beautiful!

As I said before, your guide (and the guild project) inspired me to starting building MOCs.

For that, Thank You and I always look forward to your next build!

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BEAUTIFUL! As usual. This is a gorgeous MOC. I love the houses, the chimneys, the greener... Everything!

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I´m truly stunned!

This whole guide thing from you have really open my eyes for so many new techniques and details. And I´ve to echo my friend Mikey and say thank you for that!

I really like the houeses of this villages. They all look kind of the same but they all have unique solutions and styles to them that make them stand out. The landscaping makes it even more great with small things that lifts the whole moc!

And I really know the feeling when you have built a moc for some time and all your thoughts are of your next model! That was a hard task for me when I did all the factions that I have. Lucky for me I only have two left! :classic:

Did I say that you did a great job on this one!? :wink:

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There's a reason why master builders have that title ;)

Great moc, with such a simple ways of building something that is so astonishing ;)

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DC you are an inspiration to us all, the level of detail in every moc you make, the size, the amount of time and effort, and everything, I just wish I had that many bricks then I could try and attempt something of this quality and size, right now I do my best with what I have but my collection is growing, slowly but surely.

Quick question, when you place a plate surrounded by other plates (same level) and you want to change the placed plate because of the colour or something, is there an easy way to remove that plate without removing the surrounding plates?

Cheers

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This is the reason why you are our leader in Avalonia, you show us how it's done.....totally AWESOME.....sheer beauty in brick and plate. :sweet:

Avalonia Forever !

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Words almost can't describe how beautiful this is done! :thumbup: Awesome job, Derfel Cadarn! Everything looks so naturally, lovely (and big) buildings, luscious greenery. It's very inspiring for my own medieval styled village/Hogsmeade. You convinced me that having lots of plants and trees with a great variation does make the creation fantastic. Keep up the amazing work.

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I can't remember ever seeing a more realistic looking medieval village made with LEGO.

It's a real joy looking at the pictures and all the little details all over this MOC :thumbup:

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Sweet! :wub: It's all perfect, the houses, landscaping, use of the minifigs. Defenitenly one of my favorites!

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Excellent work fearless leader!

I like that all the houses are similar, but none is the same. Different shapes, windows, details, and different combinations of stone and half-timbered work in all of these. I like that you even did a good job of mixing up all the half-timbered sections so they don't all look like the same rectangular grids as the other houses.

Looks like there are many nice details here to pour over, so no point in trying to name them all now!

Only thing I will say as a mini-critique, though I can see all the houses are different and have some unique subtle differences, when I pull back and look at them as a whole, the coloration is all so close the houses tend to blend together a bit. I would have thought we might have seen one or two houses with some different coloration (though I agree white and dk brown looks great as a combo) or maybe a thatched roof on one or something. Really a minor quibble since if you take the time to look at this (and why wouldn't you?) you can pick up on things that make each building unique.

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Wonderful village Mr. Cadarn! Simply beautiful! :wub:

Just one detail I see, is Artorius wearing a variant armour? He is wearing a gold visor and armour when he is usually seen wearing a silver visor and green armour.

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Just one detail I see, is Artorius wearing a variant armour? He is wearing a gold visor and armour when he is usually seen wearing a silver visor and green armour.

Look again! Artorious is in another photo. The man with the gold visor is someone else.

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Wow! Simply amazing.

Once again, I am also astounded by the number of 1x1 round plates and 1x1 bricks with studs on the side you have! They must have cost a fortune to accumulate that many.

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(Pardon my lateness, I've been away for the Holidays, but plenty of new stuff to look at now!)

Finally seeing this project completed, I must say it's a rather imposing build. Your insane level of attention to detail is mind-boggling! Another spectacular, inspiring creation!

I must ask, though (and perhaps you've covered this in the guide but I missed it...) how did you develop your building style?

I, for one, have been playing with LEGO since I was 5, and like us all my style was very weak until about age 15 or 16. It took trolling around on Lugnet and Brickshelf, noticing other people's creations and looking into their techniques, and then assimilating and developing them with my style/expertise level. I'm still learning, but feel like I've hit a plateu recently.

Now that the Holidays are almost over I have a little free time to play around and experiment with things, which I'm really looking forward to.

So, I guess my question is: How do I get to be as good as you, ZCerberus, or deGothia? :blush:

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So, I guess my question is: How do I get to be as good as you, ZCerberus, or deGothia? :blush:

By plundering the Guild of Bricklink :tongue: It's hard to find some specific stuff for fellow Beneluxresidents :laugh: but it's their fullest right and what they do with it is absolutely amazing! Everytime I see some of the Eurobricksmembers like those 3 (but otheres too!) posting sth, I am still looking 5 minutes to the miniscule pictures in their signature :thumbup:

I'll never become better than them as every time they will develop their skills to improve themself, but I will be more than happy if my skills in some months will reach the niveau they got now (thx to their guides :grin: (<= evil Chinese copycat laughing) )

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So, I guess my question is: How do I get to be as good as you, ZCerberus, or deGothia? :blush:

I don't know about the other two... But I just steal from DC.

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Thank you Jason Cicchini, :blush: a great honour to be mentioned in the same senatnce as Z and DC, even if I think I´m lightyears behind those fellas! :classic:

Well, plundering Bricklink isn´t the way to go for me as my wallet isn´t the biggest. Inspiration from builders as DC, Z and Gearcs have took me a long way I think. And listen to the critique that is given to you. And the most important, build, build and build. I think I´ve developed greatly since I joined EB so it´s great to put out your MOC and to hear little things that you can improve. My next project is to get better on the roofs, an advice I got from Z and DC! :classic:

Edit: And Z, after I´ve seen your Brickshelf folder I know that you don´t steal all from DC :wink: , your mocs are stunning! :classic:

Edited by de Gothia

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So, I guess my question is: How do I get to be as good as you, ZCerberus, or deGothia? :blush:

And listen to the critique that is given to you. And the most important, build, build and build. I think I´ve developed greatly since I joined EB so it´s great to put out your MOC and to hear little things that you can improve. My next project is to get better on the roofs, an advice I got from Z and DC! :classic:

First off, I don’t think DC will mind we are a little off topic and not discussing this MOC… mostly because it is hard to say anything other than AWESOME when you see it and secondly because if his detailed guide has proved anything, it is that he likes to share his work in the hopes that it will encourage and inspire people to sharpen their own skills.

Secondly like dG, I appreciate hearing that you like my work. However, I learned a long time ago when I first joined EB (from a very wise man) that smaller MOCs and MOCs that don’t fit my aesthetic are no less worthy of discussion than things I do myself. It always makes me somewhat conflicted because on the one hand, I don’t want to get a big head and act like I am better than other builders or that anyone wants to hear what I think is “good” or “bad”, but on the other I personally feel critiquing really helps builders improve.

Therefore, like dG, I think a lot of what has helped me is displaying MOCs and getting feedback. However, the biggest thing I never want to do is discourage people from building or participating here. When I see someone is new at MOCing, I will give them very general things to think about and never give critiques that would suggest someone give up trying. I might give a new MOCer a suggestion on color choice, or maybe making a more interesting shape for a building. When I see MOCs that are more advanced in my opinion, then I might notice smaller things that maybe the builder didn’t think of. I may notice minor things, like placement or purpose of a fence or color combination of a door. Once again, just because you don’t agree with my critiques or aesthetics doesn’t mean you are wrong, just that maybe you didn’t think of something that might enhance the MOC in your eyes as well. de Gothia for example never comes back with “you don’t know what you are talking about” if I offer a suggestion and he has indicated it has done him well. I also think MikeyB is that same way. He is relatively new to MOCing (by his own admission) and he took the ideas we had for his watchtower and I personally think really turned out a great tower making improvements from everyone’s suggestions.

Commenting on others MOCs can also help you improve on your own MOCs. For example, on this MOC I noticed all the buildings have similar coloration. DC may comment back that he believes the coloration is a byproduct of the real life materials that would have been used to make this house which may make me rethink an odd color choice I have used in the past. Or maybe I will think back on my own MOCs and think that though I have used different colorations for my half-timbered houses, I often times use the same square latticed patterns and maybe there is something I can do to make them better and different as well.

I think the big thing when you reach a plateau is to try something different that you have seen and like from others but have felt you weren’t the best at. For me, I tried to conquer some SNOT techniques for making windows. That opened my eyes to all kinds of others things I could achieve using those techniques. The other major thing I was NOT doing on older MOCs was landscaping. I always enjoyed the main build and the projects I was working on always called for the landscaping to be done later. On the history forum though I basically challenged myself (and with DC’s guide) decided I needed to implement landscaping to elevate the MOCs to the levels I wanted them. I say don’t be intimated by builders who have mad skills like dG or DC, just take what they have done, and try to make yourself “better”.

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First off, I don’t think DC will mind we are a little off topic and not discussing this MOC… mostly because it is hard to say anything other than AWESOME when you see it and secondly because if his detailed guide has proved anything, it is that he likes to share his work in the hopes that it will encourage and inspire people to sharpen their own skills.

...<snip>...

I say don’t be intimated by builders who have mad skills like dG or DC, just take what they have done, and try to make yourself “better”.

Great post, ZCerberus! Hear, hear! I whole-heartedly agree.

I certainly welcome constructive criticism and feedback, and I hope everyone else does too. It has definitely helped me become a better builder since I emerged from my dark ages a year not even knowing what SNOT was. I hope people don't feel shy about giving good feedback on MOCs -- I think builders want to hear suggestions and ideas for improving their builds and learning new techniques.

DC's incredibly detailed guide has helped a lot, as have a lot of the fabulous MOCs in this forum. I have really learned a lot from looking carefully at people's MOCs and thinking 'How in the world did they do that?' Although sometimes I wish people would take clearer and more detailed photos of particularly interesting parts of their builds, usually the builder is quite good about explaining how they did something if you ask, so feel free to reach out and ask questions.

Perhaps it would be helpful if we had some building guides on specific subtopics (and not just limited to DC's style)? For instance, I always have trouble with roofs, so I'd love to see a guide with everything one wanted to know about building roofs in all sorts of various styles.

The other thing that has helped me a lot is setting higher goals for myself and then stretching to reach them. When building now, I try to think early about how to make something even more realistic or interesting than I think I can, and then figure out the techniques to do it. Surprisingly, I find the limiting factor is more often time than bricks.

That said, I don't think I've stretched very far at all yet, certainly not by the standards of this forum. So, looking forward to a lot more advanced building over the next year!

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