Avelin Annumin

Three posts about band members in a row; the next post will be something different, though. This model was built simultaneously with the last one. My prize in the underground category of Summer Joust 2022 morphed into a Pick a Brick / Bricks and Pieces gift card, and I bought a lot late last year. I got plenty of medium nougat parts, as it's a good colour for characters, but has been quite sparse in variance untiel recently - and to some degree still is. The upper arms deemed all the tricks I know, because neither 1x2 round plate nor a boat stud exist in medium nougat. The introdiction of 1x2 SNOT brick with one middle stud (or, alternatively, stud-pin with friction) made it easier to make a Eero Okkonen head in this colour. The chin still uses cheese slopes. 1x2 double slope was introduced in natura history museum last recently, and I pondered whether I should wait to get some for this; but in the end, the less pointed jawline fitted the character just fine.

Another seed part was the triangular, curved Technic panel. I got a nice secetion of those smallish panels from Lego store in Wien last Septmber; they had parted out Bugatti Bolide in there, I bet. They formed the top part of the dress, and the curves felt so elegant that I wanted to emphasize them with a contrasting colour; I chose a classy white. I had many ideas for the lower part of the garment, from sort of trouser thing to a geometrically ornamented skirt, but ended up with the simples, cleanest form possible.

The hem of the skirt uses a new technique. Instead of having a skirt shell with the legs inside it (like in real life) the legs are the sides of the skirt; they're connected with ball joints on the waist. The sockets hide behind the CCBS shells which also enables the movement without large gaps.The middle panel is same block with the rest of the figure. Naturally swiveling them sideways doesn't work very well, but the ball joints nevertheless brings the possibility of fine-tuning when balancing the figure. Inside the side panels, there are actual knee joints, again helping in the fine-tuning. The shoes are very small (and were designed in Studio during the Christmas holiday), so the balancing isn't very easy.

I had no clear idea about the instrument; I wanted it to be something that doesn't obscure the dress too much. String instruments felt fitting, but I already had a violinist; double bass and cello would have been to heavy. I ended up with an electric cello; a very obscure instrument. I doubt I've ever seen one. It enabled me to build an amplifier with a fuzz pedal - no point in playing e-cello without effects - but the most imporant aspect was it lightness, weirdness and the elegance of shape. This is loosely based on some models that mimic the shape of "real" cello. Some e-cellos were very ugly, looking like a combination of a Bionicle weapon and office furniture. The spike of the cello uses a rubber knob designed for thread links; it keeps the instrument from sliding off, felling and demolishing the musician.

-Eero.