The build process for our Harvest Realm creation was a bit unique, in that there were several distinct portions to the build that we built individually.
John started off by working on the cornucopia for the temple, while I figured out the layout for the temple itself.
This early attempt using the classic round wall design just didn’t offer the flexibility needed for the complicated shape of the cornucopia.
His next attempt was going in the right direction, but needed a lot of refining.
Here is the design we ended up settling on, which was also smaller than the first two.
The total island size was supposed to be right around 48×48, rounded out into a circle. Which meant we were pretty tight on space for the island portion. So I didn’t have a large temple footprint to try and achieve the typical stepping style of mesoamerican temples. I ended up settling on bracket offsets in the stonework, that also stepped in a stud every couple layers.
This simple formula allowed for quick progression on the building.
As you may have already noticed, we started the temple using only bley. Afterwards we switched out some of the tiles to add olive and dark green moss.
Here you can also see the cornucopia heaped full of various fruits and vegetables.
A large part of the concept for the tree of realms display, was to have each realm well lit for the World of Lights display at Brickworld. So from the start we planned on having lights incorporated into the temple, cornucopia, water, and coral reef. I figured out that using two sideways layers of trans clear panels allowed for the light strings to be threaded through and be contained neatly in the water. The batteries are hidden in the garden boxes on either side of the island.
Next we started on the island landscape. We chose dark tan and medium dark flesh for the ground colors, to give a more unique look to the build. The duplo parts ended up being removed, as we didn’t like how they fit with the rest of the plants.
Lighting test of the cornucopia – a layer of trans clear bricks allowed light to shine through while still supporting the produce. We did try using various small elements on the trees as fruit, but couldn’t find anything we liked.
John came up with the pineapple plant design used in the garden box here, and I thought it worked very nicely.
After finishing basically all of the top half of the island, it was time to work on the bottom. The space around the 16×16 plate was left at that depth so that the realm could be placed onto the tree.
In general, the realms were supposed to be roughly spherical, so I roughed out the shape of the coral reef with some filler brick in blue. Our plan was to have the coral reef as its own section, that could attach to the bottom of the island when being put on the tree.
Then it was time to build some coral reef! I rather enjoyed this, as it allowed for tons of crazy parts to be used as various plants. Additional wires of lights were wound through the coral in various spots.
At first it took quite a while to make much progress on the reef, but as I went on I got quicker and figuring out what sort of plants fit best in various positions.
One of my favorite plants used alligator tails in a group, I ended up making two of those plant types.
Even fit in some sand red! Since I was building off the bottom of plates and bricks, I used a ton of 1×1 round plate with hole, and technic half pins to reverse stud direction.
Lighting test. I was quite pleased with how the light bounced off of the various transparent elements. In the top middle you can see the batteries and switches hidden. I later covered over that opening with a layer of leaves that could be hinged open for access.
Quite a jumble of colors and shapes, but I was very pleased with the finished coral reef. No one ever saw it like this though! Our attachment idea to hook the reef onto the rest of the island ended up failing horribly at Brickworld, and most of the reef was demolished as we struggled to get the realm properly attached to the tree.
Eventually, with Tim Lydy’s help, we did get the realm on the tree. And then I spent a good while sitting under the branch and rebuilding the coral as best I could.
On top we added some islanders and canoes as the finishing touches.
So now everyone can get a good look at the reef I worked so hard on, and we hope you enjoyed reading more about our build process.
As always, just leave a comment if you have any questions about the model.
