Issue 75 • September 2022
10.95
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Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann’s 122 Hanger
INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!
Inside: Mechs by ZIO Chao Lu Sim Marco de Bon
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Issue 75 • September 2022
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Luigi Bombardiere’s Microscale Masterpieces.................................3 Ben Vijle: Belgian Brick Builder... ...................................7
Building Mech Spotlight: ZIO Chao’s XM-2 Reginleif... ........................11 Born of Unusual Circumstance.. ...............14 Mech Spotlight: Marco de Bon... ................................................22 Gol Plays with LEGO... ...................................26 Mech Spotlight: Lu Sim... ................................................................32 BrickNerd Instructions: Teddy Mech... .................................................39 You Can Build It: Rogue One: Erso Homestead MINI Diorama.................................................43 Minifigure Customization 101: Childhood Memories..................................50
Community Bantha Bricks: Tobias Nieder’s Jedi T-6 Shuttle..............56 Connecting More Than Bricks...................62 Project AMORsolo Event Report: Living the Legacy.........................................66 Project AMORsolo: From Canvas to Bricks................................68 The People of Project AMORsolo.............70 PinoyLUG: Building with Passion and Pride............72 Last Word.............................................................79 Classic AFOLs.....................................................80
People
Luigi Bombardiere’s
Microscale Masterpieces!
Article and Photography by Luigi Bombardiere Luigi Bombardiere has been building for about six years, when he joined an Italian community of LEGO fans on Facebook, Brickpatici. Initially fascinated by the LEGO Architecture theme, he started to try his hand at what bit of bulk elements he had at home (mostly coming from some of his children’s sets). It was there he remembers the first achievements, the challenges, and the nights spent building for pure pleasure… as he says, “Up trying to achieve what I wanted LEGO to be for me.” From the Architecture theme, Luigi went to Creator Expert sets, then to LEGO IDEAS, up to the latest themes, such as Art. He loves handling bricks. He also likes to collect some sets (the Pickup Truck, T1 Volkswagen, Ship in the Bottle, and Dinosaurs, for example). To replenish his bulk elements, he used to buy sets, but switched to buying parts directly from Bricklink.
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An assortment of Luigi’s microscale models.
Inspiration comes from everything around Luigi, including buildings, architectural works, and LEGO sets in minifigure scale. There is also his passion for ancient history (especially the Greek and the Roman Empire). These can inspire him, but the strongest inspiration comes from the places and environments that have something for him to build and reproduce in a small way. From there, they become part of his daily life and home. Luigi’s challenge is an internal one to make something he likes and share it with the community. Depending on his initial ideas, Luigi may plan his creation or build organically. Sometimes he starts without a precise idea but with the desire to build, then the idea arrives—or that special piece a MOC picks for him comes to his hands. Ideas often come to him in the most surprising moments though (when he is shaving or driving his car), so to keep from forgetting, Luigi has learned to write his ideas down.
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People
Ben Vijle with one of his microscale models.
Ben Vijle, better known as BelgianBricks in the Instagram community, is a 33-year-old builder from—you guessed it—Belgium. After a visit to the Leicester Square LEGO Store in London in late 2017, he slowly got captivated again by his favorite childhood toy. He started collecting and building the LEGO Architecture sets, but quickly noticed that no Belgian landmarks were represented in the series. So by the end of 2019, he decided to try and design some himself, starting with the skyline of his hometown Ghent, consisting of three medieval towers.
Ben Vijle:
Belgian Brick Builder!
The complete Ghent layout.
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Some of the details of Ghent.
This proved to be easier said than done, as Ben hadn’t made any LEGO creations of his own since when he was a child, and had little knowledge of the plethora of parts that have become available since then. Furthermore, building at such a small scale (1:500 or even smaller in some of his models) often requires specific building techniques and a bit of LEGO math, due to the limited space available. Ben took his time, discovering and gathering new LEGO elements that could come in handy, learning techniques from other builders in the community, and toying around with Micropolis modules. He prefers to design ‘by hand’ instead of digitally, which posed a challenge at first, because of his limited supply of LEGO elements. It took him about a year to gather the necessary bricks and figure out the best techniques to make the roof and tower of the first church building. In the meantime, he took on a couple of side projects, building models of two other towns.
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Building
The XM-2 Reginleif.
ZIO Chao is a builder who was spotlighted in the previous mech-themed issue, and has also built other impressive models. For this issue, he was able to talk about his most recent build: the XM-2 Reginleif mech from the popular anime show “86” (reference link: https://86-eighty-six. fandom.com/wiki/XM2_Reginleif). He always enjoys recreating the models from his favorite animations, movies, or games, especially with sci-fi themes. And it is a lot of fun for him to have the subjects reproduced in LEGO.
Mech Spotlight: ZIO CHAo
xm-2 reginleif Article and Photography by ZIO Chao
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Building
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I have always enjoyed building dioramas for my mechas but have not been able to find time to create a new one because of my busy schedule. Last year, an invitation to display at Singapore Brickfest 2021 gave me the impetus to build one. However, the timing was less than perfect as I was in the midst of moving and my new house was not ready. I had to lug my bricks to my temporary residence and build my robot there. Looking back, it was truly by God’s grace that I managed to build AMS BI09 Blauer Teufel Imperator (“The Blue Devil”) and its home in time for the event.
THE SECOND STEP – 10 Hours
THE FIRST STEP – 0 Hour
THE THIRD STEP – 18 Hours
The event organizers required the piece to be 60 bricks high and to be able to fit into three 32-stud base plates. It was sort of a blessing in disguise as I had wanted to make something bigger, but that would be a bigger logistical challenge given my situation at that time. After confirming important details like the set-up date, I wasted no time in sketching my designs and gathering the parts I needed. It was a very time-consuming process that involved many calculations and much trial and error.
Once the floors were settled, I proceeded with the wall design which is always a challenge for me. For a sturdier build that will not break easily under pressure, I used Technic parts for the walls. I like to add in the “X”pillar— one of my signature features. I like how it acts as an additional support that prevents the wall from falling over. I also like to add pipes to my diorama, as I imagine them to transport gas and energy throughout the scene.
First, I built the diorama floor in the dimension that was required, and once I decided on a pattern and style that I was comfortable with, I replicated it for the rest of the floor. Each floor of the required dimensions took me roughly five hours to build. I emphasize a lot on details— especially for the floor and the walls of my diorama, because these little details help to create the overall feel. I really dig triangle tiles, which can be useful in creating a direction.
“I emphasize a lot on details – especially for the floor and the walls of my diorama, because these little details help to create the overall feel.”
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Figurine out the diorama measurement
Designing my diorama base from 32 x 32 brick plate
Building
Mech Spotlight Marco de Bon Marco’s Hulkbuster shows its poseability.
My name is Marco De Bon and I am a LEGO MOC builder who loves to create mechs, robots, speedsters, microcities, and sci-fi related stuff. Since I was a kid, I’ve always watched Japanese Super Robots and Real Robots anime, and they are still in my heart. But I am also a big lover of more recent mecha designs. I think my building style is a mixture of all those influences. Being a collector of many figures, models and chogokins, some years ago I tried to create some mechs with LEGO and I found it could work surprisingly well! So, now, this is my favorite hobby, and I like to make original creations as well as mechs inspired by animation or films.
Hulkbuster moc After making a micro LEGO Iron Man, it came natural to me to think about the Hulkbuster project. Once I got the Hulkbuster 76105 set, I started immediately to work on it, so it heavily changed: now it is 280 mm tall, fully articulated and with the micro Iron Man as the pilot (100 mm). A good 70% of the bricks comes from the set, but this Hulkbuster is a completely new mech, not a modded set. Some detail inspiration for the chest, the back and upper legs come from other cool toys like Hot Toys and Threezero figures. The new torso is empty, as it is a real cockpit, so I had to work around it to create good stability. But the key joints are the waist and ankles, and I used a system of multiple ball joints and pistons to support the weight and to have a good range of movement at the same time. Pistons in the knees, instead, have only an aesthetic purpose, as the Technic joint disk (parts 44224-44225) works well alone. My intention was to create a heavy, brutal Hulkbuster with a dynamic touch in his poses.
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Building
Hello, I’m from Belgium, my name is Didier Dambrin, aka Gol. Now retired from programming, I used to be the main programmer behind a sequencer famous among e-musicians. I of course had my LEGO Dark Ages (timed perfectly to miss LEGO’s worst times), but for years I had been keeping an eye on MOC pictures, thinking I would one day return to LEGO to MOC, which I eventually did at around 40. And yeah, I’m old enough that for me LEGO means Castles and Classic Space. My inspirations include, well, other people’s MOCs obviously, but also anything I like. Sci-fi vehicles, cartoons—I build various stuff, from Brickheadz to mini modulars; anything but Technic and very large stuff. Another big inspiration is parts. Special parts, new parts, I spot them in announcements—and I quickly see what I could do with them. Nearly all of my MOCs are designed in 3D, still in my beloved LDD (and I really thank the community for maintaining it). I then gather the parts when it’s done, and when required I build prototypes while designing. A small amount of my MOCs never leave the 3D world—generally when they’ve been designed for contests, so that I don’t have to limit my color palette. I rarely do oversized MOCs, so they rarely take more than a few days to a few weeks to design. But of course, since as an adult I don’t find acceptable to “do with what I have” (as a kid I didn’t have the choice), my MOCs generally have to wait for orders to arrive, and end up being constructed months after the design. It’s always hard to wait.
Didier’s mech: Ruby.
Didier Dambrin:
Gol Plays with LEGO! Article and Photography by Didier Dambrin
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But I also revisit older MOCs, when I think they’re still good and could benefit from updates, especially when new parts are released. So my longest build would be, by far, my pet project, a minifig-scaled AT-ST from Star Wars. I’ve been “updating” it since 2015, and it’s safe to say that the current version, after thousands of updates and a release nearly each year, has nothing to do with its original incarnation.
Yet, that AT-ST hasn’t been my hardest build. That would go to another Star Wars MOC of mine, nanofigure-scaled Millennium Falcon. 3000 parts have a weight, and the structure was a nightmare, but the worst was the assembly, because I had designed it for myself only, and “forgot” that adding the last parts in a closed structure would become very hard, with no more access to the interior. While I’m happy with the result, the assembly gave me nightmares. I will one day revisit that MOC though.
Didier’s AT-ST interior.
Didier’s AT-ST.
Rear view.
The Millennium Falcon.
Top view of the Falcon.
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Building
Mech Spotlight: LU SIM Article and Photography by Lu Sim
hyouga
My latest builds focused around creating and testing designs using my newest mech frame, the reFrame version 4.0. This inner structure has been in development for over two years now. I had to put it on hold several times as there were mechanisms I couldn’t do without—the newer parts LEGO released over the last two years, specifically from the Ninjago and Monkie Kid themes. I also focused a bit on making my own reFrame-style redesign of the bigger mech sets, starting with the Hyouga which is a rebuild of Zane’s Titan 71738. The goal was to take the essence of the design but rebuild it in my own style and scale while still using the minifigure cockpit reFrame v4. The Hyouga used the medium version of my reFrame v4.
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Mechs come in all shapes and sizes, and tiny and cute ones are some of our favorite ones at BrickNerd! Defenders against nightmares for kids around the world, the teddy bear was the inspiration of this mechanized suit. Using a series of 1x2 rounded plates, clips and brackets, this poseable mech will be ready to stand guard against all the creepy crawlies out there. The rod-arms of the teddy bear allow for quite a few connections and some rotation, so they can be equipped with a variety of minifig accessories--our favorite was having the teddy bear mech play a gnarly guitar! And one last special note: a LEGO bunny can also be used in place of the teddy bear. Enjoy!
Parts List
(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty Part Color 1 98382p01.dat Md. Nougat
2 1 6
3024.dat 3900.dat 15712.dat
Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey
3
20482.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
1
24078.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
2
25893.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
2
26047.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
2
30377.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
7
35480.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
4 2 2
36840.dat 36841.dat 42446.dat
Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey
2
54200.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
2
60849.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
2
85861.dat
Lt Bluish Grey
Description Minifig Teddy Bear with Arms Down with Tan Belly and Muzzle and Black Nose and Eyes Pattern Plate 1 x 1 Minifig Signal Holder Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole Minifig Mechanical Cuboid Torso with Stud on Front Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle Below Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle on Side Minifig Mechanical Arm with Clips Parallel Plate 1 x 2 with Round Ends and 2 Open Studs Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Thin with Stud Hole Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Minifig Hose Nozzle with Side String Hole Simplified Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud
Teddy Mech Mech Design and Instructions by Simon Liu from BrickNerd
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You Can Build It MINI Build
Rogue One: Erso Homestead MINI Diorama Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck
Hello everybody, I am glad to be back for an exciting building session with you. Today we want to go back to the opening scenes of the Star Wars spin-off film Rogue One. This movie holds plenty of new fantastic locations. We now try to catch the atmosphere of the first minutes where we see a menacing black Imperial shuttle landing on the almost black soils of the planet Lah’mu. There lies the homestead and farm of the Erso family. It consists of a couple of domes, out of which the largest one is dug into the ground and is surrounded by a large parabolic dish. This was actually the trickiest part of the environmental part of the diorama. The new 4x4 plates with curved 3x3 corner cutout (part number 35044) did the job. They created a rounded cut-out in the ground where a standard 6x6 dish was embedded upside-down. A studless tile on the lowest level provides the needed depth. Of course, a brand-new designed and sleek-looking shuttle is included! Although being a micro model, it is fully functional with its wings being able to fold-up freely from flight into landing position. Have fun building, and see you soon!
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Homestead Qty Color 4 White 2 White 8 1 1 1
White White White White
2 1 1 2 1 2
White White White Black Green Black
Part 36841.dat 33286.dat
Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Brick 1 x 1 x 2/3 Round with Scala Base 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 43898.dat Dish 3 x 3 Inverted 3960.dat Dish 4 x 4 Inverted 44375a.dat Dish 6 x 6 Inverted with Hollow Studs 90540.dat Minifig Ski Pole 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4
Qty 1 2 1 1 8
Color Green Black Black Green Black
Part 3020.dat 3795.dat 91988.dat 2450.dat 35044.dat
2 1 4 6 1
Black 3958.dat Black 3028.dat White 85984.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 98138.dat Black 20482.dat
4 1 4 4 4 2
White Black Black Green Black Green
24246.dat 6178.dat 43723.dat 43723.dat 41770.dat 41770.dat
Krennec’s Shuttle
Qty Color Part 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Black 47905.dat 1 2
Black Black
3024.dat 61252.dat
1
Dark-Bluish-Gray 78257.dat
1 1 2 1 1 1
Black Trans-Light-Blue Black Black Black Black
54200.dat 54200.dat 85984.dat 60481.dat 78443.dat 78444.dat
Description Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 2 x 14 Plate 3 x 3 without Corner Plate 4 x 4 with 3 x 3 Quarter Circle Cutout Plate 6 x 6 Plate 6 x 12 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole Tile 1 x 1 with Rounded End Tile 6 x 12 with Studs on Edges Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Left
Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Two Opposite Sides Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) Plate 1 x 1 with Handles on Opposite Ends Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Brick 65 2 x 1 x 2 Wing 2 x 6 Left Wing 2 x 6 Right
Building Minifig Customization 101:
Childhood Memories
Rich Hunter in minifigure form.
Article and Photography by Jared Burks
Robotech and all related characters and properties TM & © Tatsunoko Productions.
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For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s your first introduction to anime was likely the space opera Robotech. Robotech as it was released in the United States in 1985 was a show adapted from three original and distinct Japanese anime television series. Yes, I wrote that correctly; three similar shows were merged into one, which may explain why the plotlines were somewhat confusing. The three shows making up Robotech are Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. In the Robotech series, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. This technology allowed Earth to develop transformable mecha to help fight off extraterrestrial invasions. For kids, it was full of action and had robot airplanes, which were simply cool. If you can actually track the various shows and how they fit together, you are a true fan and better than I. I simply remember the stunning art and the simplicity of design in the outfits. When I was told this issue featured Mecha designs, I immediately knew (after being nudged by a friend or two) who I needed to create for this article: Rick Hunter. Richard “Rick” Hunter at the start of the Macross Saga was an amateur stunt pilot; however, throughout his numerous appearances and mentions in primary sources, he quietly evolves into an Admiral of Earth’s last fleet, as he attempts to lead the liberation of Earth from numerous alien threats.
Rick Hunter first appears in Robotech: The Macross Saga. The show opens with him arriving as a visitor to Macross Island to watch the launching of the Super Dimensional Fortress One (SDF-1) and to visit his “big brother,” Roy Fokker. It is at this time that the Zentraedi forces attack, and the SDF-1 takes the island and its inhabitants of Macross City (including Rick) to the orbit of Pluto on the edge of the solar system. Rick manages to rescue and falls for a young girl named Lin Minmei during this time and the two become close, although this is not his final love interest. Against his initial motivations, Rick signs up with the Robotech Armed Forces, becoming an ace fighter pilot. It is this step that starts his life in the show and takes him all the way to the rank of admiral.
Rick Hunter reference art and figures.
For this custom figure of Rick Hunter, there are a few key points to creating him. First, this was 1980s animation; if you have seen the show, there are like five pictures of Rick in his fighter. They reused these same photos over and over again. They also used very simple character designs in order to simplify the animation of the characters. Rick’s fight suit features a vertical and symmetrical from the centerline (for the most part). This means drawing the art was fairly simple as it was mostly boxes and some triangles. I kept it this way because in the original show there were no wrinkle lines in his outfit. Also, I wanted this figure to look like it may fit in with most any 1980s LEGO figure, which is when LEGO was making Pirates. So I kept the design very simplified. The most dramatic/modern bit of the design is the face and eyebrows, as they are the most organic in design. Rick’s belt buckle is also a bit of a rounded shape, as is the buckle on the back of the harness straps. Most of the inspiration for the figure came from toys, as there were limited angles of the character shown in the original footage. This includes maybe only one scene of the back of the character. I kept it simple, used color blocking, and made everything look angular. While I created a visor in the face design, this ultimately was not used.
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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. Tobias Nieder took on the challenge of building the T-6 Jedi Shuttle from The Clone Wars and the final build looks simply beautiful. I thought it would be great to learn more about this talented builder and his custom LEGO build. Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Tobias? I know you have quite a following on your Brick Collective page and members of the Bantha Bricks group have been stunned by your T-6 Jedi Shuttle, among others, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do.
jed T-6 shuttle
Tobias Nieder: I have been a LEGO fan since my dad thought it was a good idea to give me LEGO—a nerd, and of course fan of everything science-fiction and fantasy. I studied mechanical engineering and received my diploma in October 2020. I started doing MOCs (My Own Creation) in 2019 with my AT-ST. I just wanted to rebrick it, but thought there is so much space for an interior, so I did one. One thing led to another and I remodeled it completely. That was my very first MOC.
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In summer of 2020, I got in contact with Sebastian from Brick Moon. Sebastian became a really good friend, and he was absolutely convinced about my abilities to make MOCs and motivated me to go further with MOC creation. Since I have finished my studies, finding employment during the pandemic is difficult. I did not want to live on the German unemployment system, so I decided to start The Brick Collective. What is The Brick Collective?
Tobias Neider’s
Jedi T-6 Shuttle
Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Tobias Neider
A kind of a joint company with Sebastian from Brick Moon and Stefan Fischer, who crafts great stickers. After some months of programming a website, learning about laws and regulations and several discussions about everything with both Sebastian and Stefan, The Brick Collective was born. Since January 2021, my daily routine is working on MOCs; not only my own, but also from different designers like Cavegod. I modify the MOCs for the best possible building experience and make instructions which are top quality. I am very picky with my own instructions and I want to provide the best possible quality under the name TBC. My studies help me a lot in this regard, especially when it comes to adding mechanics or electric components to models. A lot of working with a computer is involved, as well as sorting LEGO, testing, taking photos for social media, and a lot of organizing between Stefan, Sebastian and myself. That is really cool. So, is this business you started, The Brick Collective, doing well? The business is clearly not designed to get rich; for us, the most important person in this process is the designer. We want to give something back, so a monthly percentage of the gains go to the children’s cancer department of the local hospital, and an amount goes to Frank Averstegge from Bantha Bricks to use for the children’s cancer charity fundraiser he organizes.
That is fantastic! Thank you for supporting those causes! So, inquiring minds want to know, is Star Wars your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Let me put it like this, Star Wars is one of my favorite themes. I have to admit it shares a place with Harry Potter, which I read twice a year since the book’s release. From an engineering perspective, Star Wars definitely has more fancy technical vessels and objects. On the other hand, Lord of the Rings is cool too, and I am playing pen and paper role-playing games such as Dark Eye, and I like Lovecraft. So if it is science-fiction or fantasy, I am in. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? Tough question. LEGO reminds me of the good times in my childhood. I love the way it teaches simple mechanics and the possibilities you have once you build custom models. For me it is not just making a model to sell its instructions. It is kind of an art. It is challenging to look at the details, of a ship for example, and wrap your head around it until you find a great solution and build it with LEGO. At the end of the day, I cannot give a clear answer to this one, I just know LEGO is great! It provides fun and happiness, brings people together, and teaches basic skills. We know the Star Wars fandom is enthralled with The Clones Wars TV show, with a completed final season, and now The Bad Batch airing. Did your love of the show drive you to build this shuttle—or what inspired you to tackle this ship? Now the shocker: Until now, I have not seen The Clone Wars nor The Bad Batch. The reason for the delay is I do not care for the animated style. I tried watching the series several times, but have a difficult time following it completely. The reason I started with T-6 Jedi Shuttle was that someone on Instagram asked me to do it. At first, I did not want to, but then I looked at the ship and saw its beautiful shape, which reminded me of a moon fish. As we all know, making round shapes with LEGO is not easy, so I was initially seeking to do it for the challenge. The first prototype model was completed in about twenty-four hours, and it turned out to not be stable. Can you tell us a bit about the construction; any special techniques you used? I had several challenges. First the shape, but that turned out to be easy. Second, the stability, which I could solve with the integrated stand. Third, the rotating engine and cockpit combination. With techniques, I tried every SNOT (Studs Not On Top) technique I was aware of. Since the wings consist completely of plates, I had to find a way to change the building direction as small as possible. I decided to use a combination of plates modified and bracket tiles to bring the end points together. The engine was tricky too. I wanted a smooth line of slopes, which is not easy since the normal slopes have a little shift. I used a combination of headlights and those plated slopes to solve this. The toughest part was the integration of the small Technic turntable. The engines are so heavy, a simple axle was not enough to hold the weight, so I decided to add a Technic turntable, and located it exactly in the middle. I used a weird combination of brackets, which is unstable
A look at the front of the shuttle.
Data File: Jedi T-6 Shuttle An unarmed transport used by the Jedi Order. An older design, it saw greater use during the Clone Wars. By the time of the early rebellion against the Galactic Emipire, the shuttle cockpit was used in the design of the B-wing starfighter. Source: Star Wars Wookieepedia
Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm.
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Community
Connecting More Than Bricks Article and Photography by Geoff Vlcek
Inez’ Raffesia leonardi. Taylor Horowitz’s mosaic of Washington.
Blair Archer shows off his badges and his mask at Bricks Cascade 2022.
Connecting Elements LEGO bricks connect, but building with them actually does more than just connect together. Minifigs tell stories that can make us feel like we are inside a scene. Creating MOCs with all the possibilities that our imaginations can come up with, brings us together to see their story. Bricks connect to humans and make human connections easier and stronger. Recently I had the pleasure of attending Bricks Cascade 2022. While trying to find some MOCs to photograph and write about, I noticed how hard it was to just get some builders to talk about their projects, or where their inspiration came from. I also observed many builders sitting inside the tables and staying away from engaging with the crowds of people who were in awe of the amazing work they had done. I decided to watch other builders who were engaging with the public. They were completely comfortable answering questions and inspiring minds of all ages.
Another display at Bricks Cascade.
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Brick builders come in all ages, all backgrounds, all colors, and all types of personalities. Those who are extroverts have no issue speaking about their MOCs with others. They might be humble about how great their work is, but enjoying what they’ve done is what art is all about. For the extrovert, building is trying to tell a story that resonates
Community
To open the Project AMORsolo display, PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo gave the following speech. Magandang Hapon at Maraming Salamat po sa inyong lahat. Please allow me to tell you the story of Project AMORsolo. It all started with a dream. In 2017, when I was privileged to visit the LEGO® House in Billund, Denmark before it formally opened to the public, I was amazed by the awesome exhibits I saw there and was stunned beyond words. Each country chosen to participate in the exhibit had magnificent displays of their LEGO® creations, and I was filled with admiration and envy. How could we, still a fledgling, loose association of LEGO® enthusiasts trying to weave our way into the international arena, make the grade? We were not even the first LEGO® Users Group (LUG) to be recognized by the LEGO® Ambassadors Network (LAN). My own group, PinoyLUG was already a trailblazer in the toy community, but so were all the other much older LUGs of the world. And we were all just creating, building, innovating, and having fun. The dream was to have an awesome display from the Philippines that LEGO® fans all over the world would be talking about. It will be one that speaks of our historical legacy as a nation—a creation that reflects our traits as a people— generous and helpful, gracious and beautiful. We needed to be more—as the LEGO creed goes, “LEGO® beyond play. Beyond what it is known for.”
PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo, with one of the three mosaics built for Project AMORsolo, Dalagang Bukid.
Project AMORsolo:
From Canvas to Bricks Article and Photography by PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo
In 2021, during the desolate hours of a second pandemic lockdown, when everyone turned to family as a source of comfort, memories of my departed father came to haunt me. It was him, the source of my strength and inspiration, who has been driving me to achieve much more than I am able to accomplish. For him, I dedicated PinoyLUG’s BrickRunPh—a full range LEGO®- themed fun run with over 3,000 runners participating. It was the first of its kind to be produced and conducted by a LEGO® Users Group in Southeast Asia that was officially supported by LEGO®. Looking back at all the families during that fun run, I think I missed my dad more than I ever did since we lost him. Searching for mementos my dad, in PREVIEW, IF YOUfrom ENJOYED THIS the same house where he and my grandparents my CLICK THE LINK and TO ORDER THIS PRINT OR IDIGITAL great grandparents had livedISSUE beforeINI was born, found FORMAT! his collection of postcards with prints of Amorsolo’s paintings. Everyone in my father’s family was a fan of the great painter. When I was growing up, I would hear them talk about how the old man used to come and visit my great-grandparents, who were both painters like him. In fact, my great-grandmother was one of his students at UP. I guess my father had hopes that one of his children would be an artist inspired by Fernando Amorsolo. I looked at the prints on those postcards closely, and then the spark of an idea came to me. This was going to be PinoyLUG’s next big project, the biggest and most challenging one. My LEGO® family would work together to fulfill the dream, based on the legacy of a great Filipino artist.
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The fast-changing world of MECHA! Learn how to build mechs At PinoyLUG, we work together as one. Therefore, I am with some of the best mecha builders in the world: BENJAMIN CHEH, LOW, LU SIM, andlegacy SAM CHEUNG! Plus: AFOLs confident that the vision I have of KELVIN continuing the (“Adult Fans of LEGO”) by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by of Fernando Amorsolo is appreciated shared the step “You Canand Build It” instructionsby by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED group. In fact, we have made BrickNerd’s it happen. Each participant K. BURKS, and more! in Project AMORsolo has accomplished his mission with$10.95 (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) (Digital Edition) $4.99are pride. Each piece of brick that they have put together https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1670
