Yearly Archives: 2016

Replying to “How did you build that?” at Brickfair Virginia

Two weeks ago I had the good fortune to attend Brickfair Virginia. As always, I had a great time talking to other builders and seeing their excellent models in real life. I also got to show off my own Tomcat model. I know that a fair few builders dread the public days on Saturday and Sunday, but despite having to answer the same questions over and over again, I love chatting to the public. One of the more commonly asked questions is: “How did you build that?”. I can’t give a satisfactory reply in a single sentence, but thanks to Brickfair, I now have two somewhat more complete replies to share with you.

Inspired by a great talk on building landscapes I saw at Brickfair last year, this year I gave my own talk on how to build military aircraft. Without me talking you through them, the slides don’t tell the whole story, of course, but I was also interviewed by the delightful Matthew Kay from Beyond the Brick. In the interview, I got to show off some of the Tomcat’s features and got to talk about the building process.

I hope you’ll agree that both of these are more satisfying than my default answer: “by sticking one part to another and repeating this until the model is finished.”

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Those goody-goody Smurfs make me sick!

I never quite understood the appeal of the Smurfs. Growing up in the 80’s surrounded by an entirely different cultural tradition, the poorly animated, cutesy TV show just wasn’t interesting. But the wonderful thing about the world of LEGO is that I can appreciate a fantastic build even if I have negative interest in the subject matter. Koen is taking a break from building a large LEGO spaceship to build something using a bunch of the rare medium blue parts in his collection — from minifig helmets for his nose and tail to a plate for his ear.

I love Koen’s description: “The Smurfs are blue humanoids who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest.” This smurf seems to be as surprised by his own existence as I am.

L’Oiseau de feu

Igor Stravinsky is easily my favorite Classical composer, and I grew up hopping around to The Rite of Spring pretending to be a ballerina, after seeing the Soviet-era Bolshoi troupe perform in 1979 when they toured Japan. Stravinsky’s earlier The Firebird is no less beautiful for being less wildly innovative. In Russian folklore, the Firebird (Жар-пти́ца) is a creature who can aid or doom those who encounter it. In this gorgeous LEGO version built by VSefrem for Russian LEGO forum Bricker.ru, pearl-gold and shades of transparent orange and red add to the underlying yellow for a stunning effect. Particularly noteworthy are the 1×1 round tiles layered on the bird’s neck with clips.

While it’s easy to be distracted by the creature alighted on its branch, the tree uses some interesting techniques to create an aged, twisted look — a perfect contrast for the stunning Firebird.

A blessing in the old chapel at Marbury Village

As we start wrapping up our coverage of the various LEGO Castle creations that were part of the Ye Old Merry Battleground collaboration by “InnovaLug” at Brickfair VA, we would be remiss in our duties if we failed to highlight this beautiful village by TBB alum Mark Erickson. Mark’s village includes two half-timbered houses and an excellent church in unconventional tan (sandstone, I presume). The church has sculptures in the same color as the structure — though in fact these would likely have been painted garishly when carved originally in the Medieval era — as well as a graveyard and a red roof with some subtle texturing.

Mark’s extra pieces of rounded landscaping that sort of “drip” off of his main diorama illustrate the interesting approach that the InnovaLug team took to their collaborative display. Rather than integrating the various contributions on a single underlying brick-built landscape (as we did with our Battle of Bricksburg display), the team used white space between the builds to highlight each build separately. We tried this approach with TBB’s “ChronoCon” display at BrickCon a couple of years ago, and it’s not generally a style of collaborative display that I think works all that well — though InnovaLug seems to have pulled it off quite well by spanning the open space with little details like the smaller landscaping pieces here. What do you think of this display style?

Alexander the Great in the Battle of Issus, 333 B.C.E.

legopthalmos has a strong eye for historic scenes, as he demonstrates with this excellent LEGO recreation of the iconic “Alexander Mosaic” in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. In the Battle of Issus in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), Alexander the Great personally led his Macedonian army against Darius III and his Persian army. Alexander defeated Darius, further enabling Alexander’s conquest of Asia. This LEGO scene includes all the details of the historic mosaic, from Alexander astride his war horse to Darius in his chariot. Both the horses and minifigs are posed well, with artistic angling of the Persian lances balanced by the denuded tree on the Macedonian side.

Here’s a closeup of some of the great action in this diorama.

Magnificent Maleficent makes a scene

Jme Wheeler has created a brilliant vignette featuring Maleficent and the fearsome dragon she transforms into at the end of Sleeping Beauty [ oops, spoiler alert! ]. I love everything about this scene — from the impressive billowing smoke effect, through the fabulous sculpting of the dragon’s neck and head, to the touches of gold on the base. But it’s the shaping and coloring of that dragon’s eye that makes the model for me — an instantly recognisable detail that’s perfectly-captured.

If you’ve ever seen the Phantasmic show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park then this model will instantly grab your attention. It reminded me of the massive version of Maleficent in full “dragon mode” which ends up rearing over the entire stadium. Great stuff.

Gateway to LEGO brick wall building

Tim Schwalfenberg’s latest build, Wizard’s Gate, is a masterclass in both rock work and brick wall building. There are a lot of lovely techniques packed in to really make this model top class. In particular, the wall portion of the gate uses a technique that requires some off-setting techniques using the headlight brick and some patience with clips and tiles, but the finished look is really fantastic.

Tim has provided a breakdown of the technique used to create the brick wall effect. As Tim explains, “The wall is constructed using headlight bricks to achieve a half plate vertical offset and then alternating clips on 1×2 tiles to form the exterior wall It’s similar to many of legostrator’s awesome techniques.”

71040 The Disney Castle available now for LEGO VIP members [News]

It’s time to make all of your Disney dreams come true: 71040 The Disney Castle is now available to LEGO VIP members. The set has 4,080 pieces, 5 minifigures, and costs $349 USD.

The set will be available to the general public beginning September 1, but the LEGO VIP Program is free to join, so you can just join and then order the set immediately to earn 349 points. That’s $15 toward a future LEGO order, and 49 points toward the next 100-point threshold for another $5.

LEGO baby delivered in style

Angela Chung has made great use of the new baby minifig in an excellent hospital scene depicting the arrival of a new baby. Sometimes “obvious parts usage” makes for the best models.

The details of the delivery room surrounding the central action are nicely done with a variety of mobile medical machinery at the ready. I particularly like the incubator trolley with it’s little heat lamp waiting to keep the new arrival cosy. However, close attention to the scene does raise one troubling question…what is the screwdriver for? Regardless, this is a lovely model, and is all the more refreshing for depicting the sort of real-life events we don’t often see “in the brick”.

Sleek cruiser hides a dark side

John Moffat‘s latest build is the Marie Curie, the first of Earth’s Manchester class attack cruisers which sailed out of the Lagrange shipyard in 2380. What a sleek beauty she is with her subtle dark red highlights and that smooth aerodynamic upper hull covering the intricate ‘greebled’ inner workings of the ship. The little touches of dark tan and yellow add interest and draw the eye to the darker greebled areas — a great way to ensure that all those subtle details are appreciated.

Now, I wonder if John built two Marie Curie attack cruisers or if there’s a clone in our midst?

Angry Birds are instantly recognizable in micro form

In a testament to the insane popularity of Angry Birds and the amazing skill of the builder, this microbuild by Letranger Absurde is instantly recognizable.

Despite the tiny size, the birds and slingshot are brilliant. I count nine pieces, and they perfectly encapsulate the birds. My favourite part usage here is the minifig slingshot which becomes supersized thanks to the scale of the scene. There are many more details, and I highly encourage you to scan the pig castle to see all the other little details for yourself.

Scout mech takes inspiration from Overwatch’s D.Va

The mecha world seems to have fallen in love with D.Va’s bright pink mech, and it has already been the basis for a great LEGO build. But today we have a new mech inspired by the pink robot/bomb in the form of the Scout Walker by Nate Rehm-Daly. Make sure you check out the back view to see the design of those spindly legs and a cockpit closeup to see the superb shaping that was accomplished at this small scale.