Slegengr

Nice monument, UtilityBelt! I like the use of the axes and microfigs. The white lever-base and gold coin detail looks great as well. I agree that the rock should extend to the edges to give more impact to the cliff presentation. A border or more edge irregularity could also go a long way. Brick on, UtilityBelt!

Nice build, Jorrith! The details I like were mentioned before, so I repeat them: the rafters, the rug, the presentation and photography, the spy prying up a floor board, the chandalier. Brick on, Jorrith!

Nice build, Alfadas! I also like how well-hid the spy is. I never knew before that barrels interlinked in that fashion. The color variation on the floor is simple but nice.

We certainly see eye to eye! I had considered making a comment in my last post about the armies that produce essentially a white photo with black specks due to the repeating pattern of clones. The one thing I like least about my army is that the troops are all on baseplates. Plain... flat... baseplates... With absolutely no artistic flair or visual appeal . I have dreams of making dioramas for each faction, but I do not have the space or the time or the organization for that right now (or probably ever, for that matter), so I instead devote my time towards other builds. This is my first will probably be my only post of an army in a topic like this one. I feel like I spent way too much time to ever consider doing this again, even though I have large armies of TLG's LotR troops, SW troops, Pirates factions, etc.(currently largely un-modified). There is no reason for me to show what TLG has produced, as it can be seen in images of their box art .

I am glad you responded, nine09nueve! What you have said are my sentiments as well. I obviously did not make myself clear enough in my comment. The main reason I made such a comment was to state that the number of figures in my whole picture is not what is important. By "army building" as I stated it, I meant collecting, and MOCing includes the customized army building aspect (personally designed minifigures are still "My Own Creation"). What I meant about the money aspect was: the person with the most money put towards a certain group of minifigures who collects them and keeps them basically exactly as TLG produced them will have the largest army. I would rather make an army of 10 customized (but still purist) minifigures than an army of 900 troops that are almost exactly the same as TLG produced them. I do enjoy seeing huge armies, but I prefer the personal aspect of seeing an individual's interpretation and customization of an army, large or small. Anyone can buy TLG's products, either new or from the secondary market, but only you can make your own characters. Of course, each person is entitled to their own enjoyment. If someone enjoys collecting without MOCing, that is up to them. I also enjoy collecting, but I like MOCing better. There is surely a distinction between an army and a collection. Over half my post is a collection, while the other half is made of custom armies. For example, my Crownies army is purely collection, while my Drow army is purely purist customization. I also absolutely agree with your last comment. Army building can have input from the individual if the troops are customized. Most of the troops in the 900 here are still kept almost entirely as stock TLG troops with little customization (though I have definitely customized some troops), which is the kind of army building that can just turn into a contest of who has the most. This is not my intent. If you want an example that shows I prefer to army build with purist customization, see my Falki Ridders in the Guilds of Historica forum. The same applies to building. Money is definitely required for MOCs (trust me, I know), but you cannot make a MOC that a lot of people enjoy simply by spending money. Spending money at its base will get either a display of TLG's sets built from the instructions or a row of bins of parts, as in this picture I took after a sorting session. This is why I value a MOC more than collected sets. It is not the focus on the financial side and which costs more, but rather the input and creativity of the builder. I have had a similar thought when I hear the comment "it is not the pieces you have but how you use them that matters." This is true that people are still coming up with new ways to use small collections of parts, but, if you look at the front page of Eurobricks, you will see that having a lot of pieces usually matters in achieving the wow-factor. Of course, the builder still had to know how to use the pieces in amazing ways. I hope this explains my thought process in more or less... well, actually, more words . Thanks again for the response and have a great day, Slegengr

For anyone interested, I wasted my time this morning photographing my castle armies for the "Post your Castle Army Here" topic instead of building . My armies are pictured in the topic here as well as on my Flickr album. I hope to still get some building done yet, but I do not have as much time left as I had hoped.

Instead of building like I had planned to do this morning, I thought I would set up and photograph my armies. This took way longer than I had intended. I would consider myself a LEGO salvager, to some extent, which is why I have such large armies. I buy bulk lots on eBay and salvage the sets from them, especially 90's castle. I do collect armies, but I value army building much less than MOCing, as it is essentially only money that determines how large one's armies are. MOCing requires input from the individual rather than just using TLG's creativity in minifigures. On to the armies: First, an overall shot. This shows most of my non-LotR medieval minifigures. There are a few stragglers from each group that have not yet been sorted. This group is also missing about 20 Vikings and the Falki Ridders, as I am using them for GoH. I believe the total count is 900 minifigures with roughly 1/4 of them mounted. Black Knights: 34 Knights - 16 red-barding, 16 blue-barding, 2 saddle 18 Squires - 10 Black Knight type, 8 Black Monarch type 90 Footmen - 29 spearmen, 9 swordsmen, 15 axemen, 8 crossbowmen, 29 longbowmen Lion Knights: 24 Knights - 17 barding, 7 saddle 8 Squires 56 Footmen - 18 spearmen, 7 swordsmen, 13 axemen, 10 crossbowmen, 8 longbowmen Black Falcons: 25 Footmen - 8 spearmen, 4 swordsmen, 6 axemen, 7 longbowmen Wolfpack: 19 Footmen - 5 spearmen, 3 swordsmen, 4 axemen, 1 halberdman, 6 crossbowmen Forestmen: 8 Horsemen - 4 black-sleeves, 2 blue-sleeves, 2 red-sleeves 88 Footmen - 7 black-sleeves, 26 green-sleeves, 23 blue-sleeves, 32 red-sleeves 6 Maidens 9 Dark Forest Men Classic Castle: 6 Footmen - 4 swordsmen, 2 axemen Peasants: 22 Men, 11 Women 3 Kings, 3 Queens, 5 Princesses, 3 Nobles Dragon Masters: 2 Merlins 14 Footmen 7 Knights 1 Charioteer Royal Knights: 2 Kings 3 Knights 19 Footmen: 5 spearmen, 8 swordsmen, 5 archers, 1 king KKI: 1 Knight, 4 swordsmen, 4 crossbowman Bulls: Cedric, 5 footmen Bats: Basil, 8 footmen Crownies: 4 Knights 27 Footmen - 1 squire, 6 spearmen, 4 swordsmen, 6 axemen, 8 crossbowmen, 2 bannermen Kingdoms Lions: 4 Knights 19 Footmen - 10 spearmen, 7 swordsmen, 1 axeman, 1 crossbowman Kingdoms Dragons: 4 Knights 10 Footmen - 1 spearman, 5 swordsmen, 1 axeman, 1 halberdman, 2 crossbowmen Samurai, Ninjas, Chinese Knights: 3 Shoguns 10 Daimyos 46 Samurai 18 Ninjas 10 Chinese Knights: 2 Daomen, 2 spearmen, 2 guan-dao-men, 2 musketmen, 2 chu-ko-nu-men Elves: 12 Footmen - 6 elven swordselves, 2 corseque-elves, 4 longbowelves Scorpion Orcs: 4 Knights 1 Druid 25 Footmen Skellies: 6 Knights - 1 Thestral knight, 2 heavy knights, 3 light cavalry 24 Skeletons Drow: 15 Knights - 5 visored-helm, 4 gladiator-helm, 2 squires, 2 hooded advisors, 2 Greek-helm 48 Footmen - 2 pikedrow, 6 halberddrow,18 sworddrow, 10 axedrow, 12 longbowdrow

Nice build, Kayne! I love the story and I think the tree and landscaping is nice. I like the combination of colors used. I would like to see a little bit more greebling of some sort on the foreground though, as it seems a little bit plain. Brick on, Kayne

There are a number of things I wish I had done when I was younger, most especially related to the first set I remember: 6086 Black Knights Castle. My brothers and I broke the clips off the blue barding, lost the red barding, broke the helmet visors, cracked the baseplate, lost pieces (including the white dragon feathers), and left them on the floor too much. Of course, I was only a 3-year-old when we got the set. I take much better care of my collection now . I am glad you like the poleaxes! Thanks, Jorrith! Please do not steal the idea, as I would like to continue using it as well, but feel free to share it with me and utilize it whenever you like . (I am just poking fun at the use of the word "steal" .)

I agree that Galidor and Scala are least LEGO-like. I also discovered a line from BrickLink called LEGO Muji. It consists of cut paper shapes that are held together using 1x1 round plates. Though it is an interesting concept, the paper majority-medium is very un-LEGO-like.

Welcome to Eurobricks, mobruu! I am looking forward to seeing your collection.

Thanks, mccoyed! Thanks, Gideon! Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate constructive feedback with suggestions for improvement. I still have not yet perfected my photography and I still do not have my photo setup completed as I would like: insufficient backdrop and only two florescent lights. I have fiddled with the white balance on the camera, but my camera is too cheap to get good quality color. The reddish look is due to the touch-up I did with photoshop. I try to optimize the realistic representation by altering shadows/highlight, brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. The background shows too much for my liking, but to make it whiter, it affects the LEGO too much. I am still torn between leaving the background or erasing it. I am not yet satisfied with how my background looks, but it is way too much work to remove all backgrounds using magic eraser and background eraser. I have also been frustrated to have spent time erasing a background only to discover when uploading to Flickr that there are still gray spots around the build due to uneven lighting and incomplete background removal .

Glad to help. That solution works pretty well, IMO. I still wonder why TLG has not produced the concentric 3x3 round corner...?

That would be great! I still do not understand why that piece is so expensive, other than because LEGO can... especially since they come "free" in so many sets. I guess that is probably the reason: if you are purchasing a brick separator from S@H, you obviously do not buy many sets and you must be pretty desperate .

@MKJoshA: I agree that an avatar change can be confusing! I get to know other EB members by their avatar and it looks odd when it changes. Changes are not bad, though, as long as they are infrequent. I would pick a GoH minifigure, but I am a bit biased. Since you are now a SW Regulator, though, a SoNE character might work better for you. I agree with SK that figs work well as avatars. I think builds work as well, but figs are better. I also think a customized figure is better than an official LEGO character, as it makes it more personal.

Thanks, Alfadas! I really like the viking shields as well, both for shields and hanging decorations for building/banners/etc. The stickers on mine are all fine, but they never really saw hard play, nor where they ever left in a tub of loose parts. I try to avoid leaving stickered components with many other parts, as the edges can rough up the stickers just from the movement in storage. Thanks, Vladivus! Thanks, MKJ! I used to think the sword was the perfect weapon until I did some historical research on the 15th century. Against foes in full armor, a sword blade is nearly worthless. Half-hand techniques, where the second hand was placed near the center of the blade (sometimes both hands on the blade), were used to either use the sword handle like a hammer head or direct the tip into the gaps between plates. The poleaxe was the more common weapon used on the battlefield because the head weight could cause a damaging blow that smashed armor or damaged from the shock of the blow, negating most of the armor's protection. After learning this, I wanted to make LEGO poleaxes with blade and hammer head. These are the solutions I came up with and I am quite happy with the result, especially Stian's.

Thanks, Mencot! I do remember the original ghosts not glowing super bright. They seem dimmer now, but I think that may be due to the comparison to the newer ghosts right next to them. Thanks, Zblj! I knew I had to when I saw them late last night . Thanks, lightningtiger! Thanks, Robert8! I like the second picture for an "action" shot. There certainly could be a possibility of a ghost in the CMF line. My personal favorite face is still the smiling original one.

Welcome to Eurobricks, Alex! I am looking forward to seeing your MOCs and your contributions to this community.

So as I was heading to my room to do the computer work for a photo session, I noticed my glowing ghosts on the shelf when I shut out the lights. Thinking it rather fitting for the timing, I took a couple photos. Boo! Flying (hence the blurring... I liked the effect, so I did not try for a better photo): I have noticed that the new ghosts (sad-frown face) glow much brighter than the 90's ghosts (smiling face). I wonder if this is due to superior material due to technology or if the 90's ghosts are "wearing out" due to age? Do glow-in-the-dark objects wear out over time? Curious... I hope you enjoy!

I spent a lot of time this past evening sorting to prepare for my Challenge builds: I got tired of sorting after about 4 hours, so I did something a little more exciting and photographed the updated Falki Ridders. I hope to have time to finish my AoM Storehouse Phase I build and get a good start on my Challenge builds this weekend. That's all for now, what a full evening!

I got tired of sorting and wanted to do something a little bit more exciting for a change, so I photographed the updated Falki Ridders. The Falki Ridders are the mounted guard of Erland Blar's village, Falkidalr, in Mitgardia. Erland Blar (Center) and his squires: Even Blar (Left, Erland’s nephew) and Tait Blar (Right, Erland’s youngest son) House Blar (Left to Right): Osmond (Erland’s loyal brother), Hagen (Erland’s oldest son), Fell (Erland’s nephew), and Bjarke (Erland’s middle son) House Blakkr: Einar (Right, Erland’s Champion) and Halvar (Left, Einar’s son) House Gulr: Rangvaldr (Right, Erland’s Advisor) and Ralph (Left, son of Rangvaldr) House Rjodr: Colborn (Right, Erland’s Hersir) and Manning (Left, Colborn’s son) House Vitr: Hammond (Left, Stian’s older brother) and Stian (Right) The weapon of choice of the warriors of Falkidalr is the poleaxe. It is versatile against unarmored and armored foes and doubles as a useful tool for everyday life in Mitgardia. The sharp blade is useful for cutting and chopping, while the hammer head is great for smashing. Each Ridder also carries a sword and lance at full armament. Each lance is mounted with flags: the top flag is either green or yellow to represent Mitgardia while the bottom flag represents the bearer's House. Erland's full banner includes both flags of Mitgardia atop his House flag.

That is quite the army, LegoFanfromPR! Not many armies could stand up against that army, but my army just might be strong enough . A portion of it is posted for my GoH village guard: the Falki Ridders.

These are really nice, woody64! I like the custom hats that incorporate more historically-accurate types than TLC has produced. The renders are excellent as well. They still look digital, but the detailing is very realistic.

Welcome to Eurobricks, DalekSram! That is a pretty thorough review of the original Toa! I am looking forward to more contributions to the community.

Very nice build, Mephistopheles! I particularly like the SNOT wall technique. It gives a nice effect. The fence around the border looks great as well. Using slope bricks for the roof may seem a simple technique, but I like the way it looks and the way you finished the ridge with more than just slope pieces. The only improvement I have to suggest would be to add more greebling in the yard around the inn. There are a few spots that seem bare and plain. Maybe add more foliage or wedge/round plates? Brick on, Mephistopheles!