Manly tools!

My self-MOC is back with some small moddings. I got quite lot of criticism about the thin arms of the old version, and I pretty much agreed with that (Thanks guys!), so I redesigned them one morning. Roboriders connector block pieces give quite a good shape with slizer feet (One of the best pieces ever).

I also made a pretty big monkey wrench. Or a gorilla wrench, or to be even more specific, a giant saffron cyclops gorilla wrench. Keetongu (no relation with GregF's Keetongu who's quite boring character) is a steampunk engineer in the Klaanon story, so he needed a proper manly tool to fix the big powerful steam engines. It can of course be used as a melee weapon, too. Crushing baddies' head and that stuff.

-me

MOC: Steampunk-Qwena

It's autumn and time to harvest the yield of summer's WIP projects. Steampunked version of my Bionicle-SYSTEM MOC Qwena finalized on last March. The original idea was to make different accessories of that MOC, and I love steampunk, so this idea was an obvious choice.  Steampunk sites such as The Noble Hare gave me some great inspiration.

Original waitress version included some bright colours like lime green and bright red, but I wanted to use darker shades this time to achieve the Victorian feeling. Dark red is a beautiful LEGO shade and I have quite lot of it (As you can see if you have been browsing this blog) and pearl gold is obvious steampunk colour and nice way to add some contrast with darker parts. I left some white on the limbs and upper torso to represent bare skin. I would have liked to make the boots brown but the requisite pieces didnät come in that colour, so I dropped it.

I wanted to change the hairstyle completely, so I changed the colour to matching dark red (which required some trades (Thanks, Finland Brick and U) and a Bricklink order (Thanks, MoreThanBricks). I wasn't able to get long tail parts, so I chosed to make a bunches using both Bionicle and SYSTEM parts. I gave her a top hat because I didn't have proper pieces to make a good-looking dark red vertex, but I'm glad I did because it looks quite steampunkish. The goggles were located on the forehead on first, but after postin a WIP shot on Flickr and getting some comments about women with mustache, I lifted them on the hat and added some steampunk gadgets. Thanks for pointing that out, guys, I wouldn't have noticed it myself, but after your comments it couldn't be unseen.

The arms are quite similar than in the original version. put a sort of ruffle on the shoulders and gave them a stronger ball sockets. I changed the bare white lower arms to long black gloves with some golden steampunk armoring. Both Bionicle and SYSTEM pieces are used there.

The boots have some minor differences to the original ones. I made them robuster and added a small armour plates. Lite heel shoes aren't so handy in the boiler rooms of the airships, after all.

I wanted to build some kind of skirt and ended up with asymmtrical design. The cloth piece used there is a sail from 7048 Troll Warship (the pattern of a bit troll head is on the lining). Now I'm very glad I got it set on my Christmas loot on 2008. The tube and the pocket-case thing form a golden belt.


I'm very happy how the corset came out. It's quite near to the desing of the old one with some button details. The uppermost buttons are connected using new-ish "Angled lightsaber hilt" bar pieces from Ninjago sets.

Another positive thing in this "makeover" that I can display this MOC as a new one on events, shows and such. That's always better than using old models!

More photos on Brickshelf when moderated.

-Pate-keetongu

Old MOC revamp: Matoro the Blacksnow

No relation with old good Matoro-late.

Another quite simple Klaanon Toa. Matoro the Blacksnow is a veteran member of Bio-Klaani and an addicted adventurer. He is famous for his healing stone and, more notably, six-launching harpoon hook gun that ALWAYS saves him from danger.

This MOC is another one of those based on old versions. Most things are same, but I changed the proportions of the arms and made a proper harpoon. It consist of one of those wonderful tri-axle connectors, Turaga tummy piece things, minifig visors and, for much a surprise, harpoons. I'm quite happy with how I was able to achieve a nice shape in such a small space.

The build is pretty much HF-Bionicle fusion. I changed the old 2.0 HF torso shell to never one from Core Hunter to give more mechanical look.  I also wanted to leave some parts rather simple, for example the sword, feet and the mask.

The photos aren't that good. White models are very hard to photograph, and black parts don't help at all...

Middle-Earth figbarf

 It's time for another Middle-Earth figbarf! This time the figures are from Return of the King, though few of them also appear on the book four (second part of The Two Towers).

Denethor, the last ruling steward of Gondor. I originally planned to use the graduate gown as a part of the wardrobe of Minas Tirith guard, but because they were impossible to get from LUGBULK and too pricey on Bricklink, I chose to use it on more special fig instead. I think it works quite well on Denethor and also hides his chest armour. The head is from Series 7 Sea King minifig.

Easterlink footsoldier. I have made an easterling before, but it was said to be too primitive looking, so I made a more civilized one this time. The collectible minifigs dwarf's head was evil-looking enough and the torso's head belt buckle matched with the helmet.  The shield is a hat from Orient Expedition Chinese warriors.

Faramir on his ranger outfit. I wanted to use the tattered cape and the longbow. Johnny Thunder's head works as a generic hero head, and I somehow can't imagine Faramir without mustache... different brown shades alongside with dark green arms make a camouflage pattern.

Gorbag, an orc officer of Minas Morgul. I wanted to use less black than in Mordor orcs, so I want for some PoP parts. The orc king head brings some variety to orc armies, but I have sadly only one. The weapon is very similar than the easterling's.

Shagrat, a commander of Mordor orcs who watch the Pass of Cirith Ungol. I made him to a company for Gorbag as those two planned to start their own business after the War of the ring. I'm very happy with this fig, the Kingdoms dragon knight torso is good for upper-class orcs and the UFO armour has great orc feeling on it.

A Haradrim herald. A quite simple fig that is based on the idea of using the gladiator torso on haradrim. Torch and trumpet are for herald stuff, but he can of course fight with couple of swords if it is needed. They are not good guys after all.

Hirgon, messenger of Gondor as described on Muster of Rohan chapter. He has the horseman's outfit and a fine chain mail. The thing on his hand is supposed to be the Red Arrow, a sign of Gondor's agony. It isn't very arrow-like, but it's the best I could do with purist parts and no painting.

MOC: Nenya

 My Bricklink order from German store MoreThanBricks (Excellent service and shop, recommended) arrived on Friday and made me able to complete some WIPs, but I wasn't able to post anything until now because of adventurous paddling trip on Kolovesi National park I did with my family. Well, I had a great time, but now I'm back in this blogging business.

Here's Nenya, a Toa of water of Bio-Klaani. The name comes from one of the elven rings in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, so I wanted to achieve some elven vibes on this MOC. You'll probably notice that on the pointy ears, long-handled blade and the hair-worm-things.

The torso was really painful to build. I wanted to use those glow-in-the-dark armor pieces form Takadox&co., but they are such a odd shaped, so I couldn't use basic Toa frames. The shapes are done with lots of freely-moving TECHNIC connectors, and it isn't very stable. It works now when the MOC is finished, but it was really irksome on the WIP stage.

I'm still pretty happy with this MOC. The hair balances the basic-shaped body, though I wonder if dome sort of ailerons or wings would look good on the back. At least she glows in the dark, so I probably can't put her on a display in the room where I sleep with the other Barnicle MOCs...

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Manfred

Do you remember Makutas, those nasty rulers of shadow and eternal darkness? Well, this one named Manfred (Or actually Makuta Nui, a great Makuta, but that's quite Cornish name anyways. Toa Ämköö gave him that nickname when they used to adventure together) isn't your everyday Makuta. Yes, he has couple of bat wings, great mask of shadow (stolen from alternative dimension) and ridiculous amount of random Rahkshi-powers, but he's actually a quite nice fellow (expect that he uses to throw poor Po-Matoran Bob out of a windows, but everybody hates that guy anyways). Manfred's totally nuts, sometimes an idiot when it comes to fighting, but still one of the strongest members of Bio-Klaani. He is also used several times as a surfboard.

This MOC was quite fun to build. I made the first version in about two hours during night-time, but decided to scrap the torso later and made a better one. The legs are my favourite parts and I built them first. I used the upper Rahkshi torsos on a similar way than in the original Makuta set released in 2003. I also used the kneecaps from Core Hunter I bought couple of weeks ago. The hips have double joints to make the MOC sturdier.Otherwise this is quite a simple build.

When it comes to other things, it's the last day of my summer holiday. That means that I will probably post more seldom than I did on the past two months. But don't fall into despair - My BL order will arrive in few days and the I can finish couple of WIPs.

-Pate-keetongu

Flea market loot!

Spent few hours on a flea market today and found this loot from four different sellers. The bulk parts, including  pleasing amounts of red and light bley bricks, were very cheap and cost 4€ for around two kilograms. The perfect condition Breakout Evo cost 4€ too (it had a solid blue zamor instead of solid red though). I paid 10€ for ETX Alien Strike, a boring set with pretty good parts. The carcass (One arm, half of the torso, axe halves and some parts of the legs) of Axonn was cheap and cost 1,5€. I also picked up a Calvin & Hobbes album Yokon Ho! for couple of euros. It's one of the best strip comics ever made.

-Pate-keetongu

Steampunk Gun

Built this little (why always) six-shot steampunk peacemaker for my WIP Steampunk Qwena. The barrel spins. The handle looks a bit dull, but the gun is connected to the hand with it and isn't that visible.

Nothing much to say about it. I have still a big bunch of WIPs and projects on a way and some of them are not even mentioned in this blog. School (second year on upper secondary school) starts on Tuesday, and will obviously cut my spare time with LEGO. I'm still confident that I will get something finished on these three last days of summer. BrickLink order will definitely arrive after the school has started.

-Pate-keetongu

WIP: Steampunk-Qwena

There's never too many WIP projects. NEVER. At least the Viking is finished and Humppa-Pub only needs a roof...

I've been pondering this project for a while. I'm not making a new MOC, but a steampunk version of Qwena. Why? Because steampunk is awesome, and it will be interesting to make some Victorian steampunk accessories and equipment.

The black pieces on the monõs are placeholder and will be changed into dark red ones eventually. The goggles were parts of the original idea (every steampunk character needs goggles) but I chose to put a top hat because I didn't have any proper pieces to make the top of the head in dark red. I'm quite happy with it for it balances the colours and has sort of steampunkish feel on it.

-Pate-keetongu

Revamp-revamp: Natalie Breznikova

Okay, I confess, I'm late. But doing a BL order is gorram oppressive: You think it's fun to pick up different bricks on cheap, but when you are a stingy man like me, the loss of money makes you forgot half of the stuff you intended to buy.

That, of course, has nothing to do with my new HF Natalie Breznikova revamp. I have posted One on the dark early days of this blog, so this is kinda a revamp of the revamp as I said on the title. The original breakout Breez is nice set (Though HF as a theme is quite boring) but has some cons, too. I left the cool things from original set: Holo shield (Connector changed), blade thing (extended handle), rocket heels and blaster (with sights added) what is probably my favourite launcher design ever.

The changes I made are quite simple, but it's a revamp built on set after all. I changed the big torso to smaller one to give more feminine look. I removed the round Samus Aran -style shoulder pads and added TECHNIC panels to match the fin motif on the helmet.

The technically most challenging part was to give the shins a proper armoring, though my design is very simple and consist of three parts. I'm still very happy to it, because the original design with only other side covered looked always kinda awkward. Small SYSTEM parts can do big things with HF parts, thanks to bar holes on the shells.

-Pate-keetongu

Shit happens

Now and then. Well, it took less than a minute to rebuilt her and none of the pieces broke.

Yeah, I'm still alive. Will bring you one set revamp later today and make a BL order to finnish some WIPs.