derEselausErgste

Very dwarfish indeed, i like it a lot! Very nice also the idea with two separate bases.

The trunk is awesome! Fits perfect to the size of the tree.

The photobackground has arrived - unfortunately I lack any kind of feasible artificial lighting, so I have to wait for tomorrow - and hope for the sun. In the meantime the maingate is growing - just in my mind, but I'm sure I can spend some hours on the weekend for practical realization.

I'm done with the vignette, but I have to wait for the white background to ensure something that looks similar to a real photo

A wonderful little scene - and of course the squirrel is just a sensation. Like it a lot!

What a cool gang. I think I will have to build the walls much higher to withstand this horned demon.

Thanks a lot I am always a little bit afraid this thread might be boring to read, and I am astonished how many people are visiting this topic - people I fear which could be disappointed about the castle itself and the speed with which I am going on. The buildings themselves are not the most interesting ones, and it will take a lot of time until I will get finished. I have just made a calculation, and I think the castle itself won't be completed before June, the little bit of surrounding landscape I have planned should take additional two months. At least I am trough with my vignette for our "Game of Thrones" competition, and so I can go on with the main gate, latest on weekend.

The Donkey also sends a warm welcome!

Just wait until the Donkey has completed his entry for the Avalonian Mini Contest - thereafter he will be renamed to „total“ The contest also hinders me to continue with the castle - I am old and can only concentrate on one task at once.

A wonderful little scene, with lots of different plants and one of the best trees I have ever seen. Unfortunately my own vignette would have to compete against in round two without a glance of a chance. But that’s not really a problem, as The Donkey will not reach round two Really a good job!

WONDERFUL! Can't tell what I like the most, it's just overhelming

Very nice, especially the small details like the frog within the pond!

Here we have the frame structure of the main gate. The backmost arch will guide the wooden gate, the two grommets will take the cable winch. Astonishingly the grating can be moved easily.

I feel honoured! The Portcullis is quite brick-demanding. The design has been "borrowed" by JesperAllens "Seawatch Keep". To fit into the archway, the whole construction has to be jumpered, including the wooden gate that will be placed behind. I'm not quite sure how this will work, but I'm confident it will do in the end. The portcullis itself still lacks black 1x1 tiles within the gaps, but as I had to realize, I'm quite short of them, so I first will have to order.

Both are beautiful creations with the highest level of realism - both could be real castles indeed. I'm not going to compete with, but I would be happy if this castle of mine would look half as good as those two. I'm just working on the portcullis for the main gate...what a fiddling

I am honoured It will take some time to clean all the bricks and sort them, and until thats finished my plastic buddies are safe. Lateron we will see. I made a quick update. First I reworked the roof section of the big tower - with 48cm presently "big" should be ok - and in my opinion it looks better now, more realistic than before. Although big enough, I'm planning to rename it to "Owl Tower" for some reasons. Please notice the colours shown are the double-green ones for Avalonia and the gold-red ones of the Marcher Lord who is the principal of the castle itself. Next I had to change the look of the guards house tower, which had been a total mess before. It's now smaller and should fit better to the rest of the arrangement. In addition I closed the pediment. The archway will lead to the battlement above peasants gate, and the panels on the ground will be covered by some small building - don't have an idea how it will look like. So lets have a look at the total site presently. The ground covered at the moment is some 30% of the total ground the castle will take in the end. There are still lots of changes I have to do: the roof of the small turret facing to guards square needs a redesign, as well as the oriel on the battlemet between the old palas and guards house. The old palas itself needs changes AND it's interior. The smithy on base floor will be replaced by additional space for arms storage, and a new, dedicated smithy will be established somewhere within the castle. I had planned to continue with the peasants gate, but I can also imagine to continue with the main gate, right next to the Owl Tower. Keep You informed.

Thanks for the answer Mylord, and yes, it would have been better to ask this within the Guilds section, sorry.

We will see. The longer i think the more figs I am planning to keep, and thats nonsense. Honestly, what should all that knights be good for? To overrun Nocturnia? If I keep some 50-60 figs I will still own an army of more than 200, including the newer ones. So maybe You have a chance to get that wolfes... I'm happy You like it. To my pleasure I found also those figs from 383, so both knights are mine too unfortunately the red visor is broken underneath the sight - not a big problem, but still a flaw, and from the red-and-tan shield of the black knight i scratched of the colour when I was a kid...I remember i had been sorry from the very moment I misused it that way. Perhaps I can find a substitution somewhere. I have been busy all the week, but today I will start to rework the roof of the big tower as well as that from the smaller one, and after that I will make a start with the peasants gate.

Lovely building - could be an original! The dark grey parrots are most important - when I exhumed my bricks from childhood days this week, I found not less then 13 of them. I think they can make their way as gargoyles for a chapel or a church.

Thx I have made a first listing: 67 mounted knights of various eras 11 Wolfpack men 45 Forest men 178 men-at-arms, thereof - 24 „Classic“ soldiers - 32 black falcons - 51 lion knights - 44 dragon knights - 27 „others“ (mainly armed civilians) and - 7 maidens - 14 vassals - 6 blue wizards - 12 lucent ghosts - 34 horses w/o saddles / cart horses - 29 treasure chests - 23 barrels and lots of bricks So what to do? For sure I will keep the Wolfpacks and Forest men, as well as a strong cavalry unit of some 30 knights. Also the vassals and the maidens. And the rest? I don’t know, but I think I could try to sell most of them via BrickLink. At least I could try.

Just some quick first pics: Cavalry... And what the hell is this???!!! seems I tried building a castle with panels only Forest men I have counted 43 so far...

The Donkey is just al little bit...distressed. In my childhood days I loved the LEGO castle sets, and i owned quite a bunch of them. Lateron I can remember I bought some, just to collect them. Those Sets - and of course the figs - stayed "at home" when I left Berlin, 25 years ago now, and when I planned to visit my parents this week, I decided to look after them. I expected to find some 30-40 figs, and also some bricks I could use for my castle. I arrived this evening, coming from Munich, but what I found I would have never expected - not in my wildest dreams. Stored in 7 boxes - and nicely decorated with cobwebs from 2 decades - I discovered some 2 dozens sets at least, mainly from the classic era of castle sets. Beginning with 383 and 677, and ending somewhere in the late nineties. I found carts and boats and ships and buildings, including 6080, 6067, 6074, 6062, 6085, 6077, 6075 and 6086 - and many more. And I found minifigs. One box contained 63 mounted knights and additional 73 knights and soldiers, including 11 wolfpack men. Another box I did not examined in detail seems to contain at least another 80-90 soldiers, including in minimum 20 forest men. In total just the figs should amount to at least 200-250, and there are weapons and equipment for another 100. I even found some sealed sets - 7187 (which is not as old as the rest), one battlepack 4527427 and a polybag equipment set 5059B. I will have to make a full inventory within the next days, but its really a lot of stuff - and I cant rememer when I bought all these sets. Together with the figs at home the Donkey can now field an army of nearly 500 if there is enough time, I will make some pics tomorrow...

Many thanks! I just saw the smoke made of icecream - ingenious idea!!!

Very nice colours, How is the cut face of the firewood made?!

Perfect, thanks I fear my biggest problem will be the sheer size of the castle when finished. Presently the 3 modules take 55x60 cm, so at the end I can expect to use 1 square meter in minimum. While i have lots of available space, it will still be a problem to find a place where a proper ground & back ground can be installed. We will see. P.S. and the tower top WILL be changed - it's ugly.