Minifig-Scale Chandelier

Name of Model: Chain Challenge 11: Swashbuckling!

Created by: Joe "joeseidon" Miller

Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96739476@N04/16220294503/

Details: In the past few years, there's been a proliferation of seed-part based challenges in the wake of the popular "Iron Builder" contest. I (Dan) did my part by finding a way to make such a game fit in at BrickFair, but most of these challenges revolve around Flickr. Sometimes, like in this case, it's just a couple of builders taking up the challenge for the fun of it. This particular challenge is based around the current small, 5-link chain element. Surely a silly piece, it's much too short to be useful and was originally used for Ninjago weaponry when it first came out. They've found plenty of clever uses for it, although some of them make use of the classic "everything is more useful in quantity" trick. Joe's entries so far have included this great chandelier, a microscale scene with a great truck, chairs and curtains, an octopus, and even a house. His competitor, Leopold "Legopold" Mao's entries so far include a roller coaster, a server room, a Micropolis prison complex, and a goblin family with a pet human. In a just world, I'd have blogged more of these models separately, but I've given up on that.

Tux, the Linux Penguin, in Studs-Out Sculpture Form

Name of Model: Tux

Created by: Steffen "Asperka" Rau

Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/66636161@N00/sets/72157646874722554

Details: I've recently written about the increasing popularity of building sculptures with studs facing out in all directions. It allows for a stunning level of precision in a model, making it pop with realism. This one's a bit different than most of the others I've blogged in the past, though: most of the shape of this model was generated by a computer. LSculpt has been around for a while, but for us LEGO Open Source junkies (I know I'm not the only one), it's exciting to see it used to make RepRap's version of the iconic Linux mascot, Tux the penguin, exist in the brick. Sure, sure, it's not that difficult to build a model from computer-generated instructions, but it's no mean feat to track down all the right pieces for a model on this scale (50 cm/63 studs/20 inches tall), and most of standing out in the LEGO community is more about having good ideas for what to build than about how clever you are with LEGO techniques anyway. It's hard to overstate the cleverness of the complete Free Open Source Software chain here - a Linux penguin, colored in GIMP, modeled in Blender, run through LSculpt. There's also that nose - zoom in on the photos and you can see that care was put in to use tiles to round things out just a little more than LSculpt suggested. You'd be surprised how often small details like that end up being what separates a builder who really knows what he/she is doing from someone who is building directly from a program. Also adorable: this comparison shot with other versions of Tux, and this close-up of a version of Tux scaled to Mixel eyes. It's also noteworthy for historical reasons (and comparison's sake) that Eric Harshbarger (in many ways the first big freelance LEGO sculptor) has built Tux in a more traditional studs-up style, without the aid of modern programs or techniques. Newer tools and tricks have a way of making awesome models seem less exciting in retrospect (as they say, nostalgia isn't what it used to be).

Sign of the Times: Failure of the Fourth Estate

Name of Model: Sign of the Times: Failure of the Fourth Estate

Created by: Mike Doyle

Found at: http://mikedoylesnap.blogspot.com/2014/10/sign-of-times-failure-of-fourth-estate.html

Details: Mike Doyle has created another one of his signature artistic photos of an incredibly textured brick-built scene. This time, it's a poignant political statement about the state of mass media. Normally I'd be a bit hesitant to blog a political model here, but sadly, if you have even a passing knowledge of the LEGO world, you know that many media outlets find it extremely difficult to get even simple details right, like proper use of the name "LEGO" or terms like "LEGO bricks". It's a wonder that we trust the same outlets that very clearly can't cover simple matters fairly or accurately to give us the information we need about local, national, and world events. That's before we get into the techniques used here - although Mike Doyle's models are only designed to be viewed from one angle, the craftsmanship involved is always top-notch. The backlit fire and smoke features some fascinating angles, most of which seem to be supported with plates with clip lights - which is not the sturdiest connection, so presumably something clever is used in the background to keep the smoke from falling over. Round plates (both 1x1 and 2x2) seem to handle most of the billowing smoke. The included part of the Times logo is a spot-on mix of various slope elements that works without any of the standard mosaic techniques. A visible piece of netting and some bar-and-clip elements hints at additional support for the smoke. The building itself looks a bit simple, but is very effective, making use of the undersides of plates, repetitive parts, and the 2:5 ratio (2 studs wide is the same distance as 5 plates tall - seen here in the window frames) to capture architectural details. The use of color for the fire and windows may actually be the most noteworthy feature here - Mike Doyle has cultivated a very unique aesthetic based on heavy use of black and white, which makes the color here pop more than it usually would - and makes it all the more impressive that he already seems to have mastered mixing different translucent colors to get the fiery effect seen here. In addition to reading about this model here and on Mike Doyle's blog, you can also see it on MOCpages and Flickr. LMOTD previously covered Mike Doyle's Three Story Victorian with Tree, blog (update) and Two Story with Basement. We seem to have skipped his two books and other MOCs.

Todai-ji and Daibutsu

Name of Model: LEGO Pop-up Todai-ji + Daibutsu (Buddhism) レゴで飛び出る東大寺

Created by: talapz

Found at:

Details: You may remember the spectacular pop-up model of Kinkaku-ji (the Temple of the Golden Pavilion) from a few years back. More recently, the builder has made another excellent pop-up temple - Nara, Japan's Todai-ji. This one also includes the Daibutsu inside the temple. Around the 1:52 mark, the video switches from a demonstration to CAD-based building instructions, complete with part counts for each step. All 8,816 pieces are accounted for, and there's a complete parts list with BrickLink part numbers at the end.

Support Beam Technique

Name of Model: Support Beam Technique

Created by: Stefan F. (vdubguy67')

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43547163@N08/7901737686/in/photostream/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/43547163@N08/7901740164/

Details: Stefan F. brings us this clever design for a support beam that uses a trapping technique to hold angled sections in. The secret sauce is a few 1x8 plates with door rails, cheese slopes connected by Technic half-pins to 1 x 1 bricks, and a few 1 x 1 bricks with studs on two sides to hold it all together. It seems simple once you see the finished result, but it's a clever way to add a more realistic texture at this small scale without having to resort to overly specialized parts. It's not that LEGO hasn't made plenty of parts that will do this, but sometimes it's the principle of the thing, sometimes you don't have that part, and sometimes you just need that look to fit a certain space that the official parts can't. You can see it in use in this nice MOC:

Life-Size Lantern

Name of Model: Lantern build by Lasse and Anne Mette Vestergard from Denmark.

Created by: Lasse

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=467343

Details: This lantern has quite a few clever parts uses. The outer "glass" is made from 24 1x4x6 3-pane windows. The loop at the top is actually a tire that fits a 3-wide Technic pulley wheel. The candle in the center is actually a stack of large white radar dishes. Even the flame is out of the ordinary - it's made out of several small trans-orange pieces instead of the usual flame element LEGO makes. The whole thing looks so sleek that you could be forgiven for not recognizing it as being made out of LEGO elements at all.

(Unofficial) Pirates of the Caribbean in Miniland Form

Name of Model: Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides

Created by: GeekyTom(Tommy Williamson)

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekytom/sets/72157626206769522/with/5501606781/

Details: It feels a little strange to throw that "(Unofficial)" up there in this post's title. After all, it's already been announced that LEGO is doing an official line of Pirates of the Caribbean series, and LEGOLAND parks have featured characters (both officially licensed and otherwise) in miniland for years. It's surely only a matter of time before these Disney pirates wiggle their way in to the official LEGO miniland displays. The master model builders who create those for the company will have a hard time competing with the rendition of Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa pictured here. I suspect that they won't be allowed to use a Technic rubber band to properly define the edges of a hat. The angle work on the torsos is stunning and a bit unexpected - usually you see a few slopes used when that is tried, but here we see tiles and plates attached at odd angles. On Jack Sparrow, the space created by the angle leaves room for minifig hands to clip onto a plate-with-railing in front of them. We see similar clips used in a few other places - the Jack's hair and hands use variations on the same technique. The legs on both figures look great, but use the same sort of non-production parts that are occasionally special-made for the LEGOLAND Model shops (existing parts, but in colors you can't find in a set). On second thought, are we sure that this guy DOESN'T work for the company?

A Carnival In Venice

Name of Model: Il Carnevale di Venezia

Created by: 000

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=463027

Details: This stunning scene was built for a recent contest with a romantic theme - the concept being that the older couple is dancing away from the hustle and bustle out front. The scene itself steals the show from them, thanks to a brilliant mix of great colors and techniques. Every arch features a unique decoration, and seemingly every surface has some plant life on it - we even see sand green next to the water, where a grime from higher tides would be. The boat is a fantastic surprise - those large sloped elements are originally from Star Wars kits, but here they make a very realistic hull. The arbor in the back left corner makes impressive use of dark tan elements, and the roofs are made almost entirely of 1x1 round bricks. The base of this model is a very subtle use of studs-not-on-top technique - although that checkered pattern appears to be 2x2 tiles at first glance, it's actually sideways bricks and plates to come to the exact same final dimensions.

Mystery Box

Name of Model: Mystery Box

Created by: Todd Wilder

Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/249968

Details: Reader Todd Wilder recently sent word about his latest creation (finished in January 2011): a "Mystery Box" table with a variety of secret compartments. Since just having mysterious compartments wouldn't be mysterious enough, the compartments are set up to only open in a certain order. A fun tessellated question mark pattern covers the sides, while the top is a very classy black. Rather than spoil the surprises, I'll point you to the site listed above to read more about this model.

A Magic Mirror

Name of Model: Mirror mirror on the wall....

Created by: monsterbrick (Matt Armstrong)

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterbrick/tags/magicmirror/

Details: It's a real shame that LEGO has been phasing out chrome-colored elements recently. Sure, the process of manufacturing those parts is expensive, but the effect is fantastic. Just a few short years ago, you could get the UCS Naboo Starfighter, which came with tons of chrome silver elements - including the wings you see used so well here. The metallic silver color we see instead isn't all bad, but it just doesn't have that reflective sheen that you need when trying to build mirrors. This magic mirror (think Snow White) looks stunning. Although we're all distracted by the chrome (ooh! shiny!), the eyes in this model show the best use yet for that obnoxious element "Brick, Modified 1 x 4 with Sloped Ends and Two Top Studs".

Sunset on a Dirigible

Name of Model: Sunset-on-a-dirigible

Created by: Balamorgineas

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=459637

Details: Every once in a while, you come across a model that rewards close inspection but can't be photographed well from a distance. Trust me - this model is one of them. This airship (in a loosely "steampunk" tradition) features some spectacular techniques and part usages. One thing you can see in many of the photos is a choppy, water-ish texture (perhaps it's supposed to be a cloud) created by dozens of minifig legs. The balloon-shaped bit hear the top is made entirely out of 2x2 round plates - and that's attached cleverly with hooks, chains, and skis! The front hull is a pair of sideways staircases, with click hinge sections attached. That hinge element reappears in quite a few other places, somehow feeling like an intentional motif instead of an overly-available part. Minifig telescopes make nice railings on the sides, and an unusual open cabin rounds things out - with the fins in the back being an entertaining nod to proper ship steering.

Clown Fish

Name of Model: Clown Anemone Fish. Custom Lego Set with signature and serial number. 29 copies of limited edition done by hand. On sale at Studio Amida on Bricklink.com Dec. 2010.

Created by: edulyoung

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=455767

Details: No detail was spared here in using studs-not-on-top mosaic techniques to make this red and white clown fish look perfect. In many places, you can see headlight bricks used to turn small sections sideways - this makes it possible to have distances be as small as 1/6th of a stud. The effect is particularly noticeable on the fish's nose and tail. The fins are even hinged to move! What more could you want in a fish? 29 copies of this set have been made available in the builder's BrickLink store. As of this writing, 17 remain.

"Failvent" Calendar

Name of Model: Failvent Calendar

Created by: nolnet

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolnet/tags/failvent/

Details: You may remember nolnet, a clever guy who we've featured a few times before. Recently, he decided to take a new spin on the "advent calendar" craze by featuring various failed ideas from over the years. Some of them are a bit goofy, and others are clearly failures, but most of them feature interesting ideas that'd make a good start to something larger. It's oddly inspiring even though you can usually spot where things went wrong. There are 25 photos here, covering a wide variety of material. The photo above is from day 24: "The Win-Turned-Fail-Over-Time", for reasons that are entirely understandable if you're aware of how phones have changed over the years.

Santa's Boat House

Name of Model: Santa's Boat House

Created by: monstrophonic

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40348469@N05/sets/72157625624892252/

Details: LEGO focus groups most of their models with young people. At some level, that's fine - it's their main demographic. However, "those people" like different things than adults do - while kids always want more boats, racecars, police/fire/rescue sets, and other easy-to-play with models, the serious hobbyists invariably complain that they have too many wheels, boat hull elements, and goofy single-use parts. This is one of those models that makes great use of parts we frequently hear cannot be used. Obviously, the biggest stand-out technique is the use of rowboats as small dormers and the use of a viking ship hull segment as a larger dormer. Continuing the nautical theme, we see a pirate ship's steering wheel over the door, and just above that we see the newer fish element used as a decoration. Over the first-floor windows (themselves a classy tan surrounded by plates with rails and headlight bricks with tiles), we see 3x4 leaves with cherries on them. That great Christmas tree out front? Look closely - those are upside-down palm tree leaves. The use of some white strings with grips for strings of lights rounds out the tree. Of course, what I really love about this is the polar bear hiding between the Christmas tree. I didn't mention the great use of color or the texture on the side walls either!

Specimen 082 in his Bionicle Chamber

Name of Model: Specimen 082

Created by: -Disty-

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46117735@N08/tags/space/

Details: One thing that LEGO hobbyists have learned over the years is that any piece is more useful if you have a large amount of it. This model is a great example of that - small bits that don't seem terribly useful provide a surprising amount of texture when repeated the way they are here. The builder of this model doesn't seem to be completely happy with the seams - sometimes it's not possible to make a large clear section look perfect with LEGO parts - but I think that the overall effect comes across anyway, and is pretty striking from a distance. Technic brackets create the "round" shape, but once you get past the few Technic support elements, this is largely made of Bionicle goodness. With so many of them going around this chamber, "useless" parts like teeth, plates with Technic holes attached parallel to them, leg armor, sphere launchers, and hoses suddenly become something much more exciting. That's before we get into how great the trans-light-blue panels and 1x1 round bricks look here as the "glass" for this chamber, or how well the top was handled...

King of Diamonds 3D Mosaic

Name of Model: King of Diamonds

Created by: Marin Stipkovic

Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/236062

Details: This may be the most unique mosaic we've seen in quite some time. Coming in at around 3 studs thick, this is full of details and unusual techniques. Red clip plates hold flex-tube casings (which have been used as thin rigid hoses in a variety of sets more recently) which form the letter K as connected by minifig hands here. Using a variety of small parts, more hoses, and a generous amount of hinge plates makes the body look particularly impressive. I particularly like the way arch pieces are attached on an angle to make the blade of the King's weapons. This piece has since been sold to LEGO's Community Operations Manager, Jan Beyer, who decided he wanted it for his office after he saw it at Kockice Expo 2010. We never did end up rounding up Kockice Expo 2010, due to lack of links - since we're discussing the event again now, though, it's probably time to bring out the few we did find. Here are the links we've had stashed from that event: Matija Grguric's flickr photos of his contribution Brick Town Talk article on Matija Grguric's models

We're going to go ahead and call this Saturday AND Sunday's model of the day. It's about time we stopped falling behind, and the Kockice 2010 photos are certainly worth counting as a second day (even though there are "only" a few hundred of them)

Wyvern

Name of Model: Wyvern (An organic building study - www.brickstud.com)

Created by: Jordan Schwartz

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=451244 and at http://mocpages.com/moc.php/235476

Details: Before we start: this creature is called a wyvern - it is not a dragon, but it's very similar to a dragon without arms. It's supposed to look that way and the lack of arms is completely correct for the subject matter. Now, with that out of the way... This is the first time I've seen the tauntaun horn elements put to good use. Tan cheese slopes (currently exclusive to the Tower Bridge kit) make up most of the body, as well as the feet. Inspired by the many dragons (such as the Hideous Zippleback we featured recently) that use many articulated sections to make poseable necks, Jordan (also known as Sir Nadroj) tried to make the whole body using a similar technique by using a long tube as a spine and then using various clip parts to connect the rest of the body. The result is a surprisingly successful "organic building study". Heck, even the mix of the colors on the ground stands out.

This is Wednesday's model of the day

MosaicBricks Interviews Pattern Expert eilonwy77 / Katie Walker

Name of Model: Mosaic Bricks Interview! interview & mosaic

Mosaics created by: eilonwy77 (Katie Walker) Interview conducted by: MosaicBricks

Found at: http://mosaicbricks.blogspot.com/2010/10/interview-katie-walker-eilonwy77_14.html & http://www.flickr.com/photos/eilonwy77/5086690606/

Details: For months now, Katie Walker has been posting a string of spectacular and unusual mosaics on flickr. Her techniques range from fanatically precise LEGO geometry with headlight bricks to impossibly patient trial-and-error with cheese slopes. She has inspired, humbled, and scared many a LEGO builder. Recently, she was interviewed for the MosaicBricks blog - to mark the occasion, she built the two mosaics of the blog's name shown here (by the way, if anyone does something like that for us, we'd totally change our header to use it too!) I actually try to hold back from posting too much of Katie's material because most of it isn't really what most of us would consider "models". Everything is a work-in-progress, a study, or a proof-of-concept. Some of it gets worked into a larger creation later, but most of it is quickly taken apart after the photos are taken (the photographs serve as enough documentation to rebuild the designs later if they are needed). It is, though, always worth a look through her flickr photostream to see what she's been up to. As I said before, her work inspires (with clever techniques), humbles (with the fact she's using a small collection and a very small variety of pieces), and scares (with the amount of time that goes into some of the more ornate small designs). I've featured some of her studies before, but there's way more where that came from. Due to the popularity of her few finished models, I've actually backed away from featuring those here as well (out of respect for the readers who also follow other LEGO blogs, I try to keep repetition to a minimum) - but you should absolutely take a look at the courtyard and the atrium that she built for an as yet unbuilt queen's palace. Of course, the most intimidating part is realizing that this "beginner" already knows more about how you can fit LEGO pieces together than most experienced hobbyists will ever figure out. It's a rare person who is willing to work with DUPLO and Technic alongside regular LEGO pieces, never mind actually willing to figure out these geometrical quirks. Which is why we should all pay attention here - the techniques you'll pick up will save time later and make you a better builder.

Wind-Up Clock

Name of Model: Lego Clock

Created by: Don Rogerson (62 Bricks)

Found at: http://62bricks.com/lego-clock

Details: Coaxial rotation is one of those concepts that used to constantly stymie Technic fans. Specifically, those of us who likes clocks. Surprisingly, while I've blogged a working grandfather clock before, I've never pointed out how hard it is to solve this problem. Or is it? In recent years, we've seen LEGO designers make frequent use of the once-rare transmission gear to allow multiple different speeds to be transmitted on the same axle. New for 2010, we even have a bevel gear that sits loose on an axle. To build clock hands, it's particularly useful to use that transmission gear with plates with toothed ends (if you have some, that is - few molds from when LEGO liked that "toothed" system are still in production now. There were issues with the sturdiness of the parts, and the newer parts that replaced those elements are much more reliable). Of course, all of these parts and issues from the past few decades can be worked around by using vintage parts. The earliest LEGO gears, released in 1965, don't connect firmly to Technic axles. They work with Technic axles, but these gears actually were around first. Not only do these work nicely for coaxial rotation, but since they're large enough to be used as clock faces anyway, you can also just build a hand directly onto one and use it as both a hand and the face of the clock. That solution is clever enough, but this builder upped the ante by powering this with wind-up motors. The result is an analog clock that can really be wound. Follow the links above for video, photos, and more details (including some information on the escapement).

Minifig Scale "Hideous Zippleback" Dragon

Name of Model: This sly two-headed dragon is the largest and the most unusual of the dragon species. One head breathes flamable gas while the other head lights it by making sparks, creating lethal explosions.

Created by: Unitronus

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=447042

Details: Medium lime is one of those rare colors that you almost never see people use. It's just too difficult to gather up enough of a parts selection in some colors to really build much of anything. Today's featured model is the first I've seen rise to this challenge. Apparently based on the movie How To Train Your Dragon, this dragon's construction uses a plate with clip/pneumatic T technique to create this dragon's two long necks. That's right - a fantastic use of a rare color that only uses one part, repeatedly (quantities of obscure parts like this are usually available for sale on BrickLink). I can't speak for how true this is to the source material (I've never seen the movie - how was it?), but I love the scene built around this dragon. The landscaping looks very realistic and the diverse plant life adds extra detail without being too distracting. Most (maybe even all) of the plant techniques have been used before, but they're used well here - I specifically like how bushes were stacked upside-down to make a tree. This builder has apparently decided to stick to the theme of making minifig-scale models based on the movie How To Train Your Dragon; a second model has already been posted.