DrColossus

Yeah, I really like this one. The posing is very good, it pulls you into the scene.

In the valley south of Pikesteel, west of the Bay of Storms, a stream flows. If you follow the stream south, where it empties into a pleasant little pond, you'll find the tiny village of Raven's Eye, where Olin the Smith has recently come to dwell. Northeast of the village, there is a small bridge over the stream. Sometimes travelers take this route, walking over grass, stone, mud and snow between the dwarves of Pikesteel and the men of the Great Elk clan. Now, a man drags a cart through the mud, bound for Great Elk lands. He hates this place, Mitgardia. He hates the cold and the snow, and when the snow melts he hates the mud. He hates the cold streams that feed the land and the sour green apple trees that grow from it. And he hates traveling through it alone. Mitgardia is a hard, cold land. It's not place for a solitary traveler on a mission. Unfortunately for him... he is not alone. Two archers watch him pass, and talk quietly to each other from their concealment behind the tree. "What d'ya reckon's in the cart, mate?" asked the one with the crossbow. "Well, let's review the facts," said the other. "When he came out of Pikesteel, the cart was a lot heavier than when he went in. And now he's on the way to the clans. So let's say he picked up a whole lot of gold there, shall we?" "Oh, let's." "Now, we've seen others of his kind lately, haven't we?" "Oh, we have." "And where they go, trouble seems to follow, doesn't it?" "Oh, it does." "Well then. Let's see if we can't give him a little trouble in return. Shall we have some target practice, my friend?" "By all means!" And with that, the one with the crossbow stepped from her place of concealment and put a bolt straight through the man's helmet. He tumbled into the mud at the foot of the bridge. When they searched his belongings, they found quite a nice pile of gold indeed. More interesting, however, they found a letter written in the runes of the clans, addressed to a minor kinsman of the chief of all the Great Elk. They decided to go south to Raven's Eye, to see about improving the strength of Mitgardian forces in this valley. Notes: First time landscaping! I built it up from a frame underneath like that huge Medieval village tutorial suggested. The water is various trans-blue pieces on top of solid blue plates, except for the part where it drops down which is trans-clear cheese. I'm going to slightly re-work and expand on this to build out the village of Raven's Eye for another MoC, and then the Archery Phase II and III and Stable Phase III pieces. Then it will be on to the thrilling finale of this chapter of Olin's story! Also I'll probably claim some UoP credits, but I haven't figured out what, or how to do that yet. I'm having trouble getting the perfect photos of this, partly due to the angles and partly because my lighting hasn't been great lately even with the window wide open. There's some rockwork in the back-left that I haven't been able to show at all yet. I'm thinking of taking a higher-angle shot just to show the landscape, but I'll try that tomorrow.

Fixed that for greater accuracy.

That's a good point Kabel. I wasn't really looking to "claim" a spot at all. It's just that I have a village coming together and thought it would make a good dot on the map. I don't need any kind of ownership rights though! :)

I can't draw free hand at all but I can steal and combine internet images like a pro! If that would help, count me in. :-)

This is really good! I really (really!) like the use of the netting in canopy build. I wonder if it could be used to make an actual tree, if it's tucked in here and there... Hmmm... thoughts for later...

Hi all! Working on kind of a big (for me) landscape piece which will host a few different MOCs as it grows, so I may not be able to post any new builds for a few days. But I'm thinking this will ultimately become the little village that Olin moved to; is there a way I can get it added to the official Mitgardia map?

This is nice! Rubble pile is placed really well and the variety of stones make it look like it came from a tower. The helmet-on-the-pole is a good touch.

I really like the look of your fig! And the lean-to shelter is a great concept, it looks like the kind of thing a trapper would put together in the wilderness. I've been thinking of using some similar things in an upcoming MOC.

I just noticed the snow kind of piles up at the base of the towers. There is a lot to like in this build. Good job, again!

Oh man... killing me. Posing, excellent. Story, excellent. Nice little scene!

Oh that's just wonderful. I can just see the murder in their beady little eyes. Also, I will never not love the minifig "scared face." I've used it a couple times so far and will probably use it in every build forever.

Ohhh, nice. Good thinking!

Yeah, there's no part of this I don't love. The detail is great, the posing is excellent (the first thing I noticed was that the guy on the rearing warg is screwed), landscape as always looks real and alive. The only thing I might say is you could leave off the picture of the back b/c there's not much going on there, but even then the texture of the tower wall is so good I could just look at it infinitely.

That's a good question... how DID you make the scroll pieces? What are the roll things on the end?

That's not shivering! That's our muscles yearning to break free and seek revenge on anyone who slanders the North!

THE PARROT! I love that parrot. Sitting on a whole stock of 'em from my pirate-building days, but haven't integrated into Mitgardia yet. Also the rest of the stuff is good too, but seriously. Parrot.

That's awesome! I love the trans-green for the swamp, and I'm impressed that you put so much height into both sides of the ravine. Really makes it look ravine...ish? And the collapsed bridge is really clever.

Thanks! Funny story, and I hope Ecclesiastes doesn't mind me telling it. I was inspired by the forms of Norway's stave churches, so I googled a little to see if anyone had made a Lego version of one. The first (and best) result for that is this model by Ecclesiastes (borrowed from a Pinterest page), which seems to be the basis for his Mitgardian Temple of Ghynran in the section on religion in Mitgardia. Which just goes to show that Ecc is the best, and seriously I want to learn from this dude.

Not sure if this is the place for this question, but: is there any kind of established religion in Mitgardia? I know there are dwarves, clans, and (relative) newcomer Guilds. Do they all practice different religions, or any at all? Another question is: if I wanted to make ruins of something that kind of looks like a Scandinavian church, but referred to it just generally as some kind of meeting place for the town... would that be fine? (Basically I now have a lot of wood palisade pieces and just learned how to do stained-glass stuff, so I want to combine them in a build I'm planning).

Oh! I forgot to put my last free build in here: Meanwhile, in a Secret Lair... | DrColossus | Mitgardia

Oh that's good! I like the tree (using both the broad and skinny plants to give it a nice shape), and that bear is great. Dynamic figure posing is always appreciated. The flags on the front of the base make it very classy!

That's a good question, Kabel! I hadn't really thought of connecting it to the broader civil war story, but actually it could do. Otherwise, I can bring it to a nice conclusion as a fairly "local" event and then have it get picked up for a bigger story. Is there someone I should talk to about that? Thanks everyone, hope you're enjoying it!

Oh, that's a good idea... I should think about doing more of that. Great job on the build!

I like it! The posing really gives a sense of the hunt. I don't know enough about rocks yet to comment on those, but I like the deer and think it's a neat use of upside-down stuff!