Grover

Amazing! I can't wait!

You're welcome! I completely agree with such feedback. I joined this forum to grow as a builder and learn, and I feel that I was able to do so through detailed feedback, so I try to return the favor. Sadly, I have not had a lot of time lately to build, as I have been moving, dealing with a tremendous amount of non-Lego related life things, but I've recently had that slow down a bit and am now starting to unpack my Lego in their permanent home, so hopefully I will be able to contribute some builds to the forum as well and maybe we can get things moving some more!

This is a really interesting and might I say artistic build. The interesting contrast of the muted sand blue and dark brown against the bright white and lime is very startling, and yet they work. The combination of the two palettes is also somewhat contrasting, and yet it also works. The elevation change is, in my opinion, the real standout of the build, even if it is somewhat subtle by comparison, since it makes the waterfall feasible and really brings the piece to life. The buildings are very nice, and I particularly like the door, although I would be concerned that the house would flood with the spring rains! I think it's just the angle of the picture, but the waterfall appears to go uphill just before cascading downward. A plate offset to look like foam/mist or maybe dropping that area 1 plate might help (or another angle on the pic). The butterfly is a great touch, and I appreciate your keeping to one color of flower. Too often I see multicolor flowers everywhere, and the builds subconsciously seem unrealistic for it, but it looks good here. Well done!

This photograph is crazy good! I love how it's almost entirely Lego, and you have a ton of depth. The foreground of course has the beautiful stained glass windows. I see a ship in the window on the left, am I right? The upside down pistons for pain cups is great, and I love how the scene tells the story of what's going on with the windows in the town square. In the back, the round building is quite nice, particularly with more stained glass, and the hammer door arch in the new 1x2 round plates is clever. The blurry fencing looks very good, and the lack of focus helps sell the weathered look on the tudor building in the back. What looks like a tower or windmill in the background is sold as higher ground, so the entire picture has the feel of some elevation change, although the build itself appears flat. You also have a lot of bold color here, but that's exactly what you'd expect for a stained glass window. Fantastic work!

I don't mind the current one either, but I wouldn't mind a contest or even just someone making a banner and posting it, then letting people vote on adopting it or not. As for making it, I would suggest that should be a labor of love that you enjoy doing regardless of whether or not people eventually vote it in so that you aren't upset if it is not used, and that you get some enjoyment and fulfillment out of it regardless.

Thanks! OK, I'm going to see if I can get some of this dye. I'm thinking thermostating the solution with a sous vide will keep a constant temp, then putting a timer on it, with something like a deep fryer basket so the batch can be lifted out and immediately quenched in cold water in another bucket.... I will look around and see what I can find. I will post results here.

Do you have a blog where you share your recipe? The temperature, time for dying, concentrations, and the dyes used all make a large difference, plus if you did any prep work (soaking in a surfactant or solvent first etc.). I'm curious because this process really looks good, much more so than I would have anticipated, and I would be curious to try it and play around. I'd also probably get some ABS from the hardware store, dye it, then cut it in half and see how far the dye penetrated. This is very interesting! Also, if you don't want the solution to go through your gloves, get a box of disposable nitrile gloves. Normal latex and natural rubber are useless against organic solvents.

The shades look pretty good. How do you dye them? I wasn't aware ABS took dyes that well.

Gorgeous windows! Love the overlaid detail there and the idea of the artists ruining their own work. The mosiacs are the real showcase here, but the tile work on the walls is quite nice as well. Thanks for posting the whole list, too!

Great scene! I love the all lego scenes. Makes the entire thing seem more realistic in my opinion. I noticed there was no furnace (I will not call it by its actual name as it has been co-opted by the obscene). It would likely be too hot for a market tent, but the glassblower would have to be close to it. It could be that the oven is just outside the tent, fed by sea coal or dense oily wood to keep the temperature up. The glassblower would also likely come into the tent to work the glass, since in direct sunlight it's difficult to see the color of the glass, which lets you know how to work it. You could get one of those trans orange martini glasses to show the glowing glass out of the furnace! Very nice!

Wow, what a great build, and a first build at that! I love it! You used the footprint very efficiently here, and the lines are all very clean and smooth. Your use of the stone wall as the base for the wood floor eliminated the 'brown plate in the grey wall' issue, and it looks great. I love that the tax collector up top is not at a right angle to the scene. The thief climbing up the wall just ahead of the patrol is well done and funny! The stonework on the outer wall is really fantastic, and you have a great use of the tiles to interlock at the corner, which is not particularly easy to do. The Tudor section up top looks nice, and I appreciate how you chose the colors to be visible on both sides to save on space on this small footprint requirement. I also appreciate that you took the time to think of lighting and included torches, a nice detail sometimes overlooked. Lastly, the inclusion of a few masonry bricks on the inside of the wall helps sell the 'bricked' look from the outside without having to make another tiled inner wall. Great job, and look forward to more of your work!

Gorgeous! Massive, of course, but you have a lot of detail there. I appreciate that despite the size of the structure, you kept the same color scheme of LBG + sand green accents. I think that helps sell the effect. I also like that you're building in Nocturnus (go Nocty!). There's a lot of fun scenes, and I love that it's interactive with the kids. I would encourage anyone who likes this to check out the Flickr album, as the pictures are much larger and detailed there!

As an afterthought.... is this a rubber tree? I bet it smells awful when you burn the wood...

Louis! You're back! I am excited. What a beautiful build to make a return with too! Love the tires on the tree trunk, and the overall dark/light contrast looks fantastic. I love your attention to detail, with the strings hanging down from the tree and the perfectly placed snow on the leaves. In my opinion, the snow only on the tops of the leaves makes the brain see a more realistic picture. I see white limbs thrown on top of other limbs frequently to give an 'idea' of snow on leaves, but it looks more like an artists rendering. This looks more like a photograph, as the snow would fall down between the leaves. Similarly, you have a few lavender plates on the ground to simulate the leaves that fell due to the weight of the snow, which looks great. The thick irregular base does a great job showcasing the 3D nature of the tree roots and looks very good. Outstanding build!

Amusingly, almost 2/3 of all animals in medieval a town were fowl, so you really need about 300 more chickens!

Correct. It was on B&P for about 2 weeks. I called in a day after that and it wasn't on the website but they were able to manually add it. Then a couple of weeks later, it disappeared entirely. But it was briefly on B&P in 2020 to the public (I was not part of a LUG at the time), as evidenced by my order pic:

Thank you! I found the wool on a Flickr somewhere and loved it, so I adapted it. Sadly, I didn't get a good shot, but the guy shearing the sheep is holding one of the energy blasts in white in his hand and it looks like a handful of wool! Thanks! I love the HP cups. I hope they have more colors in the future. The Duplo sheep is a throwback to an older build of mine in the same universe (or the redux of it if you prefer). Well spotted! I noticed the fish was coming in a lot of colors so have tried to collect them all! Thank you on the well technique, I think I spent more time on that than the rest of the build, but was happy when it was done. I always enjoy placing the minis to humorous effect if I can, too! Thank you, although it is really a modification of something similar I saw elsewhere (and would love to credit but don't know where it is). Glad you liked the well and the humor of the Duplo sheep! Thanks, and glad you clicked on the hidden contents! I hid them because they don't contribute to the story, but I think that overall shot is probably the best one.

Oooh, love this! The barn-reminiscent roof angles that change, the nice stacking of the slope curves on the roof, and the slight overhang of the second level are really fantastic features. The bold color choice of the red and black on the upper floor opposes the stone base and brown wood nicely, and yet compliments the sand green without looking like a Christmas display (as regular green would probably do). Two thumbs up for the brick built bull. It's clear what it is, and clever in its implementation, plus bonus for having the old chrome bull shield! Funny enough, although it's part of the mini, your placement of the elf hair on the mini at the door is quite nice as the star ornament in her hair picks up some light and draws attention to that area of the build. Double thumbs up again for the old school shutters! I wish they had the cross hatched lattice windows in that old style! The skeletal horse in the stable cracks me up. What are the plants made of on the side? I recognize most of the pieces except the one that has the petals on it. The interior is great, and you did a fantastic job packing in all the details without junking it up with too much stuff (I struggle with this!). The opening of the build is well done, too. Having built some things like that, I completely understand when you say it is tricky, because it is! Really awesome build!

This is a spectacular build! I think it may be my favorite winter build ever. I love how the snow lays on the ground, and the creative use of the claw pieces for snow-laden branches. The white crowns are fantastic, and your positioning of the icicles straight down is awesome. The inclusion of the aqua is very subtle but really striking. I also like how you have the pale yellow leaves to signal slightly snow dusted golden leaves beneath. The mix of pines and birch is great too. Your SNOT rockwork is very realistic, and you have a really clever use of the trans pink fern pieces inside that goes well with the 'tellurites' (which are both clever and cute). You make some amazing use of the new brown branched pieces. This whole thing is a shining example of how you can make a Lego scene look natural, which is not easy. Amazing job!

Gorgeous! I can say many of the same things here as I said about @Sympatik Brick's build: the rockwork is outstanding, the color choices are grand, the border is awesome... lots of great stuff. There's a few small ways they differ, such as the little shrine carved into the hillside that I adore and most obviously the carriage. Kudos to you, getting an all black build to have that much definition is difficult. The lattice windows, titanium wheels, and the art on the side help, but the texture really pushes it to clarity. The action shot of the orc jumping down is great! The easter egg goat is hilarious. The closeup of the drow heads is good, too! The only thing that looks a little staged is the horses rearing up, but they are pretty limited there, particularly on the harness. I absolutely love that you wrote a story to go with it, and it's not just a couple of sentences to sketch something, it's an actual story that moves the plot in Embervale along. Fantastic! Love seeing your builds!

Absolutely gorgeous! This is a work of art. The scene is fantastic, from the stylish and elegant border to the bi-level build with very complimentary color choices. The contrast of the fall foliage against the olive is great, and you do a nice job incorporating the browns. The rockwork in particular is great! I love that it's not just a bunch of stacked slopes and that you took the time to do SNOT with some wedge slopes. The cat people mixed with the various hoods and armor looks nice, and the chariot is a great shape and it's a fantastic idea to use 2 wargs to pull it. The waterfall provides a nice contrast and the SNOT there has some nice froth to the water, although the rest of the scene is so well done it doesn't really stick out as the focus of the piece, which I think is to your credit. I appreciate the extra shot of the build without the minis, as it gives us a good look at your technique. Great work! Keep it up!

This is ridiculous. I have had to come back to this multiple times and browse through the Flickr album several times to really see it all. It's an amazing build. I love all the color, the dragons, the scale, the massive mountain... and really, the mountain is superb. So many times I see a 'mountain' at a display that is underwhelming. You did a great job making it magnificent, and even moreso by adding the interior. All the little funny things with the dwarves, the wizards near the lava... it's great. I wish some of the Flickr pictures had more light, but maybe it was supposed to be at night? Love the way you did the water, it looks great with depth. Your round towers are also outstanding. Speaking from experience, they are a hassle to get looking good, and yours are great. The level of detail with all the flowers and plants is great, too. Outstanding!

Welcome to the guilds! I'm sorry that I'm late to do so. Thank you for joining, and sharing this wonderful build! You have a lot of great things going on here. I love that you have a detailed story with an obviously thought out plotline that you can go in many directions with. The sand green Avalonian colors on the house and the dark green flag are perfect. I love the crops in the field. You have a variety here that look fantastic together. The thought of the pitchforks, the cow, and the various crops, plus the forced perspective windmill are great. I also particularly like the us of the new inverted 1x2 rounded slopes under the front of the cart to break up the square plate corner. I think the real standout here is the market stall with the minis. The blue and white really pop here as contrast and draw attention to the scene where all the action is. I love the idea of the spy passing notes, and the inclusion of the scrolls in the food barrels is fantastic. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to more adventures of Ethelfieda!

As we have come to expect of you, this is an outstanding build. I always love how you manage to pack a lot of detail into a small space without making it cluttered. I particularly like the like the visual balance here. The snow looks very natural, and you have done something very difficult: you have managed to take a build that is only a few colors (mostly shades of brown) and made it look organized and not chaotic. The color blocking of the sawn lumber, roof, and building really helps here. On top of that, the vertical slats on the building help separate it from the rest of the build. I also love the mud puddles! I vote for this set after the Viking Village!

Beautiful! You have a great eye for color and a small, crisp build with detail. The light blue pops, and the interspersed colors in the wares is great. The traditional palm build is good, and their clutter looks great. Love the base with all the twigs and paintbrushes sticking up. The wands on the sprue look great for the counter face detail! The cord woven shutters and the sprue plant wrapped vine is great as well. Good job!