robuko

This is a pretty phenonemal build for a first MOC, grum64, very ambitious. I really like your treatment of the base at the front, I haven't seen this before and I bet it will look great. If you want to go for greater accuracy, all those intriguing curves on the base would probably be best handled in system rather than technic, though it would reduce your space for the battery box and motor. Looking forward to the finished build. Good luck!

Congratulations Sir Steen Larsson! Is your Valholl Wall contest only for Mitgardians?

That is really a nicely built tree, the different levels of foliage look great. I wonder who wins? Watch out for the snake!

I've been looking forward to this since the WIP shots, and it was worth the wait. Beautiful detailing, especially the gables, windows and your signature landscaping. For me, the interior detail really takes it to another level. The teddy bear in his own bed, pistols, dynamite, cheese & wine with gigantic cheese knife, there is so much to like. Great build, and looking forward even more to your castle!

I really like these happy scenes. Life goes on, even in times of trouble. A fantastic build, especially the tower. I've never seen that technique before, it's so innovative. Could you share how you achieved it please? Very nice composition of buildings and scenery. I think the tan plates look a little out of place, maybe light bley or brown would stand out less. Lovely build though, well done

gordongordon, thanks very much for a great review. Are you based in Hong Kong too? Do you know of any way to get these without buying the petrol? I don't have a car. Is there an obvious secondary market place? Taobao? Many thanks, Rob

A very interesting quest, and a curious diversion of resources in these trying times. Are we really to believe the Alleenridders and the IAMS are so hostile to Valsharess? A very nice build. I especially like the borders and the eternal flames of Kaliphlin. Lovely characters too.

What an introduction! Great story Agaven. I am sure you will have much better luck to seek happiness and fortune in Kaliphlin.

Great pictures and great editing, that's what makes the Kaliphlin times a favourite. I especially like the cloud effect for the Valkyrie. Brilliant as always!

Same, I am on vacation in Japan, sporadic contact for next 2 weeks.

1.25m and also 620 metres awesome!

I have been genuinely surprised by all the very kind comments on this MOC. I did worry it was too odd, and even disturbing, for many people. The warm comments and appreciation, even calling it Art, just reminds me again what a great community we have in Historica. Many thanks to all! Don't worry Khamar, brother Aloysius was on one of his pilgrimages, nowhere near your settlements! Thanks Kayne! I'm really glad you liked it. Thanks very much Captain Settle. Strange ideas are my specialty Thankyou soccerkid! I really liked doing the microscale, I wish I had more space to work with, the painting is really about the foreground so I did not put much detail into the background, just colour blocks. Thanks rogueang! When I saw that this challenge would be scored on originality, I had quite a long think about how to differentiate my contribution. The combination of mediaeval and devastation took me to thinking about Breughel and Bosch, and when I saw this picture, I just thought, "Yes!". I'm glad you liked the story. The metanarrative of this build is about layers of perspective, and I wanted to put extra layers of perspective onto the scene with the story. Did Aloysius really see all of this scene? Was he really mad before he saw it, or did it drive him mad? Which went mad first, the town or the person? What made him take his own life? What really happened there? Is he in the painting? Thanks Hive! Thanks SoT! I was very happy with the way the micro figs and the trophies turned out. In many mediaeval paintings before the 15th century there is a totally different treatment of perspective, it really gets ignored in favour of the narrative of the picture. I left that out-of-perspective Uruk in the arch on the left to reference this tradition. By the full Renaissance we had a return to vanishing point scaling and so on. Bosch's treatment of perspective is a kind of middle road of big figures in the foreground, medium size ones in the middle distance, and small ones in the background, and I think his style works very well with these 3 scales. Thanks Sebeus I! Poor little heroicans! I struggled a bit with the eyes, but I think it turned out ok. Thanks Ska! I had in the back of my mind for a while, how would I represent a painting? Initially I thought it would have to be like in a theatre, with layers of scenery behind the action, mounted on a perpendicular stage. But then you run into the problem of how to keep the perspectives stable in the foreground and background. I mentioned I really wanted to emphasise the "flatness" of mediaeval painting styles and I didn't want too much protrusion in the foreground. About halfway through the build I had the revelation that I could hinge the background layers to compress the perspectives, which took care of that problem and gave me a new one of mounting the foreground scenes "sideways" to the base. When we see this on a screen we are looking at a 2D representation of a 3D representation of a 2D representation of an imaginary 3D scene, which I kind of like. Thanks DaMaximus! Not the sort of thing I would have on my wall, too scary! Thanks Angeli! Glad you liked it! Thanks gedren_y! Surreal is probably how we would classify it today in a technical sense, but there seems to be a live debate over how 'Bosch intended his work to be seen, maybe this is hyper-real. Not leaving any notes is a good way to ensure a future debate on your art I guess Thanks Erynlasgalen! Yes, I wanted there to be questions as to how much of this only happened in Aloysius' head, whether by booze, madness, or Nocturnian fungi :blush: :blush: Wow, Thanks Captain! That's probably the best compliment I ever had on a build. Thanks a lot, Mikey! I'm really happy you liked it. Thanks very much Cara! The original is art, this is just my imitation. Thanks so much Dave, I'm glad you like how it fits the challenge. Wow, thanks kabel! I'm really happy you like it and think it looks authentic! Thanks Bentoft! I would not make any great artistic claim for this build, but I'm very happy you liked it. :thumbup: :thumbup: Totally agree! Thanks Rolli! So glad you liked it. The ideas kind of came along as I made it, I'm sure you would do much better. I would really look forward to seeing how you would do a painting, maybe a nice still life with cheese? :blush: :blush: Thanks very much for your kind words Jason! I am pretty open-minded in my source material, I have used Isaac Newton, Mary Shelley, Neal Stephenson, JK Rowling, Robert Sargeant, lonely planet, the Arabian Nights, The Muppets, Hayao Miyazaki, Jonathan Stroud, and plenty of Walt Disney so far for the Historica Challenges. I am very happy you appreciate the artistic intentions! Ha Ha Ha! Thanks Mikel! To me it just looks like a scary monster! I am not sure it would attract bids beyond what I paid for the new 48x48 baseplate :laugh: Thanks de Gothia! Yes, I was really happy to see that originality would be a criterion this time, I anticipated a lot of those "elemental crashes town" type MOCs, and there was no way I could compete on building skill or time or parts, so I just went all the way out for the originality axis :laugh: Thanks for the kind words zergu. I only really started to build MOCs for the Guilds of Historica project, and I have learned so much this year from all the talented builders in the guilds here. I am sure you will be building far more impressive designs than this very shortly

Love it! Great characters. I prefer the pre-destruction version for sure, what a cool hang-out. Duke LeStrange will be very happy to visit by flying carpet.

Many congratulations MikeyB! A great entry and a fun contest, well done to all who entered and thanks to soccerkid for hosting. An unenviable task for the judge, as always!

I have the same problem with one PC, McAfee is blocking the host site. Very nice build soccerkid! I especially like the rockwork and the icy atmosphere. Your Elemental is probably more terrifying for being quite realistic, I can imagine this plodding in from the snows and storms. Nice micro idea too. Yes, dwarves are rather limiting, I have foud that too Great entry!

Thankyou all for stopping by, and for your kind comments. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so I really wanted to do justice to the job, especially as I lifted this room from the mighty Matn. The only thing I wish I could have done differently is to get the portraits of previous headteachers on the walls, but I couldn't come up with appropriate decals. I was lucky enough to visit the Hogwarts in Florida last year, which was inspirational, and for my model I also used the new Warners Studio Tour version. You got me. I was trying to stay true to the Lego use eg yellow for the first 2 films and then fleshies, but I made a total cock-up with the pensieve shot. It really did :laugh: The hardest bit was the walls though, trying to get the liftarms aligned with studs top and bottom with a limited selection of pieces was very tough! Thankyou all for the comments, and many thanks for the Gryffindor badge, I shall wear it with pride!

Ephraim is only acting for the seller. Kaliphlin is the preferred venue due to our favourable tax treatment and strict adherence to the rule of law. Faith in the Mitgardian code appears to have be a little lower than previously under the new administration there in the end, the winning bid was a Mitgardian, and when the road is repaired, your links to Snowfell will be restored. Many thanks SoT! Thanks Cara! I must admit, the shape was set by basing it on the film version of Dumbledore's Pffice. I have more pictures for the Dumbledore's Office detail on my flickr. I only got one good shot of the auction house I'm afraid. Thanks MikeyB! Please do! As I was building this, I saw there was a topic on the pirate forum about what to do with small boats, and this seemed the obvious choice to me. Thanks all for stopping by and for your kind comments on this build , it really took a long time to work out those walls.

Great sense of action, and a wonderful ent -emental. I would really like to see an overview of the whole build,the castle walls are very promising. The first photo is superb!

You did a great job on the Beacon of Caltar, it's very hard to achieve that degree of destruction nicely but you really pulled it off. The micro elements are really good here, especially the sheep. The minifig posing is well done too. The elemental is very creative. Lovely first MOC for Historica!

I hoe that poor sailor is not about to get impaled on the snake's tail! Mpya Stedor is instantly recognisable as a micro, very distinctive.

I prefer this elemental to the new Rancor, it's a great build. The micro castle is very nicely done too. The emptiness of the fields gives a real sense of desolation. Good job!

What a cliffhanger! What will the Septon unleash? Very dramatic! Your minifig posing is exceptionally well done here. I especially like the wind freezing people into place. The Sept itself is a lovely MOC too, and your micro is very nice. Great entry, well done!

Love the floating islands idea, and the micro execution is superb. I would love to see the pre-destruction tavern. Why did he set up a tavern on an unreachable island though? Is there a dirigible ferry? When I first saw the cyclone, I thought it was quite confusing, but it's really growing on me now. Very creative idea and build!

Quinn! Why do the plants haunt you like this? Why didn't you stay in Kaliphlin? Oh why.....? I really like all those vines everywhere, thrusting panic wherever they go. Really good minifig posing, a great scene overall. I think I have missed out on the micro component, do you have a close up please? Superb entry!

Love this. That guy drinking the terror away, the hand shooting through the floor, hiding under the washtub, so many great details. The elemental is fantastic, and the Power Function use really sets this apart. I can only imagine how hard it is to route and synchronise the LEDs and motors. I love the Rock Monster in the micro too! Amazing stuff!