Ayrlego

Great Chinampa Elos, I love the design and also have Blufiji's chinampa bookmarked for the future! One thing I haven't been able to work out is how you did the spacing between the tiles and rods. Also, are the rods held in place by anything? Or just wedged? The best I can come up with is jumper plates inter-spaced by 1x1 plates, but the spacing is a bit off and I'm not sure how viable the method is for an actual MOC. Love the trees which I shamelessly copied (and have ordered more technic spokes). The use of the brown horns to create the twisted look is also something I'll replicate just as soon as I can get my hands on some! The brick built canoe does look better, and I prefer the black base as well. In all, exactly what I had in mind for the chinampas of Lake Myzec! Thanks for bringing it to life, fantastic work!

A boat yard on Lake Myzec

A boat yard on Lake Myzec

On a small island on Lake Myzec, a group of specialist craftspeople make dugout boats to service the lake. Huge logs are floated to the island, where the workers shape them into vessels. The finished products then service the 'floating islands' or chinampas which provide the Myzec with their harvest. __________________ Another Myzec build. My willows were a bit thin and straggly last time so I borrowed a technique from @Elostirion which ingeniously uses the Technic Axle Connector Hub with 4 bars to support the vertical leaves. The dugout is a modified version of a native canoe built by @Bregir . The build will be licensed as a factory. It was a bit of a toss up between factory and artisan, but I figure opportunities for factories in a Aztec inspired city are going to be pretty restricted... so that tipped the balance in favour of a factory!

Please... someone MOC this!!!!

Funny you should say that... I'm currently working on a building loosely based on the AoE2 Aztec archery barracks...!

A few of us in Corrington have been discussing ways to stimulate some activity/generate some ideas for the forum. The below is not an official challenge or anything, it started off as a faction incentive. We tried to pick something a bit out of the ordinary and also to open it up for all to participate in. It has grown into something bigger than we expected. If you are interested, feel free to participate. If you'd like to focus on your building skills, WIP shots are encouraged and I will personally try and provide constructive feedback on all WIPs and encourage all others to do the same. Just post them all here! Goal: To expand the lore of the native people in the lost city of Myzectlan on Cascadia. Background Information: The Myzec are loosely based on the Aztec civilisation. They primarily farm maize, sweet potato and beans in 'floating island' plots or chinampas on Lake Myzec. The meat in their diet includes fish and water fowl/turkeys and dugout canoes are used to transverse the lake. Very few mammals are farmed in the Myzec valley although there are some pigs and goats. They weave cloth from goat wool and produce leather from animal hides hunted outside the valley. A basket ball type game is a very popular recreational activity. They ferment an alcoholic ale from maize. There is some more info in the Myzectlan thread linked above. Requirements: Build a small scene showing the Myzec people conducting activities from their day to day life. Some examples may include: Farming a chinampa lot, milling maize grain, making tortillas, fermenting ale, fishing, trapping ducks, repairing fishing nets, making canoes, warriors training, producing mud bricks for construction, weaving cloth, tanning hides, hunting in the jungle, making jewellery/pottery, ball games, etc Rules: Open to citizens of all factions. No limit on number entries Size: Minimum 16x16, maximum 32x32 EGS: You may license your build for the EGS if appropriate although there is no requirement to do so. If your build is licensable and you have no wish to license it, the settlement will purchase it from you for 100DB. If the settlement licenses your build, it shall not count towards your monthly build limits. You must post a link to your entry(ies) in this topic Deadline: 14th January 2019. If it is before 14 Jan anywhere in the world, you can still enter. Scoring: Entries shall be scored in the below categories. NB. this process is similar (but not identical) to the system used to score challenge entries. Based on feedback you guys wanted to know how the challenges are scored and to receive feedback. While we don't want to give away all our secrets, I thought we could run this collab in this way to give you a feel for how it all works. 0-3points for story. eg. Does the scene depict daily life that fits into the give description: 0=not at all 3=a creative entry that matches the collab description and existing lore. 0-3points for presentation eg. How well the photo displays the scene. 0=poor presentation, out of focus, poor lighting, badly framed etc. 3=shape image, well framed and lit, presented on a plain background. 0-5 for build. eg. building techniques used. 0=a few bricks slapped on a baseplate. 5=advanced/effective (eg. SNOT) building techniques used (this becomes a bit subjective depending on taste, but we endeavour to factor in individual builders styles. Scores for each category are added for a total. If more than one judge then scores are averaged across judges for a final result. Winner is the entry with the highest average score. If the collab takes off and we have a decent number of entries, I will lobby the court to approve some prizes TBA. Possibilities may include micro licenses or BoBS cards. If not Allcock has a fortune in DBs to give away... plus Corrington would probably award some in-game titles... My latest build could be used as a good example entry for this collab and should be considered the first 'entry' (My entries shall of course not be included in the scoring part of the collab!)

Thanks Spud! Thanks Kai. I really felt the addition of the red flowers in his build were a great touch and the splash of red was needed here (hence the parrot), but I didn't want to rip his ideas off any more than I already had! Thanks guys! Thanks Drunknok, the trees are meant to be a type of willow, which is long and thin. You are right but, using the pipe as trunk makes it difficult to give the tree any body. Scenes using few minifigs... hmmm I think most small vignettes could probably be adapted to look great with only one or two minifigs. I used a few here because the house by itself was really plain and the build really needed more details. Maybe a villager trapping ducks? (not sure how to make the duck...) or repairing a fishing net or even fishing in a canoe? Another idea I had was for a women making corn tortillas. I saw a video of the process on YTnot so long ago and immediately thought it may translate well into a small Lego scene.

An example of the house of an ordinary Myzec family.

In contrast to the great stone temples and public buildings of Myzectlan, most ordinary Myzec live in simple mud brick houses with thatched roofs. These houses are spread around the shores of Lake Myzec and house the vast majority of the Myzec people. Here is the house of once such Myzec family. The women weaves cloth while the man looks after their baby child. A fisher women passes by while two warriors discuss the latest ballgame. ___________ A bit of a change of scenery for me and some love for Myzectlan is long overdue! I wanted to show the simple dwellings of the ordinary people and the hut is based on Aztec houses, particularity the Lego example in the spoiler below by W. Navarre and also this other drawing I found on the internet. To be licensed as a residence in Myzectlan. There will likely be some more Myzec builds from me this month :) I am thinking of a small Myzec themed mini-challenge/collab if anyone is interested?

Sorry for not replying sooner Kai, the lime feather was a random BL find, I had no idea where it came from until Henjin enlightened us! I also have the dark green forresters hat, but like you say mine is from the CMF Lederhosen guy. The broom is actually not medium flesh... it's listed on BL as 'Earth Orange'. Mine came from one of my childhood Fabuland sets.

Great build Drunknok! I mean personally it's a little modern for my taste, but there is no denying how much attention to detail you have paid to the scene, cramming as much activity as possible in. Gives a nice bustling feel which is entirely appropriate for a market scene. The 'boxy building style' looks good here, you've managed to insert enough variation in shape and texture to really pull it off well, yet retain the characteristic boxy look. One suggestion with the light box. For some of my builds I have a piece of white cardboard (the thick plastic-y stuff) that I put down on the base of the box then place the MOC on top. This eliminates some of the shadows and creases on the floor and gives a crisp line between the base of the MOC and background. Then with a little post editing it should be a whole lot easier to completely erase the background if you so wish. Probably one of my favourite ML builds to date. Well done!

I really like this one - actually I was looking into the tanning process myself recently for a planned build and I really like how you depict the process here. A nice clean build, well presented. Great job!

One of your best facades here Mesabi, the light blue and LBG work nicely together. I especially like the pattern created by the log bricks and the 1x4 plate with the studs on each end. The angled 1x2 tiles are also a nice touch. Not sure about the second layer of CMF baseplates - the bottom looks good but I can't work out the purpose of the top. Nice work although as with most of your builds, it would be nice to see an overview of the whole scene.

Inn Stage 1: Alehouse

Ale is an important source of nutrition for many Mitgardians. The most common type, known as 'small beer' is an important source of calorie intake and hydration, with just enough alcohol to act as a preservative without intoxicating effects. Ales with a higher alcohol content are less common and are used mostly for recreational purposes. Ambarvale like most villages, has several alehouses where grains are fermented in small batches by family brewers. Sometimes spices or honey can be added to the ale, though the expense of these mostly imported ingredients mainly limits the purchase of this type of ale to the nobility. Overnight the first snow of the season has fallen and the citizens go about their business preparing for the coming winter. _______________ Having enjoyed the style my previous wainwright so much, I decided to replicate it again on a different building. I'll probably do most of the village in this style although we'll see how that works out... I was tempted to go for autumn again, but no, the snow needed to arrive. I was going for a light dusting. I'm not sure about it, although admittedly I know very little about snow (it doesn't really snow much here... once we had a small amount that was all melted by about 10am. ). Again I did a tropical version for BoBS, just because the conversion worked quite well last time! I don't plan on recycling too many builds between games, but when I do I promise to at least make some effort to change the versions like I have with these two.

An alehouse licensed as a medium artisan.

Jameston has become well known for the production of sugar and already there are distilleries producing fine rum. However, hard spirits such as rum are not to everyone's taste and their is demand for good old fashioned ale and beer. Hops is largely unavailable in tropical Jameston, although there has been talk of experimenting with temperate crops such as hops high in the mountains where the climate is cooler. While some hops can be imported, most locals choose to brew ale. Some taverns brew their own ale; while other brewers such as this example operate out of their own premises and sell their product in barrels. ______________________________ Seeing as my last medieval conversion was so successful, I decided to build another! To be licensed as an artisan in Jameston. I have some ideas about growing some temperate crops in the mountains of Cascadia (Myzectlan specifically) next month, so this was a good segue!

Nice scene here. The clean building style looks really good and you've used a great colour palette. I especially like the archways over the doors! Nice work!

Thanks Navarre! Thanks Kai! I was hoping no one picked me up on the string! I did have it dangling down (because like you said, it makes more sense right?) but it didn't look right so I just attached it to the wall until I could come up with a better solution... and there it stayed! Thank you Grover. Unfortunately no pics of the other side. The chimney is simply attached directly to the roof plate using a hinge brick. As the back was not built for display, the small gap this creates wasn't an issue. If I was going to build the chimney on a display side, I'd probably make a 2x2 hole in the roof and simply have it poking through... well that's the plan anyway! Thanks adde. I do think the DBG does look better for this style as well... now I just need more as this was the extent of the wall I could build in this textured style with the bricks I currently have available! Thank you en-zoo. I did consider wooden supports which I've used in the past, but after seeing some examples from other builders (mainly Soccerkid/Isaac) I decided to experiment with stone!

Thanks guys! Thanks, I agree I need to vary the SNOTed plates on my bases - they tend to get a bit uniform! Most of the leaves are actually altbricks - I don't have that many actual Lego dark orange leaves, so they are mixed in with 3 different alt bricks colours, the middle trees being their bright orange. Thanks adde Thanks Kai. I don't mind the brown under the MDF/dark tan, but I definitely agree that blends in too much with the roof. I'll need to order some more dark brown I think to correct circumstances like this! (and hope TLG releases more pieces in dark brown...) Thanks Colin, funnily enough I made the same observation about my characters in this MOC - I fixed that in the next one! Thank you zoth! Thanks Grover, yep the leaves are from alt bricks (well most of them, there are a small amount of Lego dark orange mixed through!). I am thinking of entering some of these in the CCC, but I'm still trying to get my head around all the rules... Like do you need to be a member for the forum, or can you just submit your entries using their form? I'll look some more into it! Thanks Gabe, in retrospect I agree, some rocks or additional details on the RHS would have helped! Thanks for the advice! Lol, my reaction with the MDF plates exactly! ...and yes, it's still autumn! Thanks Muakhah! Thank you Henjin, it will still be a while before they make it Kaliphlin, but I have an itch to do some more desert builds! Then they will probably travel back via Avalonia just so I can experiment with all three mainland styles! Thanks pombe, I have some plans to do Irissa's back story - and I'm pretty sure she and Yngvi will be faithful companions throughout this quest! Thanks Exetrius! In retrospect I definitely agree some rocks scattered around the landscape could have added to the scene!

Great collage Kai and a very impressive collaboration from the whole team!

Great little farmhouse! As I mentioned on Flickr, the use of the 1x1 tile to cover the gap at the top of the gable is particularity inspired. I also really like how the chimney cuts into the roof. Another great entry for the CCC, going for master builder two years in a row?

Nice scene. I like the way you have constructed the lean-to, it is very convincing. The huge tree is also well done and the snow layer gives the landscape extra interest. Well done!

House Stage 3: Wainwright, Ambarvale