Doctor Hugo Neovius

Okay, hi. Been bit quiet lately, but I'm OK. I've been isolating myself, of course, but mostly I'm just been very busy with my studies. But it's all gone now (for three and half months anyway). It's summer holidays! How absurd is that? It's four celsius outside and on Monday it was snowing. And the holidays started late. Usually they start at May Day (which was naturally cancelled) but due to some things, our biggest deadline was moved till today. It's gone now. I've made a change-management report (my own translation, probably not that good, but it's new type of report anyway) on Sara Hildén art museum (three member project), built heritage transformation design project on Tampere Suit Factory (pair project) and designed 20 000 square meter university infill building (pair project. And learned things about profession of architect but that was pretty easy. I don't think I have had a day off for three weeks. Not that there would be that much to do; I've been biking, walking, reading, playing MTG with Pinja and building. Not horribly much, but I've got around ten unpublished models and some of them are big. It's not that I didn't like writing the blog, building is just better balancing to using cad programs, so here we go.

This guy - adventurer Doctor Hugo Neovius - was born in... November, after New Elementary Parts festival but before MOC Wars. I just happened to jump from one to another immendiately, despite making several builds between. Remember that Parts Festival models were built some time before being posted to NE. Well, anyway - it began as a tablescrap of the head. I made the beard, which is inspired by old MTG card Arcane Teachings, featuring a dwarf wizard in his research. Beard braids (using tooth pieces from some British PaB wall), monocle thing and the moustache originate from that card; I added a third braid, too. Eyebrows define the features of character a lot, so they're quite bushy, made with angled 1x2 plates with bar on end. Twin arch piece nose made its debut on John Cleese earlier, but this guy is its original owner.

I wanted to use blue on this character, as it often feels unused colour despite being very common. It also fitted the dieselpunk feel, so I pursued maybe 19th or 18th century bluecoat militia feel. Angled "classical architecture" detail bricks are angled to make the ruff shirt. I'm very happy with the effect, even though it requires some sturdy  constructions on the back; anything can't really be connected next to those angled bricks! The sleeves are recycled from old samurai MOC from 2016, but I like their silhouette. Mechanical arm continues the motif of the cyborg eye; I like the "1x1 round plate with bar" -fingers.

The legs are nothing too exciting; however, I tend to sturggle with trousers, and these are not bad as far as trousers go. I'm happy with how the red stripe continues to the knee joint, and I try to use shock absorber piece when able as it gives mechanical parts unusual quality; it's not just plastic! The mechanical leg doesn't have much poseability, but neither does the shoulders, and the head is fixed. Still enough to make him look natural, I reckon.

After finishing the limbs, I still felt I needed to definte the character. Usually this sort of dieselpunk adventurer would have a gun and a rapier, but weapons are so dull and overused and I wanted to try something else. So Hugo Neovius (the name derives from two Finnish architects, Hugo Lindberg and Harald Neovius) got a sextant and a chrome green crystal. I also felt he needed a hat to balance the white hair. Nothing too militaristic, maybe a pith helmet - or a fez! I sat nicely on the head, looking a bit too small, and I'm very happy with the whip as the string.

The next model won't take two months, I promise! I've got time!

-Eero