Derfel Cadarn

Thanks for the comments guys! I figured that as no one had really built anything in Circardia I thought this would be a good fit and I do plan to build a few other buildings in this colorscheme that will also be based in Circardia. Warhammer has some excellent concept art that can translate really well into Lego, so Im sure I will get some inspiration from Warhammer for future mocs. Im just playing about with using some different colorschemes at the moment, to see what works. Right now Im looking into Turquoise, which works really well but damned expensive! As for the 'fleshies', its not a permanent switch, I just have never really used them before and I have quite a few so I thought why not. In some ways I think they can tone in and look a bit more realistic, however I will always prefer classic yellow. Might use fleshies in one more moc then switch back to yellow

Hello there, I wanted to try something different and use more basic bricks for this building. I was inspired by a picture of a Warhammer building I found and it had a colorscheme that appealed to me so I thought I would give it a go. I also wanted something that can be viewed from every angle, as a lot of builders (myself included) tend to only build the part that they wish to photograph, leaving a bare emptyness behind a nice detailed front. This was quite a refreshing change, no walls full of stacked round plates (apart from a view at the base ) and it was quite simple, apart from the roof. I want to try and get away from using roof bricks and now focus on building my own. Unfortunatly I misjudged where the hall on the side connects to the tower. The tower was supposed to join to the hall in the middle of the hall's roof, but ended up being 3 studs short. This made it difficult when making the roof of the hall as I had to build the roof in a way that it would slope down to the tower with only a space of 3 studs. However, the roof kind of just worked out perfectly, so im happy with it! Leodasham Manor is situated in Cedrica, the middle realm. It is home to one of Historica's most famous Knights, Lord Lanval. His skill with a sword is famed through out Historica, so we Avalonian's could not resist recruiting him for our mighty army. Along with his young son, who is also a promising prospect, he will now train with the Dragon Flight and eventually join their ranks. Avalonia is always scouting for the best warriors, best to snap them up before the other lands do! Thanks for viewing DC

A stunning Embassy Z, very well thought out. I like the many different parts of this, it feels like a propper embassy with a main building surrounded by wooden battlements and a tower. Great work on all the details. I see the effect of the dead trees really works well, kind of like an outpost of 'good' surrounded by 'evil'. Excellent work, a fine entry indeed and glad to see the photos turned out very well in the end

That's a stunning Embassy Z! I won't comment here though, I will wait till it has it's own thread. I understand about the light problem, I finished a moc this morning but it has been so dull all day that I havn't been able to photograph it. I'm confident that we have a strong showing of Embassy's that will be more than a match for the other guilds!

This is a stunning entry, full of lovely details. You have managed to give it a dark Nocturnus feel yet still keep a strong Mitgardian look. A great interior that adds more depth to the moc and brings it to life. Excellent work!

Excellent builds guys! I have a day off work tomorrow so I can finally get round to updating everything, I keep saying I will buy something always comes up.

Nice. I think the Drow are starting to step out of place again, we will have to bury them back in Nocturnia! But if the Drow would like to open up one of their Raves in our city then it would be great entertainment for us Avalonians. @Angeli, I will leave the Drow mocs to you, you have created a great niche for yourself with a nice original style

Maybe I should invest in a load of red and black bricks and show you how to build a propper Drow structure? Thankyou, challenge accepted, you want different, your gonna get it Guildsmen!!!! Im sure you have all noticed that since day one, our guild has always been the one that seems to be picked on, some people have seemed to have 'had it in' for our guild since the start. Why? is it because we had the largest guild? the most active? the guild that hit the ground running and set the standard for how to get on and build up their land? Who knows, but its amusing When the guilds started, there were a lot of new builders who joined this guild that I didn't know or hadn't even built much before. These people have turned into IMO some of the best up and coming castle builders on this forum. Everyone in this guild has proven that they are capable of producing high quality mocs that can compete with the best of the other guilds. A whole list of excellent free builds and entrys stand as testimony to that, and yes, I do include you in that group of people Captain Beerbeard! Im really impressed with all the Embassy builds I have seen from you guys so far with some great original ideas. I am certain that we will do well in the Embassy challenge and close the gap on Mitgardia. Don't worry about the Drow and their comments, its pretty obvious they wish they were part of Avalonia, its quite flattering really. You have all constantly been churning out excellent mocs and in terms of quantity of quality mocs, we are well out in front! Lets keep this up. The better we get, the more digs and comments we recieve from other guilds, so lets keep them running scared! Im very proud to have you all as guildsmen!!

That's a bit harsh, I have commented on mostly all your builds and picked your tower as one of the top 5 in the last challenge. I can't speak for the other judges however, but I know that there are lots of mocs that fill this forum and they find it hard to find the time to comment on everything.

Another excellent creation, these just get better and better. I don't think I need to give a list of what I like about this as theres a lot to mention, but I will say that you are my favourite fantasy castle builder out there!

Nice idea and scene, its good to see some historic builds coming through. Nice work on the boat and very nice base plate design too

Great build! I love the whole design of this building with the half timbered sections and strong stone walls. A strong Avaonian statement in the land of Mitgardia. Yours builds are getting better every time, keep it up.

Now thats a stunning fantasy build! I just love that whole fantasy look this has with the interesting design and cloud at the top. Very epic and really worthy to be in the mystic Isles.

I see there is some clashing of history going on here, so I will lay out what the original idea was. When we guild leaders set up the guilds, we each added a small back story as a setting to build on. We wrote our back stories and then posted the threads. ISC added the additional bit of history later on and some of it contradicts what we said. The reason I had Avalonia as a young guild was because it made more sense to me. I saw Avalonia as a overgrown mystical area that had lain dorment for centuries, waiting for the time when it would be settled again by a noble race. I figured that if there had been guilds there all along, then it would already be built up and established. I wanted a place that members could build from scratch, everything that members are building in Avalonia is new, we are building history. Avalonia was a overgrown wild place, avoided because it was thought to be cursed, but then finally a guild came to settle its lands and our now building a kingdom. I prefered this approach as it allows members to be involved in building their land from scratch and not in a already established land. Avalonia was the first place to be settled In Historica, the ancient druids settled here as it was the most lush, green and habitable part of Historica, but as time went on, more and more settlers arrived and colonized other areas of Historica and eventually the Druids died out and Avalonia was left to grow wild while the other lands became settled and grew powerful and prosperous. The other lands obviously visited Avalonia for resources and perhaps a few people set up home there, but it never had a proper Guild. Untill now. This approach also leaves a nice long gap for members to create their own stories about what happened during its 'wild' period. A lot of Avalonias members could have been hidden in Avalonia for quite a while, tribes that settled here in secret. Members can come up with their own stories about that. So I expect that many of Avalonia's members came to Avalonia before Artorious Rex came and set up the Guild, if thats how they want to write their story then thats fine. The main aspect is freedom, I'd like the guild to have complete freedom to be able to create and fit anywhere in Avalonia and come up with their own back stories without worrying about it clashing with anything. So whatever happened in the time between the ancient druids and when the guild was set up, is open and free for whatever people want to come up with. The idea of this thread was that it can be used as a colection of different stories and ideas, where members from Avalonia can create and add any ideas they wish, weather it be myths, legends or history, anything they want about Avalonia. Then we can use these stories as inspiration for mocs and build them. So we shouldn't get too worried about whats right and whats not, thats not the point. The main idea is that Avalonia members can create their own histories as they wish because there is nothing set in stone apart from the Druids at the begining. The rest is up to you guys, and thats how it should be. Creative freedom

This takes me back, I used to love making these type of port scenes and this one is spectacular! So much detail, I like how every building is different and uses different techniques, it really adds to making the scene interesting and stand out. Gonna have a good long closer look at all of this later. Excellent work mate, I wanna do one now!!!

Shame you have to step down mate, the History forum has really grown under your rule. Rest assured we will carry on making it better and do what we can. I look forward to seeing more of your mocs now!

That's some damn fine moc AC! I really like Roman themed builds and don't see many, this is one of the best. So much to like and a very fitting color scheme. Excellent work!

Excellent work, a very unique looking embassy! I like the design here, the wood and stone sections look great and I like how you have the flags of Mitgardia but in the Dark Green of Avalonia, this is a nice subtle effect. A strong original entry

Greet work Captain! A very interesting scene and a tittle well earned. Thats a fine looking Embassy K.Kreations, I really like the look you have achieved with this. @Rogueang, We will stick with the 2 year old guild. I know Maximus said there were 100 years of peace, but that can just mean peace with Avalonia before the Guild came along. Hopefully we can get everyone in the guild to add their own stories of their areas of land to the thread. It would be quite interesting for people to come up with stories and legends that others can build. Im used to building my own ideas, but wit would be a refreshing challenge to build an idea that someone else has come up with. Still, if we get a thread full of different ideas and stories than there will be lots of scenes for us to build. For anyone interested, I have added another chapter onto my guide which shows and explains how to build round towers like these: I know an update on the first page is well overdue, there are many titles that need handing out as well, I will be working on the first page today.

Thankyou for all your great comments everyone. I would like to build a whole castle like this as I have never actually built a propper castle, however it is very parts intensive, so I will need to stock up on more pieces untill I can pull it off. For those interested, I have added a new chapter to my Guide which shows how to build this round tower design, hope you will find it useful. Thanks again DC

It has been a while since I updated this guide, so now I am going to add some infomation on how to build a round tower. It is quite parts intensive, but the finished look is very pleasing. The main parts you will need for this are 1x2 hinge plates, 1x1 bricks modified/with stud, 1x1 round plates or 1x1 rounds and 1x2 tiles. Those are the main parts that take up the bulk of this technique. Building a Round Tower: First we start off with some hinge plates, a double row for strength. Its best if you make sure the diameter is an even number of studs. This tower has a diameter of 16 studs, but for the bottom plate I have overlapped the hinges so I can attach some wedge pieces. I have used 2x2 plates under the rest of the hinges so I can have wedges all the way round which will hide the hinges. Next we can lay down a foundation of plates for the middle. Then add a 2x2 turntable piece which will allow you to add another 2x16 plate at any angle to strengthen the tower. This technique can be used to add strength to the tower when ever you feel it needs it. Connect another 2x16 plate across the tower. This will now give a strong sturdy base. Now I have used 1x2 plates with a rail to bring everything level with the 2x16 plate. Note that I have also added 3 tiles, this is where the door frame will sit. Here I have added a pre-built door and frame. This is built on a 6x6 plate and I have covered this in my previous guide. Now that this is in place, work can begin on the walls. Now we come to building the walls. Its a simple case of alternating between a 1x1 brick with a stud on the side and round plates. You don't have to use round plates, a 1x1 round will do just as well. I must stress the fact that you really shouldn't build any higher than 8 studs without strengthening it. I build to a height of 8 studs, then place some 2x16 plates as before. As you can imagine, this technique is quite parts intensive, you will need quite a few of those 1x1 bricks with studs on the side. Now we add the next layer of hinge plates. Obviously you would build this all the way round, im just building a small section here. The middle needs building up as well, using regular bricks, but first we need to lay another 2x2 turntable piece so a plate can be layed on top at the correct angle. Now you can add plates to get a firm base. Fill in as much as you can inside the tower. Then its just a case of building up with normal bricks. As I have said, when ever you reach a height of 8 studs you should then add another plate across the tower for strength. To hide every row of hinge plates and strengthening plates, we can use these 1x2 plates with a 2x2 overhang. This will hide the hinges and allow you to add some more detail to them. Then its just a case of adding the tiles and and any other parts you wish. At this point, you will now have one section. It is best to build a whole round section like this and add the tiles, then do it all over again on top till another section is complete etc. Then its a case of how ever high you want to go. For windows, the best ones to use are the ones I have used on my Skyrim moc, the 1x2x3 gray ones, but you may find other good alternatives. Thats basically it, you can go as wide as you want, just remember its easier if the diameter is an even number. Here is an example of a small tower built with the technique. This has a diameter of 12 studs and thats about as small as you should go with it. If you go any smaller you start to lose the smooth roundness. At the top I have added a row of headlight bricks with some brown rounds attached, then I have built another circle of hinge plates just large enough to fit around the stone. This then rests on the brown rounds and you can use some 1x1 bricks with a stud on the side to add brown tiles and give a nice wood effect. Well thats everything you need to know to build a round tower, I hope it will be useful to some of you. I will update again soon with some more useful techniques. Thanks for viewing DC

Thats fine, I see you have started a thread, so I link it to the first page. People can now add their stories and Histories to the thread and hopefully build some scenes from them.

This is a fantastic build Mikey The building looks great from the outside, with good use of different parts for effects. The interior looks great too, very cosy feel and well detailed. Another excellent addition from you!

Great little build Mikey, love the nice natural scene you have created here, just perfect.

I spent ages debating about adding a dragon here, but im still working on a design that im happy with, so I will use one in another moc hopefully, a Skyrim moc does need a dragon