Challenge I: Aslanic Temple in Barqa

[Rogue Angel]

Fantastic work Gideon! (surprise, surprise) A polished build with excellent details, but not without overdoing it.  Excellent minifig placement and use for a busy City.  There are many things to love about this build including the tree roots sticking out, the drainage ways and the bells in the bell tower, but the two things that I absolutely love are the skeleton of the  dome and the wall decay  under the windows.  These are superb details that just top off a wonderful build overall.

[Gabe]

Oh man... this is just superb. I love how solid and 'right' your architecture looks, and yet you don't scrimp at all on all the small details (like the fountain and the tree roots poking through in the courtyard) that bring it all to life. I could study this build for hours, truly. Bravo! 

[de Gothia]

Holy banana!! Epic is just not enough Gideon!! Really love all the details, the figs and the presentation. I like the fact that there is so much details and figs in the moc, yet it´s so clean and peaceful!

 

I think we have a winner here! :)

[Exetrius]

I don't think I know enough superlatives to describe this, so I'll simply go with: Drop-dead gorgeous.   

I saw this on Flickr a while ago and of course I knew it was fantastic, especially the unprecedented multitude of domes was an eye-catcher, but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that you have surpassed your previous works once again! It's just absurd how Streets of Barqa, one of most impressive GoH creations ever, is just blown out of the water in the face of this one regarding the complexity of the architecture, decorations and textures. 

I'm not going to sum up everything I like here, but I want to highlight a few things: the way the fountain basin protrudes from the wall, and your use sideways use of tooth pieces at the top of the tower. The restoration in progress is executed brilliantly, and the use of various special elements (printed walls, half-arches, square lattices, tassels) is the icing on the cake. 

Boy, am I glad to see you in the Guilds again!   

[Henjin_Quilones]

There is literally nothing to say about this build, because I have not the words. It is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, builds of all time. The symmetry, the style, the composition, the photography, the arrangement and construction of the figs, the techniques, the colors, it is all sublime. Honestly. It doesn't get much better than this. Until your next build.

This was the build that made me glad I was voting in the competition and thus ineligible from competing, because I knew I would never stand a chance...

[mrcp6d]

Epic, simply epic work Gideon.  The little teaser of the dome skeleton you shared earlier certainly transformed into something magical.  While this MOC has lovely details, techniques, and shaping all over, I've got to highlight the big windowed sections--they're spectacular.  

[Captain Dee]

Beautiful, beautiful.  One of my favorite buildings in GoH, for sure. The symmetry, architectural elements, use of color, etc are excellent. And I always like big domes; the number here is quite impressive. The central tower is fantastic. And the minor details - the fountain, tree roots, the assembled crowd - are all excellent as well.

When you first posted the teaser pic of the dome being repaired, I wasn't convinced that it would really look that good in a build of your usual caliber. Ha!! I should've known better. With all the other domes, I think it enhances the build, and of course you can (and did) rotate it out of sight for certain views.

I would love a copy of this. 

[Gideon]

@mccoyed, @Rogue Angel, @Gabe, @de Gothia, @Exetrius, @Henjin_Quilones, @mrcp6d & @Captain Dee

Thanks for all the nice comments!

In the GoH spirit I would however like to give you some feedback! While it is of course nice to hear all about what you liked with a build (especially when such praise come less and less often now with limited productivity...) please also consider nitpicking anyway. I also want to know what the weak points in my builds are and improve  

[Henjin_Quilones]

20 hours ago, Gideon said:

In the GoH spirit I would however like to give you some feedback! While it is of course nice to hear all about what you liked with a build (especially when such praise come less and less often now with limited productivity...) please also consider nitpicking anyway. I also want to know what the weak points in my builds are and improve  

I tried, Gideon, I really did. I am not normally the kind of person to just say "yay, nice job"; I take seriously the task of giving constructive criticism. On this build, however, I did not find anything. I don't like the yellow faces, being a fleshie partisan myself, but that is hardly a fair criticism. This was just really darn good building. 

[MaasEffekt]

Whoa! This is why i love Lego, and EB, and GoH.

[The Stad]

I think the only critique I can offer would be that the bars seem pretty flimsy as horizontal elements for your scaffolding, 1x1 bricks would work better in my opinion. And the power elements you used for the fountain should be fastened from below, rather than clipped from above, to add to the idea of the water coming from the lion’s mouth. Otherwise this is an absolute marvel.

[W Navarre]

I agree with that about the fountain, and maybe turn the star effect upside down to get a better splash effect, water doesn't splash down into the water ;) . But really, this can't stand much improvement mate!  It's a masterpiece.