WIP: Nenya

It seems that I'll never been out of WIP projects. Here's another one, a bit smaller that for example the viking Ragnfast or Humppa-Pub, a Toa of water named Nenya (which is one of the elven rings of power in Lord of the Rings) from the Klaanon project. The character has somewhat elvish appearance, so I put a pair of 1x1 plate modified with teeth to represent "elven ears" to the head. I also added some old good tube hair-worms.

The thigh design is pretty much same than in some of my other female MOCs, but I'm quite satisfied with it. There are some placeholder pieces there, though. I quite like the lower torso design, too. The sternum idea is from TAN's Bionixy. The neck connection is just a placeholder to keep the head on position.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Toa Samol

Here's another Klaanon MOC for today, an aboriginal Toa of Stone named Samol. I really liked the idea of the character: a strong dwarf Toa with a wooden powerless Kanohi where the spirits of his ancestors live. The color scheme of yellow and brown was interesting, too.

Building this guy was quite fast, as the MOC in a way built itself. The structure is nothing like your everyday basic Toa-Mod: It is based on two Bohrok (awesome sets by the way) torso halves and covered with pieces from HF set 2067 Evo 2.0. The TECHNIC pulley on the chest balances the color scheme. To mention other differences from basic Bionicle builds, all the limb connection points on the torso are ball sockets instead of normal ball joints. The mask is built using SYSTEM pieces to represent the wooden native ritual mask look.

The lack of both brown and yellow forced me to make some unusual design choices. I used the barrel halves with axle holes to make the bulky, short and muscular upper legs and SYSTEM ball joint bricks to make stubby lower legs. The lower arms/hands are coarsely stolen from The BCth's Pohatu, but I really like the feeling it gives. Slizer heads have some serious potential in mixing the Bionicle and SYSTEM pieces.

And yeah, he wields a big hammer. I've build big hammers before, previous time on Aülethur Dwarven Hardsuit, but this one is four times bigger and heavier. And Toa Samol can wield it with ONE HAND. He's the man.

-Pate-keetongu

Old MOC revamp: Mr.Killjoy

Some of you probably remember Mr.Killjoy, a cyborg general from Klaanon project. I decided to bring the MOC back to my building table after I bought Ultimate Dume's mask of power from a friend in Finnish Bionicle community Bio-Klaani's six-day cottage meeting this week. The rare mask was originally mine, (I got Ultimate Dume from my grandparents after Christmas 2004 and was about the happiest kid in the world) but I traded it to Vakama Hordika (an awful deal) in 2007. I'm really happy to have it back.

When I had bought the mask, the creator of the character Mr.Killjoy (who was in the meeting too) asked if I could re-build the helmet of the MOC with the new mask. The idea was great, and I had never been that happy with the older Kraahkan-based helmet. The old version was too easy to see as a Makuta's head and didn't have so much character.

I also tweaked the rest of the MOC a bit. I balanced the color scheme of the arms, added better back armour and built proper neck.

-Pate-keetongu

Humppa-Pub: Backyard

I luckily had enough tan bricks and and light grey plates and I managed to finish (almost) the backyard of the pub building. I added some details as planned, a few containers, a couple of bikes on a self-designed bike rack, illegal campfire that punks have lit and deepened back door. I'm quite happy with the overall urban feeling. On the left side (right in the picture above) there's a Volkswagen Kleinbus, Eläkeläiset's bandwagon, on a SNOT parking lot which is compatible with Moducity standard SNOT roads.

I don't have a exact idea how I will build the roof. I don't have enough roof tiles to make full roof with them, and bright red roof wouldn't probably look so good anyway. A boring, flat roof could work, but I would leave the building open, so the humppa band and dance folk would be clearly seen. Otherwise the MOC would be pretty much a dark box.

-Pate-keetongu

LOTR sets: Price analyzing

79003 An Unexpected Gathering, a true proof of the talent of LEGO set designers.

When I first heard about LEGO doing a Lord of the Rings theme and saw the sets, I was really excited. Lord of the Rings is my favourite book of all time (alongside with Moore and Gibbon's Watchmen, but they are hard to compare anyway) and I have made quite a bunch of Middle-Earthean figs and MOCs during the years. Sure the theme has some downsides: fleshie figs, high prices (especially in Northern Europe) and movie-only things (don't get me wrong, I love the PJ's movie adaptions, but make my MOCs based on the books).

Well, the sets aren't even released here yet, but based on the pictures I have seen, the sets and figs are some of the best LEGO have produced so far. The figs, especially Gimli and Theoden, have ridiculously awesome detailed parts and prints, and decent number of figs don't have flesh parts on their torsos. Helm's Deep is in my option the best big LEGO castle so far, and I love the fact it doesn't use big juniorized on the walls. Even the Weathertop, which is quite odd choice for a set, is designed wonderfully: The round parts are beautiful.

But the prizing, as mentioned before, is the problem. The cheapest set, Gandalf arrives, costs 17€ (21 USD) and the cart and fleshie Frodo aren't very interesting or useful. Gandalf fig, as the character is my favourite in LOTR, is must-get to me, but it feels quite stupid to pay for a fig and a (new) horse... Luckily Gandalf comes in Bag End set, which is very well designed, beautiful set with awesome dwarf figs. I usually disassemble sets after short time, but An Unexpected Gathering looks like a model I could keep on my self for a longer time... It looks like a perfect Christmas present, at least if it's released here on December as it is in US.

I was also planning to buy Uruk-Hai Army, but the Finnish prize 50€ (61 USD) felt like a punch under the belt. Again, 50 euros for 257 parts is a bad value compared to what can be bought from BL with that amount of money, but ranting isn't any help. But I though buying this set from Berlin when I'll take a trip there in autumn. German prize 40€ isn't bad at all, when set includes such a nice figs and useful parts.

-Pate-keetongu

Humppa-Pub: The base & back wall

I continued building my Humppa-Pub project with the LUGBULK parts I told about in the last post. I built a decent and sturdy module base yesterday, and started making walls. The building is supposed to be quite old and stale, so I put some brick-bricks on random places to present sections were the plaster has worn out and the brick wall is visible. I like the effect and the shade difference of tan and dark tan. There are also some old ventilation conduits and geothermal heating pipe on the backside. I'll also add some trash cans and other things that can be found on the shady alleys.

And, of course, there is an angry punk throwing Molotov Cocktail to the happy Humppa folk. Punks don't always love humppa, so there will be some nasty conflict. I'll add a illegal campfire and some more punks to the street later.

My tan bricks are running low now and I still have to make the third wall. I also need some 2xX light bluish grey plates. I hope I can snatch those from some older creations or sets, or I'll have to make a BL order... Well, luckily the forests of Finland are full of free money called blueberries now, so I can get some boost to my LEGO budget quite easily.

-Pate-keetongu

LUGBULK arrived!

 My LUGBULK order arrived today! This loot is my biggest LEGO order ever, having more than three thousands bricks on it. The main target of building with these bricks is making more modules on my Minas Tirith project, what haven't been so much exposed on this blog. But there will be change on that case!

So, my order consists of...

150x Bionicle chain links in pearl dark grey from HF handcuffs. Only Bionicle/HF part in my order, but these are useful only in bigger loots, so LUGBULK was a great way to get these. I don't have exact plans for them, but I might do similar chain link armour than in my viking project.

50x Classic castle helmets in metallic silver to guarantee decent helmets for my Minas Tirith garrison soldiers.

50x black armours from Kingdoms Joust with Black Falcon knight printing. Nice piece, not very cheap compared to other LB prices, but a very nice-looking piece. For my Minas Tirith garrison.

5x bucket helms in metallic silver. These were not very cheap either, and I've never liked these too much, but the order had them and I chose to take a few because I had only two before.

50x 1x1 TECHNIC bricks in white. Useful and cheap piece.

50x 1x1 round plates in light bluish grey. Cool pieces, I wish I had bought more.

150x stud-bar-handle-thingies in light bluish grey. I have no idea what I'll do with those, but they weren't very expensive and looked interesting.

50x 5x3 leaves in green. Who doesn't need these, anyway?

100x 1x2 brick-bricks in dark tan. I love these, and it seems that everyone does. I wish we had taken these on greys, but they weren't available when we did the order. Well, I will probably use these to add some details on my Humppa-Pub project.

100x 1x2 cutout slopes in dark bluish grey. Interesting pieces.

100x 1x2 plates in dark red. Nice color, awesome price, basic piece.

50x 1x2 tiles in dark bluish grey. Always useful, wish I had taken more.

50x bottles in trans-black. Cool pieces, mostly for my Humppa-Pub-project.

100x jumper tiles in light bluish gray. A key piece for details on castle-building.

50 black 1x1 SNOT bricks. Cool and always useful piece.
600x light bluish grey 1x2 bricks. For Minas Tirith project. I hope I bought enough this time, but I have about 10 1x1 bricks on light greys left, so I have to make a BL order before I start serious Castle-MOCing anyway...

600x 2x2 tiles in light bluish grey. Not very common piece and quite expensive on Bricklink. Must-have on Tirith project.

600x 1x1 round bricks in light bluish grey. For adding details on castle buildings, making round towers etc. An another key piece on castle building.

100x dark bluish grey 1x2 bricks. To avoid big grey wall syndrome with 600 light bluish grey bricks mentioned above.

100x 2x2 tiles in dark bluish grey. To avoid big grey floor syndrome with 600 light bluish grey tiles mentioned above.

50x 6x8 TECHNIC bricks in black. Extremely useful piece on making Moduverse modules and other supports.

30x 1x16 TECHNIC bricks in light bluish grey. For Moduverse modules.

25x 6x16 plates in light bluish grey. There's always need for plates.

50x 2x16 plates in black. Always useful support pieces.

5x trans-light-blue flames without connection points. Not so useful without those, so I didn't take more. Not pictured here.

So, that was my LUGBULK for this year. Now I'll just start to make plans for new Minas Tirith buildings and continue with my Humppa-Pub project...

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Athian warrior monk

A relatively small and fast Klaanon-build. This guy is a warrior monk of the Ath-religion from Klaanon project.

The idea started with the head. I have wanted to use Bionicle Stars armour piece as a mask for some time, and its feel matched the ancient golden ritual masks that the monks were described to wear in the story. The Rahkshi head worked quite well as a hood.

 The rest is simple - Slizer torso with golden cape-armour thing similar to those that Turagas wear in Bionicle movies, necklace, simple four-piece HF legs with movable knees and very simplistic arms. I used the simple style to keep the attention in the golden parts, especially the mask and the nasty sharp bits on the staff. I would probably used HF/Bionicle fists if I had two of them in black, but I had only on of both...

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Toa Troopperi

After the big viking guy I'm back in basics. This is another Toa from Klaanon series, a Toa of fire called Troopperi. He's quite a classical Toa with Kanohi Hau,  a sword ans a crossbow.

The MOC is part-wise about half Bionicle and half HF. I started the building with Drilldozer upper torso armour + Splitface round armour combination. It gave such a nice pauldron-like feeling. The armour is connected with ball joint with through axle holes, so no big torso pieces are used.

The MOC uses actually very few Bionicle pieces, because there aren't very much modern Bionicle pieces on traditional red. the only nicle parts are the mask, head, feet, hands and the blade. Others are from TECHNIC or HF sets.

I would have used a silver Kopaka blade on the sword if I had had one, because I wanted to make a longsword-style weapon. Well, the black is better than white or light orange, but it kinda looks like.. evil. The crossbow can shoot the arrow somewhat well, but is quite hard to use. The chain used as a box string matched perfectly with the rigid tube used as the bow, so it has power. There isn't any launching mechanism, so you just have to put the chain on the end of the arrow and hope for the best.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Ragnfast, a viking warrior

Ååaarr! My biggest Bionicle MOC is finally finished. I started building this big fellow on April, and had now on the holiday time to finish him. Thanks for everyone who have followed this project and helped me with their comments.

Ragnfast is a brave viking warrior from somewhere in Scandinavia. He isn't completely historically accurate, because he has a pair of horns in his helmet. Horned helmets are just a humbug to make archaeological finds more interesting, but at least they look cool.

I wanted to achieve interesting look to the harness by using different building styles on different fabrics. The pants, the footwear and the upper body armour are black leather (TECHNIC panels are awesome pieces, by the way), middle body has a chain main (I'm very happy with the design) and the upper arm armour & battle skirt are brown leather (to balance the colour scheme). I left the lower arms white (bare skin).

The weapons include a big battle axe, which is Axonn's axe with longer and more detailed (if TECHNIC bushes count as details...) handle, a smaller axe (in the belt) for wood-work and such, and a big round wooden shield with sun pattern and kin runes. I also made a big pint using 4x4 barrel piece. It work quite well!

The MOC is, as I mentioned above, the biggest Bionicle (or Bionicle-SYSTEM-fusion) creation I have ever done. It weights about two kilograms, tough I'm not sure for I don't own balance. It stands over 40 centimeters (16 inches for some people) tall. Because of the scale, the feet are relatively big and have 1x2 rubber liftarms inside of them to prevent them sliding on the slippery surfaces. The lower legs have pistons to support them, and the hip joints are strengthened with some extra ball joints.

More pictures in Brickshelf gallery

-Pate-keetongu

Airship WIP: The Engines

The first version of the main engines to my Steampunk Airship project. The desing is quite simple and I don't have very much to say about it. At least I finally found a use for those big Viking wheels I bought few years ago. I wanted to use bigger propellers than one-piece ones, so I used those triangular plate-thing (very useful pieces) which I got from cheap Ninjago sets. I'll also add some pipes and hoses from the engine to the main hull so the MOC can achieve the proper Steampunk-feel.

I'll leave the Internet for around a week tomorrow, so don't wait any updates then. But don't be afraid, because as the Big-A would say, Il'l be back. Not meaning the thing behind your (and my) stomach.

-Pate-keetongu