Gabe

Wow, crazy bright! I really like the castle design, the way the tiers work together and have lots of detail without it seeming like overkill. The red roof and the gold accents are perfect choices too. I am a little sad that you haven't chosen to show an interior yet, as i really enjoyed the interior in your safehouse build, but i guess that is to come. Are you actually planning to add onto this building? It seems like the whole building should be about 4 times this size - that'd be a sight to see. I am a little confused about the "evil freinds spell" though - how does that work? Does it suck the lifeforce out of it's victims and transfer them to plants or something? Also, who are the ppl setting out from the castle? I am intruiged.

Definitely worth the wait, it's a beauty! I really like the way you've filled the gaps in between the wall section with cheese slopes, it gives it a very solid look. The variation in crenellations and the crazy sphere give it a suitibly forboding Nocturnian vibe too. I'm not sure that i'm completely sold on the lime green swamp, but it certainly is a neat foil to the predominantly grey tones, and the reflections off the underside of the rocks looks great. Congrats on the TBB blogging too, it's very well deserved! ps. Are you bringing this to BV next year? I do hope so!

Thanks peeps for your kind words! I've finally gotten through all the pics and it's up now in it's own topic: Click here for the mayhem! Everytime i hear ppl talking about PaB and their local Lego store, i cry tears of sadness into my tea... Australia has no Lego store at all, not one single one! Thank goodness for BL, eh? Also, if anyone is looking for a perfect Kaliphlin parts pack, all i can say is: you need a GE, stat. Plenty of tan and light bley, PoP half arches in tan and white, dark tan 1x2 plates, dark blue tiles, sweet trans green goblets and even flags in Kaliphlin colours! It's made for us! It's darn expensive, but worth every cent.

Most esteemed Lord Dextrus Flagg, i bring terrible news from the east... the causeway garrison at the entrance to the Peregrinus landbridge has been destroyed by elemental attack, and we have been forced to pull down the landbridge itself to avoid being overrun. The trouble began several weeks ago, when we began noticing large numbers of mountain mummies and other hill dwellers seeking asylum within our lands. They brought with them tales of huge rock monsters, who sprang from the earth itself, pulling down buildings, caving in tunnels, creating great rifts in the earth and crushing all in thier path. It seemed that the attacks were becoming ever closer to us, and fearing the worst, we fortified the garrison with extra men and a sapper unit - not that it did us any good in the end. When the elementals finally did attack us, it was ferocious - we held them off as long as we could, but they battered our towers by hurling huge boulders at them, and once the south tower fell, tunneled into from beneath by a fierce demon made of rock and lava, we knew we had no choice but to retreat. We had set our sapper unit to mine the bridge with black oil and powder as a final resort, and began to pull our men back beyond that point. But before we could complete the evacuation, a huge elemenal rent the twisted gate aside and began to charge at us! We had no choice but to blow the bridge then, and hope it took the monster with it. It swayed but did not fall, and so we fended it off from the other side of the chasm, whilst our sappers moved further back to lay more oil and powder, should we be pushed back. Some of our men were unfortunately trapped on the mainland by the blast, and managed to hole themselves up in the less damaged north tower, harrasing the elemental from above with arrow fire. Luckily, Arinna Thunderbow spotted them and after helping them to defend for as long as they could, she carried them one by one to safety. A few brave men still fought on in the south tower, trying to defeat the lava elemental, but it was a hopeless cause. May thier memory live long as defenders of our land and our people... Eventally the earth elemental made it's move, trying to leap across the chasm. We rushed to attack as it did so, managing by our combined efforts to knock it off balance and sent it tumbling, to smash to pieces on the cliffs below. Only then did we retreat over the landbridge, pulling down enough of it to prevent such a land assault from occurring again. I am not so naive to believe that this will save us from the threat of elemental attacks in the future, but at least it buys us a little time to work out how we can counter these forces. It is also my sad duty to report that Sir Barold, commander of the causeway garrison, died in it's defence. Long may he live in our memory. Lord Sansael has instructed me to lead what is left of his men in his stead, and to take over the main role of elemental defence. This i shall endevour to do to the best of my ability. Hoping to have better news the next time we speak; Phrixelle, commander of the Peregrinian watch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: I wasn't really sure what i was doing with this build, and i have to say it was quite a effort to see it to completion, what with all the interruptions (work, etc) i had. I had a lot of ideas about showing an explosion or fitting in more of the bridge etc, but in the end i just had to simplify things a bit and go with what i had. I hope it works well, and am very interested to hear your feedback and criticisms. I did actually have a full interior to the north tower, but not much of a way to show it - it was mainly for my own amusement! But this shot shows you a little bit of it. More pics can be seen onmy Flickr, as always. Oh, and just to remind ppl of what the Causeway garrison looked like before the elemental attack... Thanks for looking, and happy building!

Whew, i know i'm dreadfully late for the party (what with challenge 5 announced already!), but i finally got my elemental destruction build finished - i'm in the process of taking photos, here is one of the best from today: Waiting for some more even light tomorrow morning, i might try some artificial light sources for the underground section too. I'll post it up as a free build as soon as i'm done! Sweet work on the wiki and the maps Gex! Although i must apologise, but you might have to get your eraser out for the landbridge to Peregrinus - sadly we had to mine the bridge to prevent us from being overrun by earth elementals... Still, enough of such sad things - after a round of destruction, i'm keen to get stuck into some constructive building again. (After i do a massive sort of course! )

You do mean that paint dries darker, right? Otherwise i've been habitually overtinting my mixes for nothing for the past umpteen years. Anyway, it's clear to me that she's just using a magical +1 ever-replenishing roller with super fine edge control. You can find them in all the best Kaliphlin stores.

Hahaha, oh wow. Nice work Z, that is one scary tower! Enemies must quake in fear before it's overwhelming pastelness and mewling catapults. But the real question is - did they mean it to paint it medium blue, or did they just buy an inferior brand of medium azure paint that dries duller? The warrior with the roller argues for the latter...

Very interesting - i don't really get the "megablocks must burn!" thing, but i do like the end result - the forms and textures created look almost painterly, and heaps more interesting than the model before burning it. As for the point that frogstudio makes, i must respectfully disagree... in the hands of artists like S and C, burning is just as valid a brick technique as the permanent glueing that you see on models in Legoland. You wouldn't say to an artist that they should donate thier paints and brushes to some needy kids if you didn't like thier work, well, i see this as pretty much the same situation.

Yes sir! Community college? That gives me an idea... Rightio, my architects are off to pore over building plans for the lecture theatre. Great idea for a master thread - i don't have much time to get that up atm though, can anyone else tackle it? I think Damximus made a sweet list of possible subjects/ideas a couple of pages ago. Are you talking about architechture, or artifact technology, or clothing or what? Your guess at no later than the European renaissance is a pretty good rough guide, although i'd suggest you do a bit of background reading on the Islamic golden age as well. This is also an interesting list of ideas that we could incorporate into our university builds. Anyway, just don't put any telephone poles or computer terminals in and you'll probably be alright.

Great house Capt BB! The first thing i thought of once i'd gone through all the pics was "is this a pop-up house?", 'cause of the first and last pics. That would certainly make the house hard to spot to outsiders! Anyway, lots to love in your build and your presentation is very crisp too. The interiors are great and add a lot of interest to your scene. I like the idea of the AGG living for the moment as any day could be thier last, and it is well illustrated. I only have a couple of small nitpicks - the smoke looks a little too regular to be believable, and i find the profusion of flowers a bit overdone (although that's just my personal preference, i guess!). Nice work - and you are working on a castle now? I look forward to seeing that!

Very nice little house, Legonardo! The signage is particularly nice, and the chains in the windows and on the ground work surprisingly well. I agree with others who mention the distraction of light coming through the windows - i'm also equally distracted by the far left tile that is coming away from the wall. (But then i'm always seeing mistakes like that in my own work after i've taken my photos! *sigh*)

I like this building a lot Legonardo, the black and white makes it looks quite smart. The shape and pitch of the roof is nice too, although a bit more detailling on your eaves would really make it pop. The ship's wheel is a great touch too. Good stuff!

A lovely scene deGothia, good to see that your character survived the elemental onslaught - i trust that Quinn was safely re-interred after that mishap? Some very nifty techniques on show here - the tower is one i haven't noticed before, very unusual!

Yay! I'm kinda divided on whether or we should allow other guilds to participate in this right from the get-go, it would be nice to see it being established by Kaliphlinites. I reckon once we get it going though, having outside guilds add to our uni would be pretty cool! Perhaps we should put our hands up for what we want to build, just to see if there is enough interest to sustain the challenge for now without outside guild involvement? I'll commit to building a general forum/lecture theatre.

I loved the "Rise of the Mage" series and the new chapters were something i always looked forward to - thankyou so much for sharing them. I'm really quite sad that the story has come to an end, although the conclusion was very satisfying both in storyline and builds. You certainly are the one of the most inspiring stroyteller/builders out there, and if you ever published this in some kind of hardcover format, i would buy it in a heartbeat! I am looking forward to your next story already.

Ah, i see! I had just assumed that you had some kind of axle supporting it from below. Shows what i know about this power functions malarky!

Nice story Kai, and a great way to introduce your characters. I look forward to hearing of thier further adventures.

Nice cavalry group, Damaximus! Although isn't it Yavonnel that leads the drow now, not Valsharess? And i thought you had good trading relationships with the drow in any case?? Ah politics, i just can't keep up these days! Haha.. gotta love the dark knight... where's his faithful squire Robin then?

Very cool elemental - the still shots of it's spinning action and spooky eyes is very effective! The action showing the people and animals getting caught up in the tornado is well done too and adds a lot of vibrancy to the scene. The only think that feels a little odd is the inclusion of arms on the elemental - to me they look a bit blocky and tacked on, and i think it would have looked just as menancing without them. Removing the arms might have given you more room to show your microscale too. Anyway, sweet job, best of luck!

Dude, it must be a major challenge photographing your work - everything is so insanely huge! This has to be my favourite of all your creations so far - all those curving techniques and shimmering textures is really mesmerising. With all of the details, it can certainly be hard to spot the action though. Brilliant work and best of luck! ps. I guess 1.39m btw, and about 15kg at least!

Brilliant stuff Cara, very artistic! I really like the way it looks like an illustration out of a children's book or something - the stylised palette suits the microscale really well, and allows the eye to focus in on your marvellous, rampant pheonix. I notice you even got some orange reflections in the water, which is a neat touch too. Beautiful stuff, best of luck!

Yay, congrats on getting a new place to live, that's great news! Best of luck with the moving - hope to see you back here soon. Ooh, sounds intruiging Kayne... can't wait to see what you come up with for your free-build.

Sweet water elemental! The wave effect is great, as is the falling parts of the structure. The architecture and colour scheme is very nice, although it looks a bit open and chilly for Mitagardia! Great work and best of luck!

Aw, sweet, i'm really glad that the Petraea university idea is being revived! I have an entry on my ever growing "to build" list of a main lecture theatre/general forum - with the idea that it then gets turned over to guest lecturers from all over Historica to teach building tips and techniques in. But who knows how long it'll be before i can get to that - i am still struggling on with the elemental free build. So if anyone else wants to have a crack at it, just let me know and i'll try for another campus building instead.

I am not entirely sure what you are asking, or what a "clutch friend" is.. Do you mean you aren't sure which entries you've seen and which you haven't? I usually try to comment on the builds, that way i can mark which one's i've definitely seen. Aha, yes thanks, very unobservant of me! It sure is an honour to be promoted to the ranks of the fellows - i'll do my best to live up to such illustrious company! Thanks robuko! Haha.... oh dear. I blame my sleep deprived state. I have an unexpected day at home today though (sick, blargle blargle), so it's a good chance to catch up on the forum! Yeah, it's a shame that white flags are so hard to come by, white and gold would look pretty nice i reckon. But most colours look good next to gold, or you could even have just gold by itself. Also, i was thinking dark blue and sand green could be interesting, or maybe green and red? Idk, just thinking thoughts... Of course, the other option is to build your flags out of other pieces - it might give you a wider palette. I might have a play around later to see if i can come up with some decent flag designs. That sounds like an interesting concept.