Thrash

I just finished my Jester's Joke Shop! Head on over to the Team Beta Thread for more pictures! And just for run, here's a shot of all four of my modules so far: Enjoy! ~Thrash

I had some free time today, so I decided to try the Jester's Joke Shop. For this MOC, I drew a great deal of inspiration from Dan Church's wonderful Jester's Quarters Vignette. Overall: Jester Juggling: The man was surprised by the Jack-in-the-box: On the left is a box of juggling pins. For the roof design, I give credit to ISC and his fighting arena posted earlier in this thread. Closeup of the Jester and the guy who's afraid of the Jack-in-the-box: I hope you guys like it! Suggestions and comments are appreciated. Jester's Joke Shop Brickshelf ~Thrash

That looks great Erdbeeries. I can't wait to see what it looks like once you add a few more details like ISC suggested...then it will be perfect. One other suggestion I would make is to add a chimney. You might have a reason for not having one, but I think that if you add one it will make it look even more like a bakery, since the chimneys for the ovens, in my mind, are one of the defining features of the outside of a bakery. ~Thrash

The thumbnails are great ISC...they make everything a lot easier to keep track of. You seem to have forgotten Sandy's Princess Chamber in the thumbnail section, though! Better fix that before she sees it or she'll be so sad! I like just having the list of other possible creations at the bottom. We can always rearrange them at the end or add a few more in here and there if people build enough stuff...that's the beauty of having everything be so modular. ~Thrash

Great! I can't wait to see it! On a different note, it seems like everyone is shying away from the more bland building, such as the poleturner, fletcher, and carpetner, so I came up with a few other ideas for buildings that could be in our castle: Butcher Jeweler Training Ground Archery Range Physician Knacker Barbershop Troll Embassy Fighters Guild Gambling Den I think that all of them would be appropriate except for maybe the Knacker. Knackers are the people who would take dead horses or other animals and turn their bones into glue. I'm not sure if they were around in medieval times, but I think they were. My favorite of all the ideas is the Troll Ebmassy...I think that would make for an awesome MOC by someone. We've already knocked out quite a few of the buildings, so another option would be to expand the castle a bit. Since every creation is so small, they don't take long to make. What do you guys think about knocking out some of the more boring components for more exciting ones or expanding the castle a bit? Also, if we expand it a little bit it would probably lead to some a-symmetry in the castle, which I know a few people wanted. ~Thrash

That fighting arena is perfect. That's all there is to really say about it. I love how you have a little boy to help out each knight and especially how you have one of the knights on the ground with a bloody hand and his weapon on the floor. I think that for my next one I'm going to try to do the adventurers guild or the tax collector. What do you think you'll be doing next, ISC? Go team Beta! ~Thrash

The main point of the webpage is so that we can post the layout and then have a hotspot on each location so you can just click it and it will take you to the pictures of that structure. We would have just done that in a post, but I'm not sure if it's possible to do in a post instead of an external webpage. The intent of the webpage is certainly not to steal people away from looking at EB. In fact, since Stol is hosting it on his University-supplied webpage, it would probably be best if he gets a minimum amount of web traffic. Regardless of whether the webpage is done or not, I really like the idea of updating the first post frequently with thumbnails to keep everything organized. As far as making directions go, perhaps we could just all recreate our creations in Ldraw. That way someone wanting to build it could just download the ldraw file and go from there. Also, if we use Ldraw for each creation, we could render the entire town at the end, even if we can't get every creation together physically. It might be a pain to recreate everything in ldraw, but I think the final product would be well worth it. ~Thrash

Your wall looks great. I really like the smooth gray peices that you put on it. I'm not sure what ISC will say, but I think that the brown catwalk will look strange next to other creations that will have a dark grey catwalk, so you should probably change it to dark gray. The brown does look really cool though, so maybe ISC will want to change the standard to brown... ~Thrash

Thanks! Hopefully all of the creations have been made we can find a way to get them all together, so there's some hope! On a different note, last night I finished up my Thieves Guild. For more details of it, check out the Beta Group Thread. Here are a few shots of my creations and Stol's Mason's Guild all together. Two back walls put together: And lastly, a teaser shot including a Falconer that my mom (she saw what I was building and decided to join in) has been working on pretty hard over the past few days. Hopefully I'll be able to post more in depth shots soon once she's finished! Can't wait to see everyone else's stuff! ~Thrash

Thanks for the comments guys! I managed to get a little more building in last night, so I attempted to make a Thieves Guild. At first I was going to make it be an abandoned warehouse type thing, but I started working on it and it really wasn't up to par. Then I noticed that it was really close to the docks, so I decided to make the bottom part be a fish market that's really just a front for the Thieves Guild, and then have the Thieves Guild upstairs. Here's what I came up with: Overall: Closeup of the shop. I was really pleased with the way the fish on ice came out. To make it, I put shiny crystals at the bottom and then covered them with light blue gems: The shop again: Without the minifig: Archer in the upstairs window (look closely!): Thieves Guild upstairs: Another angle: Cool lighting: No minifigs: Different angle no minifigs (I have to give the Giant Castle Chess Set credit for the throne design): Everything taken apart: The characters. First the Thief disguised as a fishmonger, then the archer guard, and lastly the Chief Thief: Thanks for looking! Thieves Guild Brickshelf ~Thrash

Thanks for the comments guys! I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for their creations. Stol and I are roommates here at the University of Delaware, so here's a picture of our creations put together: Left: Stol's Masons Guild, Middle: My Alchemist, Right: My Blacksmith I'll try to get my thieves guild done soon! ~Thrash

Nice work Stol. I've also posted my first two creations in the Beta Group Thread. I updated my Blacksmith to fit the EBCCB criteria and also did an Alchemist. Here's a shot of both of them together... They aren't next to eachother on the plan, but I hoped that posting a shot like that would let everyone know how cool it's going to look when we have the whole castle together. Just imagine 40 of those all together! ~Thrash

This weekend I finally got around to doing some building and picture taking for the Community Build, so here's what I came up with: First, an overall shot of the Alchemist: With closed doors: The inside: The inside again: And again: From the top: Cool shot: The alchemist himself. I used the half metal face to make it look like he managed to turn half his face into silver, since alchemists jobs were to make things into gold and silver: And now for an updated version of my blacksmith: Front View: The shop: The shop again: Upstairs: Upstairs again: Blacksmith and his dwarf wife: I hope you guys like them! Comments and suggestions are welcome! Alchemist on brickshelf Blacksmith on brickshelf ~Thrash

Since some people are confused by the SNOT used by Lasse D, I've rendered an example of what the wall should look like (or at least, the way I interpret the requirements). Note that the back of the wall doesn't have to be hollow. You can make it be 3 solid studs or whatever, the only thing that really matters is the outside appearance. Hopefully this clears up any remaining confusion. If you're using Ldraw for designing your section before you actually build it, PM me and I'll send you the Ldraw file. ~Thrash

That's exactly what I had in mind! It might look strange if one section uses SNOT like that and not the rest (even though it does look awesome), but as far as the placement of the supports and everything, it's perfect. ~Thrash

Today I started building the new walls that ISC designed, and came across a few problems: 1. Since the demo that ISC made was 20 studs long instead of 16 studs like all of the outside wall sections will be, the position of the dark bley slants at the bottom will be uneven when all of the creations are put together. 2. People might not know which side to start from, which will cause more problems. If one person starts on the right and the other one the left, then we will end up with two in a row and then 4 studs on the other side that are low points. 3. Two studs wide is a bit narrow for the catwalk. Minifigs would fit a whole lot better if the catwalk was 3 studs wide like in the first few designs. The below diagram illustrates these problems and possible solutions. Besides fixing the problem of minifigs not really fitting, widening the catwalk would also create an overhang which gives the wall a little more character. I, perhaps more so than anyone else, wanted a final wall design that would not be messed with, but I think that these problems (at least the first 2) are issues that need to be resolved early in the process so that they don’t create headaches for us later on. I’m going away for the weekend, but I’ll be back on Sunday night when I can hopefully post my first MOC for the build! ~Thrash

No problem! I have a lot of fun doing those designs. Yessir, the armoury is on a 16x16. Even if someone's already done it by the time you get around to it, you can still give it a shot and let the community decide who's should be in the final layout! ~Thrash

I like those ideas Sandy. As promised, I'll get out the old drawing board and see what I can come up with... EDIT: Here it is! NOTE: The following is just a proposal for a possible layout for the keep of the castle. The layout and list are not final unless ISC puts them in the first post. That slight change in numbers would cause the list to be updated like this: 1. Main Gatehouse - Dragonator 2. Oil Smelter 3. Bakery - Erdbeereis 4. Jester’s Joke Shop – Thrash 5. Wizards’ Guild – Adam 6. Thieves Guild - Thrash 7. Tavern – Captain Green Hair 8. Apothecary 9. Adventurers Guild - GloriusShadow 10. Brothel 11. Dungeon 12. Torture Chamber - Pickerel 13. Alchemist – Thrash, Pickerel, Quarryman 14. Troll Embassy - Thrash 15. Tax Collector 16. Back Gatehouse - Adam 17. Falconer - Lalande 18. Fighting Arena – I Scream Clone 19. Poleturner/Fletcher - randomparrot 20. Training Ground - sgt stickey 21. Barracks 22. Armory - Jifel, Guss 23. Blacksmith - Thrash 24. Tanner 25. Stables – Stash2sixx 26. Carpenter – Lasse D 27. Mason’s Guild - Stol 28. Monastery - Stol 29. Chapel - Stol 30. Mystery Play 40. Dock – Wouwie13, Captain Green Hair 50. Courtyard 51. Secondary Gatehouse - Pickerel 52. Servant's Quarters 53. Wine Cellar 54. Kitchen – Wouwie13, Erdbeereis1 55. Entrance Hall w/ Great Staircase 56. Secret Room 57. Library 58. Guest Chambers - randomparrot 61. Garderobe (Medieval Toilet) 62. War Room 63. Dining Hall 64. Knights' Quarters 65. King’s Chamber 66. Queen’s Chamber 67. Princess' Chamber - Sandy 71. Throne Room 72. Wizard's Tower - Sandy 73. Treasury - Dennimator Other Ideas: Knacker Butcher Jeweler Archery Range Physician Barbershop Fighters Guild Gambling Den The only changed to the numbers from V4 is that the Wizard Tower on the outer wall was changed to a Wizards' Guild since Sandy built such a nice Wizard tower in the keep. Also, I'm assuming that the Secondary Gate will be a few stories high, and then the empty space on the 3rd floor will be used as a large catwalk. What does everyone think? ~Thrash

That's awesome Sandy. It's a small detail, but my favorite part is the mini-Jabba the hut. Looking over your pictures, specifically the one with the stacked hallways, makes me realize that we need staircases to get from floor to floor somewhere in the keep... Are you still working on a list of room that could go in the keep so that I can make up a more detailed plan for the keep's various floors? ~Thrash

I would say just do it without and we can all assume they're there. Since it's just at the very top of the wall, it doesn't really affect anything and can be easily added. That's a good point. Maybe if I'm told to do a version 5 of the layout there can be some buildings (houses maybe?) that stand alone. That would probably make the castle look really nice. We'll see what ISC has to say about this... ~Thrash

Excellent work ISC. I love the wall plan you've created, and now we can all get building. ~Thrash

No problem. I just had some free time so I figured I would go for it. You're welcome to reject or accept anything that I come up with. I didn't expect people to be using my list as a reference, it was more just to keep everything organized until you updated the first post. I assumed that they would just go off of your post on the front page. You are in charge, after all. I think it will be good for the wall to be built onto the 16x16 baseplate, especially if we're going to go with the dimensions listed above. As for putting names on the list, maybe we should just put people's names on the list with a link to their MOC once they've finished. That way people would feel a lot more free to build things and not shy away from building things because someones name is already next to it. Also, it would make this a lot easier to organize. I think what really needs to be done is a layout and wall specifications need to be set in stone and any creation that doesn't meet the specifications won't be allowed unless altered to meet the requirements. Otherwise it's going to be chaos keeping up with every person's request for layout changes, wall heights, etc. If we don't do this, people are going to be afraid to spend time making entries knowing that the requirement might change randomly. Personally, I think we should go with layout V4 (in the first post of this thread). This layout is very much like V3 that the community voted on, but accounts for all of the requests made by participants up to this point. If you want, I'll tweak it however you want and write "FINAL" at the bottom so people get the point. I'm not trying to stunt creativity, but this things only going to come together if the plans are set from the beginning and won't change. ~Thrash

What are we doing about the walls? As I expressed earlier, I’m worried that moving the walls back and making the catwalk 4 wide will cramp the 16x16s too much, so I proposed building the walls on 16x6 plates and then having those attach to the outside of the 16x16s. I think that we need a final decision about the walls before we build too many of the components. I noticed that you updated the lists in the beta thread, but didn’t update the picture. This might cause some confusion since the new layout has a few more components. I hope you don’t mind me updating the layout, answering questions, and adding people to the lists when they make requests. Hopefully all of that is helpful for you in keeping this whole thing organized. If you ever want to overrule the ongoing list or have input for the layout, let me know! Regarding the bank/tax collector, I’ve already changed that on the ongoing list I’ve been keeping on page 13 of this thread. Since I can’t edit the list in any of your posts, that’s the one that I’ve been making updates on whenever I see someone make a new request or change a previous request. ~Thrash

I assumed that the tavern will also double as an Inn...but who knows. If whoever does the tavern doesn't include an Inn in it, then we can always add one in somewhere else ~Thrash

That's a good question about the graveyard. Maybe we can put one right out front (or somewhere near) the chapel. How does that sound? You bring up a good point, but surprisingly enough I was able to find this: (reference)Who would have though that some Saints supported prostitution? I'll put you down for both...no worries though if you decide not to do one of them or change your mind. ~Thrash