I have just found out that my castle build, The Fortress of Falkenholt was featured on The Brothers Brick.

Thank you to The Brothers Brick team for featuring my build, it really means a lot to see my build being shared far and wide!

I would especially like to take the time to thank Chris Burden for his awesome and very kind review, which you can read here.

Some of you may have seen some sneak peeks of my current build on my Instagram or in some of the LEGO Castle groups on Facebook but I wanted to write a post about it here and specifically acknowledge it’s inspiration.

I am currently in the process of building a large Castle themed display pitting my two favourite Castle factions, the Black Falcons and the Forestmen against each other in a forested landscape with a castle which I hope to display at Brickvention 2022 in Melbourne next year in January and whilst I have not actually started building the castle part of the display as yet I am quite a long way along with the underground part of the Forestmen’s hideout.

Above you can see some images of my progress so far, I am really happy with how it is coming along and whilst I really love how the tunnels and caves have turned out I am really happy to be finally out of the ground and working on above ground terrain now.  Anyway, I am sure you can picture the Forestmen hiding out in these caves but I really wanted to give a shout out to the set that inspired not just this build but also my love of Forestmen in the first place!

I can remember vividly opening and building 6066 Camouflaged Outpost, I am not sure of the year, though it must have been after 1987 when the set was released so I would have been either 7 or 8 and I am assuming it was Christmas as in my memory I am building the set at my Grandma’s house.

The set was so inspired with it’s cave with multiple hidden entrances and disguised tree/tower making the perfect hideout for the band of brigands and their stash of treasure, it definitely captured my imagination and remains one of my favourite LEGO sets to this day.

I wish I still had the set but as with all my childhood sets it was gradually cannibalised, I do still have some of the figures and I am sure I could find most of the pieces though if I went looking.

My finished build will include my take on all the best bits from Camouflaged Outpost.  It will include a sprawling collection of interconnected underground caves and tunnels which are accessible from multiple hidden entrances connected to a landscaped terrain. The landscaped terrain will include a forest of trees above ground with lookouts for surveilling the surrounding area. In short a fully realised fortress for the Forestmen, figuratively it will be Camouflaged Outpost x 10.

As with my custom Black Falcons torsos, I wanted to update and create new torso designs for the Forestmen (I am calling my version The Forest Guard for my upcoming build).

I started by looking at the existing Forestmen torsos, and there are officially eight versions available, the four original torsos from 1987 (two designs, one with three different colourways), the three Dark Forest versions from 1996 and a revised version from Collectable Minifig Series 1 (2010).

The two original 1987 torso designs are pretty iconic, and for me looking at them takes me straight back to my first – not to mention THE first –  Forestmen set 6066 Camouflaged Outpost. I have fond memories of building and playing with this set as a seven or eight year old on the floor laying on the carpet in the lounge room at my Grandma’s place. I have to say that I am not at all familiar with the Dark Forest Forestmen torsos, as I was 17 when they came out and well and truly into my dark ages, I do however remember the 2010 collectable minifig series one version however looking at him critically I reckon he looks more like a 1938 Hollywood Robin Hood than a medieval warrior.

I decided to (the same as I have with the Black Falcons so far) design three custom torsos for my Forest Guard figures. Unlike with my Black Falcons torsos I am not going to use the torsos for specific units, but rather I will have them all mixed up. My three custom torso designs are inspired by the original Forestmen torsos as well as taking some inspiration from existing castle and fantasy torsos.

Above you can see my three The Forest Guard torso designs, the first one would be printed on a dark green torso, the second one on a dark tan torso and the third on a green torso hopefully giving a lot of flexibility and variation opportunities for the makeup of my units.

So what do you think of my designs? Do you think they suit an updated Forestmen faction?

In my next post I will be showing my Forest Guard shield designs, so make sure you signup to the mailing list if you would like to be notified when it is posted!

The second faction that will feature in my Castle display is what I am calling ‘The Forest Guard’, my own revised version of the classic castle Forestmen faction.

As with my take on the Black Falcons I have given the Forestmen a new slightly revised name, this is because I wanted them to have a name that refers to who they actually are – they are not just some men who hang out in the forest!

They are, like Robin Hood and his Merry Men who the faction is based on, the very definition of freedom fighters – common people outlawed by a corrupt ruling class who have joined together to fight back against oppression and tyranny – the forest is their fortress.

Given that I have revised their name I also wanted to give my forestmen a revised emblem that is more suggestive of their role as protectors and guardians.

You can see the original forestmen shield above on the left featuring their one and only emblem from 1988, and then my revised version to the right. I have kept the colour scheme and overall theme exactly the same as the original and though the original version is probably more traditional in its illustration style and the use of a stags head dexter erased (facing to the left with a ragged edge) I wanted to make their revised emblem stronger, more representative of what they stand for.

My version features a stags head, a representation of protection and the forest as in the original, but my version is pictured in an affronté couped form (facing the viewer cut cleanly at the neck). The stag has an arrow in its antlers referring both to the forestmen’s skills in archery but an arrow is also a heraldic symbol conveying a readiness to take up arms. I think that having the stag look directly at the viewer makes for a stronger representation of protection and guardianship.

So what do you think? Do you like my new version? Let me know by leaving a comment below!

In my next post I will be exploring new torso designs for this faction.