[The Frozen Beyond, Cat C] A Village Transformed

[Halhi 141]

My entry to Category C of the Frozen Beyond Contest

Before the Algus arrived, Morkerna was a bright isle, warm and peaceful.

But then the Algus came.

Morkerna has been reduced to a frozen wasteland. And it is to this scene that I come, returning from my adventures in Mitgardia.

The land is desolate, cold, destroyed. Anger brews within me as I turn and see a pair of Algus walking toward me.

I look for anything I could use as a weapon, but there is nothing.

Frustrated, I grab the first thing I find - a flower - and throw it at them.

The two stop. A horrified expression comes to their face.

Could it be? I grab another blossom and throw it. And, to my utter surprise, it happens again: the algus seem stunned. Grinning, I begin bombarding them with flowers, watching as they fall to the ground, moaning.

It seems that the way to defeat death is through life.

This was a fun pair of builds! Showing both how the Algus are changing the weather and how to stop them is a challenging task to combine together, so I decided that the former half would be most effectively captured with a before and after. I was originally going to try to do a minifigure scale version of the watermill for the "after" scene, but I couldn't come up with a waterwheel design that I liked (and it ended up that I wouldn't have had time for that idea anyway), so I decided to replicate part of the landscape in the back corner instead.

The second build (snowy scene) was quite rushed, but I'm still quite pleased with how the snow and rocks turned out, and I learned from last time to use a blue background The snow and rocks are both surprisingly complex, with tons of SNOT and offsetting. At one point while building the rocks, half of it exploded, and the complexity was so great that I actually had to look at a WIP photo to see how it all went together (and even with the photo, it was still tough to figure out how to put it all back together)

The other MOC was designed around that house design, which I came up with during the summer but never actually tested until last month. This build is much more complex than it looks, which is partially why it ended up taking almost 2 months to build...

The micro watermill is based on the use of a bar as a corner beam. After that, the rest comes together with some SNOTted tiles and fiddly techniques. The roof, connected with a few clips, was one of the hardest parts. I also really like the look of the river next to it; the SNOT allows for some smooth shaping, and the slope looks pretty nice too.

The windmill is a bit simpler, but it was still pretty hard to get a nice tapered shape with a variety of tiny round structure techniques.

(this moc is also on Lego Ideas; support it here!)

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how these mocs turned out. Hope you like them

Edited February 2, 2016 by Halhi 141

[Graham Gidman]

Both are terrific builds!

[don leopold]

I like the rock- and snowwork !!!

The little story is nice too

[Elostirion]

Most microbuilds need a lot of imagination before you realise what has been built. Your's doesn't, but displays a clear and sound representation of a village. I really like that. And what a lovely colorscheme this is.

[Kai NRG]

Very nice pair of builds, the rockwork in both instances is great and I really like your snowscape!

[TitusV]

That micro-build is marvellous! Probably one of the best I've ever seen! I really like the rockwork, like the Mill, like the waterfall, like the river, like the other houses, like the water, like the - did I mention the rockwork?

[Lord Vladivus]

Beautiful builds- especially that micro!

[bricklover]

Great rock work and forced perspective! I was thinking about using one of those books that LEGO makes for a roof.

[soccerkid6]

Superb micro build, as I've said before. The tapering tower, and detailed water mill are so impressive

Great rocky and snowy landscape for the second scene as well, and yeah, blue usually works much better as a background for the snowy MOCs

[LittleJohn]

Excellent micro build! The lime green works well for the landscape and I love the design of the house

Superb rockwork and snow in the second build too

[MiloNelsiano]

Definitely one of my favorite microbuilds. Great work, especially on the house.

[Halhi 141]

Most microbuilds need a lot of imagination before you realise what has been built. Your's doesn't, but displays a clear and sound representation of a village. I really like that. And what a lovely colorscheme this is.

Thanks! I decided to go for a slightly larger scale than in most micro builds so that the details/overall look are more clear; I'm glad you think I succeeded!

Great rock work and forced perspective! I was thinking about using one of those books that LEGO makes for a roof.

Thanks! That was one of my ideas for the roof, but unfortunately I don't have a black book (plus the book piece is slightly asymmetrical, which would have caused problems).