Rogue Angel

Thanks for the comments! The citizens of Brulum Harbor eagerly await the arrival of the Lords. It is a great occasion when nobility deigns to visit the Harbor. I hope to build samples of some of the buildings, or maybe the town hall or church. I may even create one of the streets or the docks, if I'm feeling really ambitious.

I present the coastal town of Brulum Harbor, located at the mouth of the Brulum River. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64885

Brulum Harbor is home to the the small town of the same name. Nestled at the mouth of the Brulum River, Brulum Harbor is one of the few rivers navigable by boats along the eastern shore of the Enchanted Forest. The eastern, seaward coast of the town is walled with a guard tower at the south end, and Brulum keep at the north end. Brulum keep protects the small town from invaders with the help of the towers to the north and south The natural harbor provides protection from the squalls that roll down the coast. The majority of residents have utilized the black stone roofing that is popular in Avalonia, while many of the town buildings and merchants use the red granite from the nearby granite quarries for their buildings. The thatched roofs of the poorer peasant dwellings are tucked away at the base of the cliffs. you can always find fresh produce and wares from the merchants of Circadia and the Elves of the Rustling Leaves Clan in the town square. Brulum Port is one of main points of call for the Elvish triremes that are manned by elves who can navigate the treacherous fogs of the Mystic Isles. The town of Brulum Harbor has fared well in the relative peace that has existed recently in Avalonia. Walls and towers have been erected along the surrounding cliff tops, to protect the town from attacks from inland, while the seawalls and towers help protect from sea attacks. Brulum Harbor has prospered under the reign of Artorious Rex, and has has been growing by leaps and bounds. As one of the only accessible ports in the Mystic Isles (via the Elven ships) Brulum Harbor provides a viable alternative route to the overland route out of the Enchanted Forest.

This is a beautiful MOC! I thought at first that I was looking at one of Derfel's works. This has a nice old haunted house feel to it, and I love the overgrown estate.

Very nice little MOC. I like the roof, and the MOC is very Mitgardian.

I really like this MOC. It is reminiscent of the old Imperial Fortress Pirate set. I really like all the little details you've added in along the two buildings. I too like the werewolf faction and how much you've done with it. Great MOC!

Thank you for the comments on my tower Robuko. Being the first time one of these challenges was done, I think there is going to be a lot of questions as people try to figure out what the criteria are and how the creations will be judged. I'm guessing that no two guild leaders would have chosen the same 5 towers for each guild given the variety we have. I have also heard a variety of criteria for the towers, and the guild leaders will see how the other leaders judge, and what they are looking for in MOCs. I purposely built my tower to look completely different than the style that my guild has adopted, and guild style was one of the criteria, which mine did not fit. I'm thinking that the process will streamline quickly, and a lot of the questions will be answered. I just love this chance to inspire tons of MOCs in the castle realm. I like showcasing what I build, but I LOVE seeing what everyone is building. So many of the MOCs coming out of the Guilds are simply Amazing. Congratulations To Gabe and Kaliphlin for the best tower, but we of Avalonia will be coming for you, so beware

Gorgeous. I love the entry way, and the Duskwood Town Hallish building. Beautful!

While I like the update to the Naboo pilot, It's not a figure I'm going to bother replacing for $10 a pop, since I have yet to MOC with one.

I was excited to pick up this set, thinking it that Lego had moved to the TIE pilot in the Defender set. I suppose this fig is more accurate. Thanks for the review, I guess I will be skipping this one.

I wish I would have waited to buy Sebulba. The orange cheese slopes would have been a nice addition to my collection.

This series should be easy to feel, since I want Minotaurs and Romans with the head and the shield I had no problem today. It also seems that the dots are easier to see - but maybe that's the white packaging. I did feel that the packaging error on the elves that made one of the dots look like a fireball made it really easy to differentiate. I did run into a box where the elves were dotted differently, but only the 1 box out of probably 10 that I checked.

Well done! The corridor looks great, and I love the down the hall view.

Star Wars Legos pose a very unique situation. They are a commodity that practically always increases in value given time, and you can usually sell them at any time if you want. This makes for a very dangerous situation for my wallet. For me there are three tiers: Tier 1 sets, which I will be buying - it's just a matter of finding a good deal, or sometimes I just buy the first one I see. Tier 2 sets, which have figures I want or are cool sets, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend the money on them (Often time it will be a $40-$50 sets that I want 1 or 2 $10 figs from, so If I can find it for $25 or $30...) Tier 3 sets, which I don't want, and would only buy at 75% off for parts. The danger for me is that I can buy Tier 2 sets on sale, with the knowledge that I can always resell them if I want. This also happens with Tier 1 Battlepacks (You can never have enough Snowies or Troopers, right?) What's even worse is that they still usually retain 75-90% of their value after their opened, so there's no huge incentive to keep them sealed like there would be if I collected action figures. I can't tell you how many sets I've purchased thinking "I probably won't keep it, I'll just resell it" and it ends up in my collection. I did sell off my Episode 3 clones from the BPs a couple of years ago and made double what I paid for them, since I decided I was never going to MOC episode III.

Very nice. I really like the Narglatch, and I LOVE the profile view of the wall of the cavern and the way it wraps over the top. Excellent MOC!

I just picked up 10 rebel and snowtrooper BPs from Target for $8 a piece, and ordered 4 TIE Defenders from Target for $25 a piece. I'm very happy there are clearance deals again this year. The last few years, they have been lacking.

Very nice MOC! I like the stag, and I love the way your MOCs always seem like a sliver of a lush world, like you just ripped a slice out for display. Beautiful!

When I created my deer mosaic for my tower, I used a base of six 1x8 tiles underneath my cheese slopes and 1x1 plates and tiles. The top of my mosaic was slightly lower than the level of my tile floor, but if you are creating the entire floor with cheese slopes, The slight difference in vertical height won't matter. In terms of horizontally, your slopes will match up exactly in one direction. In the other horizontal direction, you should match up as long as the total stud length is a multiple of 4 (I think. The slopes should match up to 3, 4 or 5 studs when laid down, I don't remember which it is though without being home to actually try it.) I'm not sure if this is exactly what you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

The only set that is really "sacred" to me is my falcon. I won't touch that no matter what - no piece shall pass. I'm dreading the move to 1x1 rounds, it twill cost me a small fortune. I just bought 84 1x1 bricks w stud for my embassy. Finally had to invest in them...

Thanks for the info Derfel. I have no problem with the 5 towers you selected. I think they were all great builds. After hearing the process, I can see how we could have mid-range towers, with only 1 in the top 6. I am eager to hear the results of the free build competition.

I guess it makes a little more sense if the free builds were included. I have seen all the towers, but not a lot of the other creations. It's just that we have some great builders in Avalonia who keep consistently turning out beautiful MOCs (deGothia and MikeyB are perfect examples.) When I looked through the other towers last month, I thought we would be cleaning house with this challenge. (maybe I was being a little too Avalonia-centric) I was surprised when I saw the results last night. I think if we had another tower in, or if we had done better than third, or if your tower had won first, I wouldn't have cared. (I'm not making any comment on whose tower should have gotten first, There were towers from each guild that I could see getting first, including yours.) Here I had thought Avalonia was steam-rolling our competitors. I guess we'll have to try to make up some ground with the Embassies. I would like to see the results of the free-builds, or at least which ones were entered.

I can't say I understand that, given the quality of our entries. Were the points based purely off the winners? And by the way Z, your tower was awesome, as with all your MOCs.

Derfel, Who had the top 5 towers for Avalonia.

I think that it is good to have baseplate restrictions with many of the challenges. There is going to be an advantage for people with larger collections for any build, since they have more pieces to use in different ways, and they can choose to use all one color, or make big mountains. I think that the watchtower challenge demonstrated how people could take advantage of their larger collections to make large MOCs on a 32x32. Your tower was a perfect example of this. I feel that the 48x48 is very large for a challenge that is not a castle, or estate or larger collection of buildings or lands. If you just let people build whatever size they want, you will have people like Derfel or yourself, who can make enormous MOCs that knock out the small MOCs without a fight. The smaller MOCs have to be amazing to rival the large MOCs, and it can become a quantity vs. quality issue. I often see larger MOCs that are lower quality, but look more impressive due to sheer size. I think that the fact that there is no height restrictions opens up the potential for very large builds. You can always build up or down. From my own standpoint, I would never be able to get my builds done if there was no size limit. I have probably spent 40 - 50 hours on my embassy at 48 x 48, and I'm probably a bit over halfway through. It sounds like there will be larger challenges later on, but I feel that it is better to have some small challenges and some large challenges.

I love the use of 2012 minifigs! Where did you get the black elven hair? Is it painted?