Valkyrie of the East Wind

 

 Hi ho. This is another bit older model. It was built for my review of 43189 Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures written for New Elementary. It is very much based on the excellent parts in that set. I won't go deep into those parts here - you can read my analysis on the site. However, I had had a urge to build a warrior angel for some time already (and I had made some unfortunate tries that didn't live up to expections but still lived several years in the WIP box). The ice theme of the set then merged with aesthetics of MTG's Kaldheim expansion (released on early spring) with its valkyries; and the pretty printed round tile on the book cover made nice start for a shield. That also defined the heavy use of flat silver and pearl dark grey pieces on the MOC. 

Most of the pieces from the set found their uses quite easily: The energy effect parts, along with the octagonal windshields, made a neat crystal skirt, which looked good on black upper legs. The pony was going to be the crest of the helm from the very beginning, as there is not many options for it on a character! The printed trans-purple octagonal flag could have made a good axe blade, but I stuck it on the chest. 

 

The helmet was one of the biggest challenges. I wanted it to be elegant yet belivable, and it had to leave some room for hair. The angel was going to have wings on the back, so the hair couldn't be too prominent. I ended up with two braids, which are pneumatic hoses with 1x1 liftarms and pin connectors on them, with golden jewellery to bring a pinch of warmth into the colour scheme. I tried various flexible parts for the braids, including ribbed hose, but only weighed down pneumatic hose had enough weight to flow naturally.

This is also the first time I've finished building angel wings. They're quite simple, and surprisingly sturdy, but this techinique won't support much bigger feathers. However, more than anything else the building was limited by my lack of white parts, as I was simultaneously making a 1x1 module and a 2x3 module white modular buildings! The wings are very two-dimensional, but I'm happy with their slight angle and the silhouette they create behind the figure looks good with black background. I suppose I'll explore angel wings more in the future.

She ended up having an axe with Chima Ultrabuilds blade, as that is one of the few actually nice blade pieces around! Most Bionicle weapons (and there are hundreds out there) are silly and knobby things with way too much going on.

Until next time!

 -Eero.

Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully the Brown (3)

My newest Mustrum Ridcully model debuted in Inadvisedly Applied Billiard scene, but here's a whole post about the figure itself! Sir Terry Pratchett's books are so full of life-like characters, and I have to push myself constantly to new limits to achieve this. The new Ridcully had to be able to play billiard, and I also wanted him to be able to go fly fishing, and to have... facial expression (new frontier of character building)! The old version was constantly surprised.

My recent Rincewind model was the prototype here, and Ridcully developed its technique - two tan 1x1 round plates with bar, two tan minifig hands, and some darked minfig arms for eyebrows. Eyebrows are such important in facial expression. While Rincewind's expression could limit to scared and worried looks, I wanted Archchancellor to be able to look puzzled, unimpressed, surprised and determined; thus the connection for adjustable eyebrows had to be flower. The bar-piece thingies are stuck between the eye headlight bricks with rather complicated and exquisite SNOT work; the tooth plate of nose covers most of it. I was not afraid that those minifig hands would look messy, as they are shadowed by the hat and hell, Mustrum should have some wrinkles!

The poseability is not limited to the eyebrows. Ridcully had double neck joint (via Mixel 1x2 plate with socket and ball), which meant I had to re-design the beard so it would enable moving the head. I also enlarged the beard - it it practically two plates thick with some wings for detail. The "flap" of the beard also fortunately hides the neck joint! The poseability of the head is not very wide, but does the trick. Small tilt of head gives lot of personality, too! I'm also rather happy with the new-ish mudguard as the moustache. The hat is mostly recycled from the old version, plus I added some artificial flys; and changed the X-Pod half from the top to bottom one!

The arms are standard issue, with a bit too loose elbows. The legs are not much special neither, but I was happy to be able to use barrels as inside-out boot legs again! With posing in these pictures, even the stud-into-pin-hole knee joints were too loose, and I had to change the pieces for minimal additional stability; oh well. On the more interesting aspects, I'm happy with the coat. It uses large arch bows, connected with mixel joints to achieve natural angle. This gives enough room inside for the hip joints, also hiding the most severe parts of them. 

The staff (which, knob removed, works as the cue) and the crossbow (slightly updated) are taken from the old model. The new accessory (aside the billiard table, of course) is the fly fishing rod that comes with Ankhian River Catfish for some action shots! Ankh fish have no teeth, and work somewhat like vacuum cleaners, so a catfish was a good start. The water surface is fittingly brown (or dark tan) after flowing through the Sto Plains and the city. There's a splash of trans-clear bubble cockpits, though - I bricklinked those for cheap some months ago, and finally got to use them here! The fish with base had to be heavy enough to tighten the line and give the rod a slight curve, and I managed to capture that. Maybe I'll build a whole scene of this one day. I made one in Miniland scale already, after all.

-Eero