Darnok

The scenic build is solid, but I absolutely love the bird builds - all of them. The differentiation between male/female examples of Phasianus Celestiales is excellent, the use of fan and feathers for the songbird is clever, and those sparrows are cute - and only five pieces per bird! Well done!

@TheCubbScout and maybe @Bregir or somebody else from The Powers That Be can help too? Just a couple of questions, since this is my first AMCRA: Which of those actions relate to which option as per the AMRCA rules ("break off"/"safe"/"risky"/"well planned")? With other AMCRA outcomes I often have read things like "the build must show..." - are there any conditions on the required builds here? I do not understand the logic behind the "abandon ship" option: a ship without crew will either sink in storm or be driven to god-knows-where (and how is the crew then able to get back to it?). So this option does not make any sense to me. The first option is similar: how can a ship weather a storm with all of the crew detained below deck? I already have an idea to solve this situation, but some clarification on the points above would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Nomnomnom... Of course. A bakery maybe? Coal would be needed to fire the ovens.

My only grief with this, in contrast to the other two parts: I have no continuation to look forward to. Write more, write it now, I need my next fix of pombe! Brilliant writing once again, and backed up by a clever little build. I like the simple facade and the relatively detailed interior. The minifig posing is just perfect. All in all: I love it, more please. More! MOAR! Pretty please.

Hilarious! Man, you have a gift for comedy. As for the build: clever use of that cornman suit, and nice overall jungle scene. I would suggest to angle the three-leaved round bricks against each other, right now it looks a bit clinical. I will steal the idea of using apples upside down though, that is looking great!

Sweet microbuild! Not only the ship, but the port as well. Reminds me of two things: I really need to continue with building microships, and using Joker hairpieces for trees (I have... maybe five of them). On top of this, as usual, your story and humour do not disappoint, I love it. Well done!

A BotBS cookbook maybe?

I like the transparent waterfall, the light shining through gives it a somewhat mysterious look. But the real star here is of course the flower build - nicely done! It looks very "natural", so the build being quite fragile is... well, only natural. I like it a lot, and would love some additional pictures from different angles. I just had a look at some of the results over there: sweet! How do you think this (or my) build would have done?

Just in time to still claim it being released in January, here is the second issue of the WTCM: If there are any questions regarding this months offer, just ask in this thread. Any "readers letters", suggestions or ideas for articles for the next issue are highly appreciated! As is C&C for this issue. I hope you enjoy the read!

I see. To me that seems to be quite intransparent, but if it works it works. As a follow-up question: when can we expect the results for this challenge? I checked the previous ones, and the timeframe differed widely, from around ten days or two weeks to more than six weeks.

Very clever construction indeed! I did not suspect any shenanigans from the first picture at all, my only thought was "what an impressive structure". Well done!

Finally, my entry for Category C:

617, Day 21 of the 12th month, In the jungles of Celestia, Day of the Winter Solstice The sun is down as I am writing this by the light of our campfire. Today has been a gift from the gods, with wonders shown to me I did not dare to dream of. There is much to tell, starting a few days ago. Moving on from the riverside pond, we soon realised that the terrain ahead was impassable: swampy in most places, with the many ponds and the jungle vegetation obstructing our way forwards. Luckily Jewel discovered an easily passable rivercrossing nearby, which took us on the other other side of the river for the first time in our journey. The jungle was as dense as before, but apart from that there were no additional obstacles. We moved on, staying close to the river where the vegetation was a bit lighter. The terrain kept rising slowly over the next days, but there was nothing else worth mentioning. Until today of course. Shortly after sunrise we came across a few ruined pillars that were brickbuilt - a definite sign of civilisation, even though we had not seen a single minifig since the start of our expedition. Finally, a few hours further down the river we found an ancient temple, or what was left of it. I only assume it was a temple once, for there were paintings on the wall of a small tower on our side of the river, as well as crytal-topped structures on the bigger building on the other side. While the jungle had overgrown the site, we were able to find a little path through it. With the temple entrance in clear sight, one challenge was still ahead of us. A long time ago the big temple had a bridge crossing the river, but it was in ruins now, only overgrown remains still standing. The solution to our dilemma had quite some irony in it: for all the trouble the jungle had given us in the last weeks, now for once it paved the way for us. One of the huge trees nearby had lianas hanging from its branches, and we were able to swing across the river on one of them! Now all that was left was to climb the overgrown cliffs on which the temple was built... It was past midday when we reached the top of the cliffs, but the temple ruins were now right in front of us. I felt like a young boy again, eager with anticipation for what we would find! My feelings were justified, for inside the temple we found not only an ancient place of worship, indicated by statues of what were most likely gods or holy ancestors in the archway and mythical paintings on the walls. In one corner of the hall there was a giant orchid sitting in hte sunlight coming through a window nearby. I do not know if it was the most beautiful one in the whole world, but both me and Jewel were sure it was the most beautiful orchid we had ever seen in our life. I took my time to study this magnificent orchid - naming it Orchidacea Maxima, or "Supreme Orchid" - in more detail. I even did some paintings, to tell the rest of the world of its beauty. By the time I was done, the sun was already close to the skyline... But the temple had one more wonder to share, as I found when I stepped out of the hall onto the ruins of what must have once been a balcony for observations of the sky. As I looked at the small tower we had come across in the morning, I noticed that the sun was exactly between its ornamented structures as it touched the horizon. As I only noticed then, today was indeed the day of the winter solstice. This was no incredible! Obviously these structures were lined up perfectly for this event, for this could not be an accident. So whoever had built this place must have had excellent knowledge of the suns movement - an advanced civilisation for sure! I shudder at the thought of what might have happened here. Whatever it was, there are only ruins left to tell about it. Who knew what else was around here? I had already decided what to do next, and told Jewel after nightfall. I wanted to move on, explore more of this area and the island around it, but felt I could only ask this of myself. Giving my letters to the Royal Society and the map I had done to her, I asked Jewel to leave me the next morning, and return to Jameston on the same route we had used to come here - we had no mayor trouble so far, so I assumed it would be safe for her to do the journe back alone. To me great relief, she agreed. We would part ways tomorrow. =============================================================================== This post also acts as my entry for Category C of the Superb Orchid Challenge. This build was without doubt my biggest challenge so far. I consists of two modules, combining to one scene. Here are some more selected pictures, and even more in the spoiler tag: Here are some detailed pictures of both modules seperately, from eight angles and from above. The one on the low ground with the tower: The one with the high ground and the main temple: Finally, more pictures of the orchids macro build, including a "disassembled" view on the lower half: Building the macro orchid was fun, and finding a solution to build it in minifig scale was interesting too (and not as difficult as I had feared). Before somebody is asking: yes, that map at the hand is handdrawn, with all the small mistakes that come with it. I plan to continue Reinhards adventures on Celestia, but for now I need a break from the jungle! I hope you enjoyed the expedition so far, as always C&C are welcome.

617, Day 21 of the 12th month, In the jungles of Celestia, Day of the Winter Solstice The sun is down as I am writing this by the light of our campfire. Today has been a gift from the gods, with wonders shown to me I did not dare to dream of. There is much to tell, starting a few days ago. Moving on from the riverside pond, we soon realised that the terrain ahead was impassable: swampy in most places, with the many ponds and the jungle vegetation obstructing our way forwards. Luckily Jewel discovered an easily passable rivercrossing nearby, which took us on the other other side of the river for the first time in our journey. The jungle was as dense as before, but apart from that there were no additional obstacles. We moved on, staying close to the river where the vegetation was a bit lighter. The terrain kept rising slowly over the next days, but there was nothing else worth mentioning. Until today of course. Shortly after sunrise we came across a few ruined pillars that were brickbuilt - a definite sign of civilisation, even though we had not seen a single minifig since the start of our expedition. Finally, a few hours further down the river we found an ancient temple, or what was left of it. I only assume it was a temple once, for there were paintings on the wall of a small tower on our side of the river, as well as crytal-topped structures on the bigger building on the other side. While the jungle had overgrown the site, we were able to find a little path through it. With the temple entrance in clear sight, one challenge was still ahead of us. A long time ago the big temple had a bridge crossing the river, but it was in ruins now, only overgrown remains still standing. The solution to our dilemma had quite some irony in it: for all the trouble the jungle had given us in the last weeks, now for once it paved the way for us. One of the huge trees nearby had lianas hanging from its branches, and we were able to swing across the river on one of them! Now all that was left was to climb the overgrown cliffs on which the temple was built... It was past midday when we reached the top of the cliffs, but the temple ruins were now right in front of us. I felt like a young boy again, eager with anticipation for what we would find! My feelings were justified, for inside the temple we found not only an ancient place of worship, indicated by statues of what were most likely gods or holy ancestors in the archway and mythical paintings on the walls. In one corner of the hall there was a giant orchid sitting in hte sunlight coming through a window nearby. I do not know if it was the most beautiful one in the whole world, but both me and Jewel were sure it was the most beautiful orchid we had ever seen in our life. I took my time to study this magnificent orchid - naming it Orchidacea Maxima, or "Supreme Orchid" - in more detail. I even did some paintings, to tell the rest of the world of its beauty. By the time I was done, the sun was already close to the skyline... But the temple had one more wonder to share, as I found when I stepped out of the hall onto the ruins of what must have once been a balcony for observations of the sky. As I looked at the small tower we had come across in the morning, I noticed that the sun was exactly between its ornamented structures as it touched the horizon. As I only noticed then, today was indeed the day of the winter solstice. This was no coincidence! Obviously these structures were lined up perfectly for this event, for this could not be an accident. So whoever had built this place must have had excellent knowledge of the suns movement - an advanced civilisation for sure! I shudder at the thought of what might have happened here. Whatever it was, there are only ruins left to tell about it. Who knew what else was around here? I had already decided what to do next, and told Jewel after nightfall. I wanted to move on, explore more of this area and the island around it, but felt I could only ask this of myself. Giving my letters to the Royal Society and the map I had done to her, I asked Jewel to leave me the next morning, and return to Jameston on the same route we had used to come here - we had no mayor trouble so far, so I assumed it would be safe for her to do the journe back alone. To me great relief, she agreed. We would part ways tomorrow. =============================================================================== This post is my entry for Category C of the Superb Orchid Challenge. If you want to follow the surrounding story of Reinhards expedition on Celestia, have a look at this thread. This build was without doubt my biggest challenge so far. I consists of two modules, combining to one scene. Here are some more selected pictures, and even more in the spoiler tag: Here are some detailed pictures of both modules seperately, from eight angles and from above. The one on the low ground with the tower: The one with the high ground and the main temple: Finally, more pictures of the orchids macro build, including a "disassembled" view on the lower half: Building the macro orchid was fun, and finding a solution to build it in minifig scale was interesting too (and not as difficult as I had feared). Before somebody is asking: yes, that map at the hand is handdrawn, with all the small mistakes that come with it. I plan to continue Reinhards adventures on Celestia, but for now I need a break from the jungle! I hope you enjoyed this, C&C are welcome.

I want to get this over with at the start: an awesome entry for the challenge, absolutely amazing! The three builds on their own are all good, but it is their use in the story that makes the whole thing shine for me. Plus the incredible golden orchid statue of course. Just brilliant! You managed to use your builds to tell a story, rather than tell a story to use the builds - something many other entries are really lacking. It is this approach that makes your entry really stand out for me, being my favourite one in Category C so far. There are better builds in other entries, but no better coordination between builds and storytelling. Well done!

Nice story, and the ship build is pretty sweet, well done! I also can not help but snigger about that letter - clever!

Interesting observation, I too woulld like to know about this. In a slightly related matter: how are the winning entries determined? Nowhere is it said who decides, and based on what system. The "judging criteria" are worded rather loose, with lots of room for interpretation. Some more transparency would be most appreciated.

Solid little build, with overall good colour choices (although the door looks out of place). I agree with the double archway being great, especially with those excellent ornaments right above the door. I also absolutely love the brickbuilt MAESTRO flag - awesome detail! I think the building would look better with a back wall, as the white background shining through the windows detracts from the otherwise good presentation. Apart from that I see no flaws, just a clever little building. A nice addition to Jameston, and hopefully a starting point for future stories. Well done!

Some solid builds, I like the rocks in the physical one. P.S.: You are on Celestia, not Cascadia (thread title!).

We have three cats at the moment, and my family had at least one cat for most of my life. As long as they sleep - which they do a lot - they are not an issue. The rest of the time... eh. Among other things, our cats have "achieved": pushing builds off the table by accident pushing builds off the table on purpose running into/through piles of bricks on the ground/table/wherever sitting (and later sleeping) on building instructions while I want to build something playing ball with single bricks If asleep however, they make nice motives for pictures with some types of builds. Here is a spider I did, stalking some "sleeping beauties":

Another question about licensing: where do fishermen belong to in terms of categories? I can see a (weak) argument for "commerce" (technically there are "money and goods exchanged"), and equally good ones, at least in my opinion, for both "plantation" (interpreted as an aquaculture) and artisan (in a broader sense, fishing as a craftsmanship). How was this handled in the past, and what are peoples opinions on the matter?

I assume this is the first part of an ongoing story?

Great idea, instantl bookmarked! Thank you, this is a really nice collection.

If it is only selling things made by others, I would count it as a commerce property. If it is a "Mom'n'Pop" store with some selfmade bread, cakes and lemonade, which also sells egg and bacon from the chickens and pigs living right behind the house, it could also be an artisan. In my opinion there needs to be something handmade or manufactured for an artisan property - it comes down to what your build actually shows.

A sweet litle build, with a surprising amount of details for the interior, well done! I am a big fan of a "playability approach" to building, so I really appreciate both of these - being able to combine them is of course awesome.