Rauy

Oh, nicely done! I like it.

Rumours have it at 270€, which would be significantly bigger than Notre Dame's 230€.

Well, it's also the Greek goddess of, among other things, the moon. Of course they could also be Andy Weir fans, but I'm kinda bettin' on Greek mythology more than Superman II.

Let me introduce you to a new, or rather old, build contest this month. Like some of you might remember, next to various build months like FebRovery or SHIPtember, there once also was Marchitecture, for building microscale architecture MOCs in March. However, since this ended back 5 years ago, I decided to revive this concept. So this March we're celebrating Marchitecture yet again! Everyone is invited to contribute Architecture MOCs. The builds should model an "existing" original, concentrate on man-made immobile structures (i.e. buildings) and be smaller than minifig scale, basically in spirit of the LEGO Architecture series (but you don't have to adhere to LEGOs strict design principles). There's two different categories, one for models based on real or historic buildings and one for buildings from films, games and other media. Both categories also accept digital entries, but they should at least try to make a structurally coherent build and not go overboard with unavailable part colours either. There's two prizes for each category, a LEGO set and a custom-build trophy, as well as a third prize pair for all digital entries. So how do you take part? The whole thing works similar to Summer Joust and the like. There's a Flickr group, which also contains further information about the contest and rules, with entry threads for the individual categories. And you can also participate on Instagram using the hashtag #marchitecture2024. Happy building (and tell your friends)!

I have to agree. $230 is too much, no matter the part count! It's a friggin' Creator Expert set. Release those if you want, they're nice sets, but they're not Architecture sets. But actually, at this suspuciously low price per part, I'm afraid it might even be some kind of mosaic or some other hybrid wall decoration thing. Maybe it's a cool idea, we'll see. But those numbers are...concerning.

Once again absolutely brilliant work, both on the historical and the modern sides! The detail work on the facades, the various angles, the colour choices, beautiful piece of LEGO architecture all around.

Wow, great work! While the shiny facade is a real eye-catcher, all those details, angles and slight height variations are amazing, too.

So Himeji Castle is a step away from tourist attractions? I'm not quite following. Also, those glorious Adam Reed Tucker sets weren't 2000 piece 1m³ behemoths either (yes, except for Robie House).

Well, yes.

Oh, wow, now that's an interesting choice! I don't really like the price tag or that we need to set yet another size/price record in Architecture. But I guess LEGO's bigger-wider-faster trend is something we have to live with now. I do like the topic choice, though.

Wow, what an amazing project! A wonderful rendition as an architecture model and a truely breathtaking endeavour. Great work and thanks also for the insights into the building process!

Wow, great work! Beautiful little nanoscale model with some really neat techniques, especially the use of claws and flags.

Thanks a lot for the nice comments everyone! That's an interesting point, because they weren't particularly easy to do. I understand what you mean and I'm not perfectly satisfied with them either. However, it was rather difficult to find something that closes off the base sufficiently (so it doesn't look like a fragile stone lattice) but also isn't too bulky, and that still sets the dark wall parts slightly inward from the corners. Steeper slopes would simply collide with the 3D baseplate, at least when using them on the bottom layer. I might have used steeper slopes higher up, but then it would just look even bulkier (and still leave somewhat jagged gaps on the sides). The classic set anchors the towers on the inward corners of the baseplate, which integrates them a bit better into the base. But that is harder to do with square towers than round ones and would have led to too big gaps (a problem is also that while the big side walls of the baseplate perfectly fit a 3-high inverted slope, the walls of the inward corners are actually slightly steeper for whatever reason), so I felt the only choice was basically wrapping the entire corner in walls, which I agree can look a bit chunky.

Growing up in the 90s, the Black Knight's Castle (6086) from '92 has always been the quintessential LEGO castle to me. With its big 3D baseplate it was a really massive presence and it had everything that to this day still defines a stereotypical castle for me, a big gate with a working drawbridge and portcullis, well-defended towers and walls, a cozy house with beautiful yellow tudor framework and red roof and a neat little back entrance, together with the cool glow-in-the-dark ghost and a dungeon inside the base accessed via a trapdoor. One of my biggest and most favourite sets as a child, I built this a lot over the years. Jump forward almost 30 years and even before the huge 400€ nostalgia castle there's another cool castle within the Creator 3-in-1 series. And while that's of course only a 3-in-1 playset, it works really well as exactly that and still looks really nice for what it is. So I asked myself, what would the almost 3 decades older legend of LEGO castles look like in the style of this new 3-in-1 castle? Well, wonder no longer, because that's how it might actually look like: Now keep in mind this is a deliberate attempt at porting the style of the 3-in-1 castle over to the architecture of the old castle, so it isn't going to sport the most elaborate building techniques. However, I still took the liberties of refining the 3-in-1 style a bit more for a more rounded composition as well as nicer battlements and roofs. But while I tried to use as many parts as possible from the 3-in-1 set, I explicitly decided against a pure alternative build, as that would have limited the part selection too much and when in doubt, it was usually aesthetics over part reuse. You'll note it also uses the old 3D baseplate, which I think is an integral part of the Black Knight's Castle's design and appeal. Other than that, it wasn't too difficult porting the sets over, as both quite rigorously use a 6-high storey design. But of course I didn't want to just capture the old castle's architectural features but also its play features, and combine them with the new castle's. Most of the interior and furniture is directly taken from the 3-in-1 castle, so we have the blacksmith with his workshop, the throne and fireplace, the food stall, as well as the dungeon complete with removeable wall. Only for the watermill and its mechanism there wasn't any room anymore. From the old castle we got the floor dungeon with trapdoor as well as the back entrance to the house and of course the good old ghost is there too, together with the skeleton from the new set. The gate uses the string-based drawbdrige from the old set, but with the automatic locking mechanism from the new set. It also ports this mechanism over to the portcullis, which in the old set was manually operated (the only reason I use a newer part here is aesthetics, the old big portcullis piece would fit just as well). Using string, while maybe not as beautiful or modern, has the advantage that the unlocking and falling mechanism of the drawbridge works a lot more smoothly than in the Creator set. Of course the whole thing also comes with building instructions on Rebrickable. The Creator 3-in-1 castle is a good starting point, covering about half of the 1800 pieces. From the others only the 3D baseplate (if you don't own the original castle) and the 2x5 bricks with the portcullis rail might be a bit problematic, since they're a bit rare in dark bluish grey. The figures are of course only a "serving suggestion", but using the ones from the Creator set makes sense (and the MOC uses the same Black Falcon theming of that and other recent castle revivals).

Oh, a castle in my favourite colour! Really interesting and unique build, works quite well together with the sand green nature. I also like the various detail shots.