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.
