widmore keep

MOC: Widmore in Fall

Earlier this year, I built a Lego Castle, with the plan of displaying it at Lego shows. That never happened, but I kept it built nonetheless, just in case. Last month, and with my Lego User Group’s meet-up scheduled for the end of November, I gave it a Fall/Autumnal refresh. Storm Arwen coincided that very same weekend, and with snow showers, sheet lightning, and plenty of fallen trees on the road during that drive down, the event was rescheduled, with display, again, postponed. Nonethless, the MOC got a new lick of paint, and it’s all set once again for showing online!

Structurally it’s the exact same model as before. The landscaping is a little bit different -hundreds of leaf pieces!- and there’s a little bit of time progression and new character detail, but other than that it’s a seasonal reskin. I’m already planning the Winter version, which will, I expect, look a *lot* different.

“Widmore in Fall. As Autumn lands in the great forests, the despicable Lion Knight stronghold lies empty of prisoners. With their comrades free, the Forestmen now strike for greater riches.”

MOC: Widmore Keep

After two lockdowns, several weekend builds, and a great supply of Light Bluish Grey bricks from my Lego User Group, Widmore Keep is finally finished! The MOC is a remake of a Castle I built 11 years ago, but expanded, bigger, and with a few new bricks and building techniques from the subsequent years. This was something I was building with intentions to display at a number of Lego fairs and exhibitions last year, and while that’s still the plan, it’s entirely dependent on the world (and it’s governments) sorting itself out again. The castle and scene are inspired by many of the Lego catalogue dioramas from the late 80s with armies of minifigs battling and trying to attack castles. Impossible for me to ever fully recreate as a kid, but fortunately the images and ideas were brought forward with me to where we are now: an Adult Fan of Lego! I’m very happy with how it turned out, so there are plenty of photos and some narrative text below while some making-of pics can be found here. There will be a video at some point- it’s taking a bit longer to sort out. Enjoy!

“Widmore Keep- a small holding fortress recognised across the country and on the borders of the greater forests. The High Sherriff William Thomas holds court here, a keeper of key and shrewd to the core, he wants to outlaw and punish many of the forest bandits, rogues, and families for apparent crimes against the crown. Assisted by Quartermaster Wulfstan Reede, Master Bowman Edeline Mille, and a small infantry, the walls are thick and defences are kept secure. Master Dolfair the appointed leader of the Forestpeople has been wrongly captured and sat in a cell for months now, long forgotten, his imprisonment is a cruel ongoing message. Enough is enough- his protégé, Rowan the Cunning, a folk legend hero of break ins, breaks outs, and brimming with deviousness, plots to break him out…”

A Lego Castle WIP

This year -amongst other things- I was planning to attend a few Lego shows across Scotland, and most excitingly, display some builds too. I’ve written previously about plans and how big a fuck up 2020 as a whole has been, and the same unfortunately extends to my ambitions for Lego-based travel too. Nonetheless I’ve had a great year pottering away and building those projects, particularly the big Castle MOC I was planning. This was a build that was supposed to be finished for display in April but as one thing led to another and deadlines changed to July, it still remains sadly unfinished...

So, here it is, in not quite but almost there completion! I’m posting it here because it represents quite a bit of my time this year but it also serves as a big to-do reminder for the upcoming months, where -hopefully- it will be getting displayed publicly. The other reason of course is that while all photos and videos of Lego MOCs online are brilliant, there’s a certain fascination to seeing something not quite finished; a work in progress, rough and ready, where techniques and inspiration can be found. This isn’t the most technical or complicated Lego Castle out there by any means but hopefully someone will find it’s development interesting, or at the very least, inspire them to do their own! I’ve been posting regular updates over on my Lego specific Instagram, but here they all rounded up to show the progress.

I’ve built Lego Castles before -this is going to be a bigger, better, and more complete iteration of my Widmore series- and it’s great seeing that progress over a big 15 year AFOL period. Keeping the mostly same landscaping and shape make comparisons easy, and it’s just satisfying having that all play out like a little child. I’m building for me. Send this back in time so I can play with it! There’s still trees and more landscaping to add as well as further interior details and the addition of actual Lego minifig knights to populate it. With good intentions and a few more weeks it will be finished soon- assuming I don’t get distracted or -more likely- try to make it even bigger!

Let's Talk July 2020

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July was a month of days out, ‘Dark Knight, and deactivating Facebook.

With quarantine and working from home this past month I’ve still found myself a bit up and down mentally but during these “strange times” I’ve accepted it and I’m okay with it. Physically my right leg is still sore as hell, i’m definitely less okay with it- lets continue the stretches. Mood swings are expected, it’s normal to have them, that’s what i’m self- reassuring. What has helped lots however has been less daily social media. I wrote at length previously about why I deactivated Facebook but four weeks later this is something that’s stuck. I’ve deactivated before for a day at a time, so i’m a little surprised, but this has been so liberating, and not nearly as FOMO-inducing as I had worried. Who knew!?! Definitely a win for my 2020.

Lockdown is easing, and with better weather these past few weeks we made an effort to go out and about a bit more. On a very sunny saturday we headed out West a bit and went to Armadale Beach Bay and Strathy Point, packing swimming gear and towels. Despite good intentions this was mistimed, and wind (and rising tides) meant that we weren’t really able to get swimming at all. Ailish tried all the same, but standing in the sea with waves that go up and overhead is maybe all the indication and warning anyone needs. Nonetheless we walked and explored lots, and I took far too many photos and videos as usual: is 300+ too many? Definitely.

Two weeks later we headed to Latheronwheel Harbour to visit The Fairy Glen. Ailish and Wes had been here previously, but despite all my time in Caithness, I had never been. When we arrived the harbour was full of people picnicking, diving from height and swimming -we *really* shouldve brought our own gear- and the walk was a good hour of wandering. Over the bridge, up the hill, and finally down again through the trees to the Fairy Glen itself. Full of trees, rocks, logs and stumps with small decorative doors, windows, and paths, it’s a miniature woodland town with plenty of imagination, heart, and craft skill. We didnt get to see any actual fairies while we were there, they were obviously having a lockdown quarantine of their own. It was inspiring though- I left wanting to make a Fairy House for myself/garden.

This month we rewatched The Dark Knight trilogy. Batman Begins is a shocking 15 years old this month so it made sense to go back and watch them all. The franchise introduced me to director Christopher Nolan’s work, and while I loved them all at the time, it’s now really easy to see their faults/limitations/plot holes. I think for what it’s worth Batman Begins is easily the best Batman film ever with some of the backstory choices and narrative thematics, but The Dark Knight is without a doubt the best film film of the trilogy for just how damn stylish and tightly plotted it is. Dark Knight Rises is fun, but overdrawn, and really not the send-off the trilogy needs. Watching them all back to back now the trilogy feels very uneven in both pace and tone, with some very loose connections, but I still prefer them by far to all the other Batman films. We also watched The Conjuring and Hereditary this month, scary shit. The former was fun and felt relatively trope, the latter was…well, i’m still thinking about it at large, twenty days later. It’s a really bold film, it’s mastercraft slowly unravelling and scaring me the more I think back to it. What a film.

With things in the UK “going back to normal” I made a final push on what i’m building at the moment. I started landscaping for a Lego Castle back in April by building a waterfall but it sat mostly stagnant after realising that due to everything else, it wasn’t going to be at any of the exhibitions/shows later this year I had planned. I spent a few days this month getting good work done on it however and i’m very happy with how it’s coming along, if still somewhat daunted at everything I now need to do to finish it. I *might* have had this feeling before at just…everything i’ve done creatively? The picture below is a bit crap but the potential is there! I’m hoping to have this finished and forested by the end of next month. We’ll see.

This month (and hopefully going forward?) i’ve been posting here, and so far it seems to be going okay. Reflection, and writing are quite important I think, and i’ve found it good while everything the world over turns to shit, no irony. It still seems selfish to put so much focus and energy on myself, but it certainly feels like it’s been working. I made a 1 Second Everyday this month as ever, i’m still really enjoying doing that. Trying to embed it as video here, i’m enjoying that less so.

Phonetically, the word “month” is weird, right? MUN-TH.