AoM Archery Phase 1 - Winter Practice

[Direlda]

Wymond took aim at the target. His winter was not as quiet as he had hoped. For while all of the painters who had disturbed him over the summer had returned home to Avalonia, the painter who had started Wymond's troubles had returned. His paintings of a Mitgardian warrior weren't selling as well in Avalonia because of all the paintings his fellow painters had done of the same subject. So he had journeyed far from his warm home to try and paint Wymond in situations that none of the other painters could rival.

The arrow struck the target, causing some more snow to fall off the tree. He was glad the painter had tired of asking him to shoot icicles off the tree.

"I've been thinking," the painter said.

"I can take you down to the village as soon as I've gathered my arrows," Wymond said. "You must be cold."

"That's very kind of you to stop your practice for my sake, but this hood has been doing wonders for me." The painter cinched up the hood tighter around his face. "I've realized what you need to do to get me a unique painting--start an archery school."

Wymond was speechless for a few moments. For once he liked the sound of the painter's suggestion. All he had to do was train some people from the nearby village for a little while and then he would be free of the painter. What could possibly go wrong?

Wymond takes aim while the painter waits to be struck by inspiration.

How I got the snowbank to curve. The snowbank, I feel, could use some work, so I would appreciate suggestions for future snowbank building.

It was a pain to get the "arrow" to stick in the target, especially since the tree well was hard to fish it out of when it fell in.

This is probably my favorite of the shots I took.

This used up almost all of my white bricks and tiles! So it'll have to be deconstructed before I can build anything else involving snow, but I'll hold off on that for a few days unless anyone wants me to take any more pictures. I'm quite pleased with how most of this turned out, especially since it was my first major use of SNOT.

To the Avalonians viewing this: I invite you to suggest names for this elven Avalonian painter who has made life interesting for Wymond. I will choose the one I like most. ^^

I'd also like to claim the following University of Petraea credits:

Landscape Design: Trees (first of three techniques)

Landscape Design: Snow and ice

[MKJoshA]

I really like the top of your tree. Palm branches don't normally work for Mitgardian trees, though there are some exceptions and I think your method works well. I don't think I've ever seen it used before.

[HammerBro]

The snot looks great and I love how you made it look like the snow really piled up on the ground. The tracks are awesome too! Lovely build!

[Gilbert Despathens]

Oh, so far out-of-the-box... This is hilarious.

[Kai NRG]

Great little MOC! +1 for both credits from me! As far as the snowbank, there are two things I think would improve it - for one thing, I would suggest it not overhang the side if possible. That just looks a little odd - and sort of messes up the nice rectangular vig. (On the same note, I'd suggest that in the future you try to make sure that the side you'll be taking pictures of (particularly the main picture) should be the side with studs, so you can put tiles on it and not be looking down the bottom of a brick, if possible. As a matter of fact, there's a way to get around that altogether - you can stick cheese slopes three quarters in the 2xblank bricks (not every single one, but most kinds), and that way (using the little bit of cheese slope still sticking out), you can attach plates the opposite way... here for example, maybe you can tell that both sides have studs facing outwards (with tiles on top of course). If that was completely unintelligible - which is likely - just say so and I'll try to find the original picture I got it from.)

The second thing, I'd suggest you fill in the cracks between the angles (which was probably what was bothering you) with loose slopes and maybe some 1x1 round plates. Also, break up the sides of the mound with other slopes or even just a 1x1 underneath one of the cheese to make it stick out a bit more.

Hope that was helpful (and made sense)!

[Gunman]

Very cute MOC. i like the snow pile you made. Also the target and the signs of "feet" when he goes towards the target. The avalonian painter in a nice touch too!

[Gideon]

Nice build, I like how you've mixed some great snowscaping techniquues. UoP +1 for both credits.

I have been trying to bild a Mitgardian tree and the top has been one of the trickier parts, I think i will borrow the idea of the carrot top if its ok? (I'll give you credit of couse)

A couple of suggested improvements is you make sure that the edges are solid or covered with a border (I like however the plant under the snow and the idea of the other holes being rodent tunnels suggested by the rat ). The studs-up part underneath the archer sould also be possible to fit in better, as it's length is s multiple of 2 studs (and therefore a multiple of 5 plates in the SNOT)

Edited February 22, 2014 by Gideon

[soccerkid6]

Cool scene, your snow effects look pretty good. I generally don't make my snowbanks curve, as that is hard to do without any gaps (which don't look fitting in a snowbank). There are lots of great Mitgardian snow builds to get inspiration from, here ac couple of mine:

[mrcp6d]

Dang. I have that same footprint technique in my mostly finished archery phase 1 I was hoping to be the first to use that in AoM -- oh well

As for your question about the snow drift, you get get a bit of a curve from selective use of curved wedge bricks like in the drift under the overhang of my "Winter Hunter" MOC:

You could also play with some SNOT curved slopes like here (from Jack Riveorput) if you don't mind the 1-stud step:

[Kayne]

Nice build. I will also give you +1 to both credits. I do think that SK gave some good advice that may help in the future, so I will just +1 that as well!

[Direlda]

I really like the top of your tree. Palm branches don't normally work for Mitgardian trees, though there are some exceptions and I think your method works well. I don't think I've ever seen it used before.

I went looking through this thread different tree techniques and found a few that inspired me (I believe the one that inspired this tree was over here, but the images aren't loading for me right now, so I can't be sure...). And then I went to the closest LEGO store and found what sort of foliage they had in the PAB wall. They didn't have any of the leafy limb elements, so I didn't have as many of those as I would have liked, but they did have the palm leaves and grass elements, so I decided to get some of those and see if I could make anything with them that would work.

The snot looks great and I love how you made it look like the snow really piled up on the ground. The tracks are awesome too! Lovely build!

Thanks! ^^

Oh, so far out-of-the-box... This is hilarious.

Glad you found it amusing. ^^

Great little MOC! +1 for both credits from me! As far as the snowbank, there are two things I think would improve it - for one thing, I would suggest it not overhang the side if possible. That just looks a little odd - and sort of messes up the nice rectangular vig. (On the same note, I'd suggest that in the future you try to make sure that the side you'll be taking pictures of (particularly the main picture) should be the side with studs, so you can put tiles on it and not be looking down the bottom of a brick, if possible. As a matter of fact, there's a way to get around that altogether - you can stick cheese slopes three quarters in the 2xblank bricks (not every single one, but most kinds), and that way (using the little bit of cheese slope still sticking out), you can attach plates the opposite way... here for example, maybe you can tell that both sides have studs facing outwards (with tiles on top of course). If that was completely unintelligible - which is likely - just say so and I'll try to find the original picture I got it from.)

The second thing, I'd suggest you fill in the cracks between the angles (which was probably what was bothering you) with loose slopes and maybe some 1x1 round plates. Also, break up the sides of the mound with other slopes or even just a 1x1 underneath one of the cheese to make it stick out a bit more.

Hope that was helpful (and made sense)!

It was very helpful. And I appreciate all of the tips! I haven't really done much photography of LEGO, so it's good to know that taking pictures of the bottoms of bricks should be avoided.

Very cute MOC. i like the snow pile you made. Also the target and the signs of "feet" when he goes towards the target. The avalonian painter in a nice touch too!

Thanks! ^^ I was trying to figure out how I would make a target and noticed that the round frames for the windows on the Bag End set would fit perfectly around the round 2x2 plates I had. My problem now is trying to figure out how to make stands for them, since I don't have enough parts to make trees for each target in phase 2.

Nice build, I like how you've mixed some great snowscaping techniquues. UoP +1 for both credits.

I have been trying to bild a Mitgardian tree and the top has been one of the trickier parts, I think i will borrow the idea of the carrot top if its ok? (I'll give you credit of couse)

A couple of suggested improvements is you make sure that the edges are solid or covered with a border (I like however the plant under the snow and the idea of the other holes being rodent tunnels suggested by the rat ). The studs-up part underneath the archer sould also be possible to fit in better, as it's length is s multiple of 2 studs (and therefore a multiple of 5 plates in the SNOT)

Thanks! ^^ I wasn't happy with just the grass piece at the top of the tree so I rummaged through my pieces and found the green cone, which helped. And then I saw Bilbo's garden and raided it for a carrot. I'm glad it turned out well!

I put the rat and plant in to make up for the fact that I didn't have enough white pieces to fill in all the gaps--the number of LEGO pieces at my disposal is not that large--so I'm glad they worked well. But next time I will definitely try to work in a border or at least not have any gaps. And the part underneath the archer was tricky, as I tried to make it fit, but the gap between the SNOT part and the studs-up part where the archer was wasn't big enough to allow for another plate (which is strange, since I was able to get the SNOT part to fit perfectly around the tree-well).

Cool scene, your snow effects look pretty good. I generally don't make my snowbanks curve, as that is hard to do without any gaps (which don't look fitting in a snowbank). There are lots of great Mitgardian snow builds to get inspiration from, here ac couple of mine:

Thanks for all the inspiration you've provided! I'll study those before I work on phase 2. Yeah, next time I probably won't have a snowbank curve quite so much (if at all), as the gaps bothered me, too.

Dang. I have that same footprint technique in my mostly finished archery phase 1 I was hoping to be the first to use that in AoM -- oh well

As for your question about the snow drift, you get get a bit of a curve from selective use of curved wedge bricks like in the drift under the overhang of my "Winter Hunter" MOC:

You could also play with some SNOT curved slopes like here (from Jack Riveorput) if you don't mind the 1-stud step:

I'm surprised that I'm the first to use it in AoM. We can pretend that it's a tie! As for those bricks, I'll probably have to consider getting some of those, as I don't think I have any at the moment and they do look rather useful for making snowdrifts. Thanks for the inspiration! ^^

Nice build. I will also give you +1 to both credits. I do think that SK gave some good advice that may help in the future, so I will just +1 that as well!

Thanks! ^^ I'm definitely planning on following SK's advice.

[The Architect]

Very nice. I like the story and the tree itself is quite nice.

[kabel]

Very nice phase I entry! Great snow effects, nice tree all very lovely indeed!

I don't think I've ever seen it used before.

I've actually used it in several of my landscape mocs before, but only have three of those leaves so I always end up doing a broken tree ...

[gedren_y]

UoP DoH +1 for both claims.

[qiadris]

SNOT really makes snow look "pure"

+1 on the credit claims