Mandrelrock Castle

[xsane]

The castle is ruled by women warriors. Some of the lords didn't like this and now they have launched an attack.



Other pictures:
www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=177632

[Tingo]

If you said you made that I don't know If I would beleive you or not. THATS SO COOL! That has to be the best Lego Castle that I have ever seen! I think Its better than Vladek's Dark Fortress. Well done on that.

[dengar]

that is amazing!!!

[TheQ]

Sorry that it took so long but here is my "review":

Castle

This creation reminds me strongly of Anthony Sava's Halcyon Castle. I like the size of the castle (not overwhelming large but still larger than average castle] and those structures that both strenghten the castle and give some visual "eye-candy".

But next time you build castle, be bit easy on the colors, ok? From a quick look, I saw 7 different colors. Detail colors are good, of course but your wall are made of white, black, OldGrey and LightBley bricks, something that really catches my eye. But since this was made to be "kids playground", it doesn't matter so much. Just remember that 'making more eye easy color-scheme' can be done in two different ways: Either using lesser colors or by concentrating single color on single purpose (Sava's Halcyon castle is good example of this).

Tower

Tower is probably my favorit bit of this whole MOC. Those wedges coming from below create nice smoothing look to the whole construction. That "statue" in front of LightBlay rounded 4 x 4 plates is very good example of how to concentrate major deal of the detail to the one area. Since that area is much more lighter colored than it's surroundings, it works very well.

My only "whine" about tower is the thicknes of it. I would suggest making the tower thinner, so that it would look taller. The tip of the tower is blunt so adding that effect to the thickness of the tower makes it look very thick.

Bridge

Congratulations, you have succeed on a thing that I hadn't been abl e to do! I mean using those large "shipyard"-pieces successfully. I have always wanted to use them but I hadn't found a good way to incorporate them to the creation. You found a good way to use them.

Now, only if you would have made those brown fences slight smaller. They look rather big now, which is rather "inaccurate".

Surroundings

You have taken "good road" by making the surrounding terrain. That is one of those things that are hard to master but I believe that this creation was helpful. I have found out that one of the hardest thing to build is believable terrain.

I hoped that you would make those trees out of bricks instead of using special parts. If you want to try how to make trees out of bricks, Anthony Sava has good example for it. Those might have worked better than those special tree parts. (Tree pieces are unnaturally small too)

Summa summarum, this is nice piece of work. It has some pieces that you should work out, but all LEGO MOCs have them

-Q

[xsane]

Thanks for the comments.

I totally agree with the color thing. I tried to make impression of a rock surface by using all colors between white and black. It didn't work and I build most of the upper walls again. Final disaster was the gate, which I like a lot but it adds more colors to the wall.

Altogether the project was too big. It took too much space and time. My kids hate unplayable unfinished projects :-)

One more thing I wasn't able to finish was the original purpose of the tower. The idea was to drop huge stones to the center hole, they would come thru the round door, smashing the statue and finally crushing the enemy on the bridge road.

[Jamit]

I, like TheQ am late in giving my review, and am very sorry about that. I also did not take the time to read his review. So I hope I am not repeating him (though mine will be much shorter).

Excellent! This MOC is another example that "shortcut" pieces can be used in MOCs and can look good in the MOCs that they are used in. You used those tall, square, light gray pieces very well in this MOC.

In my mind, this MOC could have been better if you had used less colors. The places were you use black, dark gray, and light gray together are an eyesore.* But those few spots don't take away the fast that this is a very well done MOC.

*I believe TheQ talked about the colors, sorry I had to bring them up as well.

[kugerfangs]

that is an awesome castle there xsane, I really like! im glad to see some1 else who is interested in this theme as well! =) keep up the good work!

[Jamit]

kugerfangs said:

im glad to see some1 else who is interested in this theme as well! =) keep up the good work!

Trust me, there are tons of Castle fans on the net.

[TheQ]

www.classic-castle.com/ - You like Castle, you go there