yeah seriously. The 2nd one in particular is fucking awesome! 

Yeah, b&w filter would be nice.
There's no trick in this map, but if you want to see how it's done properly, search for the Lego model of this picture. There's a site that shows an additional top-down shot where one can see how the trick works in a 3D environment. 

http://imgur.com/a/YiNYQ

(album, 3 images, still early, likely too dark to see) 

shots look great! Trees look just fine despite what others might say.
THe inside of the church looks great - nice pulpit! Not sure I like the benches though - too long? The ones in Honey are simple and perfect IMO. 

I wouldn't worry too much about trees, brush trees can work fine. They might cause vis times to increase depending on the outdoor areas though.
You could probably make them func_walls and then used a downward pointing negative spot light to make some kind of shadow on the ground though.

In any case, could be fun to see a map like this. 

not right at all. Otherwise, looks interesting. 

Things those benches seem to fit perfectly for. 

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/screen_shots/chop.jpg 

hahaha that's awesome! 

Wow, like the first screenshot, the scale look good with the knight and the doorway. I don't mind the brush/cone tree's, with the right lighting they could work. 

very atmospheric and retro. 

Slitshot of demo1, http://i.imgur.com/uWakW.jpg 

What the Hell is this shot? 

It's the new Quake mod for 3D after the windowcleaner was fired. 

Another test map (S1M2) called Castle of Shadows ...
Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 

is shot 4 some kind of puzzle? it'd be cool to see some moteof style stuff. :) 

That is awesome! 

That looks great - I especially like the e1m2 style block with lightning and the area with water and candles.

How many maps are you working on, by the way?

I'd better hurry up and finish my map before you release yours. 

oh geez... how did i not recognize that area. :P 

"is that some kind of puzzle? weird floating cubes or something"
sorry, couldn't help it.

Sock, that looks amazing.
Are you like... REMAKING ID E1 AS A MEDIEVAL RPG, thus doing what id's original plan for Quake was?
You badass! 

Those shots are really nice: I can't wait plying this/those map(s) :) 

I hate your awesomeness. 

Thanks everyone for the comments, I have been working on this map for a while now and it was certainly a lot of fun to create. Luckily the map has proven to be a very good test map for my new AI system at the same time.

Here is another Image of the first room inside of the castle, hopefully it should be familiar enough that you recognize the area.