Gideon

Is it allowed to reuse a MOC which has been created for another purpose and modify it to fit as a Challenge VI entry? (it has never been posted on EB) I'm trying to convince myself that producing 2 MOCs of reasonable quality in a month isn't impossible, but 3 seems a bit tight

Really nice build! I especially like the landscaping around the water and the architectural details on the castle

Sir Gideon the half-elf pledging his allegiance to Lord Dextrus Flagg and Kaliphlin! May the victory over Revolword be sweet and reward us all with ample opportunities to prosper! Sir Gideon

Thank you very much for your kind words! Based on your feedback Sir Gideon feels most at home in Kaliphlin and will pledge his allegiance to the red and dark blue colors of Lord Dextrus Flagg! To be honest (as I wrote in the questions thread) I had a feeling that my backstory was taking Sir Gideon to Kaliphlin all the time, even though I originally had planned to join Avalonia. My supply of tan bricks isn't great, it was a hard squeece getting that wall and tower built, I should probably not show any picture of the other side to the public. But it was an interesting challenge to use a forced perspective background to fake a feeling of standing on a high wall (it is actually only about 10 bricks high), my first attempt ever att that tecnique. After having spent the last couple of weeks devising this backstory and building the MOCs my mind is a bit empty, soI will have to start over again and find out where the story leads my sigfig. I will probably not have time to make a serious effort at challenge VI, but maybe get some freebuilds out there showing something of the war. Here is a new picture showing Sir Gideon in his familiar Kaliphlin environment: Sir Gideon

Ok, I see! That's actually a technique which I have thought about trying instead of cutting away around the edges. I wonder which program/tool is the best suited for that task? I'm thinking that it probably would be optimal to get a gradient from the shadows of the object to full white/other color of the background. But mostly I'm too lazy to do anything like that and instead try to have an acceptable background or choose photo angles to not have to spend time post-processing with the computer ;)

Nice build! I love the feeling of fertile ground you are creating with all of that foliage around the field, and the scarecrow is just great :) (A friendly advice however would maybe be to fade the cutting some more when removing the background, and making sure all fields of background is gone. Not a big deal though, I didn't even notice on my company laptop before but on a calibrated IPS screen it is visible.)

Now I have finally finished some pictures of my sigfig and his backstory :) Sir Gideon the half-elf signing up! He was born in Avalonia to a high-born lady of Mitgardian ancestry and an unknown elvish father, but has fled his past as a "filthy half-breed bastard" for most of his life including many years in Kaliphlin. So the question is which guild, if any, he will pledge his allegiance to...? The backstory of Sir Gideon and some illustrative MOCs can be found in this thread: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=79999

Sir Gideon the half-elf Let me introduce my sigfig, and some small MOCs illustrating his backstory! Sir Gideon by Gideon_83, on Flickr Gideon was born as the offspring of the daughter of a minor Avalonian lord and an unknown elvish father. Some rumors say he was a warrior, others that he was a criminal, and yet others had heard from someone who had heard from someone that... Only Gideon's mother knew for certain. Love in Avalonia by Gideon_83, on Flickr Being regarded as "a filthy half-breed bastard", both by most humans and by virtually all elves, he has all his life had a hard time getting accepted in the world of Historica. Gideon’s mother died in childbirth, and he grew up in the care of his reluctant and sorrow-stricken grandfather, the lord of the small earldom of Norshire in the north-eastern part of Avalonia, not far from the Mitgardian border. Gideon’s early years he spent among the human children in his grandfather’s castle Nordana Hall. Neither his grandfather, nor the other humans in the castle were particularly found of the half-elf, so Gideon learned many hard lessons from children and grownups alike that he wasn’t “one of them”. Training children by Gideon_83, on Flickr When the other boys were sent off to squire for one famous knight or another and eventually earn their golden spurs, Gideon was left to train and serve with the household garrison. The life as a common man-at-arms was a miserable one where he was treated worse than ever, especially since his grandfather had died and his uncle had assumed the earlship. It however gave him ample opportunities to train in all kinds of weapon skills, not only those considered chivalrous enough for a proper knight. Finally, Gideon decided that he had spent enough time in a place where he had never been welcome, he set out to make his own place in the world. Gideons bitterness, well founded or not, towards Avalonians and their feudal society knows few bounds. Being a half-elf however also has its advantages. From his fathers kind, Gideon has inherited both the elvish intelligence and longevity. Even though he is still considered a youngster by elvish standards he is over 150 years old. From his mother, being of Mitgardian descent, some of the raw strength and endurance of the northmen has been passed down to him. To a great extent Gideon's life has been a life of violence, earning hard-won respect and a fair share of gold with his diverse and deadly weapon skills. Caravan by Gideon_83, on Flickr As a mercenary he has travelled all over Historica and served lords, merchant princes, chieftains and kings. He even served as a captain in the Petraean city guard for a while, before growing bored by the dull slow-paced ceremonial lifestyle. Petraean city wall by Gideon_83, on Flickr Gideon still finds Kaliphlin and its vibrant cities to be his favorite place in the world. Its diverse nature means that most people don’t seem to care about his background. In his service to wealthy and sly Kaliphlin merchants Gideon also picked up many of the tricks of the trade. Combined with the numerous useful connections he has made during his travels all around Historica, it has enabled him to earn a fair bit of gold on the trade of rare Kaliphlin goods and artifacts. In recent years Gideon has mostly led a lifestyle of the wandering adventurer, never really trusting anyone but himself. Sir Gideon in full armor by Gideon_83, on Flickr Thanks to his noble descent, Gideon likes to style himself "Sir Gideon” although he never was formally knighted, as such honours are usually not bestowed upon half-breed. The human house he descends from has been extinct ever since his mother's great-nephew was slain in a Drow raid many years ago. Formally Gideon therefore may have inherited the lordship of Norshire, but he has never actually been given the position. Instead the shire has just been left to the care of the castellan of Nordana Hall who in turn passed it to his son and so on, making the present castellan Hedrik Lefteye the de facto earl of Norshire. But a small part of Gideon’s conscience tells him that it is may be his duty to return in the desperate hour when the chaos of Revolword have also reached Norshire... I am posting my sigfig here since it is not clear to which guild Sir Gideon's loyalties ultimately lie, with a legal claim to an Avalonian earldom, elvish and Mitgardian ancestry but Kaliphlin gold in his purse. Perhaps something or someone can give him good reasons to join one of the guilds? Should he return home north to try to save what can be saved of his family’s earldom, or join his Mitgardian brethren in the fight against Revolword? Or even go west to take up arms with the elves, if they would have him? And maybe even learn some more things about his past... Or maybe he will just continue roaming Historica, prosper on the riches of Kaliphlin, explore Avalonias mysteries and who knows what else he might encounter? For a while anyway, Sir Gideon remains a guildless traveller caught in the fray of the Revolword war. Whatever outcome it may have he will surely, willing or unwilling, play some part in the saga of Historica. I am a latecomer to GoH, but I am hoping that GoH will live on past Challenge VI since I have seen how this can be an excellent way of developing ones build and photo skills. After lurking around here for a few months I have gotten a huge amount of inspiration! It remains to be seen however if time and bricks will permit that to be translated into MOCs telling the story of my reluctant hero...

Thank you for your quick answers! It did not make me any more sure that I got 3 different options though :P I've tried lately to gather a bit of tan (picked up some PoP when that was discontinued) so some desert is within my capacity but the bulk of my collection is as a castle nerd of course light grey/bley and to a lesser extent dark grey/bley. But in terms of expanding my horizons, Kaliphlin is definetiley appealing :)

Well, the problem I have is that my collection and building experience scream Avalonia, my sigfig seems to clearly develop into a pronounced Kaliphlin character the more I work with the backstory while all the time I've thought about how to maybe make him end up in Mitgardia :S Hard to explain, I think I should just try to get some publishable pics of my small backstory MOCs and collect it in a post soon.

Excellent build and nice photo editing (although the horizon looks a bit low on the first pic?) I love the walls you've built there, it actually inspired one of my MOCs presenting my soon-to-be sigfig's backstory ;)

Stunning! I especially love the battle-ready feeling the hoardings on Daydelon castle create, and I don't even know where to start commenting on Cameria. Being an admirer of angeled building placement I think your success in making it look so naturally placed like that is fantastic! And the waterfall...

Fantastic builds! I agree with Sir Edwyn, these are the kind of builds which makes me want to join Mittardia as well!

Hello! -16 doesn't sound very cold to me, but then I'm used to sub -25 degrees for weeks from growing up in northern Sweden ;) But anyway a good weather to stay indoors with a table full of plastic pieces.

Hello and welcome! Building someting from the start from your own mind is what I and many others find to be the best thing with Lego :)

Hello! I will surely check out your channel :)

Hello and welcome! So it is not only I who have been lurking around for a while before starting to post here? :) BL is surely awesome! I've just recently started using it but I find it a bit too easy to buy more bricks than I have planned ;)

Hello! I have been lurking in the GoH forum way too long without participating myself, due to becoming awestruck by the high quality MOCs produced here and being short on time to try to match what is being built here... But inspired by seeing how building skills have gotten a boost by being part of GoH I thought I should change that now and start participating instead if it is ok to join even though I probably woun't be able to make a serious attempt at the last challenge? I have a sigfig with a backstory (including some small illustrative MOCs built, but not yet photographed) somewhat worked out. But so far I havn't decided yet which guild to join, would it be ok to just post it here or in a separate thread and listen to what you guys have to say?

Nice to see more Swedes here! Welcome!

Hello! I am a Swedish AFOL who have been active on Swebrick for a couple of years, and have from occasionally been lurking around here on Eurobricks as well (mostly in the Guilds of Historica subsection). First and foremost I am since coming out of my dark age a fan of lego castle and medieval/fantasy building in general. I was a lego fan even in high school and continued to build with my lego castle from time to time as well, but then university studies, small living conditions and a limited budget held me back from pursuing my Lego interest to any great extent. I started collecting new lego a couple of years back during the last year of the Kingdoms theme and I am very regretful that I missed the fantasy era, but I have tried to remedy that by shopping way to much LotR from Amazon recently ;) I joined EB to better late than never join Guilds of Historica which I have been following, envyous of the excellent builds people seem to be able to produce there. It also seems like an excellent way to challenge myself to build "out of my comfort zone" (which today is castles with the big gray wall syndrome as an ever present danger). However, I am having a hard time choosing which guild to join... Avalonia would be the obvious choice based on my brick collection and building style, but then again that might be to close to my comfort zone? Some of my limited production in later years (and a couple of earlier builds I put together while staying at my parents place a couple of holidays in college) can be seen on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64008454@N03/ Happy to be able to join such a great community! /"Gideon"

Beutiful colors, and a nice use of forced perspective! But the purist in me is suffering a bit, even though another part of me want to order a set of fall leafs asap ;)

This is the kind of MOCs which makes me want to join GoH and start building as well! Great work! :)