Allanar Forest: Build Log

Today we’re going to take a look behind the scenes at what went into creating my Allanar Forest creation – it’s been a while since I’ve posted a build log, so hopefully I haven’t completely forgotten how it’s done!

As with most of my MOCs, I started by getting a general layout of significant portions of the build – this mainly included the stream that would run through the middle section of the build, as well as determining the size and placement of the two houses. You can also see a few 1×2 slopes in brown that represent the general area where I would place a tree or two.

The water was probably the most challenging aspect of this build – mainly because I wanted angle each layer of blue bricks to create a natural flowing look, as I had seen LL do. While just angling the sections wasn’t too hard, building over the angled sections so that you didn’t see the filler brick proved to be challenging at times. In the end, I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

After finishing the stream, I decided to work on the houses. The first one I did was based off of an illustration by Scott Gustafson, in his book Classic Fairy Tales. Specifically I modeled the building off of his interpretation of the Seven Dwarves’ home in Snow White. I don’t feel I did his illustration justice, but I still am fairly pleased with how this house turned out. The interior was especially fun, although unfortunately I didn’t have as much space as I would have liked.

After finishing the first house and doing a little more work on the landscape,  I moved on the the second and final building. I really enjoyed making this, and might even like it more than the bigger one. One of the main things I tried to get right on this building was the stonework. I couldn’t do the same style as I had on the larger one, as that had used many of our 2×2 round tiles in bley, among other things. I also wanted this cottage to be cleaner in style.

I started messing around with cheese slopes, and to my surprise, I was able to wedge them in at various angles, and once a plate was put over the top of them, they wouldn’t fall out! I added a little bit of tudor-work on top of the stone foundation, came up with a roof design that I really liked, and the second cottage was done!

After placing both cottages, I just had to finish the landscape, add the trees, and any other final details.

The first tree I built used only dark orange leaves, but I soon realized that we wouldn’t have enough leaves to do 4 or 5 trees at that scale. After building a few more with both dark red and dark orange leaves, a few friends pointed out that it looked a little odd having one tree be only dark orange.

So I went back and modified it to include some dark red as well. I think the result is definitely much better. And it’s pretty much done! All that’s left is adding figs and few finishing touches on the landscape.

And here is the completed model!

I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes at my Allanar Forest build. As always, if you have any questions, suggestions for future posts, etc, make sure to let us know in the comments below!