Jack McKeen (madLEGOman) enters the FBTB MOC Madness contest with this unique vessel dubbed the Hand of Fate. While the detailing on the hull is certainly cool, what sets this apart for me is the odd configuration of the engines, complete with sails.
The interior is excellent as well, with a nice battlesuit parked in the hold:
See more photos in Jack’s photostream on Flickr.
Nick Jensen finished his most ambitious LEGO Halo project yet of building the Sniper Rifle System 99 Anti-Matériel (commonly known as the Halo sniper rifle) for his arsenal of brick-built Halo weapons. I asked the builder to share the process of making the SR99 from inspiration to the finished model. Here is his response.
How It Started
The graphics of Halo: Reach blew me away when I first played it. Textures, environments, and character designs all impressed me, but as a LEGO gun builder, I was most impressed with the detail of all the guns. Since then, I built the pistol and combat knife from Halo: Reach. I wanted to build more weapons from Halo: Reach and I was debating between the shotgun and the sniper rifle. I had the parts and money to make one of them. I went with the shotgun but got really frustrated when I couldn’t find a way to make the pump slide back and forth in the front. So I gave up and started the sniper rifle.
I captured many close-up screenshots of the sniper rifle in Halo: Reach’s theater mode, looked up information about the gun on halopedian.com, used the Halo: Reach action figures from McFarlane, and looked at Perry B.’s version as references. I wanted to include as many details as I possibly can squeeze in. I wanted the final MOC to be perfect.
The Build Process
One of the first things I worried about when I decided on building the sniper rifle was the length. It seemed that I would never build something that was going to be 5.5ft long. I thought about the project from another perspective: building the sniper rifle is like building the assault rifle but with a really long barrel. Breaking the project down into three simple parts (body, barrel, and scope) really eased some doubts I had. The sniper rifle in Halo: Reach is approximately 5.5ft long, so a tape measure locked at 5.5ft was always around for reference. I built the body of the sniper the same way I built the assault rifle, SMG, and pistol: Start from the front and build my way to the back. The barrel was easy and I had a plan in mind from the start. I would cover a supporting rod with 2×2 quarter cylinder bricks. So the only difficult tasks were the body and scope.
Problems
I did drop the gun once during the WIP stage. I got impatient and wanted to hold it as if it were finished, and it fell to the ground. There was another time later on where the front grip collapsed because of its weight.
Facts
Length: 63 inches (1.6 meters)
Weight: Approximately 10.5 pounds
Non-LEGO used: dowel rod, custom waterslide decals
Features: Removable magazine, sliding bolt, moving safety
Time spent building: about 4 months
Piece count: uhh…?
Oftentimes we see applications of a new building technique on a small experimental model, but rarely do we see them applied to a large creation. I am delighted to see tiberium_blue‘s T’Met Monastery, which not only uses Technic liftarms for its massive stone walls but also depicts a refreshing subject of a fictional sanctuary inspired by a Star Trek Vulcan monastery.
I’m quite willing to make the call that George Panteleon’s (ZetoVince) The Batman’s Tumbler from Dark Knight is the best I’ve ever seen at minifig scale.
I’m still not satisfied with my indoor, winter/rain/Seattle photo setup, so I’ve been playing around quite a bit with post-processing to make up for the less-than-optimal lighting in my recent LEGO photos. After I finally posted my completed microscale Tokyo that I’d built a year earlier, I went a little wild with this next photo. I ended up turning it into a 1960s postcard, inspired by Godzilla battling some sort of kaiju as a visiting King Kong looks on.
The scale varies within the scene, and is wildly incorrect for the Micropolis standard I used as the base, but my tiny Tokyo has everything I remember from the time I spent there in the 70’s and 80’s — old-style bullet trains and neon-hued commuter trains, brightly colored advertising cubes atop buildings in Ginza and Shinjuku, the ever-expanding industry around Tokyo Harbor, Meiji Shrine, the National Diet, and the iconic red and white of Tokyo Tower.
Solving Rubkik’s Cubes isn’t the only thing that LEGO Mindstorms robotics are good for. Swedish robotics builder Hans Andersson has built a digital clock that even “blinks” with each second.
Check out more of Hans’ robots, including a Sudoku solver of all things, on TiltedTwister.com.
Thanks for the link, reader Thomas!
Just when we think Tyler (aka Legohaulic) can’t raise the bar any higher, he reveals his latest creation. This time, it’s the Chooser of the Slain, an epic portrayal of a Norse Valkyrie. Tyler has completed his build with a fantastic bit of photography, to properly highlight his model, and even a video to depict the moving parts in action.
Shannon Sproule (Shannon Ocean) continues work on his Battle for the Moon retro cold war world series. Shannon says
With more parts and experience I’m in a better position now to flesh out the BFTM world than before
Well I for one loved it before. I think I love it even more now.
A little while back we blogged Matija Grguric rail construction diorama and I mentioned that the train it featured was actually a German engine. Matija has now remedied this with his excellent Western Train. I’m glad he waited for after the Eurobricks competition to post this.
I have enjoyed opening my flickr page each day and seeing what Jamie Spencer (morgan19) has posted, so it’s a little bittersweet to know that advent is nearly done.
Fortunately, I’ve got two more days before it’s all done. Bwahahahahaha.
See the rest of the week’s minifigures here:
October 21
October 23
October 24
October 26
October 27
Time is running thin for Classic-Castle‘s Micro Castle Contest, and I assure you, I do not envy the judge(s). Lolino weighs in with this impressive interpretation of Tartarus.
Wikipedia provides an excellent explanation of the location and purpose for any who are interested!
