mccoyed

I think my wife's UV lamp has helped, as can be seen in the WoN Phase 3 thread I posted today. That said, the further away I get from the build (for overview shots and the like), the less good the lighting. In fact, it seems that my phone works best with my lighting conditions when I am partially zoomed in. No idea why.

Thanks! I actually experimented with black hips and hands for color balance. Didn't look right. Now to continue... PART 2 While Altiera leads the charge across the stream, some of her soldiers hang back with the mages and wounded. Ferric, whose pike was broken, takes it upon herself to lead the rearguard. Beragail and Telamon, Altiera's mages, remain in the rear where they are most useful. Beragail tends to one of Ferric's pikewomen, who was wounded in the skirmish with the Mitgardian mercenaries. Altiera's bannerman pauses a moment to kick one of the Mitgardian warriors off the rock where he had sat to die. Altiera and her soldiers rush Caradoc's position, cleaving into his more disciplined troops with all the fury they can muster. Shaken by the swift dispatching of their ferocious Mitgardian allies, they are not prepared. Even Caradoc cannot rally them now. Mad Marlene, another of Altiera's lieutenants, takes a certain pleasure in watching men run from her. Caradoc is known as a fine swordsman, especially from horseback with a greatsword, but he's no match for Altiera when all the power of Persephae is with her. The power of Altiera's guardian angels is too much for his magic to overcome, and he only has his skill at arms left to defend himself. But it is not enough. Her followers across the stream salute her victory, even the wounded pikewoman healed by Beragail. This is not Altiera's first victory, but it will be her last as a roaving and landless captain. Though... she does not yet know this. The End! Thanks so much for viewing. C&C always welcome, especially on details, staging, etc which are the core features of this build. Please look at the Flickr if you plan to C&C or just for general interest. This brings Altiera's backwards-told story to a close for now. I may eventually have more ideas for her, but it was important to make sure she's in Nocturnus for the last part of Book 2. Now that she is, expect to see her again!

Note: This build takes place, chronologically, before Phase 1 or Phase 2 and concerns Altiera's company's last battle as mercenaries, sometime before her auguries and the events of the civil war in Nocturnus turned her attention homeward. Note 2: I didn't do a Dramatis Personae section for this MOC. I may add one later. Note 3: This is my first battle scene in a MOC. As such, I "performed" it procedurally and there will be A LOT of pics. More on flickr, of course. Note 4: I definitely need to do some Mitgardian builds after this one if only to make up for the violence. Oh dear. Some months ago, in the borderlands between Avalonia, Kaliphlin and Mitgardia. Altiera, girded for war, stands atop a spike of naked rock overlooking a shallow stream and the woodlands beyond. The woodlands should not be there, she knows. They are not on the maps. She calls her angels to her, and says 'show me the world' and they oblige her. The angels are her bounded spirits of war. Avatars of the Faelites' tripartite Ethos of War: Perphesae, who inspires the battle hunger in warriors (low left). Aktronae, who favors skill at arms and valor afield (middle). Thaphae, who expects warriors to fight and live as if already dead (right). The dark angels show Altiera the truth of things. The trees that are not trees, that show on no map, are in fact the last strength in arms of Caradoc, once a Hand of Corruption callaborator and now a petty lord of a marauders' fief in the borderlands. It is he who Altiera has come to destroy. Altiera rolls the dice on Caradoc not yet realizing his ruse has been discovered. She calls up her forces as if to march across the ford. She passes her sight onto her company with a gesture and a word. She is proud of their discipline as they stare across the stream at the host of soldiers, complete with a company of Mitgardian mercenaries and their war dogs, who would ambush them. Before Caradoc can give an order, the restless Mitgardians sound their warhorn and prepare to charge while they believe they have the advantage of illusion. Before Caradoc can stop them, the Mitgardians charge while Caradoc's men and women-at-arms wait for a proper order as their training dictates. Altiera's own troops do not flinch as the Mitgardian warcries wash over them. Only at the last possible moment does Ferric give the order to stop the Mitgardian mercenaries cold. She slaps one of their dogs away with her ensorcelled shield as her men punish the Mitgardians for their eagerness. Caradoc cannot believe his eyes as a third of his company falls in seconds. The aftermath. Altiera takes first blood. And quickly presses her advantage, leading the charge personally. She is at home in the pound of feet, the battlecries of her warriors, for she has always found her home to be the melee. TO BE CONTINUED IN A SECOND POST LATER!

I grabbed a roller blind from walmart and will experiment with it soon. As for all the help, thanks so much guys! I will look at that tutorial, Kayne, but I suspect I'll wind up getting a lot of mileage out of your Home Depot suggestions as well. We have Home Depot in my city so a product guide for stuff I can actually get is super helpful. Also, the definition of "daylight bulb" helps tons because I do not believe I have those now.

Thanks guys. I hope everyone sees this movie as it is excellent. One of the best scifi action movies all year.

So jealous. I love those S3 Elves. I don't have any.

Thanks LV, but I don't know what half that stuff is. I don't have an IKEA nearby so I'm not sure what a roller blind is but I'll google it. I also don't know what "daylight" bulbs are. I have plenty of white boards and poster paper though, just not in very large sheets as can be seen in those photos. I forgot, though, that my wife has a large UV lamp. I'm gonna try to finish out this WoN Phase 3 build/photoshoot with that to help the light setup. It makes a pretty big difference, actually.

So since my Landscape Help thread went so well with folks weighing in with tips, links to helpful tutorials, etc I thought I'd try it with photography as it has been my #1 greatest challenge with taking the Lego MOCist's hobby to the next level. A lot of people suggest using daylight or taking builds outside. It's impossible for me to take my stuff outside safely and I get fairly poor daylight except in the evening and it's not ideal even then. I've seen some tips and general tutorials out there but usually they are very unspecific (use white backgrounds, use daylight, etc). One part of my problem may be that I use a Galaxy Samsung S3 to take pictures with but I don't have regular access to a better camera. Some background: I have a poor setup, I think, living on the 9th floor of an East-facing apartment. I have a North-facing kitchen window where my Lego table and wife's art table are set up. I had a light box, which I was using for pics before, but that was destroyed by wind (it's very windy where I'm from) when I tried to take it outside to get some natural light. That lightbox was much too small for the kinds of large MOCs I'd like to make and I had a heckuva time photographing the 32x32 I did for Phase 2 of Warlords of Nocturnus. Because I get poor light, I have to use lamps to try and generate enough light for good pictures. I have two table lamps, I use a 100w halogen light in each (can only be turned on for limited times) and the dining area light which is terrible. In lieu of a lightbox, here's my current photograph area: So you get the idea. Some light (less than it looks here) comes through that window. I think people would suggest first and foremost that I capture that light by moving the table out and flipping the sheets around so the light from the window hits the build instead of sitting behind it. I get that, but it's difficult to do in my apartment so I'd like to find an artificial solution if possible. Here's an example of the lighting quality I've been able to achieve at the limits of my own knowledge and imagination about how to use my situation. As you can see, it's not terrible. Those dents in the backboard aren't nice, but I don't think I'll be using a solid board for background again. More likely I'll go back to using a more pliable white poster paper. I haven't experimented with white fabric as I've seen some use. Anyway, this level of quality does not make me very happy and it's kind of demoralizing that no matter how good I get at the building, I'll never be able to match presentation because I just have no idea what I'm doing! So that's where GoH comes in. If you guys out there, and you know who you are, who have great presentation skills can help out with some tips and ideas... I'd be mighty grateful.

Super stoked.

Grand work.

I like the SNOT flag and the general shape of this build. I think it's cool that the rocks are smooth and blend with the structure as it seems like a defensive feature. But at the same time, a little more color in the rocks would still maintain the effect while also avoiding any kind of glossing of the rocks and towers.

Thanks, everyone. I think I'll progress with the build, then, and complete it. I'll post it sometime in the next couple of days!

Man. I wish I knew where you guys were buying your bricks. I am in Canada so I usually look at Canadian and US BL stores w/ lots of lot items/high quantities. Anyway, here is a redo of the stream and landscaping based mostly on the advice given thus far. I am much happier with the stream's shape and the wet sand around it. I also think adding small rocks to the water to make it seem more shallow was a good idea but not sure if I've taken the time needed to execute it correctly as yet. I am much happier with the grassy areas as they are better blended and removing the flowers actually did work for the better. I've removed the tree leaves so I can try Gabe's shading suggestion later on. As you can see in these pics, I managed to scrounge up some light trans blue 1x2 plates as well as many trans clear dots. I have tons and tons of light blue/dark blue trans dots but not sure I love the look of them. I may go back to medium blue lower layer water with trans light blue and clear dots for effects. I could add more dark blue for shading on the stream, like ME's build but I think that might look too busy.

A castle can be broken down into component elements fairly easily. You absolutely need a keep and at least one bailey or yard between it and the curtain wall. Castles were meant to shelter people during invasions of the surrounding countryside as well as to provide a position of strength in a part of the landscape both naturally secure and where a lot of it can be seen from vantage. This means you'll want at least one high tower, possibly with some sort of beacon ala Minas Tirith in LOTR. You will also want a storage building for food villagers and farmers would bring in to help the inhabitants survive a siege. Carson is on the money suggesting craftsmen's buildings and stables. Castles often had liveries, smiths, training yards, etc. If you want some visual refernece, watch a few episodes of Game of Thrones, particularly early ones that take place at Winterfell and Castle Black. One thing I like to do, besides just googling the layout of existing castles, is play a game called Stronghold as it revolves around castle building. Gives you tons of ideas about necessary parts of castles.

I'll see what I can do about the mud. I think I've got some ideas to fix it and still preserve the stream's function in the build. I may not be able to do lighter blue due to piece limitations but I'll see. I think medium blue should be fine, personally, as there are both darker and lighter blue in Lego to simulate depth. I think if I have enough light blue, I can maybe build around the banks in that color and leave the central parts of the stream alone. As the scene is a battle that will revolve around the stream, adding too much landscaping features means I have less room for figs and I need to cram a lot of them into the space as presented. I think I can pull it off while still keeping some of the color and features but we'll see. A lot of battle scenes are too bland, but SK's recent one is a masterclass in using a "less is more" approach. I'm not there yet, either way. :P I could take the rock out but I'd like to use it for the scene so I may try to find another way, either by widening the stream or making that end of it more rocky in general as you suggest. I do like the idea of adding small rocky pieces to evoke the shallowness and have some ideas about how to do it. More pics to come. I do think landscaping with Lego is also a matter of style. I mean, consider Gunman's builds. As for ordering some parts... I usually use BL for figs, accessories, and rarities. I don't see any problem with buying raw pieces for landscaping and so on, just never settled on what I actually needed very clearly. I think I will take your advice and order some of those this month. I started this thread just as much to help with future builds as with this one so I think it's all good. I've definitely looked for trans blue tiles in quantity but usually they're overpriced or I find a BL store that has this in abundance, but not much else that I need or want. It's just never worked out but I'm always on the look out!

In GoT, a manticore is a type of insect.

Oh wow, so many comments and suggestions! I'll try to get to all of them here! Thanks Gabe! For the tree foliage, I'll try that and see. Right now I kind of like the patchier more organic look but I understand the inconsistency of using lighting in one part of the scene but having random "lighting" effect on the leaves. Makes no sense. For the stream and rock... the effect is supposed to be water flowing around it already! I guess it doesn't really look that way now. Any suggestions on making it look better for that? I tried using the dark and light trans blue dots in patterns to suggest water flow. For the banks... I don't really have darker tan! I could use a little more maybe, but I mostly have large 2xY plates which makes it difficult to blend. I don't have any dark orange I don't think. I may experiment but most of those plates are set underneath the upper layer of grass. Because of this, it may be too time intensive to rip up the whole surface of the build. It would mean redoing almost everything. Thanks Kai! The look of the patches was meant to evoke sand (light tan), wetter sand (dark tan) and mud (brown) layered around the bank of an extremely shallow stream. I guess I failed so I will try to make it work better. About the additional texturing of the banks as well as lime and the olive green leaves, flowers, etc... my current plan was to add more landscaping details of those kinds once minifigs have been placed. The issue I wanted to avoid was having awkward placing/posing due to excess foliage and such. It'd be easier to place around the figs. I definitely take your point about the grass. Plenty of smaller pieces can be added to reduce some of those lines. Thanks MassEditor! The stream is supposed to be shallow and fordable with water level around knee-height. This is why it has a muddy/sandy bank instead of a raised one. It's true that rivers seldom have banks at level with water, but streams often do. In fact, they are often really pebbly but I chose to do more of a muddy/sandy one to suggest that it's a natural ford. Your water looks really good. I don't really have square plates in trans blue/light blue in enough quantity is the problem. I have enough clear to possible do rapids, but there wouldn't be rapids per se in this stream (it's too shallow). I thought using dots to cover the whole thing would look very awkward so opted not to try that. Should I reconsider? To incorporate some of the suggestions about the bank, I think I may try to bulk up the edges so that'll take care of that. The thing is, does that make sense for a ford? Thanks Carson! I have to try to blend them better for sure, once figs are placed. I have an abundance of large dark green plates but very little smaller stuff in that color. I may have to try and add more lighter green, but I also have limited pieces on that and most of them are already employed in the build. I definitely think it could use improvement. The bit under the rock on the left side of the river is much closer to what I wanted to achieve there. I hope the sandy bank makes more sense if you think of this stream as less of a river and more of a shallow ford/stream. If not... I'll take more suggestions!

Some WIP pics to show how I've progressed since reviewing all the advice given here. Everything was very helpful, especially Derfel Cadarn's guide. First I start with the base built into the black display border so many folks use. The blue marks where the stream will be. I built up the landscape to show the two sides of the river. One side will have a boulder and the other has dense trees (a little too dark, sorry) which I made using Derfel Cadarn's "lever" technique for holding the leaf pieces at naturalistic angles. The grass darkens beneath the trees to imitate shade. Here's the entire build w/o figs. If I weren't doing a WIP post, I'd probably have completed the MOC with this. As it is, I will probably give it a few days to gather advice and feedback as well as to get my photographing stuff in order. Close-up of the left side of the river. I think I will add a large slope of some kind to the facing side of where the large slope forms a spike. I don't know if that makes sense but I'm not happy with the way it looks right now. Close-up of the stream. I am fairly happy with the way this is turning out. I like this method of doing water especially because I have like zero trans tiles. And last, a close-up (with flash cuz my work area is too poorly lit right now) to get a better glimpse of the trees. I've added another brown leaf piece to the far side, where the darker green is most plentiful. This balanced out the terrain more and I am currently pretty happy with it.

I missed this comment! I'm glad you liked the mace, I built like a dozen hammers, maces, and so on before I joined GoH. Sometimes I like to use them over my 3rd party stuff. They especially look good with dwarves for some reason. Thanks, Mike S!

I just wrapped KOTOR again and ah man, I wish I had KOTOR Lego.

Those Mitgardian dwarves hate the spiders too! Only the eloquent argument raised by the Avalonian scout convinces them to holster their axes and mauls long enough to make a plan. Mitgardians may be peerless warriors, but they can get a little rash when drow are around aboveground with their spiders getting their spider goo on everything. But you have to wonder how the Avalonian would feel if he knew one of the spiders was chewing up his Guild's colors?

Nice little MOC. Good use of Aldrich Killian's head, too. I expect to see more of it since it's so dang good.

Aw man! Right on!

You know, I think I went through those LCC tutorials before I joined GoH and forgot about where'd I'd seen some of this stuff before. I'll review them! Thanks again Scaevola.

That's awesome guys. Kai, that really healps. And SK, I was hoping you had a progress pic of that battle's landscape kicking around. Awesome to get a peek behind the veil. Also, Kai and Scaevola... thanks for those links! I'm going to be studying all that stuff carefully before I attempt this again. Unfortunately there isn't much rock in this builld. The landscape is a bit flatter than what you made for your battle, SK. I think it's mostly going to be grassy and there's only so many ways to do that without simply piling on tree leaf pieces which I want to avoid since I've relied on that technique in my previous builds.