Derfel Cadarn

Excellent builds Mikey! Interesting Idea there Vocanicpanik, the Druids started it all, and there is also a hidden object that protects the realm, hidden somewhere... As you have all been busy working on your own areas, I thought it would be a good idea for you each of you to come up with a bit of History for your area, it will help flush out Avalonia a bit more and give some info about that area, how it came to be, has it got any legends or interesting history? You can tie it in to the main Avalonia legends and history if you wish, maybe your area said to be built on a grave of a ancient Druid, or prehaps a sleeping dragon lies buried beneath your town, or does your area lay claim to being the place where the ancient Druids first steeped foot on the land? What ever you wish, it would just be nice to have some info. This is why I think we should all compile togther 'The Travellers Guide To Avalonia'. I thought we could start a thread which could be used to represent a book, and in this thread you can add all your stories, historys and general Avalonia legends. But only add complete stories and info to the thread as we don't want it to be full up with unfinished ideas. For example, there may be a special ritual stone in your area that has its own legend, or a secret lake that has healing waters. Any little storie like this, what ever you come up with can be added into the Travellers Guide. This will also serve and help to give inspiration for builds. You might cfind you come up with an interesting storie/legend that would make a great moc. In Avalonia, we are looking to the future and building our great land, but lets not forget our mythical and legendary past. There are lots of great oppertunities for mocs here, it would be interesting to see some mocs built of important scenes from our past. This is what I hope this idea will bring. So come up with some history on your area and any stories or legends you wish to add and then post it in the thread. Remember, it will be good to have a thread that reads like a guide book to our land, it will make a good addition to our guild and then we can use the thread like an idea book and have a go at building mocs from the stories and legends people have added. Let me know what you think about this whole idea, if you are all interested then I will start the thread. It doesn't have to be called 'The Travellers Guide' thats just a suggestion, you may come up with a better name. Hopefully we can get this show book on the road and start exploring our land to the extreme!

Hey there, Ive been messing about with a few Skyrim mocs recently, this is the first, set in the Pale region. Hostile Stormcloaks and an Ice Mage try to stop the brave Dovahkiin as he battles to the top to get his hands on a chest containing some useful Ebony Armor, but after the 1000th time of finding tomatos and carrots, he refuses to check any more barrels! Larger pics availible over at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45244184@N04/ Thanks for viewing DC

Looking good Captain! I really love the effect that tree gives, spreading over a large area. a whole forest full of those trees would look awesome. Nice work on the mine too, this is shaping up to be another great moc.

This is a very original and interesting moc! I love it! Great design and you have added so many nice details. Not many people choose to add interiors(I'm guilty of been lazy here) but this is the second very well built interior I have seen from you and it looks excellent. Great idea and execution, another great Embassy from Avalonia!

Greetings guildsmen! I see you have all been busy working on more new great creations! I apologize that I have been non-existent recently, but many real life duties have taken up all my time. I have been checking up every now and then and seen some great recent creations from you all. Now that I have finished decorating my house I can finally get back to the guild. The front page needs updating, which I will sort out over the weekend plus I hope to sort out a time line for our history where you can all add your own stories and ideas to our existing history. Keep up the great work everyone!

Nice work, this has a great no nonsense simple look to it which really works. I like the color scheme used here, the sand red works very well and makes this stand out. Great entry!

A splendid Avalonia countryside moc. You are getting better and better at these scenes with every moc. This is a great scene, I like the idea and you have succeeded in creating a nice detailed interior with all the weapons and armor. Great work on the sword fight, it looks good and exciting with all the spectators. Great work!

Well I asked again at the lego store just last week. My words were "do you have a release date for the potc flying Dutchmen set yet?". The exact reply from the store employee was "no we havn't been given the release date for it yet, but will most probably be the latter part of the year" That says to me that it's coming. Maybe the have finished the potc line, but that doesn't stop them releasing a one-off flying Dutchmen at some point. I'm not the only person who has heard about this, so unless they decide to cancel it, it will happen. I did see a small prelim, so either way, it's definitely been started by Lego, just have to see if it comes out. I really hope so.

I absolutely love this! Such a great adaption of the picture! You have picked an area that no one in Avalonia has really attempted to build, and you have setthe standard for what I hoped to see there. The use of blues, grey and white really give this a unique feel and really make it stand out. Great techniques and use of parts here too, love those trees. Great work, one of the most original guild mocs I've seen! A damn fine embassy.

Thanks guys, it is pretty sturdy. I started off by using those 1x2 hinge plates to make a round circle shape. The diameter is 12 studs, so you can attach a 12 stude plate acroos at any angle. Then each 1x2 section is built up using the combination of 3 round plates then a 1x1 brick with stud, then 3 round plates and then a 1x1 brick with stud etc, and keep going up like that. Obviously you have to alternate it so to the left and right of every 1x1 brick there is 3 round plates, hope you understand what I mean. Once you have got about 10 bricks high, its time to strengthen it, which is done by using 2x12 plates to criss-cross through out the tower. Just remember to use a 2x2 turntable plate to allow for crossing the 2x12 plates at every angle. Doing this pretty much means you can go as high as you want, strengthening it every so often and then attaching the tiles to the studs on the side. I will probably add this technique over at the guide, as its far easier than it sounds. Oh, and yes, I picked up 30 of those viking pattern tiles from bricklink over Xmas and they are very handy for adding a bit of fancy engraving on buildings

Sorviodunum, an Avalonian outpost, deep in the Mystic Isles. The tower watches over the main route to Ynys Wydryn - the sacred realm. Just a quick excuse to have a go at a round tower design built from 1x1 round plates and 1x1 bricks with stud, which I will be using on my next moc. I wasn't planning on using a pointed roof on my upcoming build, so just added it for the sake of something different. Plus im trying to build up my own area of land in Avalonia, so this is part of Ynys Wydryn. Thanks for viewing, comment and critique allways welcome

Great little moc! You have captured ythe feel of Mitgardia well and managed to create a very quaint little scene her. Its amazing how many small details you have fitted in here as well. Nice work

What a great idea for showing a city! I like the fact that you have built a whole mini-scale area of your land and you have done an excellent job! We can get a nice picture of what this area is like from this. Will you be building any of this in standard size?

Thankyou for all your great comments! The material I used for the banner was bought at my local Hobbycraft shop, I took in a dark green and sand green brick and went through all the materials they had till I found a matching colour. Its pretty much as close as you can get. I didn't mess too much around with the water as there is only a small section showing around the moc, If It had been a large open lake then I would have added something to it, but I left it bare as I didn't want to cover what little part there is showing. No offense taken, I like to hear some critique as it helps me to improve. The way I looked at it was, its an old Mitgardian ruin that has been built up with wooden timber sections by the Avalonians. I suppose it does look very Mitgardian, but I think I just really wanted to build something inspired by Skyrim, so it just naturally turned out looking more Mitgardian. Thanks for your comments and feedback, always most appreciated

You're getting better and better at this! Looking really good so far, I really like the old haunted feel you have created here, it really gives it some charm and character. It definitely fits into Avalonia!

Great entry, you have captured the Kaliphiln look and feel very well. I really like the whole werewolf tribe idea you have, nice to see another race inhabiting these lands. I like the two different shades of buildings and style, it adds an interesting contrast to the moc. Great work

Well my other half is going to sign up for this guild, she has access to all my pieces plus her own, so she has no excuse not to be building!

You are right about Rougang's Tower, it was a very original entry and I admit I over looked it as its been quite a task constantly sorting and picking mocs. This is why I will let my guild pick the Embassy entries, as I feel they should have a say in what will be used to represent their guild.

Excellent work everyone on your latest creations! I will try and update the first page latter today. My Embassy is finished, im now working on some Mystic Isle mocs.

Lindinis Varro, an Avalonian Embassy in the harsh north of Mitgardia. Built on the ruins of an old ruined outpost surrouned by an icy lake, the Embassy has stood for many years now as an outpost of Avalonia and Mitgardia relations. Through the Embassy we try to keep a good relationship with our mighty northen brothers of Historica. We take it upon ourselves to protect this area of land in respect to our hosts who have kindly let us have this Embassy built here. The chief of the Embassy is a man named Prylig, who has been stationed here for so long that he is more Mitgardian in his ways than Avalonian and can speak their ancient language very well. However, he is a true proud Avalonian at heart, and is aided by a small group of Avalonian soldiers who are stationed here also. The Mitgardians have not had much contact with us these last few months and we fear what this means, however, it was written in agreement that if any trouble were to come between our two great lands, then our emissaries would have a safe passage home. Lets hope it will never come to this....... This is my first attempt at building a winter snow scene and you have to understand how hard it was to resist using all the usual green! Its partially inspired by Dragon's Reach from Skyrim which I do actually plan to build a propper version of at a latter date. I also wanted to a new baseplate design that would allow for a small subtle use of Avalonia's color. I will add the base design and a few other notable features in the guide, as people might find them useful. Thanks for viewing, now I can get cracking on some more Avalonian builds

I remember being at that stage where I didn't want to dismantal certain sets, but now it doesn't bother me. The modulars are nice, but also a great source of parts. If you have a good organized sorting system of your Lego then it's always very easy to build them again. I sometimes think that I would like to build all the modulars and connect them together as I've never done that, but I'm always building mocs so I never get the time. Acquiring pieces is something that takes time. Its choosing wether to make a brink link order or buy a set. For example, I didn't buy the Pet Shop on its day of release because it was either spend £120 on that, or £120 on a brinklink order. When it came to it, I knew I could get a lot more important parts I need with the brinklink order then I would with the Petshop, so I went with brinklink and got the Petshop at the end of the year instead. I try and get 100 of each of my particular important parts every month. Sometimes you just have to do a big order that will keep you going for a while. Always get more than you need if you can. If I use to find myself short of a few parts, rather then order the exact few I need, I would just order 100. It pays off in the end, as you will always have more for when you build something else that's bigger. It's also good to check the PAB wall sometimes in Lego stores. Most of the time they don't have anything interesting, but I've had a few instances when they have had tiles in brown, green, black, red and white. The amount I could fit into a large tub for £11 would have cost more then twice as much from brinklink, so it's well worth it. That's where I amassed most of my foliage pieces from, all from a PAB wall. I remember they last had the small 3x4 leaf piece in there, and I filled up to large pots with them which came to £22. When I counted them back at home, I had picked up nearly 1000. Now you try ordering 1000 on brinklink! It comes to a lot more then £22! So yes, PAB walls can be good. That's a good idea on a prize MikeyB. I've been focusing on sets, but maybe some castle building kits would make welcome prizes. I will look into that.

Greetings guildsmen! As you may be aware, the results of the watchtower challenge are in, and we finished 3rd. I am not in the least bit worried however. It was only the first challenge, and we keep getting better. As I am one of the judges, I obviously was not allowed to score and judge our entries as It would be naturally biased, so each leader has to judge the other 3. We had good scores, but I can tell you that we did lose a few points on photo quality, but that's not too big an issue. We had five strong entries, but I think the main problem is that we were too cautious and went with a more ordinary approach. Not that any of the mocs were ordinary in the sense of average, but in the sense that we played it safe and didn't take many unique risks. We built some of the best examples of solid stone towers, but maybe we should have added more unique half-timber sections sticking out to add more character. But, we didn't have any low marked entries, in fact I think we had the most strong overall. Like I said, I'm not worried. The fact is, those points we have are only just from the towers, the 5 free builds have not been scored yet, and when it comes to free builds, we are in a very strong position. The free builds will be scored in the next few days, sothey should get us some more points. I am allowed to choose 5 free builds every month to earn us points, and thanks to you all, I have a seriously large selection of quality mocs to pick and there are constantly more on the way. The 5 builders that made the tower challenge final were: ZCerberus Mayday artist de Gothia Silver.Smith Captain Beerbeard Well done to you all, you all had fantastic entries, in fact, there where many very excellent entries that could have all got into the top 5. Don't be worried if your entry was not in the top 5, there will be plenty more chances in other challenge and free builds. The 5 free builds I have selected are: Hemrick the Armorer by Mikey B Geode Caverns by Siercon &Coral ATC Sawmill by Captain Blackmoor Alchemist by Rolli Arcadonia Tower by Matn (he was a few days late with his entry so I have added it as a free build) These are all great mocs and will earn our guild many more points. These were all chosen for last year, so I will also be able to choose another 5 at the end of January, and a lot more great mocs have been coming in, so it looks good for us. For the Embassy challenge, I will let you all vote for the five entry's that go through. I would like you to have more input and it's your guild as much as mine, so it's only fair that you all have a say in what 5 entry's go through to represent our guild. Well done to everybody for your efforts, you have all helped to bring Avalonia to life, and it grows more mighty all the time. All I can say is, let Mitgardia enjoy their time at the top while they can, cause we are going to take it for ourselves soon, and we won't be giving it up when we have it! Keep up your great work, and don't forget there is still plenty of time to get embassy's built!

Sorry, the un-pinning of Nocturnus was my fault, I was using an IPhone at the time and clicked the wrong thing, bloody touch screens!!! Anyway, Nocturnus isn't un-loved, I just think that out of all the guilds, it's the one that hasn't been really flushed out yet. There seems to be this feeling that Nocturnus are the bad guys, but this doesnt have to be so. I see your land as a gloomy, haunted and mysterious place, which has lots of great possibilities for mocs. I know if I was in Nocturnus I would be building something with a similar look to the Sleepy Hollow movie, dark gloomy woods with witches caves, old spooky villages and haunted towers. I think you should all have more of an open mind when building your land. Don't feel you have to have everything looking black and evil with lots fire! Build in your forests, swamps, and villages just like the other guilds, just remember to give it that subtle dark and earie haunted feel to make them stand out as Nocturnus mocs. Like I said, the Sleepy Hollow type feel would suit your guild well, but that's just my suggestion. Once you find and settle on a style then your guild will really start taking off. Keep up the good work and just try to flush out your land more, start building some civilian scenes and your land will start coming to life.

What a great idea for a moc, loving how you are coming up with these great additions, our land is really coming to life. Great work, with your usuall great attention to detail. Nice to see so many everyday life scenes. I will update the first page soon and get all these new additions added. Keep up the great work!

Now that's one impressive gatehouse! The size is perfect, it really gives off an impression of our Avalonian might! I see that you have added many features and worked in many details from the nicely designed base to the trebuchet mounted at the top. The half timbered sections are spot on and exactly how I imagined. Interesting work with the dark tan tiled floor and I love all those hints of dark green you have woven in around the whole build. Really excellent work Z, another stunning castle creation. I hope to start on the Keep soon, but I will need to order some pieces if I am to do what I have in mind, so might be a few weeks yet till I start. However, I have nearly finished my Embassy, so I can get cracking on some more builds this weekend. Looking forward to seeing your next creation!