Quaint Builds

Welcome to my Minecraft blog.

[quaintbuilds]

Project Guide

Hello there. This pinned post will cover the different projects featured on this blog. Everything is built by me, at a very inconsistent pace. No worlds are currently available for download.

-- Projects --

KoM = Kingdom of Mossland. A project with the goal to build a full kingdom, done in a cottage core/light fantasy style. [I think I'm done with it]

Quainton = Steampunk city based on late 1800s London [Too employed to work on something this big]

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You know what that is, I don't have to explain it. [Complete?]

The Lord of the Rings. Making some of the more buildable locations in Middle Earth. [I build when I build, that stuff ain't a quick build]

Not yet named Japanese Fantasy World = A new project, built from scratch, exploring a fantasy Japan-inspired realm with varied regions. [I gave up]

Sanctuary Hollow = A project covering the development of a high fantasy settlement, built in chronological order. [Active]

--- Minecraft Information ---

Resource Pack(s): Just vanilla textures because downloading stuff scares me.

Shader Pack: Complementary Reforged

Mods:

+ Sodium/Iris/Fabric for optimization and graphics

+ Farmers Delight for more crops (CurseForge)

+ World Edit (CurseForge)

[quaintbuilds]

Survival 4 - Making a house a home

I've been doing a lot of mining and crafting, and it's starting to show results. The house is nearly done and I've started moving all my livestock up to the top of the hill.

I've only fully completed the kitchen, and have not really done any other interior work yet. I want to get the place fully built before decorating. It's going to be very cottagecore, so I've been stockpiling leaf blocks and flowers.

There will be a map room, and a large trophy hall to keep track of all my Minecraft milestones, and I have been working on a sort of cave basement thing after I found some weird crevices in my mountain. I have never seen anything like it in Minecraft before, but the hill I live on has these really narrow "caves" that go through it. I'm trying to dig some of them out to make more ways to get around and down the hill. There's a back porch area that I can't really decide what to do with. I keep planting cherry blossoms there but they grow in really weird shapes and don't fill the space very well... so I'll probably hand make one at some point.

[quaintbuilds]

Survival 3 - Working on the Base

I've done enough mining to finally be able to do some proper crafting. The main base is starting to really take shape. I'm going for a sort of hunting lodge vibe, but with all the amenities of a good Minecraft base like a big storage room and cool potion making tower.

As resource collecting for several hours is pretty boring, I've started going on short explores around my base. I found a very scenic village in a snow biome nearby and tamed a cat (his name is Mulch). I also "borrowed" one of the horses from the village to make my way home. This led to the creation of a new animal pen which is now filled with multicolored sheep and my horse.

Using a broken nether portal I found, I was able to collect enough obsidian to make an enchanting table and finally spend all my levels on some better gear. I do have enough obsidian left over for a nether portal, but I'm going to hold off on that until I have better armor. I really don't like the combat mechanics in this game (and have actually lowered the difficulty to easy) and won't have any fun just getting killed over and over because I can't be bothered to time my sword swings correctly.

[quaintbuilds]

Survival 2 - The First Base

After some light exploration, I discovered a very scenic mountainous spruce biome and knew this was going to be home. I started digging out a bunker into the base of a mountain and that has grown into a well furnished starter base.

I also started to set up some wheat farms, and chicken coop, and fishing dock to try and get some food coming in as there aren't many animals near me. I discovered a large lush cave nearby and have been exploring that to try and find some better resources. I made it into some larger caverns and then suffered my first death. I am not a fan of the updated combat mechanics and still struggle with them. When I ran back down into the caves to recover my stuff, I found my first diamonds, so that helped cheer me up after being reminded how bad I am at Minecraft combat.

Using all my new resources, I now have better tools and am starting to stockpile building resources and clear out an area at the top of the mountain for the site of my first proper base.

[quaintbuilds]

Survival 1 - A New World

I got a new job, and that means I gotta start a new Minecraft World. I have come to terms with the fact that my work schedule is a bit too exhausting to fully commit to any big creative builds, so this time, it's a survival world. Previously, all my survival worlds have slowly burnt out after I built my first house, but this time I have clearly outlined my goals for this world. It has been several years since I've fully explored any of the new content added to Minecraft, so I went through the recent update notes and made a sign wall of all the stuff I want to see and do in this world. This will be a complete vanilla Minecraft experience and I am currently on normal difficulty.

I spawned in a swamp and wandered around until dark, then I built my first night shack. I stayed here for a while a went on short outings in each direction until I found somewhere that gave me that base vibe. There was even some slime spawns near my shack so I was able to get some slimeballs. This was also my first time seeing frogs. I came across a spruce forest/mountain biome and knew that was it. My first proper home is sort of a bunker dug into the base of a mountain. I have cleared out some trees and started a small farm. When they announced the copper tools I thought it was kinda silly, but here I am using them because I can't find any iron (I don't really know the updated ore levels) and honestly, they're a pretty good addition. I thought it made the early game take a bit longer which is my favorite part of survival games.

[quaintbuilds]

The Lord of the Rings - The West Gate of Moria

This is just a little build I worked on during some of my days off. I've been doing a lot of work on a Balin's Tomb game board for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and it's made me want to make more Moria themed things, but making things in real life is more demanding, so I've been doing some in Minecraft.

I also plan to make more Moria themed builds like Balin's Tomb and the Bridge of Kazad-Dum. Maybe even the East Gate.

I thought for quite a while about how to do the moon runes for the doors, but couldn't really settle on a good idea that would work at the Minecraft scale.

[quaintbuilds]

Sanctuary Hollow

Month 3

Jumping ahead a few weeks, this post covers the beginnings of the first race to begin construction outside of the hollow itself.

The halflings in this universe are a quiet and reclusive river folk, who excel at crafting boats and navigating the wetter places of nature. They are small in stature and are naturals at hunting and foraging.

Halflings normally live in small homes that are dug out in the hills along a river and then camouflaged with leaves and reeds. Due to the dangers lurking in the wilderness, the halflings of this settlement chose to dig their homes closer to the hollow and begin to fish and forage the nearby rivers to help the settlements food supply.

The other races applied their skills to the construction of a small dock and a watch tower to guard the riverfront. The outer entrances to the hollow have also been fortified with earthen walls to add another layer of defense.

[quaintbuilds]

Sanctuary Hollow

Month 2

It's time to introduce a new project.

Sanctuary Hollow is a high fantasy genre project that will center around a settlement that is inhabited by a coalition of different fantasy races that have banded together to make a new life and escape the forces of "generic evil fantasy things". The current races living in this area are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings.

My fantasy races are going to be a little bit different from the standard Tolkien-based archetypes. Humans are going to be generally the same because... they're just people... they can only be so different ya know. I'm playing around with them being the more martial faction. Elves in this world are not the special immortal chosen by Big G elves like Tolkien's, mine are going to be more like a mix of the Mirkwood Elves from Lord of the Rings and the Wood Elves from Warhammer. They like their forests and wood working and music, but aren't superbeings. The Dwarves are going to closely follow their standard stereotypes of living underground and being good craftsman, but I also see them as being skilled gardeners and architects, and all other things that an OCD ridden introvert may be good at. The Halflings are going to be more like the Crannog men in Game of Thrones, and less like the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings. They like the rivers and forests and hidden places of nature more than the fields and hills and farms of the Shire.

This project will be done in chronological order, following the development of the area over a long period of time. This first post covers how the settlement looks after about two months of the refugees moving in and fortifying the caverns in the mountain. Is it a mountain? A big hill? IDK dude, but the hollow part in the middle was natural and I couldn't resist building here. The other half of the pictures in this post covers all the landscaping I did to make the area a bit more "fantasy".

The main way the different races will be portrayed in a game that only has one mob that resembles humanoid life, is through the builds. It is a building game after all. Each race will have a different style of building and block palette. This will create a settlement with multiple distinct styles, and let me build more than one type of thing when I'm bored on my days off.

THE NERD LORE

After narrowly escaping destruction after the attack on *generic fantasy city*, refugees from four different fantasy races have gathered in the caverns under a circular mountain. Each race has applied their skills to the fortification of the caverns and the construction of a settlement. It has been around two months since the group has discovered the area, and they are feeling confident in their situation and plan to stay and continue to develop the area.

[quaintbuilds]

The Mountain Province 1 - Intro [New Project]

Introducing... my new project. It doesn't have a name yet...

This project will be a whole new world, built block by block, in a fantasy Japanese style. The current plan is to have the project separated by provinces which will be geographically distinct and feature different industries and styles, but all these provinces will be part of a collective Kingdom? Empire? Confederation? IDK yet. The world will have a roughly late medieval technology level but will include Minecraft's more magical components like enchanting, alchemy, and monsters. There will also be hot air balloons/air ships and a focus on wind and water powered technology. Think Grand Cathay from Warhammer, but not Grimdark.

Each province is governed by a local Lord? Daimyo? Governor? Time will tell, I'm a working man, I can't spend all my time planning out a fictional world, there are arts and crafts to do too. But I do know that each Province has a town hall/government building, which is shown in this post on a commanding spot between two big waterfalls. It does not really have an interior, not many of the buildings ever will, but I plan to have the town halls be my bases to keep track of each regions lore (not pictured is the sign room where all this nerd stuff is documented).

Starting with a breakdown of the Mountain Province. This region is mountainous and covered with dense forests of towering spruce trees that are broken up by deep lakes, rivers, and ponds. The main industries are mining and lumber, and the population relies on fishing, foraging, and small farming communities for it's food. While not a densely populated region, the mountains are home to hardy folk who provide the necessary raw materials for other regions to fuel their industries.

This world is being built entirely by me. That means all the terrain. Every tree, every bush, every river is being done with world edit, commands, and right clicks. My plan is to do small segments at a time. This post is built around the lake and waterfalls. The next one will probably be expanding the river that flows into the lake and the mountains and valleys around it. I want the world to feel real and make sense, because I am a mega nerd who needs something to do in my free time, so stay tuned, and hopefully my soul sucking job will not cause a premature end to this project.

---Technical Information---

This project is being built in a modded version of Minecraft 1.21.1.

I am using Sodium/Fabric/Iris for optimization and graphical boosts. Mods installed (so far) are world edit and Farmers Delight, both were sourced from CurseForge.

Texture pack is just vanilla Minecraft because Mizuno's is not being updated :( and I almost got a virus trying to find something else.

Shader pack is Complementary Reimagined.

[quaintbuilds]

Hogwarts 15 - The Quidditch Pitch

The Quidditch pitch is finally here, and it took several months and attempts. As far as I know, it is built at the proper dimensions, however, what is considered the proper dimensions is not really something solid, I could only find one source, also Minecraft scale is not very good. The main reference materials I used came from the first two movies which is why there are black and white towers. I don't know what they are for, maybe parents?

I also built some vegetable gardens and wildflower meadows with apiaries. I'm pretty sure that Hogwarts had vegetable patches in the book, which makes sense that they would grow some of their own food, so I also added some beehives because why would a magic castle not have their own bees and honey. The surrounding landscape was also reworked and expanded to accommodate the pitch, and also because I just really enjoy making terrain with World Edit.

The construction of the Quidditch pitch now leaves me in a strange place with this build. The castle and grounds is now technically done, and the interior is something I never really planned to work on. With the demands of my job and well... all that, *gestures to everything* this may be it for the Hogwarts Project. But we'll see, I like this game too much to ever really abandon my projects.

I tried something new this post and tried to record some footage of my build. This is something I've never done before (mostly because I didn't know it was a feature built in with my graphics card) and may do some more of in the future.

[quaintbuilds]

Hogwarts in the rain

Some rainy pics I took while working on my Hogwarts Castle project.

[quaintbuilds]

Hogwarts 14 - A new look and the library

After a holiday rewatch of all the Harry Potter movies, I wanted to come back to Hogwarts. One of the biggest changes here is I have stopped using the Mizunos texture pack due to it no longer being updated and decided to just use the default Minecraft textures. (I really struggled with finding a new texture pack and almost got a virus because computers confuse me) This caused a problem as I built Hogwarts out of granite, which would now be a pinkish color. So, using world edit, I changed the entire castle into a mixture of sandstone and smooth sandstone. (which produces some very nice visuals that can barely be seen) I did leave a lot of the detailing blocks as granite, at first out of laziness, but later I thought it actually produced a really nice effect. The roofs were also all replaced with a dark grey block to more accurately match the "real" Hogwarts. I wish Minecraft had a block that was the sort of wet brown color Hogwarts is but at the end of the day, I like how it looks with the sandstone. I did actually almost use mud bricks but they were too brown. You just can't really recreate the miserable, wet, Scottish grayness that Hogwarts has in Minecraft.

When world editing got boring I worked on the library. This is actually the only interior part of the castle I have made so far. I do plan on doing more though, probably the four common rooms and major classrooms, but the thing with plans in Minecraft is they do not survive repeated 40+ hour work weeks. (I am... so tired... all the time) I have also made, destroyed, and planned out another Quidditch pitch so that will be coming eventually.

[quaintbuilds]

The Kingdom of Mossland

KoM 2-9 | The Defense of the Realm

The armed forces of the Kingdom has been a long running and ever changing part of this build. A coastal fort was one of the first things I built in the city but it was very blah and I tore it down and put a scientific academy in it's place. But ever since then, I wanted some sort of structure that would act as the center of the Kingdom's defenses. Originally, this would have been a large fort guarding the harbor, but that area has been rezoned as part of the city. And then I realized I had never really expanded the Kingdom to the south and went looking around for some building inspiration, and I found the fort I had been looking for.

Fort Maillard

Built on an island guarding the southern entrance into the city, Fort Maillard is the home of the Kingdom's armed forces. Here, soldiers are armed and trained to defend the realm from the hordes of zombies and skeletons that plague the land. The fort also is the home of the Officer's School, where strategy and command is taught through extensive wargaming (this was an actual thing in history, not just something nerds do. There is also a Royal Surveyors team that has a bitter one-sided rivalry with the Explorer's Guild, who have replaced them as the realm's foremost cartographers. But the most important inhabitants of the fort, are the River Watch. These soldiers are responsible for guarding the Kingdom's many rivers, and have earned themselves a legendary reputation as the shields of the realm.

The River Watch

Responsible for the defense of the Kingdom's waterways, the River Watch have outposts and watch towers all over the Kingdom. Combined with their signature narrow boats, this network of watchers and boats allows the River Watch to quickly respond to threats all over the realm.

Their boats have collapsible masts to allow passage under low bridges, and a shallow draft, to avoid grounding out in shallow waters. The boats are equipped with sleeping areas, and a small kitchen, allowing the crews to stay on the river for extended periods of time. The inspiration for these boats are the narrow boats common to the canals of England. I reeeally wanted a cool name for the boats and the group, similar to how the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones are called Crows, but I really couldn't think of a river themed version. The Toads? The Swans? They all seem kinda lame.

The River Gates

The last thing I built was the river gates that guard the northern entrance into the realm's rivers. These gates are built into a cavern under the city and work together with the drawbridge to make unwanted passage into the Kingdom nearly impossible by river.

I know this was a long one, but larger builds to flesh out the project was my goal with the whole "Season 2" thing. I also have a job that mentally drains me, and my willingness and availability to sit and play Minecraft is not what it used to be. But I still like playing it. I recently joined a modded survival server with some people for the first time, but they all gave up by the end of the first week, which really sucked, so I came back to my kingdom. I have actually been debating calling a hiatus (or just an end entirely) on this and starting a new project. I feel like a new build style would be nice to explore, but at the end of the day, I am just one tired guy who has to accept he can't play as much Minecraft as he wants to.

*Fun fact, Fort Maillard gets it's name from the Maillard reaction, which is a chemical reaction that causes pretzels to develop that brown pretzely goodness when they are baked*

[quaintbuilds]

The Kingdom of Mossland

KoM 2-8 | The Crystal Caverns

To address the problem of available building space in the city, I knew I had to get vertical. Mountains may look cool, but they are hard to build a city on, so I had the idea to go down into the ground. This part of the build has undergone several redesigns which meant it has never been in a state I was happy showing off, but I finally got there. So without further ado, the Crystal Caverns.

The crystal caverns get their name from the giant luminescent crystals that provide light for the plants and animals that live there. The crystals are even bright enough that some citizens of the city choose to call these caverns home. The caverns are not technically the slum district of the city, because that goes against the cottagecore/diet steampunk/fantasy aesthetic I am going for, but they are the cheapest housing available in the city. I see it like a specialized housing option for those of us who don't like crowds and bright lights but still would like a window or two to look out of and really like moss and mushrooms.

[quaintbuilds]

Sunrise in the Kingdom of Mossland

I started this project because I really like Minecraft, and no one wanted to play it with me, so I fired up a new creative world, found a spot I liked, and got to work. Shortly after starting my project, I decided to make a tumblr blog to catalogue my progress and I recently realized it is now two years since I made that decision, and so, I turned on the shaders, set the time to sunrise, and took some glamor shots of some of my favorite parts of the project.

A lot has happened in the last two years, and some of it wasn't awful, but I really didn't expect this to actually become "something". I never really had people to share my builds with, and did not expect anyone to find this, but they did, and as of typing this, I have made 102 posts, have 223 followers, and have received hundreds of likes on my posts. Sometimes people even ask me building questions and it genuinely makes my day.

I don't mean to get too sappy, but thank you all for finding my little blog. I don't really know what I'm doing, or how this all works (my profile picture is still off center), but I look forward to continuing my blog and watching it grow.

[quaintbuilds]

The Kingdom of Mossland

KoM 2-7 | The Royal Theater

It's been a looong time coming, but the Kingdom finally has a theater. Built in the caverns below the city, the Royal Theater is the preeminent source of entertainment in the Kingdom. Originally this area was just a cavernous, open air amphitheater but a recent sponsorship from the royal family, and a contract with the Engineers Guild, has produced one of the most impressive buildings in the land, culminating in a magnificent display of royal wealth and power, mixed with every architectural innovation the Engineers Guild could draft up.

The theater is famous throughout the land for having a unique lighting system that focuses sunlight from an opening at the surface, and directs that light with a series of mirrors into a crystal that is carved to shine the natural light onto the stage. Manipulation of different lenses results in the diffraction of light, allowing for different colors. (this is honestly one of my best ideas ever)

On the topic of lighting, for this build I had to add in Light to make it actually visible. For those of you who don't know, Light, is an actual placeable thing in Minecraft using the command

/give @s minecraft:light

This allows you to brighten up a build without having to light it with torches/glowstone/lanterns. The "blocks" do not interact with the player and you only see the Light "blocks" when you are holding one in your hand. They are an amazing feature. (that I completely forgot existed)

So... technically... I think this theater is big enough to hold more people than the city can actually house, but it's my made up world so whatever ya know? I really enjoyed getting to make this. Originally, my plan was to have an open air amphitheater carved into a mountain somewhere, but I always thought that was a bit lame.

Theaters are probably my favorite type of building. I just think they're so neat. All that engineering and architecture to figure out how to have hundreds of people be able to see something with more or less the same quality of enjoyment, but having all those people sitting at different heights and angles. It's just great.

The caverns under the city have never been officially shown (I think...) but I'll get there eventually. I was actually planning on that being the subject of this post but then it occurred to me that I have room for a theater underground and here we are.

[quaintbuilds]

The Kingdom of Mossland

KoM 2-6 | Architecture and Development

This post will serve as a highlight of the new architectural style I will be adopting for this season of the project. I see it as a sort of cottagecore vibe meets Victorian England aesthetic. Or kinda like the style of the video game Dishonored but if the sun existed and being happy was allowed.

The scope of this post covers what I consider the main street of the city. This area was actually the first part of the city to be built, so it was quite satisfying to give it some much needed upgrading. I went with a townhouse style which is new to the project, and I really like how it turned out. Right as you enter the city is a tavern/inn/salon thing which I forgot to take pictures of but just imagine a bunch of tables and chairs and a skylight on the top floor. It also has no name, because thinking is hard sometimes. What I really like is how the banners and plants over main street block the clock tower from view until you reach the fountain. It's like you come out of a tunnel and the whole city opens up.

Another part of this build is the new river that cuts through the city. I had wanted something like this for a while but could never figure out how to pull it off, until now. The river flows from the "mountain" next to the city and down through the roof of Orpen's Paper Products, where it turns a waterwheel that powers the paper mill. The river also runs underneath Cassatt's Cafe, which has a seating area where guests can sit over the river. The river then goes down and under the clock tower where it was supposed to turn a water wheel that somehow powers the clocktower but I forgot to build that... I've been working a lot. Next up, I think I will finally be working on the caverns under the city. These will act something like the slums of the city, so I've been trying to lock down a good aesthetic for them.