MCC V Entry: Kingdom of Light and Darkness

[nanuck95]

The idea is that there are two castles, one is a kingdom of light and rests in the clouds, the other is a kingdom of darkness and rests in a desolate wasteland.

I originally started out with just the white castle, but thought it was really boring by itself, so I added the second castle with the volcano and the lava flow and clouds to kind of separate things a bit.

I spent a bit of time playing around with photography as well, I see what people mean about trying to take pictures of black and white castles being difficult. The pictures came out ok, although I think the black one didn't turn out as nice as I would have liked.

I enjoyed building it, but I'm finding that building mini/micro scale is more challenging than it looks. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!



Brickshelf Folder: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=402487

[marcosbessa]

Great idea and very well done!

Loved it! Good luck!

[Athos]

I think I'm going to try and make myself critique one MOC per day. Today, Nanuck, you'll be my first... So here goes:

I think it would look cool, if you tried to mirror the two castles' landscapes. With the evil castle, the mountain/lava part on the left, should have a corresponding cloud formation on the right. What else might be interesting, is if you could somehow (and I don't know how, just yet) place the white one over the bottom one, to highlight the airy nature of it. Maybe change the dark grey part in the white castle, since it reminds me too much of the dark castle.

I like the round parts on top of the white towers. The trees are also nice. Maybe stick another green 1x1 or two on top of each and turn them 90 degrees from the other. I think the white castle, is too basic though. You should work on putting more details in, but I'm not sure what. Maybe snot some white teeth parts on either side of the gate? The reversed headlight bricks are nice. I wonder if you could put something underneath them, that sticks out a bit? I'm not sure the transclear bricks work as clouds for me. They seem more like ice...

The black castle I like more. I wonder if you could run some black spears down the round towers to give them points at the top. I like the use of the mudguard over the gate, though I wonder if you could somehow make the gate taller (I don't like the brickpiece behind the mudguard, but I think its part of the piece). What about a couple of burned trees to contrast with the white castle's trees? A bit more landscaping might help too...

Steve

[nanuck95]

I think I'm going to try and make myself critique one MOC per day. Today, Nanuck, you'll be my first... So here goes:

Thanks for taking the time to write so many comments, I really appreciate it. A lot of good suggestions in there, the idea of making the castles somewhat of a mirror of each other sounds good, I think you're right and think it would bring more "unity" to the MOC without wrecking the concept.

I'll see what I can do to spruce up the white castle a bit and add some landscaping to the dark one, I like the idea of some burned out trees. My wife had the same suggestion about putting two green 1x1 plates on top of each other, but I wanted to make them look like palm trees so I didn't do it, lol! You're both probably right, it would fill them out a bit.

The beauty of this contest is miniature is something I rarely build, because it's a lot harder (for me anyway) than it looks. I spent a few days wrestling with this one and quite a few times had to put it down for a while so I could clear my head and pick it up later and start fresh. But, it's good and fun to do something challenging that really makes you think. I do appreciate the feedback, your suggestions are received with much gratitude and encouragement.

[lefty]

What the long post said about the white castle being over the dark castle was actually exactly what I was thinking, and what I expected too. I was a little disappointed, but the moc is still good.