Classic-Castle.com

As I've said before, I am in a unique position. Not only do I get to grade all the fantastic creations for our contest, but while I was putting them online, I was able to spend even more time with all the amazing things. And when I see something I like, I save a picture of it for future reference (and I've got about 15 or so new pics on my hard drive).

And one of them that I was fascinated by was CJ Sutton's Royal Gate.

Found here:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=67887

Or rather should I say I was fascinated by his knight statues. I just had to make one, actually I had to make two. After all, my next castle needs a statue or two, right? To go right along side Jim Fould's and Aaron Sneary's port cullis design I plan to use.

Unfortunately though, and no offense CJ, his Knights looked too much like the character 'Bender' from the awesome show 'Futurama'.

If I were building a space MOC, I wouldn't change a thing, honest

But I wanted, lets just say a less recognizable character to be my knights

So I came up with two seperate alternate models built in CJ's knight statue style.



Both knights have a different head, scrapping the 1x2 grill for a 1x2 triple slope, which I think mimics, at least a little bit, the minifig visors LEGO has made.

The knight on the left, aside from the head and a new pair of shoes, is almost identical to CJ's MOC. I chose a different shoe because if I'm going to use so many tiles to cover up studs, I might as well go as far as I have pieces for I also didnt have a light grey flag, so I just improvised with a 2x2 tile. Oh yeah, and I made him taller, too.

The knight on the right was less lucky. I only have so many 1x2 and 1x1 tiles without any printing on them, and I'm out of brasso. So I decided to do almost the exact opposite with this knight. I decided to show off his studs, give him a bigger chest, and use the grills instead of tiles. Sort of a rougher armor look. I also turned his head upside down, so he's a SNOT head

And I don't mind that they're not identical. Most guard statues in castles and other such places, if they're meant to look like someone, look entirely different. So I don't see how them being different will be any problem for me at all

Why no plumes? Well, first of all I don't own any 2x2 cylinders with round tops in light grey Second Christina didn't like the idea of putting colored feathers on something that was supposed to be a stone statue. So I just scrapped them in favor of a no stud head.

Anyway, thanks CJ! Great work!

--Anthony

Nice work. When I build my "Big castle MOC", I'l be sure to use a few knight statues.

Mr. D

I like that gate too =P it looks awesome

LR

Hey Anthony,

Those look great, and they avoid the "Bender" issue well. One suggestion is that the torso seems a little thin (back to front, not left to right). Maybe you could build out on the studs-out portion of the chest some (of course, I suppose they might end up looking too well-endowed).

Bruce

I agree with Bruce, the torso's seems a bit flat. Also, the legs of the statues look a bit "knee-less" to me. I wonder if a headlight brick with a plate and/or tile on them would help to suggest a knee-joint in the harnas. The visors made of the tripple slope are a good idea.

With friendly greetings, M. Moolhuysen.

I think they are pretty decent for a Lego statue. I consider it that the Lego figures are making statues of their fallen or great leaders and are basing it off what they look like. Great Job on the statues, both CJ and Anthony.

I have to say, I didn't think I'd spark this kind of interest when I made those statues. I'm very flattered, Anthony! Thank you!

Yes, yes, I've heard so many times how much they resemble Bender... I wish I could have done something about it.

Anthony... the gray flags I used for the groin cover are MINI AT-ST printed head flags, just turned around. I got the gray domed cylinders from the MINI Republic Gunship. However, I really like your SNOT solution to the head. the flatter domed piece looks much better and much less Matt Groening-style. And your use of the 1x2 sloped piece instead of the grille tile is something I had actually thought of doing (after the pictures were posted of course.) Kudos to you, my friend!

And thanks to everyone for your comments! I'd say the contest was a complete success -- I'm building Castle again!

CJXXX wrote:I have to say, I didn't think I'd spark this kind of interest when I made those statues. I'm very flattered, Anthony! Thank you!

Yes, yes, I've heard so many times how much they resemble Bender... I wish I could have done something about it.

Anthony... the gray flags I used for the groin cover are MINI AT-ST printed head flags, just turned around. I got the gray domed cylinders from the MINI Republic Gunship. However, I really like your SNOT solution to the head. the flatter domed piece looks much better and much less Matt Groening-style. And your use of the 1x2 sloped piece instead of the grille tile is something I had actually thought of doing (after the pictures were posted of course.) Kudos to you, my friend!

And thanks to everyone for your comments! I'd say the contest was a complete success -- I'm building Castle again!

Thanks CJ! I'm glad you approve of me running with your idea

Thanks for letting me know about the light grey flags, I never did do a Peeron search for them. I did, though, find out about the domed cylinders, and how they only come in a few sets (in light grey). I'm happy to see you approve of my solution for being too cheap to buy a set!

It's not too late to change your knights you know. The contest is already over, but as everyone here at C-C knows, I can never leave a MOC alone, even when I think it's finished.

And you're right about the contest, regardless of who won, we've shown that Castle is still alive and swinging! Or slashing... or pummeling... or hacking... or whatever. Jousting? Lancing? Gong Farmering!

--Anthony

Here two simple ideas to add kneejoints and -caps to the legs of the statues, (at least) giving them the impression they don't have to keep standing there all the time, aparently without being able to move at all.



With friendly greetings, M. Moolhuysen.

just a few small things.
How do you do the arms? I just don't get it
and how about making one in yellow? I wouldn't want a statue of me in stone. Gold, my freind, gold!

moom wrote:Here two simple ideas to add kneejoints and -caps to the legs of the statues, (at least) giving them the impression they don't have to keep standing there all the time, aparently without being able to move at all.



With friendly greetings, M. Moolhuysen.

That's really cool Manfred! I'm afraid I dont think I have any more 1x1 tiles left, but I'll have to go look! Thanks much!

--Anthony

Barbapple wrote:just a few small things.
How do you do the arms? I just don't get it
and how about making one in yellow? I wouldn't want a statue of me in stone. Gold, my freind, gold!

I'm not going to be very good with this, but I'll do the best I can.

CJ has already taken pictures, so here's the gallery:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=68032



Each arm is made up of these levers:



Four bases, two levers handles. The two lever handles are threaded through two of the bases backwards, and then inserted normally into the other two bases. This causes the first two bases to become 'trapped' on the lever arm.

Then the ends of the lever handles are threaded through the technic bushing, one from either side. This will lock the two levers together, though not permanently, but very tightly. Then all you do is add the other bits and you're basically done.

As for a Gold statue, I'll have to look into that, it sounds cool. Question is- do I have enough parts in yellow to even start? I'm not sure I have a multi-stud 1x1 brick in yellow, let alone three. I'll have to check.

--Anthony