Henjin_Quilones

The shaping of the hull, with all of the different angles, is quite nice, especially towards the stern. I loosely based my own entry off of the caravel, too, so it is good to see some other lateen sails out there, especially with rigging! My one bit of critique is that the spars do not seem to match up to the length of the sails very well, especially on the mizzen? mast. Nice work, though!

A nice little ship! I love how smooth it looks, with no studs exposed on the deck. The gold accents are nice, too. What parts are those used for the straight rails on the sides? I don't think I have ever seen them before.

A nice set of figs, LJ! I like Torrel the beekeeper and Jastar the fisherman the best, especially the way you did the honeycomb. Turgan the Guardian is also quite nice, as I am a big fan of anthropomorphic animal figs myself. I have a few nitpicks, though. The first is that you used the same torso multiple times, with the CMF Rogue. It seems like there should have been other options. Second, while I don't mind the repetition of the green hat with ears (there are only so many yellow pointy-ear pieces - like three, all of which you used), I don't like it paired with dark green as you did several times. I would have preferred the dark green arms switched out for the light green or bright green or whatever shade of green that pointy hat is. Like Kahir, I am glad to see more little people, though, as I also made a race of gnomes, and I love the new island and its dynamics that you have created here. Good work!

This is incredible, Gunman! The scale of it is huge! You did an amazing job on almost every part of it, too. I particularly love your wall texture; I have seen it before (on the original gatehouse) and have wanted to emulate it myself, though I figured that both I did not have the requisite number of textured bricks and it would not be in good taste to completely copy someone else's signature style. But it is great. I also love the cheese slope roofs, especially on the stables and inn, like others have been saying. I love me some cheese! And the balcony on the cliff is also a great touch. I am also impressed by the lighting and other details you have worked into the build. There are a few details that I think could be improved. First, as I think Titus mentioned, the road is rather...plain. That is actually not the worst thing, since it gives the highly detailed buildings a chance of standing out, but it would still be nice to see a stone here or there. Second, the chimney on the stables is a bit too cartoonish for me, starting out narrow and finishing huge up at the top; something a bit more practical, from a gravity (that thing would be almost impossibly heavy for the building like that) and functionality (most chimneys I have seen taper slightly, or at least just stay the same), would be better. Third, as a fleshie advocate, I find your race-based violence, humiliation, and degradation to be hurtful. Not really, but it is a bit disturbing to see the former Mitgardians being so prejudiced, considering the significant amount of diversity present in the four Guilds. Fourth, what are the trees at the top near the windmill made from? I do not recognize them. That being said, this is great. You did a wonderful job with the fig posing, the buildings, and most aspects of the landscaping, making for a tremendous build. This comment does not begin to truly do it justice.

Thanks, Kai! Wow, thanks for the praise, LJ! Glad somebody likes the angle... The quiver was an idea I got from someone on Flickr, so copy away! And the palm tree in the back is made of tires stacked around a click-hinge core (the tires are of a mold that has been discontinued since 1977, in a color that has not been used since 1968). I liked the discolored look of them, and the vaguely tan-grey appearance of them after 50 years, so I figured that they could work. One of the benefits, I guess, of inheriting my father's childhood LEGO sets, or what remains of them.

Welcome, Imic!

Thank you for both criticism and praise, Titus! If LEGO made Mixel joints in colors other than light and dark bley, I would be all over that; as it is, I built the trunks using a technique I saw and liked on Flickr, and that required that they be grey. Besides, lots of trees in the real world have grey-colored trunks. As for the walls, see my reply to Kai below. Thanks, Kevin! I was definitely trying to make it seem different from what we have already seen. Thanks, Zoth! Glad you like the parts I like best! Thanks, Kai! I saw SK using some cheese slope arches and was inspired. The tower roof took a few tries to get to work. As for the walls, as I said in reply to Kevin, I was going for something that I have not seen done before. I tried it and kind of liked it, especially for the main building, in particular the challenge of making the windows fully vertical in a sloped wall. Once I did it for that building, I decided that it would be kind of cool to make it the distinctive architectural aspect of the whole city, that they built buildings that looked quite a bit like tents, perhaps reflecting the original dwellings of the inhabitants prior to settling in this location. None of the buildings have battlements because none of the buildings is a military or defensive building, just common civilian-type. If you still don't like it, well, you don't have to, I guess. I won't be offended. I might cry for days, but no offense taken...

Thanks! I am glad you like the water effects. Thanks, Kai! I tried to make a ship with some substance to her, while still being elvish. And please borrow the jumping fish - I did already, from @kabel. (this build here) Go ahead and make some fish jump for joy, Titus! Thanks for the praise. Thanks, Garm! I copied a lot of the shaping from yours, actually. Glad you like the way it fits with my elves. And the rigging was a pain - I first bought some non-LEGO string, but it was too hard to work with, so I splurged and bought a bunch of different official strings (some with studded ends, some not) and found it quite easy to make it work to fit what I wanted to do all along. Genuine LEGO for the win! Thanks, Kevin! It helps to have a good model for what you want the shape to look like, I found. I browsed LEGO ships on Flickr first, and worked with what I saw there.

I think that, as applies to this build, there are a few ways to improve the vegetation. One would be to clump similar plants together, especially the broad three-leaf plant; plants have a tendency to grow near others of the same variety, since the seeds probably land close by, or else they spread by the roots. Thus keeping them closer together in plant-families would be a good thing; but definitely avoid a regular distribution over a broad area, as that begins to look like a deliberate pattern. That would allow the dark green vines you have on the ground to be more visible and to serve as their own kind of plant. Keeping the flower colors together in clumps would also be good (pinks over here, purple there, red more over there, etc.), in order to really emphasize the colors and allow them to shine. For myself I try to limit the number of colors of flowers in a build just to keep it from getting too visually busy.

Puteha is great! I love that hairpiece. I also love Puke Tahu (or whatever the captain's other name is), as I think he has a ton of character in those piece combos. In fact, I think this is a great set of figs from a very believable setting off of the southeastern coast of Historica. The idea of a near-bottomless sea full of giant sea monsters surrounded by a lush archipelago is great! I want to visit it now (or at least to see a giant monster lunge at a ship from the depths). Besides Puteha and Captain Serbrahad Al Ibrazar, I think my favorites are the Sea Orc (a great new species) and the colorful Shaman Ketatapapu, who has some great piece uses (like the red beard on his chest!). I think you are one of the cleverest fig builders I have seen, at least with your ability to combine accessories with colorful characters. And your ability to connect anything and everything with those trans-clear clips with stud (Spider-Man web holders)... My one quibble is that too many of the figs seem to be nobility, and not enough commoners or prototypical citizens.

A clever set of figs! I like the way that you have captured a look different from what we typically see in Historica, with a gnomish civilization and the bits of steampunk flair. I personally don't really like steampunk as a genre, though, so some of these are not to my taste. I do like the golden golem the best, I think, and I like the use of the wind-up key on the backs of the automatons. The combinations of different torsos, from different LEGO eras, with the other accessories is nicely done, a throwback to some of the early themes. Plus you have a ton of short legs! Some of the accessories I do not recognize; are they all from LEGO?

Larger pictures (and arranged not side-by-side, since that looks confusing, trying to tell exactly where one picture ends the next begins) would be nice so we could see it all right here, as Gunman said. As for the build, there are many great details here, from all of the figs dotting the streets, giving it life, to the diversity of buildings around the square. The cog-based details are particularly fitting for the style. I am not sure that I like the idea of a quasi-Victorian steam-punk magical floating island being a part of the Historican world, but that aside I like what you have done. I almost used the same planet sphere in my own build, actually, but it did not fit into the layout I had planned. The thing I like best of all, though, is the functionality you have put into each of the buildings, with some sort of moving part in all of them; messing with gears is not really my thing, so good job on figuring all of that out. The video was great!

Great canoe with outrigger! The brick-built shaping of the hull is pretty good for that scale, too, and I like the sharply upturned horns at the bow and stern. I also like how you combined multiple sails all together to make one larger one. The water technique looks fairly similar to the one I use (blue plates with trans-light blue or -clear plates and tiles on top) and thus I think it looks good!

As Gunman said, I am also 99% sure it is allowed. I think I asked the same way back at the start and didn't get an answer, but then didn't make my own just because the style of ship I wanted to make fit well with the sails I already had. If you have never had the cash on hand to drop $100 (or more) on a ship, though, you would not have any sails (unless you are willing to try to buy them on BL or something - though you may need $100 just to get some there, these days), so that would put you at a considerable (and I would argue, unfair) disadvantage in the ship-building category. Plus the only sails currently available from LEGO are on the Silent Mary, I think, and those are just tattered shreds...

A few new posts up for me. Long live Avalonia!

The City of Bandari An entry into "A Safe Haven", the Fifth Anniversary Challenge, Category A Also Chapter 7 of the Chronicles of Hesperia The druid Henjin Quilones, Galaria the former princess, and Hamisha the returning exile stepped out of the rowboat and began making their way up the dock and onto the shore. They had to duck around several sharks hanging by their tails on the beach, strung up by the fisherman who lived in the house by the dock. Before them spread the City of Bandari, the jewel of Mwamba. Hamisha, who was leading the way, paused to take it all in, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. She recognized so many faces that she had not seen in hundreds of years, not since the council of this city had voted to send her away. They had seen the Bahari, the master fisherman at work hauling in his nets as they tied up at the dock. Ahead of them was Chuma, smithing away at something at his forge. Winda, the elf scout, was standing up on a balcony overlooking the market, but her attention was fixed on something happening around the corner of the massive building on the hill. "That is the dragon hatchery," Hamisha told the others. "The dragons come here and lay their eggs, and then the elves take the best care of them until they hatch. They are very watchful and observant, too. Inside that building are sand pits kept at the precisely correct temperatures to maintain optimal egg health. The gnomes of this city tend to some sort of subterranean network of pipes that bring hot steam under the sand; there is always vapor of some kind coming out of the holes behind the hatchery." "But up on the side of the building," continued Hamisha, "You can see a sight that is quite rare; an adult male dragon meeting his hatchling for the first time! That is Nyeusimoto, and he is the dragon companion of Lord Mkuu, one of the elf princes of the land." "Watch your step in the market here. The sellers can be very pushy; or at least, the humans of three hundred years ago were. I doubt much has changed in the intervening time." "And whatever you do, do not mess with the aelfcats or the dragon knights, or step in the way of a centaur!" "It is good to be home." More pictures: ___________________________________________________________________________________ ....................................................................................................................................................................... C&C welcome! This one was light on story, heavy on build. For those curious about the figures seen throughout the build, my category B CMF series will shed some light on most of them, besides the aelfcats, who are new. This is by far my largest build, being about 100x100 studs, making it four times the size of my previous record, and I have been working on it since July or August. It was hard getting good shots of it, and I really only had one chance at pictures, as it took an hour or more to move it from my LEGO table to my outdoor photo site and re-build the sections, and then moving it back again resulted in stuff breaking. Fitting all that into the kids' nap time is not easy. Ah well. Someday it is my dream to have a designated photography studio in my house, or at least nice gear (besides just a camera), but that will have to wait until I win the lottery. For now it will be good to take this apart and have bricks to build other things finally.

The Nagra Luca An entry into "A Safe Haven", the Fifth Anniversary Challenge, Category C Henjin Quilones, Knight of the Druidi Order of Historica, exile from Hesperia, and his constant companion, Galaria, formerly Princess of Hesperia, now an exile like Henjin, were discussing their journey on the poop deck of the Nagra Luca. The swift ship was making good time as it sailed ever westward, veering only the slightest bit south. It had been some time since they had left the Isle of Tíre, fully stocked with provisions for a journey that could possibly take months. And it had, several months longer than anticipated, in fact; they had been aboard this vessel, now terribly small and cramped, for far too long. The food supply was now rather short, nearly as short as the tempers of the crew as they spent their time walking the same planks and pulling the same ropes each and every day, seeing the same eighteen people day and night. The wolves in the hold below were particularly restless, and one at a time they were brought up to pace on the deck when the weather was fair, just to stretch their legs a bit. Skoll, Henjin's white wolf, had even leaped overboard once and swum with some dolphins for a spell before they could lower the rowboat and fish out the sodden beast from the briny waves. The whole hold had smelled of wet fur for a week afterwards. "We must be getting close, Henjin," said Galaria with a sigh. "We are, I can feel it," replied Henjin. "Sir Kravek's charts were clearly mistaken about some of the nautical distances, as this journey has gone on long enough, but those rocky fingers we passed sticking out of the sea yesterday at noon are supposed to be only a day's sail from shore to this new place. And besides, Hamisha has been saying for a few days that the smell in the air is that of her home, so we must be close." "My lord Henjin, Lady Galaria, the smell is stronger than ever, too!" shouted Hamisha from where she was looking over the maps and charts. "I apologize for interrupting!" "Apology accepted!" Galaria shouted back and shook her head. "She has always been a strange one," she said in a low voice, "not like the rest of my wolfriders. These Mwamban elves must be an odd lot if they are all like her. She is reliable, though." "What are we going to do once we get to Mwamba, though, Galaria? We are a crew of exiles, castaways now from your home, refugees far, far away from my own, with little in the way of a trade or skill to earn our silver and gold. I have some magic, I suppose, and you can hunt, and we are all good with swords, but unless there is some sort of conflict going on that particular skill is not very useful. What are we to do?" "We will figure it out in good time, Henjin," the elf said, resting her head on his shoulder. "We are together, and that is what is important to me. Besides, I was a princess, and I am still an elf, and elves are always welcoming to other elves, with the exception of my father. And we have Hamisha." "Who is now twice exiled, and still will not tell us what she did to be kicked out of Mwamba in the first place, I must point out." "You worry too much, my handsome druid." "Land ho!" came the shout from the lookout up in the rigging. "I see land!" Allicea shouted again. Soon others were climbing the rigging and crowding the gunwales of the fo'c'sle trying to see the shimmering blur on the horizon denoting land. "I see it too!" shouted Celdrian triumphantly. Soon the Nagra Luca was making her way into a harbor, with a large city overlooking the water. Small fishing boats were dotting the waves, and the shouts of people from the shore reached their ears. Henjin, Galaria, and Hamisha were lowered in the rowboat to the water and made their way to one of the docks. Some more pictures: ________________________________________________________________________________ ................................................................................................................................................................ C&C welcome! This was my first attempt as an AFOL at making a ship (besides, of course, the official ship sets that I have acquired over the past few years), and I am rather pleased with the outcome. I went entirely brickbuilt instead of using any of the large hull pieces that I have, since I wanted to try my hand at it and liked the look of it better. The ship is inspired by the lateen-rigged vessels of the past, particularly the caravel of Portugal and the dhow of India/Arabia, as well as a Ninjago ship built by @Garmadon, with some elvish flair of my own.

Very nice build! Is it set in Kyrrath, with the purple roof like that? The irregular base is quite nice, and I love the stonework of the house, with all of those round tiles on it. The barrel, and the various pipes and vents attached, looks great, and I am sure that it could produce a tremendous amount of ale. I like how an upturned bucket is used as a chopping post in the woodyard, too; it is a subtle detail that adds character to the build. Good use of color, as it all fits very nicely together. My one critique is that perhaps the olive green in the front left corner should be left out, or else switched to sand green to match the color in the brick of the house. With such a small patch it just looks superfluous in olive. Otherwise, from fig posing to the general layout to the techniques, this is a great build!

Some interesting techniques used on the ship, Kahir88! I love how it can open up like that to reveal the hold below decks, with hammocks and supplies. The planking on the poop deck is also nice, with the SNOT plates. For my own preferences there are too many studs showing, especially on the sides of the ship, but covering that much area would require a lot of tiles, so I can see why you didn't do it. Nice job on the brick-built sail, too. I'm not sure about the balloon boat, or airboat, since I am fairly certain such things (and most steam-punk stuff in general) are typically frowned upon in the Guilds, but it is pretty well done, and perhaps since you are using gnomes (I used some too, for my one challenge entry so far) it is more permissible. A fun story either way, and a cleverly done rendition of a period-appropriate ship!

Very nice and bright! I love the color choices you made here. The picnic tables are lovely, and the minifig posing is a positive of the build, too, capturing a typical festive scene. My one complaint is that the build is obviously rather thin, and light is shining through some cracks from the other side. Beyond that, though, this looks great!

That is quite impressive in its scale! Wow! I love the towers and the bridges, and the trees with autumn foliage are great (although some of them, particularly the big one on the right in the main picture, seem a bit too bottom-heavy for the amount of foliage at the top). The architectural details on the pinnacle of the central tower are very nicely done. A great scene, indeed.

Very nice! The Kali flavor comes through strongly here with the tan mixed in the dark grey. I think that the tan, especially in the straight wall, could be mixed in with a bit more subtlety, rather than being large 1x4 (or 1x6) blocks of tan in a grey wall. That is, I would try to use the 1x1 tan cones in the straight wall to try to maintain the texture throughout. I also think that the ground cover is a bit too...green. There are many green shades going on there, spread about about evenly, creating a lush but somewhat dissonant landscape. I do like the fig posing, the construction of the building itself (especially the big tower), and the overall layout, among other things, so good work!

Epic as usual, SK! I am always amazed at how you can make such intricate and convincing buildings, with interiors, on such a small footprint. The wood makes a delightful contrast with the snow, and the greys of the bridge and chimneys (and foundations--a nice, very subtle detail) work well to fill it out a bit. The texturing of the stonework, by the way, is excellent. No one does snow like you do. No one. I wish I could even approach what you do with the white stuff! Great detailing all around, though. My one nitpick is the color of the greens you used. The bushes seem too vibrantly green against the snow, as most plants that I know that keep foliage through the winter are on the darker end of green (like holly, conifers, and some bushes), and the sand green of the trees does not match any conifer I know of (though I could be corrected if you know of one). That's a small thing, though, and I had to look for a while to find something to point out for improvement, so...

I like the way you used SNOT techniques on the upper part of the tower to give a good impression of stacked logs. Putting the whole thing at an angle is a good idea, too. I don't mind the bridge color, but I do think that the rockwork of the ravine is a bit too regular (it looks man-made instead of natural), and I am not a huge fan of all of the gaps between the layers. More tinkering with the technique, perhaps, will help you figure out a solution to that. Other than that, it looks like a nice build! I echo SK about the ladder, too.

Looks great, Blu! I love the combination of browns, earthy oranges, and the bright yellow; that color is underused by both TLG in official sets and builders (in fact, I am not sure I have a single piece in it). The building is well-built and nicely incorporated into the landscape. There are just enough supplies here and there to convey a sense of someone living there without being cluttered, and the tattered cloak as a stretched hide is a nice touch (at least that is what I assume that is).