Cliffton Castle

[Norro]

{Preface} Ahh my first MOC post in a while... and my first castle... (Coincidence?) This forced me to miss Josh Wendin's battle comp so it better be good {On to the post:}

Hi all,

I present Cliffton Castle:



(pic=link to gallery)
deeplinks at bottom of post : )

Cliffton Castle, known locally as the 'Castle of Three Trees' (all right, there are six trees if you want to be picky...), is an outpost of the great Black Knight Empire. It serves primarily as a heavily fortified beacon post


but also has a small harbour front

.

Its name comes from Cliffton Lodge which once dominated the clifftop before the gradually expanding fortifications displaced it.

Pics of the 20 odd interiors (with some location references) can be found here.

And if you're really interested, my faviorite small details are in this folder (pic=link)

Please let me know what you think... I normally include a few fun details but this time I can only offer you the chance to spot two cunning Wolf Pack raiders...

Thanks for looking and God Bless,

Nathan

ohh... a few deeplinks:
street,
apple seller,
Wayfarer's Inn Interior, and
another street.

-Apologies for posting before the gallery is public... but I have a mortal fear of Bruce stealing my thunder
-From the furniture gallery you will quickly perceive I am no JoJo... ; )

[HenrytheV]

WOW That's one big castle. And that's only your first. Great job

[eNiGMa]

Wow... wow... and again, wow....

Need I say more?

[Formendacil]

Beautiful castle! An excellent design, with a beautiful road rising up, and an interesting idea behind it.

And I admire anyone who is capable of mottling. It eludes me completely.

[Jacob C.]

Very beautiful!
So colorful & rich.
I love how all the villagers are frolicking around & about....drinking, selling apples, fighting, etc.
I like how you incorporated the town buildings into the Castle's design too. It looks amazingly good!
It seems you got the mottling right also!
There's not a whole lot more I can say......it's just Beautiful!

How long did it take you to build the whole thing?

[ottoatm]

Truly amazing... this is "one of those" castles... one of those castles, that is... where I just don't know what to post, because actually, it deserves a 3 page paper dedicated to it!

If this is what happens when you miss Josh's contests...May you miss every battle contest to come!!

I'm eagerly awaiting the folder to be public.

[swordfish]

Now that is one awesome huge castle! That must have taken ages to build. I love the way the building on the very right (the blue and white one) is incorporated into the wall. very good job!
And the furniture is also great. I especially like this http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1257869
That is an awesome piece of work.

[Jacob C.]

I just spent about 30 minutes looking at all the details of this castle now that the gallery is public.
Im amazed at how much time you must have put into this.
Your moc has made me realized that I need to stop spending so much money on grey bricks & instead spend money on pieces to detail my mocs.
The amount of detail in this moc just blows me away!

[SavaTheAggie]

Very very cool. I agree with Formendacil, the mottling is very well done. Something that eludes me as well.

I love the 'randomness' of the castle the most, another thing that eludes my building abilities. I can never make a castle that isn't overly symmetrical or straight or whatever. Your castle has a very authentic organicness to it that just wows me.

I will certainly have to study this castle when it comes time for my next large MOC.

--Anthony

[Dragonlord Esq.]

Where have you been hiding? Wow. This is the best castle I've seen in a while. Like Sava said, it just flows with the landscape. It really doesn't feel like the land is built around the castle. Very natural. Make sure to post your next one.

[The Hordesman]

Most awesome structures made by lego builders skip the interior and only makes the facade, but this has both an interior and an exterior of utter beauty!

Interior is something I usually see as a problem, either the castle will lack an exterior, or an interior. Its also enormous, and everything is one way or another linked together! There are many awesome small details... Hope I dont flatter you to much.

In my best scottish fisherman accent:
Yer a Master Builder, laddie boy!

[Jojo]

Hey,


that's a great castle! The landscaping is very well done and I like its irregular shape and the big civillian portion of it. Also the many small details are nice. The bestest detail, in my opinion, is the woman with the water buckets (or cans or however you would call it.) at the well. And I do not pick her just because she's the rare forest maid with a somewhat rare white hat :-)


Bye
Jojo

[JoshWedin]

Hey Nathan,

That is very impressive! It is so full of detail that I still feel like I have missed most of the detail and I examined each picture. I am overwhelmed...words fail me...

Josh

[Norro]

Some house cleaning :

I just spent about 30 minutes looking at all the details of this castle now that the gallery is public.
Im amazed at how much time you must have put into this.
Your moc has made me realized that I need to stop spending so much money on grey bricks & instead spend money on pieces to detail my mocs.
The amount of detail in this moc just blows me away!

...How long did it take you to build the whole thing?

Wow! I'm honoured! Personaly I had to buy grey for this MOC so I can't see the other side of the coin : ) It took about a month and a half to build... and a delay for pics : )

Very very cool. I agree with Formendacil, the mottling is very well done. Something that eludes me as well.

I love the 'randomness' of the castle the most, another thing that eludes my building abilities. I can never make a castle that isn't overly symmetrical or straight or whatever. Your castle has a very authentic organicness to it that just wows me.

I will certainly have to study this castle when it comes time for my next large MOC.

--Anthony

As too the mottling... that was a first as well, so I'm glad it came off! The 'organicness' (great way to put it) was something I reall went for, I wanted a castle that looked like it had been expanded around the terrain...

Wow. This is the best castle I've seen in a while. Like Sava said, it just flows with the landscape. It really doesn't feel like the land is built around the castle. Very natural. [Dragonlord Esq.]

Contiuing my last thought... to achieve the 'flow' I decided to build the mountain/scenery first, leaving only room for a few basements and then build the castle 'in'...

Most awesome structures made by lego builders skip the interior and only makes the facade, but this has both an interior and an exterior of utter beauty!

Interior is something I usually see as a problem, either the castle will lack an exterior, or an interior. Its also enormous, and everything is one way or another linked together! There are many awesome small details... Hope I dont flatter you to much.

In my best scottish fisherman accent:
Yer a Master Builder, laddie boy!

Thanks much! I've always built interiors, but never put a concerted effort into set pieces (like the hutch) before...

that's a great castle! The landscaping is very well done and I like its irregular shape and the big civillian portion of it. Also the many small details are nice. The bestest detail, in my opinion, is the woman with the water buckets (or cans or however you would call it.) at the well. And I do not pick her just because she's the rare forest maid with a somewhat rare white hat
Bye
Jojo

I doubt the rareness would greatly affect you : ) Thanks for the endorsement though...!

God Bless,

Nathan

[Norro]

Hey Nathan,

That is very impressive! It is so full of detail that I still feel like I have missed most of the detail and I examined each picture. I am overwhelmed...words fail me...

Josh

You must have been posting while I was... I am shocked you would look over it so closely!! Hopefully all good... All I see when I look at my own pics is a load of stuff that could have been done better...

Oh, and hopefully this supports my contest excuse : )


God Bless,

Nathan