Site Spotlight: Brick It Good

Name of Website: BRICKITGOOD

Created by: Mr. Corey Sanders

Found at: http://www.brickitgood.info/

Details: Here's a new feature I'd like to get started on right away (mostly because I just found out about this great website): a spotlight on useful resources within the LEGO community. BRICKITGOOD is the work of Mr. Corey Sanders, a schoolteacher from Nevada who runs (and personally funds) an after-school LEGO program for elementary-school aged students. The site features a wide variety of models, with plenty of photos for each one. Most of the models also include instructions - some of which are in LEGO Digital Designer format so you can easily buy the parts needed to build them. An advantage (for teachers especially) of creating building instructions is that you can save designs while taking the models apart - which is particularly important when you need to make the parts available again for other students. In addition to creating instructions for his own designs, he has also created instructions for a number of popular models that haven't been available to the public (such as promotional items that were only given away as glued models). These models are a great starting place for your original creations - or you could try rebuilding some of the designs as shown. The events section covers student creations, regional events, and the 2004 Master Model Builder search (yes, when you build lifelike sculptures this well, LEGO takes notice). The photos below show examples of the variety of material available on the BRICKITGOOD website, and each one is a link that takes you to the appropriate section of the site.

Starships from Star Trek: The Original Series

Name of Models: Star Trek: The Original Series

Created by: icgetaway (Brandon Griffith)

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandongriffith/sets/72157625332752407/with/5203841964/

Details: For once, I've decided to go with multiple models on a Saturday (because it's a long weekend for many of us in the US - yeah, that's the ticket!) instead of waiting for a Sunday to open up. Follow the links above for 40 great photos of microscale starships from Star Trek: The Original Series, including the classic Enterprise NCC-1701 (shown above), the Romulan Warbird and the Klingon Bird of Prey. Some interesting, upside-down, wedge-based mosaic techniques were used for the bottom of the Romulan Warbird. The angles and stands here look great - these are all great example of how much easier it is to get these distinctive shapes with the various hinges we've seen pop up everywhere in the past decade or so (why yes, I'm still bitter that it was nearly impossible to build decent spaceships when I was little. Why do you ask?)

Deep Space Nine from Star Trek

Name of Model: Deep Space 9

Created by: sjaacko

Found at: http://binarybricks.nl/voorbeelden/ds9.html

Details: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was cancelled 11 years ago today. As with most of the Star Trek franchise, the show has maintained a lively following over the years that hasn't let go of the series. This is the main space station from the series, in microscale. Want to build your own? You're in luck! The builder has posted various in-progress photos on Brickshelf, and you can also download instructions in LDraw (MLCAD) and PDF format. Although most of the links above show computer renderings of this design (I'm pretty sure that the snazzy photo I've used for this post is actually just an exceptionally good digital render - but I didn't even notice at first glance!), a photo of one physically built with honest-to-goodness bricks can be found on Brickshelf.

Microscale USS Enterprise from Star Trek

Name of Model: The USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Created by: rh1985moc

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rh1985/sets/72157605983626518/

Details: Although building a decent looking USS Enterprise (from Star Trek) is likely to always require the use of custom stickers (I'm a bit too purist to use the sort of stickers necessary myself), it's becoming increasingly common to see the Enterprise rendered in LEGO form with an appropriate amount of detail. This one stands out by managing to be the smallest recognizable Enterprise I have seen yet (a previous one we featured over a year ago was substantially larger). The main tricks to the small size here are clever use of the large engine piece and the 3x3 curved wedge plates.

Star Trek Enterprise

Name of Model: NCC1701 The Original Series Enterprise

Created by: legoman34

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=312847

Details: Yes, I know that the thumbnail does not look even remotely like something made out of LEGO® parts. Open the full thing though, and you'll see that this isn't a model being used for inspiration - it's actually built out of LEGO® parts and custom stickers. I'm not generally a fan of custom stickers, but they really sell the two Star Trek ships. What's really surprising is the scale of these things - some of the important angles are done with 1x1 "cheese" slopes. Which, of course, explains why this hasn't been done sooner - most of us still don't have access to this many cheese slopes, curve slopes, and click hinges in the right colors. By the way, if you're wondering about the top - that's a wheel element. The thing that the torpedos come out of (I'm not that much of a trekkie) looks like a chrome lamp cover to me. If you're really into Star Trek, make sure to check out legoman34's larger Star Trek directory which includes a few more excellent Star Trek models at various scales (at least, I think they're not to the same scale - anyone know their ships well enough to be sure?)

Star Trek U.S.S. Voyager

Name of Model: Star Trek USS Voyager

Created by: Marwede

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=175838

Details: This enormous model of Star Trek's "U.S.S. Voyager" (which you may remember as the "Enterprise"-style spaceship trying to find its way home in the series Star Trek: Voyager from some years back) is really something. The sculpted body of the ship captures all of the proper details, as far as I can tell. Although the interior is not shown, it looks like down-to-scale furnishings are skipped in favor of realistic exterior lighting. If you look closely, you can spot a LEGO TRAIN speed regulator (which you can buy somewhere). That makes it look, to me, anyway, like this is using entirely-LEGO lighting, and powering it from a wall electric outlet. Of course, all those little lights are also working with quite a few clear and translucent LEGO bricks that are sculpted into the body of the ship. Assuming that no cheating was used to make the electrical stuff work, this is quite a feat.