Farmer Maggot's Work Horse - AoM: Mill Phase I

[Slegengr]

Farmer Maggot puts his horse to work. After the farmers cut the wheat and lay it in the wagon, the horse pulls the wagon to the mill. Here, Farmer Maggot threshes the wheat on the ground with his flail as his wife, Mme. Maggot, brings new wheat to thresh. Jaskin pours the wheat kernels onto the grind-stone and leads the horse around the grind-stone to roll the top stone over the wheat kernels to grind them into flour that will then be taken to the village bakery and used to make all sorts of delectable items to feed the people of Falkidalr.

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C&C welcome.

Inspiration came from the Dark Age mill in Age of Empires 2 (with added Norse influence).

My favorite parts of this build, and the most tedious, are the two sections of the roof. The LotR seats from the Council of Elrond make nice roof shakes, though they were somewhat tedious to attach. The stick portion proved even more tedious, as they cannot be all rigidly attached, since I wanted a tightly packed thatching of sticks.

[MKJoshA]

Wow. This is really impressive!

[Sir Gareth]

Excellent build, Slegengr! I'm impressed by just how much your builds have improved from since you first joined.

Everything about this is very well done. I really like the irregular baseplate, roofings, and use of droid arms as wheat. This is definitely your best moc yet and an inspiration to newer members.

Great job, keep it up!

Edited October 24, 2014 by Sir Gareth

[Garmadon]

Excellent build, Slegengr! Great work with the roof, irregular border, cart, and tools

The curves and microfig on top are awesome details, I like that you included the guild colors Looking forward to phase II!

[Slegengr]

Wow. This is really impressive!

Thanks, MKJ! I appreciate your compliment.

Excellent build, Slegengr! I'm impressed by just how much your builds have improved from since you first joined.

Everything about this is very well done. I really like the irregular baseplate, roofings, and use of droid arms as wheat. This is definitely your best moc yet and an inspiration to newer members.

Great job, keep it up!

Thanks, Sir Gareth! I have been using AoM to try the basis for my style in different manners, both for landscapes and for man-made objects. I am glad you like this MOC and I appreciate your compliments. With about 20 years of LEGO building experience (no dark age for me, building since age 3 ), I hope to continue to improve my builds and contribute to the community.

Excellent build, Slegengr! Great work with the roof, irregular border, cart, and tools

The curves and microfig on top are awesome details, I like that you included the guild colors Looking forward to phase II!

Thanks, Garmadon! I am glad you like the details and appreciate your compliments. Phase II is in my plans, though I plan to complete all phase I builds in sequence before sequencing through phase II. Of course, the guild colors will be included in my builds as often as I find a fitting manner to incorporate them.

[Tomsche]

Very impressive build!

Are those rooftiles all "Elrond chairs"?

[robuko]

That crazy roof is wonderful. Fantastically creative, and a very nice farming scene.

[Hobbythom]

Very nice build. I like the colours and the side of the mill especially.

[IenjoyLego89]

Brilliant build! :) my favourite part has to be the roof, very good technique, the cart is very good as well :) bring on the next phase I say!

[Alfadas]

Wow, I love it! Great work, and can't wait to see what the other 2 phases have to offer!

[Gabe]

Gosh, that's one fancy looking barn! Very inventive roof design - how on earth did you manage to get so many of the Elrond chair backs? The repeating pattern looks great. I'm less convinced by the bar thatching - the hump in the middle of that section of the roof makes it look rather messy. (There has to be a better way to attach the bars and droid arms to avoid that i'm thinking?) But overall the level of inventiveness and experimentation in the build is impressive.

[Kai NRG]

Great job here, especially with the roof! I have to say I kind of like the hump in the thatch, even if it isn't so realistic. The building itself has a very Mitgardian shape to it! I do think introducing a few less colors might have been more effective - say only light grey and two shades of brown, rather than all that and tan. Good work nonetheless!

[Lord Vladivus]

Nice love the roofing!

[Jorrith]

That roof has some interesting building techniques in it! Lovely build, great story too!

[Slegengr]

Very impressive build!

Are those rooftiles all "Elrond chairs"?

Thanks, Tomsche! Yes, they are Elrond chairs . I have bought 6 copies of the set when I found great deals on them (25-50% off). I also bought the additional parts and stickers off Bricklink to make up the other half of the pieces.

That crazy roof is wonderful. Fantastically creative, and a very nice farming scene.

Thanks, robuko! I appreciate the compliments.

Very nice build. I like the colours and the side of the mill especially.

Thanks, Hobbythom! I tried to keep it true to the AoE mill and Norse style.

Brilliant build! :) my favourite part has to be the roof, very good technique, the cart is very good as well :) bring on the next phase I say!

Thanks, lenjoyLego! The inspiration for this build came from the log-walled, stick-roofed mill in AoE 2, so the roof is also my favorite part. The cart was a quick throw-together to avoid using the one from the MMV that I had build already. Phase II is yet to come, though I plan to dedicate time now to Challenge III.

Wow, I love it! Great work, and can't wait to see what the other 2 phases have to offer!

Thanks, Alfadas! I love mills, so I will quite enjoy this category for all phases, including phase II and III.

Gosh, that's one fancy looking barn! Very inventive roof design - how on earth did you manage to get so many of the Elrond chair backs? The repeating pattern looks great. I'm less convinced by the bar thatching - the hump in the middle of that section of the roof makes it look rather messy. (There has to be a better way to attach the bars and droid arms to avoid that i'm thinking?) But overall the level of inventiveness and experimentation in the build is impressive.

Thanks, Gabe! I appreciate the compliments and constructive criticism. Amazon in my area had the CoE set for 33% off for a while, so I picked up 5 copies, along with a cheap one from a Bricklink seller and individual chair pieces and stickers from Bricklink (about half of the total). The hump in the thatching was somewhat intentional for the end-view effect, but I can see your point. I actually wanted the roof to appear somewhat messy, as it was based on the dark age mill from AoE 2. I already have a method of attachment that avoids the bump, so I may try it again and see how it looks.

Great job here, especially with the roof! I have to say I kind of like the hump in the thatch, even if it isn't so realistic. The building itself has a very Mitgardian shape to it! I do think introducing a few less colors might have been more effective - say only light grey and two shades of brown, rather than all that and tan. Good work nonetheless!

Thanks, Kai NRG! I appreciate the compliments and constructive criticism. I personally liked the colors, but I can understand your point. I could have used less tan and only used it for accents rather than the top portion of the main wall as well. I will consider this in the future.

Nice love the roofing!

Thanks, Vladivus! The roof is my favorite part as well.

[-Carson Haupt-]

This is great, love the roof and colors. It seems very lively with all that's going on.

[mrcp6d]

I'm seeing some Gunman craziness here with the roof, and that is certainly NOT a bad thing. The scythe is awesome too, I'll have to remember that!

[Slegengr]

This is great, love the roof and colors. It seems very lively with all that's going on.

Thanks, Carson! I am glad you like it.

I'm seeing some Gunman craziness here with the roof, and that is certainly NOT a bad thing. The scythe is awesome too, I'll have to remember that!

Thanks, mrcp6d! I certainly appreciate that you consider this like Gunman's builds. His builds certainly have been an inspiration to me, and I only hope to attain his level of buiding someday. For the scythe, I have tried multiple times over the years to make one I was satisfied with. This is the first one I have seen that does not have an overly large blade or other disproportions or odd angles. I am glad you like it as well.

[Jakorin Swiftsword]

Excellent work, Slegengr! Amazing part usage!

[cesbrick]

Wow this was kind of reefreshing. The colors, the textures, the details, the roof.. Excellent!

Congratulations! Glad you joined GoH.

[Gideon]

Excellent build overall and extremely nice roof design That pattern on the chair backs works very well as a somewhat messy thatching or something similar.

The only tiny, tiny nitpick I can come up with to keep my intention of giving constructive criticism is that I'm not too fond of the design of the cart wheels.

[Slegengr]

Excellent work, Slegengr! Amazing part usage!

Thanks, Jakorin! I am glad you like it.

Wow this was kind of reefreshing. The colors, the textures, the details, the roof.. Excellent!

Congratulations! Glad you joined GoH.

Thanks, cesbrick! I am honored that you are glad I joined GoH, as you are an excellent MOCer.

Excellent build overall and extremely nice roof design That pattern on the chair backs works very well as a somewhat messy thatching or something similar.

The only tiny, tiny nitpick I can come up with to keep my intention of giving constructive criticism is that I'm not too fond of the design of the cart wheels.

Thanks, Gideon! I am glad you like it. The cart was a quick throw-together to avoid using the only other cart I had built: MMV's cart. I do not like to use components build from instructions in MOCs, so I quickly threw this cart together without much design thought. I can see now that I should have at least included a second gold 4x4 round plate between the first and the dark bley collar with studs pointing out. It was late when I finished the mill, but I should have taken more time to finish the cart as well, as all details are important.

I will probably be posting some update pictures for this build, as a few more parts arrived that I wanted to include and I would like to incorporate the feedback received.

[MassEditor]

Great little scene here with some wonderful techniques! You've made an awesome contribution to GoH right out of the gate, glad to see you joined!

[Slegengr]

Great little scene here with some wonderful techniques! You've made an awesome contribution to GoH right out of the gate, glad to see you joined!

Thanks, ME! I am honored that another excellent MOCer is glad to have me here. I hope to learn more and continuously improve my building techniques, and this is made simpler by finding inspiration from the MOC experts here (including you).

[soccerkid6]

That roof looks amazing Great fig posing as well, the way you did the woman walking is clever

Also that's the best scythe design I've seen