MOC: MK45-Toad

GroundWeb MK45-Toad is an excellent unit to increase firepower of mobile ground forces. Packed with heavy D4K-cannon and powered by seven AAA batteries, "The Bufo bufo" can crawl through the deadliest frontiers. 

Yep, I began with those binocular tracks a long time ago, and evolved into a small tank, and then met a mortar-helmet soldier and they lived happily ever after.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Rivendell at dawn

Combining LEGO with other art forms is not what you see very day, not counting the non-purist customs, which can of course be excellent if done by skilled people. The main idea behind this Middle-Earthean scene was to use a painting as a backdrop. Well, okay, the other idea was to create a scene to show my Galadriel design without yucky white backdrop.

 Some of you might think this scene is only from the Hobbit movie, but actually it is not in conflict with the books. There were a meeting of the White Council in Rivendell, though it was around a hundred years before Bilbo's trip. But yes, the setting are from the movie scene, including that watercolor backdrop (I actually use watercolour paper as a backdrop nearly always, but usually it's white!) with the mountains and the sunrise. There are also pics with different focuses on Brickshelf gallery, when modified.

-Pate-keetongu

Post Scriptum: By the way, I am now officially an AFOL as I turned 18 yesterday. Jippi-kay-jee or something!

WIP: Bombur: More fat (and beard)

Bombur keeps rolling. Mister Stud of the dwarves has now (nearly) completed torso and limbs (yellow needs to be changed olive green [I'm waiting you, LUGBULK] and upper torso need some more work, but that's it pretty much. And them there's the head (which I actually began building, it has very wide mustache, double chin and all) and probably some cooking props to make.

I'm currently very happy with this. Studded areas make nice round look as dwarves, especially Bombur's family, are not very polished folk. This MOC is likely my "studdiest" MOC ever.

I also like how the strangler beard came out; I hadn't thought that technique before. I first just orange slapped plates on the vest and stomach, but the angles looked way too bricky. I'm glad I tried this angled plate thing, as it achieves the round shape which is also Bombur's most distinguishable body feature.

-Pate-keetongu

WIP: Bombur

Hallelujah it's raining WIPs.

Bombur, the big-boned-one, is my next dwarf to build on Hobbit dwarves project. As you can see, the basis of the torso consists of Lowell Sphere like studdy platework. I quite like the effect, as it achieves the rough look of Bombur's big trousers. The dark brown vest is there too. The shirt is currently yellow, but I will change the colour to correct olive green when my LUGBULK arrives with its 1x2 olive green plates.

The shoes are very similar to my Aulëthur Dwarven Hardsuit built an year ago, using those small catapult pieces to give the shoes a correct shape and a color. Bombur doesn't wear boots like the other dwarves, so this is quite a fresh difference.

-Pate-keetongu

WIP: Bag End IV

 Mr. Baggins got a roof today. This MOC is starting to finally look like a hill!

The roof was quite challenging. Its base is a ceiling build using 12x1 arches and plates stack underneath of them. The challenge was to make it work with the angled wall.  Because of that the angle of the hill get obtuser near the door and gives it a nice esker-like shape. There are some gaps near the chimney (with Light-up brick and mirror stickers from 5770 Lighthouse Island to give the fireplace some cozy light) but I made them smaller with some SNOT.

I also (nearly) finished the interior of the dining hall. It includes the table consisting of three parts and 13 chairs for the 13 dwarves (though I only have 4... So far!). I'm about to run out of 2x2 dark tan tiles now; I though I had enough, should have taken more on Berlin's LEGO store's PAB where they were cheap.

Next up is the living room. It will be hinged (you can see it on the photos) so the dining hall can be reached. I'll make it about as big as the dining room with another, bigger fireplace and furniture from my previous post. Stay tuned.

-Pate-keetongu

WIP: Bag End: Furniture

A little bit of an update with traditional WIP photo quality. Bag End Project is progressing well, and there's some bits of furniture of the hobbit hole. I took inspiration from the movie's beautiful set designs. The shelf on the left is my favourite. I'll give it a darker background to give it cabinet-like look. The next one is quite a odd. Hobbits are not feisty folk, so it is not likely never used as a shield, but as a well-crafted handwork that hobbits give to others on their birthdays. The couch is based on the design I used on Minas Tirith Concert House more than a year ago but is "hobbit-ized" with more shallow base. The other shelf is quite basic one, nothing much to say about it. I also made a green and comfortable easy chair after taking this picture.

-Pate-keetongu

Every Skakdi moderator looks cooler with sunglasses

Just sayin'.

Revamp: Kongu Mahri

Do any of you remember Kongu, the old Gukko pilot who was suddenly turned into muscle maniac with shoulders wider than length of his body and way too much firepower? Well, I've taken that even more extravagant...

When I began building this guy, I didn't know it would be Kongu. He's never been my favourite Toa Mahri; I loved the mask, but the rest was pretty much boring, and I don't really like cordak blasters. I was just thinking of building a very different humanoid Bionicle-MOC after those streamlined female MOCs. I built a early version of those legs and then abandoned the project for few week. Then, on the last week, I picked up them, finished the lower legs and built a torso with those HF-built shoulders. I had the hulk-ish body I wanted to play with, but not any idea what to do with it.

The I remembered Kongu, and without better idea, began working on a revamp. I made the hands similar to ones of Ragnfast the Viking to make him hold a gun. I also added some a bit more extreme tubing on his "breathing apparatus". Story-wise they don't need breathing apparatuses, as they can breath underwater, so I thought they would contain some anabolic steroids to keep him "fit".

I also gave him cooler gun than those ugly one-piece blasters. I had had that barrel idea for some time, I'm very happy with it, and now I had a proper chance to put it on use. The gun isn't really a Gatling gun, but still powerful enough to keep those nasty Barraki on a distance.

-Pate-keetongu

WIP: Bag End III

(Yes, quite a boring title, but nothing special on this update really)

As you can see, this Hobbit-hole project has taken a few steps onwards. I bought Unexpected Gathering in Helsinki as I planned, and shortly after I had built it I took it (Partly) apart to add the necessary bits to my own version.

The main problem of the otherwise excellent set was the scale: It was not really meant to figs with small legs. For example, the windows next to the door were so high that poor Bilbo should have stood on his chest to see who's at the door. I've fixed this bug on my version, where Bilbo is able to look out from every window - and Gandalf can stand straight on a very few spots.

-Pate-keetongu

Report: Palikkatakomo at Model Expo 2013

Finland is rather small country, or at least the population is, but we have a strong LUG, Palikkatakomo, to build exhibitions and shows that seem to get bigger and bigger every year. We had this years biggest exhibition in Helsinki at Model Expo, Northern Europe's biggest scale-model event, and it was impressive.

The whole area. Note one of the Kortelainen Brothers as a size comparision.

Last year we won the Best of the Show award, so this time we got a much bigger area on the Expo. It was 120 square meters (nearby bigger than my house!) and there were around 40 square meters of LEGO which weighted half a ton. Our main  showpiece was of course the city of Palikkala, which, according the knowledge of Kim Thomsen, member of TLC's Community Team who came to see our show, broke the world record of "Biggest LEGO town not based on baseplates but completely brick-built modules" or something. Okay, that isn't the most uncluttered record title ever, but it is a lot faster to just stack 48x48 baseplates to make huge areas than build everything on sturdy bases consisting of plate, plate, brick, plate.

DiscJet's The Dark Tower.

Palikkala was build by 30 AFOLs and TFOLs all around to country and there were definitely lot to see.I had my Humppa-Pub there, two modules, but it was a very little area compared to some AFOL's efforts of dozens (or hundreds?) of modules. LUG members Lönkka (Marting Lönqvist) and R2-D2 (Pekka Pihola) had heaps of modules around the town while "A-Klaani", a LEGO family from the eastern border, had their own quarter wing (More of that later).

The cool thing about Palikkala was that it seemed like a really working town: For 3000 citizens there was plenty of apartment building, farm for food supply, elementary school for education, military forces for national defence, obligatory hospital, fire brigade and police station, working road, rail, and river transportation, couple of skyscrapers (the taller one, Lönkka's Daily Planet, was 215 cm tall), management building, shops and outlets, a big outdoor market, many interesting landmark and, of course, plenty of attractions for entertainment: Pubs, a disco, a cinema district, entertainment park with a huge minifgure statue by PtLeskinen and a couple of sport events.

Awis's Imatrankoski, a model of an actual hydro-power plant on Finland.

Every city needs energy, and for that need there was Awis's (Ismo Aavaharju) Imatrankoski, a rapid with a hydro-power plant, a model of real place in eastern Finland. It was probably the most impressive single MOC on the show, weighing around 300 kg  and having the most realistic LEGO high-voltage lines I've ever seen. The MOC was built with help of hours of walking near the rapid and hundreds of photographs of the actual thing. Well played.

There were, of course, plenty of other stuff than the city. On the back of our area there was a viewing point of KastleVania 4, 146-minute excellent brickfilm by Hovinet team, with giveaway DVD copies of the film and a cool Vania-themed MOC frame on the television showing it. Next to it was Zwenkka's and his friend's NXT XBOX Disc Changer, which was joy to see on move.

Some of my Bionicle MOCs and other stuff.

 On the two other tables, there were plenty of MOCs based different genres and building systems. To mention a few these included some of my character builds, a gigantic remote-control tank (I sadly don't remember who the AFOL who built it was...), some vignettes, Markku Jääskeläinen's Groterdam, Humppakeksi's Humppalava with awesome audio tracks, Finland Brick's and Panzy Boe's TBB'd Battle of Amroth and, above all, Oskari Nääjärvi's mosaic of Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, Finnish Ex-President and one of the manliest men of history of the humankind. While Palikkala was, obviously, our main showpiece, these tables gave visitors a taste of more special stuff that can be achieved with LEGO.

Castle scene by unnamed FOL, Mario Brothers by Janne Kalliola's son, Oskari's Portrait of the President and Aaronix's Winter War mini-scale vignette.

I also spend some time with other LUG members outside the Expo. We had a assembly of Palikkatakomo RY (Registered association) and after that we spend a evening on Lönkka's basement full of LEGO. Kim Thomsen of Community team was also there, and he gave us a challenge to build a 8x8 stud microscale city or building using parts of 31011 Aviation Adventures. He chose three "winners" ( Roope Kyyny (Finland Brick), Janne Kalliolla (plastic) and me (hooray)). We kept the sets and the winners also gained some extra. I got Hulk polybag and three series 10 minifigures (no Mr.Gold). It was a very nice evening -and a whole weekend overall- to spend with people who share the love to Our Favorite Brick.

Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo team - I'm pretty much on the middle, right above the old train speed controller.

 All photos on this post are taken by Mikko Kortelainen. You can see much more of these beautiful shots at Hovinet Gallery.

-Pate-Keetongu