About Gambort

I'm a builder with a short attention span and a lot of virtual bricks. I'm probably most known as a train builder and was involved in the creation of LEGO set 10183 but I do a lot of other stuff too. I'm also a member of the LDraw SteerCo and a webmaster for the site.

Posts by Gambort

Brickvention 2012 round-up

I’ve just returned from Melbourne where I attended my third (maybe fourth…) Brickvention. Each year this convention gets bigger and, more importantly, better. A huge thanks to the organisers for making it such a great event.

For those who could not attend here’s a selection of some of the great creations that were on display. Or of course you can find your own by wading through the tags or Brickvention group. And if you took photos please remember to add “Brickvention” and “2012” to your tags and submit it to the group.

Mark Curnow (Brickton) brought this utterly amazing version of Bumblebee from the new Transformers movies. This thing was incredible, both for size and detail. It was funny coming up to it from behind where it looked like a jumbled bionicle creation (with no offense to the great bionicle builders out there) but from the front you realised the jumbling was 100% truth to the source material.

With full stands and an incredible minifig selection, Jennie Sasson bent walls to capture the geometry and activity of a Quidditch tournament. Her use of 3D for the players gave the tournament a wonderful feeling of action.
The Canberra LUG brought along this wonderful rollercoaster using the old blue track. Watching it zip around the track was a pleasure. I know David Boddy has some great videos of the show too.
I have to admit I missed Travis Matheson’s ‘Nova’ ships at the actual event, but having spotted the pictures now I really regret it. Some excellent microscale love.

And of course these are merely a few of the many great models and displays that the 10,000 audience members got to see. We’ve already seen Ryan’s rocket and I’ll blog Mike Pianta‘s and my creation later.

PS. Excuse the messy pictures. WordPress hates this sort of layout for some reason. And I hate taking too much space or boring you with excess words to fill space.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Batman as you’ve never seen him

Shannon Sproule (Shannon Ocean) has a very odd interpretation of the Batman in 2025. It’s for the LUGNuts 51st Build Challenge: Batmobile 2025.

MOCking Friends

And now for a train builder doing something very different, Cale Leiphart has provided us with a lovely Friends themed treehouse diorama. I’m sure it’s not the first Friends MOC out there, but it’s the first I’ve seen with real attention to detail.

My highlights of recent town and train

I’ve recently been on a hiatus from TBB due to an excess of real life commitments (work, life and LEGO) and a need to have a bit of a break from blogging. But of course this didn’t stop people (particularly Polish people it seems) posting great models, nor me from filing them away for future use. Which brings me to this four model roundup, presented in the order I added them to my list.

First Maciej Drwięga has a fabulous rendition of the Polish PKP ST43 locomotive.

Second Bartosz Kacprzyk (the oneman) shows off an Alouette.

Third Karwik shows off a Kama3 5410 as driven by his late uncle.

And finally Chris Edwards (cjedwards) brings is an excellent train station.

Well detailed, lovely work by all four builders.

Brickvention 2012

Thanks to an excessively busy patch in my life it’s been a long while since I blogged anything LEGO. Unfortunately this probably won’t change much for a little while at least.

But I felt I should take a few moments to remind everyone that the public tickets to Brickvention 2012 are selling out fast. So if you want to come see Ryan McNaught’s Apollo 11 (and a bunch of other good stuff) you should book soon.

It’s on in Melbourne Town Hall next weekend (21-22nd Jan 2012)

It’s a rat circus out there, and I’m beginning to enjoy it!

Joe Klang (derjoe) has provided the perfect opportunity to sit in the hot and summery wastelands from Australia. There was a time when Mel Gibson was considered kind of cooler than an anti-semitic drunk. And Max Max comes very much from that time. In his second recent car-based diorama Joe shows why. You can almost hear the soft murmur of the thunderous engines of Toecutter’s merciless bike gang heading this way. The last of the V8 Interceptor’s is sitting calmly and waits…

VW NPU

I must confess I’m not a huge fan of the flex as windows technique so I almost didn’t blog this one. But the design of the iconic ‘face’ of this Volkswagen Type 2 is just too good not to blog. Karwik has definitely exceeded himself on that.

Thanks to misterzumbi for prodding me about this.

Sava Railways Scenic Tours 2012 Train Calendar

It’s the end of the year which means Tony Sava (SavaTheAggie) has released another of his excellent calendars for sale to help fund RAILBRICKS and his trip to Brickworld 2012. I’ve already blogged a picture from this and it promises to be excellent. A fine addition to any LEGO fan’s wall, be they trainhead or otherwise.

Sava Railways Scenic Tours 2012 LEGO® Train Calendar

www.lulu.com/product/calendar/sava-railways-2012-lego
$17.50

Help support RAILBRICKS, the brick railroading magazine, with this gorgeous 13 month calendar. Each month features photos from Anthony Sava’s Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series, showcasing trains and scenery built entirely of LEGO® bricks.

For 2012, Anthony has taken photos of his LEGO train MOCs based on the Texas State Railroad. From tall trestle bridges to scenes deep in the Piney Woods of East Texas, each photo captures a unique spirit and playfulness that only LEGO bricks can create.

This is not an official LEGO Product, and is not sponsored, authorized or endorsed by The LEGO Group.

————————————————————-
Full disclosure:
Each calendar costs $12.99 to produce, and an additional $1 is collected by LuLu.

Of the $3.51 profit, 10% will be donated to RAILBRICKS. This is the same amount I donate to RAILBRICKS from my Bricklink shop. The remainder will go to help fund my trip to Brickworld 2012.

Gran Torino in LEGO

For his local (Cologne) LEGO brand store recently, Joe Klang (-derjoe-) built a scene from Gran Torino. What I find particularly attractive about this scene is how inorganic it feels, while reflecting the movie so well. It almost feels like a platform game version of the film with the straight lines, diagonal grid and textural elements. And the neat suburban lawn feels even more sterile than in real life.

Thanks to Alex Jones for the heads up

First class speedometer

I would never have guessed that combining a first class compartment coach with a dynamometer was a real idea. But I trust Carl Greatrix (bricktrix) to have done his homework. Although I’m not blogging it for its unusualness but for its lovely looks. There a few touches that purists may not like but it’s a gorgeous old wagon however you look at it.

PS. And no, speedometers are not the same as dynamometers. But the concept is much the same.

Black dragon from Skyrim

Since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged anything I’m cutting myself some picture quality slack and putting this one up here on the blog. I’ve been jealous of those with the time to play this, from all accounts excellent, game.

A dangerous badger

It’s been a very long while since Brian Kescenovitz (mondayn00dle) has brought us one of his dieselpunk mecha but it’s definitely been worth the wait. His “Badger” Combat Walker features some very, very nice part use and lots of delightful plausible details like pistons and armour plating.