MOC: Kirika Towa Alma

 I haven't been your most active blogger recently, sorry, but here's smoething for now! Usually summer is the best time for writing a blog about a hobby, but it feels that I've just been running around the whole summer... I visited Norway, took part in a LUG exhibit, spent a week on our family cottage talking about Klaanon and participated in 9 university entrance exams. But they paid off: I got into Architecture studies in the Technical University of Tampere (TTY).  It's something like 400 km away so I'll be moving soon; I've never moved in my life (and I don't have an apartment yet, neither). But no worries. I won't abadon LEGO hobby, even though it might be... interesting to make everything fit in smaller space. Bricks, alright. But the completed models... That might be challenging.

Life updates aside, the most important (well, technically) thing on this post is the creation, Kirika Towa Alma from video game Shining Resonance which seems to be only released in Japan. I've never played it, but I stumbled into some cool character designs when cruising around the seas of World-Wide-Web. In a way, the process reminds of Palutena from the last autumn. No deep meaning, just cool thing seemingly never done before in bricks.

Kirika Towa Alma seems to be an elf. I generally prefer dwarves, but as I've already built 20 of them I though some diversity would be fitting. There were some extraordinary shapes challenging to represent in brick form, but then again, challenges aren't that bad. The costume had also really beautiful colours, and features quite lot of snazzy medium azure I had collected but never properly used on anything.

I began with the large, detached sleeves. They're really heavy and balance each other. Luckily I had decent amount of medium azure plates from 40107 Winter Skating Scenes given away at LUG events to make the ruffs. The sleeves went through 2-3 versions. They had to be smooth and sleek, not too blocky nor heavy, and preferrably in different positions. The left arm ended up being almost straight on side, which made the sleeve easy to build; the right arm was on around 50 degree angle and deemed some hinges and wedge plates, but ended up being lighter. The upper arms needed to be sturdy enough to support the sleeves, so they don't look perfect. I didn't want them to look too muscular, given that the sleeves are supposed to be only cloth.

The torso was more pleasant, if not easy, to build. White square pattern on the skirt ended up looking quite good, as this the ruffs above and under the dark blue area. The middle torso provoked some challenges; I needed to connect the ribbons both in front and the back of it. Fortunately I had got some 2x2 macaroni bricks in medium azure from a flea market lot fewa years ago; they saved the day. The upper torso displayed some interesting shaping, but with help of my favourite piece, the boat stud, I succeeded decently. It's a bit loose and required some tweaking during the photographing, though. The shoulder connection is usual t-bar-in-bar-hole, but seems to be strong enough to support the heavy arms.

Heads are never easy. The reference material was anime-inspired, which is visible here. The eyes use Water symbol tokens from Elves sets specifically bricklinked from this use. It originally used just printless trans-blue or trans-medium-blue 1x1 round tiles, but the stud behind them created a rather disturbing glare; this is not perfect neither, but at least it's an interesting piece use and of my own design.

The hair was a lot funnier. I knew from the beginning that I'd use katanas from Dragon Bolt, very cool pieces, but my lack of yellow TECHNIC made connecting them hard. Boat stud is used here, too; naturally. The bangs are made of pneumatic hose. This was the first time I cut it for a MOC, but it's still a purist technique: They come uncut in sets. At least some sets. Well, anyway. I'm very happy with the butterfly ornament. Transparent colours are challenging to use, but the create a nice effect.

The legs were mostly stolen from another WIP; The design is very similar to Adela and Lingeán but white colour of the sock made it possible to use the smallest CCBS shell as a kneecaps. The legs bend on the knees, but the model pretty much impossible to pose, so I left out the poseable ankles; They would have never worked! Minifig arms are used as straps on the upper legs and the cool platform sandals. You can usually rely on minifig arms when it comes to rarer colours. The shoe straps are actually dark azure, though; sorry! I only had one pair of medium azure ones. The shoes are connected to the base that uses two boat weights to balance the figure. I think I should get more of those. But damn they are expensive...

Next up, an idiot roach warrior in a power armor. For diversity.

-Eero.