Black Castles?

Paradox · Post by **Paradox** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:37 pm

So, long before I joined C-C, I had a desire to build a black castle and have been collecting pieces for it as I go. I now realize that grey appears easier to work with (more colors go with grey than black) and more historically accurate (black rock would be hard to get a lot of). However, I like the idea of a large black castle and given that I already have a lot of the pieces I need and was wondering if anyone had any examples of black castle MOCs.

Drucifer · Post by **Drucifer** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:50 pm

Image is a link.

Here's a black and grey tower I made.

I think a pure black castle would be hard to do well, since the color will hide a lot of the detail. Also, it's pretty difficult to get good photographs of black LEGO.

Post by **Bruce N H** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:38 pm

Do a search on "Orthanc" on Brickshelf and you'll get a whole bunch of examples. Here's My version:

Probably the most impressive I know is Ersh's:

Follow the search link above for others.

Moving away from Orthanc, Dave O'Hare has an amazing Wizard's Tower:

As you can see, and as Drucifer noted, black tends to obscure details. One fix is to go with black with gray highlights, as in TheJosh's Cabalistic Castle:

or KingArthur's Ironmen's Castle:

Of course, the black-with-gray-highlights has been used in official sets:

which means that most important castle pieces should be available in these colors.

Bruce

Magnus · Post by **Magnus** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:59 pm

Go with black and limited grey highlights. If you're lucky even if you use new grey it will look pretty decent.

Paradox · Post by **Paradox** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:51 pm

Right now, I'm using black walls with light grey, blue and dark blue. So I from what most people are saying is that I can get a pretty decent looking castle doing this, which is all I want. Thanks for everyone's opinions.

(man, how I wish you could get dark blue 1x4 bricks in bulk)

Slobey · Post by **Slobey** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:30 am

Paradox wrote: (man, how I wish you could get dark blue 1x4 bricks in bulk)

Shop on Bricklink.com. I'm now living on tinned food because of this site

Nah not really but if you want bulk peices try here first

Paradox · Post by **Paradox** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:08 pm

Already have. There are currently 2 available for $1.50 (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPriceGu ... colorID=63) a piece with the largest purchase at 18 for $0.88 a piece earlier this month neither of which is a high amount number or a very good price.

William Wall-less · Post by **William Wall-less** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:45 pm

Hi first post here, I planned on building a keep in black, but you can't get good details in black, so I'm going to go with grey myself.

Slobey · Post by **Slobey** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:44 am

William Wall-less wrote:Hi first post here, I planned on building a keep in black, but you can't get good details in black, so I'm going to go with grey myself.

Hi welcome to our world, hope you find it entertaining and informative.

I build most of my castles with a mainly black theme, a bit of grey highlights or mottled effect looks good but unfortunatly details get lost as soon as you try to photograph them

Infyrana · Post by **Infyrana** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:58 pm

I'm in much the same situation. I'm building a very big castle in black now and have chosen blue as contrast colour. In fact quite a lot of blue. I've had some success using black slopes for texture since the slightly different surface reflects light slightly different. Still very difficult to photograph. As I can only build during weekends it will likely take me another month or so to complete. It won't look anything like a real castle but it will look like a fantasy castle and it will match my Black Falcons quite well.

The dark tide · Post by **The dark tide** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:49 pm

I found that dark grey highlights seem to work best.I am currenly working on an Orthanc from LOTR, but the problem is I cant use grey in it because it is depicted as a solid black tower.lol

Slobey · Post by **Slobey** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:10 am

The dark tide wrote:I found that dark grey highlights seem to work best.I am currenly working on an Orthanc from LOTR, but the problem is I cant use grey in it because it is depicted as a solid black tower.lol

I've seen other black castles overlayed in various places with transparent clear bricks, gives it a glistening look

Paradox · Post by **Paradox** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:38 am

I've seen other black castles overlayed in various places with transparent clear bricks, gives it a glistening look

That's an awesome idea. I'll have to play with that idea a bit.

wunztwice · Post by **wunztwice** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:13 am

That's a great idea. I'll have to experiment with that!

The dark tide · Post by **The dark tide** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:17 am

Wouldnt it give it a kinda whitish look thus making it look less evil?