The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 57 • June 2019
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BUILDING MICROSCALE: Wayne Tyler’s National Mall Rocco Buttliere’s Microscale Skyscrapers
Blake Foster’s Ugly Duckling
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Issue 57 • June 2019
Contents From the Editor........................................................2
People Wayne Tyler’s National Mall Project...............3 Lighting the Washington Monument........11 Rocco Buttliere: Building Small Scale on a Large Scale.....14
Building Mike Koppe’s Challenging Build...................24 Blake Foster’s Ugly Duckling............................28 You Can Build It: USCSS Nostromo................................................32 The Justice League’s Hall of Justice..........42 Mini 6930 Space Supply Station................48 Minifigure Customization 101 Usurping a Theme: Evil Soliloquy..............58
Community Dinosaurs and a Coaster: James Burrows’ Jurassic World...................64 You Can Build It: Hot Dog Stand...................................................66 Aaron Fiskum: Launching Brick Formation.........................72 Community Ads...................................................78 Last Word.................................................................79 Bricks in the Middle............................................80
From the Editor: So we went small this issue. Microscale is the theme that I have the most fun with, as it’s the most challenging. It’s comparatively easy to build in minifigure scale (parts are built to that scale), but making smaller things is tough. Every part used in a micro is important, and working with the limitations of the brick often leads to some great learning experiences with building. A builder learns how to make the most out of a few parts with microbuilding.
June 2019 Issue 57
Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Our cover MOC is by a new builder, but you wouldn’t know that from the layout he built. Wayne Tyler’s work knocked my socks off at BrickSlopes last year, and I am happy to feature him in this issue. Rocco Buttliere’s work has been incredible and has been seen all over. His work is also here.
West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
There are a lot more too, so don’t let me slow you down—get to the rest of the mag!
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Contributors: Jared Burks, James Burrows, Rocco Buttliere, Christopher Deck, Aaron Fiskum, Blake Foster, Kevin Hinkle, Mike Koppe, Amado Pinlac, Daniel Claude Albert Stoeffler, Wayne Tyler, and Greg Hyland.
Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://bit.ly/BrickJournalSub or scan below! Website
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About the Cover: Wayne Tyler’s Capitol Hill rises above his National Mall display. Photo by Joe Meno. About the Contents: Rocco Buttliere’s Golden Gate Bridge reaches to the sky in this bird’s eye view. Photo provided by Rocco Buttliere.
Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces)
SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2011, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $62 Economy US, $74 Expedited US, $96 International, or $24 Digital Only and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 9001 Barb Anne Court, Springfield, VA 22152, USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in China. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
Building
Wayne Tyler’s
National Mall Project Article by Joe Meno Photography by Wayne Tyler and Joe Meno
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I first saw this layout at BrickSlopes 2018, where it had its own display area. Basically an island made up of some tables, this allowed visitors to be able to take a look at the layout from all angles. The layout was of the National Mall in Washington, DC, and its scale let the viewer have a bird’s eye view of the landscape. The builder of this model is Wayne Tyler, and this is his first display.
12th Street, including the 12th Street Expressway.
Making environments is something that Wayne has done for years—he retired from 20+ years of work in the video game industry where he was a 3-D computer artist, creating environments and structures for the games he worked on, which included WWF Wrestling, Tiger Woods Golf, Littlest Pet Shop, and Sims 3. From there it wasn’t much of a jump to start building the same in LEGO, but he didn’t start LEGO building until 2015, and he began with a Star Wars set. While talking to him about his work, he told the story of how he began his LEGO building hobby: “In 2015, my daughter told me about a gift she had gotten her husband for Christmas—the Star Wars Advent Calendar. I was intrigued, but by the time she told me about it, it was early December and the price of the set had skyrocketed to the point where it wasn’t affordable. But I set up a reminder to be on the lookout for the Star Wars Advent Calendar the next year.” “When I got the 2016 Star Wars Advent Calendar, I had such a great time putting the simple models together every day through December that I thought, ‘I gotta do more of this’ and went looking for LEGO sets. Most of the LEGO line wasn’t of interest, but then I ran across the Architecture series, specifically the Lincoln Memorial. It was a must have
A look at the National Museum of American History, then the National Museum of Natural History.
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NMP The
National Mall Project
The full project is to have the entire National Mall with all museums, monuments, gardens, and government buildings from the U.S. Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial. And just for fun, throw in the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial and the MLK Memorial. Here is the projected schedule of building completions by year:
Year Four: Everything on the south side of West Potomac Park. Included will be the Korean War Memorial, the National Park Service Stables, the Sylvan Theatre, the MLK Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial.
Year One: The National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Art West Building, the National Gallery of Art East Building, the Capitol Reflecting Pool, the Grant Memorial, “The Hill”, and the US Capitol Building. Year Two: The National Botanic Garden, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), the Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building, the Smithsonian Castle and associated art museums, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Department of Agriculture Building. Year Three: Everything on the north side of the West Potomac Park between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, plus the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Included will be the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Constitution Gardens, the German-American Friendship 4 Gardens, the Lockkeepers House, and the World War II Memorial.
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Completed 1
Washington Monument
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Freer Gallery
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Smithsonian Castle
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Sackler Gallery
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Haupt Gardens
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African Art Museum
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National Museum of African-American History and Culture
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National Museum of American History
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National Museum of Natural History
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National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
Under Construction 1 Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building
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National Gallery of Art West Building
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National Gallery of Art East Building
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Hirshhorn Museum
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Union Square Capitol Reflecting Pool
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National Air and Space Museum
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Capitol Hill
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National Museum of the American Indian
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House of Representatives Chambers
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National Botanic Garden
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Senate Chambers
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Union Square Capitol Reflecting Pool.
the minute I saw it. Though an easy set to assemble (only 273 pieces), it was pure joy to put it together. I then proceeded to get every Architecture series set I could find. I was totally hooked.” The building of the Lincoln Memorial was the first step in many that led to the National Mall layout. After this Architecture set, Wayne continued buying and building LEGO Architecture sets with no thought of doing anything different, until he got the U.S. Capitol building. He was excited to see the model used the same scale as the Lincoln Memorial and thought that the two would look great displayed together.
National Museum of American History.
National Museum of Natural History.
National Gallery of Art East Building.
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Wayne took the story from here: “After assembling the Capitol Building I was extremely disappointed with the model because the entire back side was just a straight wall. LEGO had chopped off about ⅓ of the building, so here you have this model with a beautiful and intricate front, but a plain white solid wall for the back. That just bugged me and I couldn’t let it go. I figured other folks who had gotten the kit probably felt the same way, so I went looking for how to complete the model. Because of my video game background, I assumed there would be a modding community for LEGO kits, and sure enough, there was. I ran across a description of how to finish the Capitol on Reddit (an online discussion board) complete with photos, parts list, and a really good explanation of how to do it. I then bought a second Capitol set and used its parts to complete the model that I had… and it turned out great.” It’s here that his layout idea took root: “I’m sitting here looking at the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol building, admiring my work, when it occurs to me that these two buildings frame the east and west ends of the National Mall. Then I think: Wouldn’t it be cool to have all the buildings, museums, and monuments on the Mall? That would make a great display. So I go in search of other models, plans, anything that might provide me with a way to get other buildings on the Mall and what I find is… a decent model of the Jefferson Memorial and about five other very poorly designed models of the Washington Monument. And that was it. So to get the other buildings on the Mall, I was going to have to do it myself.”
National Gallery of Art West Building.
The first thing that Wayne had to figure out was the scale of the layout. What looked like an easy problem to solve was actually a tough challenge. Since he knew that the Capitol set and the Lincoln Memorial set were in the same scale, Wayne was going to compare measurements and derive the scale from actual measurements of the buildings. However, none of the dimensions matched up to what Wayne calculated. Each dimension—height, width, or depth—yielded a very different scale. Confused, Wayne contacted LEGO Customer Support to see if they could provide any insight. It took some e-mails back and forth to discover a few things. For the Capitol Building, there had to have been some calculations made, but LEGO Customer service did not have access to that information. When the Lincoln Memorial set was designed, the designers did not try to match any particular scale to the building. They just worked on the model until it ‘looked right.’ That last piece of information was all that Wayne needed to know (and he knew it from his days as a 3-D computer artist): If it looks right, it is right! He didn’t have to match a building to a specific scale, he just had to match it to the scale of the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial became a unit of measurement: The Lincoln Memorial Unit (LMU). An LMU is a three-dimensional unit that is 12 studs wide, 8 studs deep and 12 plates tall. Using satellite photos of the National Mall, Wayne would compare the size of the Lincoln Memorial in the photo to the size of the structure he needed to build. For example, a particular museum might be five-and-a-half Lincoln Memorials wide and two-and-a-third Lincoln Memorials deep. He would then know that the MOC would be 66 studs wide and 18 or 19 studs deep.
A closer look at the Museum of Natural History. Note the dumpsters.
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.
Wayne setting up the display.
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Comparing the Smithsonian Castle (top) and Wayne’s rendition (bottom).
A bird’s eye view of a new section of the layout with the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and the Washington Monument.
Knowing the size of a building was one thing; actually building it was another. Wayne was a beginner, so his only knowledge of designing a building was based on the architecture sets he had put together—his models were hack jobs based on those sets. Building LEGO sets was a great way for him to learn how to design MOCs: The more sets he built, the more he learned how to build his own. He decided to make a version of the National Museum of History as his first MOC. The NMAH was a fairly simple design that didn’t need a lot of variety in LEGO parts, so Wayne thought building it would be pretty straightforward. At this point, he was also just going to build his models in the LEGO Architectural Series style, with grey border strips and black border. When he started on his first version of the museum, though, he realized that the bottom floor of the museum was partially below ground level, and he wanted to show some interesting details on that level. This led to Wayne including the surrounding terrain to add the details he wanted. This eventually led to creating the terrain of the National Mall as well as the buildings. Topology maps of the area were used to create the lay of the land and Capitol Hill, albeit a little exaggerated in scale. To make a building or structure, Wayne would start with a feature that would be recognizable and seemed to be easy to build, and expand from there. This, of course, led to a lot of rebuilds, as he would get to a point where the model wasn’t going to work and he would need to start over. All of his MOCs to this point have been designed and built on the fly. The actual building process for each museum or gallery Wayne has built is about two weeks, but there is a lot of downtime between starting a MOC and getting it finished. Time is spent waiting for parts needed for the build, time is spent trying to figure out how to create a particular aspect of the building, and time is spent doing rebuilds when a particular approach fails. As a result, the construction time for each MOC varies from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. The hardest challenge for Wayne in building real world structures in microscale is choosing what features to include in a MOC and what to leave out. On the National Gallery of Art West Building, he had originally included some details in the exterior walls and corners, but had to remove them in order to get the skylight roof to work. For this particular project, though, Wayne’s hardest challenge was trying to use LEGO (which likes a nice gridded 90-degree angle building approach) to represent buildings and building replacement that doesn’t fit neatly on a grid or use a rectangular building system. For example, the National Gallery of Art East Building doesn’t have a 90-degree angle anywhere in the building. Trying to get LEGO pieces to make 19-degree or 37-degree angles turned out to be impossible. He got as close as he could in building until, like the LEGO designers did with their sets, his model looked right.
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The current layout at this point (it is not complete) is 18 feet long and 5.5 feet wide. For a display, the National Mall is large, and consequently, moving it to a venue was something that Wayne had to figure out. He was lucky, as it turns out. When he was figuring out the scale of the buildings, it turned out that they fit rather neatly on one or two 32-stud baseplates. Additionally, at this scale the width of the central part of the Mall (the grassy areas) fit almost perfectly on a 48-stud plate. That meant that the overall Mall setup naturally broke down into smaller sections. To transport the project, he has seven center Mall pieces and buildings separated and placed in boxes or storage drawers. The entire project fits in his car. When he gets to a display site, everything is placed side to side and connected with a few tile pieces between each section.
Wayne’s transport solution for the layout.
As of press time, the National Mall Project still has elements left to build. Wayne’s favorite building is the Lincoln Memorial. As he stated: “It is simple, elegant, and the reason I started this whole project. It inspires me to try to match the quality of my work to the level seen in that building.” Or until the National Mall Project looks right.
A closer look at the National Gallery of Art East Building.
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Lighting the Washington Monument Article and Photography by Wayne Tyler
In keeping with the scale of the Lincoln, the streetlights presented a problem. There was no lamp post that was anywhere close to being the right size. Using the average tree size as a guide, I put together some thoughts of what pieces would be the right size and submitted them to Rob Klingberg at Brickstuff. Rob responded that none of them were a good choice because there was no place to run the wires needed to power the lights without them being obvious and looking bad. But... in response, he suggested using a lever with the wires running up the side and shrink-wrapped, to both keep the wires in place and hide the wires at the same time. He sent this photo showing me what he had in mind. I was delighted because they were the right size and they really did look like streetlights. The next step was trying to figure out how bright the lights should be. In the same way that all the physical aspects of the MOC (buildings, trees, vehicles, etc.) needed to be scaled to look correct, the light brightness needed to be scaled also. Too bright or too dark, the lights will look wrong. Basically, we needed to scale the illumination area of the lights. You can’t have a streetlight that’s so bright just one illuminates an entire city block.
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Initial part ideas for the streetlights.
Rob Klingberg’s streetlights.
However, there was a place where the cool white streetlights would be appropriate. There are bright security lights around the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. To replicate those, I had Rob make four slightly brighter cool white streetlights. The difference in the color and brightness really sells them as a different kind of light... a security light. Another big problem with the lighting was how to light the Monument itself. I had done some research to find out how it is really done, and then had a discussion with Rob to see if he could recommend anything that might come close. The biggest difficulty was getting the illumination throw distance and the wide angle spread needed to light a very tall, thin structure. To achieve that, the lights themselves (LEDs and LEGO pieces together) became far too large and looked very out of place. The solution involved some compromise on my part. Rob had a relatively small, high-intensity single LED light that had the throw, but the spread of the light was pretty narrow. But it was the only thing that even came close to what I wanted.
So we went back and forth a couple of times where Rob would build some test lights and I would try them out on the MOC to see if they fit. What we finalized on was a mix of the two dimmest intensities. I didn’t want all the lights to be uniformly bright; in my mind, that wouldn’t be very realistic. Another choice that needed to be made was the color of the lights: A cool white or a warm white. I had always had warm white in mind. When I saw the difference in one of the tests, it just solidified what I was imagining. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture is lit up.
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There are four high-intensity lights placed at the approximate locations of real Monument lights, which is diagonally out from the corners of the Monument. Two of the lights at opposite corners are pointed at the lower part of the Monument, and the other two are pointed at the upper part. The entire Monument is lit, it’s just not that smooth, even lighting we are so used to seeing in real life. I think one of the hardest tasks I gave to Rob was to figure out a way to have aircraft warning lights on the Monument. I really, really wanted this because it is so noticeable at night. I just told him the top of the Monument was a 2x2 pyramid piece and asked if he could put flashing red lights in it. He said that he would work on it, but no guar-
The National Museum of African-American History and Culture and the Washington Monument with lighting.
antees. I think I asked once how it was going, and was told he had a couple of ideas. And then, when my first order of streetlights showed up, there it was... the Monument topper. Brickstuff already had a connector that allowed flashing lights, that was offthe-shelf. But Rob had figured a way to put two sets of two red lights in the topper. The first thing I did was put the new topper on the existing Monument, plugged it in and stared at the blinking red lights—the very realistic looking blinking red aircraft warning lights—for 15 minutes. It was jaw-dropping to me. And it really sells the Monument as being real. After I had all the lights installed, I was taking pictures for Flickr one night when my wife (walking up the stairs) looks down on the MOC and says, “Ya know, there is a big, black area in the middle of that. Can’t you do something to make it look better?” What I realized was, in real-life, the bottom of the Monument has lights built into the base that illuminate the flags and flagpoles that surround it. I came up with an idea for another custom light that would work in the same way, submitted it to Rob, and asked if Brickstuff could make it. He said sure, with a caveat that I would need to rebuild the Monument base to allow space for the installation of the lights. I was actually ahead of him and had already done that. When the flagpole lights showed up, it was a smooth half-day install and everything worked perfectly when I turned on the power. There is no longer a black hole on the middle of the Washington Monument Grounds MOC and I get the side benefit of the flagpole lights providing a little more illumination to the Monument itself. That means the four high-intensity Monument lights can be cheated a bit to make the Monument lighting look a little smoother and more uniform.
A closer look at a street lit.
The other thing Rob did was recommend, and then build, magnetic power connectors for the light wiring. Instead of plugging and unplugging wires whenever I assemble/ disassemble the MOC, all I need to do now is just slide the sections together and the magnetic power connectors automatically couple. Connecting all the power wiring is literally a five-minute operation, and most of that is because I’m placing the LEGO pieces that hold all the subsections together, not futzing with the wiring. And there you have it: How the lighting for the Washington Monument Grounds MOC came to be.
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People
Rocco Buttliere:
Building Small Scale on a Large Scale! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Rocco Buttliere
Rocco Buttliere graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in architecture in 2017. Since then, he has been pursuing LEGO work fulltime as a freelance artist. He may have started school with the idea of one day becoming an architect, but he was fortunate to have landed several exhibition opportunities over the years as his body of work grew. These opportunities have allowed for the type of exposure he needed in order to receive commissioned work. There is still quite a lot of work to do in order to make it a truly viable and sustainable option for him, but it’s never lost on him just how lucky he is to have been offered the opportunities that have come his way thus far. BrickJournal was able to chat with him between displays at BrickUniverse, a traveling brick event. BrickJournal: When did you start building? Did you have a Dark Age? What got you out of it? Rocco Buttliere: I have been building with LEGO for as long as I can remember. I first started building sets back when the original Harry Potter line started in 2001. I also went through a Star Wars phase and eventually became interested in architecture early on during high school, when the modular buildings series started. It was around that time that I first started my current body of work, Landmark | Landscape, which now consists of more than fifty consistently-scaled models of landmarks from around the world. It’s been ten years since I started this body of work, and it’s safe to say that my architectural education and professional relationships with other LEGO artists have helped immensely in refining my skills, both as a builder and as a practicing artist.
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What got you into constructing architectural buildings? Having grown up in a suburb of Chicago, the years of visiting the city left an impression on me. I wanted to learn more about the variety of distinct architectural styles Chicago boasts. When I began to have the desire to express my fascination, LEGO was the natural medium of choice. Even after ten years of such relatively cohesive subject matter, I have never lost interest in continuing to discover new solutions and parts usage. The great thing about landmarks is that every corner of the world has them, and the potential to continue learning about new places and cultures is boundless! What’s your favorite theme, if it isn’t Architecture? I hold the modular series partially responsible for my architecture interests, so naturally, I would say this series has been a steadfast favorite. The only other sets I tend to collect are the skyline sub-theme of the Architecture line. I also have quite a bit of respect for the LEGO Ideas theme. There’s certainly a lot to be said for the value of fan community input on official LEGO sets; and some of the one-offs from Ideas have ended up being all-time favorites of mine.
BUILDING LONDON This layout started with the buildings in the foreground: (front) Westminster Abbey, (white chapel to the left of Westminster Abbey) Saint Margaret’s, and (center) the Palace of Westminster. This section consists of approximately 15,000 pieces. An expansion including the London Eye (which rotates), County Hall, Westminster Bridge, and the River Thames increased the part count overall to over 50,000 pieces!
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How do you plan and design your models? How long does it take? Each new piece always starts the same way—a light bulb moment where I start to imagine a few LEGO elements which could effectively capture the look of the subject matter. From here, I dive headfirst into researching the landmark, as well as sketching it out in plan and section to take note of dimensions. It’s usually pretty early on that I jump into LEGO Digital Designer to start iterating and testing my initial concepts. Oftentimes, if an idea is too out of scale, I’ll go back to Square One and test different parts usage until I find something that works. This phase of design is often rather circuitous, though I suppose I’m used to that type of rigor having gone through five years of formal architecture training. At a certain point, I usually hit a stride while designing and can typically turn out a finalized model within a month, although some of my pieces have taken much longer than that. What’s the largest model you have built? The most challenging? Before I start designing one of my pieces, I always ask myself how this new model will challenge me. Will it advance my historical and cultural understanding of the real place? Will it force me to expand my vocabulary of parts usage? Will it, ultimately, push me to achieve something I may have deemed impossible at face value? If the answer is ‘yes’ to at least two of these questions, that’s all the justification I need starting a new project. With this in mind, there are certainly some works that stand out more than the others.
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It’s no coincidence that my largest single model of the Golden Gate Bridge was also my most challenging up till then. At more than twelve feet long, the model consists of roughly 40,000 pieces and incorporates authentic cable suspension in order to span the six-and-a-half foot center span. Once I had committed these numbers and measurements to paper, it then became a matter of designing a model which could not only stand and support itself, but also be able to break down in sections for transportation between exhibitions. Having realized all of this before the start of my final semester at IIT, I chose to take a Long Span Structures class and successfully proposed that the design + build of my Golden Gate Bridge model be added to the elective as a single credithour independent study. This allowed me to conduct a months-long research project into the actual bridge, studying everything from its construction and retrofits, to structural equations and digital analysis of the overall structure. This academic and artistic overlap is something I look back on fondly as one of the opportunities that helped me grow as an artist.
BUILDING THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE The Golden Gate Bridge is 12 feet in length and is made of over 40,000 pieces.
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BUILDING CHICAGO:
Phase 1
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.” -Daniel H. Burnham, 1907 It is with these ever-resonant words, that I present the first major step toward what may well turn out to be my magnum opus of the 1:650 LEGO skyscraper model. Phase 1 of Building Chicago joins my previously-existing Chicago River and Millennium Park Skyline layouts with various North Loop area buildings. The layout measures approximately 52” x 43”, consists of more than thirty buildings and represents a total land area of roughly 3 million square feet. The overall layout was built over the course of five years. What started as a desire to replicate individual skyscrapers, has transitioned to a focus on representing a contiguous urban landscape through LEGO®. Driven by my passion for the urbanistic elements of architecture, as well as my own love of the city, this ambitious project will likely last more than ten years and consist of somewhere between two and three million pieces.
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MOUNT RUSHMORE 10-Year Model
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” -Theodore Roosevelt, 1899
More recently, however, I completed a piece which proved to be even more challenging: Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Knowing that March 2019 would mark ten years since I began Landmark | Landscape, I had started to think about a model that could commemorate this milestone quite far in advance. Around August 2018, I first had the idea of modeling Mount Rushmore. Soon enough, I began to envision the overall extent of the piece and realized that I would need to also include the visitor center complex in the mountain’s preceding foothills. Indeed, this was a place I had been to several times during family vacations over the years, and I knew I needed to capture the place from which everyone experiences the monument. Sculpting faces out of LEGO was something I had never done before, so I knew the most immediate challenge would be to see if I could even remotely do so at my typical 1:650 scale. I started designing each of the presidential likenesses and was able to work out a suitable style so that they appeared consistent. From there, I spent hundreds of hours modeling the surrounding rock and the mountain itself. Starting out, I was essentially designing around the floating heads of the presidents (below left). At no point, was I able to ‘copy and paste’ large sections at a time, as every nook and cranny needed to be completely unique in order to effectively capture the rugged, natural terrain. It was an incredibly long process, most of which was spent with LEGO Digital Designer on the left side of my screen, and Google Earth on the right. All in all, the final model consists of roughly 22,000 pieces and took about 400 hours to design (over the course of eight weeks), plus another 150 hours to build. What future builds do you have in mind? There are always a few landmarks and/or landscapes on my mental shortlist that I’d like to give the LEGO treatment. One of the ongoing projects I’m most passionate about is my Chicago layout. My body of work features around thirty models of Chicago landmarks, many of which are combined into two geographically-accurate layouts of the city. The smaller of the two layouts, featuring a chunk of the Magnificent Mile along Michigan Avenue, is currently on display in the Masterpiece Gallery of the LEGO House in Billund. The larger
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LOWER MANHATTAN This is a reconstruction and restoration of an earlier model of the World Financial Center that Rocco built in 2012. With this rebuild, stability was enhanced while reducing the total part count by about 300 parts to 21,200 pieces. Included in this photograph is also his model of One World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, seen at the rear. Together, the two models make this a roughly 35,000 piece layout.
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layout, featuring a roughly 3.5 million square foot area of the North Loop area, is on tour with BrickUniverse. The idea here is to eventually have a massive, 3-to-4 million piece layout of the entire downtown area of Chicago. Ideally, it would be great to have a semi-permanent home for the layout somewhere in the city where visitors could come and see it.
COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS BACK ISSUE
BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, including Pro2Pro interviews (between two top creators), “Greatest Stories Never Told”, retrospective articles, and more. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
BACK ISSUE #113
ALTER EGO
ALTER EGO, the greatest ‘zine of the ‘60s, is all-new, focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art. Each issue includes an FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.
ALTER EGO #160
COMIC BOOK CREATOR
COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Edited by JON B. COOKE.
COMIC BOOK CREATOR #19
DRAW!
DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Some issues contain figure-drawing instruction nudity; Mature Readers Only. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.
DRAW #36
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare & unseen Kirby artwork, showcased in dynamic full-color! Edited by JOHN MORROW.
KIRBY COLLECTOR #77
REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL—biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO—tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Spider-Man cover by DITKO!
Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK FRAZETTA! From THUN’DA and EC COMICS to CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, STEVE RINGGENBERG and CBC’s editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current creators and associates, and memories of the man himself. PLUS: Frazetta-inspired artists JOE JUSKO, and TOM GRINDBERG, who contributes our Death Dealer cover!
MIKE HAWTHORNE (Deadpool, Infinity Countdown) interview, YANICK PAQUETTE (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Batman Inc., Swamp Thing) how-to demo, JERRY ORDWAY’s “Ord-Way” of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY! May contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; for Mature Readers Only.
MONSTERS & BUGS! Jack’s monster-movie influences in The Demon, Forever People, Black Magic, Fantastic Four, Jimmy Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror film producer CHARLES BAND; interview with “The Goon” creator ERIC POWELL; Kirby’s use of insect characters (especially as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Golden Age Kirby story, and a Kirby pencil art gallery!
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BATMAN MOVIE 30th ANNIVERSARY! Producer MICHAEL USLAN and screenwriter SAM HAMM interviewed, a chat with BILLY DEE WILLIAMS (who was almost Two-Face), plus DENNY O’NEIL and JERRY ORDWAY’s Batman movie adaptation, MINDY NEWELL’s Catwoman, GRANT MORRISON and DAVE McKEAN’s Arkham Asylum, MAX ALLAN COLLINS’ Batman newspaper strip, and JOEY CAVALIERI & JOE STATON’s Huntress!
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MONSTER MASH The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972
Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “MARS ATTACKS” trading cards, EERIE PUBLICATIONS, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490649
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Building
Mike Koppe’s building....
The Weischer Media Company Building is in Hamburg, Germany. A seven-story structure designed by the architecture firm of Hillmer and Hillmer, the building was built between 2001 and 2003. It is part of the Elbberg Campus in the Altona part of the city. The distinctive profile of the building caught the eye of Mike Koppe, a 62-year old Canadian LEGO fan and rekindled builder. Having lived in Hamburg as a child, he started looking for interesting buildings in town. After first finding the Dockland office building on Google Earth, he spotted the Weischer Media Building one street over. From Google Street View, the building looked really impressive, and the building challenge was difficult, but not impossible. One of the many challenges that Mike would face making this building was that one side was covered by aluminum horizontal lattice, and the other side was a glass wall with views of the office space and other items inside. He had no option but to build the exterior and interior of the building.
...and its real counterpart.
Mike Koppe’ s Challenging Build Article by Joe Meno Photography and Digital Model by Mike Koppe
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Mike’s experience in constructing came from LEGO building initially in the ’60s until the early ’70s. He returned to building in the ’90s when he bought his kids a lot of City and Bionicle sets. He helped his kids while getting back into building with the early Star Wars sets, including the X-Wing Fighter and TIE Interceptor. On and off he would build sets of interest such as the Space Shuttle, but he really got back into serious building just a couple of years ago when he built a mobile launch platform for his LEGO Saturn V set. The platform was built with bricks and elements ordered from the LEGO Store. Once he discovered Bricklink (an online sales site for LEGO and related materials), he realized he could do more. Star Wars was the theme that got Mike back to building, but he discovered that his favorite theme was Architecture. It was only a matter of time before he would find a building that caught his interest.
Planning the Build Seventh Floor Executive Office, Conference Room.
Sixth Floor Office Space, Washrooms.
Fifth Floor TV Studio.
Fourth Floor Office space.
Third Floor Office space.
Second Floor Aquarium, Garden, Pool Table, Vending Machine, Kitchen, Cafeteria.
Planning, procuring the bricks and building the building took four months, with Mike starting work on the model in early September and finishing it by New Year’s Day. While the exterior was based on reference images Mike was able to find online, the interior was much harder to find reference photos for. Mike’s solution? Build his own interior. To make assembly easier, Mike built the exterior digitally using LEGO Digital Designer. The interior was a separate model, with both using about 4700 bricks and elements.
Building the Model
Construction of the building began in mid-September by gluing baseplates to a 4’ bookshelf and ordering parts from Bricklink. The layout grew to a length of 45 inches, a height of 20 inches, and 10 inches wide. The biggest challenge was to create a custom brick to mirror image the arch elements on top using AutoCad 3-D and a 3-D printer. The second hardest
First Floor Main Entrance Lobby, Workspaces.
Ground Floor Lobby, Parking, Security. A look at the open side of the building.
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Night views of the model.
challenge was to try to match the official LEGO white color to paint the 1x6x5 he could only get in gray. He was still refining his color matching as of press time.
Lighting the Build
One really nice detail that he added to his building was interior lighting. Using skills he picked up from building and landscaping, Mike gave the model interior lighting with internal wiring, so viewers could see the interior spaces. The lighting is actually LED lighting strips that are linked to a variable power supply to allow control of light intensity. This allows each floor to be seen and shown.
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Each of the seven stories of the building has different things to be seen. The ground floor features a lobby at one end, and at the other end a police station. The first story features a main entrance with lobby and office space. The second story is a large cafeteria with kitchen, vending machine, pool table, garden, and aquarium. Third and fourth stories have more office space, and the fifth houses a TV studio complete with a large background screen featuring a map of Europe. On the sixth story there is more office space and a couple of washrooms, and the seventh floor features an executive office and large conference room. Every floor features at least one coffee machine and two elevators at the east wall of the building. In total, Mike’s building has over 9400 pieces and weighs 17 pounds.
A closer look at the glass side.
After a project like this, one would think that Mike would stop and make something a little easier... but that’s not the case. His next project is the sky tower seen in the movie Oblivion. So far, he has done the lower level and used around 7,000 elements. One might say for Mike Koppe, the sky is the limit!
Making the news at the TV studio.
The executive office.
The cafeteria.
The top arch piece on the final model was white. However, since there was no inverse arch element for the bottom, Mike created one and produced a number of them on a 3-D printer. The final part can be seen at the bottom.
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Building
Blake Foster’s
Ugly Duckling Article and Photography by Blake Foster
The M:Tron Magnet Factory, Blake’s largest project to date.
I’m Blake Foster, software engineer by day and LEGO Space enthusiast by night. I’ve been building spaceships for about 32 years, punctuated by only a short spell in high school and college when I was building less frequently and only MINDSTORMS. MINDSTORMS kept my love for LEGO alive in the time that would otherwise have been a Dark Age. One of my favorite creations of that era was a pair of stair-climbing robots that I raced to the top of the stairs at my parent’s house. I also had a particular fascination with bipeds and built one that could turn and follow a line. While I still think MINDSTORMS are really cool, I program computers all day and I prefer to focus on strictly artistic projects in the evening. My AFOL career got started one afternoon in 2007, just after college, when I decided out of boredom to build a LEGO spaceship. I was proud of it, so I went looking for places to share it on the Internet. I stumbled upon the Classic Space forum. There I found a community of AFOLs building spaceships that made mine look dumb. I shared it nonetheless with a title along the lines of “Ultimate Spaceship” (which felt a bit disingenuous having seen what other builders were doing), and promptly received feedback along the lines of it needs more greebles (details added to the surfaces to make it appear more complex) and too many studs showing. I was humbled, but I knew I wanted to build the kind of thing that the talented builders on that forum were making. Two weeks later I was working on my first SHIP (an acronym for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts—a model [usually a spaceship] that requires, well, a seriously large investment in parts and money).
I started building the Ugly Duckling around March 2015, with a sketching phase before that. This model was very much a reaction to my previous MOC, the M:Tron Magnet Factory. I loved M:Tron as a child, and while I enjoyed paying homage to it, I had also grown weary of the constraints imposed by rigidly adhering to a subtheme. Once I was free of those constraints, I wanted to build something as weird as possible. The Ugly Duckling has a motley assortment of colors, the structure is deliberately bent and lopsided, and there are masses of greebles poking out in every direction. There are no clean lines or graceful sweeping curves. I wanted it to look like it was built by engineers with no regard for aesthetics, but be beautiful in spite of itself. That is how I came up with the name Ugly Duckling. I made up a backstory to fit the name later: “The Ugly Duckling is a scientific research ship intended to explore the distant corners of the galaxy in search of new habitable worlds. It got its name after the Earth government failed to learn from an incident involving a boat in the early 21st century, and held a contest on the galactic network to name the ship. Ugly Duckling won, and considering it karma, the Earth government honored the contest results.” When I am designing, I have trouble visualizing what I want to build before I have the physical bricks in my hands. While I do start by sketching, I do so only to get inspiration, because my plan inevitably changes when I start building. In this case, after a few evenings of building, I scrapped the rough sketch of the front of the ship I’d been following, and repurposed what I’d built to fit a new sketch that I would follow for the rest of the build. The sketch only really captured the overhead profile, leaving most of the details and nuances of the shape to be figured out with the physical bricks. I work kind of hierarchically to figure out those details. I start with simple mock-ups of sections of a model that capture only the basic shapes, and then refine those shapes until the eventual form of the model has revealed itself to me. I’ll iterate until I feel inspired, or scrap an idea to try something different. Sometimes that inspiration works in strange ways—for example, when I built that section near the back of the ship just above the main engine with the illuminated windows, I was actually building it for the bottom of the ship, but then I rotated it 180 degrees and put it on top. In doing so I ripped out everything I had already built for that part of the top of the ship, scrapping at least a few evenings of work. In terms of building, the front section was the most challenging, because it’s made up of three heavy, bulky sections surrounding a hollow tube. The walls connecting those three sections are slim, and greebled inside and out, which leaves very little room for supporting structure. The left and right parts of the ship aren’t actually connected on top until behind the yellow area. There is a connection on the bottom, but it’s only about four plates thick. I got it to hold together by building the frame studs-forward, which made the skinny walls much stronger, but the two sides of the ship would flop and sag, forcing me to figure out how to tightly pack greebles into a space of uncertain dimensions. I had to build temporary supports to hold parts of the ship in alignment, and in one of the earlier photos, the right side of the ship is propped up by a block of wood.
The Ugly Duckling, seen from the right front.
A rear view of the Ugly Duckling, showing the engines.
One of the Ugly Duckling’s two side bays.
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This model was one of the most challenging builds I’ve ever done. The geometry of the ship alone was an engineering nightmare. There are numerous angles and weird fractionalplate offsets. The white panels that make up the hull are SNOT jigsaw puzzles. Tight interior space complicated the engineering problems further throughout the build. In addition to the large hollow space that made the front so challenging, there are two hangar bays on the side, and a larger hangar bay along the bottom that runs for about two thirds the length of the ship. On top of that, there are greebles recessed several studs into the hull throughout the model. Fitting in the necessary supporting structure for all the numerous angles was a constant headache.
(above) An early construction photo of the Ugly Duckling supported by blocks of wood to prevent the left and right halves from falling apart. (left) Another construction photo of the SHIP, showing the left and right halves of the front section supported by temporary stands before they were connected. A close-up of the ship’s engine section.
The Ugly Duckling broken down for transport.
The Ugly Duckling breaks into three large modules and a number of smaller ones for transport. Figuring out where to put those module boundaries was difficult inside and out. On the inside, I had to deal with the tight space, and on the outside I had to figure out how to run the boundaries through layers of greebles. The boundary between the front and center modules was the hardest. On the right, it’s sandwiched between the mostly hollow front section and one of the side hangar bays, and on the left it has to get around a maze of compound-angled panels. The result was a zig-zagging seam across the top of the model. I ran into more trouble in the bottom hangar bay, which spans two modules. I was wrapping up the seam between the front and center modules, when I noticed that the front module required an odd number of lights. That was a problem, because the Power Functions LEDs come in inseparable sets of two. There are lights all along the bottom hangar bay, so I made the module boundary zig-zig through the bottom as well, to even out the number of LEDs attached to the front. I have a habit of building the parts of a model that I consider most important first. In terms of aesthetics, this makes sense: I never have to make compromises on the important parts of the model to accommodate what I already built on a less important part. In terms of engineering, this creates yet another nightmare. I built the ship to look its best when seen from the front right, the angle shown in the main photo, and thus I built the front, top, and right sides of the ship first. I used numerous
Looking down on the ship from the starboard side.
temporary supports to hold all this up as I worked my way down the length of the ship. I didn’t start seriously working on the bottom until I had built all the way back to the main engine. At that point I was forced to build underneath what I had already built. I resorted to standing the ship up on end so that I could access that area, using more temporary supports to keep it upright. As I was working vertically, I noticed that the ship looked really cool as a tower, so much so that I almost lamented the fact that it wasn’t one. Just as my feelings while building the M:Tron Magnet Factory led to the Ugly Duckling, the Ugly Duckling may lead me to my next build. Now that I am once again free to build whatever I want, spacey towers are at the forefront of my imagination. For beginning builders, I offer the following advice: Spend time looking at other builders’ MOCs that you like, and try to understand why you like them. Is it the way repetition of certain structures or shapes ties the whole model together? The use of negative spaces? The lack of large, boring surfaces? The way that sections or details line up to create a pleasing composition? Also spend time looking at your own MOCs, and try to understand what you don’t like about them. Keep them around after you get tired of looking at them, so that you have some time to process how they could be improved. Then apply those observations to your next MOC. When considering your own MOCs, look at small parts in isolation, as if those parts were MOCs by themselves, and ask yourself if they would be good. If not, think about how you might make those parts of the model more visually interesting. Usually that involves improving the details, but when doing so, think about increasing the level of detail rather than just adding more details; that is, don’t just add more guns to your spaceship, make the existing guns more detailed. I find looking at parts of a model in isolation useful as I’m building too. I rarely get any part of a MOC exactly right on the first attempt, and this helps me catch and rework those areas that could be improved. By the time I finish a MOC most of it will have been tweaked or redesigned many times over. It takes time and patience, but there’s a great community of AFOLs out there to provide moral support and advice along the way.
A close-up of the Ugly Duckling’s bridge and comm array. The bridge faces to the side.
Blake sitting behind the Ugly Duckling, for scale.
A close-up of some of the Ugly Duckling’s lighted windows near the rear of the ship.
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You Can Build It MINI Model
USCSS Nostromo Design and Instructions by DanSto
The USCSS Nostromo spaceship appears in the famous horror/science-fiction movie Alien, directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. With a crew of seven people, it operates as a hauler for the transportation of a huge refinery between the Earth and outer colonies. During its final travel in 2122, it was landed on the moon LV-426 in order to explore a crashed derelict and was infected by an alien creature which killed most of the crew. A large part of the action takes place aboard the Nostromo up to its self-destruction before the end of the movie. As a fan of the movie, I wanted to build models inpired by it. After having built the creature at different stages of its growth, some based on the Arvo brothers’ creations (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/77709542@N06/27662860880/), I am now trying to build some of the ships appearing in the movie. The present microscale model of the Nostromo is the first achieved vessel. As a guide for the build, this iconic spaceship is detailed on several websites with blueprints and pictures from the movie, and the 3-D model by Starrigger was also very helpful. The microscale Nostromo model pulling the refinery by RemcoRohaan on Flickr was another source of inspiration, but my version is finally completely different from his. The main challenge was to include the two pairs of lateral square propulsors and the four small back propulsors, in addition to the three large truncated conic ones. These details explain the final size of the model. Including the forward sensor pylon was another challenge: It is solved by combining a black droid arm and a new black wand. The size of the model allows to display the cockpit, three landing gears, and a detailed docking arm clamp connector with the atmospheric intake port represented by legs. Finally, a trans-clear stand displays the 32 short model nicely.
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty Color 1 Trans Clear 1 Trans Clear 1 Trans Clear 4 Dark Bl. Grey 1 Dark Bl. Grey
Part 3960.dat 4070.dat 30359a.dat 3024.dat 15573.dat
Description Dish 4 x 4 Inverted Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Bar 1 x 8 with Brick 1 x 2 Curved Top Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud, without Understud 2 Dark Bl. Grey 25269.dat Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round 2 Black 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 2 Black 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 1 Black 26047.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle on Side 3 Black 33286.dat Brick 1 x 1 x 2/3 Round with Scala Base 1 Black 36752a.dat Minifig Tool Wand 1 Black 59230.dat Minifig Mechanical Arm Straight 2 Light Bl. Grey 2431.dat Tile 1 x 4 with Groove 4 Light Bl. Grey 2555.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Clip 3 Light Bl. Grey 3020.dat Plate 2 x 4 4 Light Bl. Grey 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 4 Light Bl. Grey 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2 17 Light Bl. Grey 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 6 Light Bl. Grey 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 4 Light Bl. Grey 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 5 Light Bl. Grey 3070b.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Groove 9 Light Bl. Grey 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 2 Light Bl. Grey 3666.dat Plate 1 x 6 2 Light Bl. Grey 3700.dat Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole 5 Light Bl. Grey 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 1 Light Bl. Grey 3839b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handles Type 2 6 Light Bl. Grey 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 2 Light Bl. Grey 4081b.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2 2 Light Bl. Grey 4274.dat Technic Pin 1/2 4 Light Bl. Grey 11477.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 1 Light Bl. Grey 15535.dat Tile 2 x 2 Round with Hole 1 Light Bl. Grey 15573.dat Plate 1 x 2 w/Groove w/1 Ctr Stud, without Understud 2 Light Bl. Grey 24201.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Inverted 2 Light Bl. Grey 26047.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle on Side 2 Light Bl. Grey 32028.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Door Rail 5 Light Bl. Grey 34103.dat Plate 1 x 3 with 2 Studs Offset 2 Light Bl. Grey 36841.dat Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down 1 Light Bl. Grey 41879a.dat Minifig Hips and Legs Short w/o Hole 1 Light Bl. Grey 47905.dat Brick 1x1 with Studs on Two Opp. Sides 2 Light Bl. Grey 52107.dat Brick 1 x 2 with Studs on Sides 6 Light Bl. Grey 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 2 Light Bl. Grey 59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 2 Light Bl. Grey 60478.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle on End 2 Light Bl. Grey 61409.dat Slope Brick 18 2 x 1 x 0.667 Grille 1 Light Bl. Grey 61678.dat Slope Brick Curved 4 x 1 2 Light Bl. Grey 63864.dat Tile 1 x 3 with Groove 2 Light Bl. Grey 75535.dat Technic Pin Joiner Round 2 Light Bl. Grey 85984.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 2 Light Bl. Grey 87580.dat Plate 2 x 2 w/Groove w/1 Centre Stud 3 Light Bl. Grey 98100.dat Brick 2 x 2 Round Sloped 2 Light Bl. Grey 98138p06.dat Tile 1 x 1 Round w/Headlight Pattern 1 Light Bl. Grey 99207.dat Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2 Up 1 Light Bl. Grey 99780.dat Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up
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BrickJournal #50 is a double-size special in book format! Don’t miss this landmark edition, celebrating over a decade as the premier publication for LEGO® fans! (144-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $7.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-082-3
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All characters TM & © their respective owners.
BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING
MONSTER MASH
MARK VOGER’s time-trip back to 1957-1972, to explore the CREEPY, KOOKY MONSTER CRAZE, when monsters stomped into America’s mainstream! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9
GROOVY
A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9
THE MLJ COMPANION
Documents the complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history: The GOLDEN AGE (beginning with the Shield, the first patriotic super-hero), the SILVER AGE (spotlighting the campy Mighty Comics issues, and The Fly and Jaguar), the BRONZE AGE (the Red Circle line, and the !mpact imprint published by DC Comics), up to the MODERN AGE, with its Dark Circle imprint! (288-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0
SWAMPMEN
LOU SCHEIMER
CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years brought the Archies, Shazam, Isis, He-Man, and others to TV and film! (288-page paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-044-1
AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1950s-1990s 1940-44 & 1945-49 coming in 2019!
OR -COL FULLDCOVER HAR RIES SE nting me f docu ecade o d y! each s histor ic m o c
MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS
SWAMPMEN dredges up Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Heap, and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou, through the memories of the artists and writers who created them! Features BERNIE WRIGHTSON, ALAN MOORE, MIKE PLOOG, FRANK BRUNNER, STEVE GERBER, STEVE BISSETTE, RICK VEITCH, and others, with a new FRANK CHO cover!
(272-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1
KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID!
The creators of the Marvel Universe’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and TV interviews, painting a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s relationship—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed. Includes a study of their solo careers after 1970, and recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, & JOHN ROMITA SR. (160-page trade paperback) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-086-1
MIKE GRELL:
LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER
A career-spanning tribute to the master storyteller, told in Grell’s own words, and those of colleagues PAUL LEVITZ, DAN JURGENS, DENNY O’NEIL, MIKE GOLD, and MARK RYAN. Full of illustrations from every facet of his long career, including SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, WARLORD, GREEN LANTERN, GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS, JON SABLE, STARSLAYER, SHAMAN’S TEARS, and more! (160-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5
(192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $9.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-057-1
(176-page LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER) $37.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-087-8
COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION
IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB
In 1978, DC Comics implemented its “DC Explosion” with many creative new titles, but just weeks after its launch, they pulled the plug, leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. This book marks the 40th Anniversary of “The DC Implosion”, one of the most notorious events in comics, with an exhaustive oral history from the creators involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and others), plus detailed analysis of how it changed the landscape of comics forever! (136-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $10.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-085-4
HERO-A-GO-GO!
MICHAEL EURY looks at comics’ 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV’s Batman shook a mean cape!
Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s top horror comics history magazine): RICHARD CORBEN, Good Girls of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ ALIEN WORLDS, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, & more! (192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $10.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6
NEW 1990s VOLUME NOW SHIPPING!
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You Can Build It MINI Model
The Justice League’s Hall of Justice Design and Instructions by Amado Pinlac Building in microscale is less forgiving than system scale because there is almost no room for error. Either your creation resembles the reference object or not, so piece choice is very critical to give life to the build. Instead of real structures, these two iconic buildings in the comic super-heroes universe have been given the microscale treatment. The Hall of Justice was constructed by the Justice League of America a year after the destruction of the previous Justice League Watchtower, and located in Washington, D.C. The Hall was designed by John Stewart and Wonder Woman, financed by Batman, and built from scratch by Superman.
42
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty 6 2 4 14 4 1 16 2 5 4 2 4 4 4 2 7 2 3 2 12 1 8 1 2 3
Part Color 2412b.dat White 2431.dat White 2877.dat White 3004.dat White 3005.dat White 3020.dat White 3023.dat White 3028.dat White 3069b.dat White 3070b.dat White 3666.dat White 3710.dat White 4162.dat White 4865b.dat White
Description Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove Tile 1 x 4 with Groove Brick 1 x 2 with Grille Brick 1 x 2 Brick 1 x 1 Plate 2 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 6 x 12 Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Plate 1 x 6 Plate 1 x 4 Tile 1 x 8 Panel 1 x 2 x 1 with Rounded Corners 6231.dat White Panel 1 x 1 x 1 Corner with Rounded Corners 6636.dat White Tile 1 x 6 15712.dat White Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) 30055.dat White Fence Spindled 1 x 4 x 2 30565.dat White Plate 4 x 4 Corner Round 48092.dat White Brick 4 x 4 Round Corner 87079.dat White Tile 2 x 4 with Groove 3005.dat Trans Med. Blue Brick 1 x 1 6141.dat Trans Med. Blue Plate 1 x 1 Round 54200.dat Trans Med. Blue Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 15573.dat Light Bl. Grey Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud, without Understud
43
44
45
46
47
You Can Build It MINI Model
Mini 6930 Space Supply Station Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck Hello everybody and welcome to this very special micro building session! This issue’s theme is about microscale building, so I am particularly pleased to build a micro model with you which even employs the original LEGO microfigures. We’re now minimizing the Classic Space set 6930—Space Supply Station! As a first step we need a smaller version of the 32x32 crater base plate. It turned out the best way to do this is building it with bricks and plates rather than sloped or curved elements. This also resembles the Classic Space feeling. Step 1–4 and the first section of the partslist show you how to build the crater plate. You can use this design for every micro space model which needs one of these. The following steps describe the construction of the supply station itself. The quite simple layout of the original systemscaled base allows for a pretty detailed micro version;
especially the use of 1x1 slopes and 3x3 dishes comes in handy. A pretty nice way to build the landing pads for the two saucer rovers is to use the base parts of 2x2 turntables. The last steps take care of the vehicles: Two saucer rovers, one surface jeep and a transport lorry. To pilot these vehicles we employ original LEGO microfigures which you may know from the Games theme some years ago. You can find the yellow classic space microfigure in set 3842—Lunar Command—from 2009, and the red one in set 3850—Meteor Strike—from the year 2010. With that, our micro space station is finished! Have fun building and even more fun playing!
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Crater Plate Qty 1 7
11 6
6
Color
Light-Gray Light-Gray Light-Gray Light-Gray
Light-Gray
1
Light-Gray
2
Light-Gray
4
Light-Gray
3
Light-Gray
1
Light-Gray
Supply Station
Part
Description
3867.dat Baseplate 16 x 16 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2
3794a.dat Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud
3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2
2420.dat Plate 2 x 2 Corner 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 3020.dat Plate 2 x 4
Qty
Color
Part
Blue
4592.dat Hinge Control Stick Base
4
Light-Gray
2
Light-Gray
4 2 6
16 2 2 2 2 4 2
Blue
White Blue
Trans-Red White White Blue
White Blue
Qty
Color
Part
Description
4
White
1
White
3010.dat Brick 1 x 4
4
Blue
43898.dat Dish 3 x 3 Inverted
1
White
2 2
Blue
Light-Gray
2
Light-Gray
48
4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 4740.dat Dish 2 x 2 Inverted
2 3
Light-Gray White
Description
4593.dat Hinge Control Stick 3959.dat Minifig Torch 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1
6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round
61252.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal
4081b.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2
3794a.dat Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud 3794a.dat Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4 3666.dat Plate 1 x 6
Qty
Color
Part
Description
Qty
1
Blue
3020.dat Plate 2 x 4
2
2 2 6 8 8
White White Blue
White Blue
2
Trans-Blue
4
Blue
2
White
Vehicles Qty 3 1 1
Color
Light-Gray Light-Gray Light-Gray
4477.dat Plate 1 x 10
Color
Part
Trans-Green
4770.dat Electric Light & Sound Coloured Globe
2
Light-Gray
54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667
2
Light-Gray
4460a.dat Slope Brick 75 2 x 1 x 3 with Open Stud
2
Red
32000.dat Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Holes
4
3795.dat Plate 2 x 6
54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667
30602.dat Slope Brick Curved Top 2 x 2 x 1 3680.dat Turntable 2 x 2 Plate Base
Part
Description
42446.dat Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1
4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 4595.dat
Brick 1 x 2 x 0.667 with Studs on Sides
2 2 7 2 2
16 3 1 1 1
Light-Gray Yellow
Light-Gray
Trans-Green Light-Gray Light-Gray Black
Light-Gray Light-Gray Light-Gray Light-Gray
Description
43898.dat Dish 3 x 3 Inverted
4593.dat Hinge Control Stick
4592.dat Hinge Control Stick Base 85863.dat Microfig 85863.dat Microfig
3024.dat Plate 1 x 1
6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3
6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round
4081b.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2 3176.dat Plate 3 x 2 with Hole
4089.dat Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 Inverted Hollow with Towball 4263.dat Technic Plate 1 x 4 with Holes
49
50
51 51
52
53
55
56
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57
Building Since the release of the M.O.D.O.K. LEGO Minifigure, something has been missing from the LEGOverse. In order to explain, we have to examine the backstory of M.O.D.O.K. He started out in life as an average technician by the name of George Tarleton. Ultimately, poor ole George found his fate forever changed thanks to a random selection by his boss, the Scientist Supreme of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). The Scientist Supreme needed a unique, bio-engineered “living computer” in order to plumb the mysteries of the Cosmic Cube. George was subjected to hideous experiments, mutating his body into a massive-headed being possessing superhuman intelligence and extraordinary psionic powers, all created by a process that drove him madly insane. Given the code-name M.O.D.O.C. (“Mobile Organism Designed Only for Computing”), George instead turned on his superiors, slaying them all and declaring himself Scientist Supreme. Moreover, he changed his name to M.O.D.O.K., with the “K” standing now for “Killing.” As Scientist Supreme, M.O.D.O.K. is in need of his confederates, his LEGOverse missing A.I.M. Agents.
M.O.D.O.K. – Photo and custom chair by Jeff “Octopunk” Cross
Minifig Customization 101
Usurping a Theme: Evil Soliloquy Article and Photography by Jared K. Burks 58
For those unfamiliar with everything in that first paragraph, I hope I at least have your attention. A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is an organization of brilliant scientists and their hirelings dedicated to the acquisition of power and the overthrow of all government by technological means (i.e., Evil Tony Stark types). A.I.M., organized during World War II, was the scientific research division of the subversive military organization Hydra; however, they seceded from Hydra in the late ’60s because of political differences and began independent operations. A.I.M. first came to public attention when it was incorporated as an international cartel dealing with the development and marketing of new technological products. It supplied hardware and weapons to governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. Sometime after this, Colonel Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. exposed A.I.M. to be a subversive organization. Since then, all of A.I.M.’s activities have been covert. In the Marvel world, A.I.M. has only had three major achievements: the Super-Adaptoid, the Cosmic Cube containing an Infinity Stone, and M.O.D.O.K. Thus, M.O.D.O.K. needs to meet his makers! [Footnote: M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. biographies were modified from Marvel.com]
A.I.M. Poster – Don’t call us, we’ll call you, by Mike Mahle: AIM Recruitment Poster: https:// www.deviantart.com/mikemahle/art/A-I-Mrecruitment-poster-304721029
M.O.D.O.K.’s A.I.M. Agents wear a very distinctive yellow outfit with a beekeeper’s-style helmet. Before proceeding, we need to discuss the elephant in the room: The color. I took a bit of creative license following LEGO’s lead, which was to substitute the Yellow color for Bright Light Orange, just as LEGO has done with the Yellow Lion from Voltron. This makes other possibilities, which will be featured in the second act of this evil plot. The main required element will be the beekeeper helmet, which does not exist in LEGO, so I set out to create it for this article. I have been wanting to use my 3-D printer for more things so I started by learning to
use Autodesk Fusion 360 software. This software is free for makers and widely touted as the best option, and I have long wanted a project to learn it, so what better than the A.I.M. Agents’ helmet?
Using Fusion 360 to create an A.I.M. Helmet
1. Create an outline of the Helmet in the Sketch mode. Note that I only drew ½ of the design and the helmet features a collar, which I included.
2. Use the Revolve option under the Create Tab to take the basic sketch and turn it into a solid object.
3. Select the Fillet Tool under the Modify Tab to round the top and bottom edges of the helmet.
4. Did you notice from the inspirational images a small clipped triangle from the front of the collar? Draw this on the Sketch option.
5. Next, we have to move this out from the center plane and extrude the triangle.
6. Subtract the triangle by using the Combine Function under the Modify Tab. Select Subtract from this function.
59
7. The next step is to create the internal helmet visor that is recessed into the helmet. Draw a rectangle and use the same Revolve command from earlier, only limit it to 180 degrees.
8. This visor only needs to be a thin area, so create a second rectangle and repeat above.
9. Subtract the smaller ½ circle from the larger ½ circle to get the rounded band.
10. Now we need to create the windows in the helmet for the visor to fill.
11. Enter the Sketch mode again and change the plane to 90 degrees to the original drawing plane. Draw two boxes, one close to the axis and one further away.
12. Extrude the box using the Create Tab in both linear directions and subtract this box from the helmet using the Combine Function as before.
13. Next, extrude the second box and subtract it as well. This will give you an open visor helmet that we will fill with the visor we created above in a few steps.
14. Next draw a circle around the main axis larger than a Minifig head, but smaller than the outer dimension of the helmet.
15. You can change perspective to see how the drawings appear relative to each other.
60
16. Extrude and subtract the interior of the helmet the height of a Minifigure head.
17. Notice the open interior of the helmet
18. We now need to create the stud acceptor for the Minifigure head.
19. Extrude the two boxes into circles.
20. Subtract the interior from the exterior to create the donut.
21. Merge the donut with the Combine Function into the top of the helmet.
22. Use the Fillet Tool again to round the edges of the stud acceptor.
23. Merge the visor with the helmet to fill the open window on the helmet.
24. Finished helmet perspective 1.
Draw two circles with the interior of the smaller circle the size of the stud on the Minifigure head. The material around the smaller circle will support the clutch power!
61
25. Finished helmet perspective.
I used my 3-D printer, an Ultimaker 3, to print the helmet and I tried various orientations to the helmet to see which would give me the best print while minimizing the supports. I started by printing from the top up and found it minimized supports; I did not care for the flattening of the top of the helmet, thus removing my fillet. I could have fussed with my printer, but instead I rotated the part and printed again. This meant supports on the interior were needed, but any defect would also be hidden. While I used a tiny bit 26. Finished helmet with sketches more material, everything is hidden overlaid. inside so this was a massive win! The next step was to test the tolerances of my stud acceptor. When I used an absolute value I found it was excessively tight, which means my PLA (material I am printing) is likely shrinking slightly while cooling or my printer’s accuracy is just off. I am guessing the shrinkage is the issue. Therefore, I had to print many test samples with small adjustments to the diameters and revisiting the sketch, but alterations were easily made and the helmet fit snugly, but not too tight.
Test Prints – From left to right – Orientation of the helmet where the top touched the build plate, which required supports for the collar. These supports did not allow the collar to print correctly. The second printing improved slightly, however the best improvements were seen when the orientation was flipped. This required internal supports. The final print had multiple adjustments to the top fillet and the internal stud acceptor to get it to fit correctly. After all corrections were made, many helmets were printed at 0.1 mm (100 micron) resolution with internal supports.
Painting – Painting the helmets I use a wooden stick cotton swab with a round 1x1 brick at the end of the swab to hold the helmet. This allowed me to hold the helmet and spray it. I then use a holder I created to hold them during the process.
62
Next, it was time to paint the helmet. I used a spray paint and primer combo in an attempt to fill the striating lines that result from the 3-D print. Heavily priming saved on extensive sanding of every helmet. I did perform a very fast first pass on the helmets with sand paper, but it was very light. I then used two coats of the white spray paint with primer. After this had dried I used my airbrush to paint the bright light orange color; this is where fortune was found as I had nearly an exact color match in my paints from Wicked, specifically 0011 Wicked Golden Yellow.
As you can see in these three images, the striation is minimized through the painting process.
In order to make the A.I.M Agent, we will need to create the art for the Agent’s outfit. In the inspirational art there are many versions to the suit. I dove into several comics, and it seems to be up to the artist. I like the heavier double cover front, which would cover the zippers. Therefore, I have deviated from the version in the LEGO Marvel video game and leaned more toward the action figure. My printer is still not operating, so luckily Chris Campbell has again agreed to help by printing my art on to the torsos for me. Thank you, Chris, for the kind help! This is where this issue must end. However this is not the end of the play, just merely Act I. The evil soliloquy will continue as the theme is still evolving. M.O.D.O.K. has minions; the world should quake in fear!
You can view Jared’s webpage by going to http://www.fineclonier.com/ or scanning this QR code!
Don’t miss Jared K. Burks’ two books Minifigure Customization: Populate Your World! and its sequel Minifigure Customization: Why Live In The Box? (available now at www.twomorrows.com)
Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization!
Community
Dinosaurs and a Coaster:
James Burrows’ Jurassic World! Article and Photography by Joe Meno
64
There are only a few roller coaster layouts built by LEGO fans, and one to see is James Burrows’ Jurassic World coaster display. Currently touring LEGO fan events in the eastern US, this layout has grown from an initial length of 6 feet to the current size of 23 feet, 10 inches—with more to come! Currently, it has an estimated 300,000 pieces and 1997 minifigures. To make and expand the coaster track, James uses the Coaster Dynamix system of roller coaster track, which uses tubing and mounts to make track lengths and curves. Using this system allows for more track manuevers, such as loops and corkscrews. As of presstime, there is 91 feet and 10 inches of track, but that will be expanded soon. The Coaster Dynamix cars also use metal wheels that are very efficient, allowing for a car to travel much farther and faster than any other track system. However, this particular coaster is doing something that no other coaster is doing—it is actually traveling to its scale, so it actually is slower visually on its runs, which makes it look more realistic. The track is controlled by two NXT MINDSTORMS controllers that use light sensors to detect the cars as they pass. The MINDSTORMS bricks time the motors that run the chain lifts for the cars to make sure they do not collide. The entire layout is also lit with LEDs on the paths and in the buildings. The coaster track has running lights and also flashes for the riders’ photos when they take the second drop. The other ride that is electronically controlled uses Power Functions motors and controllers, and is the Dino Drop. Located on the opposite side of the layout from the roller coaster launch slope, the Dino Drop is a drop ride that pulls riders in a car up a column, then lets go. The drop is fast but stopped by a braking system in the column. The clamp for the car is dropped and relinked to the lift car, and the ride runs again. Running the perimeter of the layout is a train that is based on the LEGOLand train in design. This is also Power Functions powered.
The layout has 17 vignettes from the four Jurrasic Park movies, as well as some cameos from super-heroes and others. The vignettes range from a small dino dig in tribute to the initial scenes of Jurassic Park to the T-Rex preparing to eat the goat in his enclosure. Other rides and attractions are in the park, including a river ride and a putt-putt golf course with Lord Business playing a few holes. In the center of the layout is a restaurant and a gift shop, with a triceratops head as a centerpiece. It’s hard to believe that the layout is incomplete, but the next phase will extend the side where the Dino Drop is to include a Mosasaurus tank and arena. Just beyond that will be a monorail station that will have a track that will go around the park with the rail. This isn’t a LEGO classic monorail, though. This monorail will use brick-built track and is based on fellow LEGO builder Masao Hidaka’s monorail design, which uses Power Functions motors and other off-the-shelf parts to make a straddle-beam monorail, such as those seen at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. With this addition and the extra coaster track added, James is planning to make this the longest LEGO-scaled rollercoaster in the world, as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
65
You Can Build It Minifigure Scale Model
Hot Dog Stand Design by James Burrows Instructions by Joe Meno With Spring coming around, one of the things that starts popping up on street corners and at events is the hot dog stand. James Burrows, who has built some incredible rollercoasters, designed this to add to his amusement park layouts. You can change the color of the slope to make you own stand—just make sure you have enough hot dogs for your layout!
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Color 2
Rubber Black
1
Trans Clear
1
White
5
White
1
White
1
White
1
White
3
White
1
White
1
White
1
White
2
White
1
White
2
White
1
White
1
White
1
1
White
10 5
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
4
White
White
White
White
White
White
White
White
White
White
White
66
Part
Description
51011.dat Tyre 6.4/ 75 x 8 Shallow Offset Tread
98138.dat Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove
3003.dat
Brick 2 x 2
3005.dat
Brick 1 x 1
Qty Color
Part
Description
4
3004.dat
Brick 1 x 2
1
Red
1
Red
3010.dat
Brick 1 x 4
2
Red
3665.dat
Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Inverted
Red
2
3021.dat
Plate 2 x 3
1
Red
4599b.dat Tap 1 x 1 without Hole in Spout
3023.dat
Plate 1 x 2
2
Red
33078.dat Minifig Food Sausage
3022.dat
Plate 2 x 2
3031.dat
Plate 4 x 4
3623.dat
Plate 1 x 3
3666.dat
Plate 1 x 6
3068bp8b.dat 3665.dat
3701.dat
Tile 2 x 2 with Menu Pattern
2
Red Red
1
Yellow
1
Lime
50745.dat Car Mudguard 4 x 2.5 x 2
54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667
4599b.dat Tap 1 x 1 without Hole in Spout
Technic Brick 1 x 4 with Holes
2
Dark Bl. Grey
2412b.dat Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove
Plate 2 x 6
1
Dark Bl. Grey
3021.dat
Plate 1 x 8 with Door Rail
1
3832.dat
Plate 2 x 10
15070.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Tooth Perpendicular
30363.dat Slope Brick 18 4 x 2
32000.dat Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Holes
2
1
Lime
30363.dat Slope Brick 18 4 x 2
1
Plate 1 x 4
4510.dat
1
Red
Slope Brick 33 2 x 2 Double
Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Inverted
3710.dat
3795.dat
5
3300.dat
Brick 2 x 2 Corner
Brick 1 x 2
3004.dat
Red
2357.dat
Dark Bl. Grey Dark Bl. Grey Dark Bl. Grey
1
Dark Bl. Grey
1
Green
1
Light Bl. Grey
6141.dat
Plate 1 x 1 Round
2555.dat
Tile 1 x 1 with Clip Plate 2 x 3
3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 3623.dat
Plate 1 x 3
87580.dat Plate 2 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud
3062b.dat Brick 1 x 1 Round with Hollow Stud
32028.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Door Rail
1
50745.dat Car Mudguard 4 x 2.5 x 2
2
Light Bl. Grey
3021.dat
Plate 2 x 3
60592.dat Window 1 x 2 x 2 without Sil
2
Light Bl. Grey
4274.dat
Technic Pin 1/2
48336.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type
54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667
60593.dat Window 1 x 2 x 3 without Sill
85984.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667
2
2 1
Green
3062b.dat Brick 1 x 1 Round with Hollow Stud
Light Bl. Grey Light Bl. Grey Light Bl. Grey
59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 3020.dat
3673.dat
Plate 2 x 4
Technic Pin
42610.dat Wheel Rim 8 x 11.2 with Centre Groove 98138.dat Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove
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Celebrating the Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With! RETROFAN #1 cover-features an all-new interview with TV’s Incredible Hulk, LOU FERRIGNO, and introduces a quartet of columns by our regular celebrity columnists: MARTIN PASKO’s Pesky Perspective (this issue: The Phantom in Hollywood), ANDY MANGELS’ Retro Saturday Mornings (Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon), ERNEST FARINO’s Retro Fantasmagoria (How I Met the Wolf Man—Lon Chaney, Jr.), and The Oddball World of SCOTT SHAW (the goofy comic book Zody the Mod Rob). Also: Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy; RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC, the real-life Mayberry; an interview with BETTY LYNN, “Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show; the scarcity of Andy Griffith Show collectibles; a trip inside TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles; RetroFan’s Too Much TV Quiz; and a RetroFad shout-out to Mr. Microphone. Edited by Back Issue magazine’s MICHAEL EURY! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 • ISSUES #1-4 NOW SHIPPING!
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Community
Aaron Fiskum:
Launching Brick Formation! Article and Photography by Joe Meno and Aaron Fiskum
The model that started it all—the large-scale Hiigaran Destroyer.
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Brick Formation is a new group coming on the scene, with plans to design and sell a wide variety of models, the first of which are spaceships from the Homeworld® series of video games. Licensed from Gearbox Software®, these sets are collector-quality models that have been designed by some builders familiar to the LEGO fan community or building community. Brick Formation launched their Homeworld® line at BrickWorld Indianapolis, where Cofounder and Design Lead Aaron Fiskum first revealed the sets to the public. Aaron is an accomplished LEGO builder that lit the spark the led to Brick Formation—or more precisely, he built the model. (For BrickJournal readers, he was featured in BrickJournal #37 with his Landspeeder model that was submitted to LEGO Ideas for consideration. While it got the votes needed for final consideration, the set didn’t make it to production. However, the model did get sent to Billund to be displayed at the LEGO Idea house!) In 2016, Aaron built a model of one of the ships from Homeworld 2®, the Hiigaran Destroyer. At almost 4.5 feet long (and 11,000 elements), the model got a lot of attention at BrickWorld Chicago 2016 from many, including the development and design team at Gearbox for Homeworld Remastered® itself! After BrickWorld, Aaron was invited to bring the model to Gearbox’s corporate headquarters where it was on display for a time, and due to that praise, he was approached by others in the LEGO community about building custom kits. This seeded an idea to start doing custom work, but Brick Formation wanted something unique for the kits. Not many custom kit companies (outside of LEGO) strive for licensed models, so Brick Formation targeted procuring a license with Gearbox.
After a presentation and consideration by the team at Gearbox, the Brick Formation Team was able to acquire a license for Homeworld®, Homeworld 2®, and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak®. There are a number of factions in-game and Aaron (with partner Dominic Gruetzmacher) decided to build the Hiigaran faction from Homeworld 2® as the first line. The Hiigaran Interceptor, Ion Cannon Frigate, and Destroyer are currently available for purchase. Next up are three models from the Vaygr and Taiidan factions (Vaygr Assault Craft, Vaygr Assault Frigate, Taiidan Scout) that have been approved by Gearbox for production. Other ships that have been submitted for approval include a Vaygr Destroyer, a Kushan Interceptor, and a S’jet Baserunner. More ships and vehicles are currently in design by the Brick Formation Design Team. The Design Team is an international group of LEGO builders who are contributing set designs for Brick Formation. The team includes Tim Schwalfenberg (Canada), Pete Mowry (US), Stefan Garcia (US and known for a LEGO Classic Space-themed mod of Homeworld® featured in the online BrickJournal #5), Peer Krueger (Netherlands, who was featured in BrickJournal #49 for his models inspired by Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak®), and Dorien Glacet (France). Brick Formation’s production and logistics for the sets are provided by BrickVibe, a BrickLink store and service provider based in the US. Ultimately, what Brick Formation would like to do with the Homeworld® line is allow fans to decide what the next set or sets will be via voting on their Facebook page. After looking at the feasibility of the selected model(s) based on availability of elements and a Gearbox-approved design, Brick Formation will determine if they will go forward.
Anatomy of a Brick Formation Set A Brick Formation set has many of the same things that a LEGO set has, but has a different look to make them unique. The back of the box (below, for the model at right) not only has set information, but has the designer credited in the upper left corner. There’s also a collector’s card for the model that is used for the nameplate. Instructions are printed on sturdy paper and offer a different building experience—the first structure to build is the stand, so the model can be built on it!
Beyond Homeworld®, Brick Formation has future plans. There are some other licenses the team is looking at, but there are no firm commitments. In 2020, they plan to launch a service called “Your Formation”. It’ll be a unique process by which LEGO fans of any age can make their designs a reality as a retail kit. Working with the designer, Brick Formation will create instructions, source the pieces for multiple kits, design a box, unveil, and sell the kits for retail sale. Brick Formation is a company dedicated to creating sets by LEGO fans for fans, which makes it a unique community opportunity. Hopefully, it will provide the spark to inspire builders to go beyond building! Current and upcoming sets can be purchased and seen online at www.brickformation.com
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WHATEVER YOU’RE INTO, BUILD IT WITH
BOOKS & BACK ISSUES!
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YOU CAN BUILD IT is a series of instruction books on the art of LEGO® custom building, from the producers of BRICKJOURNAL magazine! These FULL-COLOR books are loaded with nothing but STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS by some of the top custom builders in the LEGO fan community. BOOK ONE is for beginning-to-intermediate builders, with instructions for custom creations including Miniland figures, a fire engine, a tulip, a spacefighter, a street vignette, plus miniscale models from “a galaxy far, far away,” and more! BOOK TWO has even more detailed projects to tackle, including advanced Miniland figures, a miniscale yellow castle, a deep sea scene, a mini USS Constitution, and more! So if you’re ready to go beyond the standard LEGO sets available in stores and move into custom building with the bricks you already own, this ongoing series will quickly take you from novice to expert builder, teaching you key building techniques along the way! (84-page FULL-COLOR Trade Paperbacks) $9.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95
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BRICKJOURNAL #59
STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2019!
BRICKJOURNAL #58
LEGO WARBIRDS, PAST AND PRESENT! JEFF CHERRY’S WWII and modern fighters (P-51 Mustang and F-14 Tomcat), RALPH SAVELSBURG’S BrickJournal exclusive X-plane, MICHAEL BROWN’S F-14 Tomcat “Vandy One”, step-by-step LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! SHIPS JULY 2019!
STEAMPUNK
BRICKJOURNAL #51
STEAMPUNK, with builder GUY HIMBER! PAUL HETHERINGTON talks about his cover model “Unchain My Heart,” ROD GILLIES’ latest Steampunk work, and a look at the creations of other top Steampunk builders! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
BRICKJOURNAL #57
MICROSCALE LEGO BUILDING! Tour WAYNE TYLER’S National Mall (Washington, DC) layout, skyscrapers from ROCCO BUTTLIERE, BLAKE FOSTER’s Ugly Duckling spaceship, step-by-step LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! SHIPS MAY 2019!
OUTER SPACE
BRICKJOURNAL #17
LEGO SPACE WAR issue! A STARFIGHTER BUILDING LESSON by Peter Reid, WHY SPACE MARINES ARE SO POPULAR by Mark Stafford, a trip behind the scenes of LEGO’S ALIEN CONQUEST SETS, plus JARED K. BURKS’ column on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION, building tips, event reports, our step-by-step “YOU CAN BUILD IT” INSTRUCTIONS, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #41
Space-themed LEGO creations of LIA CHAN, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Orion space plane by NICK DEAN, and Pre-Classic Space builder CHRIS GIDDENS! Plus: JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics by DAMIEN KEE, and more!
TRAINS
BRICKJOURNAL #24
Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group, fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #46
More with train builder CALE LEIPHART, updated train layouts and models from the PENNLug, BRICK MODEL RAILROADER (a new LEGO Train fan website that launched this year), and more locomotive action! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!
BRICKJOURNAL #56
LIFE-SIZE LEGO and what it takes to build them (besides a ton of LEGO brick)! HELEN SHAM’s sculptures of giant everyday items, MAGNUS LAUGHLO’s GI Joe®-inspired models, military builds by ERIC ONG, plus “Bricks In The Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, & more! SHIPS MARCH 2019!
BRICKJOURNAL #55
LEGO HEADS & TAILS: FELIX JAENSCH’s remarkable LEGO sculptures, from realistic animals to the human skull and amazing face masks! BRYAN BENSON’s detailed Kermorvan Lighthouse and how he built it from LEGO bricks. A spectacular Winter layout by DAVE SCHEFCIK! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd, & more! SHIPS JANUARY 2019!
STAR WARS™
BRICKJOURNAL #23
Custom creations from a long time ago and far, far away! JACOB CARPENTER’s Imperial Star Destroyer, MARK KELSO’s Invisible Hand, interview with SIMON MACDONALD about building Star Wars costume props with LEGO elements, history of the LEGO X-Wing, plus minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #37
Custom ships by ERIC DRUON, incredible galactic layouts by builder AC PIN, a look at the many droid creations built by LEGO fans—truly, the LEGO Force has awakened! Plus JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, & more!
MECHA
BRICKJOURNAL #15
Feature editor NATHAN BRYAN spotlights mecha builders such as SAITO YOSHIKAZU, TAKAYUKI TORII, SUKYU and others! Also, a talk with BRIAN COOPER and MARK NEUMANN about their mecha creations, mecha building instructions by SAITO YOSHIKAZU, our regular columns on minifigure customization, building, event reports, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #40
Build giant robots and mechs with BENJAMIN CHEH MING HANN and KELVIN LOW, and SETH HIGGINS shows us his amazing transforming LEGO robots! And even cyborgs love Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #48
Secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecca builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
CARS
BRICKJOURNAL #11
“Racers” theme issue, with building tips on race cars by the ARVO BROTHERS, interview with LEGO RACERS designer ANDREW WOODMAN, LEGO FORMULA ONE RACING, TECHNIC SPORTS CAR building, event reports, MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION by JARED K. BURKS, MICRO BUILDING, builder spotlights, LEGO HISTORY, and more!
BRICKFILMS
BRICKJOURNAL #28
Learn what went into making The LEGO Movie and other brickfilms with moviemaker DAVID PAGANO, chat with brickfilmers The Brotherhood Workshop, talk with the makers of LEGO: A Brickumentary, MINDSTORMS building, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!
TECHNIC
BRICKJOURNAL #21
LINO MARTINS & NATHAN PROUDLOVE of LUGNuts share secrets behind their LEGO car creations, and present TECHNIC SUPER-CAR MODELS by PAUL BORATKO III and other top builders! Plus custom instructions by TIM GOULD & CHRISTOPHER DECK, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” section, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #38
LEGO car builders STEPHAN SANDER, JORDANIAN FIRAS ABU-JABER, and ANDREA LATTANZIO! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd Pop Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, & more!
DISNEY®
BRICKJOURNAL #9
LEGO® DISNEY SETS, with features on the Disney LEGO sets of the past (MICKEY and MINNIE) and present (TOY STORY and PRINCE OF PERSIA)! We also present Disney models built by LEGO fans, and a look at the newest Master Build model at WALT DISNEY WORLD, plus articles and instructions on building and customization, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #44
THEME PARK ISSUE! ERIK JONES’ custom LEGO version of Cinderella Castle, STÉPHANE DELY’s Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle, and JOHN RUDY’s brick versions of your favorite theme park rides! Plus “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #29
PAUL BORATKO and editor JOE MENO diagram instructions on adding functions to your models, shop-talk with LEGO Technic designers, and more creations moving at top speed! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #49
GEOFF GRAY explores Technic history, JOE MENO interviews former LEGO Set Designer SØREN HOLM about the classic Technic Space Shuttle, MICHAEL BROWN shows off his Technic-scale AH-64, and more! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
CASTLES
BRICKJOURNAL #25
MEDIEVAL CASTLES! Top LEGO® Castle builders present their creations, including BOB CARNEY’s detailed Neuschwanstein Castle, plus articles on building and detailing castles of your own! Also: JARED BURKS on minifigure customization, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #45
FEMALE LEGO BUILDERS! US Architectural builder ANURADHA PEHRSON, British Microscale builder FERNANDA RIMINI, US Bionicle builder BREANN SLEDGE, and Norwegian Town builder BIRGITTE JONSGARD! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!
SCULPTURE
BRICKJOURNAL #12
Back-to-school sculptures by NATHAN SAWAYA, LEGO builder MARCOS BESSA’s creations, ANGUS MACLANE’s CubeDudes, a Nepali Diorama by JORDAN SCHWARTZ, instructions to build a school bus, MINIFIG CUSTOMIZATION by JARED K. BURKS, how a POWER MINERS model became one for ATLANTIS, building standards, and much more!
BRICKJOURNAL #18
Two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #31
Building LEGO bricks WITH character, with IAIN HEATH and TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Manga-inspired creations of MIKE DUNG, sculptures by Taiwanese Brick Artist YO YO CHEN, Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #52
Russian builder TIMOFEY TKACHEV, plus what it takes to become a LEGO Certified Professional (an elite group of builders officially recognized by LEGO), with New York’s SEAN KENNEY and Australian RYAN McNAUGHT! Also: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
BRICKJOURNAL #54
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: HSINWEI CHI and his revolutionary LEGO animals and giant robots! We also declassify other top LEGO builders’ creations, including MICHAEL BROWN’s Technic-scale F-18 Hornet! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
LEGO®, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. BrickJournal is not affiliated with The LEGO Group. All characters shown are TM & © their respective owners.
SUPER-HEROES
BRICKJOURNAL #20
Behind-the-scenes of the DC and Marvel Comics sets, plus a feature on GREG HYLAND, the artist of the superhero comic books in each box! Also, other superhero work by ALEX SCHRANZ and our cover artist OLIVIER CURTO. Plus, JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customization, building tips, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #32
LEGO ARTISTRY with builder/photographer CHRIS McVEIGH; mosaic builders BRIAN KORTE, DAVE WARE and DAVE SHADDIX; and sculptors SEAN KENNEY (about his nature models) and ED DIMENT (about a full-size bus stop built with LEGO bricks)! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!
GAMING
BRICKJOURNAL #34
TOMMY WILLIAMSON on the making of his YouTube sensation BATMAN VS SUPERMAN, BRANDON GRIFFITH’S COMICBRICKS PROJECT recreates iconic comic book covers out of LEGO, JARED BURKS and his custom Agents of SHIELD minifigs, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, and more!
MINDSTORMS & ROBOTICS
BRICKJOURNAL #5
MINDSTORMS 10th ANNIVERSARY at LEGO HEADQUARTERS, Pixar’s ANGUS MACLANE on LEGO in filmmaking, the LEGO Group’s past with the DIRECTOR OF LEGO’S IDEA HOUSE, event reports, how SEAN KENNEY’s LEGO creations ended up on NBC’S 30 ROCK television show, instructions and spotlights on builders, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #33
MINDSTORMS EV3 builders MARCANDRE BAZERGUI and ANDY MILLUZZI, designer LEE MAGPILI, CHRIS GIDDENS with his amazing robot sculptures, Minifig Customization by JARED BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, other looks at MINDSTORMS building, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #42
How schools and AFOLs build with the new WeDo, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE’s 2016 season explored (with national competitions at LEGOLand California), and robotics builders the Seshan Brothers take MINDSTORMS to the next level! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!
ARCHITECTURE & MICROSCALE
BRICKJOURNAL #43
IMAGINE RIGNEY’s Bioshock builds, NICK JENSEN’s characters and props from HALO and other video games, and GamerLUG member SIMON LIU builds LEGO versions of video game characters, spaceships and more! Plus: “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #53
TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
UNDERSEA
BRICKJOURNAL #10
Looks at the creation of LEGO’S ATLANTIS sets, plus a spotlight on a fan-created underwater theme, the SEA MONKEYS, with builder FELIX GRECO! Also, a report on the LEGO WORLD convention in the NETHERLANDS, builder spotlights, stepby-step building instructions, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, LEGO history, and more!
DINOSAURS
BRICKJOURNAL #47
Builder MITSURU NIKAIDO shows us undersea creatures and organic builds! Then jump aboard MARCELLO DeCICCO’s minifigure-scale warships! See PEDRO NASCIMENTO’s amazing architectural creations! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!
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TwoMorrows. BRICKJOURNAL #30
LEGO ARCHITECTURE with JONATHAN LOPES, a microscale model of Copenhagen by ULRIK HANSEN, and a look at the LEGO MUSEUM being constructed in Denmark! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #35
HISTORY IN LEGO BRICKS! LEGO pro RYAN McNAUGHT on his LEGO Pompeii and other projects, military builder DAN SISKIND on his BrickMania creations, and LASSE VESTERGARD about his historical building, JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #36
JUSTIN McMILLAN’s micro house and other buildings, a look at the MICROSCALE Standard by TwinLUG, and featuring some of the best microscopic LEGO work from around the world, plus JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, and more!
BRICKJOURNAL #39
WILLIAM PUGH discusses building prehistoric creatures, a LEGO Jurassic World by DIEGO MAXIMINO PRIETO ALVAREZ, and dino bones by MATT SAILORS! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!
TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:
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STAR WARS #7
Artwork will be a black & white ink drawing on 11”x17” comic book illustration board. Art will include paste-up cover copy, logos, and trade dress. Email greg@lethargiclad.com for |NCREDIBLE HULK #181 information on pricing and timeframe.
Last Word So ends this issue. It was a fun one to put together. I hope you had as much fun reading, as all of the people in this issue did building. That’s a common thread with the builders—they are all happy and proud of building. People notice when a person is really good at a skill... and it can lead to good things. A few of the people featured in this issue are turning their hobby into their own career. It’s amazing that what some would call child’s play can create such opportunities. And there’s more out there—next issue we get into the cockpit and fly into the world of planes with some great builders! I’m looking forward to what flies in! Till then, build on! That Joe Meno Guy
by Kevin A. Hinkle
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Relive The Pop Culture You Grew Up With!
Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? Those were the happy days of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties— our childhood—and that is the era of TwoMorrows’ new magazine RETROFAN!
#5: Interviews with MARK HAMILL and Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Poke fun at a campy BATMAN COMIC BOOK! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, Moon Landing Mania, SNUFFY SMITH at 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features! NOW SHIPPING! #6: Interviews with crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning Ghost Busters, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty Naugas! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIEDOBIE GILLIS connection, the PINBALL Hall of Fame, Super Collector DAVID MANDEL’s comic art collection, Alien action figures, the RUBIK’S CUBE fad, and more fun, fab features! SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2019!
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RETROFAN #1
RETROFAN #2
RETROFAN #3
RETROFAN #4
THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!
HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!
40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, & more!
Interviews with the SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!
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