Lyn Satz

 This was the second MOC built for my New Elementary article on the Creator Pink Flamingo. After finishing the Athlete, I still had idead for those coral pieces that evolved into a bodice, decorated with some bright light yellow ruffs and a rad spiked belt. The positioning of the 3x3 quarter curved slopes was relatively difficult, as they're connected via the central tubes instead of usual antistuds, positioning the connection on irritating 1/2 offset grid. It looks nice, though. Another piece use from the set is the bright pink faux fur collar, using the newly recoloured rock pieces. I continued this motif with arm bands of bright pink crosses.

Although not introduced in it, the flamingo set featured these beautiful opal-trans-pink fern pieces. I wanted to use them as a hair, but it was challenging. Finally, I settled on a mohawk, which was simply enough - and I was able to nest it among pyramid slopes, common in trans-pink. I had not explicitly decided that this was going to a be musical person, but I think it was there on the background thoughts; thus, the hairdo, associated with punk, seemed fitting. It helped to create a strong silhouette.

I was completely at loss with the legs as well! As there's no skirt or dress or coattails of any sort, the legs were completely visible. Something on a rougher side felt fitting, but the choice of colours was not an easy one: I didn't have enough bright pink or coral, and in any case I wanted something with enough contrast with the coral bodice. Furthermore, the legwear had to be something worn under the bodice. In the end, I chose dark blue skin-tight trousers with very tall dark red boots with some spikes, coral details and rough soles. I even managed to use one of my favourite pieces, the tongue-shaped windshield, to create the hip curve silhouette. I left a sticker above the left knee, as such touch of asymmetry felt fitting.

The instruments were the last part I built - or actually not, as I had built the amp over a year ago and just had it around, waiting for a perfect use. Well, I chose it after finishing the character. The guitar is mosty a recolour of the Flying V I designed for Janne Westerlund in my Circle project already in 2018. I think the bright light orange (keetorange) and trans-clear colour scheme looks killer, though! The aerodynamically iconic shaping of Flying V fitted this character perfectly.

 I set a new month-long exhibit in Messukylä library yesterday, and it's there until 30th of October. There's a posted in the end of this post. You can see this MOC, some older and many unpublished ones there - and you can see ME and my new minifigure scale architecture MOC in Pii Poo's event in OULU this weekend!

 -Eero. 

The Athlete

 Another one "from the archives". I built this athlete for a New Elementary article about Pink Flamingo set(s). There are some coral pieces from the sets here, always to difficult to photograph - my camera cell doesn't seem to understand it! It looks more vibrant in person, I swear. 

I've mentioned before that real, random people are a major inspiration for my character models, and that applies also here. Coral is a popular colour in sports clothing, hence the idea; I also got some inspiration from athletics events Pinja watches from television every now and then. In a nutshell, I wanted to make an athletic person - not one with weight lifter's physique, but something typical to runners and jumpers. I'm first to admit I'm not super familiar with this word! Nonetheless, I tried to capture the vibe with small adjustments on shoulder and upper arm silhouette. 1x2 round tile ("soap bar") is a fantastic piece, and I also used some on the 4-pack (the two missing abs are in the shorts, I think). I'm also happy with the rounded concave shape of the waist, made with two big macaroni tubes.

The coral pieces from flamingoes are used mostly on the legs. as I wanted continuous coral mass, I had to make unusual hip joint; Technic Steering Gear with 3 Towball Joints, Compact is suspended by the central ball from the torso, and the legs connect to the side balls. This mean that the actual joints are in weird locations - obviously too close to each other. But this also enables hiding the grey joint pieces in a very small package behind the wedge curved slopes; and as the whole ball cluster can twist, it allows enough flexibility for decently natural posing.

There are some fun piece uses. I got the Gravity Games plastic sheet a couple of years ago, and wanted to use it in this kind of character. The one shoe is recycled from a WIP that became Supersonic Soaring Suit. The touch of neon yellow matched the sport vibes, so I gave her a wrist band of this colour, also found on the shoe. And finally, athletes usually wear thei hair tied (for practical reasons), which gave me an excuse for a playful hairstyle. This one uses pot cut hair that I got for New Elementary Parts Festival in 2019 in Denmark - but never used in the said festival. Now, finally, I used the ingeniously as hair.

-Eero. 

Cronje

Despite numerous claims, I have not been able to boost my rate of writing these articles. It might just be that writing the other type of articles - that is, scientific journal articles - for full-time might drain my writing juices... and then there has been some Klaanon, more than usually. So here I am posting MOCs from February or such.

 This is a small and relatively fast one, build out of habit (and duty) for Palikkatakomo contest. The theme was "dream" and this one is related to my academic dreams, and the journal article I am currently writing. (I'm still in campus, but it's Friday afternoon and I've made some good progress but enough is enough and too much is too much; my brain can just handle this MOC article at this point.) So, Tampere Savings Bank organised an architectural contest in 1900. The winning proposals have never been published, but I discovered them in the building a year ago. Unfortunately, the "Cronje" proposal, which was ultimately chosen to be executed, is still lost. So, this is my "scientific" reproduction of it, in Lego. It was made by architectural firm Gesellius, Lindgren & Saarinen, and most likely Eliel Saarinen, as two proposals were sent from Paris where Saarinen was building the Finnish World Fair pavilion at the time - Gesellius and Lindgren were in Finland. 

The contest (Palikkatakomo 2025 one, not the 1900 architectural one) limited the size of the entry to 32x32x32 studs. The other contest limited the building withing the plot borders, which could not be crossed with projections such as bay windows. Cronje broke this rule and was disqualified. Thus, I took the final drawings as a point of deparature, and added two bay windows projecting from the surface (they are topped by the 3x4 wedges). Furthermore, I made the entire facade in light bley to represent Finnish granite. Tampere Technical Club minutes suggest that Cronje was designed to be clad in granite, whereas the final version has natural stone only on the ground floor.

 These are the simple speculative choices. Otherwise, I wanted to capture the Art Nouveau graphic feel with the curving clouds and smoke trails, and medium azure background makes the whole a little more cheerful. Finally, the contest entry needed a motto, so I added it in yellow. 

As a small technical brag, I made the windows with homely trans-yellow hue and without opaque layer beneath, so they glow a bit if there's light behind the model. This made it a bit more exciting to look at. However, this (nor the very personal AND scientific background) didn't win the love of the voting audiences, and I got no prize. Maybe winning three consequent Palikkatakomo contests last year was enough.

-Eero. 

Vampire Duchess Snorval

I've been building on a decent pace this year... but I've been so bad in posting stuff! This is already from February (for most parts, I think) and already premiered in Kauhucon (horror-con) event in Helsinki, which had a very small number of visitors and very nice atmosphere in Richardinkatu library designed by Theodor Höijer in late 19th century. And again, I displayed this (in finished state) in my KOLMEKYMMENTÄ exhibit in Messukylä Library here in Tampere (I like libraries). There's another Messukylä exhibit coming up in October, by the way.

So, the theme was horror, and this was designed for the occassion. I generally spesify in "good" characters and rarely venture in horror genre. So this was mostly an experiement on "gothic" patterns on character, including plenty of bat wing motifs. Lego has creater a good variety of bat-themed parts along the years. There's some Bionicle, some minifig parts, and some actual bat animal pieces - the sword hilt tech was found by Moko already during the Brickshelf years, around 2007. Belville saddles hit this leathery aesthetic as well, so I devised a pair of attractive over-the-knee boots with them. Their structure is quite complex, as I wanted to use those half-rubber spike pieces on them, and they required a slight angle - tuned here with a T-bar joint.

Detached sleeve things felt impractical enough for a vampire fashion, so I made a pair with spiky cuffs, remiding of gothic chimneys. The upper torso has a sort of ruby bra, made with two Friends horse bridles and Technic pulley wheels. Its bloody shine is repeated on the earrings and the glass (which doesn't have red wine in it). Purple elves cape adds a bit of colour contrast, topped by a somewhat Victorian-style brooch. The hair emulates a fountain of blood, and the sword can actually be drawn from the scabbard - something not easy to accomplish with Lego. The cape was a late addition to make the silhouette interesting, giving aristocratic vibes to the character.  

- Eero.