October 27, 2009

Wow. I "started" this model back in February. Since then,
I've acquired more bricks, and with the help of my wife - who
is a professional organizer - I've been able to set up a good
workspace. I've found that when my workspace is not in good
order and my bricks are "mixed up" (rather than sorted well)
I do not build. I also realize that I need to sort my bricks
beyond color! It's a pain in the rear to find small little
gray pieces at the bottom of a bin of all the same color! It
gets a bit frustrating.

I don't have any particular "story" behind this castle. Lord
of the Rings is obviously emblazoned in my imagination... I
ended up putting in a wisened old wizard like Gandalf, a
scout-like Aragorn figure, an elf-like Legolas figure and a
dwarf that evokes Gimli... but I had no intention of trying
to get together an actual LOTR type of scene (I do, after
all, have a Giant in the room as well and there are no
"giants" in LOTR). (The "Giant" is the Hagrid figure from the
Harry Potter Lego sets.) On the lower basement level I have a
troll hidden in one of the barrels and a skeleton tucked
under the decking. Of course there's beer in some kegs...
What castle is complete without beer in kegs?

A few notes:

-- I like the "corner" of the castle approach. It gives one
the ability to show a 'cross section' of the castle (showing
both interior and exterior).

+ This poses a challenge because you can't just make a brick
'facade' and the way the wall looks on the inside is
important for the sake of setting up the 'playability' of the
interior.

-- Earlier I complained about the different shades of gray
that have been released by Lego over the years and the
difficulty in keeping things "consistent" and "neat" by
grouping the grays together. Since then, I think I've come to
terms with the different grays. After all, individual stones
are NOT all the same shade of gray!

-- I tried to avoid the "big gray wall" syndrome (a plain,
boring wall made of a flat sheet of gray bricks). To do this
I used a lot of gray tiles and "headlight" bricks to make
bricks that "stick out" a bit from the main body of the wall.

-- I think in the next castle MOC I'd like to enclose the
castle (in the round) and then make the floors removeable
like the Cafe Corner buildings.

-- I'm hoping to expand this castle by playing with the "land
scaping" around the moat.

-- A few things are of course more fantasy than practical
castle. The windows at the low level would make the castle a
bit vulnerable. The drawbridge over a very small moat does
not offer too much protection. I don't have a clue what the
little "pier" thingy is that juts off of the doors on the
front left side. I was just playing around when I first
started and kept it. I may remove it and come up with
something else.

-- I still don't like the drawbridge out of Technic beams...
It's too modern.

-- In the future I want to get the mechanism for lowering the
drawbridge more "hidden" than on the side of the cuttaway...
I'd have to plan that more into the original building though.

February 1, 2009 - the notes below were written when I first
started to build this particular project.

This is the first castle model I've made in 20 years. My wife
asked me to build her a castle, so I set out to do so. Now
that I'm doing it, I think I'm hooked on the castle theme! I
love the creativity involved. It certainly taps into my
imagination. As a kid I loved building castle stuff, and I'd
kill for my old classic castle sets!

A few notes:

-- I decided to make the model only the "corner" of the
castle - so I could conserve bricks and so that the interiors
are exposed.

-- I started out with regular blue bricks representing the
water (studs on top). I was able to obtain some light-blue
1x2's a few months ago at the Lego store, so I decided to
change the water to light-blue smooth-surface (SNOT). I don't
have too many, so I had to incorporate the "grass" around the
edges. I may have to take apart my Market Street model to use
the bricks available in that set! :)

-- The draw bridge is a WIP, of course. I like using the
Technic beams (because of the rounded end that allows for
only a 1-brick deep hinge, but the rounded end on the top/far
end of the drawbridge look too modern (as do the Technic
holes on the sides of the bridge).

-- The brown/tan structure on the top is meant to be an
"addition" that juts out from the castle wall (which is not
complete!). I think that the brown beams are too thick at one
brick's height, but I don't have enough brown plates to
change it at this point, so the brown bricks are a
compromise.

-- If I keep working on Castle MOC's, I'm going to have to
buy some more brown bricks/plates! I've got lots of grey/bley
bricks (never enough). Because of the low-tech nature of the
time period, the more brown I have the better. I actually
started dismantling my beloved Cafe Corner to plunder the
brown bricks!

-- I'm starting to understand folks' frustration with the
change in colors of the grey/bley bricks. I purchased a bunch
of Legos second hand last year, so I've got a lot of the old
greys. I like that there are, in effect, 4 or 5 different
shades of gray, but I'm beginning to see the challenge of
making things 'neat' with the variety. I may have to sort
them into different piles!

-- I need a bigger workspace! I'm cluttered while I build,
and it's a bit frustrating.

-- I'm interested in getting better at 'landscaping'. It's
tougher than it looks to make bricks look like rock and
grass! I need more green for the grass! I enjoyed working on
the rock-base to the castle.

-- I'm glad I purchased the Castle Advent Calendar. It whet
my appetite for more. Now I'm hoping to get some vikings as
well as the new Medieval village set. (Time to start saving
my pennies and sell some books!)

-- I'm so glad I've gotten back into Lego. This is a really
great way to unwind, and it's a great creative outlet.