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Under Construction
CASTLE 1
Interesting note- The towers and castle walls (except the front one) were built without
the aid of plate/flat pieces. It was all basic bricks, with some arches for
the doors/windows, and the sloped pieces to cap the merlons on the battlements.
Why no plates? Because I didn't have very many of any significant size in
the same colors. I wanted a wide "functional" walkway in a consistent
color, and with a wall structure that is easily scalable (meaning, all
I needed to do is buy more blue tubs (#3033) to add more wall).
The castle may look somewhat simplistic in design compared to a lot
of the large castle MOCs ("my own creation") made by many AFOLs ("adult
fan of lego"). This is deceptive to a degree. One reason is that there were some
interesting design challenges in the wall structure. Without plates, getting
a 6-stud-wide walkway plus a 2-stud-thick battlement to stay up and
stay strong was difficult, especially with the hollow-walls you see (small support
culumns under the allures for support and little else). Also, when you look at a
lot of castles made with the standard "castle wall" pieces, the small windows and the common
usage of grey 1x2 bricks for battlement merlons gives you a different
sense of scale. It looks more detailed, so it looks bigger. I opted instead
to use large battlement blocks so they'd look functional (the question is
whether someone can hide behind a merlon or not), even though it looks
less detailed and less refined. Oh well. :) I also wanted a large empty
courtyard, even though that too looks less detailed.
No pictures of the interior have been made yet, which only had minor
detail anyway. A throne-room with thrones, and torch-holders on the
columns... a small kitchen, and a storage room.
This page shows the evolution of my castle model. It's been dormant for
a while, due to feline interference... I had hoped that the little cat
would outgrow such overwhelming need to play with my LEGO, but he hasn't,
so now I've built a plexiglas barrier (shown in one of the pictures below).
CASTLE 2
For the second incarnation of the castle, once I was able to resume construction
with a means to keep the cat out of it, I decided at first to maintain the old
keep and replace the curtain wall and courtyard. I took the old corner towers and
integrated them into the keep. While I liked this modified keep as it was, it
clashed in color and design against the new curtain wall, so I wanted to create
something a little more historical and understated. The new keep is shown in the
later pictures.
This castle is using a completely different
design philosophy, since my collection of parts grew significantly, and I wanted
something with more visual detail. The first six pictures show the new castle with
the old keep, and at the original length I was going to build it at (112 studs long).
After that, additional wall was added (total length 144 studs) [additional pictures
yet to be added]:
Castle 1 (80x96 studs) 
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Black Tower
The tower was originally intended to be the home of our local liche, Ilrath.
It may end up getting repurposed, as the castle is still a work in progress.
The pictures don't show the detailed interior. There's a chair and desk inside
the second floor, and a panel on the back opens to access that room. The first
floor, just inside the door, has a barrel with tools and weapons, and a treasure
chest, and a ladder leading upstairs. There's also a ladder continuing up to the
roof level, which has a trap-door style hatch to access the roof.
Castle 2 (64x144 studs [64x112 in the first six pics]) 
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Black Tower 
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