WIP Viking: Shield & Some minor modifications

I blustered in my last post that I won't take any photos with my old camera any more. Sadly I was wrong, because my new camera didn't come today. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait another day...

Anyway, I worked on my viking project yesterday. First of all I strengthened the legs. The viking wasn't very well balanced due to the hip joints which aren't located on the center of the lower body. That made it too easy to to fall on its back. I fixed the problem by moving the knee joints on the thigh one stud (or what ever they are called on Bionicle/TECHNIC building, hole or something) backwards. The MOC is quite well balanced now. I also re-made the piston joint system on the back of the legs. The old version didn't allow very much movement on the knees and was easily breakable.

I also made the upper arms brown (or, to be specific, dark flesh). The previous versions weren't beefy enough to my taste, and people suggested me to add some brown. I had forgotten I had Onewa Metru (And pair of brown Vahki limbs, presumably from BrickLink) and was relieved to found it standing on a shady corner of the glass cabinet in my LEGO room. I'm quite happy with the upper arms, now I only have to build lower arms and re-build the lowest part of the legs and the feet.

I also built a classic round shield to this northern warrior. I had had that sun-shield thing lying around a few months without finding a way to use it. I'm quite happy with the way how the ship's wheel and the flags made a cool sun pattern. The printed 4x4 dish is the same piece than in the chest armour. It's probably some sort of family or kin symbol. I've always liked those rune patterns and yellow/dark red color scheme. The body of the shield is basic brick-built. Some snotted curved slopes could have made a rounder shape, but they would be hard to subsume in the log brick pattern. The glorious viking woman minifig is in the picture to give a glimpse of the size of this project.

-Pate-keetongu