SkaForHire

Thank you! I think if someone ever builds the great bridge at Queens Cross, that would be a feat. I think for now it may have to stay in micro or perhaps midi size. Thanks to everyone who commented. I have been a bit busy to say thank you the last few days. This is the first MOC I have done in a long time, and I usually do ships, so it was good to do something new. I like the offset of the white balcony, but I can see in my minds eye what Alex is talking about. A cliff fortress that looks a bit like Petra would be pretty cool, In fact, I raided a PAB wall for tan again, and started building something along that line, but got side tracked when work called (Dang finals week and 5 classes to grade!) I don't really have the small pieces to do detail unfortunately, but I hope to see someone else take on the escarpment in later challenges. Thanks to all who commented, I look forward to your towers and the next challenge.

I agree, LOTR will probably be to Kingdoms what POTC was to pirates. A little story... When I used to work for Disney, we were always asked about rumors that people had heard. Usually, we had no idea what was going on, and if we did, the public was sure to know what was up within hours. However, I knew people who would intentionally just start confirming rumors with no basis, because that was what the guests wanted to hear! Additionally, there is always those people in a company that think they know what is happening that really don't. This happened a lot at the mouse, also. With that little story in mind, take this for what it is worth: I was in a few Lego stores today, and a Legoland center. Of course the Legoland people knew nothing since they are Merlin Entertainment, but at both Lego Stores I asked two questions. "Is there any new POTC coming?" and "So I head something about LOTR..." At both I was told there were no new POTC that anyone knew about. At the first store, the employee told me they did not know about LOTR. However, at the second store, a manager confirmed that it was, and it looked like it would be mid year. The employee who was helping me, the person I asked, was hush about it, but the manager next to them just went ahead and confirmed it. Then the employee said that he didn't know that they were allowed to tell people. The manager just kind of shrugged. So with my caveat story above, take this for what it is worth... hearsay really, but rumors actually coming out of Lego employee mouths.

I was in a Lego store today, the manager confirmed LOTR, but when I asked about Pirates, they said they had heard nothing about anything new - apparently POTC did not sell well.

Ok, Maybe I am under a rock, but what did they just surprise us with? Also, what was with MVR??? It lasted all of two months? such a great set too...

I can't believe you left 12 studs showing at the top... (Sarcasm!) This is a great tower, you did an amazing job making it so smooth. The curves make it truly alien to what else has been made so far (and most any tower I can think of made from Lego.) Nice job. Can't wait to see your future builds.

Under wraps!!!! Hahaha, I get it mummies running the place... hahaha... anyway great story, and really neat build. I love the fold out piece. It reminds me of G'ould Technology from Stargate. Kaliphlin is really becoming an economical giant, there are some great free builds out there that compliment interesting duel purpose towers such as yours, Robuko.

Very cool Rasputin! We have such a great showing for a small guild. Is there any details how we will compete yet?

Awesome! It feels a bit like WoW. What are those shoulders your dwarves are wearing? Also, what piece are you using for the rock slopes on the cliff area? They look much longer and more triangular than anything I can remember. Great MOC. Keep up the great work!

Great tower! It looks very cozy! I have posted a thread in the main forum for my tower: The Tower of Me're Deet Here is a better resolution pic of the front and back DSC_0711 by princeofska, on Flickr DSC_0729 by princeofska, on Flickr Also, here is the link to the gallery, I put some history about it on the main post, so I won't waste people's time by re-posting it here.

South of the Great Pass lies the lower Great Escarpment. At some places almost a mile high, this feature guards the deep interior of the Siccus Badlands. Long ago a series of watch towers were placed upon the top of the Escarpment to watch the plains below. The men assigned to these towers were often thought to be suicidal or at least not in their commander's favor. Many of these towers are crumbling, and all of them are isolated. Usually located near (but none closer than 20 miles) a small oasis, or a source of water, the tower system provided a valuable lookout for the old nations, as it does today for the Kaliphlin guild. Connected by a path along the ridge line, riders are sent to the interior to warn villages, oases, and cities. Some towers utilize large signal beacons to communicate with the plains below or with the towns in the interior. On the lower escarpment Towers pull double duty. Not only are they a warning system for the interior, but they also serve as an early warning system for the populations along the Arkbri river. Towers will send out a warning with a signal fire if an enemy is detected coming up or down the river. Since it is almost impossible to march a large army through the scorching hot and dry badlands without following the rivers for sustenance, the route of an enemy invasion is almost always predictable. (There is a reason the maps of Badlands oases locations are a heavily guarded secret.) The Tower of Me're Deet is south of Queens Cross on the lower Great Escarpment. It watches the Arkbri River, but it also can see over much further on a clear day (some have claimed they have been able to see the green lands of Avalonia on the best of conditions). It is supplied by the Oasis at Me're Deet, about 14 miles away from the cliffs. About 257 years ago, the Tower of Me're Deet was crucial in warning the city of Queens Cross from the Aglinder Barbarian raid that came up the Arkbri that year. The massive raid sacked Barqa and every village along the river. The horde, consisting of nearly 9000 angry barbarians and their large fleet of 150 war galleys, were detected by the Tower of Me're Deet. The signal fire at the tower allowed Queens Cross ample time to prepare its defenses. They sent for volunteers from all over the interior of the Badlands, and even to areas now in Avalonian hands. The siege began ten days later, but the Queensmen repelled the barbarian attacks until help arrived from around the continent. The combined forces smashed the Aglinder threat and the Great Aglish Invasion was ended. The commander of the Tower of Me're Deet was given a Queen's Medal, the highest honor, and promoted to a much more desirable duty. Today the tower is maintained by the small village at Me're Deet as part of their tax duty to Kaliphlin. Because of its historic prestige it is kept fairly well. Here is a painting of the tower today. DSC_0743 by princeofska, on Flickr The Tower of Me're Deet is some what unique. Most of the tower complexes along the Great Escarpment are minimal or surrounded by out buildings. Due to soft rock in the area and a small water pocket, the tower's out buildings are replaced by caverns under the tower that serve as the soldiers lodgings. It also serves as a local prison (although with such a small population, very few prisoners are kept here). DSC_0727 by princeofska, on Flickr Because the builders could tunnel under the watchtower, they were able to create an observation deck down below the tower on the cliffs. A small cave entrance allowed for the construction of this deck. This painting shows the tower high on the cliffs and far, far below Queens Cross and the Arkbri River. DSC_0711 by princeofska, on Flickr DSC_0722 by princeofska, on Flickr The tower from the South Face: DSC_0744 by princeofska, on Flickr The back of the whole MOC, with door open. DSC_0729 by princeofska, on Flickr DSC_0734 by princeofska, on Flickr Keeping the torch maintained... Looks like someone needs to re-paint the parapets. (I ran out of Dark Blue) DSC_0715 by princeofska, on Flickr A look at Queens Cross far below. DSC_0740 by princeofska, on Flickr So, here is the rest of the picture, I don't want to clog up any more space here. Here is the rest of the picture (or at least how many Flickr would allow me to post) Tower of Me're Deet I was pretty happy with the outcome, considering I only had one Battle of Alamet set before two weeks ago. Additionally, I had only about 5 1x2 tan and 5 1x2 white when I made this and I still don't have slopes or tiles at all. Or else this may have come out a lot smoother looking. But you work with what you can get cheap. :) I hope you all like it.

I agree about the fangs, but I do like the windows as waves... it took me a minute to get though. I thought it was a big ship wreck against the shore haha.

Robuko, thanks for the great tips. I think this escarpment build is going to stay the way it is. But with so many tan 2 x >1 from all the Ramses Pyramids, I would definitely do another one in the future. I would like to incorporate your ideas into the next one. I thought about making the top bigger, but I didn't want to overhang the base plate(Which I actually did in the back by two studs... ooops), just in case that is a rule. I wish I would have thought of the patterns being smaller at the bottom - that's brilliant. The vanishing point is a great idea too. Also, about the observation deck... It is actually the basement level of the cave under the tower, that is why it is so low. When I was making it, I pictured the tower at top being a one story tower, just something so they could look behind them, and that the observation deck would be the deck that would watch the plains below. But then mid way through I got to thinking about it, and why would you put a watchtower on a cliff that could not effect anything if they saw something in the valley? So this must have to be a signal tower also. I felt that it signaled Queenscross (the micro city) if hostile ships / armies moved up along the river. So the tower got taller, and the observation deck became cool, but actually redundant strategically. Anyway, I am trying to figure out how to move it right now, as the top is too close to the chandelier for me to take pictures with a good color balance. I should have pictures up in the next hour though. Also, my Flickr is princeofska

Well, I finished it... I will break out the DSLR tomorrow, I have some fast glass that is really good with the Bokah (sp) on the back end, so I should be able to do this. I was referring to building in forced perspective, but you are right, it is all about viewing angle with forced perspective, not so much about the building itself. So, this tower / escarpment is nearly 3 feet tall... Too tired to post any preliminary pics right now other than a cruddy camera pic, but with good light tomorrow I will do a photo shoot. Guild preview: IMAG0163 by princeofska, on Flickr Ok bed time, I will post the full round up tomorrow.

Awesome! I love it, glad to see some small Mitgardia MOCS coming out right now. This one is classic though. Excellent concept, and well executed.

Hey all, Those are some nice looking towers going up! I have a question for you all, maybe someone has experience with this. This may be hard to explain, and my camera is funky right now. I am trying to put forced perspective into my MOC. Currently, I have a rough wall that represents the escarpment, and I am going to build the tower over hanging that wall / cliff. However, I am clearly not going to build a 10' (3 meters + ) wall to represent the actual size of the escarpment. I was thinking that I could just put nothing down there so it represents further space below the MOC, but with my base-plate, that seems like a lot of wasted space and that the escarpment is a mere 10" tall rather than a continuing cliff. I thought about putting a micro village and a river at the bottom on the open baseplate... but when I do this, I can't really make it look like the cliff is larger than represented. So, I was wondering if anyone had forced perspective tips or tricks they would be willing to share?

Couple things, First I agree, we at Kaliphlin seem to be in agreement about our laid-back approach to creating a cool guild. I am really glad I chose this guild, although my pieces at the time of choosing screamed Avalonia. I also am in agreement about the titles. I don't think we need more than a few personally. "Lord of Eastgate" works for me, I see some of us have fashioned ourselves knights and what not. That makes sense. I can see by the end if we all had a few more... but let's keep the extravagant ones to a minimum, ok? As for land taking - I have read almost every post about the whole competition, and the guild threads (yeah, you can bet my dissertation is coming along really well, eh?) and it seems that it has been floated that guild lands would be taken in conflicts. I also agree about the "can't take my bricks" speech. That being said, I fully anticipated when choosing where I wanted to "lord over" that it could be taken by Avalonia (not without a fight, I do have an extensive minifig army). However, if it was taken, I think that creates a unique chance to create resistance MOCs. Guys jumping out of trees onto Avalonians, maybe a burning of an enemy village. I always have my navy, and we could become pirates without a home... something along that lines. I think gaining / losing territory just gives guild members more challenges. Lastly, as for building in other people's "territories" I think Basiliscus has the right idea... go ahead and build wherever. Although I created this idea of Eastgate, I hope others might make some MOCs in it too. I will post my rudimentary map of the city later tonight. I kind of envision it as a blend between our culture and that of Avalonia, being near the border - thus more classic European castle structures mixed with Mediterranean and Arab structures. I was hoping to make some buildings in other people's "territory" also. I wanted to make a GEAR CO chapter house for every city in Kaliphlin, and the major cities of the other guilds. Also, I assume eventually we will do something like the Avalonians capital scheme. Although, their capital is pretty puny in size for a medieval city.

We definitely have the best cartographer. NiceMarmot, you rock man. I like your descriptions, the way things are starting to come together I think we have something very special here. To our Kaliphlin brothers and sisters, I had a successful pick a brick raid which left me with some building supplies and I should have a tower up soon. However, I did learn something from a kind Lego employee that I wanted to share with you all. The game Ramses Pyramid is on sale through Lego for $9.99 (US) In that game, you get a tan 32x32! and about 100 assorted tan pieces. I was speaking with the employee about building watchtowers in tans, and he pointed out this great deal to me. Most Lego stores are overstocked with this game, so you can pick up more than a couple if need be. So if you are short tan base plates, this is a great opportunity (in the states at least).

Well, this tower is definitely one of the best of the our guild!

One more scramble to 3 brick a brick walls in my area, but it is looking like I won't be able to do my escarpment tower after all... About Sunday I might have to switch to the backup tower.

(I apologize for lack of base plates or pieces. Most of this was made with what I had from the Battle of Alamut.) In a sleepy oasis in the Western Badlands , once the center of a town called Bigba, there is a market fair once a month. The Bigba fair is presided over by a merchant prince that has fashioned himself as "King Ralf." Ralf, a loyal Kaliphlinian invites all peaceful traders to his dwindling oasis now only marked by a ruined inn. GEAR CO, one of the only trading companies willing to stray far from the main roads of the badlands, is the sole oil provider to the Bigba Fair. Here are some pictures from the fair: DSC_0657 by princeofska, on Flickr a general overview of the whole fair. (Again, sorry it is so spread out, without base plates it is a bit hard.) DSC_0660 by princeofska, on Flickr King Ralf listens to GEAR CO's Petera MacLean's trade offer. Gold for Oil. DSC_0669 by princeofska, on Flickr Petera and his bodyguard Cannondale browse some of the fair's stalls for other trading opportunities. Here a few blacksmiths have set up shop. DSC_0672 by princeofska, on Flickr Petera is not impressed with this "mage's" selection... perhaps fresh fruit may be better? DSC_0673 by princeofska, on Flickr DSC_0674 by princeofska, on Flickr A dwarf and a few gnomes attempt to sell Petera miniature siege weapons... are these toys? DSC_0675 by princeofska, on Flickr Petera and Cannondale "window shopping" DSC_0678 by princeofska, on Flickr The set up of the GEAR CO stall. The Oil Wagon is heavily guarded at all times. Petera entertains Prince Ralfie in his private tent. DSC_0679 by princeofska, on Flickr After a day of trade, the caravan leaves the fair. DSC_0683 by princeofska, on Flickr Another angle of the oil wagon. DSC_0684 by princeofska, on Flickr Ambush! DSC_0688 by princeofska, on Flickr Petera Jumps into action. I don't want to clog this up with more photos... I like storyline shoots, and I could go on for a while. Biggest thing I wish I had was base plates and more background scenery... But I hope you all liked the MOC merchant stalls and the oil wagon. My camera died before I could take a good closeup of the stalls, and I forgot to take a picture of the wagon with its lid open, there is actually black "oil" represented in blocks inside. Here is the link to the rest of the story line

My brother Petera was recently attacked by a group of bandits after leaving a monthly fair at Bigba Oasis in the Western Badlands. I am going to create a general thread that describes the whole event and the fair, but I thought I would post a few preview pics in our guild forum. Here is one of GEAR's famous Oil Wagons, laden with crude so fine that lamps seem to burn forever with our magic-like oil. DSC_0683 by princeofska, on Flickr side view: DSC_0680 by princeofska, on Flickr a painting of Petera under attack DSC_0688 by princeofska, on Flickr A few pictures of the fair and the stalls DSC_0669 by princeofska, on Flickr (My big problem is I don't have any baseplates, so the whole thing looks pretty spread out. Additionally, my piece count is pretty limited right now, this is actually mostly from larger PoP set and the Carriage Raid set [sorry can't remember the actual names off the top of my head] Here is the gallery link)

I am not building all the way down... I was going for a top of the cliff sort of view. thirty studs was the depth... I thought I could do it in BURPS and misc pieces... but I don't know if it will be structurally sound. I was thinking of only building it one story above the escarpment at the top... as the terrain should be pretty flat on the backside, and no real reason to have a high tower. I know what you mean about PS. I am going back and forth with buying it (I am a prof and student, so I can get the deep academic discount) I do a lot of photography, and am thinking about jumping into the part time event photographer world... But I need some more powerful graphics manipulating software to do that. But right now, I am buying a lot of lego... and lens for cameras... two horribly expensive hobbies mixed into one. My wallet does not look too good. I think I will have a free build MOC up tonight - If I get it finished. I got restless and wanted to get something built while I am waiting for Lego to arrive.

Yay, Eastgate made it onto the map! Now I guess I should really start buying bricks to build it. I LOVE that the escarpment now extends naturally to where the river bends, and that Queens Cross is not only a guardian of the road across the river, but the guardian to the interior, and the most passable point in the escarpment. OK OK, I am a bit obsessed with the escarpment actually, my tower that I am desperately trying to get enough pieces for actually hangs over the escarpment to watch below, and extends upward to watch the desert behind it. It really has nothing to do with my sig fig, but I guess I will throw some GEAR traders in there to replenish the tower. My big problem is getting enough rocks and tans to accurately portray the escarpment... and then enough to build a desert floor about 30 studs above it! (Oh yeah add a tower in there). I have a backup tower in mind if this doesn't come to fruition, so for sure I should have something done by the deadline. The deadline is the 15th right? As for the rest of the map. Such a great job. I would like to see a scale put in there, that would make it perfect. I was about to dust off Campaign Cartographer and make a detailed map of the inland sea, but I think I rather see what you do. I might build some of the layouts for a few of the cities though. What are you using to draw this? I think I remember you saying photoshop - are you using a CS package or elements?

Very cool! I like the feeling of ruins and "peacefulness" out in the middle of nowhere.

That invisible stalker is awesome! where do those parts come from? I always enjoy the lighting in your pictures.