The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 22 • January 2013
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Taking to the Skies
Sky-FI Building with Cole Martin and Jon Hall NASA’s Curiosity Rover Instructions The Batcave Celebrating 50 Years of LEGO in Norway and MORE!
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LEGO CAR BUILDING! Guest editors LINO MARTINS and NATHAN PROUDLOVE of LUGNuts share secrets behind their LEGO car creations, and present TECHNIC SUPERCAR MODELS by PAUL BORATKO III and other top builders! Plus custom instructions by TIM GOULD and CHRISTOPHER DECK, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” section, and more!
STAR WARS issue, with LEGO creations from a long time ago and far, far away! JACOB CARPENTER’s Imperial Star Destroyer, MARK KELSO’s Invisible Hand, interview with SIMON MACDONALD about building Star Wars costume props with LEGO elements, history of the LEGO X-Wing, plus our regular features on minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!
LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!
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Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!
FANTASTIC FOUR FOLLOW-UP to #58’s THE WONDER YEARS! Never-seen FF wraparound cover, interview between FF inkers JOE SINNOTT and DICK AYERS, rare LEE & KIRBY interview, comparison of a Jack and Stan FF story conference to Stan’s final script and Jack’s penciled pages, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, gallery of KIRBY FF ART, pencils from BLACK PANTHER, SILVER SURFER, & more!
GLEN ORBIK demos how he creates his painted noir paperback and comic covers, ROBERT VALLEY discusses animating “The Beatles: Rock Band” music video and Tron: Uprising, plus Comic Art Bootcamp on “Dramatic Lighting” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies, BOB McCLOUD gives a Rough Critique of a newcomer’s work, and more!
3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (includes FREE GLASSES!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!
JOE KUBERT TRIBUTE! Four Kubert interviews, art by RUSS HEATH, NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, SHELDON MOLDOFF, IRV NOVICK, and others, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive, FCA’s Captain Video conclusion by GEORGE EVANS that inspired Avengers foe Ultron, cover by KUBERT, with a portrait by DANIEL JAMES COX!
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“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!
“Superman in the Bronze Age”! JULIUS SCHWARTZ, CURT SWAN, Superman Family, World of Krypton miniseries, and ALAN MOORE’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, art & comments by ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, CHAYKIN, PAUL KUPPERBERG, OKSNER, O’NEIL, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SAVIUK, and more. Cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and SCOTT WILLIAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
“British Invasion” issue! History of Marvel UK, Beatles in comics, DC’s ‘80s British talent pool, V for Vendetta, Excalibur, Marshal Law, Doctor Who, “Pro2Pro” interview with PETER MILLIGAN & BRENDAN McCARTHY, plus BERGER, BOLLAND, DAVIS, GIBBONS, STAN LEE, LLOYD, MOORE, DEZ SKINN, and others. Fold-out triptych cover by RON WILSON and DAVE HUNT of Marvel UK’s rare 1970s “Quadra-Poster”!
“Bronze Age Backup Series”! Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Metamorpho, GOODWIN and SIMONSON’s Manhunter, PASKO and GIFFEN’s Dr. Fate, “Whatever Happened To…?”, Nemesis, Rose and the Thorn, Seven Soldiers of Victory, art and commentary by CARY BURKETT, JOHN CALNAN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, DAN SPIEGLE, cover by GRELL and JOE RUBINSTEIN.
“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.
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Issue 22 • January 2013
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People Are J.Heiseldal......................................................3 To the Batcave!.....................................................8 BrickStix®: A Timeline...................................18 Celebrating 50 Years of LEGO® in Norway...........................................................20 Building The Norwegian Royal Palace......................................................22 Building Snowy Mountain.......................24 NASA AFOL!........................................................26 You Can Build It: Curiosity Rover...............................................28
Building You Can Build It: T-16 Skyhopper..............................................37 Minifigure Customization 101: Fun With a Vacuum!..................................40 Century Fighters..............................................44
Community Sky-Fi:Building in the Aerial Universe of Crimson Skies® and Dieselpunk........................................................49 Cole Martin:Sky-Flyer!..................................56 You Can Build It: Modular Pirate Interceptor..................60 Jon Hall:LEGO Aviator!................................67 The LEGO Group Takes to the Air!.......73 From the Designer’s Desk.........................76 Community Ads..............................................78 Last Word..............................................................79 AFOLs......................................................................80
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From the Editor: Well, this was supposed to be about planes, but I got sidetracked by Sky-Fi. What is that? You’ll find out in this issue.
January 2013 Issue 22
You’ll also find out about an AFOL who builds from real spacecraft – he even gave us a model to build!
Publisher John Morrow
You’ll also find out about how to build a Sky-Fi miniplane, thanks to an AFOL builder who has only recently started to make himself known.
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
European and LEGO Group Bureau Editor Megan Rothrock Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
Contributors: Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Fradel Gonzalez, Kristian Haugh, Jon Hall, Wayne Hussey, Carlyle Livingston III, Amy MacLane, Cole Martin, Stephen Pakbaz, Megan Rothrock, Ralph Savelsberg, Mark Stafford, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
And you’ll find out about more builders, an event in Norway, the LEGO Airport (!) and... the Batcave! (Well, one Batcave, anyways.) With all of this you would think that I would be getting tired of looking at models and going to events. You would be wrong. BrickJournal is heading into its fifth year of publication, and there is so much more to find and explore in the LEGO community. I’m not tired of the community, but I do get tired trying to cover it! So while you read this issue, I think I’ll take a nap... or two. Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/ group.php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 or scan below! Website
Subscriptions
About the Cover: The Purple Pirahna takes flight! Photo by Cole Martin, art by Joe Meno. About the Contents: A close-up of Jon Hall’s D-74 Partisan. Photo by Jon Hall.
Glossary
AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece)
POOP (Pieces– that can be or should be made – Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2011, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $57USD Media Mail, $75 Canada, $86 International Surface, $128 International Airmail and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5610 Briar Oak Lane #510, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in the USA. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Are J. Heiseldal: the LEGO Builder Behind the Brick! Article by: Megan Rothrock Photography by: Are J. Heiseldal You might have seen his cool car MOCs on flickr, where he is known as L@go; and though he may be new on the AFOL LEGO Event scene, this talented builder is full of surprises. BrickJournal: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and where you come from? Are J. Heiseldal: I’m 35 years old and come from the southernmost part of Norway. Currently I live in Bergen on the Western coast, where I work as a sports reporter for Norwegian TV 2. My main interests, apart from building, are music and cars, particularly Italian ones. I currently own my fifth one, a typically unreliable but utterly gorgeous Alfa Romeo. BrickJournal: What MOCs or themes do you like to build? Are: I’m a town builder, and my main focus is cars, which comes quite natural to me since I’ve been a huge car nut since I was a kid. At the moment I’m very much into hot rods and vintage cars. My main rule is that the cars I build must fit in, scale-wise, with LEGO’s current offerings, and that they must be able to seat a minifig. A special pet project of mine is updating old sets that I grew up with, to modern LEGO standard, and some of those have turned out very well. In addition to that I’ve built a few modulars, and I enjoy that, but they’re so parts exhaustive – especially because I just can’t seem to be able to build buildings without interiors. It’s an expensive mental block… but the interiors are also my favorite parts of my modular buildings.
Are describes his car: “My lovely ‘00 Alfa 156 2.5 V6. Not the most reliable of cars, but it’s beautiful and sounds like nothing else.”
BrickJournal: How often do you build? Are: It depends on how much spare time I’ve got on my hands. Lately I’ve been building more than usual. But as I don’t have a huge collection of bricks I design all my MOCs digitally first, using MLCad, before ordering the bricks I need. That’s another expensive habit that I need to get rid of sooner or later – I’m working on expanding my parts collection! Are says, “My minifig-scale version of the classic Model Team set #5541. The proportions are a bit off, because I wanted it to have eight cylinders, and that meant the engine needed to be four studs long. But I think it works as an interpretation.”
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Building
To the Batcave!
Above: Carlyle (left) and Wayne Hussey (right), the creators of the Batcave. Below: Wayne’s scale maquette of the Batcave.
Article and Photography by Carlyle Livingston II Hi! I’m Carlyle Livingston.
LEGO building can be, and often is, a solitary endeavor. Building the Batcave with Wayne Hussey has shown both of us what can be achieved if you work together towards one goal. We discovered that by combining our knowledge and talents we were able to create a Batcave that is far better than either of us would have accomplished on our own.
Design We had been kicking around the idea of starting a project together for some time, so when we found out that SEALUG had the opportunity of putting a LEGO display at Emerald City Comicon (ECCC), we began discussing what we would like to build. Wayne suggested a Batcave and I quickly agreed. The first thing we did was discuss what would be in this Batcave. Well, you must have the Batmobile, of course, and a Control Room is certainly needed, and a Batplane seemed like a good idea. So Wayne built a mock-up of our Batcave with LEGO in a microscale size.
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When you look at that quick and simple maquette that Wayne threw together, it’s interesting to see how close we stayed to the original vision overall, yet how the additions we made along the way added so much to the final result. We wanted to create our own interpretation of the Batcave, so we drew our inspiration from elements of the different movie and TV versions we both liked best.
Constructing and a Little Designing While Wayne worked on the mock-up of the cave, I began work on the vehicles. We started with the Batmobile in the LEGO set “The Batmobile and the Two-Face Chase” #6864. I am a big fan of the 1960s Batman show. I grew up with it. So the George Barris version of the Batmobile is something that influenced me as I got started on our version. You’ll notice the dual canopy cockpit is an obvious homage.
I then built the Batplane. I developed this from images I saw online by The Shadow. (http://legionsofgotham.proboards.com/ index.cgi?board=legos&action=print&thread=5168 and here http:// www.mocpages.com/home.php/3062) I really liked what he had done so I made some slight modifications to the design and came up with our version. My thanks to The Shadow for his excellent concept!
Next I tackled the Batboat. Again, I was influenced by the Batboat from the 1960s Batman Movie. The dual canopies are again an homage to that classic design. Then I made the Batcopter and this one was completely from my own twisted imagination.
Carlyle’s Batmobile...
Batwing...
Batboat...
and Batcopter.
Once I had completed all of the basic design on the vehicles, Wayne and I worked together to finish them off and clean up anything that was a problem structurally, or any pieces I was missing in a certain color from my collection. As you can see in the pictures taken during construction, Wayne has a pretty good-sized collection of LEGO and he was able to fix most of the missing pieces in my design. He is also very good at taking a design and cleaning it up in a way that makes it structurally improved and a more efficient use of parts.
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People
Celebrating 50 years of LEGO® in Norway: “Bli med å bygge landet” (Build a Piece of Norway!) Article by: Megan Rothrock and Are J. Heiseldal
Photography by: Are J. Heiseldal and Bjørn Håvar Falck-Andersen Strong enough to hold a train; this mountain bridge was built by Bård Nome.
A completed map of Norway in LEGO bricks! Photo provided by Matija Pužar.
This past November Megan Rothrock had the opportunity to travel to Oslo, Norway to attend a special LEGO event: “Bli med å bygge landet”in English, “build a piece of Norway.” LEGO celebrated 50 years in Norway inviting visitors to come to the Telenor Arena, which they filled with five million LEGO bricks! For this journalist and LEGO event veteran, this was a very different style of LEGO event to attend. Never before had there been so many loose LEGO bricks to build with, encouraging the visitors to build up a model and place it into a massive map or Norway!
Strong enough to hold a train; this mountain bridge was built by: Bård Nome
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The Norwegian LUG Brikkelauget and a few members from the Danish LUG Byggepladen were at the celebration with some fantastic MOCs to display for the visitors to enjoy. BrickJournal was able to get a quick moment with the head of Brikkelauget (Norwegian LUG) Morten Dalermoen to ask him about this special event. BrickJournal: Can you tell our readers a bit about the “Bli med å bygge landet” event? Morten Dalermoen: Our event was a celebration for the 50year anniversary of LEGO in Norway. It was held November 2nd to 4th at one of Norway’s biggest arenas just outside Oslo. This was a very special event for us; a 70 meter long map of Norway was set up, where all visitors could build something from one of the many building bins and put it out on the big map. Brikkelauget (the Norwegian LUG) put three wellknown buildings on the largest cities to mark them and had a large city layout to show some great Norwegian MOCs. We also had members from Brikkelauget building onsite on the Akershus Fortress (a well-known building in Oslo), to show visitors how we build. There was also a Historical Timeline with some standard sets from the last 50 years.
Visitors busy building their own version of Norway with LEGO bricks.
BrickJournal: Do you know how many people attended? Morten D.: We had more than 7000 visitors attend our event over the three day event. BrickJournal: The ‘Build a Piece of Norway’ display was a great activity for the visitors to participate in; do you know who came up with the concept? How big was the display area for it? Morten D.: The concept was an idea from LEGO Norway and it was very popular with our visitors to the event. We even had special guests Jørgen Vig Knudstorp (the current CEO of the LEGO Group) and his family visit. It was nice to see his son and daughter build some fun models and place them into the Norway layout.
BrickJournal: How many members from Brikkelauget attended? Morten D.: During the event about 40 members from Brikkelauget attended.
BrickJournal: How many members from Brikkelauget brought MOCs to display? Morten D.: We had 33 members from Brikkelauget, 4 invited guests from the Danish LUG Byggepladen, and author of The LEGO Adventure Book Megan Rothrock had brought models to display.
BrickJournal: Is there anything else you would like to add regarding your great event? Morten D.: I’d like to thank all of the members from Brikkelauget and Byggepladen who helped make this a special event for everyone, and a great partnership 21 with LEGO Norway.
Train layout models from the left: Fredrikstad Train Station by Henrik Solberg, Modern house by Birgitte Jonsgard, and Voksenhagen by Asbjørn Sannes.
People
NASA AFOL! Article and Photography by Stephen Pakbaz
2012 will be known to space fans as the year that Curiosity landed on Mars. One of those fans is Stephen Pakbaz, who lives in Virginia and is a member of WAMALUG (the Washington and Metro Area LEGO Users Group, based in Washington, DC). Not only has he built spacethemed models, he also is a designer for a NASA contractor! Here, Stephen talks about the models he has built and the work he does with his LEGO building.
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Curiosity and its skycrane, built by Stephen and displayed at Brickfair 2012.
The first NASA models I built were not my own design, but from the LEGO Discovery theme. It was released in 2003 and consisted of six sets: a Space Shuttle (7470), Apollo spacecraft (7468, 10029), Mars rovers (7471, 7469), and the International Space Station (7467). Before then, the space models I made were from the realm of science fiction, my own research into interplanetary space travel, and my imagination. The first NASA LEGO creation that I designed myself was the Curiosity rover, early in 2011. At the same time, I was a Mechanical Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where I helped perform tests and design parts for the real Curiosity rover. I used my firsthand experience with the real rover to make the model as accurate as possible. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, birthplace of robotic space exploration, was a treasure trove of useful information. Models and displays fill the hallways and entrances to most buildings. Also on the laboratory premises is a fantastic museum and library, which I visited often. I made use of these resources to create other models such as minifig scale versions of the previous Mars rovers and the Voyager 2 spacecraft, with inspiration left over for many more models in the future. I am currently a Senior Mechanical Designer at the Orbital Sciences Corporation, which specializes in developing commercial and exploration spacecraft, launch vehicles, and other projects in cooperation with NASA. My recent Pegasus rocket and Cygnus spacecraft LEGO models have reflected this change and the recent overall increase in commercial space development. The Curiosity rover was the first spacecraft I ever worked on, and I was very enthusiastic about discussing it with friends and family. While I was very familiar with this robotic vehicle, most others were not, considering it hadn’t even launched yet. It was sometimes difficult to describe the rover and how it worked without images or models, especially parts like the mechanically marvelous rocker-bogie suspension system that the rover uses to navigate over obstacles and uneven terrain.
Stephen’s model of Voyager 2, a probe that is now leaving the solar system.
The model was an excellent tool for showcasing the rover and demonstrating its functions and capabilities. When I finished the Curiosity model, I created a digital copy using the LEGO Digital Designer software. I hoped to make it available for anyone to purchase through LEGO’s Design By Me service. However, the service did not offer all the parts required and it was discontinued soon afterwards. Some time later, at a LUGOLA (LEGO Users Group Of Los Angeles) meeting, I was introduced to the LEGO CUUSOO website, where people can submit model ideas to LEGO and gather supporters. A project that receives 10,000 supporters will be reviewed by LEGO and potentially made into an official LEGO set. After some encouragement, I submitted my Curiosity model to CUUSOO in November 2011, just before the real rover began its journey to Mars. Nine months later, in August, the Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars and shortly afterwards, my project achieved the 10,000 supporters required for the LEGO review. I continued to work on other ways to expand the educational outreach potential of this model. One of the next things I did was use LDraw and MLCad to create step-by-step instructions and make them available for free on my CUUSOO page for anyone who couldn’t wait to build their own rover. The instructions include educational information about the mission in the beginning along with descriptions of the major components spread throughout the rest of the instructions as they are built. The next logical step was to use these instructions to create kits. I gathered parts from BrickLink and the online LEGO Pick a Brick shop and assembled seven kits, one to represent each successful landing on Mars. These kits were donated to various museums and outreach programs to assist in their own educational efforts. The recipients were the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museums, the Scienceworks Museum in Australia, the JPL Mars Public Engagement Office, the Planetary Society, a Brickfair Charity Auction, and the Solar System Ambassadors Program. My LEGO Curiosity rover project has been an extremely satisfying experience and ended up being a great way to engage with the public and other space exploration advocates. My other space models have been on public display at several occasions. I was an exhibitor at the 2012 Brickfair convention in Virginia and have participated in multiple group displays with WAMALUG (Washington Metropolitan Area LEGO Users Group) at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I used these opportunities to talk with visitors about the real Curiosity rover and its mission. My space models, including the rover, have also recently been on display at my local LEGO store.
Cygnus, a space cargo transport for the International Space Station.
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You Can Build It MINI Model
Curiosity Rover Design and Instructions by Stephen Pakbaz
With the landing of Curiosity, it only seemed fitting to have a model of the rover in BrickJournal. We are fortunate to have the model designed by the same person that designed the LEGO CUUSOO version. This version is a minifigure scale model of the rover, and has many of the details of the larger CUUSOO version. The model has an accurate rendition of the suspension and instrument arms, and can be rolled around to show its suspension. Many thanks to Stephen Pakbaz for the model design and digital model!
Parts List (Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty Color Part 1 White 30374.dat 1 White 4070.dat 2 Light Bluish Gray 4070.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 3023.dat 2 Light Bluish Gray 60470.dat 2 Light Bluish Gray 48336.dat 4 Light Bluish Gray 3710.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 2420.dat 2 Trans-Clear 50746.dat 2 Light Bluish Gray 50746.dat 1 White 32123a.dat 2 Red 3069b.dat 2 Light Bluish Gray 3068b.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 41770.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 41769.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 54384.dat 1 Light Bluish Gray 54383.dat
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Description Bar 4L Light Sabre Blade Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Clips Horizontal Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type 2 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 2 x 2 Corner Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 2/3 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 2/3 Technic Bush 1/2 Smooth with Axle Hole Reduced Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Right Wing 3 x 6 Left Wing 3 x 6 Right
1
2 2x
1x 1x 4
3
1x
1x
1x 5
6 1x
7
1x 8
1x
1x 10
9 1x 11
1x 12 1x
1x
1x 14
13 1x
1x
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Building Minifig Customization 101:
Fun With a Vacuum! by Jared K. Burks Figure 1. Mattel Vac-U-Form.
The kids of the 1960s had it good! Yes, that statement sounds odd, but think about it for a second. In the early sixties LEGO came to America, which is cause enough to celebrate, but this isn’t the only reason to think these kids had it good. The Mattel Corporation had a toy ahead of its time for this hobby: the Mattel VacU-Form. This was a simple vacuum former that allowed someone to head up a plastic sheet and then swivel it over on top of a mold and vacuum out the air with a simple hand pump, forming a new toy.
Figure 2. Plastic Forming Diagram.
Using a vacuum former in the hobby of LEGO minifigure customizing has long been something I have wanted to try, but I was concerned about the level of vacuum pressure required. But I am getting ahead of myself. Before we stroll through the uses in minifigure customizing, let’s roll through the basics of vacuum forming. Vacuum forming remains a popular deforming process where the vacuum removes the air underneath a soft and flexible thermoplastic sheet, creating pressure to pull the plastic onto a mold. The vacuum forming process starts by raising the plastic sheet towards a heater to soften the plastic before being pulled down onto the mold to create a draping form. The aim is always to create a high definition outcome without any excessive thinning of the plastic taking place. Vacuum forming is used to make many toy containers as well as several other commercial products. To be honest with everyone, I am very excited about the content in this article and I must share the fact that I have not yet tried this technique, but can’t wait to do so. Because I haven’t tried it, I have reached out to an expert in vacuum forming, Jimmy “THE BOXMAN” Chavez. Jimmy is relatively new to LEGO customizing, but has been customizing in Hot Wheels for some time. For info on Jimmy please see his profile following this article. For the remainder of the article, I have asked Jimmy to walk us through one of the cool uses of a vacuum former, beyond the use to create packaging. Clearly packaging would likely require a larger former than what would be used for creating small parts.
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How To Vacuum Form Small Parts There are a variety of ways to create small custom parts and accessories. However, after the initial purchase of a small dental vacuum form machine, this method is the most efficient and costeffective in the long run. It is simple to redesign molds, and parts can be easily duplicated.
Materials: • • • • • • • •
Small dental vacuum form machine Small utility knife Carving tools 5.5 x 5.5 15ml plastic Wood or high density foam Heavy duty silicon lubricant spray Emery board or sand paper (recommended 400 to 600 grid) Paints and/or water-slide decals
Step One: Gather all the materials and equipment listed above, seen on Figure 4. Step Two (Figure 5): Carve a mold out of the wood or high density foam. In this example, I use high density foam which I purchased through an online vendor. I use an emery board or sand paper to smooth out the edges and any fine tuning. It is important to minimize any undercuts which would make it more difficult to remove the mold from the cast.
Figure 4. Needed materials.
Step Three: Spray the mold with a thin layer of Heavy duty silicon lubricant; this allows the mold to be easily released. Step Four: Preheat dental vacuum form machine for three minutes. Step Five: Place 5.5x5.5 15ml plastic into the dental vacuum form machine by securing into clamps.
Figure 5. Carved mold form.
Figure 6. Mold placed in dental from machine.
Step Six (Figure 6): Put the mold onto the center of the vacuum surface. It may be necessary to surround your mold with a small barrier to prevent webbing (excess gathering of plastic). This can be easily made from scraps of wood. Step Seven: Allow the apex of the plastic to droop. For this example, I let it drop an inch and a half. However, the length is dependent on the height of the mold; the taller the mold, the more it should droop. Step Eight (Figure 7): Manually pull down on the handles of the dental vacuum form machine so that the plastic blankets over the mold. Then immediately turn on the vacuum.
Figure 7. Mold placed in dental from machine.
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Building
Century Fighters
Article and Photography by Ralph Savelsberg
The F-105 (left) and F-106 (right) showing their swept wings and their area-ruled fuselages.
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The LEGO Group has a long-standing policy of not wanting to make war seem like child’s play. I can completely understand their point of view, but it has not stopped me from building a large collection of military aircraft and helicopters using their products. I am fascinated by the technology that goes into military aircraft and they are exciting and challenging objects to build. In this article, I hope to give you some idea what makes building models of fighter jets interesting and fun, by explaining how I built two of them: the F-105 Thunderchief and the F-106 Delta Dart. Most of my models represent aircraft from the end of the cold war, but the F-105 and F-106 are of a slightly older vintage. They entered service with the US Air Force in the late ‘50s and are part of a range of famous fighter aircraft known as the Century Fighters, named such because their numerical designations are in the 100-109 range. Aeronautical engineering progressed rapidly in the ‘40s and ‘50s. In 1947, the experimental rocket-powered Bell X-1 was the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound. Only ten years later, Century Fighters were routinely flying supersonically, some even reaching more than twice the speed of sound. These high speeds required a range of innovations, such as large jet engines with afterburners and both the F-105 and F-106 were powered by the J-75 engine, one of the biggest jet engines available at the time. The high speeds also had an impact on the shape of the aircraft. Swept wings reduce supersonic drag, as does making the nose of the aircraft pointy. For low drag close to speed of sound, the cross-sectional area of the aircraft ought to change only gradually along its length. A consequence of this, the so-called area rule, is that the fuselage has to be narrower where the wings are attached to it, giving it a shape reminiscent of a Coca-Cola bottle, or perhaps fitting for the time, of Marilyn Monroe. These external features obviously have an impact on building the aircraft using LEGO elements.
Building the Thunderchief F-105s were originally designed to deliver a nuclear weapon, but instead they went into combat over the jungles of Southeast Asia, carrying conventional bombs. During the first few years of the war, they performed the majority of the USAF’s dangerous bombing missions over North Vietnam, sustaining heavy losses in the process. Almost half the total production run was lost, mostly to anti-aircraft artillery. Enemy MiG-fighters also took their toll, but even though Thunderchiefs were ill-suited for air-to-air combat, they still managed to shoot down more than 20 MiGs. The aircraft I modelled represents one of the ‘MiG-killers’, which survived the war and in the late Seventies ended up flying with the Virginia Air National Guard. I wanted to build an F-105 for years, but for a long time I could not work out how, for two reasons: the camouflage colors and the shape of the wings. The easiest way to build a sweptback wing is by building it perpendicular to the fuselage, with wedge plates (plates with a diagonal side) used for the leading and trailing edges. On the F-105 this was not really a viable option. The sweepback angle for the leading edges of the wings is almost 45 degrees, which may seem convenient as there are wedge plates with 45 degree corners. However, the angle of trailing edge does not match any LEGO wedge plates. Furthermore, the main legs of the undercarriage fold into the wings and they are not perpendicular to the fuselage when retracted. I solved all of this using a bit of mathematics called a Pythagorean triple. If you make a right-angled triangle with sides whose lengths are three and four studs long, the diagonal will be exactly five studs long. The wings on my model slot into a gap between the upper and lower sections of the fuselage, and by placing the studs that hold them in place so that they formed such triangles, I ended up with just about the
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