mikey

My watchtower is ready: Link to thread. I have plans for a smaller "sentry tower" in the same style, which should be ready next week.

Deep in the desert wastelands our borders are kept safe with watchtowers: The advance watchtowers are ready to alert the main army with a beacon if needed: Home comforts are provided for the soldiers which make up our first line of defence: An off duty guard prepares a small meal:

No giant turkey for R2-D2 and C-3PO this Thanksgiving Day...

@Nice Marmot - I really like the idea you have of a mountain top post. The inclusion of a beacon fire ready to light is a great touch, and it's good to know you have thought out the practical aspects of a watch tower 'early warning system'. The SNOT walls of the hut are looking good, my only suggestion (and this is just my opinion) would be not to use DBG for the roof - maybe tan/ dark tan/ reddish brown or black might look better?

I am not familiar with either of these sets, but, your question is easily answered. You will be able to modify the set to have the wheels you feel look better. Depending on how the original wheels are connected to the model, you may need to change more than just the wheels - you might need to modify how they are mounted. All Lego parts are designed to work with each other - as a 'system'. The building instructions are really just a guide, and at any point you are free to improve upon the set design.

6) Planet of the Apes scene - Caveman, Gorilla and Cavewoman Entry (Build by CorneliusMurdock) - 1 Point 9) Spartacus scene - Spartan and Gladiator Entry (Build by Space Terrapin) - 1 Point 1) Big Fish scene - Magician, Mime Artist and Circus Clown Entry (Build by lorax) - 1 Point

8) Zoo Keeper Entry (Build by TinyPiesRUs) - 1 Point 9) Zoo Keeper Entry (Build by CarsonBrick) - 1 Point 25) Cavewoman Entry (Build by Darkblane) - 1 Point

SilentMode – 1 Point Darth Yogi – 1 Point CorneliusMurdock – 1 Point

CorneliusMurdock - 1 Point Wardancer - 1 Point natelite - 1 Point

Darth Yogi – 2 Points AoNZ – 1 Point

I like the sound of ALE - its easier to pronounce and tastes much better.

I was thinking that if we had titles, then they are given by nomination - so we are kind of a democratic guild. So we have themes such as: agriculture, trade, diplomacy, armies, fortification, domestic architecture, weapons of war, education, resource extraction etc. - people free build within these. When they post the MOC to gain the title it needs to be nominated (or elected) by us. So say once five guild members nominate the MOC for a title, the member gains the title.

Sorry, but I had to quote you! Seriously this thread is the one AndyC mentioned, and has good advice on repairing your pirate ship sails.

Yes! As for your WIP shot, this is looking very good, and has some similarities to what I am planning! The only suggestion I can make is to move the Lion's Head Brick one stud back into the interior (so it sits more flush with the walls) - of course if you are making an interior you may not want to loose the space on the inside? I agree that if people free build a MOC this month, and it happens to fit the guild challenge in say March, then it should be allowed to be submitted for the challenge when it occurs - although of course people may want to revisit and improve the MOC as our ideas and vision constantly change over time.

I am really liking this, the droid heads as talons are working perfectly, and the whole model has a convincing organic feel which you don't often see in a brick built beast. Nice work

@ Waterbrick - those Mountain Mummies look superb! I agree with blueandwhite, we should decide soon on a standard soldier to use soon. So far this is my favourate: Looks great, and very easy to obtain the parts. The only thing I don't like is the printed legs, as to me they seem to clash with the torso print? Maybe plain black hips/ light (or dark?) bley legs would go better? But I also like the idea of this torso, with the hands swapped out to yellow:

I do like Waterbrick Down's faction soldiers, the red torso and dark blue arms are a perfect match to the colours. But I would prefer more recent pieces ideally. I have a few ideas here: These are meant to be a kind of elite dessert guard, archers and footsoldiers, mounted on camels. These are general purpose guards. Potentially we could use a Prince of Persia torso, I haven't taken any pictures as I have no loose yellow hands to use. But these have the advantage of been very common, and seem to fit with a sort of dessert theme.

This looks like a nice cute city set, and totally agree that new hinge is definitely the star of the show, presumably we will also see it in the orange roadworks truck. I would have preferred standard green, as I will part this out once I've built it, but I do see the benefit of a brighter shade if you have a city and are going to keep it built.

Just a simple and peaceful builder, who seeks a fresh start and new opportunities to exploit.

Get a cat, they are cheap and inexpensive to run, and as a bonus they occasionally they pretend to show you affection. Seriously. This is not the end of the world, potentially you could wash the bricks?

Limiting people to building within certain parameters is not going to work for long. Maybe as a one off building challenge it could have some potential (i.e.: by a certain date people register with a defined guild, then they get two months to populate their world - MOCS make points). But in the long term I don't think anyone wants to be constrained to a certain theme - so the whole idea fades away. I can see the point about a bit of friendly competition to foster the whole guild spirit, but also see a risk of fracture. I build a lot, but don't really finish much as sometimes I loose interest, so the motivation of finishing builds "for a reason", rather than my own tinkering is for me the benefit of some kind of guild system. Really I think at the moment a good compromise that would get the ball rolling is a "traditional" community build, but split into two teams. A map, with building spaces split between the two teams - the building plots are assigned different functions (each team are given the same functional buildings). Maybe the teams are given time to choose VERY ROUGH styles, maybe a colour scheme? I have no idea how this would be 'judged', or any reason for it to be competitive - apart from to foster team spirit! It would be a good introduction to doing this kind of project, that has a specific goal at the end, once we get to that point (and presumably enjoy the experience of working in teams) then we could start to create some more permanent teams (or guilds?) - which seem to have open ended objectives (unless I have not really understood what they are supposed to mean).

mikey is signing up!

The idea of a 'faction themed' community build is really growing on me, but, I do think that having many factions might complicate and dilute the project. For example with lets say ten factions, the project could be to dispersed, after the initial excitement dies down it could be left unfinished as it peters out. I think that three or four factions would be more achievable, and also personally I would prefer quite 'ambiguous' factions (not Lego factions, but ones we devise here). So potentially we might have something like 'Fantasy' (Orcs, Dwarfs, Dragons, Minotaurs? etc.), 'Peasants', and one (or maybe two) sort of militarised faction. The general minifig design and style of the factions are discussed and agreed on by the teams building them. Also some great ideas for contests being suggested so far, I like the way that both ideas are quite open and not to constrictive, I'm sure either one would have good potential.

I think this sub forum has been functioning really well recently, especially the two guides which have sprung up, very interesting to see in detail how people approach building. As future ideas I would like to see a "Community Build" potentially based on a village? Similar to the 'Pirate Port Village' - as I think constricting it to a castle or walled town kind of limits the idea. This might not be feasible but 'reverse engineering challenges' (not a contest - just for fun), could be interesting just to play around and puzzle out new techniques. Could be difficult to get people to offer up the challenge though?

This is a really interesting topic as everyone will have a different rules which they base their building on, in essence I think its the first part of the whole My Own Creation expierence. a) I like the fixed palette of bricks that can be used, so I don't modify bricks and only use the elements as they were originally made. I like the idea that this fixed group of elements can be combined in so many different ways, for me to alter the elements kind of ruins the elegance of the system. I do enjoy browsing creations that are customized heavily, but it is not something that I would enjoy creating. b) I like that when I build something it is potentially playable, even though I don't really play with it! I just like the idea that if I wanted to play with it I could, which is pointless really as I never keep anything built once finished. So I tend to go towards stability, and not use techniques which are very delicate. c) I use software for most of my initial ideas as it gives me a rough outline, and I would recommend trying software out as all the packages are free, so you have nothing to loose seeing if they work for you.