Henjin_Quilones

And my counter-entry:

The Crowning of Wilfred Sigurd Final Entry for the Game of Thrones: Avalonia Mini-challenge Wilfred Sigurd began to walk slowly down the center of the throneroom, the scepter feeling odd in his hands, the crown, newly placed upon his head, uncomfortably heavy. Perhaps someday he would grow accustomed to these things, the trappings of his new office, but he did not think so. There was much to do; the vow he had made to his dying wife, all those years ago, to forswear war and violence and to dedicate himself to peace, came to his mind. He would have to work hard to maintain the peace that the realm needed so badly. He had alliances to forge, taxes to collect, verdicts to decide...but all that could wait. He straightened his back, made eye contact with his son, Robert, and then began to smile warmly at the gathered lords and ladies of the realm; all of the inhabitants of Avalonia, it seemed, had come out to see him crowned king. He would not disappoint them. ____________________________________________ ........................................................................................ My entry, on behalf of @Servertijd. The architectural details are pretty cool, in my opinion, even if the tiles on the columns were nearly impossible to keep straight; I need more light bley jumper plates, apparently. The lighting, on the other hand, was unpleasant. It took multiple sessions and different configurations before finally getting something that at least was halfway decent. It looks a bit like the dim light of an old castle, I guess. The red window, commissioned to honor the blood spilled by the fallen Avalonians during the wars with Revolword and Raavage, shines particularly bright. Every member of Avalonia had his or her sigfig placed in the build somewhere, though unfortunately not all are visible. Some are up above in the balconies, some down below. All are fleshie, regardless of how they are otherwise presented, and the closest approximation I could get from the parts I had on hand. So some don't look that close, unfortunately, especially if three other sigfigs used the same hair or torso...

Did you try pasting the BBCode from the Flickr image? You go to Flickr, choose the curvy arrow beneath the picture, and then select BBCode. Then copy the link for the picture size you want, and paste that here in Eurobricks. That should work, regardless of the image size (generally choose 800x600 or thereabouts). Like this:

Welcome, Eoin! Glad to have you in the Guilds, even if you didn't choose the best one!

Are there any objections to @Servertijd naming me as his champion to build a throneroom scene by proxy for his candidate Wilfred Sigurd, to be used in the final against Lord de Gothia? In my opinion, it offers the most advantages: 1. It honors his candidate, the victorious semifinalist, rather than my own, the defeated semifinalist; 2. It allows the final to still be an actual vote between competing builds, rather than an anticlimactic formality of naming Lord de Gothia king; 3. It allows the timeline to remain intact, and does not require Servertijd to somehow find the time to deconstruct several MOCs, build a new one, welcome a new baby, presumably work a full-time job, and somehow still sleep and function, all in the next few weeks; 4. It gives me the incentive to finish the throneroom build that I have a good start on, rather than tossing it in the scrap pile, giving Avalonia another freebuild to be scored and more gold in the coffers; 5. It is what Servertijd himself proposed to me, and thus honors the wishes of the finalist himself (though he is free to change his mind); 6. And @de Gothia, the opposing finalist, accepts the new arrangement as a fair match (though he, too, is free to change his mind).

I saw no problem with Servertijd dropping out when he asked me, so I began to build something already. I would have no problem putting Wilfred Sigurd on the throne, as Servertijd's champion. I agree with him, though, a forfeit in the finals is kind of a downer way to end a tournament. In things like March Madness, there is a new game each round, but we did not do that here until the last round, so "forfeit means opponent wins" does not quite apply perfectly here. But whatever folks want! I can use the build somewhere else, I guess, if not here.

Well, here we are at the finals! In the semifinals, @de Gothia shut out @en_zoo 9-0, and @Servertijd downed @Henjin_Quilones 6-3, setting us up for an epic finals build-off. Now the finalists will have two weeks to build something new, between 16x16 and 32x32, that shows the candidate being crowned King of Avalonia (and you can include a queen, if the candidate has a spouse). Design a new Dragon Throne for the kingdom, and place your monarch(s) on it (don't just re-hash the same throne that DC made like I did). There is a range in size to allow greater amount of detail around the throne if you so wish, or a crowd to witness the coronation, or walls and windows, or whatever the builder chooses. If the finalists have some reason that they could not do something adequate in two weeks, we'll extend it a bit (and if they both finish early we can start voting sooner). But in two weeks, on April 14th, we'll have the two entries that will be voted upon to crown at last the King of Avalonia! Thus, by April 21st we shall have a new King of Avalonia!

My vote goes to @de Gothia; I shan't vote in my own contest.

I did another shoot with it, and this is what I came up with: The difference is what I was doing with the light streaming in through the windows out of shot. Instead of having it shine directly through, I put it down at an angle. It creates a lot less glare that way, but it also makes the scene a bit darker. And the red light gets more pronounced. Maybe next time I will use yellow 1x1 rounds in a fire pit rather than orange. Thank you very much! I'm pretty close to you, around Lynchburg in Bedford County. Thanks, dG! I am glad to have inspired you with my builds. Hopefully I can build something that's not an interior scene relatively soon, but we'll see! Interiors have been enjoyable thus far, though.

Round 3 is over! This one was close, but I count @Servertijd 4, @The Last of Nergoue 3. I didn't vote, because it was so close I wanted to be able to break a tie if needed, but it wasn't needed. So we now have the semifinalists, the Final Four of Avalonian March Madness: @de Gothia, @en_zoo, @Henjin_Quilones, and @Servertijd. Please vote by Friday, March 29th. @de Gothia (Lord de Gothia) vs. @en_zoo (Half-elf King and Queen) @Servertijd (Lord Wilfred Sigurd of Oxenfurt) vs. @Henjin_Quilones (Lord Cinnatus) In answer to en_zoo's question about how long the final round will last, I think the finalists will have two weeks to build something new, between 16x16 and 32x32, that shows the candidate being crowned King of Avalonia (and you can include a queen, if the candidate has a spouse, or comes in pairs like en_zoo's Elvish candidates). Design a new Dragon Throne for the kingdom, and place your monarch(s) on it (don't just re-hash the same throne that DC made like I did). There is a range in size to allow greater amount of detail around the throne if you so wish, or a crowd to witness the coronation, or walls and windows, or whatever the builder chooses. (And before @Grover objects, I would like to say that I only just now came up with this idea, and have not begun building nor planning a throneroom for Cinnatus yet; I was actually dreading the thought of making a build showing the new king on the throne to announce the ending of the contest, and it abruptly occurred to me that I didn't have to be the one to build that scene...) If the finalists have some reason that they could not do something adequate in two weeks, we'll extend it a bit. All four semifinalists could start building something, and then if they don't win the semis they could still post the build as a wistful dream that the candidate had - it still counts as a freebuild for the guild, after all.

Alright, Round 2 is done now. By my calculations (which anyone can please verify and correct if I miscounted) the scores were: @de Gothia 8, @TheLordOfBricks 2 @Servertijd 8, @derEselausErgste 2 So we now have three of the four semifinalists: @de Gothia, @en_zoo, and @Henjin_Quilones. This week, ending on Friday March 22nd, we just need to decide one contest before both semifinal matchups get voted on, and then we will have our finalists (who will then have to build a new scene for the finals): @The Last of Nergoue (Sir Sarrath) vs. @Servertijd (Lord Wilfred Sigurd of Oxenfurt)

You've got some nice-looking WIPs going there, I see. The green water looks cool! I definitely noticed the spider, but that didn't seem out of place like the flying lizard did. Glad to know Zotharith is still around.

Let's get some more votes in here, Avalonians! My votes: @Servertijd @de Gothia

Thanks! Thanks, Kai, the activity was something I wanted to highlight. I was inspired partially by your "Chef Délicieux's Castle Kitchen" and @soccerkid6's recent kitchen, too, for some of the LEGO kitchen details. If I re-try lighting it, I will adjust the angle of the light coming in the windows to see how that looks, and if necessary put some sort of yellow or orange filter on the light. But we'll see if I get around to it. I have to finish the Falcon first. Thanks! I respectfully disagree about the tables, though, since I wanted the look to be a busy kitchen, full of life and activity, rather than a clearly visible and visually simpler shot. I don't think I agree that all-LEGO shots need to be simpler, either, as the goal is to replicate real-life, and real life is often cluttered. Thanks! I tried to make it realistic, and you're not going to be scaling fish and making berry pie at the same table, I wouldn't think, unless you had to. Thank you! The simple texture of the walls is intended to imitate newly constructed (and by dwarves, no less) stonework, which would be quite smooth. Thanks, life is what I want to convey! Thank you! Glad you like the writing. I can see what you mean about the lighting; we'll see if adjustments can solve the issue. Thanks, Grover! I was basing the build and many of its details on an old "look inside the castle" type book that I found in a discard pile from the library at the school where I teach, so I confess I was not thinking about the scale so much there. The picture had fairly high ceilings and also had a sort of hood for smoke coming from the oven, which I replicated as best I could; if it is a bit too modern, I blame that on the gnomes who live on the island, too. All of the details are meant to make it look busy, yes, even at the expense of a bit of clarity. The doors on the left do open, the ones on the right and at the top of the stairs (not visible in any shot) do not open. As for Druidham itself, it is both carved into a cave and built on an island mountainside, depending on the part of Druidham you are in. The kitchen complex is built at the mouth of a cave and is not carved; dark bley is the color of the living rock in the micro build, and light bley the color of added stonework. When I build a dragon's weyr (cave) it will be dark bley; if I build storerooms, they will be dark bley too. If I build down into the catacombs of pre-existing tunnels beneath the island, they will also be dark bley. But for now, everything I have built for Druidham - hall, library, loggia, kitchen - has been built up rather than carved. The dragon is meant to be partially obscured by the doorway. He'll appear in full in a later build, I am sure. As to the light, the firepit is just a regular bulb shining through trans-orange pieces, so it's odd that it looks so red; it is red-looking, don't get me wrong, but it is odd that is does not look as orange; whereas the bread oven utilizes mostly trans-yellow, and looks yellow-orange. Oh well. Thanks for the feedback, en_zoo! See my comment above about the redness. I'm not sure what you mean about fixed, though, describing the light. It's not like the light can move in the pictures, so that can't be what you mean. And the glare on shiny bricks is a challenge that I have not figured out how to overcome. A different angle might help, though, as I said above, so we'll see what I can do later.

I like the different heights that you use here, with the low water, slightly higher bridge, taller reeds, and then the trees; it makes for a visually interesting and compelling scene. The reeds themselves look great and were a good idea. I find the baby dragon a bit odd in the scene, though I enjoy how it turns to watch the events. The colors are excellent, too, giving a nice muted vibe to it, perfect for Nocty. Super glad to see you building up Nocty still, giving us a bit of a history lesson. Great work! I look forward to seeing still more builds like this from you, and maybe more about Zotharith at some point, too, unless they have vanished from this plane of existence.

Sorry, forgot to say. Same schedule: voting ends Friday, March 15th.

Alright, the first round of voting is done. By my count (and people can please verify if I am correct), the scores came to: @Faladrin 4, @derEselausErgste 8 @Henjin_Quilones 9, @dalle 3 @Grover 4, @TheLordOfBricks 8 @en_zoo 8, @kahir88 3 That means that derEselausErgste, TheLordOfBricks, en_zoo, and I move on to the next round. The updated bracket is here: There are only two match-ups to vote on this round, however, due to the oddities of the participation in the bracket. So please cast your votes by Friday, March 15th, between the following candidates: @derEselausErgste (Sir Alan FitzAlan, Earl, Baron, etc...) vs. @Servertijd (Lord Wilfred Sigurd of Oxenfurt) @TheLordOfBricks (Lord Halgreld of Eldford) vs. @de Gothia (Lord de Gothia) Waiting to know their competition: @The Last of Nergoue (Sir Sarrath) (still...) @Henjin_Quilones (Lord Cinnatus) @en_zoo (Half-elf King and Queen)

I'll think of a number between 1 and 100, share it with a fellow Avalonian (perhaps @de Gothia since he is not involved in this round), the two builders will guess, and whoever is closest wins. If it is my entry involved with a tie, then @Grover will pick the number. Either that, or I flip a coin. Or other suggestions are welcomed, too. My votes: @Faladrin @Henjin_Quilones @TheLordOfBricks @kahir88 But all the entries were great!

The texture on the tower is very nice, an example of extreme texture that is not over done nor ramshackle, which is nice to see. The vegetation is great, too, with plenty of variation and organic placement, without being sloppy. Bunching the flower colors was a great idea to help that out. I don't like the rough roof of the blacksmith, since the shingles seem to be pointing the wrong way to repel water. My favorite element is probably the birch tree, though, with a robust trunk and not-insignificant foliage. Lastly, I'm not sure that the smith looks trustworthy with that crazy wide nervous grin; I might get my armor somewhere else...

I think The Last of Nerogue is right about it being too chaotic. There is just so much going on here without a definite sense of what we are seeing. A more zoomed-out picture could help to get a better perspective of what is going on. As it is, it seems like a bunch of unconnected vignettes (a guy fishing, a guy running out a door, a guy standing on a dock) without much of a visual plan. I like the garden, and I do like the picture of the ranger's back on the dock, but the build itself is a bit too chaotic. Also, I would recommend trying out some more SNOT techniques, especially in the rocks, to bring some variation into it; everything right now is rather more "classic" and studs-up, which struggles on a larger scale to look organic. On the plus side, in this build, unlike the one with the dwarven mine, you posed the figs more dynamically. As I said, I really like the picture of the ranger, and his one-leg-bent pose is just perfect for a man of action poised to leap into the fray.

Each of the scenes is nice, but I think they don't necessarily work the best all joined together like that. I like the skulls of the dragons, especially the one on the floor. I like the columns in the mine courtyard, too. I think your fig posing could be more dynamic, as right now in every scene the figs are just standing with both feet on the floor, even when they are walking across a bridge and confronting a dragon. If you could show them walking or running (towards the beast, as they are brave rangers) that would help bring the scenes some life.

This is a great build, with lots to look at everywhere. I like the landscape and the way the house fits into it, since it evokes the Ninjago Temple of Airjitsu to me, which was a great set. That's a neat brick-built goat solution, and I agree with Zoth that those must be some tough Mitgardian snow frogs - normally amphibians would not be able to survive out and about in such conditions, being cold blooded and all. The stone steps and the angled bridge are my favorite parts, though. They look quite nice, especially the drifts on the steps and landing. For ways to improve, I would suggest cleaning up the photography a bit, especially the background, as it gets a bit distracting to have the corners of the cardstock (or whatever you use as a backdrop) in the frame. And if I were the owner of the manor, I would definitely be upset that dwarves were mining under my foundations...

Neat wyvern! The head area is particularly nice. I think there are some areas that look a bit rough, particularly around the joints, and the wings might be better with some sort of membrane to support flight. Your color blocking is excellent, though, with the consistency of tan on the bottom and dark bley on top.

Yes, they do. So make sure everyone gets those posted, so we can get the guild some points!

A new freebuild from me: And don't forget to vote for your new monarch!