Tower of Drahomira

[SlyOwl]

Somewhere between Bavaria and Russia, it is so cold that normal yellow figs are frozen into fleshies!

And for KimT's sake, there's some massive pics here

[Captain Blackmoor]

Excellent work! Lovely castle and exact enough detail!

I see you've taken the flipper roof technique out of the closet again. It looks awesome.

Nice usage of the video tape tiles as well. I think my favorite parts are the hose fence, the well (simple, yet very effective) and the wooden parts in the castle.

Great work again SlyOwl! So quickly as well! I wish I had more time at my hands...

[badboytje88]

Wow great work! I love the use of the video tape part for architectural details. The tree with the dark green leeves looks lovely.

~Bart

[BlueBard]

Great job, as usual! I think you'll always surprise me with your building techniques and and nice idea about the sub-title BTW

[74louloute]

Holy cow ! What a great and fast MOC ! This is what, 5 days after the Medieval Fair !

I love how you re use some of your previous technic but mixed with new one for a great result !

I like too the video tape tiles used in the tower and the filpper made roof.

Your trees are also great.

Another great MOC by SlyOwl...

EDIT : I have a question about the helmets you use. What are they ? It seems they are similar to the PoP line but you can't have them yet, huh ?

Edited November 14, 2009 by 74louloute

[kill will]

I love it all, the trees are excellent, the castle looks cold and uninviting, the fence, the landscaping, everything fits together really well.

[Bonaparte]

You've captured the winter feeling with this MOC. It feels chilly and cold!

I'm waiting for the BS folder to go public so I can see some of the details a bit better.

I'm amazed how fast you can build these high quality MOCs and by the amount of bricks you must poses.

[Athos]

Nice. I like the cold feeling of the snowy landscape.

Lego really needs to make a frozen northlands castle line.

Steve

[Fluyt]

This is amazing, so many nice subtle details. Nicely textured wall, "flipper roof", nice castle shape etc.

I always love winter scenes, gives me a great feeling.

[Zorro]

Another wonderfull creation by Slyowl...

I especcialy love how you did the main tower and the simple but still nice water pit.

[L-space]

Great MOC SlyOwl.

And thanks for the ideas popping up in my head to make my own stuff better.

[Legostein]

Hello!

You have quite a unique choice of parts here! The flippers over the entrance are agreat touch (the roof as well). Also very original are the decorated tiles with tapes reel pattern as relief.

Cheers,

~ Christopher

[Flying cowboy]

This is just so cool creation! I like the snow and the trees most.

[Lorentzen]

SlyOwl - you're so fuckin insane!!!

I love this MOC, it's one of my favourites of yours - excellent excellent work

[Talon Karrde]

EDIT : I have a question about the helmets you use. What are they ? It seems they are similar to the PoP line but you can't have them yet, huh ?

Brickforge Arabian Helmet

[KimT]

And for KimT's sake, there's some massive pics here

Thanks, I'll be checking those out when they get public.

Great work, I'll make sure to copy some of that

[I Scream Clone]

A great castle Sly, I love the fenching, shingle roof, Tudor buildings etc etc. The only thing i find disturbing is the tape recorder tiles, but walls need a little detail after all. It is really nice to see a castle set in a cold wintry clime, and you have nailed it. Good luck.

[Teddy]

Hi Slyowl,

I really love this castle.

Your use of tiles for texture is something I really like.

It makes the scene/walls more interesting.

Where you planning to use more textured bricks, or is there a rule of thumb you use for the amount of texturing (tiles and bricks) you put in?

I see, you used some old light grey parts as well.

Where you, originally, planning to use more old grey bricks for slight color variations in the larger tower?

Or, are those couple of bricks the maximum you wanted to put in?

Just some questions to get an insight in your way of thinking about these topics.

I normally just do trial and error. Building walls several times untill I'm satisfied.

But I've noticed there are some "ritmes" in there (when putting texture in a wall) that generally result in a pleasing result.

So I'm curious to how you handle those things.

Thumbs up from me.

Kind regards,

Teddy

[legopapa]

A wonderful castle in a snowy setting ... very nicely done ... I can feel the cold coming of my flatpanel

[SlyOwl]

Thanks everyone

Last week was very stormy and cold, so I think I conveyed some of that into the MOC

Holy cow ! What a great and fast MOC ! This is what, 5 days after the Medieval Fair !

EDIT : I have a question about the helmets you use. What are they ? It seems they are similar to the PoP line but you can't have them yet, huh ?

It's my simplified sorting system that lets me build this fast - essentially by colour, not type.

Yeah, BF Arabian helmets.

I'm amazed how fast you can build these high quality MOCs and by the amount of bricks you must poses.

Not that many bricks (I'll post pics some day...) - just efficient use. I ran out of light grey/bley for this, so ended up stacking plates, and then those ran out, so I used the backs of various slope bricks...

Lego really needs to make a frozen northlands castle line.

Vikings really could have gone the extra mile there...

Where you planning to use more textured bricks, or is there a rule of thumb you use for the amount of texturing (tiles and bricks) you put in?

I see, you used some old light grey parts as well.

Where you, originally, planning to use more old grey bricks for slight color variations in the larger tower?

Or, are those couple of bricks the maximum you wanted to put in?

Just some questions to get an insight in your way of thinking about these topics.

I normally just do trial and error. Building walls several times untill I'm satisfied.

But I've noticed there are some "ritmes" in there (when putting texture in a wall) that generally result in a pleasing result.

So I'm curious to how you handle those things.

My collection is mainly light grey, not light bley, so those bricks are only used (and at random, not specifically placed) if I come across them. I tend to use tiles more on the lower walls (don't know why, but I do ), and around "features", such as windows, doors, corners, buttresses. I like using 2 1x2 tiles on different levels, slightly offset, as the basic "unit" of brickwork - it doesn't look extravagant like loads of tiles do together on a blank wall, or understated like a single tile, and it isn't symmetrical.

Other texturing e.g. grill bricks, log bricks, follows a similar pattern, apart from it is mainly in the areas where I expect war damage to have occurred e.g. towers, battlements. I prefer to use log bricks over larger areas, to either simulate large areas of damage or missing plaster.

Ultimately I try to get an even texture across the building, without it looking too forced; random, yet ordered to avoid blank areas.

For this particular MOC, I was only going to use tiles for texturing, but I ran out of bricks, so ended up using log and grill bricks anyway.

Cheers again

[Wout]

What a nice castle in winterlandscape.

Very Good and good luck with CCC.

[Admiral Croissant]

Good work again! Your roof technique is very nice, just as the fence.

This building has a lot of detail. If I ever want to build a castle myself, I think this one provides a lot of information about different techniques.

Also the snowy-thing about this is nice, very original. I agree with some other people that the tapes don't look so good.

It makes me just think of hanging tapes too much.

Something completely different: Some time ago I saw one of your crabs in someone's MOC, I really like it

[Sir Dillon]

Splendid little castle SlyOwl! The shape, texture, and roofing are all very nice, and the snow creates a great atmosphere we don't usually get in castle creations.

I'm worried you may have to retake the pictures though, as I don't believe you're allowed to use non-LEGO parts in the CCC. I suggest asking one of the judges before taking this apart.

[NicksBricks]

Wow, that's really cool. I really like how you used video tapes for designs on the castle, that's a good idea. I have a question though, does it have an interior. Awesome

[Rick]

A great castle Sly, I love the fenching, shingle roof, Tudor buildings etc etc. The only thing i find disturbing is the tape recorder tiles, but walls need a little detail after all. It is really nice to see a castle set in a cold wintry clime, and you have nailed it. Good luck.

These are exactly the things that stood out for me as well. Apart from the 'tapes' : you nailed it!