[MOC] An Unexpected Resident

[Magma]

Hi. This is only the second time I've posted a MOC on Eurobricks, but I'd like to share a little scene I put together a few weeks back.

"Investigate the old castle on your way back, there has been a report of smoke from it. It may be bandits..."

An Unexpected Resident 1 by Magma Xenoliths, on Flickr

An Unexpected Resident 2 by Magma Xenoliths, on Flickr

I started putting together a dragon for our LUGs monthly build theme "mythical creatures", and having built the head realised I didn't have the time or pieces to finish it, so thought of a way to make the most of what I had built. I've wanted to try making a textured wall for awhile too. I have a lot of new-found respect for those builders who do it well, it was harder and more time (and piece) consuming than I thought it would be.

Feedback welcome!

[soccerkid6]

Doesn't look like bandits to me Great dragon! The wall texture turned out well too, the arch detailing is especially cool.

Great face choices for those poor guards

Edited June 2, 2016 by soccerkid6

[durazno33]

Close enough to smell it's breath...

I like the textured look. I'd love to see the next version if you expand on this when you have more time and pieces. This turned out well.

[Exetrius]

Great work on the architecture here! Your choice of having the dragon eyes facing forward instead of outwards - which is more common for European dragons - is interesting. Good work!

[LegoPercyJ]

I like the textured wall. And great job on the dragon as well

[BrickCurve]

Looks great!

I think if you used brown half arches instead of the slopes the effect would look a lot more natural looking and more accurate to how the effect would be in a real castle.

[kurigan]

That's awesome! Something about that dragon, it's not raging or intimidating, just curious. I guess those guys are right to be scared as that's not likely to last.

[MAB]

How deep is it? As you seem to have angled the view from the side perfectly so as not to see anything behind.

[Magma]

Thanks for the positive comments everyone, I appreciate it, especially from such accomplished builders.

Great work on the architecture here! Your choice of having the dragon eyes facing forward instead of outwards - which is more common for European dragons - is interesting. Good work!

Yes, it was a bit of an accidental experiment - I tried eyes facing outwards initially but something about the way it looked facing forwards appealed to me for some reason. I seem to recall dragons in oriental mythology being more curious and benign rather than the monstrous depictions frequent in western cultures, maybe some of that appealed to me.

That's awesome! Something about that dragon, it's not raging or intimidating, just curious. I guess those guys are right to be scared as that's not likely to last.

Thanks - that was indeed the tone I was going for. I thought about making it more violent but I guess I lean towards the whimsical a bit more...

Looks great!

I think if you used brown half arches instead of the slopes the effect would look a lot more natural looking and more accurate to how the effect would be in a real castle.

Thanks - possibly, although I've been to a fair few castles and I was aiming for more of a feeling of solidity with it than grace.

How deep is it? As you seem to have angled the view from the side perfectly so as not to see anything behind.

Yes, there is some (perhaps obvious) arranging and photoediting going on here. The actual floor goes back another 8 studs on the far side of the wall to be continuous. The dragon head is mounted on a frame of technic beams and liftarms to hold it at an angle so it seems to be sniffing through the archway - that technic frame goes back a bit further and needed to be counterweighted to stop the head tipping forward as it is fairly solid and thus heavy. To make the far side of the arch dark I used a cardboard box and used white paper around the wall which made it easy to isolate the scene in gimp and put it on a plain background. I don't have a good camera, so just use an iphone outside using natural light.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Magma

[Littleworlds]

Very good and hilariously funny scene! The dragon looks like serious trouble and the wall is just superb

[Tezclatipoca]

There is no smoke without fire... But the fire origin can be tricky... :D

Great dragon head ! And your textured wall is good.

Of course, wall texturing is more piece consuming than we initially think.

Good job !

[LittleJohn]

Excellent little scene! The wall texturing turned out wonderfully, I really like the bits of olive green

Fabulous job with the dragon and minifig posing too

[Detroitika]

Very nice! I like the archway and the take on the cobblestone floor.

[BaneShake]

This is neat! It's be cool if you could get some sort of lights behind the beast's head, like a flame red or orange!

[dathil]

I really like the scene. and that about the lights would be great indeed

[Gunman]

Hahaha... the face of the soldiers looking towards the dragon... Priceless

[Kalais]

Hah, love it, especially dragon face :)

Only thing I would change is that missing hairpiece or helmet on 1st knight. He looks a bit unfinished that way in my opinion.

[Magma]

Thanks for taking the time to comment guys, I appreciate it. Some good feedback too which I've taken on board for next time. Cheers!

[TitusV]

Very Nice build, tough I'd recommend tiling the top of the wall, that floor is really Nice, and the dragon just awesome!

[Jayoheazy]

Excellent work

[ThunderWarrior]

Very detailed job! Dragon

[SeasonalNinja]

Cool

[MaasEffekt]

Love the scene! Good job! :)

[PaddyBricksplitter]

Love this, anything with monsters in it is a win!