Gabe

I've been wanting to tackle bird forms for a while now, and recently looking at Schfio's wonderful tree sparrows really inspired me to get into it. I've also entered this MocOlympics thing over on MOCpages, and with the theme "spring" on offer, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a start at last! So without further ado, here is my entry for round one: Spring has actually arrived early in Melbourne this year. I am a keen birdwatcher and one of the joys of spring is seeing the local honeyeaters enjoying the early blossoms. My Moc is of a New Holland Honeyeater, quite a common bird in Melbourne, often seen and heard in native parkland. The tail is a little bit short still, but otherwise everything is reasonably accurate - i think! ;) The model is over twice as large as the actual bird, a deliberate decision as i wanted to improve the smoothness of the shaping. The hardest part was trying to get the damn thing to stand up under it's own steam! It took quite a bit of fiddling (and quite a lot of cursing) to arrive at this point. Btw, for those interested in my reference material, here is an image of a New Holland honeyeater from my Flickr. Enjoy, and thanks for taking a peek!

Dude, i started reading The Fellowship of the Ring when i was 9 or 10 - right after i finished The Hobbit. I just couldn't get enough of Tolkein's Middle Earth. And guess who introduced me to both those books? That's right, my school librarian, bless her! And i know my best freind at the time was champing at the bit to get his hands on those books after me. I really don't think we ought to underestimate the ability and desire of children to explore books that are deemed "too old" for them. Haha, so true!

Brilliant creation gearcs - as others have said, the depth and scale of it is just breathtaking. Lots of lovely details to appreciate too. I like the mix of rough and dressed stone, and the way the doorway at the top of the stairs seems to extend even further up. The pillars look the business and all the ornamentation is just perfect - i just wish there were more shots of the ground floor, where the statue base is! I am undecided about whether or not i like the effect of so much of one colour though - like others, i feel that maybe some mottling could help break up the uniformity of the walls. I can understand not wanting the background to detract from the action though, directing our focus to that wonderful staircase.

Ahahaha... awesome! Now build a silver one!

This is great - i love the photo effects too. The way the floor seems to break up and fall away towards the edges is very effective.

Aw, these are just the cutest! Lovely creation and the set up looks great.

Wowzers, what an amazing collection! All the castles look supurb together - i'm not surprised you spend time admiring them. I love yr detailed backstory for all the different factions too, makes for very interesting reading. Do you have a visual idea for what the geography of yr kingdoms (and the land around it) looks like? I was also wondering about where the dwarves fit in... i didn't see any.

Ahaha, nice one! Looks like the zombies have been snacking on the elves and vikings first, by the look of thier gear. Nice build too btw, i do like the structure of your buildings inside the wall, very pretty!

Yay, another storyline! I do love a well illustrated story, and yr MOCs are up there with the best of them. The decatagonal rotunda (always makes me think of brass bands..) pattern is wonderful and yr funished interiors are great too. I agree that Nizam's body/legs combo works well for Kaloyan. Can't wait for the next thrilling installment! ps. I keep wanting to say; "the friendship of Saruman is not lightly thrown aside"!

I would dearly love this rumour to be true, it would be a absoloute dream licence. But i won't be getting too excited without more solid information. I can't help but say though - the potential for "The Hobbit" sets is mouth-watering: 12 dwarves! Wood elves! Trolls! (hope they are brick built! But probably not) Goblins and Wargs! Gollum! Smaug! (Definitely brick built!) Giant eagles! A 1x1 tile with a printed ring on it is a mere trifle compared to what could be. Anyway, people have been banging on for ages about the rubbish sticks/wands in the HP sets, but that theme hasn't seemed to suffer any.

Lovely building pabloglez, looks very clean but has so many sweet little features! The crane and the coat of arms are standout details for me. I do wonder about how low the lighthouse is to the waterline though... Even if that is high tide that you are showing, any storm surge would take out the ground floor!

Wow, this is great! You've got the run-down look of the place just perfectly. I love the lean on the grey shack, reminds me of a few places i know in central Victoria. The design of the rocking chair is pretty sweet too.

Woah, dude, that is astouding work! Brilliant landscaping, all the different types of trees, the walkway with the curved steps, the stripes in rocks are such a nice touch too! And the waterfall really does give the feel of cascading. The only thing i would nitpick at is that i always imagine Rauros to be a much higher waterfall - maybe twice as high as yours. But i fully appreciate that making it that high would provide difficulties as well. Congrats to you and Jack on yr win at Brickfair, certainly well deserved!

Man, this thread is wonderful - i love reading about how other ppl orginise thier lego universes and the backstories they create for thier different factions. Khorne, i'm especially inspired by yr maps and histories - amazing stuff dude! I've been loosely building and thinking along various lines about how my different factions interact, but i haven't really formalised it yet. I suppose about 14-15 of my factions are roughly contemporaneous with each other... in the last week i've been writing a bit about them all and orginising a map of my lego continent. I'm quite enjoying seeing how complex i can make it!

That's a sweet little town TazManiac, though i agree with LT - it looks like they'll need an undertaker soon! I love yr interiors - the piano is great and the lantern design is something i haven't seen before. All the different styles of buildings are really well done too - some of them even look a bit like gold rush Ballarat or Porcupine Creek!?

A wonderfully chaotic action scene, i love all the little details that make it seem like a split second frozen in time. All the buildings, landscaping and posing are great too. As for mixing flesh coloured and yellow minifigs, i honestly didn't notice until it was pointed out! (And at least they aren't the creepy clone wars heads, now *that* would be disturbing! )

Yeah, some odd choices in the Brickshow list. Hemlock stronghold, really? And no ninja representative (which actually was in the castle theme), although Hogwarts is included? The Black Knight's castle (6086) is a notable omission too.

Oh wow, this is very exciting news! Bring on the pics i say!

Wow, it's looking so impressive! A 3M tower - break out the stepladders! The architechture you've got going on in yr city is wonderful, quite unique. I love yr darker photos, they really suit the mood of the place. ps. I wish you safe building on those ladders now!

I don't quite know what "castle expectations" might be, but i personally love the Kingdoms line. I came out of my dark ages in the middle of last year, so i only caught the tail end of the fantasy line - Kingdoms has been my first chance to amass a decent number of a couple of factions. And i haven't been disappointed - wonderful minifigs, great horse barding (and i love the new unicorn horse helmets, so much better than the old angular ones), new animals, a large civilian set (with pitchforks!) and solid, realistic looking structures with a modular component; what more could you ask for? Well, since you ask - where i would like to see the castle theme go next is the introduction of a new faction or two... just a hint, elves would be great! I'd love to see more visor shapes than just the pointed one as well - maybe animal head shapes like a wolf or eagle. Oh, and while we are on a wishlist, more sets with a decent amount of large foliage parts please - not just 2 or 3 leaves, but 8-12!

What he said! :thumbup: Can't wait to see yr beautiful tavern in situ.

Wow, this is huge! The undulating hills and wall are very well done, and I like yr gatehouse too. Such a perfect way to show off yr army!

Beautiful work as usual, i always look forward to seeing yr MOC's! I like how the action is going on on different levels, and the structures have lots of lovely detail going on. I love the parrot gargoyles, great use! A bit less colourful than yr other creations, but it works well. Nice to see a happy ending for our friends too, but wasn't there a dwarf as well? What happened to him?? Anyway, i'll be looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

Cute little building. The corner bricks in grey look very smart against the black walls. I'm not so sure about the turquoise tents on the ground, or the deeply recessed window on the far side of the building - it would look better a stud out, i reckon. It'd be nice to see some more landscaping around the building too, to give it a sense of place. But a very pleasing structure overall - nice work!

Wow, lovely MOC teabox! The repeating patterns of brown and greyscale on the wall and tower is both simple and effective, and the yellow house really draws the eye. I like the contrast between the tiled surfaces inside the castle and the studded landscaping outside as well. Yr little wolf family are cute too! I have to say too - yr main photo of the entire MOC is a most pleasing composition. I'm also especially fond of the courtyard shot of the peasant fixing his cart - well worth partially dismantling that wall for, i'd say.