[soNE Freebuild] Deforestation.....well almost!

I had a couple of hours spare last weekend and thought that it might be fun to have a bash at building a tree; this is my first attempt but I'm quite pleased with it! I quickly discovered that it's not easy to create a realistic looking trunk, but I found that the little 1x2 'log' parts help to break up the outline, and give it a bit of texture. I'm quite limited for green and brown parts (as I'm still waiting for a decent sale on the Ewok village), hint TLG.....!

Lobot must retain his neutrality for this Episode, but can't resist the chance to help his Imperial comrades in the clearance of the site for the new Landing Platform. However, on arrival at Endor he quickly realises that he shouldn't have gone for the 17" chainsaw......

Lobot looking stern:

Lobot looking stern (alternate view):

Lobot looking stern (from another angle):

Lobot about to give up:

Bonus photo (not part of the Freebuild, but I spent ages building it for the Episode V banner!):

Good luck my comrades, C & C welcome.

Cheers, Robin

If Lobot start to do freebuilds, maybe I'll have to too...

That's a nice trunk, but too big for your chainsaw I think

You are going to need a much larger chainsaw, I know what you mean, it is really hard to make a LEGO tree look realistic.

Nice work! The tree trunk turned out well; the vine and leaves coming off of it definitely make it look more natural.

Your predicament with tree size vs saw size reminded me of this photo from early logging in Washington State: http://www.puyalluptribalnews.net/assets/images/1994.123.54.jpg

You could also try out that pose

hahah, nice work!

But i think the saw is to small for this big tree .

markus

The tree 'texture' looks absolutely fine! However, I think it looks just a little too square perhaps? I do like the rest of the shrubbery though!

Aaah, tree building... tell me about it . My episode entry is taking me ages because I can't get the vegetation look right. glad to see others struggle with it as well

But it's very motavating to see my comrades succeed in building nice vegetation as well . Your tree looks really nice, and that texture works beautifully! And you tried to make the shape more interesting with those slopes mingled in between. The trunk flows into the roots a bit too abruptly though. Those slopepieces shouldn't all start at the same height, and some round parts there would do good to the realism. Also, the overall shape of the trunk isn't super convincing. You could add more depth through using layers, or building something column-like with angled parts. Then the tree would look less like a castle and more like natural vegetation. You could also add in some color variation, not only with browns but also with some (olive) greens for instance, and beside those pallisade bricks, ridge bricks could look good as well. Still, you did a great job on the texture and diversity, and I especially admire those plant pieces growing on the trunk.

The other parts of vegetation are good as well, but lack a natural shape. There isn't much difference shapewise between the brown stumps and the grey rocks (which are beautiful by the way). You could make broken trees of these stumps, or make some nice small trees like in the very nice banner you've made before. Finally, it's great that you populated the ground with plants, but once again you're missing the general shape a bit. Endor forest is really crouded with ferns and the like, so there should be more vegetation in the first place. Or if you don't have enough plant parts, you could make an area where your character has cut his way through. Also, the ground could use a bit of relief and color variation, just to keep things interesting and avoid large flat monotone unnatural surfaces. In fact, the base doesn't have to be that big in the first place, as long as you can make one smaller section believable, this MOC would be even more succeeded.

Because yes, this MOC is already quite a succes (owrthy of a blog? ), because you got the textures definetly right. And that stern expression of your minifig is priceless. It's amazing how it always fits the scene, considering you only have once face to choose from .

Thanks everyone for the comments

It wasn't intended as a 'serious' build, I just had a couple of hours spare and wanted to see what I could create in that time. I haven't built anything organic before so it's a bit of a steep learning curve. I might do something bigger when the Ewok Village goes on sale at a reasonable discount, and I can then add to it. Good luck to everyone with the contest, I'm sure that you'll do the Empire proud!

If only for sheer numbers, I think the empire's going to win this contest. Though, this is a great start and a great example of Star Wars forestry, I think. Thanks for sharing Lobot!

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