Grover

First, congratulations! Despite being the only entry in this category, you have a really creative use of the technique and a great build! Brilliant use of the technique on small scale and use of the curved arches to act as borders and guides. I love your choice of color. The trans light blue can be difficult to use since it frequently looks like tropical water. Your use of the black under it gives it a much deeper ocean appearance, and it's fantastic. In such a small space, you do a great job depicting the wave height and the foamy break. The trans clear pieces are well placed and the whole build has implied motion. It's a compact, well-built vignette that truly deserves a win. As for the story, I love it. You have a serious and dramatic buildup, giving some background on Zîrân but leaving open enough that others could add if they wished, speaking more to his character than anything else, which is great. And the invention of surfing is hilarious! I love little bits of humor tossed into stories in subtle ways like this. Well done!

Always! We love extra storylines in the Guilds of course! Add to that your spectacular builds and no one is complaining! Your build is really fantastic. It's a work of art. I love how you keep the whole picture Lego, apart from the sky, and even the sky has rooflines and trees peeking over the wall to give everything a more realistic appearance. You have a great level of detail on the walls with the many plates without going crazy on greebling and making it look messy. I love your large stone/plate/tile etc road. The colors are great and the technique looks fantastic. The oblique angle of the picture make it understated, but it looks fantastic. I love your trees. The shape is great, and you have a nice dense outer canopy that is very organic. Not to be outdone are the vines, which are probably some of the most realistic I have seen. The combo of the red falcon body with the new scale mail legs is great, and I love seeing that detailed Tudor behind the figs in the open gate. Someone else pointed out that the design of the gate (and the inclusion of so much foliage and a small guard structure next to the wall) is not the most defensible from a military perspective, I would argue that the prosperity of this area due to the architecture, vines growing on the walls etc. suggests that this is not a heavily war torn area, and such features like the guard house, would be more likely for commerce than purely tactical. Along with the great build, we get a wonderful story with a lot of open plot to go where you want, making this whole build exquisite. Good to see you posting again! We hope to see more of you around this summer!

After the campus ceremonies and the inaugural lecture, the town had turned out to see the Queen's caravan off as it left Albion. The Queen had a wonderful time at the University, but her thoughts kept drifting off to the kind vendor she had met in the marketplace while in disguise. As her carriage slowly made its way down toward the great gate, she looked out at the marketplace and spotted Zîrân at his market stall amongst the throng of onlookers. "Halt!" the Queen cried to her driver, who immediately reigned in the horses. The procession stopped, and the Queen exited her carriage. Her guards immediately flanked her and pushed the crowd back. The Queen made her way to Zîrân's stall, where he stood agape. He quickly remembered his manners and cast his gaze to the ground, kneeling in front of the Queen. "Your Majesty," he said in his accented Avalonian. "I am honored by your presence. How may I be of service?" he asked, still looking at the ground. The Queen smiled and touched him on the shoulder. "Rise, Zîrân. It is I who am honored by your presence in my kingdom... and your generosity to feed penniless and hungry strangers." Zîrân slowly raised his gaze and his expression of bewilderment changed to one of surprise and understanding as he realized it was the Queen who had visited him the previous day. He bowed his head again. "I am again honored, and humbled, your Majesty." Queen Ylspeth smiled. "My dear sir, I would be honored if you would keep in touch with me." She produced from her robes a small scroll that she had prepared the previous evening. "Do write." She handed him the scroll and smiled before returning to her carriage. She looked back as the royal procession began moving again, catching the glimpse out of the corner of her eye as her seneschal handed Zîrân a generous bag of coin as payment for his food the previous day. N'ri smiled to herself, seeing the Queen happy. It had been a rarity in recent years, and she hoped that this was the beginning of something good.

Sometimes these situations: low on money, little space, only a few bricks... can inspire ingenuity. The good news is that light is cheap. The best light is natural light, as long as it's not direct. In the shade near a window or an indirect sunlight outdoors can be awesome. I sometimes still use flashlights to spotlight dark corners. I think @Kai NRG uses a lot of natural light settings, so you don't need to spend a lot, just play with what you have to see what works best!

Love the big rocks as the foundation with the cracks and small rocks as mortar. The round tree looks great too! I like the 360° viewing. The stream is lovely, but I had a thought about where it pours off the edge: if you have some time, swapping out the falling water with trans clear to make it look more white might give it a natural look. If you look at pictures of streams, generally you see that where the water velocity is highest, you have the most white where the water is splashing, and in the case of the water falling off the edge of your build, it would seem to be falling a long way. In the linked picture, the tallest falls have the fastest moving water and the most white. Where the water is a little slower, you can see some of the rocks behind the water. I tend to use fewer tiles and more plates with studs on falling water to show the splashing as well. Gorgeous build, can't wait to see more!

Woo hoo! I'm excited to see where you go with this. I have always wanted to use this to make a huge tree!

Welcome, and well done! I love the storyline that you have here. It is compelling and leaves a lot of open room for you to go wherever you want with it. I'm looking forward to reading more! As for the build, I really love the first shot. It's almost entirely Lego, which really draws the viewer in and makes the picture more alive. It's nice to see the overall shots, especially when there's some crazy technique or something that you have, but getting some good eye-level all Lego shots (or close to it) is very nice. For a first MOC, you really did some fantastic things here, whether consciously or not. For instance, you have three points of varying height across the build at different points. The first is the tallest snow peak in the back left, then the next tallest is the plant in the front right, and finally just below that we have Ellohan in the middle, which draws the viewer's eye across your entire scene in one sweeping motion. You even made these three points contrasting colors, adding even more professionalism. I like that you have the rock/dirt path lower in elevation than the snow around it. Many times for a first build I will see someone put a brown plate on top of a green baseplate to signify a path. While it is OK, the subconscious tends to look at it strangely because in reality, the path is the lowest point and the grass grows taller around it. You hit the realistic path on the first try! One of the biggest challenges we all face at first is photography. I always tell people to use more light than they think is necessary. Once you get too much, you can back off, but you generally need more since using a flash makes Lego look too shiny and has tons of reflections. You have a nice neutral background, but with some more light you can bring this to life. Good photography is what will set apart a winning MOC from a good one every time, even if the latter is a better build. The last top down shot shows one aspect of the build that is a little to regular: the path is quite straight. It isn't as noticeable from the side, but if you have some small wedge plates in brown or white, you can angle them over the path to make it appear to be meandering, or you can add in a small quarter round tile to break up the straight line a bit. All in all, this is great first build and I love the detailed story! With respect to parts, you don't have to destroy all your sets to get pieces (although you certainly can). I keep some of my sets bagged after building so I or other family members can rebuild it. You can borrow a piece or mini from a set if you keep track of it, but this can be a pain for more than an occasional piece. I will sometimes find a set on sale and buy it just to part it out for MOCs, or I will simply order loose parts off of Lego.com to have on hand to build. As you make more MOCs, you'll start to notice certain pieces that are helpful to have a handful of and won't break the bank (quarter round tiles in browns, greens and greys come to mind). Keep your eye peeled for the various small parts that add a lot of detail. If you're lucky, you can find some in bulk at your local Lego store (such as plant parts, etc.). You can sometimes find random bulk parts at a resale Lego shop too, where you can pick what you want off a large table and buy by weight. However you want to do it, keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see what Ellohan does next!

The contest is now officially closed. Thanks to all for participating! I know that a few of you weren't able to complete the full build by the deadline, but I am happy to see participation and excited to see the finished product when you have time to complete it! A congrats to @Ben S, who, as the only entry to Category B, wins the prize! You will of course receive feedback from the judges regardless. I must say, it was a very lovely build with the waves! For the Category A folks, sit tight as we begin scoring, and we will make announcements soon!

REMINDER: Contest ends today! Get your entries in by the end of the day (anywhere in the world)!

Welcome to Ellohan! Glad to have you aboard! I am excited to see his story as it unfolds!

Welcome! I hope you are able to find a home here. To answer your question, you can do whatever you like: post a sigfig and sit back and watch, sit and watch with no sigfig, ask questions, jump right in... we are very flexible here and laid back. We don't have any turn-based rules system or anything at the Guilds, just a build at your own pace freebuild system interspersed with challenges that you can participate in or not (although these have deadlines, there's still no formal turn based rules or whatnot). We focus on collaborative storytelling through builds, so that happens organically. One particular focus of the Guilds that we pride ourselves on is being a place where builders can learn, grow, and exchange ideas with one another. So welcome, and have fun! As for the profile pic... I uploaded mine long ago when the rules were different. There may be something in the general section about the exact dpi and sizing. I recall there being a specific limit on dimensions but that may be outdated. Anyone who has more recently posted a profile pic may be of more help. Any questions, just ask, or feel free to DM me or one of the other Guild leaders. Much of the history is in our sticky threads at the top of the forum with various links, although we are working our way backward chronologially, so some of the oldest stuff isn't up yet.

Yes! End of the day, July 1 is the deadline! Only one Cat B entry so far too!

Since this is an early comment, it will only be on the wall portion that is part of the technique: This is a very lovely use of the curved wall. A long, subtle curve, and it fits your room and contents well. The use of a pattern of sand green on top and bottom gives a very nice border, and the integration of the butterflies is a nice touch. The integration of the windows, and particularly the diplomas with their brick built frames, is excellent and difficult to achieve. You also chose well with the flex tubing to get the curtain rod to match the wall curve. The only suggestion I might have is that you could potentially slip a sand green tile or another tile color under the bottom of the wall to create a footer or base board for the wall bricks if you cared to, but that gap in a few places may have been intentional if it was meant to be an older building with gaps (such as what the mouse squeezes through).

So, as you have posted your project before the deadline, I will give you some WIP comments on the tower portion, in the case you have time and interest in incorporating anything before the final deadline. First, I would say that your tower looks very nice. It is very uniform, which makes sense because it is new. If you wanted to do a lot of work, you might add a window, but if you want some quick and easy details, you could swap out just a couple of tiles for ingots, or maybe a plate. Not a lot since this is a new build, but it could add a hint of detail. Similarly, a few stone corbels could be added in the form of a curved slope like 37352. None of that is necessary of course. The connection of the tower to the bottom plate has some gaps where the tower portion rests on the studs. Simple solution: put some tiles under the tower. If you want to make it look intentional, like they just finished filling the foundation dirt, you could use dark brown or maybe dark tan. Usually these gaps are hidden with plants, but since this tower is new, there would not be enough time for growth. A more time consuming endeavor would be to build up some plates at random angles over the tiles and make it look like dirt was pushed up against the base. If this were a military defense, and not an in-city tower, it would likely have a batter, which could be accomplished with 1x2 cheese wedges SNOTted. However, as a civilian structure, it looks fine. The stairs, as part of the tower and still a round design, look great. The gap between the stairs and tower are interesting, but that free-floating design might be a feature to attract attention (there are examples of this sort of architecture in the real world). Given that Sam is an engineer and a carpenter, that seems like it would fit right in and I could certainly see amazing engineering feats like this as a trademark. I will post my comments on the rest of the build after the judging so we keep things fair for all.

Previously: A Kind Stranger 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 Qualified: Those qualified for Category A prizes by posting WIP pictures by the May 1 deadline are: @Yoggington, @The Stad, @T-86(swebrickLUG), @SimWies, @LordDan, @kahir88, @Seagull King of Vaughan And those who are participating for fun and feedback, but not qualified for prizes: @MKJoshA (guild leadership) 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 Zîrân, 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. Next: Postlude - You'll Write, Right?