|
October 2010
|
Halloween Pumpkin Cottage
Bruce 28 X 10
Boo! Okay, don't be too scared, it's just a seasonal MOC from Stephen Apple of Corpus Christi, Texas, known as Frank Lloyd Knight in our forum.
Stephen was inspired by fairy tale characters living in gingerbread cottages, shoes and the like,
and also by a witch from Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad who tended to turn things into pumpkins.
So when he sat down to design a more standard half-timbered cottage, out popped this pumpkin cottage.
The virtual version of this MOC was recently chosen as a finalist in LEGO's LDD Halloween Contest,
so you can follow that link to support one of our own.
You can see others of his virtual creations
in the LEGO Universe Creation Lab, or check out all of his MOCs on Brickshelf.
|
There are no worthless sets!
Bruce 23 X 10
When walking down the LEGO aisle at your local toy store, we often quickly write off sets that seem to fall way outside of our favorite theme.
Take, for instance, Swampfire.
It's tempting to shout: "Into the rubbish bin with Jack Stone and Galidor!"
Recently, though, Porschecm2 showed that those decorative spines make great microscale trees,
and now Nolnet brings us his Ben 10 Dragon.
His girlfriend found some Ben 10 sets on deep discount and picked up one for him.
As he was looking at the pieces, it struck him that the torso looked like part of an alligator's jaw.
He played around with ways to attach a lower jaw, and then threw in a Fabuland umbrella (another "worthless" piece) as a stomach, and the rest fell into place.
Nolnet hails from Hamburg, Germany.
Some of his older MOCs can be found on Brickshelf, but anything recent shows up in his
Flickr stream.
His building interests span many themes, though he says he probably won't be doing any more Ben 10 MOCs.
He does, however, have a couple more Castle MOCs in the works, so look forward to those.
|
Silver Lake Fortress
Bruce 18 X 10
Brian Corredor is an AFOL from Colorado who is currently in Utah.
He likes to draw inspiration from others' creations that he finds on-line, and wanted to try his hand at a number of techniques he'd never used before,
like curved walls and building at an irregular angle.
The result was the Silver Lake Fortress.
This stronghold of the Black Knights sits along the border of their realm.
At the present time they have good relations with their neighbors, so the castle is a center of travel and commerce.
Brian is a member of CC and all of his MOCs can be found on MOCpages.
|
Troubled times in the forest
Bruce 14 X 10
It's a dark time for the Forestmen.
For many years they have held sway in the wild forestlands, but recently there have been encroachments.
They have always held the high ground, able to rain down arrows upon their enemies from their tree-top perches, but in the east, the Black Knights have fought back with a new
airship.
The kingdom to the west is seeking to expand its territory as well, building a series of forest outposts
from which they can send forth their forces. How will the Forestmen respond to these new threats?
T.Gregory, aka Azaghal in our forum, built the airship for his
battle in the treetops as an entry in the medieval category of the Ages of Steam contest in the
LEGO Steampunk Flickr group.
T.Gregory's MOCs can be found in his Flickr stream.
Busboy489 built his forest outpost as part of the
2010 32x32 Challenge.
His MOCs can also be found on Flickr.
|
Alternate Model Review: Super Basic Set
Ben E. 10 X 10
Join the Classic Castle alternate model review discussion.
Please post your opinions on the model play ability, piece selection, design, etc.
Which models stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!
This week’s set is 599 Super Basic Set.
Super Basic Set was released in 1982 as part of the Universal Building Set line.
A variety of alternate models are pictured on the box.
This fairy tale castle includes a drawbridge over a moat, a main gate with a red heart, a yellow turret, and a red brick tower.
Surplus elements from the 375/6075 Yellow Castle 1981 production run may have been included in this basic set.
|
Krak des Chevaliers
Ben E. 9 X 10
A new builder is joining the elite ranks of giant castle creators.
Take a look at Krak des Chevaliers by Krazy Kastle Krak Guy.
Additional information regarding this important crusader castle and the Knights Hospitalers can be found on his mocpage.
Please leave your comments regarding this imposing fortress in our forum.
|
Vampire Castle
Bruce 8 X 10
Nathan Proudlove (proudlove in our forum) builds in many themes. If you peruse his
Flickr, Brickshelf and
MOCpages, you'll see spaceships, mecha, trains, etc.
He also helps run the LUGnuts Flickr group, devoted to automobiles.
He was recently inspired by an episode of the Backyardigans to build a castle, and the result is quite impressive.
His Vampire Castle was on display this past weekend at BrickCon, and deservedly won 'Best in Castle'.
Congratulations, Nathan.
More photos should be forthcoming soon, but in the meantime, you can see many pictures of this in various peoples'
photos from BrickCon.
|
Saint Basil's Cathedral
Bruce 2 X 10
Built by Ivan IV of Russia in the 1500's, Saint Basil's Cathedral stands 266 feet above Red Square in Moscow.
Built by Arthur Gugick of Cleveland this year, this microscale version stands 2 feet above a 64x64 footprint in his house.
Arthur has been building notable architectural landmarks for the past five years, and he's always wanted to tackle Saint Basil's.
The sticking point was getting the shape of those famous onion domes.
To solve this problem he wrote a computer program he dubbed DomeCreator, recently covered in Hispabrick issue 8,
and another program to help model the spiraling color patterns.
He brought the initial work-in-progress to BrickWorld earlier this year, and with helpful feedback from other AFOLs, recently brought this project to completion.
Arthur's MOCs can be found on Flickr,
Brickshelf and MOCpages.
He also has a personal site, Gugick.com, which is up for an overhaul soon.
If you're interested in taking a stab at building your own Russian Orthodox structure, Arthur has said he'll be happy to share his DomeCreator program - just drop him an e-mail.
|
|