I finally finished my castle structure. I still need to build out a bedroom suite, add mini figs and do a small amount of detail work, but I’m mostly done now
I started out thinking I would build a vassal of Brickingham’s estate, but as I built it, there was some scope slippage and I ended up
Making something larger and more opulent.
I’ve decided it is the Caballeros Imperial Palace. If anyone can think of a fun name, let me know, please.
It is designed to project political power by things like displays of wealth but also a treasure, wizards, war planning, and dragon messaging.
I’m going to swap out the shields and make the smaller castle into a gatehouse/guardhouse for the palace.
I had thought they might be rivals when I first conceived of the building.
The approach view
The fancy entrance atop the spiral staircase is for Peers and family primarily. The main entrance is the double black doors opposite the staircase.
Here is our medieval fantasy area.
Here the imperial palace is sitting next to the daily bugle to give you some idea of scale. The new daily bugle set is one of the tallest Lego Sets, it is about one brick taller than my imperial castle.
It’s mostly modular style here are all the major parts separated.
This is the view that travelers by road see as they approach the imperial palace.
Removing the roof, you can see into the grand entrance with its tile work emphasizing service and sacrifice which are the Caballero family words.
The entrance takes you to the Blue Hall where the library with its many quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore lie and leads to the grand ballroom. There is also stairs up to the next level. I include some staircases but in the tower I also often didn’t.
Grand Ballroom
You can see the lovely and expensive blue glass windows and the Wall of Shields, the highest honor a Caballero can achieve is to sacrifice themselves in battle for their fellow troops. Their shields alone can hang here.
The “glass” wall is all blue Lego bricks, they have changed the blue translucent lego bricks of the years so different eras have different colors.
Up the stairs in the library, there are stairs up to the next level, the throne room, a hallway that goes to the treasure and is the waiting area for the throne room. It features nautical tile work.
The hallway/audience waiting area
The throne seats two as the traditions of Lady and Lord Caballero dictate.
The stairs lead up to here where there is a doorway to the tower and a bedroom suite.
The attic area hinges open as you can see.
The Peer entrance. The treasury and mint are located on this floor of the tower as well.
Treasury and mint with gold coin blanks, a press and finished currency.
The floor up from the mint. It has the doorway over to the residence area.
It’s the War Room, literally. This is where they plan the strategy. The Lady with the epaulets is Lady Caballero’s heir. She will lead their armies one day as the Lady Caballero so it’s important for her to learn.
Just another view.
The next floor up in the tower is where Caballeros (both the royals and soldiers)train in martial skills. The walls feature a variety of different weapons.
Also multiple parrots.
Opposite view so you can see more of the weapons.
Wizard quarters, lots of books and work space. The large picture on the wall is a recreation of the painting in our house that our friend Sam gave us.
Here the top floor is off. It’s got large balconies for dragons to land and take off and a clock. On the top of the roof is a statue of the First Lady Caballero who married a young hedge knight and then established the Empire.
View of the balcony and the gates.
The roof is in two parts, taking the top off we can see the real secret to power of the Caballeros: efficient administration of resources on dragonwing.
There are doors on the inside creating an airlock setup. The outer gate can be opened by the dragon riders but the inner can only be opened by the scribes inside.
They take reports from the dragon riders and then send them out with orders. If they’ve been traveling long, the they can go to the guardhouse nearby eat and rest.