Gary The Procrastinator

I absolutely love all these builds, you guys did so well. With this MOC in particular those FP stairs are awesome. Great work Matthew.

Thank you! I will update this post with the new photos as we complete them. Yes, as I said in one of the points above, it's a WIP and we will have a lot more ground cover as per the banks of the stream. Thank you, and more coming... Thank you!

As others have said, wonderful work all the way around. The roof works surprisingly well with the yellow bits in it, and I like the smoke technique, although it must be fragile. It will have to try it! Great work!

It's never too late to comment, and thank you! Wow, you found one I didn't even think of! Yes, the Union commanders of the time had not come to recognize that the advent of rifled muskets had changed the tactics to the advantage of the defender, so they relied too heavily on direct frontal assault such as here, resulting in very high casualties. I'll have to add that one! Thank you, and yes there are more coming, for instance check here for our Battle of the Wilderness Collaboration for Brickrfair Virginia 2014. Thank you!

For our second annual US Civil War Collaboration at Brickfair Virginia, we created a large display (4x8 of 32x32 stud baseplates) of the 1864 battle to commemorate the 150th Anniversary. John Rudy, Joshua Brooks, Patrick Taylor and I built 32 modules and invaded them with 179 confederates and 142 Federals: ---Click on the pictures for greater detail--- While we had to compress the battlefield to get the Railroad Cut, Ny Stream, Brock Road and Widow Tap's Farm in, we were very careful to recreate the battle on May 6th, 1864 at 11:00 am, when General James Longstreet sent his Chief of Staff Lt Col Moxley Sorrel and four brigades sneaking along the Railroad Cut to surprise the Federals with a flank attack. All four of us had a great time with this, and got to talk about history to those who otherwise didn't know about it. The display was popular with the public and AFOLs alike at Brickfair VA, and was nominated for the Best Historical award, but lost to another of my builds, the Battle of Rorke's Drift (post to follow soon). Cheers, Gary

Perhaps Mark of Falworth will be dining on foul-worth? Great work as usual Mark.

Like I said on Flickr, Matthew, couldn't have been done any better!

I am so happy to see this. An absolutely critical moment in US history, rendered so well in LEGO. My congratulations, and I hope you keep building in this arena.

So anything I've done in this arena is child's play next to this beauty. I really can't wait to see it; once finished it's likely to be one of the best LEGO sailing vessels ever built. Magnificent.

Great stuff as usual. Love that shack.

Fav'd this on your Flickr site, awesome build!

Love this build, great work Paul! Really like the way you have worked the way the plaster has fallen off to reveal the bricks below...hmmmm. You might just see that again in my upcoming Rorke's Drift build

Clean build with a lot of architectural variety. I like the house and it's canal the best.

You achieved your goal. A lot of detail in a very tight space. As far as the fig, I think a head with a beard would have been more adventurous, but that's a small thing...why split hairs over that?

Beautiful rendering! You've done so much in such a small MOC.

As I said on FLICKR, a wonderful rendering of this sweeping scene in DoS. Another great work Paul!

As I said on FLICKR, love all the great piece usage here Steven, and the lighting in this shot perfectly captures the mood you are trying to set.

What a fantastic vignette. Fine piece usage here, and by the look on his face the man likes his work

Thank you very much again ZCerberus, very kind of you. Well, I will be building more CW in getting ready for Brickfair VA in August. And speaking of European battles, my son and I are going to do a huge Battle of Waterloo next year in honor of the 200th anniversary, so you will be seeing some of that from me too! As far as Nocturnus, I can barely keep up with my LoR commitments, but if I wasn't otherwise engaged there, I'd come on board and join you

Love it. That border gate is fantastic, and great figure posing.

Thank you. Great guess, and that's definitely an inspiration. To be accurate though the bridge would have to be about 5 times as long; perhaps one day I will build a full one! Thank you very much. The cross consists of a Tile, Round 1 x 1 as the connection point, with Tile, Modified Plate 1 x 1 with clip forming the arms of the cross. It's a bit tricky to get them on there, so the bottom tile with clip should be on a baseplate for stability when you first connect it. Also, what a great guess, I hadn't even thought of that one! See what I think of the symbolism at the bottom of this post. Thank you, great to hear you like the water too. Thank you so much! Hmmm, that sounds just like what Adventurer1 said? Thank you for the kind compliments, much appreciated! Thank you very much Macsen; yes more to follow! Four of us are working on a huge Battle of Wilderness build which I will post once we assemble it at Brickfair Virginia in early August. So, here's what I think are the 6 characteristics/symbology of the Civil War which I included here: 1. Numbers - In the build, the Union troops outnumber the Rebels, as was the case in nearly every single battle in the entire war. 2. Attack vs. Defense - The Union troops are attacking and the Rebs are defending, as was true for many campaigns. Even though the South fired on Fort Sumpter first, they still saw the confict as the "War of Northern Aggression" 3. Obsolete Tactics - A full frontal assault is shown into a bottleneck. Union commanders of the time had not come to recognize that the advent of rifled muskets had changed the tactics to the advantage of the defender, so they relied too heavily on direct frontal assault, resulting in very high casualties. For instance, in the case of the "Burnside's Bridge" assault, many men died taking it in a frontal assault, even though the water was easily forded at other locations along Antietam Creek... Credit for this one goes to Ardelon. 4. Moral High Ground - The Union has the high ground in the build, alluding to the noble cause of ending the tragedy of slavery in America. Note also that they are attacking from the right. Regardless of the serious issue of States Rights, the Union's sacrifices ended this odious sin in the U.S. 5. Flag of the Victors - The American flag is in a position of victory on the high ground, above the Army of Northern Virginia's Battle Flag. The Union won. 6. V Corps - In the Union's Army of the Potomac, V Corps' badge was an iron cross, matching the two cross decorations on the bridge. Corps were a critical unit all throughout the war, and V Corps in particular showed how a Corps could fight hard starting with the Battle of Gaines Mill in 1862 and continuing all the way to the end of the war. 7. Wounds Now Healed - And finally, admittedly a bit abstract, the visual symbolism of "water under the bridge" as representation of past wounds now healed. With the loss of 600,000 Americans having perished and the South physically devasted, it has taken America a long time to heal. Now 150 years later, the animosity has all but vanished.

In preparation for our second annual Civil War Collaboration at Brickfair Virginia, here is an introductory build, a mostly symbolic representation of the struggle between the two sides. Depending on how you interpret the build, there are 7 characteristics included that are symbolic of the real conflict. Can you spot them? For more details, click on the picture. If you are coming to Brickfair Virginia in August, stop by the Civil War collaboration and say hello! Cheers, Gary

Thank you very much everyone! That dramatic horse jump was the concept that drove the entire build. Thank you Wilrick and Macsen, greatly appreciate it. I am going to be giving a Landscaping Techniques seminar at Brickfair Virginia in August, so I'm building that tutorial and will have it up soon. Cheers all, Gary

Alll very impressive Nathan! The piece usage in the first and last builds are top notch.

Blinded with Fury: A young knight foolishly charges off an embankment and lands right in the middle of a group of marauding villains.... To read the story, click on the picture or here. BTW, I am preparing a tutorial on that tree and will have it up sometime....I'll post a link here when I get it done. Cheers!