WiP: Building on a bit of everything

In today`s post I`m going to be taking a bit of a roundabout of a few projects I`m currently working on.

Like probably a lot of MOCcers out there, I`m usually busy doing a gazillion projects and ideas at once, and for me personally that`s building up some Harry Potter builds for Antwerp Convention coming in may, continuing work on my Mitgardian army and builds, and then some...

The first project I`ve been slowly completing, to that measure I only need to add five more Chima polar bears, is my Mitgardian army.  Through a trade with a fellow BeLUG member, the cavalry regiment made around the CMF series Hun Warrior is now completed.  I managed to obtain an icebear mount at BMA for my sigfig as well, but forgot to picture him for now.

The second thing I`ve been doing is the baseplate upon which the three sets from the early Harry Potter series are going to be build in.  I named it the Philosopher`s Stone, as it will detail the trials from the end of the first movie, and I`m going to be building up the surrounding area like a high tower of Hogwarts, in the Lego `tan and sand green` colour style.  The deadline for this one is StarCom in july, but I hope to have it done already by Antwerp Convention.

A third build, which has been progressing nicely so far, is the Expelliarmus! MOC I`m doing for Harry Potter.  I want to recreate the duel scene between Snape and Lockhart as they began the duelling club again in the second movie (I have a soft spot for Gilderoy) and this should be ready in time for Antwerp Convention without to much problems.

I have also been spending time on making the Jurassic World set display for the Diphlo, with the cage for the beast which will include a path for the `orbs` to pass through, and a raised area for the jeep that comes in the set.

Not a MOC an sich, but something I have been doing today, is restore a lived out, old laptop I got from my father in law for the parts.  The thing overheated, could barely connect decently to the net and whizzed and cracked from all sides.

I exchanged the network card and processor, and tampered a bit with the cooling in order to make him a not necessarily connected to the net viewing tool for PDF instructions and such.  It can go on the net, but it has severe graphic card issues (something I`m not shelving a lot of euros for to restore) and it`s battery lasts between half to an hour when not on cablepower, but this is enough to run LDD and Adobe smoothly and serve as a large screen to check various builds. 

This thing will actually come in handy when I`m finally starting my Gundam build for next year`s FACTS, as I`ll be looking over a LOT of online articles and pictures to see how to stabilize the connections the best and how to make the frame strong enough to build around.

Project Merak: The Forest

Well, here is the first of the plates I managed to complete for my ambitious Project Merak plan.

As I said a few weeks ago, in this I want to create a full fantasy / castle lay out build around my character`s village of Merak, located in the Guilds of Historica Mitgardia.  The idea is as such to build plates incorporating excisting (classic) sets, MOC`s and scenery building, and even the odd custom piece or figure left or right.

Until all will stand united into a full lay out...

The first one incorporates as such two classic sets, the Forestmen Hide-Out and the old Wizard that lives in a treetrunk.  And then we add the CMF`s Unicorn and a Mouse Guard traveller by Crazy Bricks...

In the scenery department, I went for a mixture of the good old Lego trees, combined with full brick build ones to add variety and colour to the forest livery.

Unicorns are by the way magical creatures, leaving flowers in their path.

A lone pilgrim passes by the old wizard, unaware perhaps due to a spell of illusion of confundlement?

And such is the first of a series of plates that is completed, and I will be hauling it to BMA this weekend.  I already completed a second one alongside this plate, featuring my Beacon of Merak MOC, but that I`ll be uploading tomorrow.

Army of Mitgardia WIP: the Sabretooth Regiment

With the small Chima haul I got from Amazon the past week, I managed to complete another one of my regiments for my Mitgardian army, the one made up of Sabretooth warriors.

A twelve strong unit, these freocious warriors are going to be guarding the front of the flanks, ready to let rip when engaging the enemies of the proud northmen.

The army itself is now down to only a handfull of remaining recruits to get, being a single Hun warrior for the cavalry regiment, and about 10 Chima Polar Bears.

Once those are added, the 150 strong force stands ready for the Castle lay out af BMA should the need arise.

The army of Merak: nearing the finish

Today I managed to complete two more regiments for my Mitgardian army, with the addition of the final yeti and some vikings.

Now going into the final straight line as I only need to complete the Chima regiments and get myself a final Hun Warrior from the collectibles series, this means the full 150 warriors are almost gathered.

Of course, when that is all done, that will mean I`ll have to start working on scenic, uniform bases for them to march to glory and fame, but that is a project that will be divided over 2016 and 2017 ;-)

AoM House Phase 2: The Forge of El Dragao

It has been a while with all those sci-fi builds, but I`m back at last to building for Guilds of Historica, and tying this build for Age of Mitgardia in with the continuing Algus Saga.

Bravely, the young hedge knight Lorastan approached the large house.  He had heard the tales, he had the scroll he found in the old library with him. 

"A blade forged by a dragon".  That was it, that was the solution the North needed to fend of the invaders of the Frozen Beyond.  And he had tracked down this master smith for just that thing.

Arriving at the smithy, he was greated by the master smith.  They had sat down and he had told him of the stories he had heard, that he needed to find not only a special ore, but would have had the blade bathed in the breath of a fire dragon.

"Nonsense!" the smith had declared.  "What that scroll implies is that you need a sword forged by ME, the great smith El Dragao!  Ages ago, I learned the craft from the big firewurm Flambretsky himself, mightiest of the dragons of the roaring flame!"

"But it will cost you a hefty sum though" he had added.

Lorastan considered his options, and he agreed.  Surely, this blade would cost him not only everything he owed, but would leave him indebted to the smith for years to come if he failed.  But he wasn`t going to fail, no sir, he was going to defeat the Algus, and the riches and fame would make him one, if not the, mightiest knight of Mitgardia.

He watched with enthousiasm as El Dragao set to work.

Later, on some frozen wasteland.

The Mitgardian Army: WIP update 19th of July

Thanks to Miniaturetrading.com, I managed to exchange CMF`s for the missing Highlander and the missing Barbarian I still needed for my force of Mitgardia.

Aimed to have the `army` completed by Brick Mania Antwerp, that means I`m slowly but steadily gathering all the troops for this 150 strong rag tag band of stout northern troops.

Every medieval army had small units of skirmishers to disturb enemy archer lines, and that is just what these two small bands have as a role on the battlefield.  I used some thrid party and some official parts to customise those last two additions to act as `unit champions`, to add some variety to the force though.

Keep in mind the base plates are still placeholders, once the force is fully completed I hopefully will be able to uniform those as well, but for now the force looks like this:

The next regiment about to be completed is the Yeti one, as the last lacking member of that group is also somewhere in the mail currently, so hopefully he arrives soon :-)

Inspirational Lego 23: The Beacons of Mitgardia

For those following Guilds of Historica, you might have noticed that various beacons have been popping up on the forum.

This was part of a collaboration to make the North wake up in the Algus Invader story we are building there.

And I`m proud to say that this was my actual idea, woop woop, so at least I contributed something.

The good thing is that others, who where `not in the loop`, also have been lighting beacons now, as the whole of the Viking force is gathering to drive this ancient evil off.

So for this weeks Inspirational, here is an oversight of all the beacons that where lighted the past weeks, in no particular order!

MOC: The Beacon of Merak

Remember that awesome scene in Return of the King where Gondor lighted up the beacons to plea for help from Rohan?  Well, over on Eurobricks, Mitgardia is doing the same thing, as the storyline of the Frozen Beyond proceeds.  The Algus have began their invasion in earnest, and now the beacons are lid to rally the North.

I`m actually also a bit proud I was the one that brought on the idea for this particular part to get it into the storyline :-)

Varton sat in his small wooden shack, gazing at the horizon.  He had heard stories of a big civil war far down in the south, where a certain Desert King was taking over the rule of Kaliphlim, but that was not of any concern to the North these days.

The Algus had been assaulting his homelands for months now, and only recently did they learn the name of the foe...

Then, his mouth fell open...

He gazed into the distance.  It was true, it is true, it will come to pass.  He jumped up, grabbed his oily torch and ran onto the top of the hill.

Uridius Keep!  The Beacon of Uridius Keep is lit!  The North awakens!

He lighted up his own torch and set the Beacon of Merak ablaze.  Flames roared upwards in the big bonfire, and the word would continue to travel!

This was a rather fun build to do, especially the `flameworks`.  Now, let the word travel further and the beacons all be lighted up over Mitgardia.

Let`s wait and see how far this will carry and what Mitgardia will do against the invaders!

The Revelation

Part of my Mitgardia builds for Guilds of Historica, this is the latest one I made, and is part of the `Frozen Beyonders` that have been popping up on Eurobricks lately.  

My contribution to this collab project is the revelation of just what these white walkers exactly are, and what their name is...

The hall was restless, Hagen noted.  A tension hung in the air, a sort of electricity of bad things about to happen or that have happened.

He knew the old sage had requested a gathering, and scanning the hall, he noticed many of his mightiest warriors had gathered today to see what the old man had to say.

For months now, strange attacks have been occuring in the North, but the fancy political struggles in far south Kaliphlim have made it a problem Mitgardia alone will face.  From the frozen lands of the great beyond, mysterious white warriors have been attacking small villages and settlements.  But none of those white clad brigands have been caught so far. 

They seemed to come and go as fleetingly as a snowflake in an icy storm.

Sage Knorr was pouring more herbs into the firepit, when he signalled his assistant to light the fire up.  A thick black smoke started to rise, but then suddenly the fire burst into bright blue flames.  Flames that almost looked as burning tendrils of ice.  The smoke changed colour, and turned to a snowy white, and he was certain the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as the warriors shifted uneasily as they looked on.

He saw the outlines of a man... no, not a man, a demon.  A demon that looked like it spawned straight from the big glaciers. 

"Behold" Knorr said "our scourge!" 

He had the attention of all gathered, as he continued in his raspy voice.

"They have been sent by our Lord Odin himself, ressurected warriors of a bygone age.  Mighty is their number, and cold is their touch!"

"But why?" Bork Blackbeardson asked.  "Why does Odin send these fiends against us?"

The answer of the old sage send a shiver down Hagen`s spine.

"He wants to test us.  According to the legends, every 7 generations, he sends forth these fallen warriors to see if the People of Mitgardia still remain strong.  They will make sure that we are still the wall that stands against the colds of the Frozen Beyond... and for that, he sends against us... THE ALGUS!!!"

As the hall roared, and Wulf leaped on the table with his axe shouting he would defeat them all, Hagen could have sworn he saw a flicker of malignicy in the Raven Statue`s eye...