Watermill

[erikw]

Hello all, i wanted to build the medieval village what Derfal Cadarn build in this topic of his:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/60907-detailed-guide-to-building-a-medieval-village/

I started to build and soon found out that it is a HUGE project which requires a huge amount of bricks. I do have bricks though but not as many that are used in that project. So i decided to do the landscape first and build the watermill. All is based on his excellent guide so all credits go to him ofcourse.

 

Mind you, its not nearly finished but i managed to build some. Hope you like it and please comment ( but be gentle, this is my first ever build) I used a baseplate of 48 x 48, laid the foundation and started to build away.

 

 

[Bricknblue]

It's your first ever build?! That looks really well done. My only suggestion would be if you any 'cheese slopes' to add more ripples to the water (which I love the shading and look of) and to the hills to give it a slightly smoother look.

But that is an amazing start!

[erikw]

1 hour ago, Bricknblue said:

It's your first ever build?! That looks really well done. My only suggestion would be if you any 'cheese slopes' to add more ripples to the water (which I love the shading and look of) and to the hills to give it a slightly smoother look.

But that is an amazing start!

Thanks for your kind words sir Knight. I had to look up "cheese slopes" but i get the idea of what you mean. Its not nearly as finished, but the holidays are coming up and i hope to start and/or build the actual watermill itself then.

Cheers !

[Bricknblue]

Cheese slopes I guess are officially called 'Slope 30 1x1x2/3'. 
http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=54200#T=S&O={}

It looks really nice for a starting point.

[erikw]

Yes, its vacation here so its time for a little update.

What did i do ? I build the watermill itself, the building and the waterfall. I also started on the rock-formation. Since i did not had any trans-blue 8x8 plates i decided to let the water come from a underground stream and drop down the waterfall into the reservoir.

It really was fun to build.

Here is a total view of the progress:

 

The entire rock area will be covered in plates so you wont see the underground stream. Im thinking of building an castle ruin on top of it, but thats for the future. The main goal is now to finish the building, add more scenery, foliage, plants and trees.

As i mentioned before, this is my first build in maybe 40 years so progress is slow. There are moments i tear down a section and rebuild it.

Some more pics:

 

Hopefully i will have the building ready somewhere next week and will post some pics of it.

 

For now,

Happy holidays

[Slegengr]

Great progress, erikw!

Your Medieval village is beginning to shape up!

I have a few tips for improvement.  If you have the plates available, try to break up the flat levels of large plates in the terrain with smaller plates to make elevation difference.  Try to use smaller plates or foliage to blend the borders between the brown and green.  It would also be more realistic if you could have the brown at a lower elevation than the green in the terrain.  For the rocks, BURPs and LURPs make for some quick mass, but they do tend to look unrealistic.  The rock body will look more realistic if the BURPs and LURPs are covered with slopes and bricks to give them a more random and realistic appearance.

I understand that this build is not close to being finished, so do not take my comments too critically.  These are just hard changes to incorporate later, so they should be worked on at early stages if you would like to incorporate these tips.  I also notice that you are already implementing some of these tips in what you have done to this point.

I am looking forward to future stages in this WIP and to the completion of this MOC!

[erikw]

Thanks Slegengr,

 

your tips and tricks will definately come in handy. Ans yes, some of them are being processed already. Will work on it as we speak. 

[erikw]

Right, its finally finished. Im not entirely happy, but i will learn from those mistakes and will improve hopefully over time.

 

It was a huge project, maybe a little too much for a first time build. Next project will be alot smaller and a finished a lot sooner then this one. Hope you will like it and feedback is always appreciated.

 

[SodorBricks]

Very nice especially for a fist build, Im in awe of this, the only criticism I could advise would be to add some details to the grassland at the bottom, otherwise an excellent build!

[KlodsBrik]

This is a great way to start working with larger dioramas, learning how to make landscapes and different levels.
Actually that exact same thread was the one I kept going back to when I first started to make larger builds.

Oh, and great progress by the way. 

 

KlodsBrik

Edited January 9, 2017 by KlodsBrik

[Slegengr]

That is nice for a first build, ErikW!

The progress was nice to see over the course of this project.  It is a large project for a first one.  I find that large projects should be supplemented with smaller projects to avoid building burn-out.  Sometimes a large build just takes too long to seem worth it if it is not broken up with smaller builds.

[erikw]

Thanks all for the kind words. And yes, maybe the project was a little too big for a first build. Next will be smaller, although i want to build one of the big churches in my town. But since this is the second largest tower in the country, im afraid that it wont be small either. 

 

 

Maybe just the tower at first 

Edited January 10, 2017 by erikw

[Slegengr]

@erikw If you are building that church, even just the tower, it will be a large project at minifigure-illusion scale.  Just remember to pay attention to detail and take your time with the build to get it right.  I will be looking forward to your progress!