derEselausErgste

Perfect - lots of thanks So we have 3 Vikings, 5 Knights and 4 Pirate Girls. I would have preferred it the way round - 5 Vikings and 3 Knights, but it is ok.

I know the question is silly, but do we have any indicators about the numerical distribution of the different figs within a lot?!

I would pay in gold for a real, historical looking long bow...

Thats a nice chariot, indeed!

You are right, @Grover. I am just looking for a straw to cramp on.

Normally, I think we will be unlucky with the blacksmith shop just on the edge of production. I like the blacksmith a lot, but to be honest I like the forest castle much better. And unfortunately both sets do not fit really to each other. My biggest hope is that TLG did NOT recruit soccerkid as a designer to create new Friends sets. Please let this be the cue TLG will finally surrender to our demands.

Congrats, and well done, for sure. This one could be a breakthrough on „our“ way to a new castle series. And I really hope it will make it to the shelves, just as an avantgarde for the sets to come. If not...no, I am too happy this evening to think about this possibility.

Today just a small handicraft. The hall above the kitchen will need some windows - not just open breakthroughs, but real windows with glas. I made some tests and finally decided for this design: There is one small mistake: the middle traverse should end with one brick 49307 (Brick, Modified 1 x 1 x 2/3 No Studs, Curved Top), but presently I have this one only in lavender - Bricklink will send help soon. Ok, one more problem: easy to see the width of the wall / window is uneven, and as the windows should fit to the archs below, I will have to jumper the whole front (unless somebody has a better idea). But should work.

Thank You all for your compliments! @soccerkid6: You will not believe how many ideas I've already borrowed from You - or am planning to do so. Man, I think I spent houndreds of hours looking at Your tutorials at Brickbuilt, just awesome the mixed joints are some kind of idea fall-out: I bought big amounts of them for a future forest section around the castle, and the mixed joints trees are - of course - also taken from You. The whole castle will be some kind of tribute to You in the end.

As time goes by...the inner castle grows. I changed the design of the front battlement roof, and all in all it becomes bigger and bigger - much bigger than I planned in the beginning The small tudor building on the wall will be just a link between the building on the left (kitchen/hall/bower) and the tower to the right, so both parts will be higher than the tudor. The western wing is new. It will contain the Kitchen, a hall (above) and the bowers (side wing to the front). Easy to see I "borrowed" the kitchen design from Soccerkid6 - lots of thanks to him. The arcades are a mostly 1:1-copy of his arcades at the "Cider Cellar MOC", the kitchen itself looks a lot like his "Harburg Kitchen MOC". I love both MOCs, indeed Presently the tiler is at work, afterwards the stove fitter will start. To the west the front will be covered with some battlements. The look from the back (north) shows total chaos right now. At the end of the kitchen (here: in front of the kitchen) the keep will be founded. A look from above. At least the keep has to be built as a seperate module, as the inner castle right now weighs 8kgs already and will easely reach some 15-17 kgs in the end. It is quite clear a will need some dedicated room for the castle as soon as possible. Thats no problem in general, but i will have to uninstall my model railway. Thats a pitty, but it is necessary.

As he is quite specialised in castle themes, I have a little hope that TLG sales management already decided for new castle sets. At least we are allowed to dream, aren’t we?!

I just realized that our very well known forum and guild member @Soccerkid6 just moved to Billund to become an official Lego designer. Should be reason enough for some big cheers! I love his creations, and I am proud to say I copy lots of his techniques and details - presently I combine his Cider Cellar and Harburg Kitchen MOCs for my own castle. There is also a big question: now with him working for TLG, may we hope for a new series of castle sets? Would be great indeed!!!

It was indeed. I can remember i bought the Wall Section Set for €13,90 in "normal" toy Shops - wish I bought more of them.

Looks very authentic to me. Overall great, esp. the proportians! Ok, just one thing to mention: for the size of the carriage, perhaps two horses would do better?! Forget about it - You had the same idea before

Nice little scene, and the sheep’s are a „must have“. Looked for them at Brick Forge without success. Tell me why I do hate Mondays...

Wow, both figures are awesome. Both knight and viking are perfect for army-building, and the vikings helmet is just a Dream come true.

It's time for an update, and this time it will be real WiP - please prepare to be imaginative I made a start with the "inner castle", that will be a main part of the northern rampart. It is a small castle for it's own, with a tower called "keep" - without beeing a real keep, but who cares. We start with a birds eye look. Easy to see it is a total chaos right now. When fitted to the rest of the walls, the whole thing will be turned by some 45 to 66 degrees to the right. The castle itself is shaped as a rectangle, some 65cm wide and 45cm deep. At the moment I am using base plates, but i will change to normal plates, as base plates are always a pain to combine. Next a look from at the front - it will face to the south-east later on. The small tower in the middle is the gate house, as we can see at the following pic. The path leading to the gate (coming from left) is still missing. OK, honestly spoken nearly everything else is missing also at the moment. On the right side we can see the beginning of a tower, left from the gate house there is the base level of the future hall and kitchen building. A look at the gate from what will be south afterwards. As we can see, horses will not be able to enter this part of the castle. The look from the east. The last pic should grant the best overview. The gate house reaches 34cm at the moment, but the front facing buildings should come to a height of about 45cm, and the "keep" will be higher of course. t Can You imagine how it will look like in the end? I cant

Nice build. Lots of nice textures, and a really sturdy impression! Just one thing to mention: the height of the different towers seems to be quite equal. Perhaps it would be a nice idea to have at least one of them a bit taller.

Just lovely

Thanks a lot. Regarding "Held der Steine": I think he wont care. He is fighting his own wars with the Lego company I am just collecting bricks for the keep I am planning. To be exact it will be no real keep but something like an "inner castle". As it will be part of the northern battlements as well, it will help me also going on with the curtain walls. With a little luck I can show first steps on weekend - but I fear it will be more or less just the groundwork and some rocks perhaps.

Greetings! Nothing new from the castle walls so far. I worked on the storage house, but not enough to show any pictures - this will have to wait until next weekend. Just to do something different but the same grey walls on and on again, I tried something else. The castle will need some non-military buildings as well, shops and so on. So I tried my first tudor, a small bakery. Small indeed, as the castles kitchen will bake bread and cake also. Some things will have to be changed for sure: the door hinges have to be changed to black, the small woodden shelter at the backside is ugly and will be replaced. Most important I will have to change the roof. I had no idea about the colour, and so I choosed dark grey slopes, but I dont like it. Slopes are allright for the castles structures, but for the private buildings the roofs should be more delicate. Any idea will be welcome. Then I had to think about the castles "speciality", some goods or crafted work unique in style or quality. Not so easy. There are dozends of breweries and wine presses already, and the master black smiths count in hundreds. Another one will be just another one, and I was looking for something really special. At least I decided for some brickworks. Bricks are needed everywhere i nAvalonia and beyound, and those made here are the best you can get for money. The special quality is the result of generations of brick masters that made the really best out of it, but the real hidden secret is the oven and the linked technology of burning perfect bricks. And so I tried to made an oven - big enough to burn quite a lot of bricks at a time. The result seems not too bad for me. I would have preffered dark tan as the ovens colour, but as I lacked the bricks I had to switch to dark grey. Now the oven looks a liitle bit like a kind of medieval crematorium, but who cares. The oven is feeded from the front, while fire and maintenance are operated by two doors on the left side. The stairs to the upper maintenenace door looks a bit too clumsy presently, so I will switch to a 3-stud-wide one and will add a handrail also. And of course it will need a small workshop as well as a warehouse for the burnt bricks.

So here we go. Slowly, as I lack the routine to go on fast, but it should be ok. As You can see, the gatehouse still is WiP. Looked upon from the frontside, there is a small shelter for the gatehouse guard. Inside it is as simple as it can be, but at least it's equipped with a small fireplace - i took the one from the Harry Potter Advent Calender right to the gatehouse the owl tower will join the front. The left wing will house the castles storage as well as the Cellerars office - I just added some crates and barrels to get a first idea of the appearence. From the back side, you can see the two horse boxes, and on the right side of the gate another shelter...without fireplace this time. The left door wing is still missing.And - as always - no details yet. If we add the gate house to the already existing modules, we can get an idea how the castle will look from the front side: As I lacked the space needed, the module of the guards house (to the right behind the old palas building) is absent. The total width of the castle is 140 studs presently, or 109cm. So when the surrounding landscape will be added, the width will be arround 200 studs...but this will take a lot of time. The next step will be to finish the storage house. Afterwards I have to decide how to go on. In the back i have planned a keep with some surrounding buildings, sitting on top of a low cliff and so being a little bit elevated from the ground. The castle inside will be filled with some shops and houses, tudors mainly, and the rest of the wall has to be finished also. A lot to do, not 40 percent of the castle are "finished" at the moment, not to talk about the landscape and all the details. Thanks a lot for all the patience!

Wonderful idea and nicely made. I think we could have more Advent and Christmas postings here at Historic Themes.

Good morning my honoured Lords and Ladys, After quite a long period of illness the donkey is back. Sorry for the interruption, but it has been...necessary. I will go on with my work on the castle immediately and will post pics of the already known (bad) quality. I stopped when working on the gatehouse, and this is where I will start over again. Unfortunately the gate itself has been slipped by half a knob, for what there has been a reason why - but I can no longer remember

The Donkeys vote goes to @Servertijd