Double Trouble on Staor Mountain

[soccerkid6]

This was built for the Colossal Battle Contest V, specifically the Dread Ambushers category. I have always enjoyed building dwarven style creations, and had wanted to do another for a while. The tower was somewhat influenced by dwarven towers in skyrim. This also gave me a great opportunity to use the polar bear in a build.

The dwarves of Staor have many small outposts around the mountain that serve as defensive bastions, and gates into their underground kingdom. Some unfriendly neighboring trolls have planned an ambush and scaled down the craggy mountain slopes in an attack on the dwarves. Little do they realize that they too may be on the receiving end of an ambush.

More pics.

Thanks for looking, comments and criticism welcome

[Kai NRG]

Great build SK, the snowscape is ace!  The door built into the rock also looks really good and the way you did the floor inside with the diagonal tiles and the small gaps is awesome!  And the double ambush is a neat concept too!  

[Littleworlds]

Poor evil trolls!

Very atmospheric build with indeed quite the Skyrim-vibe. The dwarven architecture is represented very well. The arches and the texturing on the stonework is very convincing. Maybe a bit clean for an outpost somewhere at the end of the world, but could be simply a show of their force.

The snow covers with the icicles are looking very naturalistic as the tree does. Good job. The rocks though could do with more variation in colour. Wonderful surface texturing on them though! 

All in all a lovely winter scene.

[Gunman]

Your snowscaping and rockwork are Superb mate.... Pour little trolls there xD

Edited September 3, 2017 by Gunman

[mrcp6d]

Solid build SK. 

My favorite bit is that little table!

[TitusV]

I think I enjoy watching your dwarven builds as much as you enjoy building them!

The (obligated) interior is very nice (lovely floor pattern, with the turned 1x1 tile!), and though I find the tan roofing a bit too light for the build (dark tan or even browns would fit better, IMHO), the tower is really cool!

Also, some fantastic rockworking to top things off

Edited September 4, 2017 by TitusV

[Henjin_Quilones]

This looks great, SK! I love your rockwork, as usual, and your snow technique never disappoints. I disagree with Titus, and think that the tan roof looks good with the bleys (dark bley, tan, and sand green is one of my favorite combos), though dark tan would also have worked well. However, I do think that the lavender leaves seem a bit out of place tonally, as the rest (except the white) is rather dark and muted (brown, grey, tan, dark green, dark blue) and the lavender sticks out as a result. I have loved your use of the lavender for other snowscapes, where it looked great, but here it just seems off. The interior is impressive, with a clever table and the 1x1 tiles at an angle, in both floor and wall, and the building itself is also nicely integrated into the landscape. Well done!

[The Maestro]

The stone work as always is stellar,and of course the snow is superb, but what really stands out for me is the style of architecture, it does feel very Dwarvish and fits the scene perfectly  As for the polar bear I did not even see it untill I read the Desc, so I guess that its camoflauge is working 

[soccerkid6]

On 9/2/2017 at 9:58 AM, Kai NRG said:

Great build SK, the snowscape is ace!  The door built into the rock also looks really good and the way you did the floor inside with the diagonal tiles and the small gaps is awesome!  And the double ambush is a neat concept too!  

Thanks Kai, those new macaroni tiles are so much fun to mess around with

On 9/2/2017 at 10:49 AM, Littleworlds said:

Poor evil trolls!

Very atmospheric build with indeed quite the Skyrim-vibe. The dwarven architecture is represented very well. The arches and the texturing on the stonework is very convincing. Maybe a bit clean for an outpost somewhere at the end of the world, but could be simply a show of their force.

The snow covers with the icicles are looking very naturalistic as the tree does. Good job. The rocks though could do with more variation in colour. Wonderful surface texturing on them though! 

All in all a lovely winter scene.

Thanks! I started off planning on having the dwarven fortress in ruins, but liked it too much as a well kept outpost. I like the monotone rock choice in this setting myself, using another color would have either made the tower less distinguishable from the cliff, or changed the mood of the scene.

On 9/3/2017 at 5:07 AM, Gunman said:

Your snowscaping and rockwork are Superb mate.... Pour little trolls there xD

Thanks Gunman!

On 9/3/2017 at 3:08 PM, mrcp6d said:

Solid build SK. 

My favorite bit is that little table!

Thank you, I'm glad you noticed that table design

On 9/4/2017 at 11:41 AM, TitusV said:

I think I enjoy watching your dwarven builds as much as you enjoy building them!

The (obligated) interior is very nice (lovely floor pattern, with the turned 1x1 tile!), and though I find the tan roofing a bit too light for the build (dark tan or even browns would fit better, IMHO), the tower is really cool!

Also, some fantastic rockworking to top things off

Thanks Titus! Another color may have been better for the roof, I really liked how that prefab dome fit in though (and didn't have it in any other colors).

On 9/8/2017 at 9:20 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

This looks great, SK! I love your rockwork, as usual, and your snow technique never disappoints. I disagree with Titus, and think that the tan roof looks good with the bleys (dark bley, tan, and sand green is one of my favorite combos), though dark tan would also have worked well. However, I do think that the lavender leaves seem a bit out of place tonally, as the rest (except the white) is rather dark and muted (brown, grey, tan, dark green, dark blue) and the lavender sticks out as a result. I have loved your use of the lavender for other snowscapes, where it looked great, but here it just seems off. The interior is impressive, with a clever table and the 1x1 tiles at an angle, in both floor and wall, and the building itself is also nicely integrated into the landscape. Well done!

Thanks HQ! I often think the lavender comes across as almost another shade of white in settings like these, but a different color may have been better here.

On 9/14/2017 at 3:15 AM, The Maestro said:

The stone work as always is stellar,and of course the snow is superb, but what really stands out for me is the style of architecture, it does feel very Dwarvish and fits the scene perfectly  As for the polar bear I did not even see it untill I read the Desc, so I guess that its camoflauge is working 

Thanks! And yeah, that polar bear blends right in