Silver.Smith Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) Hello all, First off, I would like to apologize for not posting a MOC in a while I've been busy in the lab brewing up something I hope you will all like. This past weekend was my first Brickworld Chicago and I wanted to bring something to show that I could truly be proud of. So, without further ado I would like present Vanguard Keep! Full Gallery For my Guilds of Historica friends I included a little Easter egg in the form of my avatar Sir Henry Drake hanging out on the stairs below. Thank you all for viewing, C&C always welcome. Update: Added cleaner photos Edited July 5, 2013 by Silver.Smith Quote
Kayne Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Looks great! I would have loved to have been there to see it! Quote
soccerkid6 Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 That is indeed a MOC to be proud of The landscaping is excellent: the various tree designs all work well, the deciduous tree in the front is my favorite , the rock-work is superb, especially the section in the back right corner Your layout for the buildings grabs a lot of interest with all the curved sections and angled buildings I like your wall design, it reminds me of Ecclesiastes' city. The houses are superb and I love the little details around them: the fence, sign, crates, well, etc. Congratulations on being nominated for best individual layout! Great to see your Avalonian fig in there as well Quote
Hive Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Wow, this is absolutely fantastic. The whole layout comes alive in a way that almost makes you forget that it's LEGO. Well done. Quote
Wedge09 Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Awesome :thumbup: I love all the details you put in Congrats to be nominated for the best individual layout Quote
Watchman Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Class build, really well done, nice touches and details, looks fab. Looking forward to more creations from you Quote
KotZ Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 That's great! Absolutely love the house and main keep. Quote
TheLegoDr Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Simply amazing. I am impressed. I love the scale and all of the details. The angles used for the wall work well. I like the inner-workings also. I like how the stairs go up to a courtyard of stone and then I love the other wooden stairs going up to the tower in the back. I don't know how authentic it is, but I can easily picture a real castle structure like this. Congrats on being nominated. Certainly makes sense. I started following this so I can go back to it often. Keep up the great work! Quote
Stash2Sixx Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 Great build, great display. Was really glad I got to meet you and socialize for a bit. Quote
Silver.Smith Posted June 19, 2013 Author Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Thanks all! Brickworld was truly a wonderful experience with very many awesome people! I encourage everyone who can make it to go next year, I know I am planning on it! Edited June 19, 2013 by Silver.Smith Quote
SirBlake Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 This is one of the finest builds I've ever seen. Not only the layout, or the details ... it's just beautiful. This is an all time favorite for me. Quote
Silver.Smith Posted June 19, 2013 Author Posted June 19, 2013 Great build, great display. Was really glad I got to meet you and socialize for a bit. Next year I am going to get more sleep and stay up to party more. I think I crashed early both nights I was there. Quote
nfl_solo Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 Fantastic display, it was great to be able to see it in person and meet you at BW. Quote
Bytor Posted June 21, 2013 Posted June 21, 2013 I really like this MOC, it blends so well. Very good work my friend! Quote
Dcanotilho0937 Posted June 22, 2013 Posted June 22, 2013 Awesome work :D truly great details and so much of them. I wish i could have been there so that i could really get all the details. not much more to say than congrats. And Congrats on the nomination.. Quote
Legonardo Posted June 22, 2013 Posted June 22, 2013 Looks good! get back in Avalonia! congrats on your nomination, hope you had fun Quote
NiL_FisK_Urd Posted June 22, 2013 Posted June 22, 2013 Wow, this is fantastic. I wish i had that many parts to build. Quote
Trance89 Posted June 22, 2013 Posted June 22, 2013 Fantastic MOC! There are so much details and the color scheme looks great. I noticed the frog and his small space ship on the left tower of the gate. I like easter egg like that. Quote
Silver.Smith Posted June 23, 2013 Author Posted June 23, 2013 I noticed the frog and his small space ship on the left tower of the gate. I like easter egg like that. I am impressed that you noticed the space frog, that was an Easter egg that showed up on everyone's MOCs the last day of the show made by the best overall builder from the year previous, a tradition or sorts. Quote
Karlson Posted June 26, 2013 Posted June 26, 2013 This is one of the best MOC's I've seen yet. Very impressive work. I do have one question about some of these large-scale MOC's. How do you get most of your bricks; from other sets? Ordering them all separately? I'm still very new to building original works with Lego and often wonder how people acquire all their bricks. Thank you. Quote
Silver.Smith Posted June 26, 2013 Author Posted June 26, 2013 (edited) This is one of the best MOC's I've seen yet. Very impressive work. I do have one question about some of these large-scale MOC's. How do you get most of your bricks; from other sets? Ordering them all separately? I'm still very new to building original works with Lego and often wonder how people acquire all their bricks. Thank you. Thank you for the kind words! As for where I get my bricks, I honestly source them from all sorts of placed. I do buy a lot of sets including repeat sets that provide a lot of good parts like the medieval market village, kingdom's joust, helm's deep and the kingdom's line king's castle. Also look for sets outside the traditional castle line for good parts like the log cabin set has a lot of great parts at a good price. Amazon.com is a great place to find sales on sets. I also pick up parts from the PaB wall at lego stores, I travel a lot for work so I get to visit a lot of different stores. Lastly, and this is more recent, I have purchased from bricklink. Bricklink can be a bear to navigate and takes some time to find a vendor with what you need but when you do the prices tend to be reasonable. Just remember to build to the parts you have and use them in new and fun ways. Edited June 26, 2013 by Silver.Smith Quote
DeanFS Posted June 27, 2013 Posted June 27, 2013 What an amazing MOC. I recommend one thing - diversify the colors! The black roofs could really add dimension to the MOC if they were another color, even brown or tan. I feel like you are really showing off some marvelous techniques but not taking advantage of the palette that LEGO offers. Some greater nuances could be applied to your brown pieces that are meant to be boards along the top of the city walls and the top of the tower that would make them look more like floorboards or planks rather than a flat brown surface. Maybe raising or lowering them 1 plate from the nearby stone (to mimic raised boards or boards secured by being slotted inside the stone structure)? You could also utilize brown 1x1 plates or jumpers and light bluish grey round plates to mimic fasteners holding boards down. This would really add a unified dimension to the wooden parts that would make their purpose much more obvious. I LOVE the arches set on the stone edifice. I really like that you added foliage in a very controlled way - so many MOCs put foliage on every inch of green, which makes the Minifigures look out of place - where will they be standing if they have to run across that field? Your MOC even has plenty of open studs littering the top of the towers so that more figures or furniture can be added. Keep up the good work. Quote
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