NiceMarmot

Don't worry, our PAB cups stateside will split too. I've jammed stuff down in them tight enough to crack the side open. When you've got a big block of 2x4 bricks and you jam it down, sometimes the sharp corners will split the round cup open. It would really help if LEGO made the cups square, but I suppose round cups are easier to stack. BTW, yesterday I hit the San Mateo, CA (Hillsdale) store and picked up dark bluish grey 2x4 bricks, DBG 6x16 plates, 6x8 green and white plates, medium blue 1x2 bricks, light bluish grey 2x4 bricks, bamboo leaves, plant stems, the red flowers that go on the plant stems, orange flames, pearl gold lattice windows, green 1x4 tiles, orange 2x2 plates, 2x2 white bricks, 2x6 DBG bricks, clear 1x2 bricks, black 2x3 slopes, tan and white 1x8 bricks, and dark red 2x4 bricks. They also had lots of green and orange bricks, 1x2 reddish brown log bricks, 1x4 LBG bricks, 1x2 trans-black bricks, 4x6 white plates, 2x8 black bricks, white horses, some sort of windshield, steering wheels, DBG wheel wells, 1x1 round plates (lime, orange, clear, trans-yellow, trans-red), and a bunch of other stuff I didn't need. And yes, they had the ubiquitous instrument gauge tiles!

You should call them and ask them what they have on the wall, or give them an idea what you're looking for and ask if they have it. I find if you call early in the morning on a weekday, they'll usually check for you. If you get someone who won't bother, then wait a day and call back so you get someone different. We have three stores within 30 minutes of us here in the SF Bay area (sorry, not to brag), and I find the inventory sometimes to be quite different between them. In any case, I hit the San Mateo (Hillsdale) store and picked up dark bluish grey 2x4 bricks, DBG 6x16 plates, 6x8 green and white plates, medium blue 1x2 bricks, light bluish grey 2x4 bricks, bamboo leaves, plant stems, the red flowers that go on the plant stems, orange flames, pearl gold lattice windows, green 1x4 tiles, orange 2x2 plates, 2x2 white bricks, 2x6 DBG bricks, clear 1x2 bricks, black 2x3 slopes, tan and white 1x8 bricks, and dark red 2x4 bricks. They also had lots of green and orange bricks, 1x2 reddish brown log bricks, 1x4 LBG bricks, 1x2 trans-black bricks, 4x6 white plates, 2x8 black bricks, white horses, some sort of windshield, steering wheels, DBG wheel wells, 1x1 round plates (lime, orange, clear, trans-yellow, trans-red), and a bunch of other stuff I didn't need. And yes, they had the ubiquitous instrument gauge tiles!

Well, I hit a LEGO store today at lunchtime, and bought five cups at the PAB wall, of which only about 3.5 cups worth was really for the embassy (the rest was mostly plants and random stuff). So that should go a long way towards helping out, as usually the PAB wall is significantly cheaper than BL. Now I only need 1287 parts (66 unique) out of 4620 total. Plus I got to see the new series 6 minifigures; bought 16 of them! They are really good; not many that I didn't want. Look for some of them in upcoming MOCs. Here's a revised photo of the front, showing mainly the addition of some medium blue in between the flesh arches, to nicely highlight the arches and give a bit more Kaliphlin flavor. Embassy Mitgardia LDD front - revised For reference, here's the original front design. Which do you all think is better? embassy front - original

Great job! I really like the background too. Look forward to seeing more maps from you. I've updated the second post (last week actually) to put more of a step-by-step tutorial in. Haven't finished it yet; only got as far as the rivers and lakes, but it should help show in more detail how to do things and has pictures to show examples. Will finish it up sometime; maybe after my embassy build.

You must have a bad case of Nocturnitis!

Or maybe Nocturni?

I did consider using the facet bricks because I have a fair number of them. But I decided to go with the more 'stepped' approach as I think it reflects the big brick spikes on top. I didn't consider the cylinders -- I can swap them in using LDD and see what they look like. That always happens! I hate that. Hopefully one advantage to using LDD is that I'll discover most of those forgotten parts before I actually place the BL orders. If you spent $150, you're going to have a pretty darn big embassy too, assuming you weren't starting from scratch.

Yeah, I got a bit carried away... You know, when you're building in LDD, it's like there's an unlimited pile of bricks right at your fingertips. No restrictions at all, so it's easy to just keep adding on as you come up with ideas. I wanted to add another level (a full sized 3rd floor) which would be the banquet halls and more lodging, and then have the penultimate level be a sort of enclosed 'winter garden' (with lots of windows), as sort of a Kaliphlin oasis courtyard would make the southerners feel at home. But it was clear that was just way too ambitious. There are about 4500 total pieces right now, in 164 unique parts. I need to order about 2000 of those bricks, representing 61 unique parts. It will probably average a little less than $0.10 per piece on BrickLink, so I'm looking at (hopefully) a bit under $200. Early birthday present to myself I guess. I'm going to try to swing by the Lego store tomorrow and hit the PAB wall to see if I can get some there, as sometimes they're cheaper. I hope I'll have enough time to build it before the 15th. Might be some long nights in early February. Yes, they are regular tan, and you're right, they will look a bit lighter in person. I'm pretty happy with the tower, and yes, it does feel much more Kaliphlin to me. I hope someday to build a whole temple or something in that particular style. I just experimented with a tile floor for the ambassador's room, and it looks nice and adds some southern style; it's a bit of a mosaic in white, medium-blue, pearl gold, and dark red. So I'll do a similar floor for the banquet hall. Great ideas! Not sure where I'll get the figs and dates (I've got cherries though). I do have lots of bananas, so I'll use those. And I really like the turban seller idea. I've probably got enough PoP sets to put together some good shops. Maybe I'll pick up some parrots too.

Phenomenal and very innovative! Even more innovative techniques. I think DC must spend all day figuring out how to build cool things. I really appreciate you showing us all these methods. (I just need to get the right parts to build in this style...) I suppose the vines with purple flowers are wisteria (or maybe bougainvillea, but I don't think Avalonia is that warm). And the base / fence at the bottom is a great look! Another interesting technique to file away somewhere. Are those brown 2x2 turntable bases? Where did you find those? They're not even on BrickLink in any form of brown.

I think it would be pretty unlikely that ocean water would make it that far upstream, so it's probably fresh. Robuko/Rasputin, if you want a location for a desal plant, Basiliscus'/Wahil's Stone Town is probably a good bet. It's on the coast, and I don't think there are any rivers there (yet).

Beautiful map! I really like the coloring and the ragged edges!

I'm looking for some feedback and suggestions on my design for a Kaliphlin embassy in Mitgardia. I've created the design in LDD (a first for me) so it's easy to modify. I'll probably place BrickLink orders for the parts I don't have on Wednesday night or Thursday, so I'd need to get any major feedback by then. (Not looking forward to that order; have a feeling it will be $$$!) I'm going for a bit of a mix between Kaliphlin and Mitgardia styles; right now it's probably a little more Mitgardia than Kaliphlin. In addition to what you see here, I will try to add some more greebling and minor details, plus will populate it with minifigures, and to some extent, furniture and stuff inside. Here's the overall view from the front, street-side. Note that the tan plates that look like they wrap around the first story are actually the street level; it's got a cellar. The embassy also functions as a trade delegation and has shops for Kaliphlin shopkeepers to ply their wares; those are at street-level, behind the reddish brown palisade bricks. Embassy Front Oblique Here's the back-side, showing the dock/wharf on some canal/river/bay. There will be doors on the cellar level in each of those openings leading out to the wharf; however, LDD doesn't have the doors that I'm going to use so you don't see them in the model. embassy back oblique Here's a street-level view from the front. You can see the street-level shop bays better here. There will be doors in the main archway here, between the torches. Inside on the ground level is a trading hall plus some merchants' offices and a guard post. The second story has an arcaded balcony on the front and half of the sides. Inside the second story are mostly guild offices plus lodging. Note the emblems on the arcade pillars; I tried to come up with two designs that reflected Kaliphlin and Mitgardia and used their colors. embassy front street level A view of the upper levels. The lower of these has the banquet hall where official Kaliphlin Guild functions are held. The topmost story has the ambassador's private apartment. I think these levels turned out really well and have a really nice Mitgardia feel to them. The inside of the banquet hall is actually a bit more Kaliphlin looking, with some of those flesh-colored Persian arches. I might use some tiling on the floor to make it more Kaliphlin inside. Plus I should probably figure out a way to make the interior of the ambassador's apartment very Kaliphlin, so s/he doesn't get homesick. BTW, what do you all think of dark-red for those curved pieces at the peak of the roof? I wanted brown, but they're not really available. Other available colors include black, dark green, various greys, tan, and white. I can also turn these pieces so the curved part sticks up instead of curving down; not sure which looks better. Kaliphlin Embassy in Mitgardia upper levels On my Flickr photostream (click any of the pictures) are some more shots showing cutaways of each floor. Comments and feedback welcomed! Is it Kaliphlin enough? Should I add more Arabian influences? Any ideas for further detailing and greebling? SI-mocs, I'm assuming that like other contests as long as the base is 48x48, I can have some pieces higher up that stick out a bit more; is that right? I'm really looking forward to this, as it will be my biggest build yet (~4500 pieces currently), my first LDD design, and will really set me up part-wise for lots of great future builds.

A big shout-out to Wahil and his Ra'ad Twur, which I thought was totally awesome, and was surprised not to see it in the top towers list. The color scheme is beautiful. And it's inspired me to try my hand at round towers, which I've never done before.

[Double-posted also to Historica city guide topic] Good sirs! I am in need of a location in Mitgardia for a Kaliphlin embassy. My only requirement is that it be on a river or other navigable body of water, as it will also function as a trade delegation and have a small wharf. I believe that this embassy will greatly improve relations and commerce between our two great lands! And it will be a great addition to whichever city it is located in. See the rendering below which my trusty architects have given me, and I think you will agree that it will be a remarkable edifice. I will be sending our quartermaster to the Brikkus-Lynk quarries shortly. -- Gex

Good sirs! I am in need of a location in Mitgardia for a Kaliphlin embassy. My only requirement is that it be on a river or other navigable body of water, as it will also function as a trade delegation and have a small wharf. I believe that this embassy will greatly improve relations and commerce between our two great lands! And it will be a great addition to whichever city it is located in. See the rendering below which my trusty architects have given me, and I think you will agree that it will be a remarkable edifice. I will be sending our quartermaster to the Brikkus-Lynk quarries shortly. -- Gex

Dialog pops up: "DllRegisterServer in C:\WINXP\system32\zipfldr.dll succeeded" Then I restarted LDD Manager, and it imported the LXF file successfully! Haven't really checked it out yet, but it displays all the items. Thanks so much!

Kaliphlin and Historica forever! And Mitgardia too! I'll certainly still be building Kaliphlin after November 2012, and I'm sure a lot of others will be too. Honestly, I don't even really see the contests going away after that either, although maybe they'll be less frequent. Things are going so well now, as long as we keep having interesting competition topics, I think there will be the motivation to keep having contests. I suppose at the end of 2012 we could probably declare an end to the overall guild competition and see which guild one, but that shouldn't stop us from having building contests. On the first page of Kaliphlin thread there are probably 30-40 good build ideas that we came up with in a very short period of time; each of those could be a contest.

Thanks! I'm assuming by your message that there are no workarounds that I can do, or that I didn't install it wrong or something?

Did this ever get resolved? I'm getting the exact same error on any LDD file that I try to open. Even LDD files downloaded from lego.com. I'd really like to use LDD Manager, but this is obviously getting in the way. Any help appreciated in advance.

A big, huge, Kaliphlin-size CONGRATULATIONS to Erudhalion / Gabe for winning the overall title of Tower Master and Champion for the Watchtower Challenge!! He's not just champion watchtower MOCer of Kaliphlin, but of all of Historica! You definitely deserve it; that tower is a masterpiece!

So that big earthquake I felt was all of Nocturnus becoming unpinned from the rest of Historica and set adrift in the vast Forum Sea?

Wow! That is one really strong guy! At 1.25*2*3 studs or feet, that's 7.5 cubic feet of rock he's carrying. Stone is about 2600 lbs per cubic yard (9 cubic feet), so he's got 2166 lbs (or slightly over a ton)!

Ah, but we are the best of friends! However, we southerners are nothing if not prepared. One does not last long in the Parched Lands without learning to be prepared in advance. Plus what if Albion was conquered and we had to come and liberate you?

Wow! This is awesome. I agree about the nice job breaking up the blank walls. And thanks for publishing such nice, detailed pictures. They will come in handy when we need to analyze your defenses!

Funny you should ask -- I was just summarizing expenses for the year to help plan for 2012. I wanted to see if I spent less on LEGO than my wife did on scrapbooking (results: it's pretty close to dead even). Looks like I spent about $2500, almost evenly divided between BrickLink and sets from various stores. BrickSet says I have $2100 worth of sets, but I don't think I've put the post-Christmas binge in yet, so that's understating it. I tend not to buy sets unless they're 50+% off, so that's why I have > $2100 worth of sets but only spent $1200 or so. (Came out of my dark ages last January, so I had some catching up to do.) That sounds like a lot of money, so I'm glad to see in this thread that I'm nowhere near the biggest spender out there. I think I may not spend as much this year; we've got a lot of sets and parts now, and I've got a stash of sets hidden away for gifts for my son. Then again, with Dinos and LoTR coming up, and PoTC likely to go on sale, we might spend a ton again this year.