MOC: Thrór

I'm back from a LEGO convention! I'm back with my LUGBULK pieces! I'm back in the dwarf business!

That's right. A week ago there was a convention in Vantaa, southern Finland, held by Finnish brick store Lelukauppa Pii Poo. Photos can be found on Hovinet's gallery. There was also excellent selling tables of used bricks - I bought seven bags, each a bit bigger than half of a litre, with some great Bricks of Character parts (tan plates, jumpers and headlights and so on) and some goldies (My third rock raiders drill and pleasing amount of old light yellow bricks - Modular buildings to come...).

I also got my LUGBULK delivered there. That meant I had to leave most of my MOCs on the show (Scuba mech, Toa Kyberi, Forfhuarú and never-posted-online small Easter Holiday Island) to my uncle's house because they didn't fit into the backpack. The two days after the convention were dedicated to sorting, and this creation was built in two days after that. Hectic!

So, this is Thrór, King Under The Mountain, father of Thráin and grandfather of Thorin Oakenshield. The design is from recent The Hobbit movie trilogy, as you all know. Thrór was portrayed by Welsh actor Jeffrey Thomas, which you probably didn't know. He didn't have any lines, though, appearing in two flashbacks, the other one cut short by beheading. Rude!

Building Thrór was natural after Thráin. I had the head built several months ago, probably shortly after his son's. After that I just waited for my LUGBULK parts to come - That's right, sand green. I wanted to build The King of Carved Stone on his green marble throne.  I though it would make a great book-end. It turned rather big for that use, but guess I have to use some big books with it...

My LUGBULK included five key parts in sand green: 1x1 bricks, 1x2 bricks, 1x4 bricks, cheese slopes and 1x1 SNOT bricks. Those five are almost invincible together: Cheese with SNOT works as several kinds of slopes, for example. Some additional parts like 2x2 and 1x4 tiles are used too, with support of those 3x6 roof parts. The 1x4 fence pieces in pearl gold are also from LUGBULK. Fresh bricks, I'd say!

The build began with the base, with some interesting bits (Angled corners, trans-red bars in the fences). The boots were added (they are not connected to the dwarf...) and the armrests were shaped, and then the most of the cloak was shaped around them, hiding the tricky bits. The arms are connected to the armrest, not the king again, the the shoulder/head/beard part is connected to the lower torso/throne via ball joint to enable a bit hunched pose. Arranging these was frustrating: Getting the pearl gold cloak trims under the beard/shoulder fur naturally without leaving too big gaps. The lower coat has also some tricky shapes and angles. I'm especially happy how the fence pieces look there.

The back of the throne was combination of dull brick-laying and tricky shaping. The SNOTed cheese works nicely as inverted sloping in my opinion. The golden frame around the legendary Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain, was hard; I had to simplify it quite a bit, but hopefully nobody remembers what it should look like; Close enough! The jewel naturally lights up, as seen below in a shot featuring my very own hand. Enjoy.

-Eero

MOC: Forfhuarú

This is another one of these MOCs that quite built themeselves around few general ideas and piece uses. Chilly color scheme using white, dark blue and trans-blues had been on my mind for some time, there being plenty of ice-themed pieces from Bionicle sets.

Bonkle Kopaka is one of two new Bionicle sets I've bought, the other one being Onua, and I had been wanting to use those shield halves for quite a some time. I also had six of Nuju Hordika's axes from some old Bricklink order never used on anything. And then there were those icy-trans blue double sockets from 2006-2007 Bionicle sets. Very nice color, that. Sadly different from the trans-medium blue used on other parts here, but probably not much too different, given that it blends nicely with the dark blue dress.

The legs were the first part. The heels are a bit highet this time, with flat soles, but otherwise they are of same old design than before. The upper legs are mostly hidden inside the dress, so I was able to use frictions joints without ruining the looks. The dress went through some changes, but was settled pretty early. The torso was tricky one. I have pretty nice assortment of dark blue SYSTEM parts, fortunately. I'm really happy how the colors came out, the middle part being dark and the wings, hair and collar forming elegant white shape on the top of it. Even the head came out painlessly though I have to get some more tan curved slopes fast. A half of Metus's shield is another part I don't remember ever using.

The lower ams are new thing here, however. I'm very happy with them, given how challenging it is to get these thing done in tan and without distracting patterns. Too pad I didn't have any tan 1x1 tiles with clips; they tend te be rather expensive, so I'll cope with light grey ones.

This also needed a base so I made it odd-shapes, like a snow drift of a cloud; Not sure which one as there isn't much backstory. The heels can spin so some posing is enabled. 

This is rather large model so I had to extend the backdrop via photo editing and Smudge tool on GIMP. It looks pretty good, a bit like whirling mist or something if you are of romatic sort, but I simply don't want to pay real bucks for Photoshop so it should be enough.

The name is Gaelic for Coolin point. Hard business, coming up with names for characters without backstory.

-Eero
  

The Laird of the Victory's Tooth

 

 Yep, that's right. Doktor Viktor Von Nebula, the improved version of the first Hero Factory nemesis 7145, is part of Klaanon Project. He's a Steltian Aristocrat, member of Sidorak's species, and a successfull businessman behind the infamous Victory Corporation. He's naturally a space baron, having sent an energy hound named Laikarakk to discover the depths of space (despite the fact that he lives in the domes of Matoran Universe). He's also a Count, a Doctor in Odontology and a Honorary Doctor in Odontology. He also seems to know every damn bad guy including Abzumo the Purple Piper and Purifier. He has a hose moustache, a stovepipe hat and hell of a mace with black hole in the sharp end. Actually the both ends are sharp, but on the more obviously sharp.

Viktor had to be big. Aristocrats are tall, and our Doktor was described having a pompous suit or armor. I wanted to keep some shapes of the original set, including the upper arms' general design and the back plate (which nicely reflects me and my back yard). The main Baron points from 2010 are there, including the hat, moustache and monocle. The coattails, using a Black Pearl sail, were a late addition, but somehow emphasized the aristocrat feel.

The limbs are basic stuff, ol' good Roborider halves on the sides, stuff on middle, Belville saddle ankle guards and so on. The lower arms have standard 1x3 curved slope and two cheeses -filling, and the hand design has been in my use since... 2011 or 2010. The staff is based on old tablescrap, making a Sauron-style battle mace using six Shadow Matoran wing pieces (great parts). I was not able to do it before, but got some of those wings from BL recently.  It turned out rather nice. There is, of course, the marbled Tridax pod there.

I was about to take some evil maniac laughter pictures, but weather disagreed. Tomorrow, probably!

Viktor is, by the way, actually a Krana, according to some. This is very odd fact, to given value of fact. But his head was blasted away by the war satan Mr.Killjoy some time ago, and he will return in VIKTOR WARS, so it seems that he's more (or less...) than just some Steltian entrepreneur... I have no idea. We will see.

-Eero

EDIT: Some extra shots - Including Maniac Laughter posing and a Gentleman Villain Having A Nice Cup Of Tea.

MOC: Commander Vimes

 The next Discworld character is Sir Samuel Vimes, His Excellency, His Grace Duke of Ankh, The Blackboard Monitor a and the Commander of Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Despite his gleaming titles, Sam Vimes likes to think himself just as an ordinary street copper. He wears his old uniform with slightly rusty chainmail, dented breastplate and second-hand boots always when he can. Vimes is one of Pratchett's primary characters, even though he was originaly created to be a supporting Character to (later captain) Carrot on Guards, Guards!

This was rather fast build. Inspiration was taken from Paul Kidby's work once again, and that can be seen on the armor, boots and (hopefully) face. He colors the armor somewhat brass-like, but as pearl gold would have been too bright and flat gold SYSTEM pieces doesn't exist, I went with simple dark bley as it was dim steel. The copper badge is there (bad-dum-tish), as well as some chain mail on the upper arms. Brown cape and leg armor with the sleeves balance the colors a bit. The boots have open toes and thin soles so Vimes can feel the cobbles and always know what street he's walking on.

The facial features are important on characters like this. I like bearded builds, as it's easy to make man recongizable with facial hair (and it's cool anyway). Vimes is clean-shaven or has a stubble, (well, usually) so I can to capture the vimesy feel with simple shaping. The jumper plate with the cigar saves me here, lowering the mouth and making the face less flat. He's rugged and bit persistent looking. The helmet is an odd KK2 armor piece, but it felt good, had nice color and I had no ideas for brick-built helmets. The underside looks a bit odd but it's not visible to you, hah-hah.

Vimes needed some weapon, so I threw together a baton. It feeled more suitable for a copper than a sword and I had already built a crossbow for Ridcully. The scale of this watchman is same than on Ridcully, The Dean and The Librarian. Mustrum is ten studs wide and Vimes six, but Sam isn't a bit man and Ridcully is a wizard, so it feels fitting.

-Eero

MOC: Toa Deleva

A small break form Discworld builds (there will be more, though) for some Klaanon. Toa Deleva has been around for years in the story, but not until recently in the real spotlight. He's a Toa of Plasma, a Su-Toa, at least partially. There was a nasty accident with Skakdi marauder Metorakk, and Deleva sort of lost his right side. He was brought to Odina, fixed with experimental KAL technology and tried to convert into a Dark Hunter. The hunters were a bit daft, though. They didn't remove his Great Kakama, the mask of speed. He ran away, killing few on his way. And had some interesting adventures, mainly with Umbra. These let him to the ghastly corridors of the mental hospital of Aft-Amana.



The mental image of Deleva

was clear. He has the normal said, biomechanical side, with stark white and red colors. The other side is mechanical with dark greys and silvers, easy colors to work with. Splitface's torso armor was the starting point, being perfect for a character like this. The piece is oddly shaped, so the side armors were challenging to get right. The dark-red hose piece, fresh from Bricklink, worked rather nicely, giving a feel of equipment belt of some sort.

The round HF add-on armors are another key parts here. They are always the key part when I have them available, because they are flawless, perfect and lovable parts. I'm especially happy how they shape the red leg with the ankle guards. Another part I'm fond of is the red-white bracer with the Gen II add-on and the slizer visor; they blend nicely.

The shield was interesting. It is described as fire-hot plasma shield. I wanted to add some technical detail with turntable bottom (great piece!) and grille plates, add some sliding colors (yellow and orange) and transparent-orange saw edges and very odd Ninjago piece to ice the cake. I also had to photograph the MOC twice, because one damn cheese slope was in wrong position. Hell yes.

-Eero