Wonders of Historica: Fossgard Falls

[soccerkid6]

The main focus of this build was the large waterfall, which features a new waterfall technique (more info on that later in this post). The small tower doesn't have an interior as there wasn't space for one with the SNOT design, but the larger towers do and the whole build opens up to reveal tunnels, rooms, and a stairway created by the dwarves.

Credit for the snow on the bushes design goes to Brother Steven. Credit for the slope corners of the lower tower goes to Daniel Church.

The Fossgard Falls are some of the most famous waterfalls in Historica. The dwarves of Fossgard have many tunnels and fortresses built around these falls, but are willing to allow sightseers from any of the guilds to come enjoy the falls' splendour:

Left tower interior:

Right tower interior:

The waterfall design is quite simple, it uses mainly 3 pieces: clear 1x2 bricks, clear 1x2 plates, and clear 1x1 round plates. Using those pieces you build a wall 2 studs thick in front of white bricks. You use the white bricks to define the shape of the fall, for mine I used 6 studs as the width for the center of the fall, then stepped back a stud and did 4 studs wide on either side of the 6 studs, then stepped back another stud and did 2 studs wide on the outside edges of the 4 stud sections.

While building the wall of clear, you attach 1x2 plates so that they stick out one stud from the rest of the wall every so often, and you put 1x1 round plates or cheese slopes on top of the protruding edge of the 1x2 plate. Also as you build the wall every three or four brick layers, you step the whole fall back a stud by moving the white bricks back one stud then keeping the clear wall in front only two studs thick. These two pictures should help show what I mean.

This one shows the use of 1x2 plates and 1x1 round plates or cheese slopes in the waterfall:

This picture shows how the fall steps back:

Hopefully that long-winded description makes sense

There are more pictures here: link

Any Comments/Criticism greatly appreciated

Edited January 18, 2014 by soccerkid6

[-Carson Haupt-]

That is amazing! Great waterfall, the tunnels are great too.

[soccerkid6]

That is amazing! Great waterfall, the tunnels are great too.

Thanks, the tunnels were fun but definitely piece intensive as I had to build most of the interior of the cliffs in dark bley

as well as the exterior

[NiL_FisK_Urd]

A great build - excellent waterfall, and great interior, especially the tunnels.

[SkaForHire]

I think this is your best!

I do have a slight critique of the main feature here. And this is a nitpick, one that might not even be feasible. I feel as if there should be a bit more deviation in the path of the water. I don't know how you could bring out more variation though without adding color. The only other way I can think of doing this is changing the "depths" of your rock pieces so that you had less clear pieces in a row, thus slightly changing the color within the falls.

These falls look dang good, but it seems that this water is being thrown out (thus completely white, as if coming from a pressurized hose) rather than naturally rolling out. Not that I think you should change the MOC, but you are a good enough builder that next time you build some falls, you might find a new personal challenge in changing the presentation of the water a little.

Great job!

[soccerkid6]

A great build - excellent waterfall, and great interior, especially the tunnels.

Thanks

I think this is your best!

I do have a slight critique of the main feature here. And this is a nitpick, one that might not even be feasible. I feel as if there should be a bit more deviation in the path of the water. I don't know how you could bring out more variation though without adding color. The only other way I can think of doing this is changing the "depths" of your rock pieces so that you had less clear pieces in a row, thus slightly changing the color within the falls.

These falls look dang good, but it seems that this water is being thrown out (thus completely white, as if coming from a pressurized hose) rather than naturally rolling out. Not that I think you should change the MOC, but you are a good enough builder that next time you build some falls, you might find a new personal challenge in changing the presentation of the water a little.

Great job!

Thanks Ska! And good tips for the waterfall, I think some color variation in it would definitely have a great effect

[Gideon]

Definitely a true Wonder of Historica! That waterfall is easily one of the best I've seen and those dwarven towers and halls are equally fantastic

Great use of a limited footprint as usual. And thanks for sharing some of the secrets of building the water!

[soccerkid6]

Definitely a true Wonder of Historica! That waterfall is easily one of the best I've seen and those dwarven towers and halls are equally fantastic

Great use of a limited footprint as usual. And thanks for sharing some of the secrets of building the water!

Thanks Gideon I thought the dwarven additions set off the waterfall nicely and made the build much more impressive, and yes I like to cram as much as possible into my builds

[Captain Nemo]

Wonderful Wonder of Historica--the scale of it is great, as is the water, and I was surprised to see that it opened up! Great job!

[Gideon]

Thanks Gideon I thought the dwarven additions set off the waterfall nicely and made the build much more impressive, and yes I like to cram as much as possible into my builds

You are quickly establishing yourself as the top dwarven builder of GoH I think! The mix of light/dark bley and nice square details really works so well

[soccerkid6]

Wonderful Wonder of Historica--the scale of it is great, as is the water, and I was surprised to see that it opened up! Great job!

Thanks Captain Nemo, I was hoping that the opening function would catch some people by surprise

You are quickly establishing yourself as the top dwarven builder of GoH I think! The mix of light/dark bley and nice square details really works so well

Thanks! I had fun using the 2x2 brackets as normally I don't use them much, but in this build they're all over the place

[Wedge09]

Amazing work SK :thumbup: I really like the waterfall and the towers Thanks for explaining us you waterfall's techniques

[Derfel Cadarn]

Great build! It's good to see you pushing yourself forward and trying new techniques. The towers are nicely built as is the interior. The waterfall works very well and looks great. The trick is, to keep trying to improve on your own technique. So next time you build another waterfall, try seeing how far you can push it by tweaking different areas of it. Maybe try having a few rocks jutting out from the middle of the waterfall, so the water splits and falls in different ways. Things like that are all good experience and help you become a better builder.

Great work!

[Captain Settle]

Wow, this is fantastic! I love the interiors of the towers.

[soccerkid6]

Amazing work SK :thumbup: I really like the waterfall and the towers Thanks for explaining us you waterfall's techniques

Thanks Wedge! Glad the waterfall explanation was useful

Great build! It's good to see you pushing yourself forward and trying new techniques. The towers are nicely built as is the interior. The waterfall works very well and looks great. The trick is, to keep trying to improve on your own technique. So next time you build another waterfall, try seeing how far you can push it by tweaking different areas of it. Maybe try having a few rocks jutting out from the middle of the waterfall, so the water splits and falls in different ways. Things like that are all good experience and help you become a better builder. Great work!

Thanks DC And I'll definitely try to improve my technique the next time I use it

Wow, this is fantastic! I love the interiors of the towers.

Thank you

[HammerBro]

Excellent build! I love the 2x2 slopes used to angle the corners of the lower tower. I also like that you added an angled window in the rock on the left side. Its cool how you made interiors and made the entire moc open up like that.

[soccerkid6]

Excellent build! I love the 2x2 slopes used to angle the corners of the lower tower. I also like that you added an angled window in the rock on the left side. Its cool how you made interiors and made the entire moc open up like that.

Thanks, the slope corners were inspired by Dan Church's builds. I'm glad you noticed that I angled the one window, that was one of my favorite details

[runmymouth]

I am going to have to steal some of your techniques. I really like your build.

[kabel]

Sk, this is really stunning! Its good to be playing for the same team!

Edited September 1, 2013 by kabel

[Alfadas]

I like it! The details are great! I like the tunnels and everything! Amazing! It is one of your best builds.

[soccerkid6]

I am going to have to steal some of your techniques. I really like your build.

Thanks, and steal away

Sk, this is really stunning! Its good to be playing for the same team!

Thanks kabel And I'm also glad that we're both on the same team

I like it! The details are great! I like the tunnels and everything! Amazing! It is one of your best builds.

Thanks jeroenaa, glad it met your expectations

[Infernum]

Wow! Great work SK! . Love the detailing with 2x2 jumpers and 1x1 tiles! Wish I had that many of those... I love the waterfall, great technique! I love the small tower and how you topped off the back two! I also like that you connected all the towers with bridges! Great job on the front tower's windows. I love how the MOC opens up so you can see the caverns, great job with the interiors! I might have to steal that opening up idea... . I also really love how you did the snow drifts and the inclusion of olive leaves! One last thing, did you come up with the flower-snow or use it after seeing my MOC? Incredible work SK!

[soccerkid6]

Wow! Great work SK! . Love the detailing with 2x2 jumpers and 1x1 tiles! Wish I had that many of those... I love the waterfall, great technique! I love the small tower and how you topped off the back two! I also like that you connected all the towers with bridges! Great job on the front tower's windows. I love how the MOC opens up so you can see the caverns, great job with the interiors! I might have to steal that opening up idea... . I also really love how you did the snow drifts and the inclusion of olive leaves! One last thing, did you come up with the flower-snow or use it after seeing my MOC? Incredible work SK!

Thanks Infernum! I ended up getting a few more 2x2 jumpers and using all of my bley 1x1 tiles for this build. The original plan was only to have the two larger towers connected by a bridge, but Kai suggested adding another bridge from the small to the big, and then I added another tiny bridge from the small to the cliff I'm glad you like the windows on the small tower as they were one of the trickiest parts of the whole build, this build implements a lot more SNOT than I usually use. You should definitely do an opening build, everyone likes it and it makes photography much easier As for the snow leaves, I actually got the main inspiration from one of Brother Steven's builds as he used white flowers still on the sprue for snow on one of his trees and I really liked that effect, though seeing you use them also inspired me a bit

[Niku]

Wow such an unusual build from you, I love the amount of detail put on this one, and the ellaboration of the interiors is great also.

[soccerkid6]

Wow such an unusual build from you, I love the amount of detail put on this one, and the ellaboration of the interiors is great also.

Thanks! This build took a bit longer than most of mine, but I think it was worth it