Henjin_Quilones

Want you back? Want you back?! Heck yes we want you back! Your crazy half-elf character is great fun (if you decide to continue his story, that is, since you are free to choose a new beginning if you prefer) and I miss seeing his adventures. Hope to see more from you soon, though we all understand about life getting in the way of things. Get your sigfig posted and I'll add you to the first page, too.

Welcome, @chewbacher! Glad to have you in the best Guild! Your character is the spitting image of a young @de Gothia of Sionnach in his prime; perhaps there is some unexplored family connection between the two of you... And @Wineyard, you definitely chose the right build!

Avalonia, obviously! We have mountains and dwarves, too.

That's an epic fig there, @Drawd! Welcome to the Guilds, though as I have mentioned to some of the other new members here, you have chosen the wrong guild...

Welcome, @A_Goodman! Glad to have you in the Guilds, even if you did choose the wrong guild...

Thanks, Kai! I know I am re-using a build, but I wanted to use it for my own story and not just a prelude! I am thinking about decorating it for a festival or feast and shooting some more pictures, too, because it seems a shame that we so often build something, take it apart, and then build something entirely new in a different part of a settlement, even though so much of a fig's life would be taking place in the same locations day in and day out. I want my settlement to feel lived in and used, though! And I totally agree about the light shining through. I meant to do something about it, and then forgot until I was editing the pictures that I had meant to do something. Maybe if I take more pictures I will cover it up this time. Thanks, T'LOB! I hope to keep the story going here... Thanks, Zoth! It is necessary to build something much bigger than you anticipate to make sure that you don't have odd bits of the outside world spoiling the illusion. The first time I was photographing this build, I had to add more tiles to the foreground to keep it from being a mess. The dragon's shield won't stay vertical, no matter how hard I try! It shifts when I look away or something. The table is bare because the room is not being used for anything at the moment; all dishes from a meal would be already cleared away, and no one uses it as an office for there to be maps, so it is bare. If I make a feast scene, there will be food and plates on the table, though! The Hogwarts set was underwhelming as a build, but a great parts pack! I love these windows. This lighting definitely works better than the previous attempt. High praise, mccoyed! It is about the mood (and story) here, more than the build, which has already been seen. Thanks, Gideon! There is a single light source with a 5000K LED bulb placed outside the windows shining directly in, with all other lights in the basement turned off. The fireplace is lit with two light bricks shining through a bunch of trans-orange and yellow pieces and up into flames. The camera was remotely triggered with no flash, with an F-number of 14, a 3.2 second exposure, and ISO on auto, which ended up at 1250. The key for this one was the white balance, which I kept at "outdoors in the shade" level (there was not a significant difference between the shade and cloudy WB settings, as I tried both to see). With a similar setup before, I had the WB on tungsten bulb, which gave it a cold, color-drained appearance that I did not like as much. I might be forgetting something as far as settings, but that is about what I had going on. Thanks, Windusky! This one was about the story and lighting more than the build itself.

Thanks, Gideon!

I love the texture on your walls, Gunman! They always just look so good. The wooden trim around the doors and windows is also quite nice. The roof is typical Gunman-style, but I question its efficacy with those deep valleys; how would that work out for shedding rainwater? Hopefully they don't get snow there! The lower level is the drinking area, I assume, and I like all the different tables and cups spread about there. The top-most floor has beds and must be the living quarters (or is it like an inn with lodging, too?), but what about the middle level? Is that also a public drinking area? I like what I see and I just want to make sense of it all. The various balconies and porches are nice, and the storage area and garden in the back are very good too. All of the flower pots are nice, too, and add a welcome splash of color. The odd orientation of the cart works surprisingly well, with the stairs serving as a suitable rack for barrels and the sideways chair looking good for a carter's seat. All in all, a nice build! Hope to see it connected to the rest soon.

Looks a bit plain, to be honest, but I realize that that is because it is designed to fit into an enormous display and it needs to match that. It looks like you have done a good job of matching the style of the main build pretty well in the terrain, but as mccoyed says, it is a bit more conventional in part use than we are used to seeing from you! It is good to see Thessaloniki growing!

This feels very orcish, and I am glad that you are creating more orc cultures out in Varlyrio. It seems such a travesty that that particular race gets so much neglect despite featuring so prominently in the events and lore of Historica, outside of @Blufiji, that is. So this is lovely. It conveys the sense of being built very nicely, especially those tents made of ragged Ewok glider-wings and the wall of sandstone going up. Is the idea that the orcs are going to encircle their whole town with the wall of stone, or are they going to have the more crude wooden palisade wall around part of it, too? I imagine the sandy wastes of western Varlyrio to be a rather dangerous land where one must keep out threats. My only real critique is that everything seems quite flat, which is visually not very interesting compared to some varied terrain. Of course, many towns and settlements choose flat land, so it makes sense, but visually I think more height variation throughout the build, both in terrain and in buildings, too, would liven it up a bit. It is a great build nonetheless. I look forward to seeing some more!

A very nice study in texture, and I second Gabe about the fig combo. The surfaces are almost hyper-textured, but not overdone. I wonder what it would look like on a larger scale? Would it still look unified or would everything just get lost in a blur? Either way, nicely done.

Ha! Snuck in there before you even saw me...

New story build from me:

Well, kind of like pictures, if you were to find a way to host it on a different site and then post a link here, that would let people view it. I'm no tech wiz, though. I am only very slightly removed from being a luddite.

Of Dragons and Druids: Ch. 1 In the Hall of Druidham Henjin Quilones sighed as he looked across the hall at his children. How much they have grown already, he thought wistfully. He could hardly believe that Gahlen was nearing his seventh birthday. Where had the time gone? Surely it was just last year that he and Galaria had been exiled from Hesperia by her father, the king, not even married yet and certainly no children on the way? Surely he had only returned from Bandari a few months back with a small toddler of three and a baby girl, only just turned one? Henjin shook his head wistfully. Emmalie was no baby any more; the five-year-old was the least Elf-like of his children, taking more after her Druid father than her Elf mother, and she followed him wherever he went. She was the only one of the children to study the in the Druidi Order, as Gahlen and the youngest, Lycaria, with her bright blue hair, were dedicated to the dragonriders of their mother and had already entered into a soul-bond with baby dragons. He loved his children deeply, and watching their play brightened his day. The day was already bright, though. The sun streamed through the windows of the hall, reflecting off of the newly varnished table and the brightly polished tiles of the floor. It was new, the hall. It had only been completed a few months back, and already it had been used for important things. The leaders of Avalonia had met here to discuss the opening of Varlyrio to trade, gracing his table with their presence. That was just a few mornings ago, and already Henjin had heard rumblings of fleets being launched to seek the goods and markets of the far western Guild. Henjin would be sending no fleets, however, since he did not have a fleet, only a few small fishing boats that brought in their catch from the straights and channels between the Mystic Isles around Druidham. "We really must finish the guest-house next, Henjin," Galaria was saying, bringing his thoughts back to the present moment. How much had he missed of what she said? "We have beds open here in the main keep, of course, but many who might visit us have higher standards than a simple bed in a shared dormitory or a small, simply furnished chamber. It's not like we can offer them a place in one of the dragon's weyrs, where the riders sleep." Henjin nodded. "This is true, Galaria," he said, stroking his beard. He had let it grow out since returning to Avalonia. "My only concern is that it will take manpower away from delving the storerooms and cellars. And by manpower I really mean Dwarf-power, since aside from Arkuhr none of us humans are much use working with stone, and while you may be soul-bonded to an Earth dragon, Daeara is more attuned to the living things on and in the earth than to the rocks of the earth itself." It was Galaria's turn to nod in agreement. "True, it would take some Dwarf-power from the cellars, and harvest time is nigh upon us, so perhaps we should delay that; but we could at least shift the Gnomes over to building the bridge to the outcropping where we plan to build the guest-house. It will not be cold here for a month or more, I don't think, so getting the geothermal pumps going can wait a little bit. And besides, Injini has nearly completed it anyways. He said our rock formations here are not so different from the ones beneath Bandari, so he did not have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, to get our system going like the one under the Hatchery or the Dragon Halls there." "Very well," Henjin agreed. "We should get to work on the bridge, using the dragons to lift the slabs of stone in place according to the plan of Injini and Mvumbuzi. My Druids, especially Arkuhr, can assist with the stone shaping, at least the rough hewing, and perhaps we can convince Stenkarlek to shift his brother and wife over to the final shaping of the stones, while he and his father finish up the cellars." Just then Lycaria gave a loud shout of pain and Gahlen came running over to his parents. "I didn't do it, Dad," he said breathlessly. "What did you not do?" asked Henjin suspiciously. Galaria went over to Lycaria to comfort her and see if she was hurt. Emmalie was holding her hands over her sister, muttering some Druidic words of healing. "I didn't push her head into the table when she was chasing after me after I stole her hairclip," said the boy sheepishly. "Mm-hmm," grunted Henjin. "I need you to apologize to your sister for pushing her and stealing her clip. And you need to apologize to me for lying. And finally, I need you to go with Koeden to help Stenkarlek dig out the storerooms. He could use a small Earth dragon and even smaller boy down in the tunnels with him to help dig. And bring him this message that I am going to give you." He turned to the writing desk by the windows and began to write on a scrap of parchment. "Yes, father," said Gahlen with downcast eyes. "I am sorry for lying." "I forgive you," said Henjin, finishing up the message and handing it to his son. "Now go! Get your dragon and find Stenkarlek." ______________________________________ ............................................................................ The first chapter of my Book III story! Not unlike @de Gothia, I have chosen to make the time between the end of Book II and the start of Book III for my story be the span of several years (about 8 in my case). Hence there are now kids involved. My inspiration for the story, at least for the dragon part of things, comes especially from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, one of my all-time favorite reads. I will be tying things in from my previous Chronicles of Hesperia, plus the builds I did for the Safe Haven challenge. And there will be dragons. Lots of dragons. My characters will probably end up in Varlyrio's Sunken City at some point, too. The build itself is the same as the one I used for the Prelude: An Avalonian Council, but the lighting is different this time, with the sole light source now being through the windows. I really like the way that made it look, even better than before. Plus, I adjusted the white balance to look more warm. C&C welcome!

Nice harvest build, Faladrin! I enjoy all of the bustle that you have placed in the scene, with harvesters and riders and herders and millers. It is awesome that the mill can spin around to ensure that it catches the breeze, though I think it would look a bit better with more substantial vanes (maybe with cloth or something) rather than just the bare ladders. I do like how long the vanes are, though; so often we see short stubby windmills around here. I like the proportionality between the tree canopies and the trunks, though if it is really harvest time why are the leaves so green, rather than orange and red? I am not sure birds are still sitting on nests at this point either, since (at least where I live) they need to fly south for winter, or at very least are not in the business of rearing tiny chicks still. I think the scene is a bit too crowded with different things, making it hard to see what is going on exactly, even though the bustle of the figs gives it life. I would try to reduce the number of things going on, like skipping the man harvesting the bit of wheat there, since it seems odd that the field would be going all the way to that spot, with no sign of the stubble that would link it to a larger field. The swineherd is nice, the rider is good, and the garden is good, too, but I think showing the wheat harvest with the rest just makes it too busy. Speaking of the garden, my favorite part of the build is your awesome pumpkin vine! That is just the best. And I also like the way you make the tower round, rather than a simple square or rectangle. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing more Avalonian builds from you!

I'm not sure about the second question, as I don't know why a picture would not load unless it is in the wrong file format. Typically most builders upload their pictures to a site like Flickr and then embed a picture link to that site here on Eurobricks using the BBCode option (saving server space on Eurobricks, instead of clogging things up with tons of picture files), and Flickr can handle a variety of picture formats, I believe. I always use .jpg for mine, so I guess I am really not sure. As to the first question, there is no maximal size for a sigfig platform. You could post a picture of your sigfig plain, no base, no build, against a solid colored background; or you could build a giant castle and take a picture of your sigfig in the castle (or any other large thing you could be inspired to build). Either way, to convey what your sigfig looks like, you want the picture you post here to be about him/her, cropped fairly close to the fig, rather than a general exposition of your building skills. Of course, many people build something to display their fig, but it can be as big or small as you like; and if it is big, you probably want to post that as its own thread as a freebuild once you have introduced your sigfig.

Thanks! Thanks, and I don't see it as a bad thing if they are similar, but it was not at all in the forefront of my mind to make them so. I am not sure I could recall what the Fell Beast looked like without consulting a picture... You have been critical of the past two, so it got me on the defensive! Your comments were merited though... I am glad the lava I threw together at the last minute works so well! (and by last minute, I mean more like in the last hour or so...) Thanks, SK, and I do understand what you mean about the head. It is rather blocky, but I wanted it to convey strength and power, much like an excessively square-jawed man, especially in comics, conveys strength (Thanos comes to mind, actually). However, perhaps it could use some more shaping and tapering, as you suggest. The neck and head are the weakest aspects of the build, in my opinion, and evidently in yours, too!

Of course it is ok! I have no monopoly on anything, and it would even make sense for both of the realms to be using it since they are both strongly Elvish with some Druid influence. Plus you put it on a sand green pentagonal tile, and I have it on a dark green circle tile, so they end up looking pretty different anyway. That, and I have pretty much ended the Hesperian part of the story and am moving on to Druidham, where my characters currently live; and I have not decided yet what to use for their emblem, but it won't be the same.

You might not have left yourself that much space on the interior to work with, but you made the most of what you had. It is a good build to move the story along, nothing too fancy but nothing too small and plain, either. 1x1 rounds do wonders filling in gaps, and they also give a bit of architectural interest to the scene. I would say that the secret to building round-ish or at least non-square geometry is 1. practice and 2. cheese slopes, like in this build. Cheese slopes make everything happier. Cheese does, too, come to think of it. The half stud offset in the walls above is nice, adding some visual interest without taking up too much space, plus it adds texture to both inside and outside. The only thing that really stands out as not working for me is the shrubbery; it is too flat for its placement. If it were against the wall, it would be fine as vines, but being some distance away it just stands out awkwardly, lacking the depth that a stand-alone shrub typically has. But most of all, I am excited to see some of the Sunken City next build! I have distant dreams of building something in the Sunken City some day, but it won't be soon, as the backlog of my own story builds is getting a bit ridiculous; thus I hope you do a bang-up job on it, like you did for the "Stowaways" chapter.

Yes, a 1x1 round plate fits perfectly there. As for shields, there are several options if you are looking for it to be free of insignia. In grey colors, there is the ovoid, the round flat, the round rounded, and the triangular. I look forward to seeing your fig soon!

That's doubtful, I'd have to say... Far more likely that I am wrong! And I am wrong, I admit it. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Well, if Gideon says so, I have been wrong my whole time in the Guilds! Whoops! Good thing I am an Avalonian and not a Kaliplinian, as that would have been tragically embarrassing to have my own guild colors confused!

Thanks! The neck does look a bit stiff, but there is not much I can do to change that without radically altering the way I build them, which I am not ready to do yet. I can see that, and I was not fully convinced by it myself when I put it together, but it eventually grew on me and I kind of like it. Thanks for the feedback! Thanks, Grover! It actually is dark red, in fact, rather than primary red, though the pictures don't show that especially clearly. Some parts, like the claws and the 1x1 rounds in the mouth to represent teeth, are primary red though. Now that I have a basic template in my mind of how to put pieces together and what kinds of shapes work where, the dragons only take maybe four hours to make (though perhaps I am wrong about that; I never really timed myself, but they were about two days' worth of naptimes, though sometimes three or four (which is how I measured build time over the summer, with two small kids)). I don't have any plans drawn out, just a thematic Element, a color scheme, and an idea of how big I want to go. The head sometimes takes longer than half of the rest of it, just trying to get it to work in proportion to the rest and not look too cartoonish. And some, like Maji the Water Dragon, got re-built two or three times before I was somewhat satisfied (though she is still my least favorite). The bases generally took another naptime or so to build once the dragon was done. Thanks, Gabe! I think it does look a bit stiff, but perhaps stiff with alertness as you suggest. I did try to pose him in a way that made him look ready to spring into action, so that fits. I tried to keep the lava (or water or earth) contained on the black base to keep the cleaner look, but it could have been cool to make the lava flow even further. But that would have taken more pieces that I did not have!

These are some very nice little vignettes! I agree with Grover that your pictures could do with some lightening up, as they seem a bit dark right now. But they are big enough for me to see them! So yay! Beyond that, I also really like the clever use of the portcullis for the prison bars, and the arches to hold the lanterns are also nice. I'm not as big of a fan of the 1-plate high stairs, since they seem oddly shallow, but they're not bad. I like the irregular pieces used for cobblestones in the arrest scene, and the shaping on the tree trunk is also nice, particularly at the roots. I don't like the smooth surface there to represent grass, however, as it does not do a good job of representing that texture. Studs would have been better than SNOT bricks, though it would make it harder to attach the tree cleanly. And the market stall is nice, too. It is great to see more of Conrad the Young, and not-so-Sly-yet. Keep it up!