MOC: The Diver

 This is the diver. Most likely a holy one, often spending time in the midnight sea or riding some tigers.

No, honestly, everyone likes old-style scuba suits. They are cool. They are very, very steampunk even though being a real part of the history of adventure. I have explored this concept before with my Big Daddy, which is one of my most popular MOCs ever and still credits for about the half of the views on this blog. This time I wanted to build a realistic suit a human could use.

It had been a while since building a large male figure, and I ended up using around 50% SYSTEM and 50% Bionicle/TECHNIC. The helmet was the first part to be build, using Lowell sphere and some SNOT to get the inverted window piece right, and then some odd offset to be make the shoulder ball joint connections. The arms were easy and straightforward, using Roborider halves (great pieces, jolly good) and a double socket on the elbow for better poseability. The hand design is taken from Big Daddy.

I know from the beginning I was going to build a big collar using brick hinges. I added a couple of brass buttons as a color splash to give a contrast with earth-shaded, tattered color scheme using both old and new greys and browns. The diver ended up having even a some sort of six-pack.

The legs were a bit tricky. Roborider halves saved the day again, and I managed to buy another brown Belville saddle from a LUG exhibit to use those as the ankle guards; I had had one on a tablescrap on a shelf for years. Chain links made a nice shape on the lower legs, and Mantax feet with some weighs worked nicely as the metal shoes. The knees have double joints and the hips are strenghtened via frictions joints, making diver quite a poseable for its size.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Vapour-trike Rhebok

 This steampunk vehicle, a trike built by inventor Howard H. Brundenberg, was featured in Brasshill diorama, but here's some individual photos.

This creation was not going to be a trike from the beginning. Actually I was building a market stall car, something like this. The wheels, constructed using a second smallest carriage wheel and an old big car tyre were part of the original concept, as was the olive green hood. But then I though Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's "Fardier à vapeur" ("Steam wagon") from 1769, the first engine-powered vehicle ever, and wanted to build something similar with Coruscant planet as the round boiler. The planet turned out to be way too big for the wheels and the space on the diorama, so I ditched it, but went with a whacky trike anyway.

The side car is the main element here. Side cars are cool. I'm not sure if that really counts as a side car, as it's part of the vehicle (which would fall without it) and is driven from it; The box behind the boiler is for the engineer, who in this case is Mr. Brundenberg's wife, Catherine. I really like the big lamp here; usually big round lamps make vehicles look pleasant to my eye. I'm sure I'll use it in future builds too  - It uses a 3x3 dish inside the 3x3 turrent, one of my favourite odd pieces.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: An Unexpected Party

This 16x16 vignette was built for Eurobricks' Middle Earth Contest category C, There and Back Again. It has, as you can observe, seven of the thirteen dwarves pillaging poor Bilbo Baggins' pantry. Bombur is showing menacing interest towards cheese, Bofur and Nori are fighting for a sausage and Dori is offering wizard Gandalf a glass of wine to mention few.

This vignette is sort-of side project of my old, but still ongoing Bag End project. I used some parts of it here, but as I had a lot less room to work with, I went with more detailed and polished style. I wonder if I should re-engineer the bigger project on this style with 16x16 modules and TECHNIC pin connections.

The middle part here is a SNOT section with a four-stud long round walkway to the pantry. It was rather challening, as it's half a stud lower than the rest of the walls; the difference is hidden inside the ceiling.

Posing the figures was the most interesting part on this. Bombur with cheese was there from the beginning (He'll eat them by block!) and the sausage incident is seen in the trailer of An Unexpected Journey. Originally Bilbo was standing next to Gandalf, but I replaced him with Dori and the wine as a reference to the little scene in the film.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC:The Town Hall of Brasshill

Good day, readers, and apologies for unactivity lately. I spent the last weekend on LUG Exhibit in Lelukauppa Pii Poon LEGO-rakennustapahtuma in Vantaa and on Wednesday night I got a nasty flu; But here's a big sort of steampunk MOC from the exhibit, built as a part of 160x160 steampunk collaboration creation with Janne Kalliola and Tuomas Kukkamaa. You can see photos of the whole thing here.

 This is likely my biggest creation so far. This is quite close to Brassport and The Twisted Victorian from last year. It began in July with the underground station, using lot of those black girder pieces I had bought recently. The base for the collaboration was going to be quite high, 7 bricks, so I was able to build the station partly under the ground level; But I also wanted it to be extensive with a high ceiling, using new-ish gothic arches, so it deemed a building outside it. I went with some shop windows as I planned to build a Harrold-style grand emporium, but I went with a Town Hall with hostage situation instead; I left the display windows there anyway, as there sometimes is things like that on train stations etc. I used all my medium dark flesh brick bricks there. Inside the station I left lot of studs to display my numerous steampunk minifigs waiting for the train. I also build the underground air pressure engine with some heavy spotlights to light up the tunnels.

I wanted to add all sorts of tasteless Victorian pompousness to the town hall. There's a clock tower, with Ninjago spinner used on the clock-face, and an organ (built using golden gate pieces) with robotic player to add steampunk vibe. Fabuland 3x6x5 arches are used here in similar way than in The Twisted Victorian, though windows inside them are not all the same as I didn't have enough of one type... Lot of girders are used to add a bit of industrial influence. I'm quite happy with the coat-of-arms featuring a falcon. I originally built it in white with magenta background, but altered the color scheme to give it a good fit. Above the entrace there is a couple of horse statues and an Atlas figure holding a big SNOT lamp similar to the geezer on this vignette.

The MOC also features a bit of a lane and a park with autumnal trees. I had always wanted to use spears to build a London-style park fence, and after getting a lot of those dark orange and dark red leaves I had a chance to build beautiful autumnal foliage.

The best part on MOCs like this setting on the figures to tell small stories. There is a hostage situation in the Town Hall, where a gang of gangsters are assaulting Prime Minister Churston Windmill and the other important people of the contry. Their heist isn't going that well, though. There's the police service at the door, with "superbobby" Nicholas Franrike making a steam wall to ensure the charge. And then one of the hostages is hiding a rapier behind her back and she's definitely ready to use it. And then... There's The League of Extraordinry Gentlemen (the original comic book version, pictures will come some day...) on the roof near the dome ready to interfere with Mr. Quatermain's elephant gun, Nemo's cutlass and Dr. Jekyll's alter ego to name a few.

At the lane adventurer Howard H. Brundenberg is driving  his sidecar-trike with his wife while the crown is running in panic to take cover. At the park Prime Minister's wife Mrs. Margaret Windmill is having a walk with his assistant Lisbeth Hendawn, convinced that his husband will keep out of problems.

That's all being said, and here's some more pictured to enjoy and look around at Brasshill!

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Alice Nautia

 It has been a two weeks gap between this and the latest post. I have been busy at work (Civilian service on Police station - cleaning cars, sorting warehouses, that sort of handyman work), I spent last weekend at our summer cottage and the days are turning dark here on north anyway, which is a bit problematic for the photographing. And then there's this one LUG exhibit on Vantaa on next weekend, Lelukauppa Pii Poon rakennustapahtuma, where I'm taking part on two collaboration works, one for steampunk and one for castle, and I have been finishing those things (8 32x32 modules in total, two of them are water).

And then the MOC. Yep, another steampunk girl á la Bricks of Character. The scale is bigger than on those posted in March and April, but obviously smaller than Brenda's and Qwena's. This was supposed to be a Bionicle MOC, with the basic idea of steering joints and 3x3 cones as thighs, so this MOC actually uses a Metru Hip piece. That's a bit ironic as I usually don't use it on Bionicle MOCs because it's too big and has bad connection points...

The legs were quite simple, 2x2 round tiles with holes (lovely pieces indeed, and they should make them in other colors too), a few smooth tires and boots similar to those SYSTEM MOCs linked above. The skirt was an impulse addition, but it folded out very nicely and formed a fish's tail looking thing, that ended up creating an ocean theme for this MOC - see the head jewellery and the octopus hair...

I also built a corset and a perfectly steampunk cliché one; I like it, as the design is very simple using pretty much 1x2 slopes and 1x2 plates in dark brown connected on those odd stud bar things. The upper torso included some rather challenging shaping, but ended up quite good: I just hope they will release 1x2 half round plates some day. The neck is a bit too think on some angles, but looked definitely better than 1x1 brick.

I'm very happy with the hair. It took time to come up with a good design, but Metru chest armors, a surprising piece for hairdo, saved the day. I knew that octopus was going to be there since the skirt, and Atlantic squid key worked well enough with it.

The arms are simple and similar to Miss Orchard's, with big upper sleeves and (supposedly?) long gloves with some jewellery. There is a double joints on elbows to allow better posing.

-Pate-keetongu