Classic-Castle Farm Standard

[architect]

This standard is meant to provide an easy way for various people to work together to build a large medieval farmland display. Since this concept is specifically designed for displaying purposes, many elements (such as the need for a coordinator) are included. Please do not let this limit creativity. Producing a large countryside can be daunting task. This standard will allow fans with small, moderate, or large collections to participate.

Check out the standard here:

http://www.classic-castle.com/ccc/farmstandard.html

Please post your suggestions to improve the standard in this thread. Thanks!

[JoshWedin]

Hey Ben,

Impressive job on the farm standard, it is deceptively simple. After reading the 'rules', my first thought was, "This can't work, its not complex enough". But I can't find any loopholes that would mess it up. Excellent job!

Josh

[architect]

Hey Ben,

Impressive job on the farm standard, it is deceptively simple. After reading the 'rules', my first thought was, "This can't work, its not complex enough". But I can't find any loopholes that would mess it up. Excellent job!

Josh

Thanks Josh! The only hard parts I can think of right now is putting curved roads/paths through or near the farms. We will test this out at BrickFest and see how well it works.

Connecting the farms could be done with corner field marker stones such as grey round 2x2 plates.

Ben

[footsteps]

Thanks Josh! The only hard parts I can think of right now is putting curved roads/paths through or near the farms. We will test this out at BrickFest and see how well it works.

Connecting the farms could be done with corner field marker stones such as grey round 2x2 plates.

Ben

No matter how "foolproof" you make something, some fool will come along and mess it up!

With that, let me just jump right in...

For roads/paths, keep using the "multiple of 8" principle. Roads are 8-wide on plates or baseplates that are some multiple of 8. When a road reaches an edge, there must be some multiple of 8 studs (or zero studs if the edge is only 8 wide) on either side of the road.

Thus, an 8x16 plate could have a road the goes straight along the length, or cuts across the width with an 8x8 field portion next to it.

On 16x16 or larger baseplates, the road can wander wherever it likes withing the baseplate, as long as its entrance/exit on an edge leaves multiples of 8 (or zero) on either side.

A bend in the road can be made on as small as an 8x8 plate.

++++++++++++

Overall, I think the "standard" of multiples of eight is inspired. Having 8x8 or 8x16 patches of field means that there is little or no chance of blank spots. A small rocky hillock can quickly be made to fill any gaps in a display. Hmmm, I'm already getting some ideas for small non-tilled segments of field.

But first, we have to move.

Alan

[Athos]

A bunch of the round trees would make a nice orchard field too. I've been meaning to do a MOC with an orchard for quite a while.

Here is some corn (though I know corn is not really medieval, as it was an American crop): You could probably modify it into wheat.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Athos/DarkTower/TheDarkTowerI/gs018.jpg

The vines on the side could make nice vineyards, especially if you had some purple round 1x1s (does such a thing exist?) or some light green ones:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Athos/DarkTower/TheDarkTowerI/gs023.jpg

Steve

[kelderic]

This is good. This whole idea of standards was inspired, and this one lives up to it's name. It doesn't require many b bricks, so people with smaller collections can participate, and it still looks good, and will help to bring the display alive.

Kelderic

[architect]

For roads/paths, keep using the "multiple of 8" principle. Roads are 8-wide on plates or baseplates that are some multiple of 8. When a road reaches an edge, there must be some multiple of 8 studs (or zero studs if the edge is only 8 wide) on either side of the road.

Thus, an 8x16 plate could have a road the goes straight along the length, or cuts across the width with an 8x8 field portion next to it.

On 16x16 or larger baseplates, the road can wander wherever it likes withing the baseplate, as long as its entrance/exit on an edge leaves multiples of 8 (or zero) on either side.

A bend in the road can be made on as small as an 8x8 plate.

Your road ideas are good. As long as it is in a mutiple of eight at the edge, arranging a road should be possible.

Overall, I think the "standard" of multiples of eight is inspired. Having 8x8 or 8x16 patches of field means that there is little or no chance of blank spots. A small rocky hillock can quickly be made to fill any gaps in a display. Hmmm, I'm already getting some ideas for small non-tilled segments of field.

Rock outcroppings are a cool idea. Those could easily be made with big ugly rock peices on a 8x8 plate. Any 8x8 plate could be a farm related vignette like Nelson's scarecrow.

Ben

[Traveler]

This is a great idea. It should really help move castle displays in an even more realistic direction, as an actual town would be surrounded by supporting fields of crops. My question is, will the farm display be integrated into a town using the CCC standard? If so, it would neeed to be carefully planned to match up with the size of the outer wall of the city.

Good thinking!

[WilliamH]

For roads/paths, keep using the "multiple of 8" principle. Roads are 8-wide on plates or baseplates that are some multiple of 8. When a road reaches an edge, there must be some multiple of 8 studs (or zero studs if the edge is only 8 wide) on either side of the road.

Thus, an 8x16 plate could have a road the goes straight along the length, or cuts across the width with an 8x8 field portion next to it.

On 16x16 or larger baseplates, the road can wander wherever it likes withing the baseplate, as long as its entrance/exit on an edge leaves multiples of 8 (or zero) on either side.

A bend in the road can be made on as small as an 8x8 plate.

Your road ideas are good. As long as it is in a mutiple of eight at the edge, arranging a road should be possible.

Or make paths 4 wide down an edge of a baseplate. Roads are then two abutting paths

[The Blue Knight]

This is a great idea. It gives more structure to the display, it could become part of our moonbase equivalent. Please post some pix of the fields when you return from BF!

[Remyth]

Great idea Ben!

I think that it is cool that you are trying to get people with little collections (like me ) into the larger MOC world.

[Peppermint Pig]

Factors of 8 are sensible, however when you work big, uniformity of the layout can be compromised by any number of factors, such as whether the table for the display is level and can support the weight, and subtle variances in area for larger pieces.

Stone Goblin and I use baseplates, but we elevate the overall height by a brick and then apply plates. We do this so that we can put 2x1 technic bricks on corners, 2 studs away from the edge so we can keep things locked together. If you plan for it, you can add sink holes and ponds, and you can always build higher.

If there is at all any downside, it's that special baseplates don't line up as conveniently. For Space fans, you might as well just stick with the baseplate as your lowest level, and creating piles of plate to create the altitude you want.

The important thing is to make sure SOME of your roads meet a standard: You'll want some roads to be unique, and definitely organic looking with grass patches that rise a bit over the path height, and winding in and out a bit. If you get to a crossroads, you can have a piece like this, so if someone creates a wholly tan dirt path, it will be perfectly matched.

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A 2 stud from the border dirt path can work, or a thirds approach with grass, dirt path, grass, but I think it will be best to keep small paths centered in the area. I see no problem with doing large dirt paths that are half dirt, half grass, so to connect next to similar pieces to create wider roads. As a pixel artist, I've had to deal with tile challenges before. You don't want to restrict things too much, but you want an efficient design, therefore it's good to rely on communcation between others for the layout.

If the styles of your scenes do not match, then getting a system for pairing pieces together will be the least of your worries.

[architect]

This is a great idea. It should really help move castle displays in an even more realistic direction, as an actual town would be surrounded by supporting fields of crops. My question is, will the farm display be integrated into a town using the CCC standard? If so, it would neeed to be carefully planned to match up with the size of the outer wall of the city.

Good thinking!

Yes, we should be able to use both standards. As long as there are a large quantity of 8x8 and 8x16 bases, surrounding a city wall should not be a problem.

Or make paths 4 wide down an edge of a baseplate. Roads are then two abutting paths

That is a good idea too. Roads could be 8 wide and paths 4 wide.

I think that it is cool that you are trying to get people with little collections (like me) into the larger MOC world.

A good standard should allow people with different size collections to participate

Stone Goblin and I use baseplates, but we elevate the overall height by a brick and then apply plates. We do this so that we can put 2x1 technic bricks on corners, 2 studs away from the edge so we can keep things locked together. If you plan for it, you can add sink holes and ponds, and you can always build higher.

This could work but it sounds very brick intensive. Of course portions of any display could also use this method as long as there were transitional contours sloping down at the edges. I also like the option of adding more changes in elevation to the standard.

Ben

[Peppermint Pig]

You're correct, it is more brick intensive. But on the plus side, having a raised surface also means you will not be seeing the space that is visible when bricking together two baseplates, as well as the issue of baseplate vs plate height differences. If you use technic pins/stud joints, then it doesn't really matter as much whether you use plates or baseplates underneath just as long as there's some type of support structure to keep the pins locked without much stress. Supports could instead be done with spaced brick pillars on smaller plates and/or a 'boxed in black wall for the edge of the piece. I like duplo for this task.

If many people are to contribute to a farm scene, I think it would be better to go ahead with more piece usage (might as well go for quality??). If technic pins are used, there would be more opportunities for raised design exploration, such as plateauing to allow groups of mocs to sit at different heights, and insert hillsides or cliffs between them.

[Mike Viper]

Don't forget on making berry bushes. All you need is a bunch of 1x1 square flat green pieces, 1x2 flat green pieces and some 1x1 flat round red pieces.

Build up a bush, which isn't that complicated, leaving gaps like real bushes, this would be done with the help of the 1x1 squares, and stick in some of the red pieces as berries.

Hope I helped.