Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The Wars of the Star

I have to admit that I am more excited about the upcoming Star Wars movie than a grown man should be.  The music hits me and I see the X-wings blast across the screen followed by the flash and hum of a lightsaber and I'm just a kid again.

I used to rifle through my box of LEGO to cobble together my own fleet of ships.  I would use mismatched reds and blues to build my fighters.  It would look more like a backwards bi-plane than an X-wing, but it was plenty good enough to woosh around my room and have my own pretend space battles.

This build is dedicated to my younger, spaceship wooshing self.  Here is my X-wing versus Tie Fighter battle.

 This is built from the LEGO Star Wars Rebels Ghost (75053).
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-Ghost-75053

 I've been pretty happy with the Star Wars Rebels TV series so far.  The characters are interesting and it feels like it belongs in the Star Wars universe.  If you have been considering watching, I would recommend it.

The Ghost as a LEGO model is also pretty nice.  It has a strong Technic base with some interesting construction to get those angled panels.  Just don't go in expecting the Millennium Falcon.  There really isn't any interior to speak of.  Also, you should purchase The Phantom with this as the back has a dedicated area to dock the Phantom and it looks like there is something missing without it.  On the other hand, the Phantom and the Ghost are supposed to be different scales, so they always look a little strange to me when they are together.

On to the build.  First up is the X-Wing:

The wings are adjustable, but there is nothing holding them in place. The wings can also be closed, but they don't close flat against each other.

Still, this is totally swooshable.  (I know. I did some swooshing.) There is even some detail on the back with its 4 engines burning it along.

The Tie Fighter is modeled with the white wings and the dark outlines after the ones in the new movie.

There is a limit of the amount of detail I can give to the wing patterns.  It's not perfect, but it seems to do ok.

The cockpit is larger than it should be in comparison to the wings.  This gives it a bit of a super-deformed look, but it turns out that it is still totally wooshable.   (It has been wooshed several times.)

Finally, I made some stands for these guys to sit on and display in dramatic fashion.  They just sit on the stands so they are always ready to be picked up and wooshed at a moments notice.

This build was so much fun.  I felt like I was back in my childhood room, digging through my big box of LEGO, looking for just the right piece to complete my spaceship.  


As always, build instructions can be found HERE.





Tuesday, December 8, 2015

UN Fountain

Let's play with some water.  My latest build is an ever-flowing faucet in the sky pouring into a small pool of water.

 

This build comes from another LEGO Architecture set, United Nations Headquarters (21018).
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/United-Nations-Headquarters-21018

The original model looks pretty sharp with more sideways building than you would ordinarily see in a LEGO set.

This set comes with so many beautiful light transparent blue pieces that I had to make some sort of water build.  It turns out that supporting LEGO bricks vertically is not a very stable idea.

I thought the base turned out nice.  The only visible studs are in the water which is kind of neat.  The water isn't as grand as I would have liked it to be and the faucet is pretty meh.  I do like that you can see the white pieces under the clear blue pieces pretty well.  It seems like there is come cool potential there.

As usual, build instructions can be found HERE.  I must warn you that attempting to read instructions with so many clear pieces may be hazardous to your health.