So we’ve claimed a little corner of the world on the new multi-player Minecraft survival server and built our base. The next step was to create a large farming structure so that we’d be sorted for most of the various crops that Minecraft has to offer. So what is next? Well, a giant novelty head with a walkway extending from the back of the skull that goes nowhere and spans a purposefully created inlet. Duh! Obviously!
While I’ve already got a partly built tower heading towards the top of the hill behind the base, I wanted something coming from the other direction. I also wanted to connect the little pond at the side of the base back to the ocean. So, to make room, I decimated a huge chunk of jungle in front of the base and completely flattened the hill it was sat on. Hey, you gotta break a few eggs…
Click the thumbnails for larger images.
A regular old dreary tower wasn’t going to cut it so instead, I built a head from wool (1200+ pieces). Not all wool, mind. As you can see, there’s a bunch of glass panes and his teeth are made from the finest Quartz. Also, while he might not have the most hair in the world, what he does have is made from a lush selection of trees leaves. Well, it was the only material that really gives that ‘fuzzy’ look so he’s sporting a mad, green hairdo. The red wool is for the tongue and if you want to ascend this tower, you’re going to need to climb down the back of his throat.
Yeah, that’s a huge tongue but just look at the gob on him! In this shot you can make out the man-made inlet on the left of the picture. There used to be a slender strip of grass that separated the pond from the sea and it looked a bit pitiful really. I just had to re-unite these two bodies of water. Unfortunately, where I wanted to place the head wasn’t just smothered in your usual jungle underbrush, dotted with the occasional vast, towering tree – it all hid a large hill that needed levelling. Several worn out shovels and the odd pickaxe later and man had conquered the wilderness yet again. Suck it, wilderness!
After you’ve located the doors at the base of the throat, you gain access to the interior and the incredibly long ladder leading to the top of the skull. Not exactly a lot of room inside for a fancy staircase so this build leans a little heavily on the functional. I did consider putting a few floors inside the head and making it liveable but I didn’t really see myself spending a lot of time in here, what with my main base a stone’s throw away.
I’ve toyed with the idea of transforming this into another of the schematics (like my Clipper Ship, Airship, ‘Pixel “Art” Sucks’, Hot-Air Balloon, Fish, Skull and Tap builds) I upload to MCSchematic.com, in which case I probably would make more of a meal of the interior, adding all the regular mod cons like crafting tables, furnaces, bed, etc. but that’s a project for some time in the future.
That hatch you can see leads to a walkway that extends out from the back of the skull, just above the rapidly receding fuzzy green hairline. The style matches the parapets of the base (not that the huge, comical, disembodied head does, that is) and leads to the top of the hill above the main base.
Of course, I had to turn the walkway into a water feature. I don’t know why but I do quite like adding water. I’ve built on it, in it, under it and even created structures that specifically use it (such as my Tap and House with man-made waterfall). It’s almost certainly something that’ll be featuring in future builds from time to time too.
You can just see the unfinished tower on the left of this shot, coming up to meet the same area as the walkway. I’ve already cleared the top of the hill (and most of the side you can see to the left) at the time of writing and constructed something in the gap it left. I wasn’t planning anything when I built this tower but once I’d finished, inspiration struck and I wedged something on the side of the hill.
Like I said earlier, the big head tower doesn’t really fit with the rest of the builds I’ve created so far but I’m happier when I’m making things a little more freeform. No idea what comes next but I think it’s going to be on top of this hill… or maybe above!
