Qasr Albahr: Build Log

Currently my largest solo build yet, Qasr Albahr took a lot of planning, tearing down, and re-building. As with most of my builds, I started by laying out the significant features of it. This included  roughly placing all of the buildings, planning where waterfalls would run, and incorporating the rock islands into all of it. I also had to decide what sort of water technique I was going to use. Because of piece limitations, trans-dark blue studs seemed like the best option.

The dock and front-right island were the first things to be built, and I decided a slight angle for the dock would look nice. A little section of the water was put in as well, to help with the exact angling of the jetty.

Both because of piece limitations, and overall aesthetics, I  did two-toned rockwork for all of the islands, with dark bluish grey representing mist/condensation from the water, and light bluish grey being drier rock. Having a smooth transition between the two was something I really focused on.

Now to start the first building! I wanted somewhat minimalistic wall texturing, so just a few patches of dark tan was all that I did here, as well as on most of the other buildings. The white accents around the door and windows helped to add a little more color.

The rockwork for this island was completed, so now just finishing off the building was left. Before I could do that however, I needed to build the second island, so that I could connect the tower and building via a bridge.

An overview shot of where the build has come thus far. The rockwork of the second island is about halfway done, the first island is completed except for the building, two small waterfalls have been built, and quite a bit of filler brick has been put down. Still a long way to go, however: there are three waterfalls, the two biggest islands, the main three buildings, and three bridges all still to be started! But, progress is going steadily.

More rockwork on the second island done.

With the rockwork at the height I wanted, it’s time to build a bridge and start on the tower. Another waterfall was also put in, behind the second island.

And bridge number one is in! A medium dark flesh stripe, and some decoration around the roof finishes off the harbor building. The dome will go through several more iterations, (as you can see below) before I find one I’m happy with, however.

Progress is coming along nicely, all of the islands have been started now, and three of the five waterfalls are in place. Still a lot more rockwork to be built, and several buildings,

Starting on the last two waterfalls! I also began building the rock arch between the islands, and the rockwork is getting near the final height.

A lot of filler brick put in since the last picture, as well as getting ever closer to finishing the front left island. Nearly all of the trans-dark blue water is completed too.

I completed the last two waterfalls, built most of the rock arch, and am almost ready to start on the buildings!

The first of two towers is done! I went with dark orange and tan for this one, instead of medium dark flesh, and also decided not to do any dark tan wall texturing, as if the building was a new addition.  The octagonal shaping was a little difficult to work with at times, but I’m quite pleased with the end result. It was also a lot of fun getting to use that prefab dome.

 

Placed the tower roughly in place, and completed the second bridge, which was possibly the most difficult of the three bridges to design.

And the second tower is done! Although a fair bit larger than the first, it only took about a day to complete. This building also used the dark orange and tan for the main colorscheme, but unlike the octagonal tower, I did include some dark tan texturing. The shrinking aspect of this one was a lot of fun to build, and overall it’s possibly my favorite building of the creation.

Onto the final and largest building, the palace! Quite a bit of design though went into this, as three of the four wall sections were removable so we could get good pictures of the interior. I used the same style wall texturing I had used on the other buildings, and went back to using medium dark flesh stripes like I did on the harbor building. After finishing the first story,  I went onto the second floor interior. One of the first things I needed to do was make a railing. Below you can see the design I came up with, and the possible color choices. For the finished build, I used the gold and brown.

And the palace is nearly complete! Many windows were added to the second floor, both to add a bit more color to the palace, as well as to keep it looking light and airy. Half domes were added to each side, and finally the third story was put on. The octagonal shape was actually fairly easy to work with here, as I already had come up with the design for the stand alone tower. Four minarets and the main dome finished off the palace.

A shot of some of the figs used in the build. A couple traveling merchants delivering their goods can be seen on the right, and in the middle you have the sultan and his wife.

Nearly complete! Fig posing and finishing the small island on the far right are pretty much the only things left. You can see the last bridge was installed, the rockwork around each of the buildings was completed, and several palm trees and bushes were added.

And here it is, the completed creation! It took about two and a half weeks total to build. If you would like to see more pictures of the completed build, click the picture below.