2012-12-26

MOC: Big Daddy

 Say hello to Big Daddy from Bioshock game series. This big stubby diving suit fellow was quite an interesting build and one of the challenging MOCs I have ever built.


Okay, lets tell the facts. I have never played any of the Bioshock games. Actually, I have never bought a computer game. I'm not really a gamer guy, expect I used to play Pokemon Emerald and some Mario classics on my Game Boy Micro, and I enjoy brilliant Super Smash Bros. Brawl matches with my friend every now and then. But Big Daddy is a magnificent concept that fulfills all the requirements of coolness: Old scuba suit feel, big drill hand, stubby hunchback look and steampunk feel.

So, I began building this guy. I intended to use some Bionicle pieces as I did with Samus Aran, another game character MOC, but the barnicle parts weren't that good after all. I ended up with Exo-Force styled limbs, legs with click-thing-joints for more stability and arms with ball joint for better mobility. The joints were very hard make flexible enough without making them unnaturally thin.
 The head was interesting and it was the first part I built. It uses a Big ball piece which is held between the tubes and macaroni bricks. I quite proud of that use. The grid is a bit too big, but I like its shape, and didn't really found other ways to do it.

The colors of this MOC are seriously off. I didn't have bricks in any gold shade to do the golden parts in correct colour, so I did them with two shades of dark grey to make it look a bit torn. The fabric parts are also done with dark greys, as it was the best colour to do them because I have quite lot of it. The yellow eyes and brown shoes and belt hopefully balance the colors well enough.

There is a lot of SNOT in the torso. Okay, there is lot of it everywhere. But I'm happy with the shapes of the torso, the hunchback look and the suture between the head and the upper torso.
The arms were probably easiest parts to build, save the simple canisters on the back. Ball joint are just so much easier to play with than the clicky joints. The drill is a classic Rock Raiders chrome drill, one of the best pieces ever. There is even correct number of movable fingers in the left hand!

More pictures at Brickshelf.

-Pate-keetongu

2012-12-24

Merry Christmas!

 Oh, that was an greatly overused phrase. Let's say something more interesting:

Whimsically pleasant Fest of Light!

Enjoyable and delightful party of pine trees!

May the surprisingly big number of rattling presents be with you!

That's a lot better, isn't it? That little MOC was built to Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo's Mid-sized (16x16) winter contest and also for Christmas purposes. Father Christmas here is a bit different from LEGO's CMF fig. That one was too American to me. We all know that the old man is the mighty leader of the Elf Republic of Korvatunturi (The Ear Fell), not the fat red guy who drives Coca-Cola trucks around the plastic landscape.

Have nice season time with your friends and family, everyone.

-Pate-keetongu 

2012-12-22

WIP: Bag End

 Hey guys. I'm back.

I'm terribly sorry about my three-week absence. I was busy, very busy, with full-schedule upper secondary school period and other happenings. I have been building stuff, of course I have, but haven't been able to post anything. The photographing is the problem: I usually take photos outside with sunlight, but because I live in rather north, there is not much sunlight there. Not to mention the weather outside: It's currently -23 Celsius (-9.4 Fahrenheit). That's quite chilly, not too cold for being outside but rather cold to photograph plastic models.

And yes, I have a Bag End project. I felt like I should build something about the recently-released Hobbit film (That was excellent) and so I spontaneously started this project few weeks ago. It's rather large one, and really wish I have guts and pieces to finish it. It's an interesting building to build: as we know, round shapes are not the easiest things to build with LEGO, and hobbit holes have heaps of them. And I made it even more complex by angling the left wall with hinges a bit.

I currently having far too less tan bricks to make the walls because of the Humppa-Pub which I'm not taking apart any time soon. But I'm waiting to buy the Unexpected gathering as soon as possible, hopefully with -20-30% clearance after Christmas. It's price is 100€ here, which is 132 USD, so I really don't want to buy the full price. But I need some parts of it to this project (The door, macaroni parts, windows and the whole lot of green and tan parts) and that set is very well designed too, not to mention the brilliant figs (I have to see the Hobbit another time soon).

I'm trying to be a bit more active on the future. Luckily my Christmas Holiday began today, so I have around 10 days of freedom to come. And the winter solstice was yesterday, so the days will be longer, and I will have more time to take photos of my MOCs. Take care, people, and stay tuned for (hopefully!) another entry before the Christmas eve.

-Pate-keetongu