Exetrius

I had certainly not forgotten Zamorah, but what better reminder than this!! Instantly into the GoH hall of fame, if you ask me! You nailed the unique 'open cave' type of setting, I love the transition of the upper layer buildings to rock. In general, you found a great balance between angular and rounded (stonework) shapes, and the rounded walls bring more diversity and dynamic into the scene. I imagine the the top left facade was particularly challenging! The terraced lay-out and intriguing triple-level passageway is wonderful, but the way you have created variety in the architecture, colour palette, different textures, different materials (stone vs. wood), and the way some buildings are placed forward and others more backward... that's class! I'm currently trying to do those things in my own megaproject, and I hope it will turn out as well as yours has! The docks with the walls, crane and ship are amazing, but I think my favourite part of this build is the warm and welcoming tavern, with the little market scene on the roof. Love it! Awesome fully decked-out figures too, especially that paladin! Last thing, really cool to see how the miniature translates to the minifig scale build. Of course makes one dream how the rest could look like. Hats off for this awe-inspiring piece, man!

So I just caught up on the change, that's awesome!

Interesting build! As mentioned, the slope is unusual indeed, challenging. I think the footprints and the snow trail look good, as well as the snow overhanging the cliff. The mouse is a welcome splash of colour there. I'm a little less convinced by the rest of the snow cover Maybe it's a bit too smooth or too round, but that may be personal preference for more studs. The trees look great, love the owl flying off to escape danger. It bugs me though that hinges at the tree bases are visible, I'm thinking perhaps you could have added a layer of stone underneath the bumps of snow, so that those bumps are raised enough to hide the hinges. Great build up of the suspense in the story and good delivery of Kars' line.

Only 9 replies so far?! Either this build got snowed over by all the other entries, or people just lost their tongue at the sight of this. The latter happened to me. My goodness guys... This could come is straight out of a picture book, the whole thing just lives when looking at it! Architecture is top notch of course, and also my congratulations on the state of the art stone technique! Also, is that light royal blue you used on the roof? Looks great! You aced the landscape and editing too, and some great writing to boot! Also, let's give this a go: John: - Second floor and up for the main section of the tavern (roof slope facing forward) - Roof of the stables - Snowscape - editing Isaac: - Left section of the tavern (roof facing sideways) - ground floor of the main section - trees - minifigure arrangement - photography Please tell me if I'm remotely close!

Thank you so much, Grover! Glad to hear about the fountain, as it's one of my favorite things in the build but a bit tough to highlight in the pictures. And indeed, a vital resource to have within the village walls. I was much inspired by French countryside villages, where the amount of public fountains per capita seems to be very high. Also thanks for pointing out the sand red (always nice when your flexing is noticed) and the rest of your compliments!

Thank you!

Great writing and message, Louis! This here is particularly a particularly impactful! I once plan to return to building for Zotharith, Exetrius' hometown, and this makes me wonder if I'll find it back the way it used to be. Buildwise, I like the palisade with snowcover part, the cosy interior with an abundance of candles (hope they keep the place a bit warm? ) and the diagonal lines of the terrain. Nice trees and stone walls too.

Once upon a time in Kaliphlin...

Somewhere in the eastern Siccus Badlands, in a village called Amrakect, was once the home the Centario family. A cozy little dwelling just behind the village defence wall, and next to Horse's Gate, was the house where white-haired boy Onicius and his sister Alicia lived, with their father and mother. In general it was a rather quiet and peaceful town, apart from the bustling market places. Alicia was often playing around town with the other village kids, while Oncius loved to watch the activity around Horse's Gate from the terrace, sometimes talking to the guards (his father was a guard as well), and lazying in the afternoon heat. But those peaceful and carefree days would not last... Carpe diem, Centario family! There's full interior in the house, which consists (top to bottom) of an adult bedroom, kitchen, terrace and children's bedroom. Really challenging to squeeze everything in! The portcullis inside the gate tower can be raised, locked at various heights, and dropped with the release of the lock (in grey). When fully lowered, the gap through which the portcullis rises is closed with a hatch. The hatch is pushed open when the portcullis is raised and closes when it is dropped. I really enjoy this fun feature, so I think I'm going to integrate functionality more often. A video of the mechanism in action (hope you can view it): --- Overall, I'm really pleased with build and I enjoyed the premise of the category! I chose my first very first Guilds of Historica build to make a modern version of. I never thought of it as a bad build, but it stands so far from how I nowadays think a build should be, that I was excited to improve and expand it in several ways. I wanted it to pale in comparison, in all departments! Including: full and accessible interior as opposed to none, viewable 360°, a full colour palette, and even functionality with a video as proof! But without a seed, a sapling, you'll never have a tree. So, I still look up to my first build, and other historic GoH builds, and I'm very grateful for being part of this wonderful community I've been enjoying for so many years! Cheers!

@Gideon Thanks so much for this! I had missed the ask for input, @Umbra-Manis thanks a lot! The results are great! I particularly like the swamp ruins, the orc riding 'frog' and the interpretation of my sigfig!

Relevant enough? Just build what feels good to you! Feel like a project isn't worth your time (or resources)? Move on! But if it is: keep going!

Interesting experience: today I received an invoice of the PAB standard order that I placed during the holiday stop, I assume it has shipped. Before the service closed, I had a nice selection of parts in added to my cart. Then the holidays came and I was unable to view or edit my order in the PAB service. I am really happy that it came through, although unfortunately I'll only receive one of each part because I hadn't decided on the quantities yet. Together with some other sets I was able to profit from a number of Christmas freebies, so experiment successful and score!

Oh, newbies are surely welcome! But the two Guilds mocs rule is a standard rule that helps prevent random people that have no intention of committing to the Guilds from snatching up prizes, and then leaving. If you would like to join Guilds of Historica (I don't think you joined yet, right?) and participate in this contest or future ones, just choose a guild and start building!

Yes, silver, gunmetal grey and black please!

Yes, Benthomaar has appeared with one of the magazines, in 2022 issue 2 (in the Netherlands at least): https://www.brickshop.nl/lego-boeken/lego-ninjago-magazine-2022-2?keyword=benthomaar&searchId=0&po=21 https://brickset.com/sets/892285-1/Benthomaar

Thank you!

Haha, obvious but true!

I love how @toothdominoes (presumably) has again successfully infused a Ninjago mech with anime mech references, this time EVA 00! The head in the torso, very nice! Also, it even reads "00" on one of the stickers with a bit of imagination. But despite references a remarkable and original design! I think the other sets are pretty good. Nya's dragon and Kai's racer are genuinely charming. Now seeing Cole's dragon's base form, the set feels overpriced, but at a discount I'm interested. Cool new pieces!

I look forward to high-res pics (or Promobricks reviews ) of all the sets! I set my expectations low for more Core, but the new villains look cool, as do some of the sets. Jay's mech looks very striking!

Exactly me! In the end I got the set off Bricklink when I saw a steep decline in availability and it was under retail price. I figured if I ended up overpaying anyway, it would best be for some decent parts as well instead of just a fig. Plus, Mezmo is a nice fig too. Some interesting build techniques I guess, but disappointing functionality.

I don't know how the sets are selling, but I do know that because I wanted to complete the golden Legacy lineup and because none of the figs ended up on B&P/PAB or cheap elsewhere, most of my budget went to the Legacy sets. Which is a shame, because I'm not really interested in big vehicles, and there were some great sets in Seabound and the Island wave. Though, I have to admit, the villain factions don't really appeal to me and some nice prints out of them were ruined by bad printing quality.

Haha, relatable! Usually I then sleep on it, and with a fresh head I think of something else that works better.

Hey, thank you! It's a big compliment to that someone who's not looking through nostalgia-coloured glasses sees beauty in this build! I'm glad the pelvises caught your attention, especially the one with the boomerang, I really liked how that one turned out too. :) Fun thing about the red Toa's swords is: those were my least favorite weapons of the bunch, until I added axe part to them. That made all the difference!

They're from an.. erm, excuse the word- old CMF figure https://brickset.com/sets/8805-12/Evil-Dwarf. The years fly by, don't they?

Thank you! Nice that you mention the windows! The fun thing about them is that they are even number width while tower itself has odd number dimensions, and they're mounted with clips, nipple studs and 1x2 modified plates with bar sticking up. (Somehow that is quite satisfying to me) And glad to hear about the roof too!