Monthly Archives: March 2008

A request about photography

Dear model making readers,

On Brothers Brick we love showcasing the best examples of LEGO model making we can find. As a pictorial blog, however, we have to ensure that our posts are visually appealing and draw the reader to each and every post. Sometimes this can mean that we cannot post a model due to a lack of a clear picture to use in its post. Visual clarity is important and without a good feature photo we cannot have a good feature post.

As such we’d like to request everyone out there who would like to appear here to try to take clearer photos of your models. If you post a great model please try to take at least one photo with a nice clean background so that the model pops out. All you need is an A2 sheet of paper to put under and behind the model to improve things dramatically. As you can see from the example below the clear background is so much better (same angle, same natural lighting, A2 in the second shot). Reading and taking the advice of one of the many photograph tutorials or threads [1] [2] [3] [4] can improve things even more.

Thank you in advance,

Tim

PS. If you know of any more photography tutorials please post a link in the discussion here.

Demo of backgrounds

Mmm zombies

Who never knew the dead can be tasty for some? Christophe Bongay seems to be working on a rather fascinating creation of a zombie stew. Check out some of his other whimsical scenes here.

More minifig assassins

Ever since we featured Alex Eylar‘s band of minifig hitmen called The Irregulars, he’s come up with another band of deadly assassins called The Lonely People. The crazies become creepier and the deaths get messier. Read each killer’s profile on MOCpages.

Ralph Savelsberg is livin’ the American dream

Ralph Savelsberg (Flickr) may live somewhere in southern England, but that doesn’t mean he can’t join us on the highway to a KOA hookup somewhere south of Yosemite — at least in spirit.

Check out his Ford F-150 pickup and Winnebago RV:

Don’t miss the bike rack and lots of other great details in Ralph’s Wheels photoset.

As always, a bonus airplane — a US Navy Lockheed S-3B Viking:

Fictional Industrial

The average LEGO mecha we feature here are heavily armed, anthropomorphous robots. In other words, they tend to stand on two legs and go “pew! pew!” As much as I’m a fan of Gundam-inspired mecha, it’s nice to take a break and think about what mecha might really be like in the future — the blue-collar workbots of the space docks and maglev yards.

To that end, Izzo presents his “Sci-Fi Industrial Mecha Competition“.

Here’s one example from Izzo’s own repertoire — a railroad bot:

Okay, this one’s bipedal, but still a great example of a construction mecha:

Although Izzo is only accepting contest entries from builders over the age of 19 in Japan, that doesn’t mean you can’t take his contest as a challenge and build something cool yourself. Even if it’s not for a prize, I for one think the world could use more rail-laying, cargo-hauling, sewer-cleaning, reactor-scrubbing mecha.

To get you started, here’s Izzo’s great list of inspirational links:

Izzo gives Izmojuki a LEGO makeover:

Who needs prizes to motivate you when the end result can be this cool? Get building!

The dame wore a plastic dress and a rubber-band shawl...

She walked in out of the fog with one thing on her mind. She had to know.

The private dick put his feet up on the desk and laughed. He’d seen her type before.

“You may need to know, sweet cheeks, but when I’m through, you ain’t gonna wanna know.”

Random pseudo-noir writing by yours truly, “LEGO Noir” by Tyler (aka Legohaulic:

SK Minden by Bambi

Brickshelfer Bambi is a builder I’m not familiar with, but this wonderful ship recently featured on Klocki really caught my attention.

SK Minden is a search-and-rescue vessel of the German Maritime Rescue Service — thus the “SAR” in great brick-built letters on the hull:

Read more about her (the ship) on Wikipedia, assuming you read German…

Rocko summons the worm

Rocko‘s latest work is not another castle diorama, but a minimalist horror scene inspired by Dune. The simplicity of this piece of work tells a lot about the stark horror of the subject. Nicely done Rocko, I dig it.

MkII Rover

Peter Reid‘s latest creation in his Classic Space lineup is the MkII Rover. What makes this model stand out are the innovative ribbed barrels, a new technique which is likely to proliferate through the community in the future.

Micro floating castle

Mumu‘s entry for the Original Model Contest was Mont Saint Michel, a microscale castle in the air. Imagine the view from up there; it must be great.

Bringing light to LEGO

Joe Meno of BrickJournal reviews a light kit from Lifelites which allows for the incorporation of lights to a LEGO creation. The lights themselves are compatible with LEGO bricks. Watch the cool light sequences in the video and learn more about this fascinating product.

New from the House of Nabii

Mark Stafford (aka Nabii), recently crafted four awesome sci-fi creations for our enjoyment.

First up is a slick fighter made in collaboration with Joe Meno of BrickJournal. Next up is another colorful spacecraft from the Crysilon aliens.

Following that is a variation of the LEGO set Hybrid Rescue Tank — a set Mark himself designed. Last is an innovative science fantasy aircraft that combines Bionicle parts and bricks in a harmonious and stylish manner.