[SR-FB1] - June '16 - Municipal Brick Kiln and Construction Yard

[Kwatchi]

With the limited supply of suitable lumber on the island of Infero Pordejon earmarked for ship construction, the inhabitants of Charlatan Bay had to quickly adapt to another method of construction. Clay bricks was determined to be the best alternative, and a municipal construction yard was established under the control of the mayor's office.

The brick kiln design itself is based on an older design that Bishop Meloche had discovered while studying the Tome of Go'u'Gal.

The brick making process itself was quite simple. Clay excavated from the inland stream beds was mixed with water, silt from the beaches along the cliffs, and a binder of fine wood fibers. This was done in a small basin in the yard, colloquially known as the mud pit. Bricks were formed by hand and left to dry in the sun. Once dry enough to hold their shape, these were stacked in preparation for curing.

The sun dried mud bricks were then placed in the charcoal-fired kiln and baked for a day. After the kiln cooled down the sufficiently, the bricks (now hardened and without colouring) were stockpiled by the factory's warehouse.

Upon their arrival, the Ashen Guard Mercenaries negotiated with mayor office's for construction materials as part of their contract. These were to be put to use in building both their barracks and upgrading the existing fortifications.

Ashen Guard Mercenary Corps

Other Pictures

This build started with me sipping a beer and just trying to find a use for those cylindrical tower bricks in a small MOC and just kept expanding so that I could tell a story. Googling (ed. note. Yes, I am using it as a verb. so what?) Brick Kiln was the deciding factor I suppose, as I found the pictures of the ancient kilns quite interesting. Game-wise, after humming and hawing over whether to split this into two properties, I am going to license it as a 32 x 64 Large Factory.

One final note: this build stretched my collection to its limits. When I see BoBS MOCS these days, I turn green with envy over what I realize you have in your respective collections..

Edited September 12, 2017 by Kwatchi

[Capt Wolf]

Excellent build! You did a great job finding a use for those tower panels, and your representation of a period-appropriate factory seems spot-on to me. The story tops it all off. Great BoBS build!

[TitusV]

Nice build, great use of these prefab-panels!

[Elostirion]

Great scene, really like how you utilised all those pre-printed elements.

My only suggestion would be to add some minor elevations (like one, two or three flat plates) to give the terrain some more realism.

Also I really like the story behind it, just realistic and plausible. Thanks.

[blackdeathgr]

A nice idea with a suitably nice moc bringing it to life!

[Ayrlego]

Great concept, I've been toying with the idea of a brick yard myself and there are some really good ideas here! I especially like that you made the shape of the kiln round. The mercenaries look great as well - very smart in their black uniforms. What method did you use to make them? I really need to learn how to do this!! Great build all round, well done.

[Kwatchi]

My only suggestion would be to add some minor elevations (like one, two or three flat plates) to give the terrain some more realism.

Looking back at it now, you hit on a point that I was subconsciously thinking about. I had been commenting to myself that it looked like a play set and I could not put my finger on why. I've tended to only 'sculpt' landscape for my wilderness scenes, so I am going to use that tidbit of advice going forward.

The mercenaries look great as well - very smart in their black uniforms. What method did you use to make them? I really need to learn how to do this!!

It was simpler than I initially thought tbh. For the soldiers, I picked a template from the Pirate Torso Library. (Fair warning: some the links go dead at different times of the day, when the hosting server is backed-up I suppose. It's... odd) For the officer, I used a torso design from the Haven Guard project from yesteryear.

Then came the tedious process of using MS Paint to do a colour switch. If you have a more robust graphics package, I am sure you can accomplish this quicker, but I was doing the work during lunch hours at the office so I worked with what I had at hand. Once completed, I imported the image to a MS Word document as 0.51" high x 0.61" wide and printed off a complete set of them on to a 8" x 11" sticker sheet I bought at an office supply store.

Finally cut and stick, and I had my own custom army for me to take a blurry picture of.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Kwatchi

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Looks fine to me!