BrickDuvel

Once upon a time in medieval Italy there was this majestic castle with a mighty tower rising high above the surrounding landscape. This castle was the home of the famous Horse Knights. Its Donjon could be seen from far far away. It stood on firm pillars and climbed straight up to the celeste sky. It was constructed with carefully selected limestone and topped of with a rugged wooden hoard. The tower was decorated with bright blue flags and above its entrance rose a grand sculpture of a black horse head. The people were in awe of the breathtaking beauty of this castle and called it ‘Don Horseleone’ (for the locals aka ‘the Don’) Don Horseleone is built with 4x 31168 Lego Medieval Horse Knight Castle sets. There are no other Lego pieces used in this build. The castle can be displayed from various angles. The build is made up of a front and back section. The 2 sections can hinge open and for transporting purposes the sections can also be detached from each other. The build contains: The base of the front section with 2 prison cells and a secret wall A gatehouse with a functioning drawbridge The donjon with a bedroom, detachable hoard, detachable cone shaped roof and a functioning portcullis The base of the back section with a forge, a supply room, a tree and a jetty/pier The top of the back section with a water well and a tudor style building with a dining room and a library in the attic A jousting scene 4 brick build horses The castle can open up completely and every function becomes accessible. The MOC uses almost 4800 of the circa 5400 pieces in 4x31168 sets (4 brick build horses included, no minifigures included in this piece count). Almost all light bluish gray, dark gray, brown, tan and green pieces out of the 4 sets were used. Dimensions: H: 51 cm/20 inches W: 37cm/15 inches D: 44 cm/17 inches When opened up the width is 56cm/22 inches Instructions are available on Rebrickable in PDF format. Youtube overview movie link is posted below these pictures

Hello, I present to you the Lego Horse Knight Stronghold. The stronghold is built with 2x 31168 Lego Medieval Horse Knight Castle sets. There are no other Lego pieces used in this build. I wanted to make an impressive looking castle for every Lego castle fan. With the 2 new factions included in the recent 31168 set, I think people want to give these new factions, in particular the Horse Knights, a proper castle since the base version of Lego could be improved in my opinion. I opted for open back structures for playability and to create maximum volume with the pieces available in the 2 Medieval Horse Knight castle sets. The castle stronghold can be displayed from various angles. Although it has open backs, the backs are all turned inwards to the courtyard, so from the outside looking in, you always see the fronts of the buildings. The castle stronghold is made up of 4 removable sections: front gatehouse with a functioning drawbridge side building with a forge, kitchen and dining room side building with a horse stable and watchtower (contains 2 white brick build horses and a secret wall) back gatehouse with a functioning portcullis, some chambers and a small market/shop The stronghold can open up completely and every function becomes accessible. The MOC uses almost 2500 of the circa 2700 pieces in 2x31168 sets (2 brick build horses included, no minifigures included in this piece count). Almost all light bluish gray, dark gray, brown, tan and green pieces out of the 2 sets were used. Dimensions: H: 24 cm/9,5 inches W: 48 cm/19 inches D: 35 cm/14 inches Instructions are available on Rebrickable in PDF format. Youtube overview movie link is posted below these pictures https://youtu.be/Cc9NL7UROZw

Thanks. I used the crafting tables for the wooden covers in het embrasures between the merlons. Since the wooden covers are reinforced with iron rods and the space (2x2) is too small to build something custom, I figured the pattern on the minecraft crafting tables comes pretty close to real thing. Also the medium nougat colour goes ok with te dark red/dark orange rooftops. The real life build is going to be an undertaking (budget, piece collecting and building hours), but is definitely the ambition going forward, starting with the donjon/keep.

The digital build is coming to an end. I finished the outer walls on the frontside and completed the gate building. I altered the roof colors somewhat, brought in some more dark red to resemble to it's current colour in real life. I still need to do some of the landscaping inside the walls. Then the next step is create digital instructions and then build it in real lego. Was hoping to be able to start building in lego past summer, but didn't get to it. Hopefully this winter I will make some progress. The gate building section (footprint 36x34 studs) protrudes from the rest of the castle's square footprint but is made in two sections (the base with ground and water tiles, and the building itself) an can be detached. The rest of the castle (within the square footprint) can als be put together in modules in various shapes and forms. Specs: - Footprint without the gate building: 132x132 studs or 1,05 m2) - Pieces used up until this point: almost 43.000 - estimated piece count with finished interior landscaping to be around 45.000 Here are some more renders with the finished sections:

WIP: Hello everyone, my latest Lego project is over halfway through in its digital form. It's a MOC of the Castle of the Counts of Flanders aka the Gravensteen in Ghent Belgium. You see a digital render in Studio of the Keep and side buildings taken from the backside. The front wall and the gate building are still under construction. At about minifig scale it is a very large build. I therefore try it to make it as compact as possible. When built in Lego form, the footprint will be just over 1 m2 and the height will be at about 0,5 m. I estimate the part count when finished to be close to 40.000 bricks. Planning to be able to build it in real Lego format this summer.

Thank you for the compliment. Thanks! Thank you for the comment. You're probably right with the rockwork, but it has already 5.800 pieces Thank you for the nice words. Don't worry, the kitchen windows are guarded by a deep moat with piranhas Thanks, the quadruple convex should come back in a new set. The cone piece is not the same but seen the price difference good enough. Typo, thanks for the correction. Thanks, glad you like it. Thanks!

The MOC is finished, it ended up just over 5.800 pieces. I also finished the instructions in Bricklink studio (More than 1.200 steps in just under 600 pages). Instructions are available on Rebrickable in PDF format. Also finally added real pictures to my Flickr page. Here are some shots:

For me a castle set would be the logical choice if you take a clear look at the poll. The castle theme is absurdly divided in all those subthemes, so the top 3 is a misrepresantiation of the underlying vote. Although space also had a couple subthemes. When I think back at my childhood in the 80's 3 iconic sets come to mind: 6074, 6285 and 6080. Since the first 2 already got a rerelease, a set based on the 6080 seems very plausible. Lego doesn't need a poll to know which set was the most popular at the time. In this regard I can see the 6080 lonely at the top and bionicle not even the same realm. But then again I'm not completely neutral since the 6080 was the only one I really wanted as a child but never got. I got the 6073 and 6074 and at the end of the 80's the 6085 and 6285. When you where a kid back then the 6285 Barracuda was in a class of it's own, the UCS Millenium Falcon of it's day, with a price point of almost 100 euro (+/- 3500 Belgian francs if my memory is correct). My year's savings I spent with great pleasure on this one :) But the barracuda recently got it's re-release so I root for a reboot of the 6080. Although any proper castle set would be welcomed by the lego community in my opinion.

With the reissuing of the Black Falcon’s faction in the current Blacksmith set and in the lego creator 3 in 1 castle set, I thought it was the right time to give the Black Falcons back a proper fortress. For me such a fortress has to be based on the iconic fortress in set 6074 from 1986. Lego already did a re-release in 2012, but this was an exact copy of the 1986 set. Now 10 years later, with modern lego bricks we can give it a fresh new look up to today’s standards. Like in the orginal set, in my build the front of the fortress has 2 octagonal towers surrounding the drawbridge. This special tower shape gave the 1986 set it’s iconic look, so this shape was a must to include in this MOC. In the back of the fortress, the defensive walls in the corners are also half octagonal shaped to continue this unique look. Also like in the original in the back on the right side, there is a square tower with a pyramid shaped black roof (with the old style slopes). In the back on the left, I deviated somewhat from the orginal layout to create much larger living quarters. The yellow-black wall in the watchtower in the 1986 set is replaced by a whole yellow-black dining room on the first floor and an attic on top in this section. The positioning of the roof and chimney are pretty close to the orginial, but way bigger. There's a lot of detail cramped up in a 40x40 brick footprint so it can be used as a display piece on a shelf. But like the 6074 set it can open up completely and every function becomes accessible. Play functions: a drawbridge a forge a kitchen a dining room an attic for storage with pulley system a market/shop a jail a water well a secret wall I’m still waiting on some parts to finish the live build, so therefore I finished it first in studio and created already some renders. Actual photo’s will be added later on. MOC Lego Black Falcon's fortress render front right side angle by Brick Duvel, on Flickr MOC Lego Black Falcon's fortress render front opened up front topview by Brick Duvel, on Flickr

The ship received a great review on the brothers brick last week. Here's the link: https://www.brothers-brick.com/2021/08/19/this-epic-74-gun-lego-ship-is-ready-to-set-sail

The flag is up, the rigging is redone, and after several attemps I'm settling for this rounder new stern look. I think it suits a French third rate. I used the plant pieces with the three leaves as fleur de lis symbols and the chicken is meant te be a French rooster. Also happy with the picture below, which nicely shows the curving of the 36-pounder battery. Charlemagne IMG_7165 by Brick Duvel, on Flickr Charlemagne IMG_7148 by Brick Duvel, on Flickr Maybe she'll get sails some day, but for now the work is done

This is already one fine ship. I love the overall shaping of the hull. Stern and bow look very nice and your colour scheme is great. The optical illusion of a slight upward curve of the gunports towards the bow and the stern that is created with the diminishing blue line looks superb. This is an interesting idea to elborate on/take in mind for future builds since the gunport line doesn't follow the curving of the hull completely. Looking forward to see this ship fully rigged.

I’ ve made some changes to the ship. I did an overhaul of the hull in order to create a more realistic model of this 74. Most significant changes: The ship is 2 studs lower, 2 studs wider and about 5 studs longer. The upper gundek was increased in lenght to fit 2 more gunports on each side. There are now 30 gunports on the upper gundek. The bow and the stern got a new look. The weather deck is opened up at the waist +2 life boats were added. Work in progress: making the masts a bit higher, redo some of the rigging and putting the flag up.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Sure there is, one of the big benefits of building to minifig scale is being able to add a full interior. So true, I'm a real noob at photography when I compare my simple Iphone pics to ohers here on the forum. When the picture is somewhat sharp, I'm more than happy. Lighting and shadows are way out of my league. Putting up sails and a French flag are on my wish list....sewing them is on my wife's to do list. That's your answer why they are not up yet :) We'll start with pics of the most important things when you go out for a long journey by sea: food and rest :) Im not able to add the pictures directly in the post because they take up too much space. So I added them to the flickr album. Have fun.

Here’s my minfig scale MOC of the Charlemagne. (Charles The Great) I’m posting my MOC on this great Pirate MOC forum so this can also inspire other builders in the future. It’s a 3rd rate Téméraire class 74 gun ship of the line of the French Navy. It’s big brother was launched in 1807 in Antwerp under the Napoleonic rule in Belgium. It had a length of 54m (177ft) and a beam of 14,3m (47 ft). This MOC at about minifig scale counts 150 studs long from stern to the bow at it’s longest point and 42 studs at its widest point at the lower gundek near the main mast. Don’t know the brick count (never made it in digital form) but it took about 2-3 years to finish of which several months were spent on the rigging. I want to pay a small hommage to the builders of these lego ships who inspired me to build this lego ship which gave me hours of fun: Achille Gallus HMS Bulwark HMS Lively HMS Prince of Wales/Minerve HMS Victory Le Fleuron/Prins Willim Le Fourageux Phantom Pinnacle Rapscallion Revenge VOC De Ruyter USS Poseidon (And I’m sure I forget to mention quite a few superb ships on this forum, sorry guys) And a special thanks to the builders of : HMS Agamemnon for it’s colour sceme and stern technique HMS Enterprize for it’s hull technique and steering mechanism HMS Persephone for it’s modular build thechnique and it’s perfect composure at a it’s own (smaller) scale. Here's the link to my Flickr page for some pics: Here's the link to the big brother info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Charlemagne_(1809)#/media/File:Lancement-du-charlemagne.jpg