I am both happy and excited to once again be the Castle Coordinator for Brickworld.
If you plan on attending Brickworld and will be bringing Castle themed MOC’s for display in the collaborative layout, please remember to click the “Classic Castle City” box when you register on the Brickworld website. Of course, Castle themed MOC’s are not required to be put into the collaborative display. If you’d like your creation to have its own space, be sure to sign up for a MOC table(s) when you register.
This year we’d like to focus on landscaping. Castles and other imposing medieval architecture are the meat and potatoes of a good Castle layout, but too often it’s all connected with almost-bare rows of green baseplates. This summer we have the chance to show the AFOL community (and thousands of public viewers for that matter) that a good Castle layout can become a great Castle layout when it has some nice terrain to connect everything together.
Last year we had a nice section of crops for the agricultural part of the layout. We’d like to expand upon the idea of medieval rural life with some scenic countryside in which our minifigs and their critters can frolic and play. So break out the trees, Forestmen and shrubberies—it’s time to change the Castle layout from a collection of MOC’s to it’s own little world.
Encouraging things to remember when creating landscaping:
• Higher isn’t necessarily better. You can have “rolling plains”.
• An area doesn’t have to be covered with foliage to look nice. Bodies of water, muddy swamps and recently cleared forestland would all look great.
• No one is expected to do it all. If all you can commit to is a frog pond on a 16X16 baseplate, that’s cool.
• Constructing your building on top of elevated terrain often makes it look just that much better than if the same creation were made right on top of a baseplate.
Of course, any castles, medieval towns, CCC walls and the like are still more than welcome. We’ll still need all those grand structures to preside over the lovely landscape! I already know of some nice castles that will be coming to Brickworld this summer.
We will also be having a Castle-themed contest this year. Look for that announcement shortly.
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Here's some info I have about Brickworld this year:
• Website: http://www.brickworld.us/ (Make sure that you have the "www" in the URL if you type it in. We've had some trouble with people skipping that portion of the URL and getting errors.)
• Date: Thursday, June 19 - Sunday, June 22
• Location: Westin Hotel in Wheeling, Illinois (same as last year)
• Registration cost: $50 ($10 less than last year)
• MOC table size: Each table is 30"X72"
• Hotel room costs: $115 per night (That's half of their going rate. Please be aware that you have to sign up through Brickworld by May 28 to get the special discounted rate.)
• There will be some sort of discount &/or special buys at one of the nearby LEGO stores. (The Brickworld team is still working on how that will all work.)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email, PM me or reply here.
David Gregory
Brickworld Castle Coordinator
Armies to cover up any bare ground would be great!
