32x32 Challenge: The Tower of the East

[Ye Olde Republic]

Found in the centre of a lonely lake in a forgotten forest, Wanda and Willamina live out their existence. Their home was raised from the mud at the bottom of the lake and has stood for hundreds of years, the two occupants rarely needing to leave home. You see, Wanda and Willamina are witches, sisters, and controllers of the environment that we all live in. Neither virtuous nor wicked the pair have been known to be malicious. Should a traveller happen upon the Tower of the East, it is no easy trek task to meet the sisters for not only is the Tower in the centre of the lake...it has no door to speak of. To enter the Tower of the East, one must be "invited" and will find themselves transported magically inside.
Wanda and Willamina have another sister. She left the Tower many hundreds of years ago and has become quite well know to mankind. You may, in fact, have heard of her: She now goes by the name 'Mother Nature'.

link to Flickr



The challenge I set for myself was to 1. Build something outside of my norm, which I know I succeeded on because my wife said "Isn't that a bit dark for you?" "Um, yup THANKS!!". Part of that was the black I used, the rockery and perhaps even the fantasy theme I went with. 2. "NO BRICKLINK orders! Use what you've got", I told myself.
3. Build an interior. Meh, it's got one on the top floor at least. Had I planned this out better I think I would have hinged the rocks so I could put a dragon's den underneath. 4. Try some landscaping. I've always wanted to build something on top of a rocky island. 5. Good photos. Failure here. I was told how difficult it is to photograph black MOC's and it is! I took three series of pics and no matter what I did, they came out kind of blurry. Inside, outside, extra lighting, tripod, timer delay on the shutter, macro, no macro and any combo of these. I became very frustrated and angry so I decided to post these as they seemed to be the best of them.

[Karrde]

Oh the guilt as I'm just about to place a BL order for mine This is great, really cartoony and stylized.

[Quickblade22]

I think for a 32 x 32 it is awesome!!! A nice take on a very under-used minifig and it even looks fun to play with. This is similar to what I envisioned the living enviroment for Willa in my Castle Lego-verse. Shame about the black being hard to photo. I know that these pics don't do justice to the actual creation. I commend you on using what you have. That's the same guidelines I set for myself. The tree is a cool addition and I like the red spires coming from the tower. The balcony is Tolkein-ish to me for some reason. Too bad you didn't include a dragon den, as it would have been the icing on the cake. I like it, I want it, and I am inspired by it.

[nanuck95]

Looks great, I do like the black and red color combo. The proportions came out really well, I thought the hardest part with the challenge was fitting everything on there without making it look like you're cramming everything on there. I think it came out really nice and there is plenty of detail, but not overwhelming. The interior details are nice as well, thanks for sharing!

[RichardAM]

This is great as i've already commented on flickr, but it's worth saying twice.

It's been lots of fun seeing all the variation in the "entries"- for a 32 base there sure has been plenty of variety.

[Aliencat]

Yep I dig the stylized... style
You've got a proper evil looking castle there, and yay 32x32, it's harder to build something in 32x32 than you would think before you begin cool stuff dude!

[LegoLord.]

Great use of black and red, you don't see much of that any more... Nice job.

[Ye Olde Republic]

Thanks to all for the comments! There are lots about the black and red combination, my thinking was this castle was a 'Do Not Touch' and nothing to me says that quite like black and red. A couple of you also mentioned the cartoony/stylized look. Oh, well, I guess that's something I can't escape but that's OK with me. I've long said that I like to build that way, cartoony, and if it shows though when I'm not really trying to I must feel that my style must be stronger than I knew.

Karrde: Don't worry about BL orders, if that's what you want to do...YAY!
Richard: Thanks for leaving a comment here even though you commented previously on Flickr.

This was a really organic build for me, in that I didn't have a plan when I started. I slapped down a baseplate, laid out a few BURPs and LURPs and they dictated the shape of the footprint of the castle. I still didn't really know where it was going until I'd laid down about 10 layers of brick and I saw the shape. It was fun, sure there are a few things I would change, both construction wise and aesthetics wise but those are lessons I'll apply to my next project!

[Heir of Black Falcon]

YOR,

Nice tower! I really enjoy the look of it. The story that goes along with it is also very good. I did not get the cartoony feel but that may just be me. I love the color combo of black and red. Turned out very nice.

Heir

[Seikfreid]

I like the story behind this, especially with the inclusion of "Mother Nature." I also appreciate your use of the bricks you already owned and of the red-on-black look.

[Vilmar]

Funny, I am trying to improve a 32x32 castle for my shadow army (about 20 figs)

[Ye Olde Republic]

Did you mean to post that in this topic?

Read: what does that have to do with this topic/thread?

[Attli35]

Megablocks they just keep getting better and better. Nice work.

[Teherean]

Y'know, I've been building 32x32 for years, just due to brick limitations. And to see people that usually build big castles build stuff small for once is a welcome change. That, And all the entries look cool. Mine'll be up soon

[lefty]

Did you mean to post that in this topic?

Read: what does that have to do with this topic/thread?

I believe he's saying your 32x32 castle is similar to what he wants to build (dark colors, 32x32)