Pavilion of the Seaplane Association

This was my large project of 2025. The idea goes even further back. We have been making large collaborative displays in my LUG since 2009. In 2023, we had a project called Suomalainen Kaupunki (a Finnish town or a city). It was made possible by Lego's Project Support program, and was very successful. Thus, in 2024, we applied for another round. Some wanted to make castle, some wanted to do pirates, some wanted to make town. And I had undestood that projects with national or local emphasis were more likely to get accepted. So I came up with the idea of History of Archipelago, with a very loose definition to fit in the various things. 

 Ultimately, the big event in Helsinki we were aiming for was cancelled, so we had three different incarnation of the collab instead. I missed the smallest in Espoo but partook the larger ones in Oulu and Seinäjoki last autumn. The final installation on Seinäjoki was the best one; the Oulu version was more open, almost empty. That's sea, though. Both links have photos I took of the installation (among other photos taken by other folk).

Photo: Museovirasto, HKK, CK.

My contribution combines two of my favourite things: Finnish new style architecture of the early 20th century and Porco Rosso. I took the concept of Hotel Adriano, the hotel and club for seaplane pilots in the film, and reimagined it in Finnish natural stone. The main inspiration for the building was the Telephone Association Building in Helsinki, designed by Lars Sonck in 1903 and finished in 1905. I took the central element, the tower, and arranged it with element from Sonck's simulteneous masterpiece, the Tampere cathedral, which I can see from my window. Some elements, like the large window on the tower, are from the Telephone building's main drawings that diverge a bit from the executed design. And unlike Sonck's masterful blend of different granite types, I used solely light bley bricks. The differences in Lego colours are so much starker than on real stones, so the polychrome effect is impossible to capture without looking chaotic.

 

I wanted to have the building on a tall cliff to create a romantic composition. This way, the planes would not obscure the building, and I could make interesting walkways with the stairs. I built the landscape and the building simultaneously, using some loose candy boxes to hold the main tower on the right level while arranging the rocks below it. In general, I'm not the biggest fan of building rocks; in 2024, I got enough of them while building Vainolaista vastaan. Fortunately, a year was enough to recover for it. For a minute I considered using dark bley on the rocks, but light bley was so much better, as it gives lighter, more realistic look to the whole. Sure, it's the same colour with the bulk of the building here; but that was sensible, actually, as the granite of the building has been quarried on-site, from the same rock. With darker foundations and some plant life I was able to make a clear difference between the living rock and the walls. The rubble texture helps, too.

In addition to the form of the building, I knew I wanted to focus on interior. I think a cross section is the best way to show them - I've never liked those removable floors, as miniature worlds are difficult to perceive from the top view only, and they require active demonstration in exhibits. Here, I did not focus on history of architecture and detailed interior architecture of the early 20th century. Instead, I focused on making the Porco Rosso pastiche with more universal theme of "some arches". I set the main interior inside the cliff. Now, this isn't the most logical or realistic place for it, but on the other hand, it saved me from large boring grey wall, and enabled a space big enough without making the building itself too big. It's bit like Tardis, the building is bigger on the inside. 

The club is not a direct replica of Adriano's club in Porco Rosso, but Gina's definitely there, as well as a bar counter, with lounging pilot that looks a bit like a hybrid between Porco and Curtis... Inspired by the film, I set some plane parts on th walls, and added some suspicious crooks amidst the customers. The stairs descent from the building quite logically, too. There's some architect's honour in me after all. The hall upstairs matches the aesthetics of the exterior more closely, but this space is almost completely obscured by the engine that is being tested - this is the Pavilion of the Seaplane Association, after all. The engine was inspired by the scene in Porco Rosso where Porco and Grandpa Piccolo test the Folgore engine in a shed. Furthermore, it reminds me of a MOC called Dwarfpunk Workshop from 2010.

I began this model with the roof, and it's the most important part of it for me. Large, handsome and tall roofs are great - the emphasise the protective qualities of the building. They are homely and sheltering. Christopher Alexander stressed this, and while I don't agree with his every pattern language pattern, I agree with the one about roofs. Tiled roofs with lively, organic hues are especially beautiful. They appeared in several major Finnish Art Nouveau buildings, but almost all of them have been replaced by metal during the last century. The tiled roof on the Helsinki Telephone Association building was replaced with copper sheet soon after Sonck's death, so I wanted to recreate it here. 

I'm rather happy with it. The geometry is simple - a square frame with studs outwards, getting smaller one stud at time. The geometry is less simple, as the horizontal difference per layer is 1/2 studs. This is easy in one direction (jumper plates) but almost impossible in the "upwards" direction (which is not upwards as such here, but more like... inwards). Once again, the freely sliding connections solved this, and one piece especially: 88072 Plate Special 1 x 2 with Bar Up [Horizontal Arm 5mm]. It has the jumper quality on direction Y and the freely sliding bar connection in the other. Brilliant! There are four on each level, and the roof pyramid is hollow. I topped the pyramid with the lovely parabolic rocket cone halves, and used two more to cap the bay window things on the both ends of the building. The chimney is inspired by the one on the Tampere Cathedral's sacristy. I was so happy that I could just step outside the house to check it out, and then return to my library room to build it.

 

 To feel like a Seaplane Association Pavilion, the model had to have some seaplanes. At least two, to make the point, I felt. The blue one is the Curtiss R3C-0 from Porco Rosso, closely based on the real-life American floatplane. I had built Porco's plane in Miniland scale, and as the film is my all-time favourite, it felt right to built the other major plane from it. The yellow plane is based on Macchi M.17, a real-life Italian flying boat, but isn't a direct scale model of it. Having both floatplane and flying boat felt like a good way to show the diversity of seaplanes. 

I'll post individual posts on the planes later on (currently they are in an exhibit, and the Macchi needs some extra parts on the bottom of its hull for flying shots). The exhibit is (once again) in Messukylä Library, Tampere, and ends in 8th of April. It's called Ver Sacrum and has other MOCs, too, including an unpublished one (that I will publish before the exhibit ends). Here's the poster, and after it, the rest of the photos. Bye!

-Eero.

 

King of the Mine

 A dwarf built every now and then keeps one healthy and brisk. This began with the simple idea of using the classic castle panels with the half-timber/fachwerk printing. It reminded me of some great dwarven coat designs from the Hobbit films. The character design and crafts are pretty much the best those films have to offer; I can barely watch them now, but occasinally I browse through my art books of them.

Here, the main design challenge was to find the right balance between prestige and mundaneness. Most dwarves seen on fiction are dressed for war, with axes and chainmail and occasional iron helmet, but I wanted none of that. This is a dwarf at home. But it is not an ordinary worker dwarf, either. I like Pratchett's notion that there are hundreds of dwarf kings, as every mining colony of led by a king (no matter of sex of the King). Thus, the title could be better translated as a chief mining engineer. That was the mood I aimed for. 

Regular bright red is not the most common choice for a task like this. To make the whole look harmonious, I used rich but earthy hued of reddish brown and dark orange, with some complementing dark tan fur to add sense of prestige. There's also a printed belt or a cummerbund with a flame pattern. I framed the half-timber panels with black to make them look complete, and added a rim of metallic gold - the most prestigious colour there is - to make it look a bit less like a lumberjack's flannel shirt. Finally, a light bley beard and hair added some complementing coolness to the otherwise warm scheme. It also fitted the elderly feel I wanted to capture. Eyebrows are especially crucial to expressive faces. They are dark bley to stand out from the hair. The character's status required some jewelry, and trans-clear opals were mundane (yet beautiful) enough, while not making the dwarf look too over-groomed with gold and gilt.

The structure is unusually complex, as I wanted to have a slight angle on those panels. The same angle continued to the legs to make the character feel natural and down-to-earth. This created a challenge in the ankles, which now required a slight angle. I used one of my pet parts, the ball turret socket, to create this shape. Not the first time I've done this with dwarf boots, and certainly not the last.

-Eero.  

Matoro (of Mata Nui)

First of all - the breathtaking edit of the main picture is done by loafbuilds. Thanks, Ari!

This my Matoro, for 2003/Mask of Light collab with the other bonkle folk. I picked up an easy (and relatively unpopular I guess) character. I think I finished this sometime in April when we decided to post on the following week. Yeah, right...

Looking back this now, I seem to have taken a bit too humorous direction in this and it definitely isn't the best model in the collab. But on the other hand, this is sort of fitting. Contemplating Bionicle, I've ended up thinking that 2003 was a pretty bad year. I've never liked Mask of Light. Matoro, fortunately for him, is not in it. Takanuva has never appealed to me, and the rest of titans... are not that good. Rahkshis are clones, and frankly, not as good as Bohrok or even Bohrok-Kal. And the Matorans... Well, I think they never made very good Matoran line-up. McTorans have good character design, but I have to say that they are not that good toys with their very limited movement. These kolhii (kohlii in Finnish, btw) matorans were mutated larger versions of the originals: huge hunchbacks, dull gear function, and friction pin leg joints that didn't carry the weight. Super long arms, too, which plagued the later Bionicle years. At least the combiner looked decent.

So, my Matoro, with his bulky arms and weird hammer-fork, my Matoro is both fic fic and parody of the original set. I wanted to build Akaku to give this some character of its own; and it's a bit unelegant maybe, and has a fussy sort of moustache, but I enjoy the fact that the telescopic lenses are on the "wrong" side, to tell him apart from Kopaka; the lenses use Succulent Knightmeat, AKA the fun little bits you get when you force KK2 torsos apart with screwdrives and hammer with your friends in a little cottage in the middle of winter wonderland.

-Eero. 

The Plunge

 I built this late last year for a New Elementary article on Battle Droid with STAP. Primarly, I was inspired by the tan recolours of ball joint with through axle hole and the System ball socket. Thus, my character model was to have some bare tan skin visible. As the swimming pool season had just began, I built a swimmer. Having the character gliding through the water was more interesting and elegant than having one standing beside the pool. Furthermore, this side connection enabled me to benefit from the through axle hole. The figure's point of balance is near the waist, so the hip joint was a good place for this connection.

I'm very happy with this. The swimming suit's shoulder straps use the new Slope Curved 4 x 2 with Stud Notch Left/Right, which was perfect for the use. I could make the limbs less sturdy as usual, as this was going to be a static piece instead of a poseable figure, and the legs didn't need to support any weight. Furthermore, it was fun building a character that is almost upside down, as that highlighted the legs, back of the head and the back details. The head is unusual as well, as I wanted to have swimming goggles and tied hair. The ponytail adds sense of motion, especially with the flow of air bubbles. There's even a stud on the place of the mouth, representing tightly closed lips.

 The base was the biggest challenge here. First, I intended to build a normal pool wall-and-floor set as a whole background for the character. But I didn't have that much white tiles, and it didn't even feel very elegant. So I took another route, questioning the concept of "enough white tiles". I made an almost cubistic backdrop of pool tiles, fraying on the edges, with blue ornamental strip adding a sense of culture. I like how the vertical, angular backdrop contrasts with the slender, elegant and rounded human being. This model was fun to photograph.

-Eero. 

Anchovy Walker

 I built this one for Palikkatakomo contest witha brief of Whacky Machnines. The contest was inspired by BONK museum in Uusikaupunki, Finland, which displays it own canon of imaginary machnines and products often based on technology that utilises anchovies. To keep things faithful to the source material, I took this as my starting point. I also wanted to build something motorised, as the contest was about machines. The first idea was an Anchovy Accelarator, which might appear in the original BONK lore; I envisioned a spinning vortex thing with the 1:1 anchovy, furnished with metallic silver finish, in the middle; the anchovy stayed, but the Accelerator felt a bit too obscure and, above all, difficult to built.

Instead, I chose to stick to my strong points; not human characters this time, but rather motorised walkers that I used to build as a kid. Well, I didn't make so many finished ones, but I had a rather simple one built for my first exhibition ever in 2009 (I was 14). It worked well and was a hit with the audience. This uses the same method, except for the battery box, which is included in the walker, making it more autonomous. 

Of course, my 2025 version of the same idea is more refined: the walker structure is U-shaped to fit the large anchovy tub in the middle, balanced by the battery box+motor in the back (both authentic 1990s technology; the motor is directly above the box so there's no need for wires). The power is transferred mostly by axles, as they're lighter and more effective than masses of gears; however, theres both small gear-big gear combo and a wormscrew gearbox in the back to make the movement slow and strong enough for the 90s 9V to drive. This took some iteration.

The cosmetic furnishing is quite simple, as the model had to be lightweight. I think I managed well with the shapes and colours, aiming for a "serious sci-fi" aesthetics to contrast with the silly theme. Especially, as this was a fast build. I won the contest, gaining Pretty Pink Flowers Bouquet - an excellent set I already reviewed for New Elementary a year ago. And, above all, I was able to demonstrate this to a group of pre-school children while setting up a library exhibit last month. They liked it, which was hugely rewarding.

-Eero.

Ps. There's also rumour that this MOC is called Superintendent Silakk. They might as well be true.