Brickfilm: Neljä tai kaksi

"Despite the schooling system and geography together tried to keep Vuhvelituotanto's creative forces safely apart, a time has come to publish our newest animation Neljä tai kaksi (Four or two).

A shared flat in Hervanta exceeded all the expectations as a film studio."

This avant-garde/post-indepedent videofilm was animated in Friday the 23th. It took probably an hour or two. Intuition was our driven force. 

The distance between Vuhvelituotanto's infamous creative forces (and all the other forces, too) used to be 7 kilometers, or a half an hour with a bike, but it's currently 177 kilometers (The other guy, E. Karvinen, studies some forest ecology in Helsinki; well done, that man). But thanks to comprehensive transportation infrastructure of our cold (also dark) beloved home country, distance is just a number and we present you this thrilling 12-second art film; A masterpiece!

You can also peek some sneaks of my upcoming modular buildings.

 

MOC: Guechex

 Guechex is a character from Klaanon. It has been a while since the last Klaanon post on this blog. Actually, this MOC has been built for a while, but I didn't manage to post it until now.

Guechex is one of the Zyglaks of the Island of Bio-Klaani, though they don't naturally call it that; They think it was their island that the Matorans invaded. Guechex is a freedom fighter, huntsman and a field leader; but in Matoran perspective, he's probably a terrorist. You might notice where his name derives from.

Zyglak was originally a decent combiner model of three Barraki sets, Takadox, Kalmah and Pridak. I naturally took some parts of the official form, but made up a lot too. From descriptions and discussions with the creator of the character I got few things; He's bulky, red-black, sky-blue-eyed, had probably some tribal decoration and somewhat lumpy "nose". The rest I made up. The shapes are more practical and life-like than in the combiner model.

I began with the head that I actually completed few months ago. I wanted to use several feather- or scale-like pieces to create an aerodynamic and scavenger-like head; The nose is very bald and the lower jaw is full of odd teeth. Marabou stork was a source is inspiration here. The eyes were white viking horns at first, but were changed to medium azure 1x2 tile to maintain correct colouring. Guechex also has an important black sideburns.

I also tried some printed pattern here. I'm very happy with the uses of 4x4 wedge slopes with Crab Crusher prints; Fire Lord's lava-printed HF shells are probably not as succesfull, but I like the color they bring to the MOC.

Interesting bit in building a Zyglak character was the balance between dinosaur-like monster and a humanoid. My first version was too reptile-like, and I ended up adding mass to the upper body and broadening the shoulders. The necklace hopefully emphasizes the sapient feel here; There's some bones and fish skins constructed of bar-clips.

Photographing this wasn't easy, as it was hard to fit into the studion, but I managed to pull some cool poses. The light was another problem; The red bits that look alright in real life tended to overexpose, and I had to done them down with my antique photoshop CS2 quite a bit. But it should look OK now.

Next up dwarf stuff or hell, probably even a Brickfilm!

-Eero

MOC: Samus Aran

Now here's a video game character you all should recognize. Because I'm not much a gamer I've mostly controlled every one's favourite brightly clad space heroine in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Not that I would be very good with Samus, but she's fun with the Charge Beam and everything.

I've built Samus couple of times before, with Power Suit in October 2016 (didn't remember that neck looked that bad, and people still wanted instructions!) and with Zero Suit in late 2013, with major revamp in May 2015. The latter looks still quite good and is still built and in similar scale than this one, but I can give you a shot of both as the tight-fitting version is in Joensuu, some 420 kilometres away.

This new Samus was built after realizing that I had hoarded enough orange to make her in bigger scale. The old power suit version was oddly coloured with red and tan because of lack of parts, but now that problem has been solved. Some of this was built in Joensuu, some here. I went with Other M/Super Smash Bros. 4 style, as I like the round, simplified shapes and there was good reference material out here; it also fitted the OM-style Zero Suit. I began with the gunless arm, continued to the iconic shoulders that came out rather nicely, and had a break of couple of weeks; Then I worked with the lower torso and embarked the quest to built the legs, which was scary but fortunately rather successful adventure. I can't say there's lot of posability, but they're sturdy. The real sorrow was the hip joint, though; I wanted to have a black rubbery part, but the loose pulley tires kept going places and setting unsettingly; They also limit the movement. The old hip joints were in A-shape using those tri-axle-connectors, but I deserted the idea. They kept falling off.

The chest plate was problematic, too. It's not too easy shape to start with, and the lime lines made it worse. I made several versions, back in Joensuu and in here, before settling to this one. The lines are far from perfect, but at least the plate is solid and without notable gaps. The helmet was easier and didn't take too long. It maybe a tad flat, but I quite like it. The tubes use old technique of lever piece with base on both ends and short ribbed hose around; you might have seen on some MaK. bot arms.

The cannon wasn't easy. I wanted to make it in medium azure, which is a beautiful colour and looked great with orange, red and yellow. There isn't too much pieces available, but I had some nice curved wedges and slopes and though it can't be too hard. I made the first version, photographed it and showed to some friends and yeah, it was too small, so I redesigned it, shot the whole model again and here we are. Some liberties are taken with the shape, but it doesn't look too bad, right?

-Eero

MOC: Excela Noa Aura

 That's enough for the minifig scale, let's get back to the real deal of this blog, the character builds. This is Excela Noa Aura, Dragon Knigh of some sort, from same game - Shining Resonance - than Kirika Towa Alma. Never played it, just saw some concept art, was inspired. Ridiculously stupid skirt armor but somewhat cool anyway. Might be hard to use narrow doors, but I guess she could just do a pirouette and slice the legs of her enemies off.

The building started with the upper torso, which came out surprisingly easily. The shapes were tricky, but old solar panel piece and two of those odd 2x4 wedge slopes did the trick. I like the spiky shoulder pads, too. The arms were too thick on the first version, and were scaled down later. Droid arms were used as fingers as I don't have enough black skeleton arms. (I have two. TLG should rerelease them.)

The trickiest part was the multi-layered skirt. I though plates and TECHNIC panels but ended up making the main black layers with bricks and slopes; That enables more precision with the shapes. The white layer uses both wedge plates, wedge slopes and curved slopes. It was challenging to get all the connection points with needed friction inside the lower torso, but it ended up pretty good. It just isn't very sturdy.

The waist area of the skirt uses 4x4 curved wedge slopes - one of my favorite parts - with white rubber bands as embroidered lines. There's also ribbon in the back for some reason. Another tricky thing to get connected into the right angle.

The legs use some new, interesting parts like SW constraction figure leg armor and 1x2 inverted curved slope (inverted baby bow), though the latter isn't well visible on these photos (It's on the sole of the heeled boot). There's also obligatory 3x3x3 cone, another piece I cherish, and some boat studs to make a sturdy knee joint. Not that there would be lot posability, as the skirts are quite heavy. The boots are nailed into the base.

This MOC was built and photographed back in Joensuu before moving. I also tried some experimental photoshop on the first shot. I hope it looks good.

-Eero

Interviewed by Tommy in BrickNerd

A few days ago Tommy Williamson (who you all know anyway, don't fool me!) interviewed me for Builder Showcase in his amusing and excellent blog BrickNerd. You can find the article here.

It has more information about myself as a builder and person than this blog has. I just don't bother wiriting about "random things concerning myself" here. Probably it's this Finnish thing, don't make fuss about yourself, dunno. But in the interview you can read about my building area, building philosophies (there isn't much) and music I listen to when building.

I hope you like it. It was pleasant to be interviewed by Tommy who has blogger my work several times.

-Eero

MOC: Gale Serpent Arises

"Was he greedy for power, or guided by higher though, or simply out of his mind? What made the old man, elder of the village, to leave behind the warmth of his house and climb up the mountains, to the moor cold and bare, which the cults of old had inhabited with ancient shrines, causes long forgotten? But there he went, and at the springs of the black stream he awoke what should not been disturbed. His fate remains forgotten; but since then has rain not ceased, nor have we had peace from the thunder and the lightning. The crops rot; The fields are flooded. Nothing will save us from the wrath of the Gale Serpent."

 I moved into Tampere two weeks ago. I left most of my creations (temporarily) behind, but I have almost all of my parts here, in my shared flat room. This is the first MOC built here. Well, mostly. Most of the dragon was built back old home. The base, however, is done completely here. The new building area seems working. It's probably even better, as I can browse reference material online when building.

This is entry for this year's summer contest on Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo Ry. The theme of the contest was Monster, with size limit of 64x64 studs. I had several ideas on the entry; I though of Mothman, and Bricklinked those Ninjago Morro Dragon wings for it, but the idea didn't fly; I made couple of different heads, but they somehow didn't work. So I went with a dragon; Colour-wise somewhat similar than the original set the wings was taken for, but more oriental. There are similarities with Dragon Dance built for the contests on Model Expo earlier this year, but I hope the differences are big enough.

The overall shape of the dragon went through several version. At some point it used 12 big insectoid wings, with six on the back and six on the tail; It also had four small limbs and stood on two legs. There was also a fish or beetle-style version with several body segments with shells, fins and wings, but it looked too random and didn't stay intact.

So I abandoned the idea of building the whole dragon and chose to integrate it with the landscape. I ended up making quite a long neck and a serpent-like body mostly with CCBS with some lime green stomach scales. The dragon rises from black waters, or maybe it's petroleum? I'm neither sure if those wings are really wings, or just arcane energy bursting out as the dragon emerges. It's up to you. Make your interpretations.

The moor developed quite nicely. Dark bley stones with olive green vegetation and some light grey shrines were simple enough not to draw too much attention from the beast. At a point I though of making a mini-scale village to make the dragon look enormous, but the idea didn't fly. There was also some snow, but I didn't feel there was need for another element. The Monster is the main dish here.

The photographs were taken on a balcony (I live in fourth floor). It seems to work nicely as a studio.

-Eero

The Fantastic Fantasy Figbarf

Here's the last figbarf for now. This one has some fantasy figs, being successor of this one from 2014. Some Nexo Knight heads bought via Bricks&Pieces are used here, alongside with recent CMF parts; the newest series didn't make into this one, though.

-Eero

Angalone Brondellier, Hussar-Centurion of Mugnusmanfieston. Has incredibly silly but showy suit of armor. She's of the ceremonial guard and doesn't participate in real military manoeuvres.

Golaf is a happy norseman. Laughing, along with walrus meat and dried cod makes him warm (at least mentally) during the long months of winter. He's got attitude.

Aberdineck Husmurckël is an ancient lorde that has returned to avenge his killers. He doesn't want to, but no one asked him. His sword is to ethereal he can't even stab anyone with it. Poor man. Or ghost.

Nielonna, forestwoman shaman of the cult of the Enormous Moose. A friend of all-things-living. Well, not really. Dislikes woodcutters and Diprion pini. Likes a good pair of boots.

Omlesh Curmeier, a chorister nun of the temple of Ran-Forlon. Knows about gold, incenses and chrism. And all them religious sing-songs.