[MOC] Gravensteen Castle of the Counts

[BrickDuvel]

WIP:

Hello everyone, my latest Lego project is over halfway through in its digital form. It's a MOC of the Castle of the Counts of Flanders aka the Gravensteen in Ghent Belgium.  You see a digital render in Studio of the Keep and side buildings taken from the backside. The front wall and the gate building are still under construction. At about minifig scale it is a very large build. I therefore try it to make it as compact as possible. When built in Lego form, the footprint will be just over 1 m2 and the height will be at about 0,5 m. I estimate the part count when finished to be close to 40.000 bricks. Planning to be able to build it in real Lego format this summer.

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2024 by BrickDuvel

[GeoBrick]

Wow. That's really unbelievable.

[Moexy]

Fantastic job! Very recognisable. Looking forward to the rest of the build! 

[BrickDuvel]

The digital build is coming to an end. I finished the outer walls on the frontside and completed the gate building.
I altered the roof colors somewhat, brought in some more dark red to resemble to it's current colour in real life.

I still need to do some of the landscaping inside the walls.
Then the next step is create digital instructions and then build it in real lego.
Was hoping to be able to start building in lego past summer, but didn't get to it. Hopefully this winter I will make some progress.

The gate building section (footprint 36x34 studs) protrudes from the rest of the castle's square footprint but is made in two sections (the base with ground and water tiles, and the building itself) an can be detached. 
The rest of the castle (within the square footprint) can als be put together in modules in various shapes and forms.
 

Specs:

- Footprint without the gate building: 132x132 studs or 1,05 m2)

- Pieces used up until this point: almost 43.000 - estimated piece count with finished interior landscaping to be around 45.000

Here are some more renders with the finished sections:

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2024 by BrickDuvel

[YellowFrog]

Great build. What are the printed crafting table pieces, and what to they represent? Are we going to see a real-life build of this (it would be quite the undertaking)?

[BrickDuvel]

Thanks. I used the crafting tables for the wooden covers in het embrasures between the merlons. Since the wooden covers are reinforced with iron rods and the space (2x2) is too small to build something custom, I figured the pattern on the minecraft crafting tables comes pretty close to real thing. Also the medium nougat colour goes ok with te dark red/dark orange rooftops.

The real life build is going to be an undertaking (budget, piece collecting and building hours), but is definitely the ambition going forward, starting with the donjon/keep.

 

 

[GeoBrick]

I'm guessing the keep alone counts for a third of the needed bricks?

[Khorne]

Instantly recognizable for any Belgian, I reckon! The digital build is already looking quite impressive. A build with actual bricks will be a titanic endeavor indeed!

Did you try contacting the Gravensteen already, or Ghent Tourist Service? Perhaps they might be interested in some sort of team-up/sponsorship in exchange for displaying the model at the castle for a while? I was in Ypres last summer and they also had a Lego version of the Lakenhalle there.

Will you add the infamous elevator pavilion as well ? (j/k)

[AmperZand]

2 hours ago, Khorne said:

Instantly recognizable for any Belgian, I reckon! The digital build is already looking quite impressive. A build with actual bricks will be a titanic endeavor indeed!

Pretty recognisable for non-Belgians, too!  I've been to Ghent several times around this time of year and saw Gravensteen but only from the outside. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was there, so I wasn't able to enter. Still, a great place.

This LEGO design is excellent. Very much looking forwards to seeing pics of it once it's built.   

[Yperman]

It looks so much like the real Gravensteen. This must have been quite an undertaking. Congratulations!