BRICKS TECHNIQUE
ROUND AND ROUND WE GO
James Pegrum is inspired by locomotive history to explore three different approaches to creating the difficult shape of cylinders Words and Photography: James Pegrum
W
hen I heard the theme for this issue was trains and planes, I was a tad stumped for ideas, as I haven’t built many of either over the years. I spent the next couple of days thinking it over and decided to build Stephenson’s Rocket, a steam locomotive built in Newcastle in 1829. Part of that research time was spent online looking
at other people’s models for inspirational techniques and it has to be said that there are some excellent builds out there and that the techniques we look at in this article are largely based on other people’s work. I am going to show you a variety of ways of making cylinders, a key feature when it comes to steam engines and consider some of the positives and negatives associated with each technique.
STUDS FACING UP PICS 1-7 - Naturally, for most of us when we look at a LEGO part, we do so with the stud facing upwards and so we’re going to start with a ‘studs up’ technique, using slopes to mimic a cylinder’s circular form. There’s a good number of slopes in the LEGO System and they are referred to by the angle of their slope, the main ones being 45°, 33° and 75°. These all come in an inverted style too, which makes them perfect for this task. As the cylinder of the engine is relatively small, I used one angle only: the 45°. If you wanted to make the cylinder bigger, then the other slopes come in handy. Starting with inverted slopes, I ran these back to back in a row. I then placed three layers of plate connecting the inverted slopes, building up the sides of the cylinder. The last layer consisted of regular slopes run along the top. POSITIVE: • Simple to build • Easy to make connections to the rest of the model elements NEGATIVE: • Lack of curves on the cylinder • Hiding studs with tiles would mean the creation of an extra layer
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