ZCerberus

This link? and the general how-to section I do think this shop is a cool. I like the thought put into it. The doors are well done and it looks like there is plenty to buy here. Some critiques... The roof needs a little work and the "rocky" walls on the back seem out of place.

Not that I have seen. I know that our leader HAS selected the 5 watchtowers however.

I have been building the great gate house for the city and in fact have only worked on the base plate of my embassy. I think the gatehouse will be done soon though!!

[pid][/pid] 117C Our news scouts have found another little gem to discuss, this time a pirate MOC from a castle legend, gearcs. Check out all of gearcs photos of this creation on his Flickr photo stream. [bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

It's cool... We know everyone wishes they were Avalonian!!

I like this one. It has a very country vibe to it. I like that house seems like it was hand built out in the counrty with mismatched colors (but still feel cohesive). Good SNOT work with the "log" pieces too. Very lush and Avalonian.

Okay- I need to get rid of some of these figs. I am in the USA but will trade internationally if there is enough in the pot. I have very good Bricklink and Straight Shooter Cred. I have a TON of good figs, so lets get this started!! TRADING THESE S1 (loose but COMPLETE) 1 x Magician 2 x Cowboy 2 x Caveman(!!) S2 (loose but COMPLETE) 1 x Karate Champ 1 x Ring Master 1 x Surfer 1 x Pharaoh S2 (SEALED) 2 x Pharaoh 1 x Hombre 1 x Mime 1 x Patrol Officer ? x Surfer (many) S3 (loose but COMPLETE) 2 x Mummy 2 x Tennis Player 2 x Race Car Driver 2 x Samurai S3 (SEALED) 1 x Pilot ? x Baseball Player (many) ? x Fisherman (many) S4 (loose but COMPLETE) 2 x Lawn Gnome 1 x Street Skater 1 x Hazmat S4 (SEALED) 2 x Mad Scientist(!) 1 x Artist 1 x Monster 1 x Street Skater ? x Hazmat (many) S5 (loose but COMPLETE) 1 x Fitness Instructor 1 x Woodsman 1 x Detective S5 (SEALED) 6 x Mobster(!) 2 x Ice Fisherman(!) 2 x Boxer 1 x Lizard Man 1 x Cave Woman ? x Dark Dwarf (many!!) S6 (Sealed) ? x Roman Warrior (multiple) S7 (will check) S8 (Sealed) ? x Pirate (multiple) S9 (Sealed) 1 x Waiter S10 (Sealed) 2 x Mechanic 1 x Mohawk Warrior WANTS (heard these before?) S1 Forestman S3 Elf S4 Viking S5 Gladiator S7 Evil Knight S9 Forest Maiden S9 Cyclopse S10 paintball guy (1x) S10 Sea Captain (1x) S10 Bumblebee (1x) S10 Grampa (1x) S10 Cellphone/dog girl (1x) S10 Snake Lady (1x) S10 Clown (1x) DRAGON KNIGHTS (torso and helmet are most important part) (torso and helmet are most important part) (black or dark green)

Great work! I like the shiled design and that you are embracing that Avalonia is the realm of horsemen (and women). I look forward to seeing it. I liked your style in the watchtower challenge, so I am hoping your embassy will be awesome!

After looking through the building guide topic again, I have to say the "shop" is by far my favorite build in the village. Really cool layout there!

Great build. Love the stone technique which I have seen from you before. To those who haven't, check out t_b's monestary in his flickr photo stream. I am going to use those lift arms for sure in my next build.

We don't see many ketch ships around here, so this one will be... [bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

That looks pretty sweet and fairly Avalonian. Look forward to seeing it. Is it going to have those same deer skulls decorating the outside?

Yeah, I struggle with photos a bit as well. The lighting, the angles, keeping it from being blurry... I guess we can't all be brickdoctors!! Even still, this last photo is sooooo much better. You can get a full feel of the MOC from it and I think it takes the MOC up a couple of notches. It feels very sturdy to me and you did a great job (as usual) of keeping the walls from looking like a giant bluish gray blob. I like the round tower as well. Very nicely done! Alright Avalonians, de Gothia has set the bar again, go out and try to match him!

I like this photo the best and you didn't even use it!! Good work on the round tower. I second Silver.Smith's feeling that this town feels alive. There a lot of fine details here, so I encourage everyone to go to the Flickr stream. One thing I might try to do a little differently... the MOC is great, but I don't think you captured it quite as nicely as you could have with the angles you used. I think a couple of shots of the entire MOC with the camera up a bit higher could help us pick out more details at once. The straight on shots for example prevents us from seeing the river bed and and the top of the walls in the same shot. I think a better photo angle and this MOC would really shine!

I've been blog blocked! I am glad you got this posted. I really like the two sided idea here. The minifig torsos are divine... or maybe I should say I love your pirate wenches!!

Well if we wish to continue building, we can add more buildings in between the Wall and the Inner Sanctum. Otherwise, we/Derfel will come up with something new for us to do to keep everyone busy!

DC has said he will link the map. If it is not there, then he must have gotten caught up in something else. The "admin" of the map is the master cartographer, Jason Cicchini.

The second version is certainly more interesting. That is a GREAT job of adapting your design based on the feedback you got. Bravo! The only thing I would try is to not make every level look more or less the same. A little variety around windows or stretches where there are no windows etc. could help break up the repetition I see and make the MOC more interesting!

Very nice work LEGO Lady of Avalonia! I do like the white and dark green like Legonardo said. It looks very much like it was built in the field to achieve its intended purpose. A couple of thoughts: 1) I would move the whole roof forward a bit. It looks a little off balance with the roof extending off the back and I think it would look good going up to the fron of the ram. I would also consider making the whol thing 2 studs wider. 2) How are we Avalonians pushing this thing? If the whole seige engine isn't wide enough for the Avalonians to stand inside the protected area while pushing, then maybe it should have handles that extend from the sides so it can be pushed into place. 3) I don't know exactly how a batterin ram's internals work, but I would guess there is a chain or a rope that is pulled from behind the ram to pull the ram back and then once the rope is released, the ram smashes into the door or wall. Maybe you could add that here so the ram actually works as it would in real life!

I was going to say just about everything NiceMarmot said. Only other thing I would add is maybe adding an inverted slope on the top row of each level to add more support to the next level up. I think the idea of recessing the windows into larger arches can be seen on the two windows in the middle here... You can also an example of NiceMarmot's suggestion for adding the inverted slopes to push the parapet out from the rest of the wall. ignore my gross big toe please.

First off, I don’t think DC will mind we are a little off topic and not discussing this MOC… mostly because it is hard to say anything other than AWESOME when you see it and secondly because if his detailed guide has proved anything, it is that he likes to share his work in the hopes that it will encourage and inspire people to sharpen their own skills. Secondly like dG, I appreciate hearing that you like my work. However, I learned a long time ago when I first joined EB (from a very wise man) that smaller MOCs and MOCs that don’t fit my aesthetic are no less worthy of discussion than things I do myself. It always makes me somewhat conflicted because on the one hand, I don’t want to get a big head and act like I am better than other builders or that anyone wants to hear what I think is “good” or “bad”, but on the other I personally feel critiquing really helps builders improve. Therefore, like dG, I think a lot of what has helped me is displaying MOCs and getting feedback. However, the biggest thing I never want to do is discourage people from building or participating here. When I see someone is new at MOCing, I will give them very general things to think about and never give critiques that would suggest someone give up trying. I might give a new MOCer a suggestion on color choice, or maybe making a more interesting shape for a building. When I see MOCs that are more advanced in my opinion, then I might notice smaller things that maybe the builder didn’t think of. I may notice minor things, like placement or purpose of a fence or color combination of a door. Once again, just because you don’t agree with my critiques or aesthetics doesn’t mean you are wrong, just that maybe you didn’t think of something that might enhance the MOC in your eyes as well. de Gothia for example never comes back with “you don’t know what you are talking about” if I offer a suggestion and he has indicated it has done him well. I also think MikeyB is that same way. He is relatively new to MOCing (by his own admission) and he took the ideas we had for his watchtower and I personally think really turned out a great tower making improvements from everyone’s suggestions. Commenting on others MOCs can also help you improve on your own MOCs. For example, on this MOC I noticed all the buildings have similar coloration. DC may comment back that he believes the coloration is a byproduct of the real life materials that would have been used to make this house which may make me rethink an odd color choice I have used in the past. Or maybe I will think back on my own MOCs and think that though I have used different colorations for my half-timbered houses, I often times use the same square latticed patterns and maybe there is something I can do to make them better and different as well. I think the big thing when you reach a plateau is to try something different that you have seen and like from others but have felt you weren’t the best at. For me, I tried to conquer some SNOT techniques for making windows. That opened my eyes to all kinds of others things I could achieve using those techniques. The other major thing I was NOT doing on older MOCs was landscaping. I always enjoyed the main build and the projects I was working on always called for the landscaping to be done later. On the history forum though I basically challenged myself (and with DC’s guide) decided I needed to implement landscaping to elevate the MOCs to the levels I wanted them. I say don’t be intimated by builders who have mad skills like dG or DC, just take what they have done, and try to make yourself “better”.

Very good work! +500 to build credit! I think the sails and spars might be a bit small for a ship of this size, but that is a minor quibble. Congrats on the nice ship!

I don't know about the other two... But I just steal from DC.

I also agree we may be micromanaging a bit too much. I like the initiative here, but when I build the embassy, I will not be necessarily be building it in a specific city, just to fit the general Guild area there the embassy is located. I think it is fine for people to want to place an embassy in a certain location/city, but it is certainly fine for them to just state it is in another Guild's lands without being super specific as to a city.

Might still be a little large, but we get the idea, the city is along the road in Glevum and it is called Gruven. Good call! I look forward to seeing it develop!