[COR - FB] Horse Farm, Elizabethville

[evancelt]

When Martin Shoemaker went into town and told the mayor that two of his prize white stallions had been stolen from Shoemaker Farms, the mayor went to Captain Brickleton. As the ranking officer in Elizabethville, Brickleton knew it was his responsibility to keep the townspeople and their property safe. He had figured that meant from Oleon (who Corrington was at war with), but it did encompass horse thieves as well.

For the next few dawns after receiving the news, Brickleton and a small group of Elizabethville Militia and 26th Foot lay in wait at the seaside horse farm, ready to spring in action upon the would-be thieves arrival. On the third morning, the thieves arrived by boat and the soldiers sprung their trap!

 

 

Process shots:

Spoiler

To be licensed as a large plantation in Elizabethville

OOC: I approached this build wanting to try a few new things. First, I wanted to try to build a shiplap shingle outbuilding like @SilentWolf built in the Elizabethville downtown. Secondly, I wanted to try an @Ayrlego-style base that gradually dropped from SNOT on the sides down to water in the corner. Thirdly, I wanted to try to make a natural-looking hill landscape with an Irish-looking small stone wall.

Edited January 5, 2021 by evancelt

[Bodi]

Nice build. The tree, the stone wall and the house all look good, but what impresses me the most is the terrain.

[Professor Thaum]

The crooks are probably WTC as we speak about horse stealing, perhaps some inquiry should be held around @Mesabi Landing (IMHO).

Nice low wall and clever wall technic for the shack.

[Kai NRG]

I like your stone wall technique and also the arch over the gate.  Nice job on the path too!

[Khorne]

12 hours ago, evancelt said:

OOC: I approached this build wanting to try a few new things. First, I wanted to try to build a shiplap shingle outbuilding like @SilentWolf built in the Elizabethville downtown. Secondly, I wanted to try an @Ayrlego-style base that gradually dropped from SNOT on the sides down to water in the corner. Thirdly, I wanted to try to make a natural-looking hill landscape with an Irish-looking small stone wall.

I think you nailed all of your objectives! The base is well-built and the stone wall immediately made me think of England (I've never been to Ireland, so I can't say if the walls look different there ). The shiplap house looks great, too. I once stumbled upon another shiplap technique on Flickr. One that doesn't use cheese wedges and also looks quite nice. That might work great here too. The thing with the cheese wedges is that you can always easily see they're wedges and not overlapping boards. However, that's just my 2 cents. Overall this is a great MOC with a really good atmosphere to it.

[evancelt]

Thanks all! The parts of the build that were the most fun were the initial shaping of the SNOT base, the seagulls that don't care there is human drama occurring behind them, the musket posing on the militiamen, using the separated green hinge for grass overhanding the tan sand, and overall sand dune headland landscaping with falling bits of sand clumping below.

I will check out that hinge-based siding technique, @Khorne!

[Fraunces]

All has been said. If I'd had to add: I like the fact that you expand on the duties of the rank your main minifig fulfills!

[Brickwolf]

wonderful build, good story!

[blackdeathgr]

While I usually love your builds, I am mixed on that one. I love the terrain transition from water to sand but when you raise the ground vertically mostly with tan bricks like a wall, it strikes me as being too simple compared to all the other wonderful techniques you've used in this MOC. Maybe the water has make some cavities in these spots so it would be better to use more tan slopes and inverted slopes - just a thought though. Same with the low stonewall, as SNOT doesn't tie well enough with the studded green ground directly below (I would prefer a good old classic profile bricks+greebling for that wall or at least some greenery growing at the wall base so as to cover the gap between the ground and the wall - I know, nitpicking right now ).

Finally, what I really love about the MOC is the shack, the minifig choices (and posing - as always), the tree and some small details like the seagulls, the twig on the beach and ofc the LEGO animals (one can't have enough LEGO animals in my opinion).

Keep on building friend and thanks for enhancing our small but bonded BOBS community!

[evancelt]

59 minutes ago, blackdeathgr said:

While I usually love your builds, I am mixed on that one. I love the terrain transition from water to sand but when you raise the ground vertically mostly with tan bricks like a wall, it strikes me as being too simple compared to all the other wonderful techniques you've used in this MOC. Maybe the water has make some cavities in these spots so it would be better to use more tan slopes and inverted slopes - just a thought though. Same with the low stonewall, as SNOT doesn't tie well enough with the studded green ground directly below (I would prefer a good old classic profile bricks+greebling for that wall or at least some greenery growing at the wall base so as to cover the gap between the ground and the wall - I know, nitpicking right now ).

Finally, what I really love about the MOC is the shack, the minifig choices (and posing - as always), the tree and some small details like the seagulls, the twig on the beach and ofc the LEGO animals (one can't have enough LEGO animals in my opinion).

Keep on building friend and thanks for enhancing our small but bonded BOBS community!

Thanks @blackdeathgr! Happy to be building for BOBS!

With the sand wall, I was going for this effect that I saw quite often as a kid visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the USA. The ocean eats away the sand until there is grass above to provide some cohesiveness to hold it together. Ends up making a tiered beach with a flat lower beach and then a high water mark cliff.

 

With the stone wall, I was going for these super bumpy Irish stone walls that are near the beach:

It may be that this horse farm beach is better suited to the Wullham style (see new beach landing scene) as the stone wall without vegetation could be a sign of high winds / few trees.

UPDATE: I just noticed in the close up shot that my red-stripey pirate has a cracked arm!

Edited January 12, 2021 by evancelt

[Captain Dee]

Neat build. I like the color gradient and the layered design, and the medium nougat path really stands out in the center. And that stone wall looks fabulous. My only gripe is that the building looks small, otherwise it's really nice.

2 hours ago, blackdeathgr said:

(one can't have enough LEGO animals in my opinion).

Apparently TLG feels otherwise... 

1 hour ago, evancelt said:

With the sand wall, I was going for this effect that I saw quite often as a kid visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the USA.

Go OBX!! Great place to visit!! (And eat) 

[Khorne]

3 hours ago, blackdeathgr said:

Same with the low stonewall, as SNOT doesn't tie well enough with the studded green ground directly below (I would prefer a good old classic profile bricks+greebling for that wall or at least some greenery growing at the wall base so as to cover the gap between the ground and the wall - I know, nitpicking right now ).

I actually really love the contrast of the roughly-hewn wall and the neat grass. To me it really comes across as one of those typical English countryside walls, which are usually a bit rough and crooked. I think a profile brick and minor greebling would look "too neat" and you kind of lose the naturally stacked feeling there.

2 hours ago, evancelt said:

Thanks @blackdeathgr! Happy to be building for BOBS!

With the sand wall, I was going for this effect that I saw quite often as a kid visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the USA. The ocean eats away the sand until there is grass above to provide some cohesiveness to hold it together. Ends up making a tiered beach with a flat lower beach and then a high water mark cliff.

I figured those kind of sand walls were what you were going for, but I kind of understand @blackdeathgr's feedback. The steepness feels somewhat unnatural, because it's so clean and straight. Maybe you can use the technique you've used for the sides of the base? That way the sand wall would be textured and not as steep, since you can decide the gradient via plates. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Khorne
Cleaned up my spelling

[evancelt]

Just now, Khorne said:

I figured those kinds of sand walls were what you'rre going for, but I kind of understand @blackdeathgr's feedback. The steepness feel kind of unnatural, because it's so clean and straight. Maybe you can use the technique you use for the sides of the base? That would the sand wall would be textured and not as steep, since you can decide the gradient via plates. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

Good call - I think a SNOT sand wall would have been ideal there! Like you said, it would have added some texture and allowed for easy sloping by adding additional plates

[Garmadon]

I quite like this - the stone wall is superb, and while it's certainly not something we see a lot in the brick, I'm really liking the low cliff walls too.  Maybe a few more slopes along the flattest part would help make it a little more interesting there, but overall I think it's definitely a success!  Great job with the landscape colors and gate too, and if I've got one nitpick it'd actually be the cottage walls, which look a little bit too much like vinyl siding to me,   But maybe that's just because I live in a house that's got white vinyl siding all the way around   Great job overall - keep up the great work!

On 1/5/2021 at 9:25 AM, Professor Thaum said:

The crooks are probably WTC as we speak about horse stealing, perhaps some inquiry should be held around @Mesabi Landing (IMHO).

 

[LM71Blackbird]

Great build! The terrain is really nice and the stone wall gives a nice outskirts rough look. 

On the soldiers, are those custom 90 degree arms to hold the rifles?

[evancelt]

Just now, LM71Blackbird said:

On the soldiers, are those custom 90 degree arms to hold the rifles?

Thanks! Yeah Crazy Arms from Crazy Bricks

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by evancelt

[LM71Blackbird]

Just now, evancelt said:

Thanks! Yeah Crazy Arms from Crazy Bricks

Cool, I'll have to check those out.