Grover

I can't seem to figure out how to put a spoiler in now to hide text unless clicked on. Is there a guide somewhere? Old posts with spoilers still work so this obviously is possible.

Thank you! I am glad you enjoy seeing your characters stories weaving into some of the Avalonian story. I'll keep them going and when you have time, you can stop in and read! The microscale is kind of funny, I'm not a huge microscale fan, but I keep updating the microscale build for every story drop I have so one can monitor the progression of the castle build as it happens! Thanks! I spent a lot of time with the stone setup. The batter is a little fiddly, as are the round walls, but I'm really happy with the look and stability. As the castle walls go up, I'm going to stick with the technique and will hopefully have removable floors. I still have to figure out how to incorporate the arrow loops and the windows on the round tower, but it's coming along! And thanks for the congrats on the move/setup. As anyone who has moved with a Lego collection knows, it is *not* easy to do. My last place was a temporary rental and I was there almost 3 years. Sooo glad to have a permanent space again. I'm hoping that we can get some more action back into the Guilds soon!

Castle Construction | Grover | Avalonia Hops Farm | Grover | Avalonia

I am finally organized and back in the saddle. It has been quiet around here, and I'd love to see some more awesome builds from our new members, so it's time for me to step up and get some building going on for Avalonia from some of the older guard (although I myself am not of the first generation on GoH). The latest installment of Prenmôr is below: Can we do spoilers anymore? The latest update killed BBCode, so I'm unsure how to do spoilers, and I used to use them to make my posts shorter. Not sure what to do about that.

The Tales of Lady Gwenllian Castle Construction at Prenmôr The winter in Prenmôr had been cold but largely uneventful. No more work on the castle was possible with the cold weather, which prevented any new mortar from setting, and the partially built walls were covered with straw and daub to insulate them until spring. Aside from winter brewing, which kept Lady Gwenllian and some of her household busy, there was little to do besides repairs and sharpening tools. The same had not been true for Ambassador Gisela. Gisela had learned from her father Staffen that the revenge for her brother's death was at hand, and she had traveled back to Varlyrio to take part. The usual fraught and overly complex machinations Varlyrio was known for had transpired, but this time her father wound up on the losing side. Staffen had been betrayed by cowards, as she told it, and Poppa had been kidnapped in Kaliphlin from her secret location, with her bodyguard Tsiri, the Kaliphlin Champion, having been murdered in the process. Gisela, ruthless as ever, had bribed, threatened, and eviscerated her way through the secrecy surrounding the kidnapping, and, again as she told it, rescued her sister from a fortified residence in Kaliphlin where she was held captive by mercenaries paid by the De Carlo family who (at the time) sat in the Rego's chair in Varlyrio. Presently, Lady Gwenllian walked through the brisk spring air, observing progress on the castle construction with Gisela and her younger sister Poppa struggling to keep up with their long strides. Mohatu, ever watchful, trailed not far behind. "So you did not have to fight the De Carlos?" Lady Gwenllian asked. "No, m'lady, only the mercenaries, who were no match for our hired muscle. The De Carlos had left Poppa with them, since they themselves were too incapacitated from the qui amat capras disease." "Isn't that the uniquely caprine venereal affliction arising from direct contact?" Lady Gwenllian asked. "Yes," Gisela nodded. "It is fatal and victims deteriorate quickly once symptoms appear, but it can lay dormant for years. Fortunately, it cannot be passed from person to person. Unfortunately, or so it would appear, there was a family proclivity for a, er.... herd mentality, since few of the De Carlos were spared," Gisela quipped. "I guess that's one way to ... goat," Lady Gwenllian commented, smirking at her own jest and rather proud of herself for being able to make a pun in the Historican language that was still at times a little new to her. "I am glad that you are back. The winter allowed some fine brewing, and we are now have a large stock to sell. Are you ready to find some trading partners?" she asked. Gisela smiled her crooked, mischievous smile. Seeing the expression on Gisela's face, Poppa skipped a step, understanding the trouble it meant. However, she knew that Gisela's scheming would not be directed at her, so she picked her skirt hem up off the ground a bit more and ran forward another few steps to catch up. "Yes, I believe there are some nearby dwarven communities that are always thirsty," Gisela said. Lady Gwenllian nodded her approval. "We will need plenty of gold to finish the structure." She turned to face the construction and nodded toward the workers. Gisela and Poppa watched the work with her. "Why are the walls so thick, m'lady?" Poppa asked. Lady Gwenllian smiled. "The walls are thick to stop rocks and other devices fired from siege equipment, and to hold all the weight of the stone above." She pointed to the round tower and wall section being constructed in front of them. "The lower part of the wall flares out, and is called a batter. It not only strengthens the construction because the base is wider than the top, but it also deflects missiles dropped from the defenders on the wall above out into the attackers below." Poppa's eyes widened. "The inner and outer part of the wall is solid stone that is held together with mortar, but the inside is filled with gravel, lime, and other small rocks. This provides solidity and also pours out onto attackers if the wall is ever breached, say, with a battering ram." Lady Gwenllian pointed to the scaffolding. "The walls are built with natural placement for scaffolding. The workers call them 'putlog' holes, and logs are stuck into these recesses in the stone wall. These form a ramp upward, and are braced to the ground with other logs. To these are added a ramp and then further supports. Every so often, there is another set of holes. In this way, ramped scaffolding all around the structure allows workers to slide heavy mortar, stones, or gravel up the ramp without having to lift and carry it up stairs." "Putlog holes at the top of the wall are even and allow for hoardings to be installed on the walk in times of war. These project out over the wall and allow cover for defenders to drop missiles and other weaponry onto attackers." Poppa watched the workers for a while, fascinated with all the simple, yet rather ingenious engineering and design principles that went into this structure. Gisela tugged at Poppa's sleeve. "Let us return to Lady Gwenllian's house. You shall remain under constant guard until we are assured the threat from Varlyrio is passed, and that may not be for some time." Lady Gwenllian nodded, and turned to Poppa, bending over and putting her massive hand on Poppa's small shoulder. "I give you my word I will protect you while you remain in my care," she said to Poppa, who smiled up at the enormous warrior. Lady Gwenllian couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a slight smile of approval on Muhato's leonine face out of the corner of her eye. ---------- Well, it has been a while! After my (hopefully final) move, it took quite a while to get the house fixed up and my Lego collection organized, but I am back in business now and hope to be putting out some more builds soon! It took me some time to learn how to insert images now that BBCode is gone, and I'm still unsure how to do spoilers or if that is even possible, so hopefully this post isn't too cluttered. Glad to have Lady G moving along again, and hope that we can get some new fires lit here in the guilds. As always, C&C welcome!

Beautiful! Love the inlaid mosiac cheese slopes combined with the base of the swivel 2x2, plus some sideways fences for windows. As others have commented, you have a lot of nice texture here without being over-greebled. The vine over the arched doorway is quite nice. The sagging roof is well done, and the cantilevered deck looks nice. I love the stacked windows with grating, looks great. The stone arch is a little open textured. If you don't mind sacrificing width, you can stack cheese slopes and plates inside the arch to make a more detailed stone arch. I love the detail on the brown roof, and your color blocking combined with the varied roof heights makes a very nice, flowing build. The sideways palisade bricks are some fun texture on the bottom of the Tudor too. Well done!

Love the old style castle. It would be really interesting to see the motte and bailey next to all the iterations until the more modern castles of the 13th and 14th c. Nice work!

Love it! YOu did a great job capturing the Scottish castle feel. That reddish color and square tower motif is great. I wish that Lego still made sand red!

Great wagon! The unevenness and run down look to the roof goes well with the whole motif!

Fantastic! In my opinion, you did two of the hardest things right: got proportion down, and made the dragon head look good. Even some of the brick built dragons Lego offers fail on one or the other of these points. Nice work!

Gorgeous! I voted for it, as I do with all the medieval mocs, but this is a real standout. I love the various levels built on to the uneven mountainside, and the attention to detail on the brick on the round tower. Well done!

Very nice! I love the brick built shields. You have a lot of great detail, particularly in the playability such as the removable walls. The whole thing has the feel of a genuine set. Nice work!

You're welcome! I found that there are a lot of subconscious things that our mind sees all the time and isn't even noticed until it's odd. Such as birds not sitting level with the ground (such as a Lego bird on a sloped roof not level), or flags, cloaks etc. not blowing the same direction in the wind, etc. I even noticed that birds will all face into the wind if the wind is reasonably strong. If these details are present, we ignore them without thinking. If they are not, or are in conflict with one another, our mind can sometimes see something is amiss but we can't tell what it is, so I try to pass along these little tips I have found over the years.

Beautiful! I love the all Lego picture. The dark green gives a great mood, and I love your use of the gold lattices for fencing. I like how the spectators are divided by their champion's side, and you have some nice tiling detail for the ornate work on the list bleachers. The open door leading back into the background looks great too. Love the action pose on the jousters. Well done!

Great group of characters, and I like the brick built bow!

This build is nothing short of spectacular. The build itself has some amazing depth with the diagonal tiles at the front, the intricate detail on the clock, the kitten on the upstairs railing, the carvings on that beautiful fireplace, all of the wonderful little items on the shelves (!) and the masterful use of arches throughout. The color is cohesive throughout and flows beautifully, and as always you have the best eye for minifigs. The build notwithstanding, the photography and lighting is superb. I love the light coming in through the windows, and you managed to capture that without throwing shadows the covered parts of the build. This whole build is a real marvel, and I love that it follows an intricate, over-arching story. I love when you post, because I know the builds are going to be awesome! Keep up the great work!

Love the build! This is pretty large, but you still have some great detail in it. The huge heap of gold items is impressive! The inlaid gold on the walls, as well as some of the stonework, like the upside down tiles near the globes, and the wedge pieces on the column sides look really good. I like the story, too, although I have a couple of practical questions, such as if there is a hole in the corner of the wall the dragon sits in. If not, the dragon is not very enormous and probably balled up under the treasure, in which case it's not a lot of treasure. If there is a hole, then there's many more questions, like how deep is the hole and where does it go, and how does the dragon exit the treasure pile? I like how the story and build are vague enough to allow for various interpretations. Awesome build!

This is art. Beautiful. Love all the color, the details... is that portal a bunch of lightsaber parts stacked vertically? It looks great. The various hues you have here really look like a fantasy painting. The chandelier, plus all the detail you put into the round roof is amazing. The brick built background through the window is awesome, and I love the humorous details of the Ninjago skull and the bantha horns in the mask to make the demon head! The mini posing is great and really captures the action, and I love the story to go with it. Lots of tension and cliffhangers there! Outstanding!

Welcome to Avalonia! Love it! I can't wait to see more of Sam!

That photography is nuts! I thought it was a comic book drawing at first glance! You did not only a great job capturing color and light, but your plane of focus is spot on. Nice detailed build with some outstanding photography!

Welcome! More Avalonians! This is a great group for Avalonia, and I love the inclusion of the dog! Great mix of new and old parts, and it's good to see the Avalonian colors in a build again!

You found a use for the white lion!! Seriously, I looked at that thing and thought "Is this an albino lion?" I couldn't figure out what to do with it, but you did great! Love the build. The seal is kinda funny, although a bit sad, as it should be, but very National Geographic channel. The pines are nice with their dusting of snow and the owl peeking out, but I LOVE the cliff. The rockwork with the overhanging snow is beautiful. The smooth snow drifts look good, and the bits of snow hanging down like icicles are a nice realistic touch. If you wanted to add anything, you might put small 1x1 indentations as pawprints of the snow lion arriving on scene! Really beautiful build, thank you for sharing, and keep up the good work!

That is some excellent work! I bet @soccerkid6 will be happy to see his Mitgardian shields from the Viking VIllage have been put to use in a Mitgardian build! The roof of the clip tiles is great, as is the new tooth tile for the stone arch. The viking helmet over the Ninjago beard is awesome and looks like it was meant to be there! The off kilter flagpole looks very organic, and the use of the new curved trans piece for the falcon is very well done. The mounds of snow alongside the path look very natural as well. Given the velocity with which the torches appear to be blown, it would be fun to see the flags flying in the same direction, but this is pretty minor. The brick built door looks great, especially recessed as you have it, and you have some really nice, subtle slope work above the door. It's difficult to photograph the dark blue grey especially with the browns, and you did a very nice job. The detail you put in the tower with the stacked contrasting grey ingot bricks and the SNOT headlights sticking out is very well done: not too much, but enough texture to lend some detail and weathered look to the structure. I also appreciate the detail of the soldier in the hoardings above the gate just peeking out. Very nice build!

I’ll go through these day by day. 1. The fireplace is amazing. I love the lines you get with the high slope pieces. Absolutely gorgeous, and the upside down corner pieces on the candles matching with the rail plates is genius. 2. What a great blend of the new D&D CMF with some of the older parts (and I think one is from the Batman CMF if I am not mistaken…). I love how you make the days story time too! 3. Very nice 5 legged stool. 4. The new baby owl! I just got my first one yesterday. The hide rug looks nice as well. 5. Now, the amazing flower plus the lute and the music… this is art! 6. The dark red robes look great, and WOW, that is the best sitting in a chair build I have seen for a dress! 7. The logs under the owl statue are great. And how the builds come together! This is perfection! 8. I think you should design the Harry Potter book sets. 9. I’m usually not a fan of micro builds, but this is nice. 10. Wow. This micro is amazing. The water flowing and the upside down cupcake for the pine boughs is fantastic! 11. Very cute cabin. 12. Great micro with nice details on the house! 13. Wow, that’s a big frog! 14. This is a nice build, but my first question: What is the upside down crowns? A pine? The transition to the cone is a bit abrupt and I’m wondering if it’s a large pine that has lost boughs or something else. The whole scene together is nothing short of amazing, however! 15. Ha! The pixie! The leaves on the tree are well done and look organic. The trans pink leaves look good too. I wonder how to blend them into my scenes, but you make them look natural. 16. And the blue ones blend too! 17. The birch looks great with the mushrooms and the new sparrow from the D&D CMF line! 18. The Cornish pixies look great. 19. You use the new curved trans clear pieces well! 20. OK, wow, you have used a city hood, Dorothy’s body, and I think Leia’s dress to make a figure I would have never suspected of working. Amazing! 21. Very nice. The whole scene together looks great! I love the color! 22. The scrolls and lute look perfect here. 23. The bagpipes! Ha! What a great assortment of gifts! 24. The tree is awesome! That looks tricky getting all the ornaments on there, but it’s awesome! Really completes the scene, and the whole thing together is outstanding. I am sorry I have not had a chance to comment until now, but I have been enjoying this all season! Love it, and I hope to see more next year!

Very nice work! There are some slick builds in here. I am always amazed at the renders and how good they look. I like that you were able to keep some color themes all the way through, with that dark grey. Well done!