mccoyed

I think the watchtower is very clean with the trees and ground leaving a nice counter-balance in terms of coloration and texture. I think Henjin is right about the lean, but it does sort of sell a windy effect which may be unintentional. I also like the story and the personal bit about your son. Stuff like that is great fuel for storytelling!

Hi. I'm trying to figure out how to make my own minifig cloth accessories, capes included and especially. I have seen patterns online, but they are never the correct size. For example, this image: This is pretty easy to find but the sizes aren't right and I'm having a heckuva time getting them to match. Have had to print this out several times with size adjustments and so I'm wondering if anyone has patterns to share that are correctly sized so I can save on paper and toner and time iterating until I get it. Sorry if something like this has been asked before, but I did check the archive and didn't find anything.

I like the look of this building. Feels newish like the rest of your work, so the clean textures and lines work really well. Also nice to see some Varlyrian catfolk!

Thanks. I write periodically in my spare time and have always felt dialogue is one of the parts of writing fiction that I enjoy and comes most naturally to me. Thanks. I think my photography is leaps and bounds beyond what it was when I started out here. Especially since I learned to use photoshop. :P Thanks SK! And yeah, expect to see Tisha and Fizzum bouncing off each other as the adventure continues.

So that's the building that came to mind when I saw this build, though your color scheme is a lot more vibrant than Skyrim's! If this was one of your reference images, then congrats on evoking it so well. I do see this kind of design pop up a lot since Skyrim has been pretty influential on fantasy media and concept art. I don't think there was such a prevalence of pseudo-Norse aesthetics before the game came out, for example. As a guy with an English Lit. degree sub-specialized in Northern European heroic tales and Norse mythology, I live to see this kind of thing.

Great reference with those horse pieces. I laughed out loud when I saw this after all the talk of mini-horses on the other build. My favorite part here is the pole or dead tree with the raven on top. My eyes were immediately drawn to that.

These build always pop the most when you show them connected to other pieces of your layout. When it's all done, the whole thing is going to be super impressive and I think you may have a knack for knowing how to join this stuff together! I may have mentioned it before, but I like the proportions of your buildings.They remind me of LJ and SK's sense of proportion, where the Lego buildings are somewhat smaller than real counterparts would be, but feel in porportion with Lego as a whole. Kind of like how pixel artists in JRPGs will tend to make buildings a lot smaller on the outside than they are inside, but it all works because the exaggerated proportions sell the illusion.

I like the idea a lot here, but agree with Henjin about the text. Not only is it a tad too small, the font is more distracting than attractive and it simply covers up too much of the build. There are quite a few MOCers who cover up negative space with a lot of text or graphic elements (I know I'm one) but on a tight, focused build like this, I think you should at the very least present an alternate shot without the text.

Great foliage and detail here, including some stuff I haven't seen before. I don't mind the square shaped garden, though you'd have to find a perfect patch of ground for something like that in a medieval garden. Or have a lot of disposable labor for flattening out tracts of land. The photography here reminds me a lot of my early builds for GoH. Have you tried using GIMP to brighten images? Learning to do that was a game-changer for me and got me started with slightly more advanced photo editing like I do now. Others helped me along the way so I am happy to help you if you have any questions.

Very good looking build. A tip on presentation would be to prevent as much of that paper edge showing as possible (at the very least, making sure we can't see other surfaces where there are gaps. With the presentation as is, the wagon coming off the base is a bit distracting.

The build seems good with lots of details but I have to echo the comments on presentation/photography. In terms of presentation, jumbling all the photos together makes it hard to know what to look at. It's probably better to let them be one-by-one in a list format, especially if you resize them so that details are easier to see.

Oof. That's good build. Love the base and the Skyrim Lumber Mill feel of this. There are some great details here like the gold accents, foliage, and flowers. I would like to see more of the water, since what is visible seems intriguing!

Love the bulkiness of this dragon, actually. It also suggests the "air" element really well. Also, I really dig the bases for these personally. :P

This reminds me that the Black Gate set also featured a scene that was only in the Extended release. Something may have happened with Return of the King since it seems like there were a lot fewer sets for that. Why no Pelennor Fields set? No Fell Beasts? No Gondor sets with Gondor minifigs? It's hard to say what happened which is why nothing should be ruled out. I doubt New Line would get as mad about TLG scooping scenes from upcoming movies as say, Marvel/Disney would. But they still get away with that, though less these days. I wish they'd return to LotR/The Hobbit but my guess is that they don't have the licenses any more and are either unable or uninterested in getting them back. Though it's probably too graphic and adult-oriented and IP, Shadow of Mordor Lego would be amazing. I do think that TLG should bring back a more classic medieval/castle theme post-Nexo Knights in general. I think the Elves theme proves that they can do the style they like now (collectible, play-friendly, narrative scene sets) without "teching" it up the way they have done with Ninjago and Nexo. I do think that Ninjago is probably the most consistently high quality out of all their themes and I'm always delighted when there are more "medieval" looking Ninjago sets/chapters.

The pirate ship was in the Extended Cut of Return of the King only so many people who saw those movies probably didn't even see that scene. That's, anecdotally, a hint that there was some weirdness going on behind the scenes with set design and execution for LOTR at the very least. I was really surprised to see a set for that and not sets for other key scenes that were in the theatrical releases.

Thanks Black! Thanks Titus! Thanks Henj! I always try to put some effort into figs.

Ah okay so Garm or Rogue then! :P

Thanks. That head is a CHIMA head, actually. One of my favorite of the tribes were the spiders. Their fig heads and head-helmet pieces are great and underutilized. But you could say that about CHIMA in general.

I modeled this after the CMF collections. It has a bit of a space opera theme to it, but is mostly just me having some fun with some concepts I was discussing with other AFOLs. Click the pic for individual shots on Flickr! Thanks for looking!

This response is the definition of anecdotal evidence and on top of it, you're admitting a clear bias (you don't like the theme). Concrete data would be published numbers for sales with targets to compare. All we have here is your assertions which, while possibly accurate, are anecdotal. Then there's your dislike for the theme spurring you on. That's not an insult, it's all right that you feel this way, but it's a bit weird that you don't see that this isn't enough to satisfy people who want more info. Personally, I wonder if Lego still has the license for LotR and The Hobbit stuff or if the original license had limits on it that would be reflected in Lego not treating it the way they have treated other licenses.

Haha thanks Narbilu, you flatterer. :P Thanks Garmadon! Thanks! I think the Sunken City is a bit of a subterranean area where a bunch of critters, including elves, live. Thanks DG. The piece is one of the snap-launch "powers" pieces that have started showing up in superhero sets. This particular white one usually comes with Spider-man as a kind of "web blast" piece.

I don't know if we need a thread. I think Narbilu or Rogue could and should index all the Varlyrio builds on the front page of this thread, though. I think that may be the plan already? Anyway, here's my latest:

Previously... The Crescent Bounty Public House, Illyrian Reluctantly allowing the Lady Tisha and her bodyguard to accompany her, Fel heads to the meeting that she had set before ever heading off to Kaliphlin. When one plans a trip to the Sunken City, it pays to have a guide... "You're... not what I expected." "What were you expectin', a Deep Elf? Fah!" guide1close by mccoyed, on Flickr Before them was a gnome and while it was true that many gnomes called the Sunken City and its cavernous surroundings home, Fel had never seen one with quite so crazy a look in his eye. "I think he's neat!" "That's 'cause I am neat! Name's Fizzum and there's no kids allowed in the Sunken City!" "That's silly. What about gnome kids!?" "Fah!" "Anyway, what guarantee do we have that you know the way to the ruins I described in my letter?" "I'm here, ain't I? Good luck finding anygnome else to take you that far out." "Hardly a guarantee, Fizzum." "Well what guarantee have I that you won't call your cousins to mug me, Ms. D'Gatto? Yeah I knows who you really are. I knows people!" "But that's not really a sec--" "Further, what guarantee have I that this child won't wander down the wrong tunnel to pee or chase lizards somewhere she oughtn't?" "Grumpy." "I'll thank you not to speak to her that way, Master Gnome." "Well, lookin' at you at least we'll have some protection from the dangers of the deep place. That's something." "Thanks?" "I can handle myself too." "Fah!" "Is that 'Fah yes I'll take you' or 'Fah no forget it'?" "I been paid, ain't I? No Fizzum's ever gone back on a contract and I won't be the first. Here, spit-shake on it!" "Ew." With the bargain struck, Tisha and Arrea took their leave while Fel spent some time thinking and drinking. "Hmm, someone else I didn't expect." "I'm always a surprise. A pleasant surprise!" "I'm sure that's what you tell yourself. And everyone else." "I missed you too, Felissa!" "Don't call me that!" "Sorry, sorry. I've been hearing that name all afternoon and it's hard to shake off." "Ugh. I was hoping I could slip out of Illaryian without her knowing." "I get that but what about me, dear sister? Had you spared no thought for dear Kassaro?" "I was planning on stopping in when I came back..." "I'm touched. But you'd better go see her before she sends Stena." "Pfft. As if Stena would set foot in here." "Haha! She'd tear the place apart." "I suppose I shouldn't keep mother waiting if I plan to leave in the morning." "Where are you headed this time anyway, sister?" "It's fascinating, actually! There are these artifacts, but they're really one piece, and if I can find both I can prove--" "Ugghghghghgghghgghggh! I'm sorry I asked." "--fine. I won't tell you then. See you around, Kass." It had been months since Fel had last seen their mother and she wasn't looking forward to the meeting. The same old lecture... Builder's Notes:

Typically people don't collect builds in one thread. Usually they just link back to previously related ones. I think the main reason for this is so that you don't have to forcibly bump your own thread if you were the last one to post in it? I'm not really sure, but I think if you bookmark this thread it will be a good resource for you as you add to it even if you later decide to use additional threads.

Can always use more fantasy species and races in Historica IMO! Or you can just create a clan of Varlyrian or Kaliphlin catfolk. Mitgardia also has the Wolf Clan too. Thanks, SK. Looking at the column again, though, there are too many gaps at the base and top. I should have chosen an angle for the pic that hid those or just fixed them with bricks. :P