Grover

Outstanding! I was wondering when someone was going to turn this 90°. I alluded to this in the example of terrain, but it can also be used for the underside of bridges, arches connecting buildings, suspension (concave) bridges, and arches of non-Lego piece distances. I love your build here! The flex tubing with cylinders works well as a substitute for tracks but on the same principle. Very nice! Thank you for sharing! Edit: I have been busy this week, and now that I have a few extra minutes, I wanted to point out a few differences in this variation from the one posted up top: This allows for studs to face outward on top and bottom for minimal distance in between. This is an advantage in my opinion since getting reversed studs into compact areas is difficult The brick with two side studs is required for this variation, which may be difficult or costly to source. It's probably better suited to smaller builds for this reason The flexible tubing and cylinders are somewhat of a break even on cost I think. the flex tubing is expensive, but you may need less of it than the 1x2 round plates if you go that route, and the cylinders have been on the PAB wall before, so it may be cost neutral This variation does not have solid interior of the tracks, so will not bear the same load as the version with solid bricks. The flex tubing allows for many curves, but is also limited by maximum length As posted, this variation is not flush with the bottom of the cylinder. This is neither good nor bad, simply something to be aware of. With only two studs per plate, this variation may be a bit more fiddly or fragile than full studs on bricks. I don't think there's any 'good' or 'right' way to do this technique, but these were some of the immediate differences that I noticed and wanted to point out for anyone following this thread. Logistically, if you have general questions, such as these, feel free to post here. If you have pictures specific to your contest build, please start a new thread for your build and we will keep comments there. The pics above are great and should spark imagination for everyone, so they work for this purpose!

I wasn't here for book I but was told Varlyrio was born out of a challenge during that time similar to "a safe Haven" (I haven't found it but haven't searched hard since I have many other things going on). That map from book II you show may be the only one showing the isle (is not Varlyrio) and I assume it's not to scale. If anyone else has a link, I would be interested to know as well.

Book IV - Chapter 1, Challenge 1: Round, Round, get a Round... Tower With the opening of the first University of Petrea satellite campus in Avalonia came the first guest expert lecture promised by the crown. Since the campus buildings were not yet finished, the classes were meeting in various halls and rooms across Albion, but the lecture was well attended. This expert was an engineer and architect who had designed numerous castles across Historica and came to share insights gained through the years. In particular, construction of round towers, particularly when used as flanking towers in a fortified structure, provided strategic advantage to the defenders. These structures were not as straightforward to build as square towers, so their construction was a point of interest. Technique This challenge will teach how to build a curved, load bearing, SNOT wall capable of producing inner, outer, or non-uniform surfaces by using sticks-on-track systems. The rules and criteria are presented at the top for ease of finding them. The technique instructions follow. Category A: Building a Round Object from.... a Square Block? The University of Petrea at Albion campus is new and under construction, but there are many aspects of University life. There are University buildings, classrooms, workshops, dormitories, areas where outdoor field classes are taught on subjects like forestry, geology, botany, etc, and the Avalonian countryside is rich with not only towers and castles but cliffs, rolling hills, farms, demihuman communities, magical creatures, areas of wondrous natural beauty... the imagination runs wild. Your task: Build a depiction of some aspect of the University in the new Avalonian satellite campus using the new curved wall technique. This can be a building, but could also be any aspect of University life: a classroom, games, social events, construction of the new campus, research being conducted by professors and students (magical and/or mundane), etc.. The curved wall can of course be a classic wall like a tower, a serpentine wall, or an interior wall of a round room, but it can also be used to make trees, curved cliff faces, and other designs. The nature of the University related build is up to you, but you must meet these 4 requirements: The build must be in Avalonia. The build must depict some part of the new Avalonian satellite campus or University life there. Your sigfig in his Avalonian hometown mailing a letter to a student on campus or a conversation of far off bards talking about the new campus won't work: the idea is to develop the Avalonian satellite campus through building some part of the new campus with collaborative story here. The new curved wall technique must be used in some significant portion of the build. It does not have to be all of the build or even the main focus of the build, but its implementation must be obvious and non trivial. It could be used to make a bunch of tree trunks for a massive forest in the background, a cliffside, a serpentine retaining wall on the campus quadrangle, etc., but having some tiny 3 stud wide corner of a room that is insignificant to the build defeats the purpose of this challenge. If you have questions, ask in this thread or PM me. A work in progress (WIP) shot must be shown at or before the halfway point (1 May 2026) in your entry thread post (see Miscellaneous below). Maximum size: Unlimited. Multiple builds are allowed to be combined to tell a story or show interwoven scenes, etc. Miscellaneous: This follows the general judging rubric with one additional stage gate requirement: This is a 4 month build with a 2 month stage gate: You MUST post a WIP shot on or before the 8 week mark (halfway point, that is to say 1 May 2026) that shows your use of the new technique. You don't have to show the entire build if you don't want but you must show the portion that uses technique in progress. Your WIP pictures will be commented on in the forums to help you improve the technique. These comments will be posted as soon as possible, hopefully within 2 weeks of the WIP shot (I say hopefully because if we get overwhelming response I may have to increase this, but 2 weeks should be enough). Because this is a teaching build, there are no points awarded for the quality at this stage (so don't worry if you are struggling, post what you have), but you MUST show the WIP (go/no go) in order to be eligible for the final prize at the end. You may show more than one WIP for extra feedback as long as one is on or before the 8 week deadline, but if you post an extra one within a week of the FINAL deadline (1 July 2026), it may not be commented on in time. Please create your final entry thread and post the WIP shot in there for comment, then post your final entry in this same thread afterword. Additionally, because this build is required to be in Avalonia and related to the University satellite campus, you cannot claim any of the Category A builds for HSS. Prizes: The entries with the highest two scores in Category A will win (respectively): 1st Place - 11373 Sauron's Helmet 2nd Place - 71829 Lloyd's Green Forest Dragon Category B: O, Romeo, Romeo... wherefrom art thou? The Queen has taken a keen interest in someone from outside Historica. Your Task: You must provide some background for Zîrâd, the merchant that the Queen has taken an interest in. What is his family background? What is his home country and/or hometown like? What is his family's business? Why and/or how is his home country's government oppressive? Does he have any interesting history? What events brought him to Historica and how did he get here? If you need inspiration, take a look back to between Book II and III at the Safe Haven challenge and its entry thread. This smaller build must also use the curved wall technique taught above but can take place anywhere. A WIP shot of the technique in question is not required for this category, but encouraged, and will enjoy comments for build improvement. Maximum size: 256 contiguous studs area with reasonable overhang. Miscellaneous: The winner's story isn't necessarily exclusive canon, since other suggested storylines could be complimentary or combined, but the winner's story is guaranteed to be included. Prize: The entry with the highest score in Category B will win: 40478 Mini Disney castle DEADLINE Both Categories: 1 July 2026 (anywhere in the world). Once it is no longer 1 July 2026 anywhere in the world, the challenge is closed. The WIP deadline for the Category A halfway point stage gate is 1 May 2026, anywhere in the world. General Rules One entry per category per person No clone brands (Megablocks, KREO, etc) allowed, but 3rd party (or your own custom waterslide decals, prints etc.) fig parts and accessories (Brickarms, Citizen Brick, etc.) are acceptable. Custom non-Lego elements similar to what Lego provides (cloth capes and sails, string etc.) are allowed. The same person cannot win both categories, although you can enter both. Guild leadership is ineligible for prizes (since leadership judges the entries!). This contest is open to all members of the Guilds of Historica who have posted a picture of their sigfig and declared for a guild before the halfway point (1 May 2026) Your Eurobricks account must have been created prior to 1 March 2026. All entries should be posted in their own topic, with the title of: "Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category X: Name of your build". Please also post a link to your topic here. Prizes may be substituted with Lego gift cards of an equivalent value if postage is exorbitant. Post questions in the thread below and they will be answered: here for rules questions, below under the technique section for questions on the technique. Questions Q: Does my sigfig have to appear in this build? A: No. If you want to include your sigfig or others, go ahead. If not, there is no requirement. Q: Is this contest open to all Guild members, not just Avalonia? A: YES! This challenge is set in Avalonia, and we are planning one challenge per guild setting (plus a few others not guild specific) so you get to build in all the guilds if you participate in all the challenges. Q: Can guild leadership participate? A: Guild leadership may participate and will receive feedback on their builds, but we are ineligible to receive prizes, considering we are the ones doing the judging, and, of course, since we made up these challenges, would have an unfair advantage of advanced knowledge of the prompts. That does not, however, preclude participation, and all leadership is encouraged to build and receive feedback on this technique! Curved Wall Technique For years I wanted to make good looking round towers and had tried one technique after another. Some looked good but were fragile, some sturdy but looked bad, and others used rare parts making them cost prohibitive. Eventually, I found a technique and modified it, the optimization of which is the class below. The idea behind this curved wall came from someone in Innovalug, whose page I can no longer access, so sadly I cannot link to the original. It was posted prior to the release of the 1x2 round plates, and was achieved primarily with 2x2 tiles. I wish I could point everyone to it, so if anyone knows the originator, PM me and I'll try and get links to their work. The genius behind this technique is that it utilizes standard Lego distances: The thickness of a brick being equal to the distance from the top of a stud on a plate to the bottom of a plate connected to it one brick above (see picture below for this to make sense). In this way, a flexible, movable, friction-fit SNOT connection is made. I modified this technique to use 1x2 tiles and plates, expanded size, applied it to interior curves, built levels and various openings for windows and doors, and modified it for the 1x2 rounded plates when they became available, which enhanced stability and ease of sliding the components around. With this in mind for an idea of where we are going, let's take a look at the components. The Basics The most basic form of this technique is to hold a SNOT 'stick' between two flexible tracks. Multiple sticks can form a wall and closing the tracks can make a ring that can be turned into a cylinder, but the most basic is just the sticks and tracks. The Track The track is 5 plates tall. Technically, 4 plates and one tile since you need a flat top. Depending on your collection, this can be achieved in multiple ways. The most basic is a layer of 1x1 round plates and 1x2 plates, followed by an overlapping layer of 1x1 cylinders and 1x2 bricks, followed by a final overlapping layer of 1x1 round tiles and 1x2 tiles. I use coordinated colors below for illustration, but since this won't be seen, you can use a rainbow of whatever you have (see update below just before the examples). When I make a long track, I tend to do portions assembly line style. + The advantages to this are that no special pieces are needed and any color combination can be used since it is hidden in the finished product. That being said, I try to avoid super bright colors (the new fluorescent yellow and the oranges come to mind) since they have the best chance to show through with bright lighting if there is an unintended crack or deviation in the build. - The disadvantages are that this track is a little more fragile, and thus a bit more difficult to move sticks around on since the corners of the 1x2 bricks and plates are not rounded. That being said, once the sticks are set the build has the same rigidity, so if you don't have the rounded plates at your disposal and are patient, this will work for you and most Lego collections have these common elements. If you don't have access to the round plates and still need more rigidity than the brick and plate track can afford, you can also use alternating 1x2 plates and 1x1 round plates to achieve a strong connection. This of course uses more parts and thus becomes more expensive however. The advent of the 1x2 round plate in 2018 (35480) improved the stability and ease of this technique. In this case, 1x2 round plates are stacked in 4 overlapping layers followed by a layer of round tiles (either 1x1 or 1x2 round tiles). + The advantages here are strength and the ease of moving sticks along it due to rounded corners. These are easy to use because they do not fall apart with abuse as easily as the brick tracks do when free (the brick tracks are just fine once seated in sticks). These will be used for the remainder of the example builds, but you can substitute the brick tracks if you need to in any of the examples. See the end of the instructions just above the examples for pictures of the brick and plate tracks in use. - The major disadvantage, which seems to be obvious, is cost. Not only are the 1x2 round plates $0.07 each from Lego PAB, you need more of them than the bricks and plates since there's 4 layers. I was both excited and dismayed when I first saw these plates, knowing they would improve this technique and that I could not afford them. Happily, these plates appeared shortly after on the PAB wall at my local Lego store, and because they are hidden in this technique, their color does not matter. Usually BL sellers have these for reasonable prices in quantity since they have appeared on PAB walls. The Stick The other component of this technique is the stick. These are straightforward to build and made from common parts, but are numerous, and if you are after a uniform surface, will need a lot of uniform pieces for the outer shell. The basic stick needs a layer of plates followed by a layer of bricks followed by a layer of plates, and an outer decorative shell. Axially, the stick has two ends that are two studs wide that fit onto the track, and a center that is as short as one stud and as long as you wish. Practically speaking, I find that the plates need at least two studs of brick to 'bite' onto it or they are fiddly and fall off frequently. Ideally you would use a single plate if you have a short distance run in a size of which plates are made (say 8, 10, or 12 studs) but you can make due with 1x4 plates at a minimum. The theory behind the end of the plates where they attach to the track is on a vertical level, the two stud SNOT plates are equivalent to 5 stacked plates horizontally, and the horizontal SNOT distance from the top of the stud to the back of the plate above is equal to the width of a brick as illustrated in the background section. The decorative shell can be horizontal interwoven tiles to represent bricks, vertical plates to represent organic matter, random plates and bricks to approximate geological formations or anything you can imagine, which we will see examples of later. The Technique To create a curved wall or surface with this technique, you need multiple sticks that are held on two tracks. First, we will build 5 sticks, each 8 studs long, which means we will need two 1x8 plates and one 1x4 brick of any color for each stick. For the tracks, we will use 1x2 round plates and 1x1 round tiles, again any color, but we will need six 1x2 round plates per row and 4 rows (24 per track), plus twelve 1x1 tiles per track. Make 2 tracks like this, or, if you are using the brick track, with bricks and plates etc. For my own convenience (and because I have several lengths of this assembled already) the remainder of this tutorial will use the rounded plate track, but you can substitute the brick/plate track wherever you see this rounded plate track. Flatten both tracks on the table, then pick one and stand it studs up on the table. To this, add the sticks, SNOT, studs all forward Now gently work the top track onto the top of the sticks. For short runs like this, it's not too bad, but be prepared to be patient and do a lot of gentle wiggling for large rings or irregularly curved surfaces. You can bend this track how you like now. You can also decorate the studs with alternating uniform tiles to make it look like stonework, muddy cliffs, large bricks, whatever you want. Helpful tip: If you have long sticks or large towers, lining up alternating tiles prior to connecting the plates to the brick can help. The sticks can be spaced to allow for an interior or exterior curve. Alternately, if you would rather have somewhat irregular studs showing, you can add wedge plates, tiles, etc. along the axis for details such as tree bark. The sky is the limit with the details here. This technique really shines when you need a lot of detail. Round towers built out of bricks such as castles or round turrets on structures look great. Modern smooth steel pieces like chemical tanks or water towers tend to look pixellated. Any organic materials like trees do well. Options If you wish to make a circular tower, you only need close the tracks into equal size rings. (I tend to mark every 10 studs with an off color tile so I can keep track of the circumference). Then add enough sticks to close gaps around. Closing the gaps on a completely circular tower can be a bit fiddly, and there are some circumferences that are cleaner than others, but you can usually get very close if you play with it a bit. If you want to add a window or a door, you can remove a few sticks, leaving a gap. Then you can build on the space between the rings. You can even attach to a ring by adding a stud to your window or door frame (see the green tower below in examples for a finished window). Directly below, you can see the opening left by removing sticks, plus a cutaway of how the sticks work with some decorative outer layer removed. How do you cover the section of the lower ring track that you can't attach to the top ring since there is an opening? You can add an extension from a lower layer, seen here sticking up from the top track. You can also see optional changes to the sticks, such as adding a batter to the base of a castle tower (here partially done so you can see the difference). Note the lone stud on the top ring track. It allows a second tower section to attach to the top. These sections line up for seamless integration, and the extension from the lower level covers the missing stick area above. The beauty of the technique is that the structure is load bearing because the SNOT bricks that form the center of the sticks sit between the two tracks and are solid, so they support tremendous weight and you can easily use these as building platforms for large, tall structures. One limiting aspect of this technique is curvature. This technique is great for big curves. It does pretty well with surprisingly tight curves, but once you get into really small cylinders or curves, it has difficulties and can appear blocky. Down to a certain size, you can substitute the 1x2 curved smooth slopes (11477), but there is a limit to minimum diameter due to the thickness of the track and sticks. Fortunately, there are macaroni bricks of this diameter and larger that avoid the need for this technique. This is one of the most versatile techniques I have found, and I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I have. Update 2 March 2026 After some questions, I hope I have not given the wrong idea that only the round plates can be used. I went back and rephrased some of my sentences to make sure that was not implied. In fact, to prove there is no issue with using the brick method (and thus what you have in your collection more affordably, I give you the "trash tracks" made of whatever I randomly pulled out of my loose bins. And onto those go not entirely uniform tiles, but a mixture of a color scheme that you might have laying about your collection. I did a poor job consolidating the sticks there because I was in a rush and you can clearly see light through them, but I did a better job on the interior curve. As you can see, the exterior of the wall looks just fine and hides whatever is behind it, so please don't think that I'm advocating for you to go spend a lot of money on the 1x2 round plates! If that's what you really want to do or you find them at your local PAB wall, then have fun, but the purpose of this technique is to show you that you can use it with bricks that have been around for a long time. I think the latest piece to release was the 1x1 round tile that released in 2011, and this is fortunately found many places cheaply and usually comes as extras in most sets. Examples I have included a few examples from my previous builds, some of which may escaped notice. I consider that a good thing if they have, since it means they have blended seamlessly into the build. Small, tight curve between straight walls, incorporating an opening for a door and 1x2 curved slopes in places to achieve smoother texture. This is in fact made with the brick/plate track and not the rounded plate track since it was before I had a ton of the rounded plates. Lovely sand green color, complete with overhanging battlements, window, and attachment to straight wall. Tower under construction with both inner and outer curvatures: there are actually TWO concentric towers here! The top layer where the mason is working is attached to the top ring and is for show. A subtle inner curvature with door and window openings, and tiled doorframe by extending the sticks out with an extra plate before tiling.

About depth of field? I thought that was Gideon who pointed that out to me back in ... 2016? Of course, my memory from 10+ years ago is failing now!

Someone has already beat me to this joke, but I find it amusing that calling this build 'crappy' is a compliment!

Great build and a nice intro! I really like that you have the perspective at eye level of the mini. It really helps draw in the viewer into the scene. You have a nice backdrop and water in the foreground, and as @LordDan mentions, the clear cheese wedges look great on the water. You have some nice technique on the rockwork too, which is somewhat challenging for the small builds such as this, and you did a nice work with the SNOT there. I see that you have uploaded to eurobricks directly. The images here are limited because it is not a hosting service and the images are usually meant for avatars etc. We usually use third party image services, such as flickr, for hosting our pictures. Imgur is apparently having trouble with the UK and maybe elsewhere too? A few people have their own websites and host their own images, which is also acceptable. Images must be directly linked (no redirects) and they require secure connections now too (https). Let me know if you have any questions. As for photography, I like that you have the depth of field shallow in this photo, which focuses on the rockwork and the hooded mini, slightly blurring the fig behind him and the tree, so it draws the viewer's attention to the part of the image you want them to focus on. The tree in the back is very nice, and I like the slight blurriness since it also implies more detail that you mind fills in. You may already know this, but @Gideon was kind enough to point it out to me when I began, which is you can get a wider depth of field (meaning more of your build will be in focus) by holding the camera back and zooming in on an area, rather than holding the camera closer. One other aspect I learned was that you usually need more light than you think you do when you first start out. Over the years, I eventually built a cheap light box then found a real one on sale one black friday, but getting more light on a build even without a light box helps a lot. One more part I'd like to point out that I enjoyed about this build is your choice in colors. You did a great job limiting your palettes to a small range, meaning you didn't use 5 greens, multiple greys, and multiple browns. You used a couple of browns, which helps distinguish wood from mud, and stuck to the normal green, which is great. I sometimes see builds with green, dark green, sand green, bright green, etc. and it looks disorganized. Limiting your color selection within a given color family is a big help and you did a nice job here. Thank you for putting this in the free build registration! Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more of your builds!

Some interesting color choices! I would not have expected the fall colors to go as well with the dark green, but they are nice. I like the suspended block and the magic. It provides a nice contrast. I love the trees wound around the portal, and three cheers for the Kolgari! Nice work!

Love it! The subtle curve, the brick built shields, and the insane amount of detail you show in the hidden contents is awesome! I love the idea of the lava, and your collection of Nocturnus minis is wild! You also did a great job layering the minis so it looks crowded but you can still see everyone. Your incorporation of the various kite shields in the recesses is a very nice touch too. Only one question: If the emperor gives the thumbs down to an undead fighter... is that good or bad? I mean, they're already dead so...? Don't forget to register on the Free Builds thread!

Gorgeous! Love the collab. The flamingo is hilarious! I like the whole scene composition and think it illustrates the story well. The tree is gorgeous, and you have a lot of busy flora near the river, as you would expect in a desert environment. The LBG slopes on the left near the river are a tad blocky. I would expect them to be worn smooth by the river, but the undercut on the other side of the river is superb! It is rare for me to find a good representation of a layered, dirt/clay riverbank with significant erosion, and you not only managed it, but it looks fantastic. Even the stud cutouts in the wedges look like erosion detail Really outstanding work. Make sure to register on the Free Builds thread!

How ridiculous. I put it on Imgur since I uploaded this previously and didn't want to give away the Book IV opening. I have now uploaded to Flickr and edited the link so you should be able to see it. Let me know if you have trouble seeing other images and I'll move them accordingly. Thanks for the heads up!

Welcome back @socalbricks!

Welcome back! Sorry it took me a bit to get Alrune added to the Avalonian lineup and reply here. I am so excited to have you join Avalonia for this book! Love Alrune's new look! The torso from Tasha on the D&D CMF and the skirt from Rivendell, am I right? I look forward to seeing some of your wonderful work in Book IV!

Welcome to the mighty north of Mitgardia and the Guilds of Historica! Let us know if you have any questions!

Welcome! Love the mix of the old and new fig parts!

Welcome! Let us know if you have any questions!