Creature

✨Quake and its pilot✨

Another one of my combat mechs ! (See previous here)

Same as last time, closeups and lore under the cut

Mech closeups

Minifig closeup :

So, mech lore !

As I said in the previous post, mech battles happen some times after the third world war. Well, some of the veterans quickly took interest of this new sport, including today’s pilot. As you can see, sequels of the fights are still visible on his body, his hand being the most visible one. Of course, he could have had a normal hand, because it’s an easy thing, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to show what he had partook in, and this glowing hook was the coolest thing he found on the market.

At first, he didn’t really even watched mech fights, but eventually, some of his friends made during the war decided it would be fun to watch it together. And they enjoyed it. Enjoyed it so much, they decided they wanted to participate.

So, they did what any normal group of war veteran did : they looked for a place to scavenge spare parts and assemble a mech of their own, that would be out of the usual roaster of mark III and IV mechs. What they found was what was left of a large dig site, abandoned at some point in the past. Among the scraps, one of them found the large QUAKE panels. Probably the name of the company that used to be here. It would do the job.

It took some time for Quake to get into large-scale tournaments, because it usually fell apart quickly. With some experience, the team managed to get it in a usable state, and when it didn’t break down, the mech was doing some heavy damages. Don’t trust the electric panel on its back, it’s entirely coal-fuelled (coal which was provided by the dig site) and Quake is probably one of the only mechs powered by a thermal engine, but it gives it a powerful advantage : as long as it’s fuelled, it can deliver extremely powerful blows with its large arms, as well as it can withstand powerful attacks (that’s what the shoulder plates are for). With this mining equipment, Quake, after it began to be known, made itself quite of a name in the arena.

That’s it for this one, the next competitor, named Quetza, will be introduced next week :}

Also, I’m trying an old camera of mine to take pictures, because the lighting is better, although it’s less flexible than my phone’s. I’m still trying to get a good feeling as to what I’m preferring.

Random interesting thing to notice about the build itself : All articulations have different kinds of joints : bionicle ball-joints for the arms, technic pin for the hips, small ball joints to connect the legs and the body, old technic joints for the knees, and simple handle joints for the feet. It was accidental, but I think it fits well with the history of the mech.

✨41st Recon Squad Camp Site ! ✨

Closeups and other stuffs under the cut !

Backside :

Right scene closeup :

Campfire scene closeup :

Tomb scene closeup :

And finally, my personal favourite :

New lights, new camera settings, and a larger space…because this one didn’t fit the other one…Indeed, using shelves as a photo studio is not my brightest idea, but in my defence, it works.

This MOC has entirely been made because of the camouflage cloak I found in the bottom of a box. I don’t know where it’s from, but it looked very cool with that particular trooper, and thus I needed to show it off.

It was also helped because the large amount of olive green plants I received recently (those that are all over the place).

I tried something new, which is that I have not a rectangular base, but rather, three trapezoidal ones linked together to play with the shapes a little. Some parts were a pain to link together, but some tricks can help with that. The crates, for instance, are on top of a hole I couldn’t fill because of the odd shape.

The tombstone was actually the best idea I could get because I’m missing a trooper torso ! I can’t find it, and a pair of legs and a helmet are all I have left, and I might have watched Tales of the Jedi again recently, so that ended up being here.

The tent itself is made thanks to a fun discovery of mine, combining nets and my recent shipment of plants. I put a plant every three holes, in one line, and continue the pattern diagonally. In the back, to hold them in place, I used 1/2 technic bushes, which are quite convenient. And of course, this part is not connected to the poles at all, I case I want to add something in the tent.

Finally, some will notice the main incoherence of the thing : all the smaller wooden poles (tent and fire pit) are not birch-coloured. That’s mainly because finding the good pieces would have been a terrible hassle, and also because the campfire would really look weird in white.

Also, I might have spent an entire night on these trees to find what the colour balance and shape would look the more natural, I hope these are good.

✨ Breach of containment ✨

This is the last I’ve been working on for the past few weeks, very, very inspired by the game Carrion (if you haven’t played it yet, you absolutely should !), which is made all the more special because I finally took time to use my lighting kit (seem below). Of course, closeups and commentaries below the cut

Left containment unit closeups :

Right containment unit closeups :

Top closeup :

Alt version (studio lights + in-built lights) :

This is one of the screenshots I’ve been working with (where the monster just breached containment) :

So, as I said previously, this piece is heavily inspired by Carrion. I tried to look up any previously made Lego thing related to the game, but all I could find were a few Reddit posts with (debatably) interesting takes on the monster. So, the good news is that this is most likely the most original piece I’ve made yet.

The original plan was to have only one container, and one monster, with left being the body inside and right being the outside part. However, placing Left in the middle of the transparent pieces made it mostly good on its own, so with some modifications, I made it work alone and expanded the outside part inward, and ended up with two of them.

Left is pretty okay from all angles, but Right is not necessarily as good from the back, and had a supplementary jaw on the side of the container which can’t be seen on the photos.

Getting back to comparing that to the game. I tried to stay close while adding my own little details. The wiring and cable system is from me, but the container is mostly inspired by the game, just like the electric box (middle) and the little informative display (under the electric box) which is…empty, yes.

Some details can’t be seen on the photos (or barely), which are mostly some filler sci-fi stuffs to make the wall less flat and less empty.

What also helped with breach the flatness of the wall is the switch from dark grey to light gray, using the awesome spring projectile launcher piece, which has this very nice shape which make the transition just a bit smoother.

So, let’s talk about whatever I’ve done with the lighting !

I’ve had this old lighting kit (originally designed for a car model) lying around for a long time, and finally got to use it ! It doesn’t look really good without my studio lights because my camera is not made for that (The effect in reality really gives escaping monstrosity a dark vibe which is not well depicted with my photos…). Another thing which is not noticeable with the photos is that the two red dots in the center are actually blinking lights (and somehow, they tend to desynchronise).

The choice of letting some of the wires out is debatable, but I think it adds to the vibe (and some of them would have been a pain to hide anyway). And sadly, the back is but a mess of wires, but I can’t actually do anything about that.

Speaking of the back, the whole thing is one dot large and completely flat, and the ceiling only hold without pillars because of the use of tension linking directly the baseplate and the roof through the use of technic bars; and probably because the ceiling itself is not that heavy. It is, in fact, only constitued of six old road pieces connected together and frames, which give the roof little weight and high sturdiness (and the shape on the side of the piece offers a nice sci-fi effect as a bonus).

The addition of tentacles in the vent (which hides the connection between road plates in the roof) is just another reminder of the game : you can’t be safe anywhere, if air flows~

✨Christmas tree !✨

…Yes, it’s a very tall picture…So tall, in fact, that you can actually see the top of my shelf studio. I made this last year, and I think it’s about the time to showcase it, along with this year’s project, which I’ll post next week !

Fun fact : the top of the tree isn’t connected at all to the rest, it’s only held in place without any stud. I also couldn’t find a neat star for the top of the tree, so I opted for another shiny pointy thing instead-

What are we

Boop

That is a very boop question.

✨Bile titan✨

Or the fact that I don’t have access to real legos anymore will not stop me from making mocs (more on that under the cut).

I’ve really enjoyed Helldivers and I’ve been meaning to make one of those for some time, now. And I think it turned out quite alright, all things considered. It’s a shame this happened he will never physically be on my shelf, but it’s better than nothing~

Anyway, details and rumbling under the cut, as always.

Here are more viewpoints :

Most of the parts here are articulated, although the head barely moved, and the second joint of each leg is fixed, because making it movable with this size would have been a hassle.

Though, it still has a lot of posability (even the small pincers move !).

The bottom is not really detailed, because it won’t be seen much, but I’ve still added a few things, including the protuberant bile sack underneath, because it gave me a great excuse to use an alien egg, which used to be an incredible piece.

Now though, let’s deal with what this isn’t : real.

It’s fully made with Bricklink’s Studio, which is a free computer software giving one access to pretty much all the bricks you can think of, without limitations on colour (this is great, because 99% of the pieces I use here do not exist in the colour scheme I used). It also comes with a part designer, to create custom prints and/or bricks. There aren’t any prints here, but I am working on something else which uses them.

The only down part is that I can’t use any illegal technic, which is a shame since I usually rely on those a lot (check my post about the Citadel and you’ll understand~). It does make sense, though, and custom rotations are allowed, so it’s not all bad.

Also, if you’ve read until there, congrats ! I do have one more thing to say, though. Given that I know have access to an infinite amount of bricks, I can take requests, if you ever have an idea you’d want to see realised (albeit note it might take a while !).

✨Custom earth Toa !✨

It’s spiky ! And we’re now at 5/6 !

More below !

Front/back :

He’s spiky ! Some might have already noticed I took for base the old Von Nebula set, because I acquired it recently and it worked well, plus the joints are interesting. Pretty much everything else was change, though I kept the mask, sphere, and spiky plates. These were nice, and even if stone colours are usually black and purple, but blue works well too.

I relocated the sphere directly in the thorax so that it looks like some kind of core. The back is mostly composed of two large car pieces.

The hands are using black pieces to make them larger, which works well with the blue blades (which supposedly come from either Chima or Hero Factory, I can’t remember).

Leg :

Another type of Bohrok piece to act as feet ? Yes. These are the head pieces, and they work well with a classic foot as a back piece. The piston in the leg was there originally, but I covered it with these large technic panels and some other technic pieces.

There is also an interesting mechanism to stop the legs from doing too odd moves on top, which can have some interesting applications. Here, I’m wondering about removing them to gain a larger range of movements though.

Head :

Kept the original mask and teeth, but with a cable and a spider’s claw to elongate it.

This picture also allows for a clear view of how much dust has accumulated. Don’t judge me, these are on a top shelf which isn’t the easiest to clean…

Also, my project is now finished (officially) ! I went to a small exhibition with it this weekend actually, and…a recruiter from a much larger exhibition found it good enough to offer me a place next month (I’ll post it here once the bionicle series is done) ! I also brought some of my pride flags, which seemed to be doing their effect, so I’ll bring more next time. So overall, yay !

✨Bionicle Beetle !✨

Ah, another insect ! Check the other one here.

Does it ring a bell ? The head (and some of the brown parts) come directly and with very few modifications from the Jaller & Gukko set. I never managed to get Jaller, so instead, I turned Gukko into this nice, big Rahi.

Now, of course, detail and the other pictures below the cut !

Front, hind, and neath !

I’m absolutely delighted with how it turned out. First of all, I really like the head which has been intact for as long as I can remember, although I know that I’ll never complete the set because I don’t have Jaller’s Kanohi. What I have plenty of, however, are the pearl grey Rahkshi shells, so you can see that I’ve used three of them on top. Then, I have to find pieces with a good enough curvature. So the next piece is from a Toa torso (Hordika) and the next one is used as a wing/pauldron on different sets, which has a perfect shape. On the sides, I’m using practically only pieces from a brown Vahki.

The underside is quite simple, but I wanted to make sure the colours remained coherent with the head, so I kept this bright brown while trying to make it as light as possible (the six legs are already barely letting it stand).

Under the dual Rahkshi shells, I have a bit of space which could let me add a nice feature, although I don’t know what yet. I planned on making actual elytra, but that would have been too complex, so there is currently nothing.

There isn’t much left to add, since for once, I have made simple legs (only because the body was more complicated…), but I nevertheless want to point out how well the small arm pieces I used to connect body and feet are for insect-like shapes, while keeping it quite mechanical. Just the perfect balance.

Also. Would anyone happen to know if there is a spreadsheet referencing all Bionicle (bonkle ‽-) gens with images and additional infos ? I have done a tremendous amount of research because I can’t remember any of the names properly, and having a single spreadsheet would be easier. AND, if not, would anyone be interested in access in such a spreadsheet ? Because if I do end up making one, I would be happy to share !

Have a nice day :}

Nice LEGO work! Glad to see MOCs are still shared by folks.

Thank you very much !

And as a proper answer, here is a little silly thing I made recently !

Still working on making it reliable, but’s a fun little project on the side of other things I have going on !

✨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 !