The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 26 • November 2013
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Building Creatures Great and Small Building Dinosaurs LEGO Zoids
Features Instructions AND MORE!
Builder Spotlights: Sean and Steph Mayo Schneider Cheung
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No. 3, Fall 2013
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FOCUSING ON GOLDEN & SILVER AGE COMICS
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C o l l e c t o r
CELEBRATING THE LIFE & CAREER OF THE “KING” OF COMICS
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #62
DRAW! #26
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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #3
BRICKJOURNAL #27
KIRBY AT DC! Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, updated “X-Numbers” list of Kirby’s DC assignments (revealing some surprises), JERRY BOYD’s insights on Kirby’s DC work, a look at KEY 1970s EVENTS IN JACK’S LIFE AND CAREER, Challengers vs. the FF, pencil art galleries from FOREVER PEOPLE, OMAC, and THE DEMON, Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER, and more!
JOE JUSKO shows how he creates his amazing fantasy art, JAMAR NICHOLAS interviews artist JIMM RUGG (Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes and Janes in Love, One Model Nation, and The Guild), new regular contributor JERRY ORDWAY on his behind-the-scenes working process, Comic Art Bootcamp with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, reviews of artist materials, and more! Mature readers only.
NEAL ADAMS vigorously responds to critics of his BATMAN: ODYSSEY mini-series in an in-depth interview! Plus: SEAN HOWE on his hit book MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY; MARK WAID interview, part one; honoring CARMINE INFANTINO; Harbinger writer JOSHUA DYSART; Part Two of our LES DANIELS remembrance; a big look at WHAM-O-GIANT COMICS; ADAMS cover, and more!
GUY HIMBER takes you to the IRON BUILDER CONTEST, which showcases the top LEGO® builders in the world! Cover by LEGO magazine and comic artist PAUL LEE, amazing custom models by LINO MARTINS, TYLER CLITES, BRUCE LOWELL, COLE BLAQ and others, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!
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“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!
“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!
“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.
“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.
“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.
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TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!
ALTER EGO #122
ALTER EGO #123
ALTER EGO #124
ALTER EGO #125
Farewell salute to the COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE! TBG/CBG history and remembrances from ALAN LIGHT, MURRAY BISHOFF, MAGGIE THOMPSON, BRENT FRANKENHOFF, “final” CBG columns by MARK EVANIER, TONY ISABELLA, PETER DAVID, FRED HEMBECK, JOHN LUSTIG, classic art by DON NEWTON, MIKE VOSBURG, JACK KIRBY, MIKE NASSER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!
DENNY O’NEIL’s Silver Age career at Marvel, Charlton, and DC—aided and abetted by ADAMS, KALUTA, SEKOWSKY, LEE, GIORDANO, THOMAS, SCHWARTZ, APARO, BOYETTE, DILLIN, SWAN, DITKO, et al. Plus, we begin serializing AMY KISTE NYBERG’s groundbreaking book on the history of the Comics Code, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY and more!
We spotlight HERB TRIMPE’s work on Hulk, Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider, Ant-Man, Silver Surfer, War of the Worlds, Ka-Zar, even Phantom Eagle, and featuring THE SEVERIN SIBLINGS, LEE, FRIEDRICH, THOMAS, GRAINGER, BUSCEMA, and others, plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s Comics Code history, “Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs” on those nutty comic book ads, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!
Golden Age “Air Wave” artist LEE HARRIS discussed by his son JONATHAN LEVEY to interviewer RICHARD J. ARNDT, with rarely-seen 1940s art treasures (including mysterious, never-published art of an alternate version of DC’s Tarantula)! Plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s exposé on the Comics Code, artist SAL AMENDOLA tells the story of the Academy of Comic Book Arts, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!
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Issue 26 • November 2013
Contents From the Editor.....................................................2
News Building a Better Future with the UN and the LEGO Foundation........................4
People Introducing Schneider Cheung (Schfio Factory) .................................................6 Constructing Mike Mignola’s Comic Characters.........................................12 Tristan Cain: Bird Biller —er,Builder...............................15 Gonzo and Camilla: A LEGO Love Story.......................................19
Building
Community
Building Primal BOTS!...................................24 Siercon and Coral: Two of a Kind!.........29 Building Ancient Monsters!......................36 Minifigure Customization 101: Modification Is Necessary for the Ingenious Origination of Neoteric Subordinates!.......................41 BrickNerd’s Do it Yourself Fan Art: Mushu...................................................................45 You Can Build It: Jek-14’s Stealth Starfighter.....................54
Looking at the LEGO Build-It Books...59 Here come the LEGO Zoids!....................62 Our Big Summer Project............................68 Sneak Preview: BuildYour Own Galaxy: The Big Unofficial LEGO Book.................72 From the LEGO Idea House: Dagny Holm.....................................................75 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word...............................................................79 AFOLs.......................................................................80
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Community You may not know me. However, you may have seen one of my creations...
Introducing
Schneider Cheung (Schfio Factory)
Article and Photography by Schneider Cheung
Some examples of Schneider’s work.
I am Schneider Cheung/Schfio factory from Hong Kong! Like every LEGO Fan, I liked to build LEGO houses, vehicles, and mecha...when I started building. But creating sculpture is my specialty now. With my unique technique (I call it the 6-sides technique), the detail of an object can be preserved in my creations, even though it may be small in size.
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Contrary to some AFOLs, I love to show LEGO studs on the surface of my creations. People can recognize those creations are made of LEGO at first glance, and I want to express that everything can be built with LEGO.
Other examples of Schneider’s work.
Developing my technique was not an easy process. It took years. Thanks to Bruce Lowell’s LEGO sphere building technique, I was inspired to evolve the technique into another realm with my building experience. The technique is best used for creations with a lot of curves and rounded surfaces such as animals. What is the advantage with my technique? With the studs-up technique (used by the Master Builders at LEGOLand to build their animals), the detail of an object can only be maintained when the creation is on a larger scale, and you can recognize the animal by sight only. However, you can recognize my animal models with touch. Just close your eyes and touch it ! Why is this so? There are many sharp edges on the conventional models. Those corners and edges may distract your touch. As there are relatively few sharp points on my creations, I wonder if my exhibits could be accessed and appreciated by the blind. If this dream comes true, a boundary could be broken.
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People
Constructing Mike Mignola’s Comic Characters Article by Tyler Halliwell Photography by Joe Meno
Hellboy is ready for trouble...
Hi! I’m Tyler Halliwell and I am a freshman at Indiana University studying Anthropology, with a focus on bio-anthropology. I have been building for as long as I can remember and have always had LEGO all around the house, but I really got into the hobby after discovering MOCpages in late 2008. I was stunned by the online community and, after participating in a few contests, finally attended Brickworld Chicago in 2010. I did not bring any creations of my own, but I got numerous ideas and was able to meet some cool people in the hobby. A year later, I volunteered to be a part of what was titled the “MOCpages collaboration” at Brickworld 2011 and surprisingly found myself accepted by the group. I was then asked to build Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings, a first taste into the amount of money that one can easily spend in this hobby. That was my first experience with Bricklink, and I have not slowed down by much. That collaboration was my entry into the fun and friendship of the LEGO world, and was when I got my foot into the soon-after established VirtuaLUG. Now I’m proud to be the youngest (and tallest) member of that family.
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My favorite things to build are either characters/creatures of some sort, and essentially everything in a fantasy genre. I like to experiment with scales that aren’t minifigure based, and so like to build things in “miniland” scale and larger. I always find creatures enjoyable because it is a fun challenge to create organic shapes out of generally square blocks and then make those shapes come to life. Along with that, I
Johann Krauss.
such as Gruagach, an elf trapped in a pig’s body.
am a huge sucker for large castles and fantasy buildings, being an avid fantasy reader for about as long as I’ve built with LEGO. I don’t always have the space for such castles, but when I do I make sure to build something in the genre. My Hellboy characters, based on people and creatures from Mike Mignola’s brilliant comic series, were all brought about by “Mr. Xenomurphy’s Superhero Contest” that took place on MOCpages in the summer of 2012. It was for this contest that I built the first version of my large-scale Hellboy. He had long been my favorite superhero, and I knew that Mignola’s comic would probably not be represented by another builder. I don’t remember exactly how long it took to build version one of Hellboy, but if I remember correctly the contest had a 7-10 day round, so somewhere in that time slot. Once I made the head, I knew that I had to continue. The original character was more based upon Hellboy from the movie and not the comic, which I later remedied. However, I was still extremely pleased with the build and decided that when I had more time I would be sure to build more. This escalated into the eight that I brought with me to Brickworld. Each took between three days and a week of evenings to finish. I wanted to keep the original look of the comic character while also giving them a bit of an action-figure aesthetic. Of the characters, my favorite to build is definitely Hellboy, due to him being my favorite superhero and the one that I put the most work into to perfect. The trenchcoat was a very pleasing construction, and one that happened almost by mistake.
Abe Sapien.
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Keeping the body stable while not using any external supports made the look more authentic. I didn’t want to use any bracing, so the body has two vertical technic beams that are braced in the body, and go into the perch. This keeps the toucan from tilting back and forth. If it leans forward, there are 6 studs of brick and plates that keep it from going any further, as the beams in the back keep those 6 studs held down. Since most of the weight is in the front, it doesn’t lean backwards. All of the weight is transferred down to the perch, which consists of technic bricks connected with pins and covered with tiles. From there, the weight goes down to the base which is laced with strategically placed technic beams and solid brick. I am very happy with the build, and the lines of the toucan are captured very well within the bricks.
The completed toucan.
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Building
Gonzo and Camilla at Brickfair VA 2013.
Jason Wolfson grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, PA and has been continually building with LEGO since the age of 5. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and received both a M.S. and Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2003, he became engaged in the AFOL scene when meeting several people from NELUG (the New England LEGO Users Group) at a LEGO store. Jason, as a member of NELUG, participated in a few projects that were sponsored by the LEGO group with the largest being The Amoskeag Millyard Project in Manchester, NH. After moving from New England at the end of 2009, he quickly joined WAMALUG (the Washington, DC Metro Area LEGO Users Group). He has participated in many events including displays at museums and local area schools representing WAMALUG. At age 42, LEGO has given him an outlet for creativity and relaxation. Here, he talks about building a couple of his models: I am a passionate AFOL showcasing my work in the DC Metro area as a member of WAMALUG. My most recent creation, which I displayed at BrickFair, VA 2013 this past August, are sculptures of Gonzo & Camilla. I thought that for this year’s theme, ‘Birds,’ that this would be a perfect opportunity to build these two adorable Muppet characters. I know Gonzo has been described as many things: A weirdo, Whatever, and so on. However, he does have many bird-like qualities. Secondly, he loves Camilla, who is definitely a chicken and fit well with the theme of BrickFair 2013. Another reason for building them is that Gonzo is my wife’s (Karen) favorite Muppet. For many years she has been asking me to build a near life-size version of him out of LEGO. I am glad she encourages me in this hobby, and succeeding in making a creation like this pleases both her and me. The actual plan started about
Gonzo and Camilla: A LEGO Love Story
Article by Jason Wolfson, Ph.D. Photos by Jason Wolfson and Joe Meno 19
A Dinosaur Dissected Tail
The dinosaur tail is made of segments that are connected with ball click joints. These give strength and flexibility to the tail, allowing it to rotate and flex.
Legs The legs are the most complex of this model, as they have multidirectional joints. The upper leg has a ball click hinge to join to the body for strength and a ball joint to the lower leg for flexibility. The lower leg has a back support with a 2x2 inverse slope brick and toes to anchor the foot. This allows the dino to be able to spread his legs open and pose with a wider range of positions.
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Body
The body has a ball click link to the tail and a ball joint for the head. The panels are SNOT built into the sides, and the red brick with hole seen here is for the arm.
Head
The head is fascinating, as the lower jaw is completely built upside-down. The bridge parts that join the jaw to the rest of the head are 1x2 bricks with studs on opposite sides. By using the bricks on their side instead of a normal vertical orientation, the vertical space is reduced for the lower jaw. The result is a head with an underbiting jaw that gives the dinosaur a menacing and amusing character, like a bulldog’s face.
Arm The arms are simple, with a rotational joint for the shoulder and a click hinge for the elbow. The fingers are also click hinges.
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Beginnings
Building We’ve all heard of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Triceratops, and a Stegosaurus, but not too many know about the fish-eating Suchomimus. Armed with 130 curved teeth, a huge sickleshaped claw on the thumb, and measuring in at 36 feet and tipping the scales at 4 tons, this dinosaur was nothing short of huge! For paleontologists, recreating the missing parts of an incomplete skeleton is no easy feat. For a LEGO builder, creating a LEGO one from scratch isn’t exactly a walk in the park either.
It all started back in 2010. After truly getting into building, I discovered rather quickly that brick-built is much, much better than molded pieces, so I ditched TLG’s Dino Attack and Dino 2010 dinos and built my own. Since then, I’ve hatched my own little Jurassic Park that contains everything from the well-known T-Rex and Stegosaurus to the lesser known Dilophosaurus and Tenontosaurus. After displaying at BrickMagic 2011 in Raleigh, NC, I worked for a year behind the scenes slowly building my collection, and unveiled a completely overhauled Jurassic Park, complete with T-Rexes, Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, Velociraptors, Pteranodons, Tenontosaurus, the famous entrance gate, and even a working tour car that ran on the old 9V train tracks. After that, I took a long breather, not even touching a single brick for months. Then, one day I got inspired. I built twice as many dinosaurs in half the time that it took me to build for BrickMagic. I built everything from an Apatosaurus, to a Dilophosaurus, to a Spinosaurus to a Parasaurolophus. But
Building Ancient Monsters! Article and Photography by William Pugh
there was always a grey area I was missing: the medium-sized dinosaurs. I got all the large and small carnivores and herbivores, but nothing in between. So I set off to fix that. I built a Therizinosaurus, a Carnotaurus, and a Suchomimus.
Making First Steps
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Before I even remotely got close to building those medium-sized dinos though, I had to figure out the feet. The big ones were easy; just use slopes and bricks like I did for my Rexes. The small dinos were easy too. I just put down one or two clips with a plate to hold it all together and that was that. It wasn’t so easy with the medium ones though. The feet were either too big or too small. But when TLG came out with the Ninjago Ice Dragon Attack set, the part that caught my eye was the modified plate with the three hinge bars used to create the dragon’s wings. I thought, “Wow! That looks like a dinosaur’s foot!” Thus, the piece I longed for had been created. But, of course, it was just too perfect, and the project quickly went downhill. The only thing that stood in the way of a completed Suchomimus was, well, the exact part I needed!
You see, theropods (the two-legged dinos like T-Rex and Velociraptor) aren’t the easiest dinosaurs to build; they have nothing but their own two legs to stand on. One can either balance them just right and make the joints strong, or be forced to add some type of support beam. That was the problem with this guy. The bars are just that; bars. They aren’t clicking hinges, or something equally as sturdy. I knew I was going to build around the feet, so I just went ahead and ordered those pieces, along with some simple hinges and slopes off BrickLink, and started building. Absolutely nothing worked, but I knew I was bent and determined to finish this dinosaur, so I tossed the feet aside and started to work on the rest of the dino in LEGO Digital Designer (LDD). I built, rebuilt, and built some more. He went through a lot of cosmetic changes during that time. He started out with a dark green and red paint job with a three-stud wide head instead of two wide. That just didn’t scream narrow-jawed, fish-eating dinosaur, so I changed him to blue and red, and slimmed the head, but he still didn’t
look right. Out of boredom, I changed him to my favorite colors, lime green and blue, and he all of a sudden looked pretty good, but something was still missing. I sat and looked at the computer screen for a good ten minutes thinking. I thought about the coloration of present day animals and what a lot of ambush predators have. They have patterns that break them up, like stripes on a tiger, or speckles of green and yellow on an alligator. Stripes seemed like the best way to go, so I slapped some yellow stripes on him. It looked so perfect; it could have been a picture reference (in my mind at least). I took the next step and ordered the pieces, and built like a madman. Those feet though… the whole time, they were just gnawing away at the back of my brain, and so, for a week, there sat a brilliantly colored, legless dinosaur on my desk, just staring at me with his black stud eyes.
Taking a Stand
Then, one day while dabbling around with some hinged plates for a different project, it hit me. The 1x1 upright oriented clips are stronger than both the sideways clips and the robot arm clips. I attached the robot arm clips to two bars on the modified plate, the upright clips to those
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Leg
Suchomimus’ leg has three sections. The thigh and shin are simple stacking, with only a 1 x 1 plate with tooth and a 1 x 2 tile being built sideways. The foot is explained by Will, but is composed of parts that are clipped together. The upper sections are held by click hinges. On another note, the leg is attached to the body at the rearward 1x1 blue headlight brick.
Body
The body of Suchomimus is, like the rest of the model, mostly stacking elements. The tail has a few yellow and blue 1 x 4 hinge plates to allow movement. However, the hinges only turn in one direction. There are lime-green 1x1 bricks with side stud on the top of the back to SNOT build spines. Further down the body, there is a lime-green 1x1 brick with side stud for attaching the leg. A lime-green 1x2 - 2x2 bracket is used to add more detail. To attach the neck, a blue 1 x 1 brick with studs on four sides is placed with a 1x1 black headlight brick behind. A lime-green 1x1 tile with clip is then attached. Further below, blue 1 x 1 bricks with studs on four sides are placed to round out the body shape. As used on the head, there are jumper plates to taper the body.
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as LEGO builders and designers strive to push ourselves for bigger and better creations. I’ve personally come a long way, from building rainbow houses out of 2x2 bricks, to building these colorful, poseable dinosaurs that get featured in a magazine of all places. I look back, see what I’ve posted on MOCPages or Flickr, then look at the newest model I have on my desk, and I’m almost tempted to remove what I posted; it’s so bad. It’s even better to be able to share that experience with fellow builders who you can call a friend. Seeing a friend’s WIP (work in progress), then a month later seeing it complete, is one of coolest things. You can see just how much they changed. With LEGO, it isn’t about piling more stuff on; it’s about taking stuff off and replacing it with something new to get something bigger and better than you started with. That said, I can’t wait to catch up with all my friends and fellow builders at a future event, and meeting everyone new. We all push and support each other, and all strive to build bigger and better, and that’s why I love being a part of this community. Without everyone I know and met at BrickMagic, I probably never would have built my Suchomimus and be writing this article. So a big thank you goes out to them, and all the fellow builders out there! We are the reason we all build!
Building
Minifig Customization 101:
Modification Is Necessary for the Ingenious Origination of Neoteric Subordinates!
Every evil genius minifig customizer requires a horde of minions to support their evil plans. This horde can be so helpful; they can Brasso parts, clean brushes, and clean the work bench! Creating M.I.N.I.O.N.S. is fairly straightforward if you follow the blueprints. We caution that this task does require some forethought to keep from cutting your figures. This is because M.I.N.I.O.N.S. creation requires the modification of several small parts.
by Jared K. Burks
Diagram of M.I.N.I.O.N.S. Construction.
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Community
Here Come the LEGO Zoids!
Article by Joe Meno Photography by Sage Clouston and Kyle Peckham.
Sage Clouston (<SAGE> on flickr) and Kyle Peckham (Kyle Peckham or kpstormie online) are high school students that have been building online LEGO models of a specific fan theme: Zoids robots. The Zoids are Japanese-created science-fiction robotos that are loosely based on animals, both present day and prehistoric. Sage’s models were first seen at Brickfair VA 2013, and Kyle’s were displayed at a competition in Burlington, NC. Here, BrickJournal talks to both of them about their building and their theme. BrickJournal: When did you start LEGO building? Kyle Peckham: I first got into LEGO building back in late 2007 and early 2008. I had always had a basic tub of bricks (and a few Bionicle sets), but never showed much interest until I got to help a friend build a Star Wars battle pack in early 2008. From then on I was hooked. I started to save money in order to buy the new Star Wars sets that were out at the time. I had been involved in my elementary school’s LEGO Robotics team for two years, but after I left elementary school I found myself almost at a “dark age.” It wasn’t until I discovered MOCpages that I got back into building. I first got involved in the online community by posting minifigures on LEGO’s Star Wars gallery in 2008, and once I outgrew that, I joined MOCpages in late January of 2011. I joined Flickr a year later and since then it has become the site where I post most of my builds. Sage Clouston: Well, I’ve played with construction sets all my life but I didn’t get into playing with LEGO until I was 6 or 7. I didn’t start building seriously with LEGO until I was 11 or 12, around the same time I started to discover the online LEGO community.
Storm Sworder by Sage Clouston.
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What inspired you to build Zoids? KP: I first was inspired to build LEGO Zoids after re-watching episodes from one of my all-time favorite animes called “Zoids New Century.” I was always a fan of the model sets, but I could never afford them. I had seen many LEGO Zoids models before I started building them, but there wasn’t as many of them as there are now. It wasn’t until I saw Apocalust (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ apocalust/) build a microscale Zoid that I was interested in making them in LEGO. His versions were so small, yet they had an incredible sense of motion to them. I replicated one of his builds and I found a theme I enjoyed.
SC: Other builders online mostly. Probably the first Zoid builder I discovered was Kyle Peckham on Flickr who’s creations really reminded me of when I used to play a Zoid video game when I was young and his creations really made me interested in looking into the LEGO Zoids community. Shortly after that I found Kyoupon’s Zoids on Brickshelf which made me really want to start building my own Zoids and so I did! How do you build a Zoid? Do you use a reference model, or photos, or do you make drawings? KP: I build Zoids mainly by using pictures of the actual Zoids model kits, using pictures or clips from the anime, or by using fan-drawn art. All have different takes on the same thing. Where the model kits are more technical (where I draw most of the detail from), the clips from the anime show how a Zoid moves (these show how I can build the joints to replicate the movement in them). SC: First I like to find a Zoid that I want to build, that idea can come from anywhere and mostly I just surf through the Zoids Wiki until I find something I like. Next I like to find some pictures from that Zoid’s HMM model kit, HMM is Zoid’s current model kit range and the models tend to be really detailed which helps in the building process. After I’ve found some pictures then I just start to build and I tend not to think really hard about it, I just work on it until I’m happy with it. Another thing I really look out for when building a Zoid is scale, I always try and make my Zoids scale well together so they look good as a group!
Blade Liger by Kyle Peckham.
Which is your favorite? KP: My favorite build out of all the ones I currently have is a close tie between two of them. I love the Blade Liger (clearly replicating the red one seen in New Century), but my Command Wolf’s simplicity reminds me of the wind-up model kit. SC: Hmm, that’s a tough one, I tend not to pick favorites but I’d probably have to pick Iron Kong. Because building him was really fun and like how the articulation came out and how the pose is just right!
Cannon Tortoise by Sage Clouston.
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