Mesoamerican Prize: Build Log

Curious to see the creative process of my Mesoamerican Prize for the 2018 Summer Joust? Then this build log is for you!

As usual I started by figuring out the size of the shrine. The architectural style I was basing this building off of had lots of subtle offsets in the stonework which was a fun challenge to replicate

Half stud offsets along with SNOT tiles were my main methods for capturing these subtle offsets. And 2×2 jumper plates were used heavily. At this point I was still just experimenting with different things to try and find out what would work well.

The offset sections needed to be a plate and tile thick to be sturdy and work with the shape of the temple.

You’ll notice that I haven’t built anything so far in the front center of the build. Which was due to the need for a staircase there, and I didn’t want to build the stairs until I had established the height and style of the temple itself.

A layer of 1×1 round tiles in pearl dark gray gave the look of intricately carved stone and would be a motif I repeated several times. The jut outs on each side of the temple would serve as alcoves for small figurines.

More offsets with SNOT tiles and plates allowed me to achieve a subtle stair step look in the walls.

And now that the main temple was well along, I needed to start figuring out the staircase. I settled on two plate high steps as you see here.

There’s sort of a mini staircase on either side of the actual steps that serves as a transition to the regular wall.

Crazy roof detail was one of the main requirements for the style I wanted, and the alcove roofs gave me my first chance to experiment with that.

I tried a couple options for the pillars supporting the main roof. Two version are shown in the picture below, and you’ll see the final design in subsequent images.

Once again I used 1×1 round tiles and a half stud offset to start the roof platform.

Then it was time to mess around with some unusual elements! Ball joints immediately grabbed m eye as a good option for some of the roof detail, and in the end quite a few were used.

Besides ball joints I used round plates, cones, dishes, and tiles as densely packed as possible.

Which gave a very highly textured area when finished, that I think worked well as it created a nice focal point while the much smoother walls kept the temple from being too busy.

A rather simple landscape completed the model, which is now owned by W. Navarre after he won it in the Summer Joust.

As always, just leave a comment if you have any questions about the model, and we hope you enjoyed this build log.