Jeremy Moody built the first Lego ship inside a bottle! To perform this stunt, the builder had to use pieces smaller than a 2X2 brick and improvised tools that ranged from bent coat hangars to chopsticks. Click on the picture below to read more about this amazing feat.
More precisely, Mike Yoder (Yoderism2)has built a cool sci-fi scene called “Cleared for Landing.” I love how much variety there is in this scene. We’ve got a waterway, a train, and a great variety of micro-scale architecture. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the micro scale rendition of his own Calamity Jane.
Justin Vaughn (Mainman) built a highly-original creation depicting an F-15 dogfight using forced perspective. Besides the editing of the HUD, everything else is 100% Lego. Click on the picture to read more about the setup.
While we wait for Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) to finish his Halo ringworld, he fills our quotient of micro video game locales with the Citadel from Mass Effect.
Of the presentation, Brandon says, “Shot in low light with two blacklights to make the trans-neon-orange elements fluoresce.” Nice.
(And don’t miss Ben Fellowes’ SSV Normandy.)
Of all the ancient monuments in the world that I’d like to visit, Angkor Wat is very near the top of the list. Arthur Gugick (torgugick) uses a random pattern of 1×1 square and round plates in multiple colors of gray to emulate the weathered stones of this classical Khmer monument.
Via twee affect.
Over the past several weeks I’ve been building gifts to thank various people of my university for the role they’ve played in my undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis. The past four years have been an intellectually stimulating journey in my study of arts and sciences and the biology major. At the same time, college saw the boom in my Lego hobby, and I am happy to have employed my experience in building to create these tokens of thanks for the people at my school.
This DNA sculpture park was made for my research mentor, whom I had the privilege of working in his genetics lab for three and a half years. The DNA helix codes for a secret message, which can be solved with some knowledge of molecular biology.
The pirate ship was made for my residential college director whom I’ve known since freshman year. This creation was my foray into building the pirate theme, and it was by a miracle that I discovered the resemblance of white windscreen pieces to sails. The exercise vignette was for my physiology professor, who really cared for her students and made a point to drill it into our young minds to exercise and take care of our bodies. Her quote engraved on the vignette got me back into running this year.
The DNA vignette was also given to my research mentor, and it was for the special occasion on his 60th birthday last week. The spiral effect achieved with Bionicle claws contines to be a hit; the effect of this technique far overshadows its simplicity. The vignette of the green ball is a gift for my behavioral ecology professor, one of the funniest and liveliest faculty at the school. I’ve compared attending his classes to watching stand-up comedy, and I hoped to have captured this liveliness in a video showing the motion and sound effects of the creation.
This depiction of our school’s landmark, Brooking’s Hall, is a gift for my super friendly and resourceful four-year adviser. The build uses the medium dark flesh color from the Prince of Persia sets, and the rarity of the colors reflected the $100+ pricetag on my Bricklink orders. The creation is also my first attempt at building an architectural replica, which I am quite happy for the push to expand my building repertoire.
This fantasy aircraft is for my lab bench mentor, who taught me the skills of DNA manipulation and the etiquette of research. I’ve never built an aircraft like this, but knowing his interest in hobby planes, I couldn’t think of anything better to make.
I presented the last of these gifts yesterday, and I am truly flattered by the responses. Each recipient, with the exception of my research mentor, have voluntarily told me the specific place where the gift will be displayed for a long time to come. In the case of my research mentor, I saw the creation on the windowsill of his office the next day I came to lab. From this, I learned that Lego is truly a special medium.
Today I graduated from college. My next step in life is to apply for medical school, and I’ll be taking a year off to work close to home. Thus, this break from my studies roughly translates into an obscene amount of time to build in the upcoming year.
I seem to have a fascination with creations that successfully make use of “useless” parts. That’s why, when I saw his creation at a Wamalug display last week, I asked Bret Harris (starbeanie) to take some photos. This part doesn’t even have any studs!
I just LOVE this micro scale space mining ship. Michael Lehmann (Chiefrocker9000) has done a great job creating a realistic feeling utility space craft. The boom at the front in particular is quite striking. The color scheme is also quite pleasant, despite incorporating glaringly bright lime green.
Partially inspired by the LEGO Minotaurus game, Matt Armstrong (monsterbrick) started building micro mythical monsters almost two months ago and just hasn’t stopped. Each incorporates good micro work and angles, but my favorite monsters have at least one fantastically creative use of elements.
The first is Matt’s personal favorite, a Harpy.
His second is a Chinese dragon that has an impressive head and lower jaw.
We’re nearing double digits in our interviews by Keith Goldman. For our more sensitive readers, today’s interview does contain some fairly strong language. You’ve been warned. Take it away, Keith!
My next guest is a self described “SMOOTH, two-faced, lying bastard” whose models have been the definition of cool in the realm of sci-fi building for the better part of a decade.
I can’t think of a builder who’s been more often imitated than Soren Roberts, and as the cliché goes: never duplicated. Soren is the warrior of the wasteland, the ayatollah of Rock and Rolla!
I’m going to stop because he also has a severe allergy to flattery, daylight, and fools like me.
I sat down with Soren in his blacked-out ’71 cuda, as we prowled early morning downtown Denver Colorado looking for a guy he kept referring to as “That F’ing Girondist”. We talked about Studio Nue, why Snow Crash should never be made into a movie, and whether it is better to use a rusty spoon or a shoe-horn to remove your victim’s eye.
Keith Goldman: Talk to me about the concept of the “Third Artist” and how it applies to building science fiction models with LEGO. What’s your best advice for somebody who already has a decent grasp of technique, but wants to strive for originality in sci-fi or any other creative genre?
Soren Roberts: The concept of the ‘third artist’ is pretty simple — the first artist makes something original. The second artist copies (or “draws inspiration from”, if you feel charitable) the first. The third artist repeats the work of the second because, hey, that’s what you do.
And in science fiction, especially TV and movie science fiction, you’re lucky if it’s just the work of the third artist — more often it’s the fifth or sixth.
The best advice I can give is to build a clip file of all your influences. Every image you see on the net or in a magazine — if you like it, save it. And it can be anything — I have all kind of pictures of industrial machinery and pressure vessels, but I also have abstract paintings and typography to draw on.
For a while I was drawing a lot of inspiration from early steam warships. And so on.
If you want originality, try to move as close as possible to direct, first-artist inspiration from your surroundings. 99% of science fiction is designed to look like other science fiction, but that one percent stands out and often has a huge, disproportionate influence. It’s really hard to design a future cityscape that doesn’t at least obliquely reference the L.A. skyline of Blade Runner, or worn spaceships that don’t reference Star Wars, because those images were so striking and became so fundamental to our concepts of future cities and spaceships.
KG: You have an art and design background, how does this inform your building? Also, give me a basic concept or two that you think other builders without your background could practically use to make their building better.
SR: Probably not all that much, beyond the expanded vocabulary — I don’t have a lot of experience in three-dimensional media, so I’m winging it. It informs my color choices, but I’m subject to the same constraints of part availability as anyone else. You can’t really teach a critical eye, just set up the conditions for someone to learn it themselves.
Two of the biggest things I know are how to do the background on someone who inspires me and having a pretty solid process. Being able to dig up more work by someone, or find their inspirations, is tremendously valuable — it lets you pick their brain for ideas remotely. Having a process is just nice for a lot of reasons — speed, certainly, but also for exploring potential alternative designs. I tend to build a lot of details beforehand, and to build several versions of a section I’m stuck on, and pick the version I like. Keeping up the momentum of a build is important.
So, yeah. Do the research on your influences, and have a process that minimizes frustration.
More of Keith’s interview with Soren after the jump: Continue reading
Though we love Shannon’s great big Classic Space base, we’d be remiss if we passed up this teeny tiny Classic Space base by Tim Goddard.
It’s actually a rather substantial LEGO creation, so not all the details fit in just the one photo above. Be sure to check out Tim’s Flickr photostream for more.
Via MicroBricks.
Real life castles tend to make beautiful LEGO creations, and Neven Cintauer presents his version–gorgeous down to the last micro detail.
The real Predjama is located in Slovenia, and was constructed in the mouth of a cave. I find the inclusion of a secret tunnel particularly interesting.