Issue 72 • March 2022
10.95
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in the US
Dave Schefcik’s Rainbow Heart
Kelly Barlett’s Creations
The Wonderful World ® of LEGO COLOR INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!
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Issue 72 • March 2022
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Kelly Bartlett: Building Brick Art!............................................3 Chris Perron: Designing the White Dragon Horse Jet...........................................................10
Building Ben Thompson: Space Builder..................................................16
Dave Schefcik’s Rainbow Heart...............................................20 Lucas Evart: Building a Space Program!.......................26 Amantha Vandiviere: Making Walt Disney World’s Main Street... ..................................................34 You Can Build It: MINI Stone Needle Diorama...................40 Minifigure Customization 101: RWBY (WIP).....................................................46
Community Beijing, China: Block-Joy Planet Assembly Art Exhibition.................................................54 Building an Art Exhibition...........................62 Bantha Bricks Files: Builder and Photographer Anthony Bill.....................................................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80
People Kelly Bartlett began LEGO building when she was about five years old, starting with many of the classic castle, space, and pirates sets from the Eighties. Back then, she and her brother would make a few MOCs with the loose pieces they had, but there just wasn’t the large variety of parts and colors available like there is now. As kids, they mostly built sets and kept them together so they could set up towns and tell stories with them.
Kelly Bartlett:
Building Brick Art!
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Kelly Bartlett Kelly with a map of Hawaii, made with LEGO World Map parts.
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and the little shopping bag turned out. Those were some of her tougher technical challenges. Also, she had never seen the Ninjago ‘tornadoes’ used in a build before, so she loved being able to pioneer their use as light fixtures. When asked why she builds, Kelly’s answer is short and simple: she builds to create art. “LEGO has been the perfect medium for my artistic tendencies—more forgiving than any other medium because I can literally undo mistakes and it’s like they never happened.” This gives her a feeling
of freedom to create without worrying about ‘messing up’ or wasting materials. She also builds to see joy on other people’s faces when they look at something she has created. “Sometimes people cannot believe my MOCs are made of LEGO, and it’s fun to see the amazement on their faces when they learn how they’re created,” Kelly says. “So I guess I build for my own joy as well as the enjoyment of others.”
“The Chocolate Shop.”
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People
Chris Perron:
Designing the White Dragon Horse Jet
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Chris Perron and Joe Meno Set Art provided by The LEGO Group
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One of the sets that I bought was the White Dragon Horse Set (80020)—not because I am a Monkie Kid fan, but it looked cool on the box. What I didn’t expect was that the hours building the set would be a fun exercise in techniques, including a few really unconventional methods. The set showed me so many new techniques, I wanted to find out about how this set was designed. The set designer announced the set launch on Facebook, so I contacted him to find out about the set and his approach to design. I also took a look at some of his work on Flickr to see if there were any builds he did that could be forerunners to the LEGO set. Bur first, a quick introduction to the LEGO designer.
Chris Perron has spent most of his life LEGO building—he started when he was two years old. Having a desire to build and create things (probably from growing up spending most his time building LEGO creations), he wanted to pursue something in the field of design. With that, working for the LEGO Group was always a dream of his, so while finishing his degree in Industrial Design, he decided to focus on becoming a LEGO Designer. Five years ago, he became one. His favorite building theme is Space. He always loved the LEGO Space themes growing up, with the bright colors and big transparent canopies and panels, which were always huge draw for him. He loves playing with different color schemes and making interesting shapes and silhouettes and then turning those into some kind of sci-fi design, whether it be a spaceship, rover or mech.
The Dark Phantom, which uses some shaping and parts he used in the set.
This approach helped him create the White Dragon Horse set, and I chatted with him through e-mail about the design process behind the set. Joe Meno: I have seen your work online and you have a unique design sense that uses color in unusual ways. When did you begin building in that manner? You are something of a color sculptor and it shows in the set. Using gradations of green (an uncommon color) makes the craft very distinct. Chris Perron: I think color was always what would inspire my LEGO creations, especially canopies. For example, I would pick up a transparent-green canopy that I thought was interesting and then start trying colors that I thought looked nice with it. Then if I decided I wanted to use dark red as the primary solid color, I would look at what different shapes came in that color and use that as a starting point for my designs. Since starting at the LEGO Group, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a designer who has quite an extensive knowledge of color theory, and I’ve been trying to learn more about that to bring into my models as well.
Before the set was released... These models were built by Chris, experimenting with the forms and parts that he would later use in the White Dragon Horse Set. The Xenon Zapper.
The Violet Vanquisher.
Building
A small ship interior.
Ben Thompson:
Space Builder! Article and Photography by Ben Thompson
An example of Ben’s interior work.
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An artist and graphic designer, Ben Thompson has been building all his life. His brother knew Ben would get into building before Ben was born, as he said, “I’ll have to hide my LEGO.” Building was something Ben did through his childhood until high school. A friend of his had a better collection, so both of them built there.
Lunar habitat laser communication station.
Building
Dave Schefcik’s
Rainbow Heart Article by Joe Meno Photography by Dave Schefcik
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I went to my first LEGO fan convention post-COVID in August 2020: BrickFair Virginia. After over a year of staying home and only virtually attending events, this was a nice step back to normalcy. There were protocols that had to be done at the event, but it was also an opportunity to meet friends, make friends, and see what everyone built during the pandemic. One of the creations that got my attention was a mosaic built by BrickNerd chief Dave Schefcik. The idea was simple: a heart radiating a rainbow of color. However, what made it interesting was that it was composed of tiny tiles, so it had the feel of stained glass. The bigger surprise, though, was seeing it during the World of Lights, where the expo hall lighting is dimmed and illuminated MOCs make themselves known. Dave’s mosaic was lit, and with rotating colors of light, it glowed and pulsed as if alive! It wasn’t a hard decision for me to request an interview with Dave, so let’s find out about his mosaic: “Rainbow Heart.”
Joe Meno: The design of the heart is so colorful and eyecatching. What inspired you to create it? Dave Schefcik: There are a few inspirations behind my “Rainbow Heart” mosaic. First off, there were a few craft stores that had LEGO Dots sets at a really steep discount last summer in the United States. With the help of my LUG, I was able to get quite a few of the bracelets and extra Dots bags which were fun to sort, but that led me to have an excess of small tiles in my collection. I thought a mosaic would be a fun way to utilize some of the pieces, but I wanted to try a new technique—using all the small, printed tiles as a way to increase the overall detail. Unfortunately that got very complicated quickly and I realized that even with the sales, I didn’t have enough printed tiles for an entire mosaic. So I focused on the quarter circle tiles (or pizza tiles as some people call them) which I had in abundance. I had so many different bright colors that I thought something rainbow related would really be fun, and Pride month was on the horizon, which was an added motivator. I also wanted to create a mosaic that was a bit more artistic and intentional than many of the computergenerated ones you see around, though I used my fair share of technology to create it.
Lots of Dots.
Lots of sorted Dots.
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Building
The CSV Vespucci.
Lucas Evart:
Building a Space Program! Article and Photography by Lucas Evart
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My name is Lucas Evart and I’m 39 years old. Currently, my day job is at the U.S. Geological Survey where I do a variety of tasks including, but not limited to, editing scientific papers, creating and editing training materials, and processing geotechnical data. For hobbies I enjoy reading, video games, woodworking, and LEGO (obviously). I got LEGO as a gift at my first birthday party, so I’ve been a builder at least since then. Over the years, my building style and what I get from the experience of building with LEGO has changed from swooshing spaceships around, complete with my own Michael Winslow-level sound effects, to creating artistic pieces that represent my hopes for what humanity might someday achieve. I never had what I’d call a Dark Age, but in my late teens to early twenties, I moved around a lot and had to put my LEGO away for practical reasons. In the early 2000s, two things happened: the UCS Star Destroyer set came out and I discovered BrickLink. The Star Destroyer introduced me to the concept of building with normal bricks and plates over a Technic framework, which reinvigorated my love of the brick.
Building in progress.
Luna Gateway The Gateway is the Vespucci’s home port. This description accompanied Luna Gateway in its online display at BrickCon 2020, and I think it perfectly encapsulates the station: Evarts Aerospace presents: Luna Gateway. This multipurpose station is positioned at the L1 Lagrange point and serves as a cargo transfer station and shipyard for the construction and service of spacecraft. It was constructed in the late 2000s as a replacement for the aging Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. Taking advantage of the booming lunar manufacturing infrastructure, the station was the first to be assembled directly in space instead of with modules built on the surface of a planet or moon.
Shipping container.
Working my way toward the stern, I added the shipping containers. These I branded with custom decals of the logos of old LEGO space themes. The exception was the Toys ’R’ Us container, which I made using the stickered panels from the toy store set.
The station is made up of a central core over 2,700 meters in length, containing communications, power, life support, a shipyard facility, and cargo storage and handling docks. Surrounding the core is a habitation ring 110 decks thick, supporting a resident population of over 5,000 people.
Next came the twin fusion reactors and their huge cooling fins. I strung the cooling fins with red EL wire to simulate a warm glow, but unfortunately, they weren’t bright enough to be visible in normal room lighting. The blue EL wire in the fusion reactors’ injectors came through much better, though. Finally, I added the drive section. The engines are lit by LED tea lights held in place with rubber bands, and the fuel tanks are 6 x 6 LEGO cylinders wrapped in gold foil. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of incorporating non-LEGO elements, but the foil looked too good not to include it. I wanted to keep going, adding more sections and making the ship bigger, but at 9’ 9” long, my wife said it was too big already. Good thing she doesn’t know about my plans to build an O’Neill cylinder... This build took about a year to complete. Of everything I’ve built, it’s the thing I’m most proud of.
A public relations photo of the station.
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Building
Amantha Vandiviere:
Making Walt Disney World’s Main Street Article and Photography by Amantha Vandiviere
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Amantha Vandiviere is a mom, a wife and owner of a dance studio with around 250 students ages 3 to 18 enrolled. All of this keeps her very busy, but she also is a LEGO builder. She has been a builder since childhood, but started building more seriously when she bought her daughter some LEGO sets, and found she had more fun with them than her daughter did! Amantha’s sister is an AFOL too, so there is a sense of sibling rivalry that pushes them both to try more and more complex builds.
“I’m Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street, USA...”
Crystal Arts shop (above), interior (below), and detail (bottom).
Amantha’s process for building is finding photos for reference and copying as close as possible. This involves a lot of taking apart and putting back together and trial and error. Planning, building, destroying, rebuilding, and destroying and so forth until she is happy, is her work cycle. She rarely special orders bricks for specific projects—she just uses what she has. If she doesn’t have the part she needs, she just finds another way to create or make and usually ends up liking the end result better. Using what she has on hand also pushes her to be more creative.
Watch shop (above), interior (below), and detail (bottom).
Main Street Cinema (above), interior (below), and detail (bottom).
You Can Build It MINI Build MINI Stone Needle Diorama Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck Hello everybody and welcome to a classic Star Wars building session! During the past years we not only built mini models together, but we also made up some scenes from the classic Star Wars movies. We already had scenes from Endor, Dagobah, Tatooine, and Yavin. Today we want to build another popular motif from the planet Tatooine—the legendary Stone Needle. The Stone Needle is a rock formation that stands in the middle of Beggar’s Canyon on Tatooine. It is a slim and tall spike of rock with an eyelet-like top which you can fly through if you’re a skilled enough pilot. Local pilots compete against each other to see who can do it best with their speeder. The location is mentioned and pictured in various sources of the Star Wars media. A popular airspeeder on Tatooine is the T-16 Skyhopper, also seen and mentioned in various Star Wars sources. So the real challenge for this mini diorama is to build a stone needle and a micro skyhopper model that will actually fit into it, and still be recognizable. I hope you will like the result! Happy building, and see you next time!
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Parts List
(Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Canyon Walls Qty Color 2 Reddish-Brown 2 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown 2 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown 2 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown 2 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown 2 Dark-Tan 1 Reddish-Brown 1 Reddish-Brown
Part 3005.dat 3004.dat 3010.dat 3003.dat 2456.dat 47847.dat 6083.dat 6082.dat 3023.dat 3795.dat 3027.dat 4286.dat 3747a.dat
Description Brick 1 x 1 Brick 1 x 2 Brick 1 x 4 Brick 2 x 2 Brick 2 x 6 Panel 2 x 4 x 6 Rock Panel 3 x 8 x 7 Rock Triangular Panel 4 x 10 x 6 Rock Rectangular Plate 1 x 2 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 6 x 16 Slope Brick 33 3 x 1 Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 Inverted without Ribs between Studs 2 Reddish-Brown 3665.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Inverted 1 Reddish-Brown 3660.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 2 Inverted 1 Reddish-Brown 60481.dat Slope Brick 65 2 x 1 x 2 1 Reddish-Brown 3678b.dat Slope Brick 65 2 x 2 x 2 with Centre Tube 1 Reddish-Brown 2449.dat Slope Brick 75 2 x 1 x 3 Inverted 2 Reddish-Brown 92946.dat Slope Plate 45 2 x 1
Micro Skyhopper Qty Color 1 Red 1 White 1 White 1 White 2 White 2 White
Part 4070.dat 4070.dat 4733.dat 90540.dat 3024.dat 61252.dat
1 2 2 2 1
4081a.dat 48336.dat 54200.dat 54200.dat 15712.dat
White White White Trans-White White
Description Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Four Sides Minifig Ski Pole Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 1 Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type 2 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip)
Building
Ruby with her Crescent Rose (in progress). All RWBY characters are TM & © Roosterteeth.
Minifigure Customization 101:
Article by Jared Burks RWBY, pronounced “Ruby,” is an American anime influenced computer animated web series created by Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth. RWBY is set in the fictional world of Remnant, which is composed of four kingdoms plagued by malevolent creatures known as the “Creatures of Grimm.” Prior to the events of the series, the world was overseen by two opposing deities, the god of Light and god of Darkness. Humanity is obliterated by these gods due to the actions of Salem, a vengeful woman cursed with immortality for trying to manipulate these gods into reviving her beloved Ozma. Ozma was subsequently reincarnated into a world as the gods abandoned it to serve as a guide to the new human race leading them towards harmony. Eventually, the discovery of
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the element Dust triggers a technological and industrial revolution among humans and leads the story to the present day. In the present day, Ozma’s current incarnation Ozpin has established academies in the four kingdoms to train young warriors known as Huntsmen and Huntresses to battle the Grimm and to guard the world’s secrets. These academies secretly conceal four relics that when united summon the gods back to Remnant to judge the progress of humanity toward harmony. Want to watch it? It is available here: https://roosterteeth.com/series/rwby The series focuses on four girls that enrolled in Beacon Academy in the kingdom of Vale: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna (of the half-human, halfanimal Faunus race), and Ruby’s half-sister Yang Xiao Long. Together, they form team RWBY (“ruby”), which as you have gathered is derived from the names of the four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Monty Oum based these characters on their respective theme colors around Red, White, Black, and Yellow and designed the characters with assistance from artist Ein Lee, utilizing designs inspired by classic fairy tale characters. The characters’ names also share the same letter and the meaning as the color (e.g. Ruby refers to the ruby gemstone, “Weiss” translates to “white” in German,
Element Design Each figure requires several custom elements, and my design is to create these in the LEGOverse.
Skirt
Editing the 3-D file.
The need of a skirt is shared between the two characters, and an element that can be used for both with a bit of modification. First off, the LEGO skirt (https://www. bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=24782#T=C) does not exist in the needed colors and both characters have a layered or ruffled skirt; to create this, I used LEOCad to export the LEGO skirt into an OBJ file that I could import in the MeshMixer. This allowed me to fix the skirt part and to cut out the lower portion and duplicate it to create the layered design. I can now 3-D print the parts on my resin printer in the desired base colors and paint as needed. For Ruby, this is simple: paint the layered edge red. However, for Weiss, this is merely the beginning of complexity. I have a poorly painted first draft part today.
Test print.
Test print with LEGO skirt.
Hood/Scarf The next part that was created in a similar manner is a mixture of two LEGO parts, the LEGO hood and the LEGO scarf. Hood: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem. page?P=15428#T=C Scarf: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem. page?P=25376#T=C
LEGO hood and scarf elements.
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I again used LEOCad to obtain the OBJ files that I imported into MeshMixer. I cut the tails from the scarf and repaired the mesh. I then cut the hood from the neck piece and bonded that to the scarf. In the process I made the hood substantially larger, as Ruby’s hood is very big. This created the needed part that I could now 3-D print and ultimately paint. Again, given that this is a work-inprogress, this part will likely change a bit as I go through a few more iterations.
Editing the 3-D file. Testing the 3-D print.
A turnaround of the 3-D printed hood.
Weapons These were created from the ground up. The issue is the scale: Ruby’s Crescent Rose is a giant scythe, while Weiss’s Myrtenaster is basically a rapier. This meant I had to design these in Fusion 360 to fit not only the characters, but to also contain the needed details. Both these weapons will require very custom paint jobs, which will take a lot of masking out and are beyond this article. Fusion 360 is a CAD based program where 2-D drawings can be converted into 3-D shapes by extruding and subtracting or adding different elements together. As both Ruby’s and Weiss’ weapons are reasonably basic in design, they were not complicated to draw, just time-consuming to add all the appropriate details. I have a temporary Crescent Rose that is not my final design in today’s photo, and I have the final design of the Myrtenaster, but in the wrong color.
Digital models of the Crescent Rose.
Community At the end of June 2021, Cool Toys Trend went to the 751D-PARK in Beijing and made a beeline to the “Block-Joy Planet Assembly Art Exhibition” for a long-awaited visit with outstanding creations of LEGO brick masters in China. Since the Exhibition hall was not too crowded, there was plenty of time and space to admire the brick creations one by one. The exhibition featured 27 creations by five Chinese designers, who will be introduced here. Let’s cut right to the chase and enter the wonderful miniature worlds created by LEGO bricks. Quadrangle (by Eric Kou)
The exhibition site.
Beijing, China:
Block-Joy Planet Assembly Art Exhibition Article and Photography by Cool Toys Trend
Siheyuan or She Fang is a traditional Chinese house building with houses on four sides that enclose the courtyard in the middle. The four sides give the courtyard its common name: Quadrangle. A model by Eric Kou recreates various details of this traditional architectural type. This model is in minifigure scale, showing a plain but vivid and cozy scene. The quadrangle itself is not just a set of buildings, but a cultural heritage. As such, no brick exhibition in Beijing would be complete without one. The typical Beijing quadrangle has the following: 1 The Main Room
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Chinese arched Door
2 The West Wing Room
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Hexagonal Pavilion
3 The East Wing Room
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Carved Balustrades
4 A Festoon Gate
The quadrangle.
6 4
3 1
5
2 7
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A look at the balustrades (carved rails) on the roof.
A Jiangnan Town (by GS) Immediately after this model is a diorama of a waterside town in the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. This region, called the Jiangnan, has been renowned as a paradise on Earth since ancient times. With crisscrossing rivers and lakes, small ancient towns and idyllic rural buildings, it creates a picturesque landscape. Photos of this model have been online for some time, but they are no comparison to seeing the real model. In addition to the residential building in the southern Anhui province, there are silks and satin shops and stores as well as restaurants specializing in Huaiyang cuisine. There’s also activity—rickshaws taking people across town, vendors and peddlers showing their wares, and boats pulling onto shore.
A look at some of the detail of the town.
An overview of the town.
The Realm Garden (by Shuying) Another landmark of the Jiangnan displayed at the exhibition is a Suzhou garden. An outstanding element of Chinese garden culture, Suzhou gardens have enjoyed the reputation of “a universe rebuilt within a confined space.” The layout displayed is the Realm Garden, which is inspired by Suzhou gardens. Despite its confined space, the layout attempts to condense as many architectural garden elements as possible. Graceful arch and zigzag bridges, endlessly winding corridors, high and steep hexagonal pavilions, and horse-head walls symbolize buildings of Huizhou and traditional Chinese architecture. With the blend of natural objects such as the rocks, bamboo forests and crushed stone paths as well as Lake Heart Isle, it might be easy to forget it is a LEGO model. However, a quick glance reveals that the stone pagoda in the lake is made up of LEGO Technic gears.
The Realm Garden.
Some of the details of the layout.
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Community
Building an Art Exhibition Article and Photography by Rafal Piasek, Patryk Antczak, Krzysztof Pusz, Bartlomiej Huetter, and Łukasz Mackowiak
Setting up a mosaic on the desktop.
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Building a mosaic seems simple: you take the photo, put it into the mosaic maker, and get ready-made instructions for building the parts list. In reality, it is not that simple. Considerations need to be made with color availability and making tweaks to get proper coloring and dithering. It is a long process, and to do it right, it takes several hours of tweaking on a fast computer. That’s what the building part of this project was about, but there is more to the story. Here is some background. There are three recognized LUGs (LEGO User Groups) in Poland and all were involved in this project. LUGPOL and Stowarzyszenie Zbudujmy To (in English, ”association Let’s build it”) are nationwide groups, while WAWLUG is based in Warsaw and focused more on face-toface interactions (which Covid did not make any easier). When working with AFOLs, LEGO Poland always reaches to all Polish LUGs, but often, due to extremely tight time constraints, such actions happen mainly in Warsaw, where the Local Offices are located. This time there was a little bit more time, so everyone managed to involve people from other regions too. Parts of the “paintings” were built in Warsaw, Poznań, and Gdańsk areas.
Of course the project had some challenges we had to face. Once we prepared the list of bricks we needed, it appeared that one color that we thought was available, was in fact absent. So we had to redesign the paintings from scratch—fortunately we had enough practice to make it go much faster the second time. Building the paintings with real bricks was quite a challenge. There are over 150,000 bricks across all the “paintings,” most of them 1x1 plates. Stacking them requires a lot of focus and attention, as each mistake will contribute negatively to the final result. Sticking so many little bricks makes the fingers hurt. To mitigate that, some of us created tools (out of LEGO bricks of course) to mitigate finger ache, including a sewing thimble. Stripe building party!
Mosiacs and Originals
Here’s a look at the completed mosiacs and their source art. Art is courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland. The original artists and mosaic builders are listed, as are the part counts. At the Seaside by Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, painter (1854-1893) Mosiac Creators: Dominik Skarbek-Kruszewski, Paweł Kwil, Jakub Maciejec, Jan Woźnica 14,500 LEGO elements
Builder and Photographer
A New Hope.
Anthony Bill
Anthony Bill Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Anthony Bill
Galactic greetings! I’m Steven Smyth from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. Since the community’s founding in 2016, on an almost daily basis, I have witnessed amazing and creative Star Wars builds in the best Star Wars themed building brick group on Facebook. Anthony Bill, also known as BillsBrickz on Instagram, is an extremely talented builder and photographer of custom Star Wars Lego. I thought it would be a lot of fun to catch up with Anthony and find out more about him! Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Anthony? I know you have quite a following with the members of the Bantha Bricks group, and I know people in the community and beyond in other online discussions have been blown away with your builds and photography. You have truly built some amazing MOCs, dioramas and vignettes, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. Anthony Bill: I’m all good, thank you! I will keep the boring stuff short and sweet. My name is Anthony and I go by the name of @billsbrickz on Instagram and other communities. I live in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and by day I am a Technical Representative for a high-tech engineering company; by night I am a LEGO MOC builder and photographer! I am an avid MOC builder with my main interest lying with the Star Wars theme. I was lucky enough to have lots of LEGO throughout my childhood; my first set was from the pirate theme, but I had a diverse collection throughout and always loved building MOCs, especially with my younger brother. I then rediscovered my love of the brick and got back into building around five years ago; whilst out shopping, I caught a glimpse of the UCS Slave I, Boba Fett’s Firespray starship, and that was it—I was hooked again!
Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Now obviously my favorite theme is Star Wars, but I do have a varied collection including some of the Ideas, Stranger Things and Ghostbusters sets; lots of nostalgia! One of my personal favorites is the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters, which I luckily bagged on sale just before it was retired. What inspired you to build these scenes and then photograph them? After several years away from the hobby, I started acquiring a number of sets and my Star Wars minifigure collection was growing rapidly. I wanted to design a unique display solution depicting different scenes for each, and at the time, the only bricks I had were LEGO pieces I had in sets that I owned. I did not have the array needed to complete my ideas. I decided to download the digital design software called Stud.io from Bricklink, which enabled me to create all IF YOU ENJOYED PREVIEW, my designs THIS digitally before calculating what I needed to purchase to make them CLICKaTHE LINK TO ORDER reality. Another greatTHIS feature of this software was being able to create.
ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! Can you tell us a bit about the construction—any special techniques you used?
My favorite techniques include SNOT (Studs Not On Top) builds, particularly for walls and floors. I also try to make the scene, especially the environments, as detailed and realistic as possible with minimal studs showing. Did you freestyle build this or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first? Once our twins were born, the time and space I had to build was very limited. Unlike most other builders, I do not have a work area with parts sorted into bins; mine is all in Ziploc® bags checked into two very large containers. When I do build in real life, I tend to have thousands of bricks sprawled out on the
AT-DT walker with trooper.
BRICKJOURNAL Queen Amidala follows#72 Obi-Wan (center) and Qui-Gon Jinn (right) in Theed Palace.
LEGO® COLOR! A mosaic by Bricknerd’s DAVE SCHEFCIK, CAZ MOCKETT and her monocolor habitats, flowers and other creations by INEZ VAQUEZ, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_78&products_id=1655
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