Derfel Cadarn

This is a great moc! The choice of using just a few colours works well here, as the tan building with the dark brown roof really stands out and looks great with just the right amount of detail. The figs are also nicely done, plus its nice to see some mocs with fleshies for a change. Nice work

Now we need to start finishing this section. To start with , we are going to carry on building up the area behind the mill. Firstly we will make a small muddy track way from the side of the mill up to the top of the raised area. This area will be for a woodcutter and a small witch grove. We build up the hill using brown plates, making the effect of a muddy trackway worn into the hill. We build the pathway up to the top and form a small clearing. This is where the woodcutter will be busy chopping wood. Note that I have started building some more rocks behind the clearing. This will form a small area shaded by trees which will be the witches grove. Now I have started to lay the foundations of the tree trunk. This is simply done using a variety of slope pieces to make the effect. Now the tree is in place, and I have added a few creepers going up the trunk. As you can see, once a few more trees are in place and the rocks and foliage are built up, the witch grove will have a nice secluded effect. Perfect for the practice of witchcraft, every medieval village has gotta have its own resident witch right? Perhaps Mary Jane will make an appearence here! We we leave that area for now, as it can't be completed till the other side is built up. So we will now finish the area in front of the mill. The first job will be to use dark gray tiles to make some worn stone pathways. The mill is a working area, so the pathways should look worn and broken from the constant back and forth of goods. To do this we simply place the tiles in random mismatched positions forming a basic route to the various entrances of the mill from the bridge. Then around the tiles we place some green plates and the odd brown 1x1 plate for use as spots of mud. Once that is done, we can place another tree by the river. Note that I have placed dark green tree pieces and very few plants around the trunk. This is because nothing much will grow in this area as its always in the shade. I have also added a patch of sand green plates to the right of the tree, as this will be part of a cow field and so we need to show flattened patches where the cows have been laying. Now we can start placing some posts around the area to mark the border of the field. I find the best way to fill the edges of these mocs is to fence them off and use the area as the start of a field. Then we use some black string and tie a knot at the middle of the first post and then wrap around each post all the way to the final post. You can get black thread at most places. I use one that allows you to take off layers of thread making it as thin or thick as you want. Next we go round again with a second row of thread. This time we clamp the thread between the top of the telescope pieces and a 1x1 round plate. Once this is done, it will give a nice effect and tone in well with the rest of the scene. Next we need to make a water trough for the cows. This is done by using two 1x4 bricks with studs on the sides. Put them together and place some blue tiles on top like in the picture below. Then we connect some brown 1x2 tiles to the studs on each side. You can do this using any colour of brown, dark brown is ideal for this. Then we have to lean some more 1x2 tiles up at each end of the trough and then put a Lego rubber band over the top to hold those ones in place. This is best done on a flat hard surface where the tiles will stand in place while you put the elastic band over the top. The finished look has a nice effect as the tiles will hang over the corners which gives it a nice look. You can use this trough for many things, it doesn't always have to be water. You could put some tan tiles in for straw effect etc. We can now place the trough in position and add a cow! As you can see, we are now starting to get a nice natural medieval countryside look. Next is a shot of the other side of the mill. You can see that the hill needs to be built up and to do this we need to start extending the land outwards now. The stream needs to be finished and the weeping willow needs to be built and placed hanging over the stream. I will cover this part in the next post. Once this area is complete we can finally get down to building the main village. Thanks for reading. DC

I remember this one well, bought quite a few. I liked the oval shield a lot at the time and prefered it to the other version. The only thing I didn't like was the black visor piece, as I always liked to use the gray ones. Nice review of a handy small set.

Quite a neat little set with some useful parts. As you know Carl Greatrix(Bricktrix) made an official Lego Pearl which was stunning. Disney made him remove all the pictures for some reason, and I heard Jamie Berard mention at STEAM that it was on of the best models he has ever seen, so if Lego release one it will be that one. But I doubt it, I was speaking to a few designers and they said as there isn't a new film out this year so there probably wont't be any more POTC sets this year. I did ask about the possibility of a POTC D2C set but again they said unlikely, because if i look in front of me I will see why, of course, in front of me was new Medieval Joust set which is the 'big' D2C set for next year. I figured I wasn't going to get any other info, so I grabbed the new Black Falcon Mini-fig and got the hell outta there!

In the next part we will be building up the remaining landscape behind the mill and I will be adding some trees. So before I start the next part, I'm just going to show a few tree designs that I will be using. Firstly, in the picture below you will see the 3 leaved Lego plant piece. As you know it comes connected inside a triangle plastic mold that we push out and throw away right? Wrong! Always keep the leftover triangle mold, as this can be cut then straightened out and used for vines and foliage. Its a great useful piece that can be used to wrap around tree trunks and up cliffs and castle buildings. When people build trees the basic way is to use plates for branches and add the tree pieces on. This works fine, but if your using this technique it can be handy to add some black ariel/lever pieces like in the picture below. Then you can make some large bunches of tree pieces and then insert them on to the ariel/lever piece through one of the holes. This allows you to angle the tree pieces for different shapes like in the picture below. This next technique is my personal favourite. This has so many possibilities for tree shapes. It is built using the 1x2 brick hinge which connect at each end. The fact that each 1x2 brick can be bent to a different angle really allows for lots of variation when conecting tree pieces on to them. These pictures below give an example. These are quick thrown together examples, but with a little time and effort you will be able to create the perfect tree from this method. Also I will add that using this method you can create a perfect example of that Holy grail of trees The Weeping Willow. Finally, the last tree method I use is from technic parts. This method is used for making spindly looking trees that don't have as many leaves. This is done by clipping lots of technic parts together with 1x2 technic axel's. You use these to make an interesting shape, then clip the tree pieces in the holes using the technic half-pin. I'm not sure exactly what these particular technic parts are called, but hopefully you will recognize them from the picture. Well, that's the basic tree designs I will be using. As for height, its really a case of how tall you want them to be. I usually go for a height just taller than the houses or the same size. Tree trunks are really a case of building up bricks, there's not a perfect brick for getting a proper tree trunk effect but the log effect 1x2 brick looks good. Colour is again down to you, brown and black are the best, mainly because there are a lot of elements available in those colours. Dark brown would be perfect, but we are let down by the small amount of elements available in that colour. Next we will be using these tree designs to create a Witches' Grove behind the mill. Thanks for reading. DC

Thank you. Well, the main real reason I used tiles instead of plates is because I've always used tiles for water, and so i've built up a large collection of blue and medium blue tiles to the point where I have more of those then I do of plates in those colours. That's it really, although I think that plates would make the water look slightly more blue because the studs would be pushed up into the trans plate making the colour show through more. You don't just have to use blue underneath either, I experimented with some other colours, and If you put green plates under the trans pieces you get a great turquoise type colour that would be perfect for sea. As for the part used in the tree, those pieces originally came from the Lego Viking ship, as they where used for holding the sail. I bought a 2nd viking ship off ebay that came with these but some were snapped and broken, which was handy as I then had different lengths. They are 3mm hose on bricklink and are availible in different lengths. Black is more common and ive used that for trees as well, plus grey is another good colour, as you then can have different types of trees with all the different colours. I will post some other useful tips with my next installment tomorrow. Thanks DC

Thankyou! The next section has been posted, the mill is now finished! Yes, I agree, many times I have taken a picture and thought that it doesn't show the moc as good as it looks in real life. I've always been one to cram a moc full of detail, so it can be heavy on the eyes sometimes. As for those 8x8 trans plates, I started collecting them at the begining of the year after getting 2 in one of the Winter Village sets. I instantly thought they would be great for water and so I have been buying them here and there all year. They arn't cheap, but you just have to keep watching Bricklink as they do often show up in a big batch for a very reasonable price. I think i have got 40 something, but I doubt I will buy anymore unless I really need them. Yes you are right about a modular design. I sometimes build them so they split in half, which is probably what I will do with this one. I will cover all that at some point in the guide Thankyou all DC

Hello there! Right, its time to get this mill finished! I'm basing the design on one of my previous mills that I built which is one of my personal favourite mocs. I was really happy with the design, so I thought I would use parts of it here. To start off, we need to get the main large doors made. These are quite simple and consist of a 2x8 plate and a 1x8 plate joined together to make a 3x8. On top of that we add some brown tiles and a brown jumper plate to attach a door handle on. On the other side, we strengthen the doors with some 2x3 plates and add to 1x1 clip plates, as seen in the picture below. Then, we need to build a pillar the same height as the doors using a combination of 1x1 bricks and 1x1 clip plates. We attach two pole/stick pieces to these. This will enable us to clip the doors onto them. You can now see the doors clipped in and put into place. Next we need to make the frame of the door. We will do this in dark brown, and make the vertical supports first. This is done the same way as the woodwork in the house at the begining of this thread. A simple task of using four 1x1 bricks with stud, with two 1x1 plates between each one. We can then connect two dark brown tiles to this as seen in the picture below. Then place in position either side of the doors. We then need to build 2 pillars of 1x1 round plates with a headlight brick at the top of each one. These need to be the same height and level as the doors and dark brown tiles. Then we add the horizontal top part of the door frame. For this we use two 2x6 dark brown plates with tiles on top. We can then also add the 2 lanterns which clip into the headlight bricks on either side. Then its a case of building up the outer wall of 1x1 round plates and remembering to add some tiles here and there to break them up. It should now look something like this. Now is the time to start adding some interior if that is what you want. You could also use Power Functions to make the wheel turn, but that's up to you. I have just added a very basic interior as its not going to really be seen. Next we turn our attention to the right side of the building. As you can see I have built up the landscape to the building add have started adding a small storage shed on the side. Now you can see the shed complete. This was built in the same way as I have said earlier with a wall of normal bricks built behind the 1x1 rounds. The door is built the same way as I showed you earlier, but instead of connecting it with clips, it is attached to some 1x1 bricks with stud, which are holding it up from behind. The roof is attached using 1x2 plate hinges, with half the plate built into the wall, and the other half attached to the roof. This allows us to create a slope with the roof. In the next shot, you can see that I have started to build up some more rocks on the side of the building like I did with the waterfall. Again, these are simply done with different slope pieces stacked to get the right effect. Also note that I am building up the black wall of the base to match the landscape so we still get a nice neat effect when we view the moc from any angle. Now you can see I have built up the wall of 1x1 rounds to the needed height and added some headlight bricks spread out across the top. These are used to connect the roof supports. You will also see I have added some foliage. I have used dark green tree pieces here because I plan to build a large tree which means this side of the building will be shaded. Therefore the only plants that would grow would be shade loving plants, so dark green ivy is what we get. Now we turn our attention to the front. As you can see, I have started to build with some white bricks going up in a diagonal pattern with the 1x1 rounds. I can then attach a tile onto the white brick with the stud, and this will split the two colours and give a nice effect. We then have to do this for each corner of the building at the front and back. Then we add a whole row of headlight bricks on their backs and attach tiles to the outer studs. This will allow the tiles to sit at the right level above the 1x1 rounds. Once that is done at the front and back of the building, its time to finish off the upper part of the interior. Again, I have just done the very basics, consisting of a tiled floor, a table and some barrels. I have also added in some arch pieces which will help support the roof. I have also added the windows and fixed the upright tiles in place using the 1x1 brick with stud. All this is explained and covered in the begining of the thread under the basic house building technique. Next we have a picture of the left side of the building with the water wheel. I have built this up the same way as I did on the right side. This time I have used more foliage for climbing plants. The plants that are beneath the water wheel are dark green, as these would be constantly wet from the splashes of the wheel. This means its more likely to be moss, weed, and alge, so dark green is best to use. Then above the water wheel we use a lighter green, as these are growing from the rocks and up onto the building. Now, in this next picture, you will see that I have added most of the roof and completed the white section with the window. The roof parts are very simple to do and don't need explaining. The only thing to take note is to not overlap the roof bricks over the window side of the building, as we will be attaching the gable ends which you can see taking shape at the top of the roof. Again, the way to make the roof is all covered earlier in the guide. Next, I'm going to show you a very simple and effective way of making small trees. We will be covering larger trees later in the guide, but smaller trees or young trees can be made simply with brown flex tube. All you need to do is get a few pieces of flex tube and use a Lego elastic band to tie them together at the bottom. You can use as many flex pieces as you want, but 2 or 3 work best for small trees. Then we start added some tree pieces to the flex tube. You should be able to clip some of the tube between the leaves of the tree pieces to strengthen the flex tube pieces more. Once you have put on enough tree pieces and your happy with the shape, you can then insert the bottom of the flex tube into a normal brown 1x1 round. This will now allow you to stand the tree anywhere. If the tree is larger and more top heavy, you may need to insert it into a 2x2 brown round for more stability. Then all we need to do now, is put the tree in its desired place and then add some plant pieces around the base to hide the elastic band. As you can see in this picture, I have placed the small tree in amongst the creepers overhanging the water fall. Now we have a view of the front of the finished mill. You can now see the effect of the tiles that were connected diagonally between the 1x1 rounds and the white bricks. It gives a nice look to the building, making it look simple but elegant. I have used dark brown 1x12 plates on the gables to give a nice all round dark brown effect on the top half of the building. I have also added a chimney, which is easily done by leaving a gap when stacking the roof bricks and then filling it in with 1x1 round bricks after. You will also notice the custom sacks I made by the main doors. This were just tea-dyed cotton, wrapped around a mini-fig head and then tied at the top with brown string. Easily done and looks effective. Here is a shot of the right side of the building with a better view of the custom sacks. Note that I havn't placed the roof supports on this side yet, they are just 1x1 normal rounds slotted into the headlight bricks under the roof overhang. You will also notice I have begun building up the hill behind the building, but this will be finished in the next section. From this shot you can see we are now starting to achieve an overgrown look. The idea is that the mill should look well established, as if it is growing out of the hill. But, we still need to do more work building up the hill to give more of that effect. This shot shows a nice view of the creepers growing up from the rocks and onto the building. It is important that the waterfall has lots of plants overhanging it so it gives the appearence that the water is appearing from nowhere. So there is still work to be done here, but its starting to come to life bit by bit now. Finally a shot looking down the waterfall to the small bridge. So, the next step will be to complete the rest of the hill and backdrop behind the mill, and try to make it all blend in with plant life. This whole side of the moc will be the more natural overgrown side, as the other side will consist of the main village and will therefore be full of buildings and muddy trackways. A lot of people will look at this guide and think 'I havn't got enough bricks to build something like this'. Well that's not the point, as you can build some very detailed smaller mocs on a 48x48 base plate using this guide. If you look at a lot of my recent mocs, particularly my CCC entries, you will see they were all smaller builds constructed on a 48x48 base plate. Yet they weren't any less detailed then this one. So don't be put off just because this is going to be a large build. Im only making it large so I can cover lots more parts on different buildings and landscapes. To be honest, I stopped building large mocs a while ago, as at the moment I have much more prefered building smaller, its quicker, you can get more mocs built and it doesn't take an age to take them all apart. Having said that, I forgot how much I enjoyed building on a large scale, and I'm now going to really push this moc to see just how detailed and natural it can be. Its early days and there's still quite a bit to be done. But I said I'd make a Medieval Village and that's exactly what I'm gonna do As usual, the next post will be up asap. Thanks for reading DC

Very cool! Zorro is sadly missed and its nice that you did this tribute. Im sure he'd be pleased to see an army that huge paying their respects. I was playing to dedicate my next ship in his honer too.

A lot of Lugs are used to make the models for the idea books. The brickish Association(UK Lug) also had a few members submit models for this book. I think Slyowl did about four pages for this book.

Really beautiful work Z! Your houses have really come on along way since your original ones. These are so much more full of character the designs and size are perfect. I must admit I do like the white lattice in the white frame, it deffinitly makes the window stand out more. This project is really going to look epic when its finished! Keep going! DC

Your comments are much appreciated! The waterfall section has now been posted. For anyone who would like to see bigger pictures, here is the link to the set on Flickr where you will be able to see all the images in a larger size if you need to. Thanks all DC

Now its time to do the waterfall. Waterfalls can be tricky as its easy to get the wrong look, but a good waterfall no mater how big or small can make a great addition to a landscape. Luckily a simple solution can be reached using mostly 1x2 and 1x1 clear plates. Firstly I use an 8x8 trans medium blue plate as used for the river, and cover it with a layer of 1x2 clear plates. Then I start another layer from the bottom going up in different lengths topped off with a clear 1x1 wedge piece. Once that is done, we need to fit it in place. There are 2 methods of doing this depending on what bricks you have. I have mocked up a close up of the two different ways below. In this first picture you can see I have conected the waterfall piece using a 1x1 with stud. Notice there is a gap between the vertical waterfall and the horizontal clear plates at the bottom. If you are lucky enough to have Clear 1x2 tiles, you can use them here to fill that gap and so connect the waterfall in this method. If like me, you have never thought of buying 1x2 clear tiles, then we have to do it another way. In this picture I have the same set up, but have used a 1x1 headlight piece instead of the 1x1 brick with stud. Because the headlight brick has a indent of half a plate, if we connect a 1x1 plate onto the indent we then get an overhang of half a plate. This means that the vertical waterfall piece will now sit up against the clear plates on the ground. You will still have a few little gaps inbetween the studs, but it doesn't notice. You will also have half a plates width gap between the waterfall piece and the wall behind, but again, it wont be scene. Now we can put it in place. I have used clear headlight pieces to connect it, rather then the black ones in the picture above. I have also placed 1x2x5 trans blue bricks behind the waterfall to give it a deeper colour. Now we can build up some of the rocks on either side of the waterfall. To do this, all we do is use different sized dark grey slope pieces and stack them randomly till you get an effect you are happy with. Its really a case of trying different slopes in different places till you achieve a gradual slope and you are happy with it. Its also handy to have some dark grey wedge pieces, as you can add those on to where ever you feel needs it to help with the effect. Then we need to level off a small area at the top so we can build a small section of stream. We then lay a small section of stream, using the same method as before, and then add some more dark grey slopes to finish the top of the rock work around the waterfall. To finish it off, we then add some more 1x2 clear plates and use these to connect the waterfall to the stream. A few clear and trans light blue 1x1 flat rounds have also been added to help give the effect of bubbles and foam. The waterfall should now look something like this. We can then add some foliage around the bottom to complete the look. The top however, has much more work to be done on it yet, but that will come later. When it comes to building larger mocs like this, I prefer to not have a plan. Yes, I do start out with a vague image in my head, but I prefer to just build and see how it developes. Having reached this point, I can now see that we will have a hill all across the back of the moc, with a cottage above the mill on the right and a windmill at the top of the hill on the left. Then at the bottom of the hill to the left of the mill we will have the main village with its houses and traders. Maybe a pond as well. Once the hill is all built up behind the mill we can look at placing some trees, then finish of the whole right side of this moc before moving on to the left. But first, we can now get that Mill finished! Next post coming soon! Thanks for reading. DC

Excellent moc! The colour scheme really stands out, those 3 main colours you have used work very well together. You have packed in some great details yet still kept a clean simple appearence which suits the moc. Nice work on the cheese wedge window, looks like you've been getting tips from Katie Walker Great work

Thanks all! Another update is complete and posted We have a shop in the UK called Hobbiecraft, it sells all those boxes and they are quite cheap to buy. Ideal for Lego! Thats where I get them all from. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Ok then, time to continue on. The next part consists of three main features: A bridge, a Water Mill and a Waterfall. Each part is tied into the other as you will see. Firstly, we continue on from where we left, building more of the stream. Note that I have now made a flat edge with the water on the right side, and laid a few 1x1 rounds as a marker of where the wall of the Water Mill will go. Before I start the Mill, we need to make a small bridge. Now when it comes to making large bridges, 1x1's are good, as there's a lot of room for different techniques on a large bridge. Unfortunatly, trying to make a small bridge out of 1x1 flat rounds is not easy, as you can't float them in mid air to make a curved shape. So, some normal plates are going to be of use here as well. First we make the shape of the bridge using normal 6 wide dark grey plates. Then we build a 3 plate high wall of 1x1 round plates, then add some dark grey tiles and wedges to top it off. Then we use the 1X1 rounds underneath the grey plates and stack them to make a curved shape like in the next picture. Note I have also added 2 1x1 bricks with stud at either end of bridge. This is to attach some foliage. Then we repeat all that on the otherside, then we can add some tiles on the bridge and it should look something like this. Now we place the bridge in position. Then we can start building up the landscape to the bridge, using the same techniques as before. After which, we can add a bit of foliage. Now, we will leave the bridge for a moment and concentrate on the foundations of the mill. In this picture you will see I have started laying down a few grey bricks as a marker of where the mill will be. I have also started to build the side wall of the mill which connects to the bridge. Next I have started to build up the front of the mill and added some plates which will make the porch of the Mill. Then we start building the stairs down step by step. Once the steps are done, we can build the rest of the porch wall and then build up the landscape with green plates till we get something that looks like this. Note that I have raised some 1x1 tiles above the rest and twisted them at an angle. This gives quite a nice effect and tops the porch wall of nicely. In this view, you can see a dark grey plate that marks where we will start the wall of 1x1 round plates. This means that we will need to build up the landscape to that level, but that will come latter. Now, we can see from another angle that I have now marked out the full foundation of the mill, and I have also carried on with the outer wall by the steam. On the other side of the stream I have built a small section of wall. Between these sections of wall is where our water wheel will sit. So now we need to find out at what height the water wheel will sit on the wall, and to do that, we need a water wheel! There are 3 main types of water mill designs. Under shot, Over shot and Breast shot. Under shot is where the water wheel sits partly submerged in the stream and is powered by the stream's flow. Over shot is where the water is channeled to drop on top of the water wheel, and Breast shot is where the water drops in half way on the wheel. The most common you will see in pictures is the Over shot design, under shot was more common in medieval times however, so this is the method we will use. Every time I build a Mill, I try a different design of water wheel. I wanted one that looks like it has large paddles which is what were needed for the job. I figured hinge pieces were the best way to go, and after trying out all the different hinge pieces I found the 1x2 brick hinge to be best. Here is a picture of all the parts of the water wheel. You can see I have used a 2x4 plate with a dark brown tile and a 1x2 brick hinge for the paddle design, then kept stacking them on top of each other to make a chain that can then bend to a circle. The water mill parts from MMV set are used to make the structure and I have used black 1x1 rounds with a pole piece through the middle to make a double headed pieces to attach the two wheel frames together. The following pictures show how it is put together. As you can see, I have not wrapped the paddles all the way round the whole wheel. This is so it gives the appearence that the bottom is submerged in water. Now we can attach the wheel in place by threading the technic axel through a 1x2 brick with a hole or any other way that suits you. When it comes to putting the hinged paddle design round the water wheel frame, its simply a case of bending and messing with all the hinges till you get a round shape, it is pretty stable and will stay in position. Then, as before, we can build up the landscape and add some foliage. The small bridge is now fully landscaped into place. Now we can turn our attention back to the rest of the Mill. As you can see, I have now replaced the back wall of the mill with some rock pieces(BURPS). This is because the mill will be built into a hill, as we want to get the effect that the old mill is part of the landscape. This also means we will have a nice hill as a back drop to the village, but more on that later. Next we can lay some plates down inside the mill for the floor. I have also started to build up the Mill wall's. Because the Mill is built out from the hill, this allows us to have a waterfall where the stream flows off the top of the hill. As you can see, I have marked out where the waterfall will drop with trans clear plates. I have also added some rock pieces and slopes to mark where the rocks will join to the mill and the land. This is just the template, as the water fall needs to be properly built up. So for now, we have this. Next up we will see a big difference. The next part involves finishing the mill and waterfall, then building up the hill. Thats when things will really start taking shape. I have nearly finished that section, so won't be long till the next post. Thanks for reading DC

Thanks to everyone for your great feedback! I am currently working on the next installment which is has quite a bit two it, so I may have to post it in two halves. I should have an update tomorro(although im having a wisdom tooth out in the afternoon ). Thank you matn, if your river ends in a lake it can still be done, but will use a lot of 8x8 plates. However you can still get a great look using normal blue plates which will be easier for you to merge into a blue base plate. Yes, the different colours are obsolete if they end up getting covered by plant pieces, and you can obviously not bother with as much detail in areas that will be heavily plant covered. The reason i did it that way, was so you could see a bit more of how landscaping is done and it gives people the option to not use as many plants if they either don't have them or just prefer less plant work. I will cover a few landscaping tips later in the guide when we come to the larger area. Thanks again to everyone for your comments, and please always remember to use this thread for your comments and questions. DC

Thanks all Thats an interesting point, and for those that need to save on plates, you don't need to bother as they are covered by the plants. The reason I did this though, was to show the different colours of landscaping and hows its done around the stream and for those that use less plant pieces. Cheers mate, I need to look into my computer knowlwdge of all these things Thanks DC

Like I said on Flickr, this just looks fantastic. The rock work is nicely done and the temples and steps look perfect. The lighting really brings the scene to life and is really used to great effect. Im a big fan of this era of buildings and keep meaning to make a temple. This is very inspiring, well done

Well done, this looks really cool! This would make a great Lego set, i love the little building and the wooden tower, very nicely done. I think the tree can work either way, it would look good if it was taller, but it also works well the way it is, and I think the shape of it gives it some character. Nice work

Thank you all for you kind words, interest and feedback. The next step of the guide is now up. Thanks DC

Right then, time to get properly started. In this part, we are going to cover a section of the base, the stream/river and some landscaping. When it comes to laying out your base, a lot of people like to plan and lay the whole base out and build it all first. I don't do it this way. The reason is, that I always find you never really know how much space you are going to need when building something like this. Its far easy to build the base as you go along, that way, if you need that extra 16 stud width or depth, you can easily add it without having to take apart what you have already done. So to start, I will lay some base plates down and start from the front right corner and build out. As you can see in the picture below, we build up the edges of the base with black bricks. You can use any colour but black looks best. the sides are built to a height of 2 bricks and one plate. This allows a bit of depth to lay the river through and will give a stronger structure. As you can see I am using roof pieces to give the edges of the base a nicer look, and then I top them off with tiles. Dark brown looks best, but a lot will be used, so black is the best bet as they are cheaper to get hold of and come in 1x8 sizes. In the picture below you can see some basic foundations on which you can lay a Lego base plate. Because the black bricks are a height of 2 and 1 plate, when we lay the base plate on the foundations it will lay flush level with the top of the black bricks like the next picture shows. Using large green base plates like these are helpful for covering large areas of green where normal green plates would take an age to do. Plus it will also save a lot of plates. So that is an example of how we will create most of our base/foundation. But for now, we shall start the all important stream/river. This should always be built first, and then the village builds up around it. All towns and villages were built around or near water, and its the same with Lego. So to start, we build a rough guide of where the stream will run. For this, we lay one level of bricks and then put plates on top, as we don't want it to be as high as the black base. It doesn't matter what colour you use, and the same goes for all the foundations. Its a good chance to use all those multicoloured bricks that you never usually use. If you want to make foundations even easier, a tip is to use Duplo. Big bulky Duplo bricks are compatible with normal Lego and are handy for bulking out your landscape quicker. Here you can see the foundations for the stream. Once we have done this, we can start laying down some water. Now, there are lots of ways to make water, everyone has their own preference. Tiles work well, as does snot techniques, but they have a tendency to look very lifeless. I was always a fan of using different shades of blue tiles for water. It works well for calm mill ponds and slow rivers. But for if you want a bit more active look, then studs is the way to go. For this stream, I am going to use tiles and studs for a better effect. First, we lay out our stream with blue tiles for the middle and medium blue for the edges. Note I have built up the edges of the stream with plates, so it is the same level as the tiles. I have also added a row of clear bricks which are used to seperate where the stream steps up a level. Then on top of the tiles I lay some 8x8 trans medium blue plates. This is an effect I used back on a Boat House moc I made, but I have never tried it for a whole stream before. The effect of the tiles can be seen through the plates. Then once again we add some more plates round the outside of the stream to bring the everything level with the trans medium blue plates. Now we can start laying out the banks of the stream. To do this, we can use a mixture of old brown, dark brown, reddish brown and dark green like so. On top of that layer, we then add another layer of dark green and normal green. Then finally we add a 3rd layer of normal green with a few small brown plates here and there. Then we can start repeating the process on the other side. Now, we have a bit of space to use a base plate, so we build the foundations like earlier and lay the base plate on top. Now we can continue with the stream by building up the level behind the row of clear bricks. Then like before, we lay the tiles out. Then build up the outside to the same level as the tiles and lay the 8x8 plates on top. These will rest on the top of the clear bricks as well. We now need to complete the step in the stream, so first we lay one row of clear plates up against the step and then use some grey slopes to make some rocks in the middle. Then we add a few more rocks either side of the stream and add some clear 1x1 rounds to get the effect of the flow through the rocks. Now we can carry on with some more of the stream, using the same techniques as before. We can now also start laying some foliage. To start, we lay out some dark green spiky appendages, which are used to imitate weeds etc. On top of those, we then lay dark green tree pieces which will also hold the spiky parts in place. The tree pieces should overlap the stream in places for a more natural look. Then we add some lighter green tree pieces and a selection of other plant pieces. Don't worry about attaching the tree pieces firmly down, as they look better if they are sticking up in places. The same goes for the other plant pieces. You can wedge some in at different angles for a nicer effect. Repeat all of these processes for the other side and you will then be looking at something like this. You can see from this angle that you get a nice natural curve and look to the stream. Also note, I have added in a few wild flowers made with 1x1 round plates. Well, that is a small section of the stream, and will give you an idea of how it will all be built. Most of it will be built using the processes above, but there will also be a few parts like waterfalls, over hanging trees and high banks which I will cover latter in the guide. You don't have to build a stream using the 8x8 trans plates, it will work just as good with normal blue plates or just tiles and snot. Its up to you. Just remember to try and use darker colour's near the edge of the stream as these would be damp and muddy. The look we are going for is an overgrown natural look. Plant pieces are a must for this type of build, if used well, they can really bring a whole area to life and act as the finishing touch before the mini-figs are applied. I found the best way to get large amounts of plant pieces is from a PAB wall at a Lego store. Most of the pieces they have in a PAB wall are usually pieces we never want to use, but they do stock a variety of plant pieces(well my nearest store does anyway). If you fill a large cup packed full of the small plant pieces, you will get a lot more for your money then if you were to order them from Bricklink. I have managed to cram thousands of the 3 pronged grass piece into a large cup, and even the larger tree pieces and be stacked and compacted to fit as many in as possible. Unfortunatly they have not got round to stocking the dark green tree pieces yet, but i've seen every other plant piece available, so its worth looking into. The next step is where things will really start coming to life, as we will tackle our first building, the Water Mill, as well as a small water fall and bridge. Will post asap Thanks for reading DC

Very cool moc Horry! I like the idea of the crashed remains stuck on a rock, its such a piraty idea. I like the little details you have added and the side of the ship is particularly well done. Nice work!