Curtiss R3C-0

This is the second seaplane I built for my Pavilion of the Seaplane Association. The first was a real-world flying boat. Having cleared that, making a float plane (seaplane which hull does not touch the water) was a natural choice. They're less special and elegant that flying boats, although there are some really beutiful ones. However, it was easy to settle on Curtiss, famous from Porco Rosso. It is a real-life plane, American Curtiss R3C, armed with twin machine guns and with its wing-foil cooling system replaced with a radiator under the engine, like a jutting lower jaw (slightly misaligned in the photos with the stand). The real Curtiss was piloted by Jimmy Doolittle and beat the Macchi M.33 (last of the competing Italian flying boats) in 1925 Schneider Cup. This is references in Porco Rosso; Porco's rival Donald Curtis (with one s!) was inspired by Doolittle and Porco's fictional Savoia S-21 flying boat was inspired by Macchi M.33!

Porco Rosso is my favourite film, and as I had already built Porco's plane in miniland scale (and several times, too), giving some attention to Curtiss was a pleasure. The plane is easier that Savoia S-21, which is good as smaller scale has its challenges. This is strictly in minifig scale, although unable to fit in a minifig - they are so wide. With the wingspan of 25 studs, this isn't very big model. 

As there are no creative choices behind the process, it's hard to say very much about this. The pontoons were the most difficult part, and I'm not quite satisfied with them, but with the current rate there will be perfect curved slopes for them sooner or later. I'm happy how well the windscreen works, and with the white stripe behind the cockpit. The piping between the pontoons and the hull looks fragile, but is surprisingly sturdy. And finally, the 2x2 quarter round curved slopes from PaB elevated this to the next level - the photos of the Pavilion used baby bows with cut corners.

-Eero.

Macchi M.17

This is the Macchi M.17 from my Pavilion of the Seaplane Association. It is not a completely faithful rendition of the Italian flying boat, but close enough given the randomness of reference material. I simply wanted to make a flying boat racer/fighter (weaponless), elegant but typical enough. Something to take the viewer into the general aesthetics of Porco Rosso and late 1920s nautical aviation without the exclusiveness of Porco's fictional Savoia S-21 or its real-world paragon Macchi M.33. Monoplane flying boat fighters were extremenly rare, and having the cockpit behind the wings and the engine was uncommon, too. The .17 was a generic but very elegant example of this common typology: first cockpit, like a thin speedboat hull, then biplane wings, engine and a slender tail. The .17 apparently had versions with the engine positioned either on top of the wings or in the middle of them. The former felt more beautiful, as it enabled to keep the height of the wing structure lower.

Otherwise, this was a fast build. The main trick was to give the wings a slight curve. In my Savoia S-21 this is done illegally with a small triangle that uses swivel plate joints; but it breaks the geometry and is based on the tolerances of the physical bricks. This, in contrast, is entirely legal, using the method of freely sliding elements - that is, the 1x1 round plate with handle (expresso filter) pieces stuck into Travis bricks. The whole wing structure is then connected only by the Travis to the hull, enabled by the very sturdy connection of th Travis brick's hollow studs. 

The rest is more common; I managed to use the pretty round 4x4 dome and the weird yellow gear from Botanicals dandelion to bring some extra flair in; the pieces of the nose are among my favourites for shaping, and the corner curved slopes on the wing tips are just so nice... And yes, dark red, yellow and tan colour scheme is pretty nice.

This model was proven extremely difficult to photograph. The wings simply obscure most of it when photographing, hiding the elegant silhouette. I think it looks better from the back, but then again, people unfamiliar with old flying boats might not perceive what it is from the back view! I'll post the Curtiss later when I get dark blue 2x2 quarter round curved slopes from PaB.

-Eero.

Foyer Ambiance

 

 This is a long-awaited sequel to After the Gala which I built in 2024. The rather loose theme is something like well-dressed people with big plants; here, both of the are inspired by the Botanicals theme. The dress uses two key parts from last year's Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, the magenta petal piece and the large dark red fern. I combined them with a piece that is an old favourite of mine: 47844 Windscreen 9 x 3 x 1 2/3 Bubble Canopy, available in nine sets between 2004 and 2008. And it looks like it could be a new part from 2025, designed for flowers. But it isn't! A timeless classic. Here, eight of them in dark red form the hip/upper leg part of this trumpet evening dress. The whole thing is quite geometric. 

I built most of this quite effectively in February. Then I got influenza, and my efforts to finish the upper torso area, where the bare skin meets the top part of the dress, were completely useless. I only returned this some time later (after making a bunch of yet unpublished models) and finished this week, throwing together the plant in a couple of hours. Even the solutions of the upper torso did not take too much effort: There certainly is a difference betwen building in fever and without a fever.  

I wanted the hairdo to be somewhat festive. No idea about the terminology, but it is something between a bun and a braid, with some elegant loose bangs hanging on the sides. The braid-bun thing has Friends horse bridles stretched around a megaroni tube, creating a braid pattern - but it also reminds me bit of a xenomorph head; it's a Giger hair. For extra elegance and colour balance, I added a fur-like cloth skirt element from Constraction Range Trooper - a prize from Bio-Cup. I tried several alternatives before setting for this composition that leaves the shoulders visible.

-Eero. 

Chevrolet 5 Window Coupe 1934 "Nux"

 

Ride eternal, shiny and chrome. This was my entry for my LUG Palikkatakomo's contest titled "Speed champions theme scaled vehicle 'familiar from digital media'". That's right. Basically, we were allowed to build cars from media that's not a book, comic, or a painting, in roughly minifigure scale. I'm not much a car person, but I like Mad Max; and Fury Road is one of my favourite films. I didn't really consider any other cars than Nux. Of course, there are other great designs in Fury Road (and Road Warrior and Furiosa, why not), but Nux has most screen time of the smaller cars, and it has such an iconic silhouette with the spears and everything. The contest had a width limit of 10 studs which ruled out Gigahorse, Big Foot and, obviously, the War Rig. Razor Cola, aka Max's Interceptor after the war boys' tuning job, would have been my second choice.

And oh yes, I won the pro category. With one point difference to the runner-up, 107 points versus 106 points. Mediocre!

The main thing or trick here is the metallic silver colour scheme. I used the most worn-out pieces I had to emulate the sandblasted metal surface of Nux's Chevrolet. Essentially, the process was a three-dimensional puzzle using the limited metallic silver parts selection I had; I have the pieces of this colour in one bag to prevent them from scratching when seeking parts, and I had them on a pile on my desk for a week when I tried to find out the best configurations. My only plate options were 1x1 and 2x2 corner, and the only bricks were 1x8 (I used none, obviously). The macaroni tubes made pretty good rear side windows, and although the front mudguards lack the rounded shape of the original, they're simple enough to to stand out like a sore thumb. I'm especially happy with how the handlebar pieces crop the frontal radiator; they were a last-minute addition. During the process, I was amazed on how the model didn't feel like a Lego MOC - it was more like a real tin model car. Adding the wheels and details made it more Lego-like, obviously, but the metallic shine preserved some of its exclusivity.

Funnily enough, I had built a Nux-inspired rod already in 2016, and knew that the antenna pieces made good thundersticks; their little ball ends enable angled positions. I even used the same CMF series 1 robot head on the pole, both as a nod to my old MOC, and because it's close enough to the decoration in the film.

I didn't use minifigs here, as their weird proportions would have messed up the car, big time. It looked more credible without, as a scale model car.

-Eero.

Väinämöinen

 Väinämöinen is one of main characters of the Finnish folk epic Kalevala, collected and arranged by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century. In addition of being a sage, a singer and a swordsman, he's also the god of water. This sort of things are entirely possible in folklore.

If you ask an average Finn what Väinämöinen looks like, they'll describe the sinewy, tough-looking character illustated by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Axel Gallén) in famous paintings such as The Defense of Sampo or The Deparature of Väinämöinen. It's a good and fair vision, but I was inspired by another depiction: the strong-moustached and very small character in the corner of Väinö Blomstedt's The Theft of Sampo. Blomstedt was Gallén's contemporary, but never gained the same status and thus I was able to find only that small-resolution version of the painting. But in inspired me nonetheless.

 Thematically, this follows the overall theme of Vainolaista Vastaan, another Iron Age Finnish themed model inspired by a painting. As Väinämöinen is a character of high status, I gave him more elaborate clothing while sticking to earthy colours. The pattern on under the belt reminds me of fishbones, which is fitting with Väinämöinen's association with water, and his Kantele made of a pike's jawbone. The dominating dark blue colour of the coat is taken from Blomstedt's painting.

Väinämöinen needed a big, bushy beard, and the large wing pieces worked perfectly: I wonder why I hadn't used them before this way. I've used the smaller wing pieces as facial hair numerous times, after all. The heavy moustache uses a croissant piece, but the stache needed to be longer to capture the vibe I liked in the painting. I learned that there are two croissant moulds, one with rounded ends and one with regular flat bar ends. The latter enabled connection with 1x2 round plates with hole, which again connected to the white frogs. There are more frogs on the muttoncops. The eyebrows use mug plates made thicker with Technic pins - a tech I picked up from someone, but I didn't find the original picture. Round eye have sort of unnatural stare, and covering bit of their upper halves make the characters look more human.

Väinämöinen is armed with a "puukko" knife, a normal part of any prehistoric grown-up Finn's appearance, and the sword forged by Ilmarinen; this is meticulously descibed in Kalevala, and if I remember correctly, the sword is inscribed with barking dog, meowing cat and a shining sun and moon; these, of course, do not appear in my MOC as the sword rests in it sheath. Nice thin swords are nigh impossible to build. Finally, Väinämöinen has his kantele, a string instrument made of the jawbone of the great scale-pike. Väinämöinen wielded this legendary artefact for a brief moment only, during the Theft of Sampo climax, but the sound surely enchanted everyone from birds to gods. I'm quite happy with my design, which utilises the 1x2 clip plates I rarely use.

 Currently, this model is on display in Messukylä library, Tampere.

 -Eero.