mccoyed

Another great dragon, Henj. I like that water technique a lot. One of the problems with the round stud technique I use is that it's sort of hard to build convincing surf without going too high (because I like to keep those lt and dark translucent blue under studs), but this approach looks pretty good especially with the sloped beach.

Love the colors in the Kali builds. Lots of great details in there and you managed to fill it with texture without making it look too busy. I really loved the Mitgardian build, though! A ton of great stuff there including the disconnected pieces, the roof hutch for storage, and the small boat!

I like those figs and backstories! Also, looking forward to seeing this thread grow as you add builds. Pretty good idea to use this thread as an "anchor" and index for all the work you plan to do.

Thanks for the feedback! Thanks!

Thanks for all the detailed feedback, Black. I ordered some more CHIMA heads that I don't have so I think I'll be introducing some of the other families mentioned above. The Diamantos and Sivaeluruses.

This guy definitely seems like someone Kass D'Gatto would hang out with.

They both look like Elon Chorian wannabes to me. :P

The Lion's Eye Ch 1 I mccoyed I Varlyrio The Lion's Eye Ch 2 I mccoyed I Varlyrio The D'Gatto Family (Immediate) I mccoyed I Varlyrio The Lion's Eye Ch 3 I mccoyed I Varlyrio The Lion's Eye Ch 4 | mccoyed | Varlyrio The Lion's Eye Ch 5 I mccoyed I Varlyrio Knighting Ceremony I mccoyed I Varlyrio The Lion's Eye Ch 6 I mccoyed I Varlyrio

Thanks. That's high praise and it'd be cool to see more vignettes to go along with figs. I'm a big fan of making custom figs and Varlyrio's challenges provide a lot of opportunities. I don't really like the head-helmet pieces from CHIMA because they make the figs have ridiculously oversized heads. A few are cool and have multiple applications, but the bobble-head thing isn't something I'd wanna recreate in a MOC. No worries. How fine they are sort of depends on what kind of guy Orsen is. :P

Yes. Good points all around! Thanks Garmadon! Thanks mrcp! That's my trademark water. :P Thanks zoth! 'Figging' is one of my favorite things. Thanks Grover! I experimented with a bunch of water types over the years and have been using this style pretty consistently for a couple of years. I like it better than some of the other popular approaches, especially the ones that require Lego I don't have! I do have a lot of 1x2 trans light blue tiles, though, and may try to do water with them someday. To me, though, they often seem too smooth and uniform to make the illusion of moving, dynamic water. Thanks SK! Can't totally take credit for that table. There's a lot of people, you and LJ included, who design fig-scale Lego furniture out there and all credit to them for most of what I make!

Thanks! Those are "special effects" pieces from the recent Infinity War sets. One is a pretty common piece, one of those springy ones that shoots out if you press it to a fig's arm. The other is more like a handheld blue flame. Thanks Titus! Thanks Zoth! I have like 60% of the full complement of "cat/bear/wolf" CHIMA heads which can all be used as catfolk. I need to get the others, though, or it'll be hard to expand the Varlyrian catfolk population without a lot of repeat faces! Thanks for the notice about Kass's "loose boards" since that was very much deliberate. I don't do vignettes very often and these ones are all kinda overthought with every aspect meant to reflect things about the characters. :P

This is my favorite of the bunch thus far. Great details with the balconies and multi-tiered building.

Hey, they can't all be huge builds. This one has plenty of personality and I like the fig choices.

Nice clean building and and interior. Also cool to see these shots of the layout coming together!

This is great, especially the foliage work! The outcroppings from the base are all well done and the overgrown ruins where the gemstone is are beautifully integrated.

Great sand formations and plants. Also really like the baggage setup on the horse and that path. The story is also good: personal development, backstory, and a hint at future goals are all here! I do think it might be a bit strange for your fig to just be Saruman essentially, though. You may want to change the clothes a little to differentiate the fig from LotR. But it may also not matter at all! Your call.

Presented, for the approval of the elite families of Varlyrio...

Note: This is the first of what will be 1-2 more builds showing the D'Gatto family. The next one will be "Extended" and, if necessary, another will follow as "Known Associates". Abelia D'Gatto is the head of the D'Gatto family, which traditionally passes power down matrilineally (common practice among Varlyrian Catfolk). Her mother left her with the family business: artifacts and antiquities and her father left her with vexing familial connections out west, including various debts, secrets, and obligations. She married an artist, seeking to expand the family business into art collection, patronage, and sales but so far this has been an uphill battle. Abelia is refined, but ruthless and has a famous temper. She makes it a point to attend major social events in Illaryian and the more important eastern Varlyrian cities and maintains a reputation for cold poise and withering wit, though she must also pretend not to hear the japes and judgments offered behind her back, or a half a moment before she is fully out of earshot. Abelia is the kind of mother that presents a different face, a different style of mothering, to each of her three children. Who she really is remains a mystery even to those closest to her, though Fel suspects it is reserved for herself --not that she appreciates it. Fel is Abelia's heir and she saves her greatest reserves of attention and disapproval for her. Pardo D'Gatto (formerly Sivaelurus) is from a prominent military family that is based in the borderlands between the two sides of the Varlyrian coin. They staunchly disapprove of "that woman" due to her family's connections to scoundrel catfolk that "give all of us a bad name". For his part, Pardo relishes his family's disapproval and often courts it. He grew up under the shadow of older brothers and sisters who followed the family trade of soldiering for the Rego. Pardo isn't a pacifist, but he prefers the life of the mind and isn't shy about it. He insisted on his children receiving educations that included an appreciation for the arts of painting, music, sculpture and dance. Fel was the greatest of his pupils, but it's Kass who has the spark of his father's talent. Pardo leaves most of the direct parenting to Abelia and has long since taken a step back to let his grown children figure their own lives out. Something of a recluse, Pardo doesn't emerge from the D'Gatto atelier for days at a time, which has proven a poor habit for an artist disinterested in the art community of Varlyrio and who is considered a middling talent on top of it. His marriage to Abelia seems to have been out of both love (for him) and status (for her) as well as an opportunity for both to step out of the long shadows cast by their families. Stena D'Gatto is the "black cat" in the family, having chosen a life of religious observance and militant service over all other pursuits. Stern and fiercely moral, Stena has officially cut ties with her immediate family, though unofficially that is not so simple. Stena has risen to the rank of Knight-Sergeant and her commitment to the Order of Sana Argenta means she can not inherit the family affairs from Abelia when the time comes. This made Fel the heir, a thing which caused a bitter rift between the sisters. They were once close, though opposites, but that closeness has largely become a memory that neither will admit pains them dearly. Stena lives in Illaryian but prefers to be out in the field, accepting missions and commands that draw her out into battle. She is also closer to the Sivaelurus family, some of whom are also knights of Sana Argenta or other friendly orders. Though Stena seems stiff and unyielding, she hides a romantic and gentle side which recalls her father. Abelia tends to treat her with coldness and distance, while Pardo is both repelled and attracted by her similarities to him and his own family, as if she could someday repair the rift between D'Gatto and Sivaelurus. Kass D'Gatto would be most families' "black cat" in that he is an infamous carouser and scoundrel. He prefers the company of his mother's cousins, the Diamantos, a family of grifters many of whom travel about Varlyrio in caravans. The Diamantos have a poor reputation among common Varlyrians, but some are considered akin to folk heroes in the seedier parts of the island. Kass prides himself on being utterly useless to his mother and father but he adores his sisters. Though his associations and behavior cause them both a lot of grief, they also have a lot of affection for him. Kass, though he hides it, is something of an artistic prodigy and has never tried a medium of art or music that he couldn't almost immediately master. He squanders these gifts, however, and instead tries to perfect the "art" of betting on horse racing while being drunk as a Mitgardian lord. Pardo puts more effort into trying to reign Kass than he does with the other children, though Abelia counters it by indulging and doting on her "baby boy". Kass is happy to take their money and sleep off his wilder nights under their roof, keeping them both just far enough at bay that they don't quite give up on him. But that's been going on for years and, as Fel is fond of telling him, it can't go on forever. Builder's Notes:

That pipe organ is choice and there's a lot of character in the props and posing here.

I like the colors here and the Swiss Guard looking doorman. The curved base and consistent, thick grass are also nice touches. Great ideas for the windows too, they really bring the build together. C&C would be down to photography (pics are grainy) and the random leaf pieces here and there on the walls. It usually looks better if you cluster those together to give the impression of leafy vines.

This is a very adorable build. That building is kind of unique, looking like something out of an old JRPG or Harvest Moon game. Lots of really cool details, especially that cart. That's probably my favorite thing.

Great job with the action shot, but some more angles could be cool too. With shots like these, you can get away with not showing the whole build and getting in really tight for a forced perspective.

Looking at it in photos, I definitely have the same feeling. I'd be interested in critique of specific places where this crops up especially. Garmadon mentioned the textures on the left building, but are there other things that contribute? The placement of the statue? The angle of the shots?

Thanks LJ. I definitely use Brickbuilt a lot for inspiration but until recently I kind of didn't want to use other builders' techniques if that makes sense? I was always wondering what the etiquette on crediting people was. We can talk more about that in PM if you have thoughts, that way I stop hijacking Bracari's thread. :P

Haha thanks, Narbilu. I find that I want to push my skills and it's all for Varlyrio! The V in the Sea! Thanks! Thanks! That was really hard to do. One little clip is all that was holding it in place, the "spine" of the roof is mostly for show. Thanks! I can't take credit since I borrowed the idea from Witcher 3 which in turn based it on a real building in Poland! Thanks Garmadon! I do tend to stuff my builds with 'figs and I actually kind of agree about the building on the left. I lack the pastel bricks others have been using for Varlyrio and the building was originally intended to not be as tall. I got caught up trying to replicate techniques I was discovering on Flickr and Pinterest and just kept adding to it. I think it might be too gray and looks kind of fortified, which tells a little story I guess but as proud as I am of trying new things with it, I think I agree that there's too much happening. This build is, overall, too "narrow" and tall for that much texture. Thanks for the info about the Varlyrian history. My notion so far has been that Varlyrio was kind of suppressed/oppressed by the Baiamontes/Black Hand/Spire then was rebuilding itself while the other Guilds were fighting civil wars. Now with Ylspeth, it's the most "rebuilt" Guild but only newly open to Historica. The strict timeline of all this hasn't really been established, eh? Well, I'll keep writing it my way until I hit the lore wall. :P Thanks Henj! I was definitely trying to convey that feel while also keeping Fel, Tisha, and Arrea front and center. I noticed I lack a good shot of Tisha and Arrea from their front, but oh well.