✨Combat Mech And Pilot ! ✨

✨The Kraken !✨

I’ve been messing around with water technics recently, and this was born. It certainly could be improved, but I like it like that.

There’s not much to mention about the build itself; except maybe the tentacles, which are only made out of the 1x1 round bricks, and nothing inside : they bend quite well and remain relatively sturdy when doing so.

As for the water technic I mentioned, the goal is to cover everything with tiles of one of two colours; and make a gradient underneath (see below). I also added some dark red into the mix to try and replicate the body of the thing underwater, with mitigated results.

✨Trans pride flag !✨

Had some inspiration and a nice motivation (here)

(See previous work here)

Alt version below the cut :

Pastel version ! It looks a bit bland because I didn’t have enough pieces to make enough variations (this type of pink is exactly what I needed, but also happens to be very hard to find). It’s probably more fitting for the actual flag compared to the one above, which is very neon-y (and I tuned it down a bit, it could be much worse brighter than it is now). But the above version looks better, I admit, and it give a bit of peps in the middle of all my other works, too, because of the unique colors.

Here is a second batch of custom minfigs ! (Yes, these are Nexo knight based too. What can I say, the original designs are just too good.)

Closeups and commentaries underneath the cut !

Closeups are from left to right

So, starting with the pretty basic guy. Quite a mixup of different things : the helmet is modified from some type of samouraï thingy, the pauldron probably from clone wars, and the axe’s blade (beautifully chromatic bronze, so rare these days) come from an old castle set. Other than that, the base is mostly a basic evil guy starter set, but the armour details are really neat

This one ! Probable the most customised. Legs are from one of the cool original minifigs, torso is from the (meh looking) main antagonist, with both arms equalised with red color (the purple arms came handy for something else~). The armor piece is from a Ninjago skeleton, the head is also from Ninjago, but with a much later subtheme, and the bit of hair comes from the nice guys of Nexo knights. Sword comes from China Chima, and the shield ! The shell is made from an Hero Factory piece, and it looks pretty nice like that. And of course, I can’t not mention my favorite piece, the cloak, that I put literally everywhere, because it goes with a lot of things. It also comes from Chima.

Probably my favourite. It’s not really modified much from the original (ultimate) version because it is very, very cool. I did make some slight modifications on the blade to use shiny dark grey; and the armor piece + pauldron are just an addition to make him look more menacing. But it simply looks great as it is !

…Yes, the cloak is here again. Ignoring it, everything is recycled from somewhere in Nexo knights, here. The body is from the moltor guy, the head is, too, but with the back in front, framed by the helmet to make it an eye. And the two sword. These I can’t use as much as the cloak, but if I could, I certainly would. An awesome addition, really.

Finishing touch is quite simple. Most of the piece are from different characters of Nexo knight, mostly following a default character, and the two tridents are from Atlantis (a really really good Lego theme. One day I’ll have a diorama of these)

You’ve made it here ? We’ll be aware I have a batch of the blue ones that will arrive…at some point. Probably not next week, I’m hoping to have enough time to put my bionicle customs in my larger studio for next week.

It’s always better to read outside, with colourful flowers

✨Assault on the droid factory (P1) !✨

A decently-sized MOC I've been working on for the past few weeks. These is the landing platform of the factory, and, hopefully, I will take some time to make the actual factory inside, which is nothing more than an idea, at the moment.

Closeups and details under the cut !

The door :

I have a lot of fun with the mountainside of this MOC : It's been a while since I last did rocky terrain (or any terrain at all), and it is an enjoyable process. Most of the bottom is supported by large rock pieces (for structural integrity), but anything around and above the door is meticulously hand crafted from slopes. I also added some little plants here and there to break the dull grey, including some weird spiralling plants, because alien environment.

The door itself is just a bunch of slopes, and then two black sections. It's not moving and will remain in this half-opened state indefinitely.

The bridge :

Really the heart of the MOC, both visually and structurally. While it's covered everywhere, there are technic bars running under the large plates, and that's what allows everything to stay together. Just below the landing platform, you might spot one small antenna acting as a pillar. It's only there to keep the bridge in this position, as most of the charge is held by the mountain. It was a bit dull at first, so I added the cable running under it, and the small barriers, which fit the aesthetic without being overwhelming.

As for the action, here is a brief summary of what story I'm trying to tell : a squad of ARC are infiltrating a droid to destroy it, using a stolen CIS ship. Upon their arrival, they face heavy resistance.

Trying to breath life in these scenes is really fun, and it uses multiple tricks, from the droid falling off the bridge to the one being pushed by the shield, plus the clone jumping on a droid to stab it. Speaking of, here they are !

The clones :

MOC postures :

Rest postures :

Custom clones ! I absolutely love making these, and I still have a lot of similarly customised ones on my shelves. The ARCs from the battle pack look awesome, and even if they all have the same prints and color, it doesn't take much to change their appearance.

Sadly, I couldn't find enough kamas for all of the, so only the first and third ones have one. Same goes for the pauldron, so only the three first have one (plus the fifth, but it's a different kind which, I think, comes from a mando). For visors and rangefinders, the choice was mostly arbitrary, because I have a lot of each, so I tried to guess who of the clones would need them, according to their roles (because they have roles. And names, too ! From left to right : Orders, Surge, Bacta, Gears, and Stalker.) I also used the kneeling posture, which is, essentially, in half my TCW MOCs (just check out this one if you're doubting me. Or if you want to see a really cool thing, too.)

A lot of weapons are at least partially custom too :the left clone's weapon (hands can be attached at the bottom of the weapons as a grip); the Z-6 for the next one (would be better if Lego had black versions of the grey pieces, but alas, they don't exist as of yet), the shield (held together by an actual 2*3 shield piece, and the printed GAR cog is just the perfect piece to go with it), the rocket launcher (as screen accurate as I could do, which is to say not much). I also used a fancy silver knife as a vibroknife, because why not, after all ?

Another worthy addition :

While Lego's default ARC backpacks are pretty cool, I find this technic really nice to add a proper communication antenna : one lever attached to the side of a minifig roller skate piece. The connection is not very secure, but since it's only used for display, it's alright.

The ship :

As some might have seen already, this is a variation of the 8036 separatist shuttle. It is a bit longer than the original, and have more details on top. I changed the original antenna for a fencing sword piece, which looks better, and adjusted the dorsal wing a wing, as well as the side, to add the CIS-stickered pieces.

Mostly, this version has so much more playability than the original : it was only made to accommodate a droid pilot and one passenger. This version can fit : one pilot and one astromech in the front, plus a whole bunch of minifigs in the back; and the two parts are connected. Ironically, it won't ever be seen, but it still is a nice thing to know.

You're still here ? Well, I guess you enjoyed this MOC then. If it is the case, stay tuned, because I still have one big TCW diorama which I need to figure how to showcase, and another one in the making, which will also be terribly hard to showcase, but that will be a problem for later me !

Here’s my take on a batch of custom Nexo Knights minifigs !

Closeups and thoughts under the cut

So, in no particular order, the closeups, with comments and comparisons with the actual characters from the original Lego theme (also, because of Tumblr’s image limits, I had to badly stitch together my pictures, sorry-)

1) Mace

Pretty cool one, and the only girl in the team in the original cast, who also happen to have troubles because her dad is the king. But eh, none of that here, so she get the cool cloak I assign to any cool red character I can find (yes, you’ll see it again many times in the future). The overall design is pretty nice (mostly this face, the other one on the brick is not as good; the printed armor, which is from season 4, is pretty nice, and does a nice job with the large dark piece (coming from later Hero Factory sets). The weapons are from the Chima theme (and so is the cloak !). The hairs are from the only Tron set, which should have been continued as whole theme but eh-

2) Axel

Stupid and muscular originally. Well, now he’s got a Large Axe (Bionicle) to stand to his name. The helmet is all Nexo, but with some custom brew of mine, and so is the shield. Also, the custom arm was possible because the large chest has a technic pin.

3) Clay(more)

Not room much modifications on the base character (s1). The sword is from a season four version of the character, the shield is homemade with some fun pieces I had lying around. The two arms are modified from the Ultimate set. …which I transformed in guns…Yeah.

4) Aaron

Green ! Always had a cooler weapon. The armor is from the mech set, the chest piece is from s3-4, the Google’s are from the Ultimate set, and the shoulder thingy is from Boba Fett. I kept the original shield with some added pieces, which is made to fly (like with the original al character) but changed the face to give him a more serious expression. The weapon is mostly from the original crossbow, with some nice twists (the beam on the first image is from a ninjago sword).

5) Lance Whatever their name is now

Really a bad character : rich, 'very pretty', egocentric. So, well…I took the armor and made an entire new one. I really like them, but it might be because it took an awful lot of time to figure out the weapon (transparent white piece similar to the green beam mentioned above). Armor-wise, it’s s1 body, with a grey pauldron (Clone Wars) and a light grey kama (…Also Clone Wars). The hairs are a really cool piece from a Ninjago set, and the head…Come from a City ski set. But the orange visor makes it work !

6) Never remembered the name of that one

Original character is a very smart kid with not much development in the show. Well, firstly I made him an adult (legs are from a black widow figure), and then I decided to push the technical side a little. So, full suit with crystal swords, which works ! Most pieces are actually from the theme, except the red dots (Ninjago again), the crystals in the back (Power Mine [really a cool theme !]), and the helmet (City firefighters + Ninjago…again). It was the first one I made, which made me do the others.

I might get them in a diorama at some point, to set them against the very many custom monsters from the same theme (which were already much cooler than the original minifigs). In fact, most of the theme was really cool, the two sad points are that it was discontinued, and the TV show was…Well, it didn’t push much sci-fi nor fantasy, so I had to do the job.

Now, with that post I have finally revealed my three favorites things to do with legos : Dioramas, Big Mechs, and Custom minifigures (plus any Clone Wars related stuff, but it’s probably just as much because of the fandom aspect as it is the Lego aspect). One day perhaps, I’ll get all three of these aspects in one epic scene, but I have no idea of how for now, so maybe later~

✨Mimic !✨

You opened the wrong chest this time !

This little build is a perfect decoration and was quite fun to build.

✨ Custom AT-TEs ! ✨

(Not entirely custom, actually, but more like a custom paint job / some tweaks)

These two pieces are part of a larger custom clone battalion, the 284th, that I’ll explain in detail in another post. In the mean time, these are already in use on a larger mix that doesn’t exactly fit in my small studio right now (I’m talking BIG moc)

Individual views :

The stickered plate, stolen from a Ninjago set, was awfully convenient, you may understand why here (not posted yet)

✨Custom clones !✨

I really like messing around with minifigs, and I had recently got my hand on a 501st battle pack, which meant I had some spare accessories !

Of course, custom weapons, else it would be no fun, and of course of of them use illegal technic, because it's kind of my signature at that point. I really like how they all turned out - including the Dimension plates which are a really nice display base.

The most interesting piece it the small cloak piece I used on the sword one (Nexo Knight sword obviously !), because, first of all, it's blue, and it comes from some Marvel sets, which isn't a theme I manipulate often - which is a shame, there are some really cool pieces in there.

Also, these need names, but I did not find any yet...

✨Bouldering wall !✨

I reeeally wanted to make one of these at some point, but never took time. Incidentally, I got commissioned — is it even a commission if it’s for a relative and I’m not paid ? — so there is is !

Closeups and details under the cut, of course !

Closeups :

So ! This was a lot of fun to make, with some really interesting techniques. The first thing is that overhang with an increasing angle at the top. A large part of it is just a big plate connected to the base by hinges, while the second part is connected to the first one, instead of the based, to make sure that when something break, everything break only attach one plate to the base, to provide a thin finition. The holds have nothing particular, except perhaps that some start 'in' the wall while some are on it, which is here to pretend there are micro holds — possibly the worst invention of the story of bouldering/j. The top layer of the wall is finished by 1*1 held horizontally by the outside the plates. Speaking of, the triangular plates holding these 1*1 are not connected to the rest of the outside plates at all. Instead, they’re connected directly to the overhang, which keeps the plate at that approximative angle.

But of course, the most important detail : the minifig hanging with its bare hands ! I knew from the start that I wanted it to be in that type of position, and the choice of purple holds came easily (it’s defining one of the hardest level for the bouldering center we usually go to). Of course, I wasn’t in possession of any purple piece a minifig could grab, because that would have been way to easy. So instead, I used magic science a trick, which you might have seen if you pay close attention to the hands of the fig. The 'trick' in question is that I managed to get my hands on a thin elastic thread, which is around the fig’s wrist in a loop, and then is stuck between the purple stud and the round grey tile — which, by the way, makes for the second worst type of holds in bouldering : rings — and since these pieces are on the second overhang, the rest of the thread is hidden, and not stuck between two plates, unlike what I did in my Carrion MOC, which tends to dealign pieces, which leads to broken MOCs (not the Carrion one because there’s too much tension for it to break), which I don’t want because this is meant to end up as a gift for someone I won’t be able to visit often to make maintenance, so it has to be sturdy (and it is !).