Lego Moc - Blog Posts
✨I made a carrd✨
A friend of mine said I could use it — they were right !
Essentially, I now have all of my published MOCs sorted by theme in a single place (as well as a few unpublished ones !)
Here it is : https://enteroctoups-darkysils.carrd.co/ !
It also feature some none-Lego photographs, too, feel free to take a look.
Small, unnecessary update bellow the cut :
I’m gonna have to remove the 'one post every Wednesday', for multiple reasons : firstly, I’m gonna start a long maths cursus which won’t leave me much time to build — or even to post; and, beside that, I’m running out of MOCs ! I still have a few, which I will probably work on and queue so that they appear semi-regularly. I received just earlier today part of the pieces I’ll need for my final(?) MOC. And it’s a big one. Well anyway, I’ll be off to work on it now ! Thanks for reading this far~
✨Brick separators !✨
Run, they have teeth now !
This is a silly project I did ages ago; given that I've officially been posting for a year straight each week (ignoring my disappearing space station post, ahem), I thought it would be nice to post that little guy whose view welcomes me every morning.
And, sure, it's not my finest work, by far, albeit I could go on a rant about the many fun technics I used (look at the horn !). But that's alright !Why ? Because the main goal of legos is not to build extravagant looking buildings, or ships, and landscapes. I don't even need to give a profound answer to what it's meant to be; everything is in the title :
"The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It's our name and it's our ideal." - Lego.com 'About Us' page
In the end, it's just a toy, and what you build with it is not important, as long as you had fun making it ! The pieces I enjoy the most are the one that come to me as a vision that I develop, and I appreciate them much better than some of my (arguably better) commissions I get (because, yes, that somehow happens), because commissions are not spontaneous.
The morale of the story, I guess, is that you don't have to hesitate if you want to build something, no matter how silly it is, no matter it's your first or hundredth moc; and you should be proud of it, no matter how it turns out, if you had fun with it.
✨Assault on the droid factory (P1) !✨
A decently-sized MOC I've been working on for the past few weeks. These is the landing platform of the factory, and, hopefully, I will take some time to make the actual factory inside, which is nothing more than an idea, at the moment.
Closeups and details under the cut !
The door :
I have a lot of fun with the mountainside of this MOC : It's been a while since I last did rocky terrain (or any terrain at all), and it is an enjoyable process. Most of the bottom is supported by large rock pieces (for structural integrity), but anything around and above the door is meticulously hand crafted from slopes. I also added some little plants here and there to break the dull grey, including some weird spiralling plants, because alien environment.
The door itself is just a bunch of slopes, and then two black sections. It's not moving and will remain in this half-opened state indefinitely.
The bridge :
Really the heart of the MOC, both visually and structurally. While it's covered everywhere, there are technic bars running under the large plates, and that's what allows everything to stay together. Just below the landing platform, you might spot one small antenna acting as a pillar. It's only there to keep the bridge in this position, as most of the charge is held by the mountain. It was a bit dull at first, so I added the cable running under it, and the small barriers, which fit the aesthetic without being overwhelming.
As for the action, here is a brief summary of what story I'm trying to tell : a squad of ARC are infiltrating a droid to destroy it, using a stolen CIS ship. Upon their arrival, they face heavy resistance.
Trying to breath life in these scenes is really fun, and it uses multiple tricks, from the droid falling off the bridge to the one being pushed by the shield, plus the clone jumping on a droid to stab it. Speaking of, here they are !
The clones :
MOC postures :
Rest postures :
Custom clones ! I absolutely love making these, and I still have a lot of similarly customised ones on my shelves. The ARCs from the battle pack look awesome, and even if they all have the same prints and color, it doesn't take much to change their appearance.
Sadly, I couldn't find enough kamas for all of the, so only the first and third ones have one. Same goes for the pauldron, so only the three first have one (plus the fifth, but it's a different kind which, I think, comes from a mando). For visors and rangefinders, the choice was mostly arbitrary, because I have a lot of each, so I tried to guess who of the clones would need them, according to their roles (because they have roles. And names, too ! From left to right : Orders, Surge, Bacta, Gears, and Stalker.) I also used the kneeling posture, which is, essentially, in half my TCW MOCs (just check out this one if you're doubting me. Or if you want to see a really cool thing, too.)
A lot of weapons are at least partially custom too :the left clone's weapon (hands can be attached at the bottom of the weapons as a grip); the Z-6 for the next one (would be better if Lego had black versions of the grey pieces, but alas, they don't exist as of yet), the shield (held together by an actual 2*3 shield piece, and the printed GAR cog is just the perfect piece to go with it), the rocket launcher (as screen accurate as I could do, which is to say not much). I also used a fancy silver knife as a vibroknife, because why not, after all ?
Another worthy addition :
While Lego's default ARC backpacks are pretty cool, I find this technic really nice to add a proper communication antenna : one lever attached to the side of a minifig roller skate piece. The connection is not very secure, but since it's only used for display, it's alright.
The ship :
As some might have seen already, this is a variation of the 8036 separatist shuttle. It is a bit longer than the original, and have more details on top. I changed the original antenna for a fencing sword piece, which looks better, and adjusted the dorsal wing a wing, as well as the side, to add the CIS-stickered pieces.
Mostly, this version has so much more playability than the original : it was only made to accommodate a droid pilot and one passenger. This version can fit : one pilot and one astromech in the front, plus a whole bunch of minifigs in the back; and the two parts are connected. Ironically, it won't ever be seen, but it still is a nice thing to know.
You're still here ? Well, I guess you enjoyed this MOC then. If it is the case, stay tuned, because I still have one big TCW diorama which I need to figure how to showcase, and another one in the making, which will also be terribly hard to showcase, but that will be a problem for later me !
✨Tragon !✨
Trans...dragon..It's funny, right ?- Also, I know it's a wyvern...Dragon sounds better...
It's pride month, so it was the perfect occasion to finally make a dragon, yay ! It's also my first time making something akin to a dragon (technically the second time,, but the first one is truly horrible), and even if the proportion are still a bit out of place, it could have been worse. It's also my first time doing custom wings, but I'll talk about that in more details beneath :}
Also, it needs a name ! I’m really bad with names, but I would gladly take suggestions ! (And here is an alt picture, in its natural habitat-)
Anyways, details/closeups under the cut !
None of these picture below are edited, because it's exam period- Enjoy the green backgrounds :}
I have to say, before any other comment, that I made the body way to heavy for the two poor sockets of the legs. The position above is the only one where it's actually standing upright. Also, my stock of pink and rightly-shaded blue was much smaller than originally anticipated, so I would have done a bunch of tings differently, if it wasn't for that. Still, I was lucky to have that many curved blue pieces for the top part. Well, all of the ones with purple diamonds on them have been forcefully taken from a small Elves dragon, but it was worth it (I also really enjoy the purple here, it contrasts nicely).
All of the joints are mixel socket joints, except for the knees, which are just hinges. It gives a lot of movements, from the tail to the jaw. Even if these are limited, it gives it a wide range of positions (even if, realistically, it won’t change it much from the one I gave it). Still, it can sit ! (Including small trans flag)
The pointy scales on the back are some of the only elements which aren’t directly attacked to the body : one 2*2 plate holds them down, and a modified 2*1 under the plates keeps it from sliding in any other direction, so even with little connections, it doesn’t budge. I really liked these angular pieces. To keep them from being too repetitive, they are only connected to each other by one stud, with a small angle, which gives them a slightly "round" effect.
The tail here is not really complicated, it's just a bunch of socket joints linked together with curved tiles on top (one of the sticker is backward, and it's unnerving, but it's not my fault and I can't risk changing it...), with white arch pieces underneath. Not sure of why I added these in the first place, but it looks cool. And of course, the end of the tail is a big heart, because it simply fits the vibe, doesn't it?
Of course, I can't forget what is the most important, and what makes this creature as cute as it is ! (It is cute, and if that is the hill I have to die on, I will.)
The green background doesn't show it well, but the flame offers a good contrats with the rest of the head, and brings the eyes there first (instead of all the mistakes present). Because there are a bunch of these.
I spent nearly as long on the head as all the other body parts cumulated (except for the wings), because making something detailed yet small enough to be a good head is tough. I actually started from the top (for the piece with the sticker, more exactly), instead of the bottom, like I usually do, in order to get an idea of scale (because I already knew I wanted the jaw to move, and for that I needed to see how big it would be). Then, I did the back to quickly have a neck connection point, to see if it would fit. Because the neck is larger under the connection sockets, the socket of the head is actually pretty high up, but the colours are practically aligned so it works well.
Then, the next thing was the eyes and the spikes. The spikes took me a hile to figure out, because without the rest of the head, they looked kinda dumb, but it does bring the head together when everything is in place. Then the eyes : on the small dragon I took apart, there were these blue tooth pieces which I used to get some texture above them, so that they don't look flat, and then, I connected them to the center connectors of a 2*4 plates. That works well in placement, but I ran into the issue of what would be around. If I didn't do anything, there would be two gaps, which would look terrible. Instead, I stuck two 1*4 tiles in these gaps, and since the tooth pieces are around either side, they don't move - well, not much, they still produce a shaking sound when I'm moving the head.
Then under these plates, I directly have 1*4 pink bricks, which stick out behind the head. At first, it was a problem, and I had nothing else to replace them; but they actually restrict and hold the neck, so that even if the head is technically a bit too heavy, it remains in place.
The actual teeth are modified 2*1 plates, four at the top and four at the bottom. To keep them with such a small gap (and to attach them to either sides of the jaw) I have use modified 1*1 plates with a ring. There is a single one at the bottom, and then underneath a few cut 2*1 and 2*2 curved tiles to make the jaw triangular; and two on top, one which connects it to the head and one with holds the snout (which is using a cheese piece and another one of the blue tooth).
So, custom wings ! It isn't actually complicated, if only a bit tedious. Here below is all that I needed to make them :
As you can see, it's not much. Most important, of course, is a good, solid sheet of paper, and a cutter (precision cutter is better, in my opinion, but anything works). To make things easy (or if, like me, you don't know how to draw properly), you can take a basic lego wing, and trace the outline and where the holes go. I would advise only doing a single, blank one, at first. Once you have your proto-wing, you can start to make the actual frame it will be attached on. I chose to use bricks above it to act as claws, but you can use socket joints, like in most sets. The advantage of using plates is that the overall look is better, but if you want overhangs like I did, you have to get the holes really close to the edge of the wing.
Once you have your frame, trace where the holes would go on it ! (if you used a wing model, it might be easier, but it could also not fit, which is why you make a prototype first). To make holes just the right size, I would advise first cutting squares (easier than circles) at just the right size, then scratching the edges with the blade of the cutter. Once it looks good, try to fit an axle inside. If it just about fits, and can rotate, it's good ! Otherwise, just remove it and scratch again.
When that's done, test if it can correctly fit on your frame. Once that's done, you can either make two wings with that pattern, or simply make another copy. I personally made two new from my first prototype because it took me a while to figure out exactly how to place the holes.
Finally, once you got two wings, you can finally add whatever you want on them (easier when they're not actually on the frame, although that should've been obvious), and you're done :}
I went for a really basic thing, but technically, any shape is possible. I'll likely use it again someday, because it's quite fun !
And of course, the bonus picture, since you’re here ! I like the symbolic of this (also don’t pay attention to the tentacles).
I actually really wanted to get rid of this castle (which was gifted, not exactly desired, although I must admit it’s really well designed), and well. Now, it’s gone, and in its place lies the dragon…and my horrendous crab, too.
✨Bionicle crab !✨
It was, originally, meant to be just another arthropod. However, someone reblogged my previous rahi, along with this comment :
Well, guess what ? Yes, absolutely. I’m glad I saw it because it gave me the inspiration for this monstrosity (and it made me laugh more than I would admit, too). Thanks.
I must recognise that if I compare my rahis, there is a clear pipeline. I don’t think it can go much further in this direction.
Anyways, details/closeups/weird illegal technic I just found out, below the cut !
Front (smol Visorak for scale) :
Because it’s really big. It’s also a good excuse to show off my really fancy and glittery Kanohi. No clue where it comes from but it’s beautiful !
I’m really happy with how mean this things looks, overall. It’s most definitely the bad guy for Toas to fight. It has a really good scale to work with my larger customer Toas [here], but it could also act as a really large rahi for my smaller space-based Toas [here]. Why a large crab stealing Kanohis in space, you may ask ? No idea. I’d have to actually think out a lore for that.
I started the conception with the frame (which does make sense, in theory), then the legs, and finally the shell. This was only partially smart, because that meant I did not account for the shell's mass when building the legs. Essentially, this poor thing can't stand on it's own, so I'm using two technic bars underneath to keep it up right (which are hidden in editing, of course).
Top/Hind (shell) :
I think the shell was pretty decent. I tried to use as little pieces as possible to keep it light, but it's still a lot. Among these pieces can be found one Visorak claw and three Mantax feet, which have a nice texture for organic feet. There is also another foot at the front which comes from an Inika set which I can't seem to find. I'm also using some of these large technic panels, which cover a lot of surface without being too much of a pain to set up (still quite a lot, since they're connected to the feet at at an angle, feet which which are also connected to the frame at an odd angle...) Speaking of Mantax, I alsu used the black-pearl shells, because these, too, have a really organic vibe, and it gave a small touch of pearl which was missing on the body.
I tried to keep the back relatively slick, to avoid something similar to an abdomen since it's not a spider. Still I had to extend it a little bit using the rounded cubical cover, to hide some socket joints, but it's okay-ish.
Neath :
Truly a mess, I must admit. As I started with each side separately, I tried to somehow connect them with the large grey technic frame (in the middle). On either sides, I have a whole bunch of axle connectors, both standard and angled, which allow for the thing to appear rounder than it could have been. The two leg sockets peices at the front are used for the eyes, and the pieces abov (barley visible) is a classic Bionicle shoulders piece clipped backward as a base for the pincers arms.
Pincer :
Or mandatory unusual feet usage. These really works well as any kind of claw or armor, in my opinion. The black arm pieces used here (Hordika leg piece) were particularly good for the job as they technic pin holes in there allowed me to add ad additional socket practically at the same level at the original one (even if I would rather have used black technic bars instead of the light grey ones, but i couldn't find any in my supplies... It's likely the Space station's fault.
Legs :
Or equally mandatory foot out of not foot pieces. Here is a cursed homebrew way to make legs : one Bohrok head part (bricklink call these shoulders ?) to display the piston-like element and serve as structure, linked with Toa Metru legs (which slots above nicely. And then comes the magic trick, for the Rahkshi shells (silveragain, because I have many of these) have a small attachment point toward the end, that is meant to hold the back blades in place; but it also perfectly fits right on the small ledge in the middle of the leg piece ! Granted, it's not a very secure connection, but these two pieces don't need anything else but that to hold. I actually loved this one so much, you can notice two additional Rahkshi shells held similarly on the tope of the crab's shell.
In order to connect the legs individually to the frame, I am using Vahki legs for the exterior limbs, and Pihraka arms for the central ones (these arms have the particular property of having the restrictive sockets on either sides, which makes it good to keep the leg's shape.
The middle sections are made using two simple axle-socket pieces connected by old plates, usually found in technic sets predating the Bionicle them.
…And obviously, I had to make another makeshift studio (I actually really like this one). Have a look at all these terribly assembled elements !
✨Bionicle…Rahi ?✨
Yeah, I’m not sure what that one exactly is…But I like it.
I don’t currently have any other Rahi in stock (well, I do have one but it’s terribly ugly), however I do have one in the making, which might be ready for next week. Else, I have a few other things I might get at (including a fancy idea since it’s pride month, which I’m hoping to manage to pull off…). Of course, if you have ideas, I’d gladly hear them !
Aaanyway, rant aside, building details under the cut !
For once, legs are utterly simple, since they’re all made of a single blade piece. Nevertheless, I had to use feet somewhere, so you might notice that the entire spine is made of feet piled on top of each other. They are only connected near the tail by a single socket.
Speaking of the tail, it’s made of a weapon piece of Nuju Metru, but the connector was all twisted so I couldn’t use it as a proper weapon. Well, it gives some movement to the beast, so it’s a great thing still.
Similarly, the tongue/flame (I’m still unsure of which it is meant to be) is a partially broken Tahu sword. It’s not actually held securely, because it’s inserted in the technic pin connector of the dark red shoulder blade I’m using as the face of the beast. On each side of this piece are silver Bohrok eyes as teeth, which themselves are partially covered with limb armor pieces.
The main body is not actually very complex, because I found a quite large red technic piece which looks somewhat like a throne and acts as a great base (if anyone has any idea where this piece comes from, based on this very unclear description, I’d like to know where it comes from); and four small blades placed horizontally to make the body slightly rounder.
You will notice this Rahi can actually more or less fit in my shelf studio, which is quite remarkable, because it means I don’t have to set up a temporary studio all over again. Might have to do it for the next build, though.
Also, I actually started my spreadsheet for bionicle gens ! (It incredibly tedious..)
✨Bionicle Beetle !✨
Ah, another insect ! Check the other one here.
Does it ring a bell ? The head (and some of the brown parts) come directly and with very few modifications from the Jaller & Gukko set. I never managed to get Jaller, so instead, I turned Gukko into this nice, big Rahi.
Now, of course, detail and the other pictures below the cut !
Front, hind, and neath !
I’m absolutely delighted with how it turned out. First of all, I really like the head which has been intact for as long as I can remember, although I know that I’ll never complete the set because I don’t have Jaller’s Kanohi. What I have plenty of, however, are the pearl grey Rahkshi shells, so you can see that I’ve used three of them on top. Then, I have to find pieces with a good enough curvature. So the next piece is from a Toa torso (Hordika) and the next one is used as a wing/pauldron on different sets, which has a perfect shape. On the sides, I’m using practically only pieces from a brown Vahki.
The underside is quite simple, but I wanted to make sure the colours remained coherent with the head, so I kept this bright brown while trying to make it as light as possible (the six legs are already barely letting it stand).
Under the dual Rahkshi shells, I have a bit of space which could let me add a nice feature, although I don’t know what yet. I planned on making actual elytra, but that would have been too complex, so there is currently nothing.
There isn’t much left to add, since for once, I have made simple legs (only because the body was more complicated…), but I nevertheless want to point out how well the small arm pieces I used to connect body and feet are for insect-like shapes, while keeping it quite mechanical. Just the perfect balance.
Also. Would anyone happen to know if there is a spreadsheet referencing all Bionicle (bonkle ‽-) gens with images and additional infos ? I have done a tremendous amount of research because I can’t remember any of the names properly, and having a single spreadsheet would be easier. AND, if not, would anyone be interested in access in such a spreadsheet ? Because if I do end up making one, I would be happy to share !
Have a nice day :}
✨Bionicle insect !✨
Yay, back to Bionicles MOCs !
I made fewer of these, but here is the first one (other images and additional details below the cut).
I’m still not entirely convinced of the edited photos, but given the size of these MOCs, I didn’t really have much choice but to do how I did. At least the ones with background give a few colours.
Anyway, photos of the left and underside !
This was really a fun one to work with, obviously largely inspired by the Visorak sets (I kept the head piece and the claws), but with more legs !
The claws are combined with feet to add some shape (the two pieces work quite well together) to the end of the legs, then I made of 4 joints articulations to give it a proper insect-like stance. The middle legs are slightly longer (using a long transparent blue piece, instead of the small dark one), which makes it less linear.
I kept the disc of the Visorak, held in place by…a broken Pirahka headpiece. Yes, I’m not exactly very original in my techniques, and I have a lot of these broken pieces. As you might see in the third picture, I have the secondary connectors of that piece attached to the belly of the beast, so to speak.
Although, speaking of techniques, the one I’m using for the 'tail' is not exactly recommendable. It’s a bit tough to see, but there is an elastic band attached to the foot used as a tail part on the third picture. It’s the only element which connects the end of the tail (shiny Visorak claw in second picture) to the rest of the body, which makes it wobbly but offers some interesting movements if needed.
Oh yeah, I also used Vakama’s disc launcher again, as mandibles this time. I originally tried to make a transparent blue disc (from all promotional sets) inside, but it doesn’t fit well enough).
I’m considering making another in another colour, but I’ll have to see if I even have enough ressources to do so~ Maybe green and silver, since these are pieces I have a bunch of, or black and silver…Only time will tell.
✨Space ships (and hangars, too !) !✨
(Or, last post for the space station)
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Under the cut are closeups of (practically) all ships and hangar from the station !
Before anything, the third post is somehow completely gone, even if I do have proofs that I did do it. Well, it was already posted late, and I don’t have the courage to do it again — and it’s not like people would care much anyway, so how this station is holding up will remain a mystery~
Anyway, closeups.
Hangars (groupes by similarities)
This first batch here contains the 'empty' hangars. Left is meant to be a closing/opening hangar, which I usually keep in the back because it's not the most interesting one; while the right one is the bare hangar. There are two of these across the ring, in which I sometimes pluck a ship, though it's hard to keep them in place because of the station's inclination.
Next is a batch of random boxes and other scifi-y grates and boxes. To keep the boxes in place, I use modified 1*1 bricks (because the floor is is made of horizontal pieces, aligned with the outer tiles). Minor variation are present in the middle hangar, where a third of the floor is composed of 1*2 modified bricks to add a tiny bit of texturing. While these might a tad repetitive displayed like above, they actually are separated by three other different hangars, so the repetition is barely visible.
A bit similar to the previous ones, these have (in my opinion) more interesting details. Left is two racks of large barrels, supposedly fuel. Middle had another barrel (made with flowers pieces) and a yellow cable, which was surprisingly hard to add because it pushed the back plate (which holds a lot of the hangar together). The last one is a stack of long crates, and an observation deck (I'm guessing the original sticker comes from a small star destroyer).
Last batch, and probably the best of all, the containers (scaling from not too crowded to very crowded). These are the same size as the big ship's. There are very few attachment points to the ground, as most of them are held by other containers above or bellow, although the middle hangar had two modified 1*4 bricks in the floor. The original plan was to get them all aligned, but it looked terrible, so I went for this more haphazard placement, which works better.
Ships
These first two are the smallest of my little fleet. The top one is two 2*1 plates held by black 1*1 mod plates. It's small, it's smooth, and it works quite well with the station. I'm probably gonna make other of these in different colours someday.
The next is one of the first I made, using some shiny pieces. The two chromatic studs on the reactors are differently shades of chroma silver on purpose because this is meant to be a much older ship (compared to other most of the other, smoother ships).
This is a much larger one. More of a military design, I mostly played with angles on that one (and added big reactors for fun purposes). The transparent light blue used here is the same as the fuel barrels of the station, and are the most used on the ships I have. Lore would say it's because it's the most common fuel used in the universe; pragmatism would say it's because it's the most common transparent colour in my boxes.
More blue reactors ! The top one is my one of my favorite. Only 7 pieces, including an old aquaraiders piece which I had to use as a ship the moment I found it. It's simply ship-shapes ! Given the colours, you could imagine it's an old model (not as old as the small one). The bottom one is a very thin one, with a Y piece which can allow for many cool shapes (like this one) !
Weird alien ships ! The first one is curvy~~ It's a nice concept which is quite common, but I really like the idea, and thus made one. Notice the green reactor this time, because alien fuel. Next one is more organic (or at least trying to), using mostly car pieces (and an orange reactor, wew !). It's also quite compact, with a single mod 1*1 brick as the core. The final one is by far my favorite (and not only because it has a purple trail). While hard to because of my lighting, the three main parts of the ship are separated by clear studs. I originally made it without the in-between studs, but then it fell the the floor, broke, and separated, and it looked much more futuristic. Consider this a very advanced ship of a peaceful species, or something like that.
✨Trade space station !✨
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Today’s gonna be about the progress of the build in time, which allows me to ramble about the building process. Yay !
Before actually commenting the build. You may notice chocolate and my (empty) tea mug. They should be apparent in most of the earliest pictures (there was not enough space on the table for them at the end of the project, sadly~
So, here, you can see that my first step was to see the scale of my project. The template of the large ring to see how much space it would take, and the small ring to see how round I could make it (and at the bottom, you can see the white curved pieces. Enjoy this view, it won’t last.)
You can also notice above that I already stared making some small ships.
The next day ! You can see on the left my long rod. This was the ideal height for the central cylinder. I also created the first core of the build (replaced later because too fragile), and the first arms to hold the ring (too fragile too).
Progress ! This is the moment I realised my original color scheme would not work (you can see orange and bright green on the side, which I tried before the sand green).
I had half of the big cylinder added (you can see the slots left for the additional details) and another naked half on the right side. And my collection of boxes on the table is growing. It’s only getting worse after that.
See ? More boxes (and pieces) scattered all around. And a hammer, too. I at this point mostly finished the big cylinder (or so I thought, some reinforcements were necessary), started the smaller cylinder, and realised white pieces were running out. I also still haven’t touch the ring yet, as I wanted to stay focused on one bit.
Mostly done with the cylinders at the point (you can even see the start of the smallest one on the right side). Agin the boxes grow ominously.
Since it was time to start the ring, I created a replica of a sixth of it. Given that there were twelve sections, I wanted to be sure of the design before starting to build them all, starting with the facade. It took some fiddling around (you can see these aren’t symmetrical, as I was trying out different designs). Really, if you have this kind of things to do, try to make it in a vacuum first, you’ll gain a lot of time later, once the prototype has every problem answered (mine were mostly the curve, and the link between each plates (solved with mod 1*2 black plates).
See ? After the prototype was done, I simply built all of the facades and attached them (you can see my 1*4 curved pieces were all missing at the time though).
I kept the prototype on the side, because I’ll still need it later. I also am missing half of the ring (the part above, since there is only a structure below), because I was not sure of how everything would fit, and I waited until these parts were assembled before making it, in case adjustments were needed.
Here is the top part ! And all the hangars done, too. It took me a surprising amount of time to do all twelve of them…
Huge progress ! There is no more room on the table for the boxes, but you can see them…on the floor, on the left…Lot was done, from the bottom cylinder now finished along with its ring, the covering pieces of the big ring (except the internal faces), the hat of the station, and a huge reinforcement for the six arms, which was done separately). At this point, except for a few details, the station itself is finished.
And there is a picture taken moments before disaster. The station is done (ignoring the transitions between cylinders) the arm…supposedly, too.
Sadly, the arm wasn’t, in fact, finished. If you read the first post, you will notice it isn’t as bulky, and isn’t attached on baseplates yet.
Well, guess what ? When I finally tried to see if the arm would hold onto the station, it broke. Rather, two pieces broke, then the rest came down, and so did the station, which shattered on the floor below. Luckily for me, the main cylinder was so dense it practically completely survived. Most of the hangars of the rings only broke section per section, so it only took a few hours to get it back together, but much more time to make the arm solid. And now, it can hold the station for ten hours without flinching ! So, here is a lesson. If something you do fails when you do it with your heart, let the rage flow through you and build it back out of spite. It works* !
*don’t hold me accountable for any failure using that method
✨Trade Space Station !✨
[1/4] >Next>
Finally...More than 60 hours of work, I can present my masterpiece. I have been working and planning this project for a long time. Given the sheer amount of things to talk about, I will split all of my rambling in (at least) four posts : one about the concepts, ideas, and general aspect (you're here !); one about the technical side of things; one depicting how the project evolved (using pictures taken during the construction); and one dealing with all the smaller details, ships, and such.
Enough with planning, though. Explanations, other images and more explanations below the cut !
(less) edited picture of the build :
So. You might see, now that I got rid of all that pesky editing (or most of it) that there is a big arm holding the thing in place. It's easily a fifth of all the work of this build, because I absolutely wanted to hold this thing at an angle, and it's heavy, at around 15 kilograms (33 pounds). I'll talk about the technical difficulties of that in a later post, but it was important for it to be solid, because the station was the central piece of my second ever (very small) lego exhibition. AND it allowed me to meet the recruiter of a much larger exhibit. Long story short, in a month, I'm presenting this piece again (just before my exams, whoops-).
Anyway. Not only is it heavy, but it's also quite tall and wide. Around a meter at the highest point (tilted or not), while the diameter of the main ring is at around 0.75m. Quite a difficult thing to move around. Or is it ? Well, yes and no.
Here are all the main components (excluding the holding arm), when I move the piece around. Of course, all the ships are detachable (it allows me to move them around from one day to the other), but the dome carrying the antenna can also be removed, and then, the entire ring can be disconnected (that, too, was quite a challenge).
Removing the ring obviously makes it waaay easier to transport, because a single wooden plank can then be used (again, except for the arm, but that thing was made to be sturdy, so it can be transported with less care); and , once the dome is removed, I can just let the central cylinder stand upside-down (useful for storage). The only trouble I found with this system is that I once connected the ring the wrong way around, meaning everything in the small hangars was upside down. Quite an embarrassing moment.
Speaking of the hangars, I initially wanted to keep them all empty, to store ships inside, but it didn't really offer this piece the sparkle of life. Setting up these small decors inside most of them, with colors contrasting with the general theme of the build, was actually a really good addition.
The colour scheme as it is now is not exactly the one I had planned at the start of the project. I originally planned on using bright light orange (bricklink colour name) instead of sand green, but I found out that this colour was tough to find in large quantities, and I already had quite a bunch of the sand green, so this tragic decision was made. I think it would have offered a more vibrant colour to the build (resembling a Subnautica default palette, which I enjoy quite a lot), but in hindsight, the green works really well, appart from a small detail I'll expand on in a minute.
What's really funny for this project is that, when it started, I actually only wanted a nice way of showcasing all the little space ships that I tend to make whenever I have access to a small amount of cool pieces. Then came a long time where I only daydreamed about it and planned how I would want it to go, and only when I had a clear vision did I start the actual building process. So, taking all that into account, you can probably double the amount of time I spiritually spent on this project.
What I knew is that I wanted to get this huge ring held by beams to the station's body, which made the build both more interesting and more complicated that it would have been. But the challenge was appealing.
At first, the main body was completely flat and white, but I soon had to add texture, both because it was becoming ugly and because the 2*2 white curved slopes were starting to diminish fast. The first modifications I did were to add the sand green curved slopes instead to create stipes, then letters : the big A-2 you can easily spot. With the few bits of lore that I have created for this piece, you have to imagine that there are hundreds of these stations spread in the galaxy, which can be easily described through 3 criteria : the Letter, the Number, and the Colour. That would mean that, if you wanted to meet with someone at the exemplar I made, you would say something along the lines of 'Meet you at Sand Green A2'.
Texture-wise, the other element of the largest cylinder is the exposed bits of machinery, very classic in sci-fi, I know, but it does work well in this context. The second cylinder has much less textures, with only a few grates, and some 2*1 ingot pieces (because they look cool); but it also has its own, smaller ring (diameter slightly larger than the largest cylinder's).
Then come the smaller cylinders, which don't have much texture, except in their transition from one to another (barely visible in any of the pictures, but it exist).
Overall, I'm also really happy of how round it looks, given that circles are not my speciality.
Here is a completely unedited picture of the support arm (Lewa for scale), with a nice counterweight which might be necessary to hold the entire thing in place (it may not be, but I'm not trying to remove it. Bad idea.).
As you might notice, my studio is not a shelf anymore. I built something new from scratch with a green screen, because I thought it would make my editing job easier. And it would have, if I didn't use sand green in my build. Anyway, I'm keeping this for a few days, to snap some pictures of the MOCs which don't fit in my shelve (and are not green, meaning editing will be easier.
Here is the 'studio' from an outside point of view :
I know it's quite a mess outside of my clean perimeter, but I do as I can. You can see one light in the foreground, but there is also one (less visible in the background), symmetrical to the first one, and a third one behind and above the camera (outside of the picture).
You may also notice a lot of sorting boxes. Sorting pieces can greatly improve your productivity, if you label all your box correctly. Covered by the greenscreen is essentially a shelf full of these sorting boxes, labelled by colour and piece type, and it was really practical. Anyway. Thank you for reading until this point, I guess ? If you survived through all this rambling, you probably deserve something...
I mean- Have these pictures I took during the exhibition, I guess...
(You can notice that these are two different days because of the ships’ placement).
✨Custom air Toa !✨
6/6, that’s the last one ! And the biggest one, too-
Closeups under the cut !
Front/back views
As you might notice, it is tall. And it has more than four limbs, which would not be a problem if it was the only one. But. It appears that all my green mocs end up with too much limbs, and I can’t fathom why. Really, another prototype standing on my desk also has for and so does the green hero factory one…You get the idea.
Anyway, the colour scheme for this one is dark green and silver, with some translucent bright green accents. Using only bright green would have brought too much contrast with the others Toas (notably the dark red one), but I had these cool pieces to use and no one else to put them onto. And since these are experimental…
The two supplementary limbs are intended as movement claws, given that we usually see air Toas moving in jungles (Lewa mostly, that is). The silver pieces at the front and back ends are respectively Kopaka’s skis and Pohatu’s foot pieces (shoes ?). The largest bits are made out of technic pieces directly, to give some simple angles.
Bust views
I find this silver/green chest piece really cool, it’s a shame I don’t have much of them. The two bright pieces on either sides are Vahki head pieces, and since their only connectors are on their relative tops (side of the piece in their actual orientation), you may remark that they are connected to nothing. I’m having the arm socket go through them, and the rest of the body’s shape avoid too many movements. While nice, this also limits the movement range of the arms, but it works well enough (these are not really made to play, anyway~). The two bright pieces with spikes are from a Ehlek. Wish I could have managed to put that one back together, but it instead served a higher purpose.
The Kanohi is Hordika Matau’s, with transparent Bohrok eyes underneath (it share this technic with my previous white Toa). The back piece is coming from a Piraka, but it’s actually a broken piece. I have quite a bunch of these, where the mask and flexible parts have broken off, so I make the most of it (like you might see in the future on another MOC). I’m using technic angle (type 3, to be precise) to keep the shape of the middle ones, but the others are free.
Finally, a (dismantled) leg view.
Finally, the leg segment !
The Toa was too big for proper leg showcase, my lights created terrible contrasts (shelf not deep enough…), so here is a stand alone leg instead.
Once again I have integrated the Metru chest piece to the leg, but as a foot this time. It offers a good stability and looks nice.
The next part doesn’t have much interesting bits, except that I’m using technic tubes to hold the additional piece, making this technic less illegal that my usual works (keyword : less; there is still a whole lot of stress on these poor pieces).
The top part is…somewhat more complicated. The frame is of technic pieces (like the additional limbs), which keeps together an immobile socket joint which keeps the double socket and two Bohrok feet (one for decoration, one connected to the hip socket). The double socket is used both to connect the two halves of the leg and to hold the small arm piece which is here only for decoration.
And that’s it for this series ! I’m hoping to bring them to next month’s exhibition, along with some Bionicle MOCs I haven’t showcased here because…shelf…Given the sheer size of my big project (posted here next week in theory), I’m gonna have to improvise something quickly, and profite of it to get some pictures of my other big ones while I’m at it. Eh, I’ll figure it out (and if I don’t, I’ll just delete that statement later :}
Thanks for reading, have a good day !
✨Custom earth Toa !✨
It’s spiky ! And we’re now at 5/6 !
More below !
Front/back :
He’s spiky ! Some might have already noticed I took for base the old Von Nebula set, because I acquired it recently and it worked well, plus the joints are interesting. Pretty much everything else was change, though I kept the mask, sphere, and spiky plates. These were nice, and even if stone colours are usually black and purple, but blue works well too.
I relocated the sphere directly in the thorax so that it looks like some kind of core. The back is mostly composed of two large car pieces.
The hands are using black pieces to make them larger, which works well with the blue blades (which supposedly come from either Chima or Hero Factory, I can’t remember).
Leg :
Another type of Bohrok piece to act as feet ? Yes. These are the head pieces, and they work well with a classic foot as a back piece. The piston in the leg was there originally, but I covered it with these large technic panels and some other technic pieces.
There is also an interesting mechanism to stop the legs from doing too odd moves on top, which can have some interesting applications. Here, I’m wondering about removing them to gain a larger range of movements though.
Head :
Kept the original mask and teeth, but with a cable and a spider’s claw to elongate it.
This picture also allows for a clear view of how much dust has accumulated. Don’t judge me, these are on a top shelf which isn’t the easiest to clean…
Also, my project is now finished (officially) ! I went to a small exhibition with it this weekend actually, and…a recruiter from a much larger exhibition found it good enough to offer me a place next month (I’ll post it here once the bionicle series is done) ! I also brought some of my pride flags, which seemed to be doing their effect, so I’ll bring more next time. So overall, yay !
✨Custom stone Toa !✨
Yay ! It’s so big there are shadows on the top of my shelf studio.
Also, we’re already at 4/6 for these, isn’t that crazy ? I think it is.
Details below the cut !
Front/back :
I had some kind of vision with this one. As I started messaging by around with pieces, my brain said 'scorpion'. So mandibles and tail (and that’s about where the scorpion resemblance ends). Of course, I had to keep an element of Pohatu, so his foot is the end of the tail (which is quite wobbly-).
I tried to vary shapes from what I had previously, so I made some big shoulder parts, which look okay and offer some interesting movements, but are pretty weird if you think about it too hard.
The body-legs connection is a bit thin, but it still kind of work with the overall design, so I left it that way (that, and I am running out of brown pieces…)
The weapon are simple sticks with harpoons (?), nothing too complicated, though it was meant to be a single stick originally, it was waaaay to long for the photos. Also, has anyone any idea of which set these harpoons (still '?') come from ? I can’t seem to find it, apparently.
Side shot :
As you may see, I’ve made all the limbs quite thick, because it fitted what I had in mind well, and I messed with a bunch of old pieces for the legs (mostly the sand pieces). There is also have a Bohrok’s body for each foot, because these work surprisingly well, and the middle segment of the leg is backward to give some hypothetical springiness to the legs. Also, Rahkshi feet as armor, that’s always a good recipe.
Head shot ! (Ah, that’s funny.)
Look at how dark that shot is ! If only I had taller shelves…
Anyway, the head is a mix of Rahkshi and Vahki heads, which mix well (there is also a gear underneath. Don’t ask me why. It just exists.)
All of that makes it looks like a V2 Rahkshi (when there is a single stick) which was pretty much on purpose.
On a side note, I’m pretty much done with my big project (which is good, I’m meant to expose it this weekend. Whoops, that’s suddenly very close.)
And, yes, I finally added the #moc, thank you for reminding me every time, I’ll add it from now on :}
✨Custom ice Toa !✨
And another one ! If the others were already experimental, this one is much, much more-
Closeups under the cut !
Front/back views :
That one was a lot of fun ! But it’s also not really stable, considering there are some weird piece combinations. This one also has disproportionate legs, compared to the rest of the body, but it’s alright.
With that one, I really tried to remain within Kopaka’s spirit (notice the ski blades and the Kanohi). The bow and arrow (which doubles down as a lance, and is using one of Kopaka’s blades), is a weapon I don’t think has been used before in the original bionicles (correct me if I’m wrong).
The arms/hands are using Pridak’s feet, because it works well and still allows for large movements.
I used some darker white pieces on the back and shoulders to get some slight contrats, and used technic pieces on the chest to get a proper body shape, with a leg piece underneath.
Legs :
(Too) Many details on the legs ! The blades under the feet are a combination of Kopaka Nuva’s blades and Glatoran blades, which also hold a shoulder piece used as a supplementary leg pieces.
Now is the here we enter the mess : all of the ankle sockets you can see are not used for the articulations, and are only here to keep the back piece in place (Star leg), while the actual socket is behind the technic gear plate. Then there is a socket which doesn’t even have a ball, it is directly stacked on top of another socket, and I use multiple feet to cover the leg areas which would expose how terrible the inside is. At the front, you might also notice a 1*2 curved slope tile held by two technic pins. It’s floppy, and it looks weird from the side, but the front appearance makes it worth it. Finally, at the front, I also use part of a Vahki’s head as a final plate, before we finally reach the connection between the legs and the body. As I said, that whole part is a mess.
Head :
Tried to remain close to Kopaka’s appearance here too, by adding a X-ray vision thing, but the most important part is that the Kanohi is Hero Factory Stormer’s mask, but sideways. The trans blue pieces are Borhok eyes, which fit perfectly, and I managed to cram a socket connector inside, making the head quite mobile and sturdy.
Next week is another one ! Not sure which of the three it will be, but I haven’t decided which one yet (tell me if you have a preference~).
I also finally received my new parts, meaning I can get back to working on my big project, yay !
✨Custom water Toa !✨
Another one ! (Slightly less giant)
Details below the cut !
Front/back views
That one, too, is experimental, albeit in another style. I tried to remain closer to actual Bionicle size this time. Many fun details and technics here, so we’ll go from the feet all the way toward the head.
So, starting with the feet ! I have a complex of normal feet and Visorak legs held by a single connector. They have a wide angular range, but given that the connector connecting the socket to the feet is alone, a foot can also have a 360 rotation angle horizontally (not natural-)
The legs don’t have much special traits, except the upper legs using two socket with axle holes on top and a silver foot as armor on the side.
The body is where things get interesting. The Rahkshi silver shell is held by the silver claw above it at a chest plate, while part of the back is hidden behind a Rahkshi foot. The body is very triangular because it’s framed by these sockets with a silver piece in the middle, which gives it a nice aesthetic. The arms are an equivalent, with some tubes directly in the shoulders to offer a flexible piece which also limits the movements.
Finally, the head is not a head. I’ve made it like that because of the translucent Kanohi, that way it looks brighter, the inconvenient being that the backside of the head is quite literally an empty shell.
Now for the lower part of the arms : no socketed hand because who needs hands when you have a trident (bident ?) ! The main piece obviously comes from a Rahkshi, and the magic is wishing the silver connector. It used to be a lightsaber hilt from the larger Star Wars figs, but it looks good practically everywhere, including here !
Also, here below is a picture of the angle range of the arms (not much, oops).
✨Custom fire Toa !✨
Yay, yet another custom bionicle ! And a big one this time !
Details below the cut !
Front/side views :
I’m using Vakama Metru’s kanohi for that one, as it’s pretty good shape-wise and there are few dark-red kanohis anyway.
Anyway, this was a lot of fun to make, and this time starting with absolutely nothing. Most of the bright red pieces were added at the end to give a bit of contrast. You might recognise some Stars elements, as well as some Bohrok elements from an unknown set, and even a very old piece from the precursors of Bionicle.
If you pay attention to proportions, the legs are completely messed up (bottom part too small, higher part far too long). It’s fixed on all the others of this series, luckily. Given it still works visually, I kept it that way.
The weapon is a mix of a cool disc launcher, with the flame sword from Stars set, to make…what you want it to be. I initially said it was some type of crossbow, but to be fair, it doesn’t look like anything at all.
Just like the others I have shared so far, I am doubling some limb pieces to quickly give some thickness. On the higher part of the legs, though, I have used the body
Most of this is quite experimental, from the feet to the higher parts of the legs using Vakama Metru’s body piece (it’s a fun one to work with).
And, yes, maybe I will be spreading this over 6 weeks to get enough time to finish my current project (currently waiting for important parts to arrive…), and because I am running out of content faster than I can make it, but well.
To pardon me, take this picture I took to see if the articulations had a good enough range :
A tangent about hexagons
Because the project I’m working on brought it, I found it interesting, and I thought some people might need it.
So, as I’m working on a quite large project (hopefully done by next week, although I have doubts on that), and the base structure of it is more or less hexagonal. Anyway, here are some of my tips to get good hexagonal shapes.
The easiest way to do this is obviously with hinges and plates, like that :
While not necessarily accurate, it’s cheap and efficient, albeit squishy, and can be expanded to any size.
Instead, we can go the technical way, and use maths, by considering that a hexagon is the combination of 6 equilateral triangles. We end up with this :
Practically unbreakable, very stable, and can be made with as much technical bricks as possible, so it is easily expandable, but it’s harder to attach it to classic bricks.
So, none of these two designs are really good alone, whether on pure usability, or on durability. Alone, that is. Now, here is the fun part : thanks to the way Lego works…
…they work together ! And, with some modified 2*2 plates, they mostly hold to one another ! Isn’t that awesome ? What’s more is that, while I’m using 2*4 plates and a 7 holes technic bars, that also works with 2*6 and 11 holes bars, which is good.
Now, let’s apply this knowledge to make a solid prism with an hexagonal base :
By using a bunch of plate and two of these hexagonal bases, we get a hollow tube, which is solid through the hexagons, but can still break because of a diagonal force. To fix that, we need to add supports between the supports, like so :
This also means that this design becomes stackable. Congrats, you made a long hexagon tube ! It can also be round, with the right modifications, notably with 2*2 curved tiles :
It fits perfectly, and it’s good to make solid near-circles !
Sorry for the photos’ quality !- They were taken quite late with my phone, and without proper lighting.
✨Progress pride flag !✨
Yay ! Finally some colours ! This was definitely trickier to do, compared to all the other ones, because of the triangles, but I like how it looks !
See previous here.
✨Clone wars diorama !✨
Another one, technically the largest I have posted (yet~), featuring the 212th and a (placeholder) Jedi.
Of course, closeups and additional details below !
Views from directly in front/above :
Before I continue, I must confess it. This horrendous mistake, which you might spot by paying close attention to the right part of the image.
Yes. I somehow created an offset on the entirety of the wall’s height.
Overall, I’m quite happy with this one, mostly the environment, which turned out great (except for the offset….). What I’m not really sure leases with are the cheap AT-RTs from the battle packs, which are too bulky, but it works well enough for the moment, and since I’m not exposing to any connoisseur, it does the job.
Most of the minifigs are from these battle packs too, except for the Jedi, which is actually a savage oppress with a cloak, but every time I try to just remove the minifig, it feels like something is missing. The paratrooper captain has the hold grey kama and pauldron which always work well, even if it could have done with an additional visor.
Anyway, let’s get going with the closeups !
AT-RT scenes :
On the left, an engineer (my favorite kind of clone) fixing a broken down leg, with the help of one of the pilots. It was hard to get the minfigs in a 'lively' position, and the photo doesn’t render it correctly. The small white backpack is a piece I’ve stolen from the 501st specialist pack, because it’s nice.
On the right, a paratrooper with a completely inaccurate rocket launcher (the clone wars’ ones don’t look as cool, though). I quite like the way this part came together, even if it’s just a small detail.
Explosion scene :
I’ll admit it’s my first try with building explosions, and I’ll hopefully improve.
On the right, the clone says hi ! Well. No. He doesn’t, but it’s what he looks like on the photo, which I funny, I’ll admit, but not the image I wanted to convey, even if technically he’s set properly, as a projectile caused by the explosion.
The picture on the right convey the feeling of movement much better, with the clone shooting on the left, the others running along, and the paras being blown.
Other scenes :
The focus on the left is the droid ! I really like how it’s sprawled over that rock. Other droids can be found in the diorama, notably one being crushed by the rocket launcher AT-RT, partially under a rock, and part of one in the explosion.
On the right, we see a paratrooper down (but still fighting !) with, at his side, a medic applying a hypo. While it’s hard to see with this picture, he has a pouch at his side, and some chroma-black legs, because I was missing a pair of legs the medic has prosthetic legs, isn’t that awesome and convenient ? That is a lesson to learn, any lack can become lore ! Well, kind of. It’s what I also did with the Kashyyk MOC : I was missing all but the helmet of my ninth minifig, so I turned it into a grave of the missing squad member.
✨Custom bionicle (again) !✨
Two more from my Ru-Fahi series !
Details and rambling below !
Jaller Ru-Fahi
…Because I couldn’t not include him. Realistically, all Toa Mahri a good to some extent, but this is peak Toa material right here. One of the first I acquired, one of the best looking ones, too. The base body is practically the same as the original, with some twists, but I mostly made him thicker and upgraded his sword, which is better with a guard and a proper handle. Well, that, and the Hannah, obviously. Sure, the original one was cute, but here me out :
Look at it, and behold ! It might be slightly bigger than the original, have only four legs, and need a larger chain (which I found just earlier in a box of misc Hero Factory pieces, and is better than a basic Lego chain), but doesn’t it look very cute and wholesome and dangerous ? Also, I gave it actual joints, because it deserves it, and removed the Kordak blaster because it didn’t need it anymore. I really love making arthropods with bionicle (I have more for later~).
Pohatu Ru-Fahi
Definitely looks awesome. The original is Pohatu Phantoka from the Rockoh T3 set (because I have one and a half of this set). It is the coolest version of Pohatu (because orange>brown, obviously). Lot of modifications on that one, from the custom jet pack to the arms and the legs. The arc pieces for the front arms are more or less of placeholders because I was niece a good piece to make the arms larger, but it turned out alright. The blades are also stolen from the half Rockoh, and the piece underneath, if anyone recognises it, is from Pohatu Nuva, because it’s a neat reference. And the tube is somehow remaining in the Kanohi, despot the fact that there is not any proper connection for it tand hold onto.
Also, can we talk about this leg ? If you ignore how incredibly illegal this whole piece is (ball joint stuck by the light grey part and small black and grey piece not completely connected to the rest), I think that’s the best shape I managed to get so far, and it reflects nicely what I have envisioned (Pohatu being able to run/jump easily because of the shape). And, it had the added advantage of fitting perfectly with the orange piece above when the knee bends.
Last but not least, I also have started a potential candidate for Toa of air, despite a lack of proper Kanohi, even with my extensive collection. My first candidate would have been Lewa Phantoka from the Axalara T9, but this one has a special place in my heart, so won’t be touching it and it will proudly remain in his shelf (along with the untouched Pohatu). So, maybe another of this series soon ! But probably not. And if I miss posting custom bionicle too much, I have a (complete) collection of entirely custom Toa, but I’m afraid they won’t fit in my studio (they’re big, too big).
✨Custom Bionicle !✨
Today (and next week, too) was a good excuse to get these out of their shelf and showcase them (and wipe the dust away, too.
These are my custom/modified Toa Ru-Fahi, which are a reeeally fun project.
Other angles and details under the cut !
Before going any further, I can’t not link this post, because I made the name of these customs out of it, and also because it’s just so good of a work. Just check it out.
Atuaga Ru-Fahi
The most custom of the ones I’ve made for this series, even if some might spot some inspiration from Kongu Mahri. It turned out to be more silver than black, but it nonetheless remains the Earth Toa. I’m quite happy of how it turned out, with the red accents to fit the weapons, and its overall shape. The contours of the body made with tubes are also something I had never done before. One of the techniques I use to get a thicker effect is to superpose two 'limb' pieces on top of each other; but I also have multiple usage of bohrok hand pieces to get rounder effets, with some texture.
The cable going through the mask is connected directly to the shoulders, and it has a purpose which will be explained somewhere underneath. Also, the Kanohi is Norik’s great Pehkui, which is probably one of the coolest of my (extensive) collection.
Gali Ru-Fahi
Have you recognised her ? Probably, I gave her name. Gali’s always been one of my favourites, so I had to include her. More specifically, this one is a modified version of Gali Mistika, because that whole set was already pretty good as is. Here again, probably went overboard with the silver pieces, but oh well. The tubes are connected to the top of the Kanohi, because there were already holes there. With this one, I used arm pieces to get the torso’s shape. The shoulder plates I have not touched, because they’re a nice unique part. The back piece is a Rahkshi’s foot (in shape, because there’s sadly no dark blue Rahkshi).
The weapons are just a long axe covered by a tube, and the heads are stolen from another Gali (the new gen ones).
Lore-wise, I don’t really have anything for these, except that this Toa team is made out of Toa from different teams (chosen arbitrarily for their look) and are fighting is space (hence the breathing tubes, which is the element I keep on all these customs (only two here, but I promise two more next week). If anyone has any idea, I’m open. Considering what else I’ve on my shelves, the bad guys could be giant bugs, but that’s as far as my ideas go.
See you next week :}
✨Bouldering wall !✨
I reeeally wanted to make one of these at some point, but never took time. Incidentally, I got commissioned — is it even a commission if it’s for a relative and I’m not paid ? — so there is is !
Closeups and details under the cut, of course !
Closeups :
So ! This was a lot of fun to make, with some really interesting techniques. The first thing is that overhang with an increasing angle at the top. A large part of it is just a big plate connected to the base by hinges, while the second part is connected to the first one, instead of the based, to make sure that when something break, everything break only attach one plate to the base, to provide a thin finition. The holds have nothing particular, except perhaps that some start 'in' the wall while some are on it, which is here to pretend there are micro holds — possibly the worst invention of the story of bouldering/j. The top layer of the wall is finished by 1*1 held horizontally by the outside the plates. Speaking of, the triangular plates holding these 1*1 are not connected to the rest of the outside plates at all. Instead, they’re connected directly to the overhang, which keeps the plate at that approximative angle.
But of course, the most important detail : the minifig hanging with its bare hands ! I knew from the start that I wanted it to be in that type of position, and the choice of purple holds came easily (it’s defining one of the hardest level for the bouldering center we usually go to). Of course, I wasn’t in possession of any purple piece a minifig could grab, because that would have been way to easy. So instead, I used magic science a trick, which you might have seen if you pay close attention to the hands of the fig. The 'trick' in question is that I managed to get my hands on a thin elastic thread, which is around the fig’s wrist in a loop, and then is stuck between the purple stud and the round grey tile — which, by the way, makes for the second worst type of holds in bouldering : rings — and since these pieces are on the second overhang, the rest of the thread is hidden, and not stuck between two plates, unlike what I did in my Carrion MOC, which tends to dealign pieces, which leads to broken MOCs (not the Carrion one because there’s too much tension for it to break), which I don’t want because this is meant to end up as a gift for someone I won’t be able to visit often to make maintenance, so it has to be sturdy (and it is !).
✨Yet another combat mech !✨
A bit of laziness here, I couldn’t bring myself to get proper pictures, so I got old ones from when one of my LEDs broke, hence the blueish lighting-
Lore and closeups below, and previous work here !
Mech closeups :
Pilot closeup :
Lore time (world explanation in previous works..) !
So, Scorcher (the mech) is terrifyingly large, next to most others, which is already impressive, but it’s also one of the most equipped ones on the field : large circular saw, flamethrower, integrated calculation computer, you named it. The only real weak point is the reservoir in the back, which is what the flamethrower is powered by, and it’s hard to reach because one has to get behind Scorcher to get it.
The pilot is well equipped too, with last gen holographic equipment and a powerful high resolution display helmet, under which he somehow manages to fit all his hair. But he’s not alone, since he also have an entire team behind him (called Dragon, for obvious reasons), which helps him during and outside of combats, making this make one of the bests there are.
Unrelated to the lore, the large dome used for the head falls off every time I try to move something. It may have plot armor in the lore, but in real life I think a fly could beat it. Most of these joints are rigid, except at the waist, which is a mistake I probably won’t make ever again, it’s terrible. I’m also glad I stole the arms of another minifig for this one, because it was quite bland with purely red arms.
✨Santa’s sleigh !✨
I showed last week the Christmas tree I made last year, now is time for what I did for 2023 !
Closeups and commentaries beneath the cut !
Sleigh closeups :
Reindeers closeups :
Santa :
SO. Had a lot of fun with that one. The sleigh doesn’t have much exciting parts, except the blades, which are actual blades (Ninjago sabers, to be precise). The back is filled with presents from top to bottom, so they can be rearranged to give a different look each time it’s put together.
The part connecting the sledge to the reindeers probably could use the help of an iron wire to keep its shape (a neath technique I’ve used for a flower in another one of my builds to make the bendable pieces stronger), and the threads between the reindeers is a very cheap finition, but in my defence, I was on a time limit.
Reindeer-wise, I’ve hesitated whether to give them all a red nose, but they didn’t look nearly as cute without. And the antlers, I must admit, are very unsteady, because they’re illegally connected, but this was the best way to keep a small overall shape.
Finally, the Santa minifig was probably, and surprisingly, one of the hardest parts of this MOC, because the parts I stole borrowed to other minifigs were spread in multiple places, and I didn’t have one of the official Santa minifigs. So most of the piece come from different Star Wars advent calendars (mostly Darth Vader and C-3PO).
✨Christmas tree !✨
…Yes, it’s a very tall picture…So tall, in fact, that you can actually see the top of my shelf studio. I made this last year, and I think it’s about the time to showcase it, along with this year’s project, which I’ll post next week !
Fun fact : the top of the tree isn’t connected at all to the rest, it’s only held in place without any stud. I also couldn’t find a neat star for the top of the tree, so I opted for another shiny pointy thing instead-
✨Small spaceships !✨
Assault ship (A-1)
Simple but not too bad in detail for a thing that small. Some light-grey highlights have been under to avoid a completely not textured look. The transparent piece also seems better with peg, when compared to a tile. Not sure of why, but l'm not gonna complain, as long as it works. While it's hard to tell with this scale, this is not just a small thing for 1-2 pilots, it's actually quite large (consider a 2×1 as a container (with the large ship above as a scale) so it's quite large. Not LARGE large, but still enough space to fit a lot of stuff; and since the engines are outside of the main hull, no space wasted !
Personal ship (P-1)
Pretty classic shape, with some obvious Star Wars inspiration. I tried adding a little bit of color (hence the single blue piece but I'd need to get some specialised pieces to add some proper colors. So I took the liberty to add some silver pieces, instead, which looks alright. I'm not entirely sure about the scale of that one, to be honest. It looks like a 1 pilot ship, but it would be a little too big if I consider it in the scale I've set - which I do.
So, l've added numbers to identify them, which should be a good idea in the long run, because there's gonna be so many of these ! And I'm bad at names, too. So this seems like a good idea. Suggestions are obviously welcome if you happen to have any. Please help me-
On a more fun not, I’ve received all the transparent bars I’ll need to make sure these ships are flying all around, and if it’s one bar per ship, I’ll need a whole lot more ships.
✨Cargo starship ! ✨
A 'little' part of a larger idea I’m developing~
Right under the cut, closeups and some explanations !
Tiny container carrier :
It’s small, it’s adorable, and I still haven’t figured to how the container will be properly held, so the entire system underneath is improvised and will be subject to changes, hopefully.
Cargo closeups :
Lot more to say about this ! Firstly, that the support I gave it is very unstable, but that should be fixed later.
I was playing around with the idea of a small ship with six rows of container in an hexagon, and ended using a combination of 3-branched crossed around a technic axe to do that. Then, one thing following an other, I needed up with two sections connected by one of these large rings like you see in some movies for gravitational purposes. The entirety of this piece, at the exception of the very beginning of it, it held by a single long technic axe. Obviously, large transparent-blue rods to make reactor trails and truncated cones as the reactor bases. The ring is held by rods, too, with an upside down tread — getting them to have a proper circular shape was a complicated journey.
The colourful containers were another fun thing to do : firstly, getting all the right pieces and make the pattern not too regular. And to pretend they’re all connected by nothing, they’re only partially connected, and 'held' by an electromagnetic field figured by the transparent blue pieces on each side of the container rows, which would then be picked by the small container carrier above.
And now, the most important thing : the reason of why I absolutely needed to make this cargo, instead of anything else. It’s quite simple, actually. I needed to get the scale of these containers. Because. Because I had this idea to make a large, large trading spare station with a ring around a large axis, which would be the perfect excuse to make an awful lot of small spaceships. And for that, I needed something for scale, and since it’s a trading station, a container was my best bet. So I have a plan, which I’ll elaborate on probably next week, along a batch of my small ships.
✨Neon and its pilot !✨
Combat mech again ! Wew ! (See other works here)
Closeups and lore under the cut !
Mech :
Pilot :
Lore ! (Check the previous posts of this series if you want to find out more)
So, if Artefact was a first-gen, this mech, called Neon (for obvious reasons), is from the last gen of mass-product combat mechs. It isn’t really meant to get to high level competition, simply for amateurs wanting to give the sport a try. Yet, this pilot made it further than most. Just like their mech, they are one of the youngest in this tournament, but both mech and pilots already have claimed multiple battles.
Indeed, if one pays close attention, it’s easy to notice that some of the claws were replaced, and scratches can be founded in multiple places. The base mech has also been modified a bit, mostly with the addition of electric arc creators (at the top of the mech).
What’s more surprising is how powerful this 'beginner' mech is. Because it’s meant for amateurs, it is extremely sturdy, to make things interesting (because breaking down after only one hit would make a lot of people abandon immediately, which isn’t the point).
Last but not least, the large and broken metal beam carried Neon is a piece which belonged to the first mech which was defeated in a qualification match. The mech was so wrecked only beams were lefts.
Building notes ? Building notes.
The feet were a pain to make, and may fall apart at any moment. But it is necessary to get this shape without being very bulky. All of the joints on that one are small ball and sockets joints, appart from the waist one, which is a turntable. Pragmatically, the three 'replaced' claws are actually just me missing blue pieces. Moreover, the broken beam I had no idea how to use. I acquired it twisted, and it would hardly be used anywhere, and this mech didn’t really have any aggressive stance, so this did the trick.
The sticker plate in the middle is of Nexo Knight origine, and so are probably all the 'shield' pentagonal pieces (which are really good, I might be in love with these). It was also originally all solid blue and grey, but as I added the figure, I realised it needed a bit more energy, so I added the amber and neon pink pieces to give some sparkly accents, which somehow worked in the end
Finally, the (blurry) pilot : most of the pieces come from my random character mix, except the torso (minus the arms) which come from a funky Ninjago character sold in a polybag, and the helmet, which comes from Power Miners (hopefully I’ll have enough time to make a diorama for that theme one day~)
Also, I’m not sure what happened with these pictures, they’re more blurry than usual, yet they all were taken in a batch with previous pictures. I’m hoping the next one isn’t gonna be as blurry, or I’ll have to look into things further. I only have one more builds of these, but another idea is there, so maybe it won’t end with the next one. Who knows, really ?