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Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:46 am
by pijani
Ust Natha a is a dark elves city ("Drow"); you could remember this Drow city from Baldur's Gate 2. It was built by Drow to symbolize place where the dark elves first time went underground. "Ust Natha" means "the first" on Drow language; witch is convenient, because this is my first serious MOC.

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Ust Natha was always in war, and in my MOC, humans had enough of the wretched Drow, and decided to cleanse the city once for all.

Human army is made from humans, elves, centaurs, giants, and if you look closser trough MOC you can spot a paladin, mermaid, even an angel, summoned by the good witch (you can find them together on one of the bridges connectin guarding towers)

On the other hand, Drow have a lot of slaves and thralls, so we can see orcs, trolls, minotaurs, harpies, goblins an bunch of other monsters. Drow themselves have elite soldiers, so we can see one yuan-ti, runaway beholder, drider (half Drow half spider), etc. On the top of the Great tower Matriarch summoned a demon, but how will that end we will see, because fiends have a nasty habit of turning on their summoners (protection from evil anyone? :)

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Due to the fact the defenses are down and humans are invading the city, someone made a mistake and summoned a lich, who immediately opened a portal and summoned a bunch of undead warriors. So we can see revenant, ghoul, skeletons and ghosts (heh), wrath, even older greater wrath, zombies, mummies and everything one lich who calls him self a lich can summon.

Outside the walls we can find ilihtid followed by umber hulk, and in east corner we can spot a Drow who find a magic lamp, summoned a genie and as granted free wishes. And what would one Drow wish (or any of us:)? Money, girls and a big monster to take care of the enemies! Also, by the water and fluorescent mushrooms we can see myconid, I hope it is easy to spot.

All those photographs you can find in folder "Main"

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I would like to point to small details, like the dragon who is afraid of the mouse (does anybody remembers that little elephant and Shir-can?, then you can see Drittz, sacrificial pit and the fact that the best Drow warriors (and the best equipped) in the city are females :)

One other thing: all minifigs, as well as the city are totally "playable". In other words, nothing is just leaned on to another just for photographs, a no minifigs will come apart when taken into hands, you can play with everything; city itself is accessible and easy to play with. Playability was something I was leaning to

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In folder "construction" you can see the city in the making, It could be interesting how the castle evolved and changed, how some things are discarded or changed with something else during building. And how much fun I had building it

There you can also see details that you can not see in "Main" folder, like flame cross, Matriarch tower etc.

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In folder "Minifigs" you can see some of the heroes and Drow that you can not spot in MOC because of the crowd (which is always there, when someone is fighting:)

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With hope that you will like my first MOC, I present: UST NATHA

Ivan Angeli


Ps: I would ask for some kind soul to pick few representative pictures and to remove background

Pps: folders will be available later during the day

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Fast links:

Main photographs
"Main"
Construction photographs
"construction"
Minifigures photographs
"Minifigs"

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Here you can see some other Drow cities from me:
Chaulssin
Ched Nasad
Eryndlyn
Maerimydra

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:08 am
by Aliencat
Woo nice and evil looking!
Great layout on this, excellent details, and I love the backstory.

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:45 pm
by Rogue Shadow
That's impressive! The red and black make it look like a dark and sinister place. Good job.

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:59 pm
by LegoLord.
I love the red and black combo. Great job on this.

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:14 pm
by pijani
Thank you! :)
Just wait for folders to become public, I would love to hear your opinion about windows, minifigs and other details :)

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:21 pm
by CJS
Yowza! Nice MOC, especially for your first one!

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:39 pm
by nanuck95
The city looks quite amazing, the red and black color scheme work well for the fantasy setting. I like the overall design, the tall towers with many bridges connecting them. The SNOT techniques to get the oblong shaped windows really turned out well. I played through BG2 a long time ago and this is a great version of the underground city.

The different scenes going on are nice, and I really like the monsters, especially the beholder, very well done. I also got a kick out of the barrel monster, very creative. You've really packed a lot of action in there and I spent quite a bit of time looking through all the pictures, which I enjoyed.

My only suggestion/criticism, is that some of your pictures have a lot of glare in them, which is a bit distracting. Taking good pictures is something I've really struggled with as well, and I know it can be a challenge. Something I've tried recently that may help is using a white sheet between the light source and the MOC to cut down on that a bit.

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 6:49 pm
by pijani
nanuck95 wrote: Something I've tried recently that may help is using a white sheet between the light source and the MOC to cut down on that a bit.
Good idea! I will try this next time, thank you :)

UPDATE: all folders are now open for public :)
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Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 1:38 am
by Jacob C.
Whoa!
This must be the place where bad castle minifigs go when they die!
This has got to be one of the most diabolical looking castles I've ever come across.
I don't think I've ever seen a black & red mottled castle before, it actually looks better than I would have imagined.
You've managed to cram a ton of unique details into this moc, it's really impressive in scale as well.

Most excellent work pijani!

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:31 pm
by Blego7
Reminds me a big of Lee Jones' castles. However I love the twist and setting you put on this is very interesting. Thanks for a great show!

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:50 pm
by eilonwy77
I think Jacob's use of the word "diabolical" was right on. Wow, what a castle! I love the story that you have to go with it, and all the different figs and critters. Very fun. :-)

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:51 pm
by Tower of Iron Will
This is a very good MOC for your first serious attempt. The design of the castle itself is the best I think with the Beholder/Eye Tyrant coming in a close second. I had purchased quite a few "Willa" figures to make my own "Drow" faction a few years back but kept their skin tone yellow to make it easier. The red and black color scheme of your castle works well with that figure and spider cape. The designs of the doors and windows are very nice, this castle could also be at home on a layer of the abyss, home to a balrog/pit fiend or other nasty beasty. :twisted:
-Tower

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:05 pm
by Forestboy
This is an insane castle! The red and black gives, like many other members said, a "creepy" effect. Very awesome, nice job.

~FB~

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:40 am
by Tycho McKorley
Wow, the scale of this creation is amazing. I've never seen such a well-done red and black creation. It looks very sinister. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Re: Ust Natha

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:03 pm
by troll
eeek, btw nice spider shield, mind if I copy it?