Modular Yellow Castle 375/6075

[KimT]

For a long time I've been wanting to build my own version of the 375 Yellow Castle.

In the past week I've managed to get started

How I'm building:

My idea is to build an outer wall using the same technique used in the original version.

Then when the outer wall, it's towers and gates are done, I'll start MOD'ing them.

I want to keep this MOC as real as possible and I'm only "stepping out" when adding tiles to the wall.

In the end (when the Castle is done) I'll be adding more changes like yellowed versions of:

&

Hopefully as I do this, my mind will come up with more additions.

Look at the size of that thing:

I'm aiming for a size around 4 large grey baseplates.

3 of them will be covered by the Castle and the last one will be in front of the large gate.

Here's what I've been doing so far.

(Actually I've done some more, just haven't got any pictures yet)

Ideas and comments are welcome.

I'll be updating this as I progress in the building.

Right now I'm waiting for a few BL orders to arrive.

I need so many yellow bricks.'

4th of September:

[rriggs]

Right now I'm waiting for a few BL orders to arrive.

I need so many yellow bricks.

Well, if you hadn't wasted a load making that yellow mug that's sitting just outside the castle walls maybe you wouldn't need to wait for Bricklink?

Seriously, looks like quite a project and it's nice to see a castle MOC based on an original Lego design (especially as it's my favourite era of Lego Castle!). I look forward to forward to seeing the ancillary buildings in yellow too!

Have you though what era/type of castle minifig you will use when you get to that stage?

Cheers

Rog

[AwesomeStar]

Bloody hell, mate, this is amazing. And you've only done a few walls!

However, I would improve the photography, although I know you probably in a rush.

[KimT]

Have you though what era/type of castle minifig you will use when you get to that stage?

Cheers

Rog

Yes I have.

These are intended:

I was lucky enough to get 15-20 of the first one in fine condition and I've found a guy on eBay who remakes the stickers for the classic ones.

So I'm aiming to keep it classic, except for the horses

Bloody hell, mate, this is amazing. And you've only done a few walls!

However, I would improve the photography, although I know you probably in a rush.

Don't worry.

I'll improve that when needed.

And yes I was in a hurry.

Wouldn't you be with a 1½ old daughter trying to "help" you?

She actually destroyed the 3rd plate and the wall I had built on it

[KimT]

I've managed to finish what is to be the Main Gate:

This is version 5 or 6..and now I'm nearly satisfied.

The light isn't really good, but I'm just happy to have finished it.

I still need a lot of 2x2 inverted slopes and plenty 1x1 & 1x2 tiles.

I've almost finished the 3 baseplates outer walls and I hope to post new pics early next week.

[Adam]

Version 5/6 is looking good! I like the use of the 1x1 cheese slopes on the gate; it really improves the effect. From what I see so far, it looks like this MOC will turn out incredibly.

Some suggestions:

One thing I've always been annoyed about is that some LEGO Castles don't have full access- for instance, a minifig usually has to climb quite a bit to reach a tower. Also, those walkways (on the second floor) look a bit small- a minfig could easily fall off and break an arm! Other than that, awesome!

[JimBee]

I didn't know the Yellow Castle came with an exclusive yellow mug! Great work so far,you've recreated this legendary set beautifully! Can't wait for the finished product!

[I Scream Clone]

Bravo KimT I guess someone had to have a go at building this iconic Castle (well other than the jumbo version i saw recently)

Cool that you can replicate those knights with stickers too

Looking forward to the final product

[KimT]

Version 5/6 is looking good! I like the use of the 1x1 cheese slopes on the gate; it really improves the effect. From what I see so far, it looks like this MOC will turn out incredibly.

Some suggestions:

One thing I've always been annoyed about is that some LEGO Castles don't have full access- for instance, a minifig usually has to climb quite a bit to reach a tower. Also, those walkways (on the second floor) look a bit small- a minfig could easily fall off and break an arm! Other than that, awesome!

Thanks and yeah I've been thinking about that too.

I think I might make the catwalks 3 studs wide and add a small fence. As for how they get up there, I'm working on a "staired"-solution.

Can't wait for the finished product!

Me neither

Cool that you can replicate those knights with stickers too

Looking forward to the final product

Yes the stickers was a great find.

Now I have to remember where I put them

[Captain Green Hair]

Quite a big project Kim, i think it will look great with some scattered stones and more modern details.

I love those old figs, good thing i still have a whole bunch of crusaders and black falcons, none of the really old though..

Best of luck with it, i hope your daughter learns to build, instead of demolish soon

[Sir Dillon]

Looking good so far! Will you be putting the original set in the middle?

[snefroe]

LOOK AT THIS:

Is this how the community taught you to build? look how crappy you put those bricks together!!! One earthquake and your entire gate falls to the ground!! really, you've been watching to many Lego displays, my danish mocer! this is terrible! really!!! SHAME ON YOU!!! i'm pretty sure your daughter does a better job than this!!! please please please, take this offline, i can't stand to watch this anymore!!

apart from that, i'm still kinda lost on what it is that you're trying to do. In case you're going to build a larger yellow castle but within the style of classic castle, you may want to build a "donjon" at the center of the of the field. There's an excellent "donjon" on the box of yellow castle... it would be nice to show off a moc based on the actual castle and an official alternative ...

ah yes, the gate... you DO know that the gates of classic castle are red, right? as opposed to... yellow? are you blind?

and btw, you may want to check out the classic castle in the idea book of the day... set number 6000 i believe it is... that was always a great inspiration for any kind of classic castle in those days

[Guss]

wow it's going to be a really cool castle!

[KimT]

LOOK AT THIS:

Is this how the community taught you to build? look how crappy you put those bricks together!!! One earthquake and your entire gate falls to the ground!! really, you've been watching to many Lego displays, my danish mocer! this is terrible! really!!! SHAME ON YOU!!! i'm pretty sure your daughter does a better job than this!!! please please please, take this offline, i can't stand to watch this anymore!!

apart from that, i'm still kinda lost on what it is that you're trying to do. In case you're going to build a larger yellow castle but within the style of classic castle, you may want to build a "donjon" at the center of the of the field. There's an excellent "donjon" on the box of yellow castle... it would be nice to show off a moc based on the actual castle and an official alternative ...

ah yes, the gate... you DO know that the gates of classic castle are red, right? as opposed to... yellow? are you blind?

and btw, you may want to check out the classic castle in the idea book of the day... set number 6000 i believe it is... that was always a great inspiration for any kind of classic castle in those days

What the h***?!!

As I stated in the first post, I'll start off copying the design of the original yellow castle and then I'll MOD the entire construction.

That is the old gate - and I'm not even sure it'll be there when I'm done.

Yes, I'm trying to build a bigger version of the yellow castle (also stated).

A "donjon", eh?...Better have a look at that. But as I've also said, my intention is to fill the castle with creations a lá the thumbnails in the first post.

Red!?! - yes of course the gates should be red. Now I have to redo it Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

The box...there's a box? Must have it / find pictures of it and check those inspirational pictures.

Ideabook number 6000....I think I've actually got that one and the stickers to go with it.

Thanks for your flaming ideas and comments.

wow it's going to be a really cool castle!

Thanks and yes I hope so

[snefroe]

What the h***?!!

you clearly missed my point, so here's it is again:

[KimT]

I know

That's how most of it looked after I moved it.

Should have thought of the fact that the grey baseplates are really soft and they "move" when handled.

Thanks for all yours comments and I'm currently shopping a lot of red on BL for a "new" gate design

[snefroe]

this without the bridge.

[Siegfried]

this without the bridge.

I forgot how good the alt models for that set were...

[I Scream Clone]

Still looking forward to see how you put a spin on such a classic! Any ideas for colours to match with the yellow? Tan, light bley, black.

The alternate designs are great off the box, and I cant believe they still make yellow arches!

Keep on Moding!

[Zepher]

Nice work so far. I really can't say anything else but keep going. And this thing is kick-a**!

[KimT]

After having worked back and forth on my Yellow Castle MOC, I decided to "shelf it".

It was getting boring just reusing the techniques from the instructions.

Instead I've begun making a modular yellow castle.

I build on 16x32 light grey baseplates and so far I've done a basic wall section.

When I'm completly done, I'll make more with towers and ballistae platforms.

But for now I have a question. (look below)

First a pic of the basic wall:[my daylight bulb is dead, hence the odd colours ]

My question is:

Which do you prefer? The SNOT-inspired wall or the "classic" versioned wall?

Please note, that I've also done 2 different heights on the SNOT-version.

Confused? Then look at the pics:

Classic Version:

SNOT Version- left is tall, right is...well..low

With minifigs behind:

Any comments are more than welcome.

[Teddy]

Dear KimT,

Like your design thus far. Modularity is a nice challenge in itself.

I'm a bit confused, I'm not sure if a tiling a section is really SNOT?

Since the stud (although tiled) still are on "top". What do you think?

As to tiled vs non-tiled:

Personnaly I slightly prefer the tiled one, although the greebles (studs) on the regular one make it more interesting to look at.

Kind regards,

Teddy

Edited October 1, 2008 by Teddy

[Guss]

Mhh I prefer the normal one, but this one is nice:

except that you should have used a normal 2x1 yellow brick instead of 3 2x1 plates I think, but it's a detail. and you can replace some of the 6x1 plate by normal bricks too I think, it will make it looks like there's bigger stones.

[KimT]

Dear KimT,

Like your design thus far. Modularity is a nice challenge in itself.

I'm a bit confused, I'm not sure if a tiling a section is really SNOT?

Since the stud (although tiled) still are on "top". What do you think?

As to tiled vs non-tiled:

Personnaly I slightly prefer the tiled one, although the greebles (studs) on the regular one make it more interesting to look at.

Kind regards,

Teddy

Aaahh, sometimes my brain plays tricks on me.

I couldn't remember the word "tile" and went for SNOT-inspired.

I mean "tiled" top.

I feel the same way. I like the tiled top, but there's something to the studded version as well

Mhh I prefer the normal one, but this one is nice:

pic snipped

except that you should have used a normal 2x1 yellow brick instead of 3 2x1 plates I think, but it's a detail. and you can replace some of the 6x1 plate by normal bricks too I think, it will make it looks like there's bigger stones.

Yeah I know.

I built a base and then added the tiled and non-tiled version to each side.

I will definately make new versions, where the amount of plates is heavily reduced.

Also I'm working on making the "windows" look like they're going all the way through and thus giving the look of a solid 4 stud wide wall.

The question there is wether or not I should tile it.

My issue is that whenever I "tile" something it has to end up wuth the same height as a regular brick.

[Teddy]

My issue is that whenever I "tile" something it has to end up wuth the same height as a regular brick.

As long as you tile everything and inbetween as well, everything is just raised with one plate height.

Thus, mainting the relative height differences. And adding a tile actualy only increases the height with

about half a plate height since the studs aren't there anymore to add additional height.

just my line of thinking.

Kind regards,

Teddy