Chapter Eight: The hillside and willow tree

 EDITORS NOTE:  I am not Derfel Cardarn.  I am a member of the Derfel Cardarn Appreciation Society.  The following was article is from a Lego online discussion forum www.eurobricks.com. All photos and content belong to the great "Derel Cardarn"

The following was posted by "Derfel Cardarn" on Eurobricks.com discussion forum.  

 Defrel Cardarn's latest update to his Guide to building a Medieval village.

Time to complete the stream and hill, then we can start laying down the land for the main village.

To start, we need to lay down the final part of the stream. This is done the same way as before, using rocks and clear plates on top of the blue plates to make some more small water falls. You will also need to start laying some plates and rocks at the side of the river.


Then we need to build up some more of the rocky cliff. As you can see, I use the BURP pieces as a frame to build the sloping rocks over.


Next I have started to add the green plates. This is done by simply laying plates at different random heights, but to keep things from looking to blocky, I try to make sure that the plates are always only 1 plate higher or lower than each other. Note that I have also added some patches of sand green for variety. I have used sand green bricks for this as they are easier to get hold of. These are used the same way as plates, but remember to lay them at a lower level then you lay the plates so they end up being the same height.


Then we add some foliage the same way as before.


Next we need to finish off the corner. This is again done by laying plates and adding some rock formations. The rocks are very important, because we have built a rocky cliff, we also have to build various over small rock formations here and there, to show that the whole area is rocky. Otherwise it would look a bit odd if there was just a random rocky cliff with no other rocks in the area. Note how I have also continued to build up the black base to give a nice simple border round the moc.


Then, on the other side of the stream, we can build a weeping willow type tree which will look good overhanging the stream and also enclose this back area a bit more, to give it a more natural over grown look. The willow is built using the same tree method that I showed earlier with the hinge bricks. Its just a case of folding the hinge bricks in a downward arch and attaching lots of tree pieces to them to give the weeping willow effect.




Then i've just added a couple of witches sacrificing a frog in the corner


Now we need to finally finish the hill, so first we need to give ourselves some more land to build on. This is done the same as before, by laying out supports and then placing a green base plate on top.




Again, on top of the green base plate I lay a few plates and sand green bricks here and there. The main thing you have to remember is to cover the edges of the base plate with green plates so you don't see the distinct line of the edge of the base plate.


Then we continue this process down to the other end of the moc.

Note how I have added in different patches of green in other shades. This breaks up the standard green.


Now we need to start coming down again with another row of base plates, but for now, I will just lay enough so I have space to finish the hill.


Next, we lay out some BURPS as a guide and frame to build the cliff up on. Note that I have left a gap to build up some grass and a path.


Next I have placed some large green bricks to start forming a basic frame of a slope of grass.


Now I have started to add some plates and build more of the rock work. There are many ways of building rocks, I have chosen to use slope pieces as these are very common, easy to work with and come in most Lego sets.


I have now started to add some brown plates to form a path. Once these are in place we can build the rocks up around them on either side.


Now we can carry on building the rocks to finish of the cliff.




Once we have built up the rocks to the chosen height, we can then lay down some green plates to finish of the hill. The green plates should be mixed around the rocks at the edges of the cliff to give a more natural effect, rather then a plain border of gray with green in the middle.


Finally we can add some plants and foliage around the edges making a nice area where villages can go and relax under the weeping willow.


We now have the start of a nice natural area which will make a great background to the village.





The reason I have ended the hill there, is so I can add a road coming into the village from the back. I can then build up another hill on the other side of the road which is where the windmill will be. This will give a nice raised backdrop for the village.

Next we will start laying some more land and work on some more buildings.

Thanks for reading.
DC

Chapter Six: Trees

 EDITORS NOTE:  I am not Derfel Cardarn.  I am a member of the Derfel Cardarn Appreciation Society.  The following was article is from a Lego online discussion forum www.eurobricks.com. All photos and content belong to the great "Derel Cardarn"

The following was posted by "Derfel Cardarn" on Eurobricks.com discussion forum.  

In the next part we will be building up the remaining landscape behind the mill and I will be adding some trees. So before I start the next part, I'm just going to show a few tree designs that I will be using.

Firstly, in the picture below you will see the 3 leaved Lego plant piece. As you know it comes connected inside a triangle plastic mold that we push out and throw away right? Wrong! Always keep the leftover triangle mold, as this can be cut then straightened out and used for vines and foliage. Its a great useful piece that can be used to wrap around tree trunks and up cliffs and castle buildings.


When people build trees the basic way is to use plates for branches and add the tree pieces on. This works fine, but if your using this technique it can be handy to add some black ariel/lever pieces like in the picture below.

Then you can make some large bunches of tree pieces and then insert them on to the ariel/lever piece through one of the holes. This allows you to angle the tree pieces for different shapes like in the picture below.


This next technique is my personal favourite. This has so many possibilities for tree shapes. It is built using the 1x2 brick hinge which connect at each end. The fact that each 1x2 brick can be bent to a different angle really allows for lots of variation when conecting tree pieces on to them. These pictures below give an example.





These are quick thrown together examples, but with a little time and effort you will be able to create the perfect tree from this method. Also I will add that using this method you can create a perfect example of that Holy grail of trees The Weeping Willow.

Finally, the last tree method I use is from technic parts. This method is used for making spindly looking trees that don't have as many leaves. This is done by clipping lots of technic parts together with 1x2 technic axel's. You use these to make an interesting shape, then clip the tree pieces in the holes using the technic half-pin.
I'm not sure exactly what these particular technic parts are called, but hopefully you will recognize them from the picture.




Well, that's the basic tree designs I will be using. As for height, its really a case of how tall you want them to be. I usually go for a height just taller than the houses or the same size. Tree trunks are really a case of building up bricks, there's not a perfect brick for getting a proper tree trunk effect but the log effect 1x2 brick looks good. Colour is again down to you, brown and black are the best, mainly because there are a lot of elements available in those colours. Dark brown would be perfect, but we are let down by the small amount of elements available in that colour.

Next we will be using these tree designs to create a Witches' Grove behind the mill.

Thanks for reading.
DC

Chapter Four: Waterfalls

 EDITORS NOTE:  I am not Derfel Cardarn.  I am a member of the Derfel Cardarn Appreciation Society.  The following was article is from a Lego online discussion forum www.eurobricks.com. All photos and content belong to the great "Derel Cardarn"

The following was posted by "Derfel Cardarn" on Eurobricks.com discussion forum. 

Now its time to do the waterfall.

Waterfalls can be tricky as its easy to get the wrong look, but a good waterfall no mater how big or small can make a great addition to a landscape. Luckily a simple solution can be reached using mostly 1x2 and 1x1 clear plates.

Firstly I use an 8x8 trans medium blue plate as used for the river, and cover it with a layer of 1x2 clear plates. Then I start another layer from the bottom going up in different lengths topped off with a clear 1x1 wedge piece.




Once that is done, we need to fit it in place. There are 2 methods of doing this depending on what bricks you have. I have mocked up a close up of the two different ways below.

In this first picture you can see I have conected the waterfall piece using a 1x1 with stud. Notice there is a gap between the vertical waterfall and the horizontal clear plates at the bottom. If you are lucky enough to have Clear 1x2 tiles, you can use them here to fill that gap and so connect the waterfall in this method.

If like me, you have never thought of buying 1x2 clear tiles, then we have to do it another way.

In this picture I have the same set up, but have used a 1x1 headlight piece instead of the 1x1 brick with stud. Because the headlight brick has a indent of half a plate, if we connect a 1x1 plate onto the indent we then get an overhang of half a plate. This means that the vertical waterfall piece will now sit up against the clear plates on the ground. You will still have a few little gaps inbetween the studs, but it doesn't notice. You will also have half a plates width gap between the waterfall piece and the wall behind, but again, it wont be scene.

Now we can put it in place.
I have used clear headlight pieces to connect it, rather then the black ones in the picture above. I have also placed 1x2x5 trans blue bricks behind the waterfall to give it a deeper colour.


Now we can build up some of the rocks on either side of the waterfall. To do this, all we do is use different sized dark grey slope pieces and stack them randomly till you get an effect you are happy with. Its really a case of trying different slopes in different places till you achieve a gradual slope and you are happy with it.


Its also handy to have some dark grey wedge pieces, as you can add those on to where ever you feel needs it to help with the effect.


Then we need to level off a small area at the top so we can build a small section of stream.


We then lay a small section of stream, using the same method as before, and then add some more dark grey slopes to finish the top of the rock work around the waterfall.


To finish it off, we then add some more 1x2 clear plates and use these to connect the waterfall to the stream. A few clear and trans light blue 1x1 flat rounds have also been added to help give the effect of bubbles and foam.


The waterfall should now look something like this.


We can then add some foliage around the bottom to complete the look. The top however, has much more work to be done on it yet, but that will come later.




When it comes to building larger mocs like this, I prefer to not have a plan. Yes, I do start out with a vague image in my head, but I prefer to just build and see how it developes. Having reached this point, I can now see tha

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t we will have a hill all across the back of the moc, with a cottage above the mill on the right and a windmill at the top of the hill on the left. Then at the bottom of the hill to the left of the mill we will have the main village with its houses and traders. Maybe a pond as well.

Once the hill is all built up behind the mill we can look at placing some trees, then finish of the whole right side of this moc before moving on to the left.

But first, we can now get that Mill finished!

Next post coming soon!

Thanks for reading.
DC