Sapphire Sky Dress

This is the second of the three figures I built as a part of my parts review of two formula 1 helmet sets on New Elementary. Dark Azure was easier to work with than neon yellow, as I had pretty good collection it already. Furthermore, I had built those legs beforehand, after getting to know that I'll get the sets for MOCs but before actually receiving them. I wanted to go for full glamour look with high heel shoes with metallic shine and full lower-leg lacing (straps?). They use silver cord pieces from Ideas Fender Statocaster that I reviewed for New E some years ago. I'm happy that enough medium nougat pieces exist to make full legs; there are actually older than the legs of Aria character in Aria & Synth.

I went with a short dress to have emphasis on the legs, white trying to keep the garment purely medium azure with dark blue highlights. It worked quite well. I consolidated the large printed pieces on the hem. I'm particularly happy how the big quarter dome piece hugs the left leg. It's a tricky piece to use, but this stays well on its place. The dome is connected to the upper leg, which enables some movement, as demonstrated on the pictures below.

 The hair is, again, playful. It uses the sausage trick that I used in a similar way on After the Gala; this time, I parted the bangs symmetrically. There's a bit of Japanese idol aesthetic here, complemented with a partly visible hairband, big shiny earrings (balancing the shoes) and a big bow that utilises the singular 4x4 macaroni slope in the helmet set. Finally, I gave the figure gloves, as medium nougat handlebar plates are still limited to E.T.; and a little handbag, exhanging the aesthetics from the Sweet Sulphur Dress. I really like the bag.

-Eero. 

Sweet Sulphur Dress

 I built three figures as a part of my parts review of two formula 1 helmet sets on New Elementary, and this is the first of them. As usual with New Elementary MOCs, I've already written a text on the model there, so I'll keep this post relatively short, focusing on the aspects I touched on New E - mostly concerning the new parts and their usage.

 This began, of course, with the neon yellow printed pieces. The squiggle prints are wonderful, and wonderfully free of sponsoring brands. When it comed to vibrancy, neon yellow is difficult to beat: and I like strong colours in my MOCs. Furthermore, my camera cell doesn't seem to dislike neon yellow as it dislikes vibrant coral, so the MOCs look good on photos, too.

With the new colour, I had only a limited array to work with, and I focused on the largest pieces with the most flowing shapes and uninterrupted print patterns. The large quarter dome panel formed the top of the dress, whereas the three curved panels formed the bottom part. This was the design thorough the process. All the other things changed. Most importantly, I added dark purple as a more toned-down complimentary colour. It's a more tight-fit part of the dress, overlayed by the loose-fit neon yellow ones. Initially, I just had the neon yellow parts with some black against the reddish brown skin, but that didn't work; it was supposed to look bold and dramatic, but it didn't. It lacked elegance and looked something like Tarzan. The dark purple piece made it a lot more streetwise, in a way - more real, too.

Neon yellow is a strong element, so I balanced it with a streak of neon yellow socks visible above the boots. Generally, these heavy boots felt fitting with streetwise or punk aspects of the dress, also contrasting with the more dainty shoes of the other figures in the article (soon posted here, too). The hair is based on a skeleton arm hoop I've had around for years. I always knew it was going to be a coiffure, and I let it take its time to find a perfect figure. I'm very happy how it works with the bangs. The bag refers to the other helmet, helping to make the trio of figures a more coherent whole. 

 - Eero.

Vembu Batch 2

I posted my first batch of Vembu models in August. Getting into this second one took more time than I expected - writing at work all day takes the juices to do such thing in free time. Anyway, here's three more models.

Hyttyrex's Car

 I built this as general drone mech for the Nazorak empire. It turned out as such in the text, too, although the name managed to get me alert. I believe it was supposed to. I'm quite happy how this turned out, especially as its aesthetics are not something that would come naturally from me. The legs utilise some Botanicals piece I have in bulk, and in the windscreen I finally managed to use the trans-bright green maxironi tubes. The hockey sticks are supposed to be wings. The upper part of this can be removed easily, working as a fast, flying drone.

The Modemobile

 The Platonic Idea of a Vembu: A silly car with a Kanohi mask strapped in front. However, being so aerodynamic, the great Mahiki is made for such use. (Masterful Vince Toulouse used it that way already 13 years ago.) It also enabled me to use the cool dark green -printed cockpit from the Indiana Jones flying wing. As wheels, I used ones with the most impractical thin tyres to capture the streetwise tuning vibes.

Moporak V6

I intended this as a motorcycle for Gaggulabio's Flamers (Gaggulabio's own walger appeared in the previous batch). Instead, it turned out to be Bladis's personal bike. Just as well. I wanted this to be mostly credible, with a silly contrast between the huge balloon back tyre and the very thin front wheel - a real extreme chopper. The fuel tanks and the engine are visible, the saddle has a fashionable marbled effect. The cow horn handlebars are a souvenir from the Old Country, that is Zakazian prairies; and the Lava Monster flame mane pieces are natural motorbike ornaments. The bohrok shell and the skakdi skull bring the required Bionicle aspect to it. Is it weird that a skakdi would have a skakdi skull on the bike? Then again, real-world biker gangs probably use human skull ornaments, so why not.

- Eero.

 

Life amid the Firewalls (From the Archives)

I built this little house in 2022 to fill in the city block in a display of three Finnish Art Nouveau buildings. It was first displayed in TAD Week exhibition "Aikaikkuna" in Finlayson, Tampere, and later in Pii Poo Helsinki event, part of Palikkatakomo's Finnish City project. I didn't photograph it back then; but recently I decided that it was its time to go (urban milieus change so fast...) and decided to document is before the demolition. I also made the right flank of the modular base black: it was not visible in the display layout, and was thus rainbow-coloured. 

This is an educative model if I ever built one. The idea was to demonstrate how simple wooden houses survived among the large stone buildings of Finnish towns and cities far to the 20th century. The styles of the large buildings changed relentlessly, but the wooden buildings stayed pretty much the same - ignoring the city layout and slow to adopt modern-day conveniences like water closets and running water in general. Their materials were common and cheap: movable timber frame, some weather boards, brick-built chimney, roof of metal sheets or asphant felt (wooden roof materials were forbidden in cities due to the fire hazard.) The fire regulations required a ladder on each house to make the roof more easily accessible.

This way of life has disappeared decades ago. However, it is quite well known, because the Board of Antiquities of Helsinki - the predecessor of the city museum - hired professional photographer Signe Brander to document the "passing Helsinki" in 1906. Brander's photographs have incredibly good quality - she had the best equipment available and plenty of artistic eye to capture the townscape and its life. 1,572 of Brander's photographs are available for free in Finna. Although her main aim was documenting the endangered old wooden buildings, as a side product she made some of the best documentation of Art Nouveau architecture of Helsinki - often on the edges and background of her photos. That contrast was exactly was I wanted to capture in this model. Here are some references I used:

My own interpretation of the subject focused on colour - something that Brander's photographs naturally do not mediate. Olive green is a beautiful colour that matched this use perfectly; the back side of the masonry bricks worked as the weatherboarding. Lawns were uncommon, so dark tan worked as the ground colour, likely also matching the earlier built neighbouring buildings. I added vibrant autumn colours to contrast with down-to-earth browns and greens; the tree recycled earlier designs but worked well nonetheless. At that point, I did not have bright light orange (keetorange) leaves yet.

I established certain randomness to the model to capture the right mood of Brander's photos. The plot had to look lived in. I emphasised this, ans the contrast to the large, well-defined neighbours by twisting the house off from the stud grid. Finally, I left the back side without any details, as it would be totally obscured by the neighbours. The back wall of the building is dark bley to save olive green bricks.

-Eero.