NiceMarmot

Well, I'd say you hit it out of the park! Maybe just trying making those cupolas (or whatever they are) stick up a bit more and make them a bit wider too. I think the idea is solid; they just looked a bit small and out of proportion to the size of the building overall. Well, I noticed, and I loved it. Inspired me to put some wainscoting in my embassy build. Keep up the good work!

Don't really know, but I suppose your character could meet with an unfortunate accident. I'm sure there are some folks over in Nocturnus who could help with that 'accident' I just hope your new character is in Kaliphlin; we like having you onboard!

Wow! Thanks for all the great responses. I didn't expect so many ideas so quickly. Thanks. That's definitely a good possibility. I think I've got extra torch handles and flames; not sure I have enough of the clips to hold them, but they're cheap. Yes, good idea. I also thought about using 1x1 brick with stud on the side, and attaching a 1x plate with 4073s on top of the plate. I'll try both and see how they look. No market stalls on this side; it's the side facing the wharf. So I'll probably not do canopies here. But I will definitely check them out on the other sides where there are market stalls. Good idea. Weapons in clips was definitely one of my ideas; I like the alternating axes and scimitars twist. I don't have a lot of shields, but might be able to scrounge enough of them, or place a last minute order. Those Orient Expedition shields are nice; I haven't seen them before, but they're a bit pricey. But hey, I'm already like $200 into BrickLink for this darn embassy... Those are good ideas; I'll check them out. I like the bars running along the bottom especially. I've got a lot of modified plates with handles (2540 and 48336), so I could use them too. Good idea; hadn't thought of that. I don't really have any of that ivy stuff though. Will look into it. Do you mean like the Bionicle appendages? Don't have many of those, but it looks like they're cheap.

Really nicely done. This is an inspiration to me, as my interiors are sadly lacking. I really like the dresser at the top of the stairs -- those leg pieces on top are perfect! I am totally going to steal that technique. Unfortunately those reddish-brown legs cost a (relative) fortune. I also like the way you mounted the barrel on a bracket. I was working on one the other day and building a cradle for it, which looked way too bulky. Not sure why I didn't think of using that bracket. Great fireplace too! The only thing I'm not totally in love with are the little bits that pop up above the ridgeline of the roof. I can't quite see them that well, but they look to small compared to the size of the roof, like they're out of proportion or something.

Embassy building is progressing, even though I don't know where it will placed in Mitgardia, due to lack of response from their guild. One of my mages will have to magically transport it to Mitgardia once it is complete I suppose. He will spend the next two weeks gathering enough thaumaturgical energy to accomplish that task. Anyway, as I'm building I noticed that some areas of the exterior walls look a bit bare. It's not too bad, and I could leave them that way, as bare grey stone seems to be a Mitgardian specialty. But I was playing around with various decorative techniques and greebling. Does anyone have any good ideas on what could be done with these two areas? I just highlighted two examples, but obviously I'd want to extend the decoration to all similar areas on this side of the embassy. For B, I was thinking of SNOTting on a 1 or 2 wide plate and mounting a lot of 1x1 plate with tooth pieces on it, with the teeth pointing up or down, depending on how it looks. But that's a pretty common technique, so I was trying to figure out some other techniques that might look good. For A, I don't want anything too big (which might compete with the emblems on the story above). Clips with weapons mounted vertically in them is a common option, or maybe a SNOT 1-wide long curved slope mounted vertically. Any other ideas?

Thanks for the link! Great closeups. Not sure I have anything to add to the conversation, but that never stopped us before: Gollum looks OK. I like his expression on the poster better; maybe that head will be issued later in a different set. Looks like legs are not movable, which is a bummer. It also looks like there is a stud on the back of his shoulders, which would be useful, but might look a bit odd. Uruk-hai - looks good overall, nice shape for the sword, helmet, and shield. Hard to see what the torso and head look like, obviously. Shield and armor look way too plain. Maybe decoration will be added for the sets, depending on whether they are Saruman's or Mordor Uruk-Hai? We can hope. I'd definitely like a bunch of shields with big white handprints on them. Ringwraiths - for some reason these aren't really doing it for me. Can't figure out what to do better, but they look a bit blah. Moria Orcs - these look good. The eyes are a bit too round, and the brown around the eyes is a bit dark. I think they've got a bit too much hair, but that's probably because the hairpiece needs to be a minimum thickness or it won't properly fasten to the head. I think the torso could be a bit more detailed, and obviously, leg printing would be nice. Mordor Orcs - pretty much the same comments as for the Moria Orcs. Skin color seems right. Looking at photos, it seems like these often have bigger noses than Moria Orcs, which is not really apparent in the minifig design. Legolas - looks good, except I think his ears are a bit too big Boromir & Aragorn - look good to me Gandalf - I don't think it looks like him very much. Sure it's a grey wizard, but other than that, it's not recognizably Gandalf. They kind of missed the arched eyebrows, the big nose, and the sad, baggy eyes. His beard is too dark. The hat is wrong - it should be more skinny and pointy on top, and not so flat on the bottom. And the staff is very uninspired. I expected better for a character who, along with Frodo, *IS* LOTR. LEGO can really do better. the hobbits - I think they nailed these. No complaints. Coloring the feet flesh colored would be my only suggestion. Gimli - Love the helmet, except I think it should be more gunmetal colored (pearl dark grey?) instead of brown. Eyes should be a bit smaller and more squinted. Beard seems a bit dark, although they're probably trying to stick with the existing color palette. Axe seems huge, although someone pointed out that Gimli has a very wide variety of axes in the movie, including one that was quite large. Would like to see some more decoration on the axe blades. Well, that's my $0.02. In general, I'd say they look mostly really good, although there's definitely room for improvement. I sure hope TLG is reading this thread and taking feedback, because we're sure giving it!

Good historical outline. Seems like a lot of incest though!

There's also a program called WantedBricks that works for this too (see this post). I've used both that and LDD Manager, and they will both export a BrickLink wanted list XML file. By the way, if you maintain your set and part inventory in BaseBrick (and you should), you can now compare a BL wanted list XML file (like that generated by LDD Manager) against your part inventory, see what parts you're missing, and create a revised wanted list XML file for just the missing parts. So then you can go from LDD design to BrickLink wanted list without any manual data entry!

Try using that argument on a police officer from the next town over, and see what response you get.

Wow! That's fabulous looking! You just continue to amaze me with all the innovative techniques and great details in your builds! The embassy roof and upper floors are spot-on perfect. I didn't even know those 12 wide arches existed. And the Nocturnus House design is great; very nocturnal feel to it. Re the Nocturnus roof -- I think the red roof pieces would work fine, but you should add some black accents, like perhaps around the bottom, on the top, and across the centerline perhaps. Something with some texture to it, maybe black or dark-green tooth pieces, or other such detailed work. Maybe go for a wrought-iron look for the detailing? Alternatively, if you have a lot of round 2x2 tiles you could use those for roof tiles, or cheese slopes would give a nice effect too. For the upper-floor wall design, how about a half-timbered look with the fill in between the timbers being made up mostly of skull heads? That might be too white however. Perhaps black spindled fence pieces (30055) creating a prison bars look, with a grey wall behind (a mixture of light grey, LBG, and DBG 1x2 bricks, 1x1 round bricks, and 1x2 log bricks, giving it a sloppy hastily bricked-up look behind the bars? Maybe with a few bricks missing and some vines sticking out of the holes?

That's great when they do that for you. Seems to be a crapshoot whether the staff is willing to look in the back. Sometimes I get the cursory "everything's out on the wall" answer, which I know is BS. But usually they will look in the back, and sometimes wheel a cart full of boxes out for me to look at. Usually the slower the traffic in the store, the more likely they are to look in the back. Good job on these! I loaded up on these the last time they were at the PAB wall, because they're expensive on BrickLink and essential for castle MOCs.

Wow. This is great. The tree is magnificent. And the interiors are wonderful. I've really got to get better at interiors, and this is an inspiration. I see that I definitely have to order more tiles for floors. And I really like the roof made of 1x1 round bricks. I am cursing myself a bit, as I was looking at some cheap 1x1 round bricks on BrickLink the other day while filling out an order, and I passed on them because I couldn't think of a use for a lot of them. Oops.

Yes, I hear you. I'm beginning to think this whole Historica thing was organized by a bunch of BrickLink sellers to boost sales I've placed ten different BL orders in the past week and a half. On the other hand, nearly everything I've ordered will be used for other MOCs too; I don't think I'll end up with much stuff that I won't use again and again. I did order some minifig pieces to put some of your characters in the embassy. Some of you all have quite expensive figures! The embassy is coming along well, although I'm waiting for two big shipments to arrive before I can really move forward. In the meantime, I can tweak the design on LDD. I'm not sure I'll really have any time for free builds until after the embassy is complete. I might be able to squeeze in a really small one somehow, but probably nothing that would really help the Guild unless I figure out something innovative. Kayne - that build turned out really nicely! I think it really fits in with Avalonia too. Capt Mugwash - your embassy looks great. I'm jealous of all those 1x1 round plates.

Awesome! Love the lightning background too; really well done. I think finding the right photo for the background is so hard, but you really nailed it on this one. Great wyvern too. So who wins? Does he take out the wyvern? Now I know what I can do with all those trans-orange cheese slopes that I used to fill out a PAB cup a while ago...

Well, I was a bit bored at work this morning, and feeling under the weather, so I decided to analyze the prices on these sets. I tried to pick some recent Star Wars and Kingdoms sets that matched the LOTR sets on price or piece count. Then using the piece counts and GBP prices from this topic, and USD prices from a post somewhere on a Barnes and Noble catalog, I was able to put together a price per piece comparison. I also calculated a price per brick, excluding 5 pieces per minifigure, and lowering the price by $/GBP 2.00 per minifigure, to try to control for the varying numbers of minifigures in these sets. (I halved the number of battle-droid MFs in the Battle of Naboo set, as those have a much lower value than normal minifigures.) As you can see below, except for Gandalf Arrives, the LOTR sets have very attractive price points, especially in US dollars and compared to Star Wars sets. The difference from Kingdoms sets is smaller, but in general LOTR is at least as cheap as them. I was pretty surprised at the results. I just hope the USD prices are accurate! /p => per piece overall; /brk => per brick, excluding minifigures; SW & Kingdoms prices and piece counts are from BrickSet And yes, I am a geek.

TLG might do a figure-only battlepack sometime; we can only hope. I'd guess it wouldn't come out until well after the first wave of sets; they wouldn't want to undermine set sales. Given their past history, I'd say it's very likely that they'd do a magnet set or two. That provides a good way to build an army, as long as you don't mind removing the figures from the magnets and having the adhesive residue on the backs of their legs.

Nice job. Good idea for those steps. Did you paint that axe? The bloodstains look great. And I thought Lord Darecold was already a bit crazy? By the way, you need a new cloak.

It's in the fifth dimension. Can't you see it?

Funny you should mention monsters... May I present Wrrffgh the Wampa, champion of Messahmuk and the greater Muk Valley, hero of the Battle of Maxaterriffa, savior of the Zenfari, etc, etc? He will be representing Messahmuk in the south central Siccus Badlands of Kaliphlin. He left his ancestral glacial snowcaves in the high Rakath Mtns to seek his fortune in the Siccus Badlands. After some serious adventuring, pillaging, plundering, and terrorizing, he settled down in Messahmuk. When not adventuring or terrorizing the Akhenaten swamps, he is currently the head bouncer at The Fuzzy Hairball, the roughest tavern and club in the area. Here he is shown wielding his customary two bladed scythe with a solid sapphire mace head on the other end. His hapless opponent is about to discover Wrrffgh's trademark move, the snatch-and-stomp. Needless to say, this fight only has about 2 seconds left. Wrrffgh looks forward to kicking some serious b*tt in the gladiator games. He'll take his prize money in taun-taun steaks. I should warn you, he doesn't take setbacks very well. As my good friend San Holo once said: "It's not wise to upset a Wampa."

Looks very nice. I'm a big fan of white and medium blue. Are you joining the Kaliphlin Guild? If so, post your name and a photo of your figure in the pinned Kaliphlin thread. Your desert garrison is a good start to Kaliphlin-style building (which is not just limited to deserts either).

Me too. Looking for a spot in Mitgardia for my embassy (see several posts earlier for the design). Should be on a navigable river or seaport. Thought about Valholl, but not sure if the river is big enough to be navigable. Also thought about Hykerbia, but I think the embassy is too tall for the local building code. Perhaps Erikson, Nordheim, or Northridge? My quartermaster has arranged for five caravans from the Brikkus-Lynk quarries; the first of which should arrive today and will be sent north. Thus we'll need to know where to build soon.

Wow! That's beautiful. I think perhaps the word 'ethereal' applies pretty well here. Brilliant design and color scheme. Note to self: buy more sand-blue bricks!

Really love this MOC; it is exactly what I thought the inhabited parts of Moruth to be like. And the story really helps a lot. Great job! It's great all over, but two parts I think you nailed perfectly are the raised houses and the raised walkway. In the second to last photo one can really see how you used different color brown tiles for the walkway and made them uneven; it's perfect.

First, welcome aboard, Pinocchiolus! Glad to have you with us. I think you've joined the best guild, although I'm a bit biased. We have fun, we're very flexible in our building styles, we're not too hung up on ourselves. If you want to pick a location for the temple complex on the detailed maps of Siccus, I'll get it on the map next time I update them. Just add a note to the relevant detail map on Flickr. I like it! It's definitely a good style. And it looks a bit haphazard, in a good way -- not too symmetrical. Like it was a tumble-down ruin before the monks started restoring it. What are the guys on the right of the first photo doing? I do think the foreground area in the first photo looks a bit big and bare; are you planning on adding more buildings or stuff there? If not, maybe some desert landscaping or even some small tan and brown plates to add some texture to the ground and break up that barren expanse. In any case, I think it's worth putting in its own topic in the forum.

Yeah, if you're 3 hours away, you're going to spend more in gas than you would save at the PAB. My experience is that most pieces at PAB are about 25% - 50% cheaper than they would be on BrickLink. It seems like the smaller the piece, the better the deal on PAB. Some stuff is actually more expensive than BL. So you'd have to buy a lot of PAB cups to make up for the fuel costs. My experience at Legoland San Diego was not good. I didn't buy anything. They had a great selection -- tons of variety; much more than a LEGO store. However the pricing is terrible; it's not the same setup as the PAB wall at the stores. Apparently Legoland is not owned and managed by TLG but by a theme park company that pays a license fee to TLG. The pricing was so bad that not only was BrickLink a better deal, but even PAB on LEGO's web site was a better deal. That was a few years ago; maybe they've changed it since then, or maybe Florida is different. Sorry to rain on your parade.