Foyer Ambiance

 

 This is a long-awaited sequel to After the Gala which I built in 2024. The rather loose theme is something like well-dressed people with big plants; here, both of the are inspired by the Botanicals theme. The dress uses two key parts from last year's Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, the magenta petal piece and the large dark red fern. I combined them with a piece that is an old favourite of mine: 47844 Windscreen 9 x 3 x 1 2/3 Bubble Canopy, available in nine sets between 2004 and 2008. And it looks like it could be a new part from 2025, designed for flowers. But it isn't! A timeless classic. Here, eight of them in dark red form the hip/upper leg part of this trumpet evening dress. The whole thing is quite geometric. 

I built most of this quite effectively in February. Then I got influenza, and my efforts to finish the upper torso area, where the bare skin meets the top part of the dress, were completely useless. I only returned this some time later (after making a bunch of yet unpublished models) and finished this week, throwing together the plant in a couple of hours. Even the solutions of the upper torso did not take too much effort: There certainly is a difference betwen building in fever and without a fever.  

I wanted the hairdo to be somewhat festive. No idea about the terminology, but it is something between a bun and a braid, with some elegant loose bangs hanging on the sides. The braid-bun thing has Friends horse bridles stretched around a megaroni tube, creating a braid pattern - but it also reminds me bit of a xenomorph head; it's a Giger hair. For extra elegance and colour balance, I added a fur-like cloth skirt element from Constraction Range Trooper - a prize from Bio-Cup. I tried several alternatives before setting for this composition that leaves the shoulders visible.

-Eero. 

Chevrolet 5 Window Coupe 1934 "Nux"

 

Ride eternal, shiny and chrome. This was my entry for my LUG Palikkatakomo's contest titled "Speed champions theme scaled vehicle 'familiar from digital media'". That's right. Basically, we were allowed to build cars from media that's not a book, comic, or a painting, in roughly minifigure scale. I'm not much a car person, but I like Mad Max; and Fury Road is one of my favourite films. I didn't really consider any other cars than Nux. Of course, there are other great designs in Fury Road (and Road Warrior and Furiosa, why not), but Nux has most screen time of the smaller cars, and it has such an iconic silhouette with the spears and everything. The contest had a width limit of 10 studs which ruled out Gigahorse, Big Foot and, obviously, the War Rig. Razor Cola, aka Max's Interceptor after the war boys' tuning job, would have been my second choice.

And oh yes, I won the pro category. With one point difference to the runner-up, 107 points versus 106 points. Mediocre!

The main thing or trick here is the metallic silver colour scheme. I used the most worn-out pieces I had to emulate the sandblasted metal surface of Nux's Chevrolet. Essentially, the process was a three-dimensional puzzle using the limited metallic silver parts selection I had; I have the pieces of this colour in one bag to prevent them from scratching when seeking parts, and I had them on a pile on my desk for a week when I tried to find out the best configurations. My only plate options were 1x1 and 2x2 corner, and the only bricks were 1x8 (I used none, obviously). The macaroni tubes made pretty good rear side windows, and although the front mudguards lack the rounded shape of the original, they're simple enough to to stand out like a sore thumb. I'm especially happy with how the handlebar pieces crop the frontal radiator; they were a last-minute addition. During the process, I was amazed on how the model didn't feel like a Lego MOC - it was more like a real tin model car. Adding the wheels and details made it more Lego-like, obviously, but the metallic shine preserved some of its exclusivity.

Funnily enough, I had built a Nux-inspired rod already in 2016, and knew that the antenna pieces made good thundersticks; their little ball ends enable angled positions. I even used the same CMF series 1 robot head on the pole, both as a nod to my old MOC, and because it's close enough to the decoration in the film.

I didn't use minifigs here, as their weird proportions would have messed up the car, big time. It looked more credible without, as a scale model car.

-Eero.