NiceMarmot

Really nice! Definitely the essence of Mitgardia, except there's no mug of ale anywhere in the picture By the way, I probably looked like a complete idiot trying to wipe that hair off my monitor

That works. PM me what your build is (a few word description), and I'll schedule it, and PM you back a date. I think that's fine. I just did another one, and it was 55 pieces. That's probably a bit big (although a lot of those pieces are very small), and I'll try to keep them smaller. But around 30 should be OK, as long as they're not all 4x6 panels! Can't wait until December 1st!

Has anyone used parts from Alt Bricks? I know DG has used the fall leaves. Are they any good? High quality? I hope so, because I just ordered some of the fall and winter leaves, as well as some of the half columns. I was a bit amused to see that my order is number 98. I don't think I've ever seen such a low order number.

Well, there is currently no fighting among guilds, on the order of the High King. However, there's nothing preventing you from depicting a historical battle, such as when the Mitgardians routed the westerners (pre-Avalonians) in the great Battle of Eldrathleigh...

This is very nice. I think you really nailed the Valyrio look. The canal and bridge are great, as is the Kaliphlin house. So much action going on too! I feel sorry for the poor guy cleaning the canal. God knows what gets thrown in there The white house is good, but I think there a few things that could be changed to really make it great. The windows on the side don't really stand out; perhaps they should have different color shutters, lintels, and/or sills to draw the eye. On the other hand, the red bricks on the front draw the eye a bit too much; perhaps dark red would be better? And I would have broken up the inverted slopes under the eaves and between the ground floor and the second floor -- you know, alternate inverted slope with just a regular brick, to give that transition a bit more texture. Not sure if these suggestions will work, but it might be interesting to try them out.

Yes, it will spoil the surprise for anyone who checks your photostream. Not sure there's an easy way around that. Either we take that risk (not everyone will look at your photostream probably), or you can email me the photo, and I won't put it up on Flickr until the day I post it here. I think that's fine. Microscale or minfig scale are both OK; it's probably the size of the build and/or piece count that matters. I suppose most of the advent calendar builds I've seen are probably under 20 pieces. Looks like the Star Wars and City Advent Calendars are about 10-16 pieces per day. Use your judgement. I wrote down a list of thirteen build ideas this morning, so that takes care of half the days (assuming I get them built). So with a little help from the rest of Historica, we should be fine. If we get more than twenty-five, I'll post two on some days.

It occurred to me that I should reveal these MOCs one by one, each day in December, just like all of GoH was opening an Advent calendar. Then we can all check GoH each day and see a new build. So I will create some more of them, but won't start posting them until Dec 1. If anyone else builds some, and would like me to post them, just PM me the link to the image and a short name & description, and I'll get it into the reveal schedule. Hopefully a few of you will make some builds, otherwise I'll have to crank out 25 of them myself. Hope my imagination doesn't run out.

I've started a thread for a community Guilds of Historica Advent Calendar build. Create some cool little microscale buildings, vignettes, creatures, or vehicles, and help create the GoH Advent Calendar! First two days:

Guilds of Historica Advent Calendar Dec 1st - Messahmuk Winemakers Guildhall (a classic building, now a major landmark in downtown Messahmuk) advent.calendar.hall Dec 2nd - Windmill, southwestern Kaliphlin (typical southwestern style, on the islands around the Inland Sea) advent.calendar.windmill Dec 3rd - Fortified Bridge over the Muk River GoH Advent Calendar - Bridge An ancient fortified bridge over the Muk River, in south central Kaliphlin, with two sentry towers and a gate on the south end. December 4th - Mitgardian Cottage (by Kai NRG) A guest build today, from Kaliphlin guildmember Kai NRG! A cottage in a snowy Mitgardian scene. December 5th - Kaliphlin Black Oil Worker GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 5 - Kaliphlin Black Oil Worker Another guest build today, this time from Masa of Kaliphlin. He's presented us with a Kaliphlin black oil worker. It's a messy job, but he's up to it. December 6th - Nocturnian Octosucker GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 6 - Octosucker The bane of fishermen everywhere, this horrible creature is most commonly found in Butchers Bay. December 7th - The Old Mill advent.calendar.7.mill.small A small mill in western Kaliphlin, on the edge of the Wither Woods near Eastgate. December 8th - Petraea University Student GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 8th - Petraea U Student Built and photographed by Kai NRG! December 9th - Avalonian Farm advent.calendar.9.farm December 10th - Mitgardian Winter Scene advent.calendar.10.mitgardian.cottage December 11th - Kaliphlin Castle GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 11th - Castle Another guest build from Kai NRG! December 12th - Dwarven House Golem GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 12th - Dwarven House Golem Dwarven mages of old built and magically animated these small golems out of clay to serve as butlers and valets in their households. Some can still be found in the households of the old Mitgardian nobility, patiently running the household. December 13th - Kaliphlin Temple advent.calendar.13.temple The temple of Amon-Jazreth, the god of shiny stones found on the beach, on the outskirts of Barqa. December 14th - Larger Kaliphlin Mill GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 14 - Large Mill A larger mill on the eastern Siccus coast, north of Peregrinus. I built this one first, and then decided to try to minimize the piece count, and so built the smaller mill displayed on Dec 7th. December 15th - Kaliphlin Lighthouse GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 15 - Lighthouse Built by Kai NRG. December 16th - Kaliphlin Oil Rig advent.calendar.16.pumpjack A Kaliphlin pumpjack oil well. A captive magical imp inside the motorhouse turns the drive shaft which moves the 'donkeyhead' up and down, pumping precious Black Oil from the desert sands. December 17th - Prickly Pookfruit Cactus advent.calendar.17.pp.cactus Common around Petraea and in the south and southeast Siccus badlands. Delicious leaves and fruit, but slightly hallucinogenic. Favorite meal of desert womp-rats. December 18th - Silo Cottage This is a guest build from Jareth, a micro version of his Silo Cottage build, in Scarborough in Northern Nocturnus. December 19th - Thin Ice advent.calendar.19.thin.ice This Kaliphlin tourist to Mitgardia apparently couldn't read the Dwarvish signs that said "Thin Ice"! PM me if you have a build that you'd like to show in the GoH Advent Calendar. Original Post: So today I was helping my son rebuild his 2011 Star Wars Advent Calendar, and then build some new random microscale starships of his own design to add to them, and I thought: we should have a Guilds of Historica Advent Calendar build! It could have GoH microscale builds of buildings, vignettes, vehicles, and creatures, as well as perhaps a few unusual, custom minifigures that fit with GoH. So I'm going to kick it off with two little builds he and I did today. I'll try to add some more, but everyone feel free to chip in and add your own, and I'll update the first post with everyone's pictures and short descriptions.

Thanks for the compliment! I don't think I'm quite a seasoned pro; perhaps more second tier behind the real pros in GoH. I had built one castle MOC before GoH. I had only come out of my dark ages in January 2011, but had mostly helped my son build stuff until I joined the guild. He's turning six in January, and is starting to need a lot less help building, so maybe I can start to get a few more builds done. Or maybe I'll just start posting his builds! That's quite a difference in building! Looks like the castle was part of a reality show like Extreme Makeover: Castle Edition, or maybe This Old Castle. You have definitely progressed a lot! (Although the original isn't that bad...)

I am very much in favor of this. I must have missed the part where you agreed to build it. It has been discussed several times, and I even started a tavern build for it back in August, but never even came close to finishing it (and my son has wrecked it). I think it would be a great addition to GoH, and would probably do a lot to keep people engaged through periods when they don't have much time for building.

I went back and read through the first few pages of this thread, back when ISC was putting something together but it wasn't firmed up yet. It started on Nov 4th, although I don't think the guilds were finalized until a few days later (I didn't join until Nov 9). It's amazing how many people signed up in this thread in the first few days but didn't go on to participate. I suppose everyone overestimates their free time (me included). Of the Nov 4th signups, only DG, brickdoctor, Dr Rod, mikey, DarkDragon, and the guild leaders have stuck it out the whole way through. So here's a big shoutout to you all for being a part of GoH the entire time!

That's a great idea for a contest! I'd say have two categories: epic minifig scale MOCs and smaller, microscale MOCs. That way people without many bricks can still compete in the microscale category. I'd be willing to help with the prizes; I've usually got some sets lying around that I picked on clearance somewhere... It's yours! I will put something on the detailed map for that area. Do you want to name the island and/or lake? I don't think anyone else has, and it's your prerogative as the first builder there. In August, I was most of the way through reviewing all our MOCs and putting their locations on the maps when applicable, and then work kicked in this fall, and I never finished. I should get back to that and get new versions out. I'll review the Challenge V MOCs for locations too, and hopefully get some new maps out soon.

Me too - I had never posted an MOC before, and hadn't really participated much in discussions except for a random comment here and there. I've had a great time with GoH, and do hope to meet you all someday at an event. My participation has waxed and waned as other demands on my time (job, kids, etc) have risen and fallen, but I'm still committed to GoH for the long-haul! Unfortunately, right now I have a problem: Yup, that's a big bin of LEGO waiting to be sorted. Anyone want to come over and help? Work should be a bit quieter next week, and hopefully I can get this sorted and then start working on some MOCs after the Thanksgiving holidays!

Just getting around to reading this now, and wanted to tell you to keep up the good work! Great little vignettes, especially the Avalonian ones. And I don't mind the lengthy story at all -- it's nice to see someone bring the countryside to life this way! Keep up the tour, and watch out for elementals!

I like the warg figures, but the rest of that set is just meh. That tree is so lame; I think my five year old makes better trees than that. Maybe I'll just BrickLink the warg figures.

I've bought from PBD about five times. They have great prices usually, and a really phenomenal selection. It's very hard to stop shopping on their site as you continually find new parts that you absolutely need! Their customer service is very good too; if there are any miscounts or anything, they'll refund the difference quickly with no hassle. One of my favorite BL stores. You don't like any of the Hobbit sets? I thought the Barrel Escape and Goblin King sets looked great, and the Bag End set might be good too. Wow, I had no idea I was so talkative. Maybe I should spend less time posting and more time building...

Kayne -- Glad to hear you have a diagnosis and a way to treat it. Usually it's the uncertainty that's the worst. BTW, in other wife health news, my wife is at the doctor's today with a strep throat infection. Last time she got this it was bad, and they told her she'd have to have her tonsils out next time it happened . Joseph -- Welcome aboard! Tell us a bit more about your background, where you're from, etc. Make sure you embellish it a bit!

Ugh. It doesn't look like I'll get my challenge V entry done. Work has gone nuts in the past two weeks, I'm building some steampunk accessories for my wife's Halloween costume, and then we're going to Disneyland right before the deadline. At least I'll get to visit the LEGO store at Downtown Disney. I feel like I haven't built anything since the spring; it's so lame. Maybe work will calm down and it will continue to rain, and then I can get something built. At least there's some good news -- I bought a Grand Emporium for $103 and a Town Hall for $132 in the recent modular set sales at Walmart!

That's weird. I thought they had lost those five days of posts. If the admins can access the lost posts and re-post them somehow, why don't they just repost them all or add them back into the database?

Great news! Glad to hear it went well. Looking forward to more wedding-related MOCs... Well, you could do an MOC of attending Dugal Maclean's engagement party . Additionally, the Great Escarpment is quite a sight. I don't think we have any Qarkyr builds so that might be a good one. Lost Vegga is always fun to visit, especially if you have some extra cash . You could go sand-surfing on the Dune Sea. Rafting down the Zenagi River on Gorr. Hang out on a beach in the Spice Islands. You could go adventuring in the old, ruined temples in the Akhenaten Delta (watch out for the monsters). The Wither Woods are especially nice this time of year... As for the "good bit of knowledge", we're relying on the people that make the MOCs to make up the history/backstory for each location. So you can create your own knowledge.

I'm using the Stylebot extension in Chrome, so I can change the colors and fonts and so forth on a page to whatever I like. It's pretty nice and has made reading the forums a lot nicer.

So? How did it go? Do you have any news for us?

Jeez, this forum is so, like, last week

Wow! I'd love to see this in person someday, although I realize that is rather unlikely. But the photos are great enough. Good job putting together the master overview photo; it looks really good. Front-page it!