Challenge I: Together we'll build our future (Avalonia)

[Zilmrud]

Book III - Challenge I: Together we'll build our future

The lands of Avalonia is in ruins after the wars. Farms and whole villages have been burnt to the ground and many Avalonians is without home and occupation. In this times of peace the soldiers of Zamorah is sent out to help the Avalonians rebuild their lifes. 

Edda and William lost their crops when the enemy burt their fields and their farm. And when the messanger came with the news that their son died in battle they felt as their lifes were over. But the soldiers of Zamorah came to their aid helping them rebuild their house again.

 

 

More pics on Flickr

[The Last of Nergoue]

Nice moc, although i think the stonework may be a bit too messy

[Gideon]

That's what I definitely call a high-detailed MOC  
I especially like the wand-window, the ingot stone pile and the bush in the tree stump.

[Zilmrud]

11 minutes ago, The Last of Nergoue said:

Nice moc, although i think the stonework may be a bit too messy

Thanks for the input. I can agree with that.  

Just now, Gideon said:

That's what I definitely call a high-detailed MOC  
I especially like the wand-window, the ingot stone pile and the bush in the tree stump.

Thanks man! Yeah, the boundaries were set as I started. It could have been double the size ?

[zoth33]

Lovely build.  I love the base design.  The landscaping is great especially the use of the feathers and tree is really nice.  The house is pretty cool, I like the texturing of the walls and the door is nicely detailed.  The roof is a neat design also.  The figs are perfectly posed too great job.  

[Zilmrud]

1 hour ago, zoth33 said:

Lovely build.  I love the base design.  The landscaping is great especially the use of the feathers and tree is really nice.  The house is pretty cool, I like the texturing of the walls and the door is nicely detailed.  The roof is a neat design also.  The figs are perfectly posed too great job.  

Thanks alot! I will use the base in some of my builds. I had it in the presentation of my town Zamorah. I think I will use it again for smaller builds.

[Ayrlego]

Lots of great detail in the MOC and that is one very elaborate base! I like how busy the scene is and how it successfully conveys a sense of activity. Great job!

[Basiliscus]

Really nice minifig action going on here, I like the girl offering refreshments and the helmets and weapons piled up showing it's soldiers doing the work. The house itself is nice and I like the construction materials strewn around it, looks very busy and believable.

The landscape is a little on the busy side for my liking, I think there are too many colours here and it almost overwhelms the house. However, it's a great entry, well done!

[mccoyed]

I think the details are pretty great here, but I do partially agree that there's probably too much going on for so small a scene. That base is overkill, as great as it is, for a scene of this size and type. I definitely could see that base kicking up the presentation of some future builds, though.

My main critique is the text on the overview, first image. That's also overkill. The font is ugly, especially with that flat color, and there's just way too much of it. Dial down the text on the next build, both by reducing how much there is as well as the sizing. I think the color, if not the font, would work better at a more reasonable size anyway. I'm glad you left that off the other pictures. The tendency to throw up huge titles and signatures with oversized, over-elaborate text is a GoH/MOCer habit that needs to die. :P

[Zilmrud]

17 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

Lots of great detail in the MOC and that is one very elaborate base! I like how busy the scene is and how it successfully conveys a sense of activity. Great job!

Thanks! Yeah it's alot going on. The soldiers have to help others later ??

7 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Really nice minifig action going on here, I like the girl offering refreshments and the helmets and weapons piled up showing it's soldiers doing the work. The house itself is nice and I like the construction materials strewn around it, looks very busy and believable.

The landscape is a little on the busy side for my liking, I think there are too many colours here and it almost overwhelms the house. However, it's a great entry, well done!

Thanks. My first intention was to let the guards just stand there guarding. But at our house we always take time to give the carpenters/workers refreshments and coffe ?   

[Rogue Angel]

You've packed a ton into this build and I think it works really well, from the use of the light bley ingots to the stacks of sand green lumber, the rope fencing, the use of the wands in the window, the dark green tree.  This build really comes together well!

[Wineyard]

Great build Mountain Master! I especially like the pile of stones! (which may have inspired my build ;) )

[Zilmrud]

On 10/15/2018 at 5:07 PM, mccoyed said:

I think the details are pretty great here, but I do partially agree that there's probably too much going on for so small a scene. That base is overkill, as great as it is, for a scene of this size and type. I definitely could see that base kicking up the presentation of some future builds, though.

My main critique is the text on the overview, first image. That's also overkill. The font is ugly, especially with that flat color, and there's just way too much of it. Dial down the text on the next build, both by reducing how much there is as well as the sizing. I think the color, if not the font, would work better at a more reasonable size anyway. I'm glad you left that off the other pictures. The tendency to throw up huge titles and signatures with oversized, over-elaborate text is a GoH/MOCer habit that needs to die. :P

Hmmm answered your post som day ago, but it didn't go away.

Anyhow, I'm glad that you came with some constructive criticism. 

I will reuse the base later.

I will take your advice about the text in my next build

12 hours ago, Rogue Angel said:

You've packed a ton into this build and I think it works really well, from the use of the light bley ingots to the stacks of sand green lumber, the rope fencing, the use of the wands in the window, the dark green tree.  This build really comes together well!

Thanks alot. It's a not of details in a small space, but at least it's all covered and not everything in one place.

I got sand green and dark green in the build. Not the most interesting roof but it has the Avalonia colour ?       

59 minutes ago, Wineyard said:

Great build Mountain Master! I especially like the pile of stones! (which may have inspired my build ;) )

Thanks! Yeah I really like that Rank. 

Well.... I call it half a house    

[Gabe]

I agree with a lot of the comments you've already had about your scene being a little too busy - it feels like there nowhere for the eye to naturally rest, and the house, which seems like it should be the focal point of the build, is dwarfed by the surrounding detail and the elaborate base. I always feel like moccing is a bit like making a cake... frosting tastes great and is often the first thing that wows people, but eating something that is all frosting and no cake can leave you with indigestion!  Basically, i feel this moc needs more cake. (Can u tell i'm hungry? )

Having said that, the variation in the vegetation is nicely done and that is a seriously nice base. 

On 10/16/2018 at 2:07 AM, mccoyed said:

IThe tendency to throw up huge titles and signatures with oversized, over-elaborate text is a GoH/MOCer habit that needs to die. :P

Who started that trend, was it DC or someone else? I find overly conspicuous text a bit distracting too.

[Grover]

I like it!  There's a lot of clutter in parts, but it's due to the ruined nature of the building and the ongoing construction, so rather than detracting from the build as sometimes is the case, I think it actually lends to the nature of the scene here.  I like the tree, too.  One of the things that looks awesome to me that we don't see a ton is that spectacular border.  That in itself is a work of art!  I love the lush avalonian feel to the build and the detail, even inside.  Well done!

[soccerkid6]

Top notch minifigure posing and work details. It's easy to tell exactly what's going on, even without reading the story.
One small storytelling detail I like, is the pile of weapons and armor the soldiers have set aside so they can get to work Excellent roof structure as well. Incomplete roofs can be tricky to build, but you pulled it off well.
Fun use of green indian feathers as plants too.

We featured this build on Brickbuilt last week.

[mccoyed]

On 10/19/2018 at 5:23 AM, Gabe said:

Who started that trend, was it DC or someone else? I find overly conspicuous text a bit distracting too.

Not sure. It's definitely a thing I've been seeing a lot more of lately. I get that folks are worried about their stuff getting reposted and uncredited (if that's the reason), but giant garish titles distract from the reason we're all here: Lego.

[de Gothia]

I don´t know on which side I stand in the question about the details in this moc.. I can understand the comments about the less is more thing, but I really like the details you have in this moc! The base is my favourite part here! So good looking! 

 

 

[halixon]

What an amazing build! The detail pops out astoundingly! I love the rock pile (I'm a sucker for them), and the sense of construction is perfect  One thing I think could be improved, is that you could town down either the exposure or highlights on the images. They're a tad too bright, making them slightly hard to look at. 

[Zilmrud]

On 10/19/2018 at 1:23 PM, Gabe said:

I agree with a lot of the comments you've already had about your scene being a little too busy - it feels like there nowhere for the eye to naturally rest, and the house, which seems like it should be the focal point of the build, is dwarfed by the surrounding detail and the elaborate base. I always feel like moccing is a bit like making a cake... frosting tastes great and is often the first thing that wows people, but eating something that is all frosting and no cake can leave you with indigestion!  Basically, i feel this moc needs more cake. (Can u tell i'm hungry? )

Having said that, the variation in the vegetation is nicely done and that is a seriously nice base. 

Who started that trend, was it DC or someone else? I find overly conspicuous text a bit distracting too.

As I have said: I will have to rethink how I shall use the Base. The whole landscape and town fitted in it in micro scale.... but in minifig scale it's a small space.

 

12 hours ago, de Gothia said:

I don´t know on which side I stand in the question about the details in this moc.. I can understand the comments about the less is more thing, but I really like the details you have in this moc! The base is my favourite part here! So good looking! 

 

 

Thanks de Gothia!

 

2 hours ago, Windusky said:

What an amazing build! The detail pops out astoundingly! I love the rock pile (I'm a sucker for them), and the sense of construction is perfect  One thing I think could be improved, is that you could town down either the exposure or highlights on the images. They're a tad too bright, making them slightly hard to look at. 

Thank you. It's alot of details when you look at it from a distance. But in close ups there is some fun details. 

Thanks for the photo tips. I have learned alot about photos and light from Gideon..... But I don´t use it because I only got a mobile cam and no artificial light. So I always think that I should get a nice camera but I don't get my big behind out the wagon (swedish proverb =) )

[Henjin_Quilones]

There's not much left to say that has not already been said (the problem of being a late commentator), but I will add my opinion to the less-is-more discussion. In this case, I think that there is too much going on in too small of a space. Your color scheme is great, and you haven't unnecessarily cluttered up that with a bunch of reds and blues (sticking to a more neutral palette of greens, browns, and greys), but on the other hand, everything being of a similar color does cause things to get lost. Also, due to the nature of vegetation (rough around the edges, bumpy, not straight and geometric) having so much of it, though very well done and the highlight of the build to me, prevents there from being any straight lines and clear-cut edges to simplify the visual presentation. The house normally would provide that, but being under construction it too is rough around the edges. So, between the colors and the shapes, things get blurred and confused. I will second (or third) mccoyed about the text - less is definitely more on the text side of things! And the border, while a work of art on its own, adds just one more visually complex layer to the scene, which is about three too many for my taste. So, to finish, I would recommend choosing one of the following to make the visually complex aspect of a build, while simplifying the rest: the border, the text, the vegetation, or the building. If you focus on the building, cut back on the vegetation's detail; if you focus on the vegetation, cut back on the building's detail. In general I personally would counsel against visually complex bases and text, as they tend to detract from the build itself - though the base looked great with the micro build. Simplifying in this way aids the eye's understanding of what is going on. 

All that said, I will actually finish by saying that I love all of the different parts of this build on their own (minus the text...), but together they are each so strong that they negatively affect each other when put together. I hope that makes sense, and I hope you do not get discouraged by my comments, as your talent is immense and I want to see it flourish!