Lalibela Upbeat and Dawn Resurgent

Here comes the speeder number three. Lately some readers might have stumbled upon some new creation by me on some LEGO fan site or another; those things will be posted here soon enough. I did take part on Part Festival II of 2019, and technically I still am, but I've got decent amount of material there, all photographed and written and everything. New Elementary will have some photos and shorter versions of my texts, and Cyclopic Bricks will host the full sets, as usual. But more of that later on. I'm having a creation here.

Lalibela Upbeat and her Dawn Resurgent Speeder bike was built in late August and early September at the very start of the current semester. As in two previous speeders, Carp Speeder and Salamander Sword, the speeder was built first and then accompanied with a matching daredevil. I made some sketches on the vessel, but essentially it was built like a spaceship. I wanted to use similar shapes, techniques and even details that some skilled space builders utilise in their SHIPs. I think the speeder could be a decent half-lenght SHIP in mini-scale if I removed the handlebars, pedals and exhaust flames. That was the aim, at least: Stealthy collision of two very different scales, hopefully in harmony.

I began with the shape (flat and quite long), colours (I wanted to use magenta and had plenty of dark blue around) and some details (turbine parts in front, window in the engine compartment, 8-esque exhaust). I made the turbines that could be from 30's power plant in minifig scale; I quite enjoyed their contrast with sleek and futuristic speeder in bright colours. Their shape matched the 8 exhaust frame made with macaroni bricks and tiles, connected with 1x2 round plates. As most of my magenta pieces were usual slopes, I made profile resembling 8 with them too, as 4-stud-deep on front and 2-stud-deep in back sections. They were assembled around sturdy SNOT frame with a TECHNIC core.

The dark blue area under the handlebars has some interesting aspects. There is the window, made using two curved 2x6 windscreens. I wanted the light shine through it for maximum effect, so the frame has a hole in this part. Originally it was much bulkier design, and had 6x6 round windshields from Death Star II throne room as the windows, but it didn't work out. On this version, I also like the elegant, triangular shape the tan 2x6 wedge slopes form between dark blue 8x3 odd wedge bow things: I knew the rider wouldn't use tan as the skin colour, so I could freely use it as light leather, mostly on the seat, but also on this part on what the rider could lean on.

There's another magenta belt behind this area, featuring some car bonnet pieces. The left side has stickered 2x4 tile on it, probably featuring someone important for the rider, as a mark of personification. This magenta section was originally arranged differently, between two tan leather sections, but this made the rider sit too much ahead, bending the stand in a way that the speeder would face slightly downwards, looking dump. I moved the seat section back, made it 6-wide to make room for the rider and hided the stand inside the magenta section. This also made it possible to make the seat very clean in shape, looking more convenient for the rider.

The back engine section featured layered section of different patterns. On top, pentagonal Nexo wedges continue the 8-esque shape of the thrusters. Under them there is mild pattern of curved shapes, made using macaroni tiles. Their greyness balances the turbines on front, while the pattern hints to exquisite enginecraft. The thruster section mentioned earlier is connected in curious way: Inside it there are two wheel pieces with their tires turned inside out; their rubber, next to the macaroni parts, has enough friction to keep the 8 strip in place. The flames are connected to TECHNIC "gear" with four knobs with bar holes. I think it works quite nicely.

The speeders so far have had differently angled stands and this is the most daring so far. The angle is not that slight, and the weight of the model bends it significantly more. The figure is connected to her ride only on thumbs, with quite loose bar-to-clip connection, so it takes some dexterity to set up... But it looks fast! I'd prefer the liftarms to be black, but almost all of my black liftarms are on Tomi Leppänen's drum podium in the LEGO House...

The another half of the build is the figure. It was much faster process, mostly because I have some experience in building figures and well, it uses several basic designs seen before on other builds. The key concepts were colours: magenta and dark blue, taken from the speeder; darker skin colour; and attempt to make sand blue jeans, even though the ended up being shorts. On parts level, I wanted to use rounded magenta bonnet piece on the chest, as sort of very short tank top leaving the stomach visible; I have no idea what the actual term might be here. Another key part were stickered aeroplane tail fin pieces from Ninjago, with cool thunderbolt pattern. They would form a jacket collar to frame the chest, in similar way than in Kiirus Ögonblick, rider of the Carp Speeder. The characters on these speeders had had cool and casual yet modern attires, so this quite bold compilation of clothed felt interesting.

To give the colours some extra contrast, I ended up using yellow stockings with the sand blue jeans shorts. I also made red alternative, but it was somehow too close to the magenta shade. Don't worry, you'll see the red ones eventually. As a side note, my head has a mental connection between these stocking and some Brexit news. I was reading them while building and now I'll connect these things in my mind, eternally. The knee has a black guards, using skrall armour pieces from Bionicle. They are not connected properly but stay on anyway. The shoes are asymmetrical sneakers, maybe referencing to Toppo Koponen; They're quite usual, but one of them uses some weird printed tiles, and both use new-ish rounded 1x1 parts, maybe they could be called bows or something; "anti-arches". The complete the footprint with 1x4 curved slopes. The gloves are white, as dark brown (or brown, or dark tan...) hands are hard to make due availability of parts.

The head with the hair was the most challenging part of the figure and took most time. I wanted to use icy wing parts from Chima ultrabuilds to make a lion-like mane. Icy bolt of flame pieces from Hero Factory worked nicely with them. However, both of those pieces are big and rigid and hard to get flowing in variety of poses. Earlier versions included some bigger and more fragile constructions, but I ended up putting the big special pieces on one side and simple sweep on the other side, using 2x2 triangular tile and white plume as an "escaped" bang. I think the white hair looks very striking with dark brown skin.

Coming up with names is usually the last thing done in builds like this. Lalibela is a town in Ethiopia, known for its rock-cut monolith churches. For me it's more familiar as a Pharaoh Overlord song from live album Horn. I like the sound of word upbeat, and resurgent is taken from Magic card named Zendikar Resurgent.

-Eero.

Master Yupa

This creation is a return to familiar subject: Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, especially the manga. I've built six character builds about that masterpiece around four years ago. Their scale was little bigger than miniland scale, with bare, stylized faces and very limited articulation. I think some of them are good creations nevertheless, but they feel somewhat stiff, and as the source material is very close and inspiring, I recently chose to return to these characters, or at least one of them. The old models are still preserved somewhere in my wardrobe.

The man featured here is Master Yupa, greatest swordsman of Fukai, a mentor character in the comic book (and the film, of course). He has a cool uniform with cape and a brimmed hat with a tuft and pleasant looking boots; I don't remember the colours of the clothes in the film very clearly, and the manga is black-and-white, so this is more based on how I imagined the colours: Natural shades of uncolored wool, felt and leather. The pose, however, is the key point of the build. It is based on a panel on page 108 of volume II (Finnish version), where Yupa jumps to face his adversary in wormhandler's citadel. There is a very similar scene in the film, located in wormhandler's airship, if I remember correctly.  

Making a very specific, dynamic posing is unusual in my work. It posed plenty of fresh challenges. Making of this was inspired by a very specific piece: 6x6 quarter round slope thing. In August, I bought eight of those from Pii Poo in dark brown. Six is used there, and their shape forms the key areas of the flowing cape. Of course, they are big and thick chunks, so some "cheating" is made with the arms; they're connected with axles on ball joints, sticking out of the thin gaps inside the arches of those 6x6 bits. Yupa's impressive moustache hangs over the central one, making the distance between the head and the coat (or maybe it's a tunic) appear smaller. The rest of the cape is made with three more, and variety of dark brown curved and normal slopes.

Another key technique used here is 45 degree turns throughout the model. First one is between the head and the cape, using A-frame piece. Second is between the tunic and the cape, again using A-frames connecting to a hinge, as the cape is angled forward. Around the waist, there is another 45 degree turn, this time using custom turntable, stiffened with 3L axle with stud on end. I'm particularly happy with the belt buckle appearing between the hem of the tunic. The custom turntable was 4x4, which means Yupa's arse turned to be very square-shaped. It's rounded with some curved slopes, connected to ancient buffer piece. This creation was something like a three-dimensional puzzle, giving its geometrical difficulty, stability questions and incorporation of big, interesting pieces.

There were, of course, the usual aesthetic questions always important in character builds. Yupa's eyes are not seen in the original frame, and they're hidden under the brim of the hat (they don't really exist in the build). The hat uses 10x10 dish, which is quite rare - this one is from Pii Poo again and I'm happy the own one! The dome of the hat uses the same technique than my old Yupa. The barrel is connected with a ball joint, so it's slightly angles. The tuft is new, using dark brown grass pieces (I got 25 from LUGBULK and this is the first time I use any). Yupa has his moustache, an important character trait, and it consists of four 1x2 curved slopes, offset for flowing effect. The gloves are classic design from 2015 or something, but connected to an unusual angle, true to reference material. The swords are think brick-built ones. I wonder if I should have turned the anti-stud side hidden in the photos, but that might have been cheating... The scabbard was a very late addition, but true to the sources again.

This might just be my first character build to feature a jumping person. Flying Palutena built for Iron Builder might be the closest. Being static in mid-air required a base. The first one used a transparent beam made of 1x2x2 panels in trans-clear, but it was too weak. Four 1x2x5 bricks worked much better. They were all I had, but fortunately I got more from LEGO House's PaB later on. As ten bricks wasn't enough height, I added some pieces of wormhandles machinery to the base; round, organic shapes with some suspicious piping. The base itself is a block of tan pieces. Inside there are four boat weight blocks, keeping the point of balance low and thus making the model safer to display. I think it's also worth noting that the the figure rests on single 1x2 brick hinge (with four studs on top). Helppo nakki, as they say here.

-Eero.

 

Captain Nemo

Today's creation is based on a comic book that is based on a novel, or to be precise, a whole age of literature. Captain Nemo appeared in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in 1870. Over hundred years later, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill adapted the character to their League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series. Nemo is a son of Indian Raja, a veteran of Sepoy Rebellion against the British imperialists, and a brilliant engineer who designed Nautilus submarine, and in the comic series, its follow-up Nautilus II with amazing design reminding a sea squid gripping a sperm whale. In the comic, Nemo is interesting and conflicted character with hatred to the British empire but thirst of adventure, even on behalf of his hatred enemies. He has, of course, plenty of brilliant inventions and gadgets.

This is, in a way, my second take on Nemo, but the first one was never completed. It was an ongoing project for a year or so in around 2015, but in the end it never flew. In contrast, this model was completed in around two or three days in August. I think it mostly because the development of skill and experience, but sometimes it's just good time for certain build and sometimes not. The previous version had a dark blue coat with dark green turban; and the proportions were bit off, as the shoulder width was wider. There was a upper torso and head and some parts of arms, I think.

This new model was inspired by swirly pearl gold parts I got from LUGBULK. They looked about right for Nemo clothing with includes elements from traditional Indian nobleman attire mixed with nautical themes. Nemo has also variety of attires in the comics, and I close the dark green one in the cover of Volume I. I began with the ornate pearl gold vest. It was larger at first, using four of those swirls, and built studs facing upwards; 1x10 curved slopes in pearl gold were used on its sides. It was trimmed down to make the proportions better, making the torso seven studs wide, and allowing placing the belt and the sash on the right level. Sash in general is a cool type of clothing, and adds pleasant diagonal element to a character, but it's very hard to lay over complex surface without looking awkward: Real sashes are made of cloth and adapt, but plastic bricks hardy doesn't. Same things goes to shoulder straps for sheaths and bags. I've sometimes used small pieces connected to a string like some necklace, but it always feels compromising. In this case, I just arranged the vest details so that the sash made of 1x4 curved slopes days there.

I wanted to bring some silver to contrast with the gold. I pondered different options for the round shoulder pads, as something to fit the shoulder connection (basically a bar hole) in. I settled with couple of tube pieces, which are nicely adjustable. The connection to the arm joint is made with some TECHNIC. The sash and the belt are orange. It's quite a bright shade, but accurate to the original, and felt fitting to the Indian style, working beautifully with dark green. Under the belt hangs straps from the sword belt and the vest, using another swirl part. I'm very happy with the shape of the tail section of the coat. I also ended up making the boots dark brown. It's a beautiful shade for leather and balances the colour scheme better than backward black boots. I'm also happy with their pointy tips.

The arms were an embuggerance. Making the sleeves dark green is a challenge in itself, as the colous doesn't have too much joint pieces. I also wanted to use the swirl parts in the cuff ornaments - it was one of the core concepts of the build - and they were slightly too long for the lower arms. They ended up overlapping the joint (made with round plates and bar-with-1x1-round-plate pieces). This looks bit odd on some poses as there's a gap between them and the sleeve itself. Fortunately the swirls are so exotic pieces that they steal the limelight and hopefully draw attention away from their surroundings... The look okay on the photos.

The head was made in the early part or the progress. The eyebrows are connected under the turban and cover bit of the eyes, giving Nemo some character. Building beards is nice and this one uses variety of parts, including minifig wings (which were also used on the old WIP four years ago), hands, Star Wars handguns, battle droid arms and binoculars. Touch of dark bley and flat silver expresses that Nemo is well aged (he's around 80 in the comics). The turban it itself was challenging to shape, but I'm happy I got it made in olive green, an another nice shade. There's even a little ammonite decoration in it, being accurate to the original. The pearl gold spike thing, in other hand, is simple and straight in the comic, but this design juts looked very good, also referring to the swirly tentacle motif.

Nemo sports variety of gadgets and accessories in the comic, but as in the cover art, here he has a simple cutlass and its sheath. I've used 1x10 curved slope as a cutlass blade before, as it's shape seems essential for this purpose (except for its edge, of course, which is one stud thick and thus very blunt). The crossguard (wrong term as it isn't cross-shapes but I don't know everything) has another swirl piece, which looks great, connected to a small CCBS shell, which looks alright, which is connected to the blade in way that I'm not that happy with but I didn't have better ideas. The dark brown sheath with silver tip draws back to the shoulder pads and the boots, balancing the colours. As the final note, Captain Nemo has black gloves as I didn't have any good brown finger options in brown. Reddish brown skeleton arms would be nice recolours, however unlikely. I had brown hands with those black fingers when I started the photographing session, but as it looked simply cheap and random I switched to full gloves.

-Eero