My first real castle MOC

[smegged]

Hi all,

I've not had the pieces to build a real castle until recently. Here is my first castle MOC (not counting a multicolour remake of the yellow castle I made a few years back).



Deeplinks:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smegg ... le_001.jpg
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smegg ... le_002.jpg
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smegg ... le_003.jpg
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smegg ... le_004.jpg
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smegg ... le_005.jpg

Gallery (when moderated):

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=230623

Tell me what you think (improvements, criticisms, "oh my goodness I could never build anything that ugly" comments all welcome).

[supernova]

Is this MOC built in just old grey or is there a mix somewhere? i believe the 3x3x6 castle walls with prints come from a set with old grey, (though) i cant be certain.

that said, some comments:

1. generally i like it has the 6080 kinda look or the new 2007 castle look.

2. interesting use of the big shield piece. i'm personally not a big fan of that piece, but the usage is quite cool.

3. for the drawbridge, wouldnt it be better to have the chains lead not through the door but up 2 "holes" in the wall left and right of the main door? i dont think im being clear here, but i basically mean the normal way of using the chains like in 6080, 6085 etc.

4. for the 1x2x5 grey pieces between the rock walls, i'd rather see them in a more earthy colour

but overall nicely done, especially if this is your 1st try

[Athos]

The shields on the front look a lot better than I would have thought. I'm not real fond of that one large piece as the front tower, but again it looks a lot better than I would have imagined.

Given what you're working with, I think this is quite the respectable MOC.

Steve

[Norro]

So reminiscent of 6080 I liked it. I'm not a great admirer of those shield pieces and can't help thinking that this MOC would look better without them. All round good work though!

God Bless,

Nathan

[Spongey]

Very nice. It looks like a newer version of King's Castle, as well as the new Castle coming out. I really like it.

[Prince Imdol]

It looks good. I like the way you really went into detail in making the ladders. I am too lazy to do that.

[wunztwice]

Great! This is a super start. I can see you've "studied" well the classics/brandnew castles and techniques of others here. For a first castle this very nice.

The large shields are an interesting addition, while not exactly my style I think they do work here. Keep it up!

[DARKspawn]

Well done! Honestly, I remember my first attempt, & this is great. I can see that you have tried to include many building elements here. It's multi-leveled, on raised ground, and has great access to the turrets. I would suggest not having the castle widen as it gets higher though, and I think the turrets would look way better if they were more enclosed. But as I said, this is a great first try, & good use of those KK2 wall pieces too.

[Blueandwhite]

Nice work. I would suggest making the front gatehouse a tad bigger however. I do like your use of those small rock pieces around the base of the castle. It gives it a very interesting look.

Good work, and keep on building.

[smegged]

Is this MOC built in just old grey or is there a mix somewhere? i believe the 3x3x6 castle walls with prints come from a set with old grey, (though) i cant be certain.

that said, some comments:

1. generally i like it has the 6080 kinda look or the new 2007 castle look.

2. interesting use of the big shield piece. i'm personally not a big fan of that piece, but the usage is quite cool.

3. for the drawbridge, wouldnt it be better to have the chains lead not through the door but up 2 "holes" in the wall left and right of the main door? i dont think im being clear here, but i basically mean the normal way of using the chains like in 6080, 6085 etc.

4. for the 1x2x5 grey pieces between the rock walls, i'd rather see them in a more earthy colour

but overall nicely done, especially if this is your 1st try

For point #3 - I'll definately look at improving this. It's the one thing I'm not really happy with at all about this MOC.

Point #4 I agree with, but unfortunately the only pieces I could use were bley and dark bley, and Bley "balanced" the MOC better than dark bley.

Oh, and this castle was built almost completely in Bley, except for some of the smaller plates and specialty parts (such as those two patterned walls. I was two corner 3x3x6 parts short, and I figured that the printed parts looked a bit better - like a vine had creeped up the wall somewhat.

[smegged]

So reminiscent of 6080 I liked it. I'm not a great admirer of those shield pieces and can't help thinking that this MOC would look better without them. All round good work though!

God Bless,

Nathan

I actually built most of this MOC without those big sheild pieces. However it looked a bit bland without too much interesting on the walls, so I decided to put these big sheild pieces there, and it definately gives the castle a more royal look and something interesting as well.

[smegged]

It looks good. I like the way you really went into detail in making the ladders. I am too lazy to do that.

Yeah I get a bit irritated with castles which require the "hand of me" to move minifigs from one level to the next. Unfortunately I couldn't put any ladders on the gatehouse and keep it looking good.

[smegged]

Well done! Honestly, I remember my first attempt, & this is great. I can see that you have tried to include many building elements here. It's multi-leveled, on raised ground, and has great access to the turrets. I would suggest not having the castle widen as it gets higher though, and I think the turrets would look way better if they were more enclosed. But as I said, this is a great first try, & good use of those KK2 wall pieces too.

I agree with you about enclosing the turrets, however the parts shelf was really kinda bare by the end of building this castle .

I made the castle widen after the first level to give it a more imposing look to invading minifig armies . Future castles I'll build more "traditionally" though.