[COR - SEP FB] Celestia Royal Sugar Plantation (LDD)

[Ayrlego]

The search for land capable of growing sugar cane was one of the main drivers behind the nations of the Madrice peninsular exploring the eastern seas. The demand for sugar remains huge, and while Corrington's national drink may well be rum, the nation has until now mostly relied on importing sugar from Oleon or Eslandola. While some attempts at growing sugar had been made on Tiberia, these were not very successful, Tiberia falling outside the tropical zone - indeed rumours were that these attempts were nothing but a cover for smuggling activity. When Corrington made claims in the Sea of Theives, sugar growing was first attempted in earnest in Stormhaven.

When the settlement of Jameston was established on Celestia, the main motivation was access to the vanilla bean the island was famed for - indeed the ETTC has recently established the first vanilla plantation outside Jameston. However, Royal Society botanists commissioned by the Crown determined the environs of Jameston, especially the flood plains to the south, to also be idea for sugar cultivation. A government owned company was established - the Celestia Sugar Company (CSC) with the remit of founding a sugar industry on Celestia.

After many months hard work, the first plantation is operational. Now when travelling on the rough roads heading into the southern hinterland, the fields of sugar cane dominate the landscape.

Footprint = 10,240 studs

Of course a plantation on such a scale requires major manpower and the company has offered generous incentives to attract workers to the project. Workers are offered a revolutionary arrangement where they are required to work two weeks in the fields then receive one week off in the settlement. While in the fields they are accommodated in specially designed blocks. These accommodation blocks can hold 20 workers and while pretty basic, they are designed with features like extra ventilation to help them cool down at night.

Footprint: 5,120 studs

Interior picture (especially for you @Mesabi )

The first sections of cane are ready for harvesting, which means the fields are carefully set on fire. This idea, while sounding crazy at first, makes much sense. Up to 25 percent of the sugar cane plant can be leaves and other parts that need to be removed before processing. By setting the fields on fire, these parts are burnt away, along with the undergrowth, making harvesting much easier. Here workers are preparing to harvest a pre-burnt field.

Footprint = 3,840 studs

Lastly, such an ambitious project needs the right oversight and leadership - and such talent requires an adequate residence from which to oversee the operation. Edward Barrett was identified the man for the job, and a grand residence has been constructed for his use.

Footprint = 10, 752 studs

Additional Pics:

Spoiler

Now, with huge tracts of land under sugar cultivation, and the first harvest due, the Celestia Sugar Company is planning mills to process their raw product.

Long Live the Queen!

 

-----------------------------------

I've been wanting to kick start the sugar industry for Corrington for some time now, being that it is indeed stated as one of the main drives for us initially expanding beyond Tiberia. Although I had a stack of builds on my to do list, for some reason I started playing with sugar cane plants in LDD. I then did some pricing on Bricklink... and then promptly went back to LDD!! If I was going to attempt to make a major sugar industry, I decided I needed to go big. I will be licensing as a Royal sized plantation in the EGS. The total of the plantation parts of the builds (The fields, workers block and post-burning field) exceed the required foot print (19,200/16,384). The workers block and cane fields were supposed to be part of the same build, but LDD kept crashing so I separated them out to remain sane! Also I'd like to assure you all that each cane plant was hand placed. Believe it or not I sat here and placed each one individually over several long and tedious sessions! No bulk cut and past here!

The plantation house was to also be part of the Royal plantation, but as the builds so far exceeded the size requirement, and the plantation house itself has a footprint of 10,752 I will be licensing it separately as another royal property, this time a residence. Both properties will be donated to the faction.

It was great fun to build grand again, but back to the real bricks shortly. I did cave in towards the end and ordered a couple of hundred tan telescope pieces so I can replicate the cane fields (on a smaller scale) in real bricks for the sugar mill which will be the next in the series (although not next in my build list!)

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Ayrlego

[Spud The Viking]

Brilliant build! I especially like the accommodation exterior. Overall great work!

[Puvel]

Ooooh that's epic!

Can imagine placing all those canes was a bit of a chore! Hope your brain went on autopilot after a while

The mansion looks fabulous but the accommodation block is just amazing, adding that ventilation bit in the roof was a stroke of genius

[Elostirion]

Insane quality - that white house with the grey roof is outstanding, but even the cane-field itself just looks so great and full of variance, despite being all the same.

You managed to make the singular pictures look cohesive and massively large.

Seriously impressive.

[Mesabi]

Another Fantastic build Ayrlego. You are a master of both LDD, and real bricks. 

I have nothing to be critical of, the interior looks decent, but I think those beds could use bedside tables 

Keep up the great work!

[Garmadon]

Wow!  Simply fantastic, Ayrlego, not to mention its being stunningly huge!  Even just the field covered in cane looks superb, and the overseer's house and workers' blockhouse are excellent as well (I'll echo Puvel on those vents!).  Very tasteful color choice on the former, and I really like that NPU on the door handles!   Kudos on the interior, too, and I had no idea about that burning process - I will say that it looked much more pretty before that, though   A very impressive piece of work!

4 hours ago, Mesabi said:

I have nothing to be critical of, the interior looks decent, but I think those beds could use bedside tables 

   You... ! 

[Kai NRG]

Fantastic plantation, I love how you did so many different scenes!  Really interesting learning that they burn the sugar cane before harvest...  That grand residence is awesome! - but the "accommodation block" is also really good - I particularly like the use of bars on top and on the bottom for the porch.  Looking forward to seeing a sugar mill with those telescope pieces!

[blackdeathgr]

SPEECHLESS!!! Now THAT is a colonial styled group of builds!

[Capt Wolf]

Stunning! And nice to finally see a large build of a sugar plantation in the game. The sugarcane is well done, and the workers' dorm is excellent as well. But the grand residence steals the show IMO. All-in-all an impressive build!

[Ayrlego]

On 28/09/2017 at 11:53 PM, Spud The Viking said:

Brilliant build! I especially like the accommodation exterior. Overall great work!

Thanks Spud!

On 29/09/2017 at 1:37 AM, Puvel said:

Ooooh that's epic!

Can imagine placing all those canes was a bit of a chore! Hope your brain went on autopilot after a while

The mansion looks fabulous but the accommodation block is just amazing, adding that ventilation bit in the roof was a stroke of genius

Thank you Puvel, the placing of the canes was a little tedious, but after a while it became automatic. The real pain was LDD crashing every 2 minutes after the initial build got too big!

On 29/09/2017 at 2:00 AM, Elostirion said:

Insane quality - that white house with the grey roof is outstanding, but even the cane-field itself just looks so great and full of variance, despite being all the same.

You managed to make the singular pictures look cohesive and massively large.

Seriously impressive.

Thanks Elos, coming from you - King of the cotton - that means a lot!

On 29/09/2017 at 5:17 AM, Mesabi said:

Another Fantastic build Ayrlego. You are a master of both LDD, and real bricks. 

I have nothing to be critical of, the interior looks decent, but I think those beds could use bedside tables 

Keep up the great work!

Thanks Mesabi, not sure about bedside tables - it's supposed to be pretty Spartan you know!

On 29/09/2017 at 9:46 AM, Garmadon said:

Wow!  Simply fantastic, Ayrlego, not to mention its being stunningly huge!  Even just the field covered in cane looks superb, and the overseer's house and workers' blockhouse are excellent as well (I'll echo Puvel on those vents!).  Very tasteful color choice on the former, and I really like that NPU on the door handles!   Kudos on the interior, too, and I had no idea about that burning process - I will say that it looked much more pretty before that, though   A very impressive piece of work!

   You... ! 

Thank you Garm! I've seen the frogs used as door handles somewhere before, can't remember where though... I always knew they burnt the fields, because I remember driving through the sugar belt in Northern New South Wales during burning season, but I never realised why before I researched this build.

On 29/09/2017 at 12:21 PM, Kai NRG said:

Fantastic plantation, I love how you did so many different scenes!  Really interesting learning that they burn the sugar cane before harvest...  That grand residence is awesome! - but the "accommodation block" is also really good - I particularly like the use of bars on top and on the bottom for the porch.  Looking forward to seeing a sugar mill with those telescope pieces!

Thanks Kai! The sugar mill is going to be challenging to get the round shape. Here is the inspiration pic I'm hoping to work from:

ALL: Any ideas on how to get the tapered round tower - feel free to let me know!!!

On 01/10/2017 at 8:27 AM, blackdeathgr said:

SPEECHLESS!!! Now THAT is a colonial styled group of builds!

Thanks BD!

On 01/10/2017 at 12:54 PM, Capt Wolf said:

Stunning! And nice to finally see a large build of a sugar plantation in the game. The sugarcane is well done, and the workers' dorm is excellent as well. But the grand residence steals the show IMO. All-in-all an impressive build!

Thank you Captain Wolf, yeah I found it strange that no one had really ran with sugar until now...

 

ALL: I got the telescope pieces from BL this afternoon, here are the canes in physical bricks. I used Alt-Bricks to get the tan stalks. I was going to then use green Lego stalks but decided to try the different Alt-Brick colour... not sure if I like it or not - let me know what you think

[Spud The Viking]

Those telescope pieces are beautiful but I think I prefer the standard green plants on top

[Ayrlego]

26 minutes ago, Spud The Viking said:

Those telescope pieces are beautiful but I think I prefer the standard green plants on top

The more I look at it the more I tend to agree with you. I may rebuild tomorrow night with real Lego green for comparison 

 

[Professor Thaum]

I missed this one !!

A beautiful LDD combination.

Clear that the houses exterior are very well designed, looks like the old style american plantations from south states

 

 

The real bricked sugar cane are great !! The picture is very fine, the cane cutter is well thought

Edited October 5, 2017 by Professor Thaum

[Kai NRG]

4 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

ALL: Any ideas on how to get the tapered round tower - feel free to let me know!!!

Not necessarily so textured, but my first try would definitely be SNOT like this:

Your example goes in farther but that shouldn't be too difficult to achieve, I'd think.

4 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

ALL: I got the telescope pieces from BL this afternoon, here are the canes in physical bricks. I used Alt-Bricks to get the tan stalks. I was going to then use green Lego stalks but decided to try the different Alt-Brick colour... not sure if I like it or not - let me know what you think

The alt-brick green doesn't look bad, but standard green might look better.   I think the difference between shape of the LEGO and alt-bricks one would look good on the canes.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Kai NRG

[Elostirion]

10 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

Love the picture, but I think for sugar cane default green might work better. Maybe two or three olive-green first, and then default green on top. Maybe even mix olive green into the stem? (not sure at all, but might work)

[Ayrlego]

17 hours ago, Professor Thaum said:

I missed this one !!

A beautiful LDD combination.

Clear that the houses exterior are very well designed, looks like the old style american plantations from south states

Thank you Prof, the Southern feel was what I was hoping to achieve with the house!!

14 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

Not necessarily so textured, but my first try would definitely be SNOT like this:

Wow! That is definitely the effect I'm going for, no idea even where to start to get it like that... How did he even.... I have no idea how any of that attaches!!!

8 hours ago, Elostirion said:

Love the picture, but I think for sugar cane default green might work better.

Thanks Elos, I agree:

[Elostirion]

LOVELY! That nails it, I'd say.

(I also just remembered this very early attempt in BoBS at sugar cane)

[Darnok]

On 5.10.2017 at 12:03 PM, Ayrlego said:

Thanks Kai! The sugar mill is going to be challenging to get the round shape. Here is the inspiration pic I'm hoping to work from:

ALL: Any ideas on how to get the tapered round tower - feel free to let me know!!!

 

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this:

It is a pretty awesome MOC, and features round walls you could use. Using different greys could get you the irregular stone pattern you are looking for.

[Bregir]

A set of beautiful builds, Ayrlego. I am impressed by the large suger cane fields (my fingers almost hurt at the thought of placing them in real bricks...), but my favourite part is the two buildings. The residential block is fantastically utilitaristic without looking bare, and the manor house is absolutely stunning! Fantastic work!