The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 37 • December 2015
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STAR WARS : The LEGO Force Awakens
Building the Spaceships with Eric Druon
Building the Settings of the STAR WARS Universe with AC Pin Titan’s Creations Millennium Falcon
Instructions AND MORE!
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Issue 37 • December 2015
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People Colin Hemmen: Starting His Brick Story................................4
Building From A New Hope to The Force Awakens: Building the Star Wars Universe! ...........................................8 Building the Settings to Star Wars.......14 Designing Mid-Scale Droids...................20 You Can Build It: Mid-Size BB-8..................................................23 Project Spotlight: UCS First Order TIE Fighter........................29 LEGO Ideas Spotlight: Aaron Fiskum’s Landspeeder...............30 Builder Spotlight: Diego Maximino Prieto Álvarez.......34 Joshua Morris’ Mos Eisley Cantina.....42 Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann’s TIE Fighter Bay...................................................50 You Can Build It: Endor Shuttle Platform............................55 Minifigure Customization 101: The Heights a 4 cm Minifigure can Reach!.........................................................64 The ULTIMATE Millennium Falcon.....68
Community TwoMorrows Crossover.............................76 Community Ads..............................................78 Last Word..............................................................79 AFOLs......................................................................80
People
Colin Hemmen: Starting His Brick Story Article by Joe Meno
Every builder has a story. The usual story is that a builder revisits a childhood LEGO set or sets, and rekindles his or her creative spirit and begins to build anew. From there, they either build for themselves and are discovered by their friends or by a visit to a LEGO fan event. Their story then begins a new chapter, where they become part of the LEGO fan community. This isn’t the only way to start a builder’s story, though. Colin Hemmen already has a different beginning—I spotted his work on Facebook. I’ll let Colin tell his story... My introduction to LEGO began at a very young age, mainly because of my parent’s constant need to keep my young mind busy while they prepared dinner or whatever it was that grown-ups did back then. There was always an understanding and appreciation for these tiny interlocking plastic bricks when I was growing up. So much so, that when my newborn sister arrived home from the hospital for the first time, my peace offering and welcoming gift to her was sharing the family LEGO collection. Clearly I had not fully grasped the concept of an infant’s lack of dexterity. Hey, give me a break—I was five. Dreading the month before Christmas each year, I would break out the old standby toy bin, mainly because I knew that I wasn’t getting a single G.I. Joe or Hot Wheel car for at least three weeks.
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That, and there were LEGO parts a plenty in that forgotten box. Anyway, time went by. I sort of grew up and gave my precious collection to the neighbor’s kid and went on with life.
Examples of Colin’s work.
Eventually I got sick of playing online video games and yelling at a computer. So I purchased the Witch Doctor (LEGO collectible minifigure) and LEGO Atlantis Deep Sea Angler set, and the rest is history. After reawakening my creative focus, I became consumed with LEGO building. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but somewhere there was a split second where I realized a fraction of the potential this medium had in terms of combinations and that it had unlimited artistic expression. Music helped a lot too. I lived in Seattle, Washington most of my life. I struggled for years trying to “find” myself. Seven years ago,
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People
Eric’s model of Jabba’s Sand Barge.
From A New Hope to The Force Awakens:
Building The Star Wars Universe! Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by Eric Druon (BaronSat) The rear of Jabba’s Sand Barge.
BrickJournal readers may already know Eric Druon. He’s known online as BaronSat, and he has been in BrickJournal multiple times, most recently showing us how to make a Hulkbuster costume in issue #34. Outside of the hobby, he is a freelance graphic artist, making magazine advertising. At the age of 42, he has built a library of Star Wars sets that span all the movies. BrickJournal asked him to make exclusive models for the cover of this issue, so he built spaceships that were only glimpsed at in previews of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here he talks about his Star Wars MOCs and also briefly about the cover. BrickJournal: Did you have a Dark Age and if so, when did you get out of it? Eric Druon: Not really, I have always bought LEGO sets but only a very few until the early 2000s, so in a way you can say I’ve been out of the dark since these days. Of course, I have built custom models since I was a kid but things really changed when I discovered LUGNET in the late ’90s. I think the first pics I published were on FBTB (From Bricks to Bothans, a Star Wars LEGO-themed website) in 2001. What go you interested in building Star Wars models? What models have you done? I would say, “How is it possible not to build Star Wars models?” Star Wars has been in our life for over 35 years and has always been very popular. So I just couldn’t help it. I have built many, but not all of the models I wish I could build. The oldest one is Jabba’s Barge, and in reflection, I have no idea why I chose that one first. It just seemed cool. Since my initial build, I have updated it twice, but you won’t see that on my website. I also built an X-Wing, a UCS TIE Bomber, two Death Star playsets, two rancors, two models of the Rebo Band, two banthas, the shuttle Tydirium, Jabba’s Palace, a large IG-88, two Hoth scenes, Mos Eisley, an Imperial Troop Transport based on the vintage Kenner toy (like one of my Death Star, the other is based on the Palitoy), and a cantina with miniland-scale figures.
The interior of the Sand Barge.
What was your approach to building the cover models? When I worked on them, there were very few photos available, so instead of trying to be very precise, I went for a new interpretation based on the old design. I did what we all do at one time or another: we adapt the Star Wars universe for ourselves.
What got you into building models based on Kenner Star Wars sets? You did a lot of sets and figures based on their toys. I was a big vintage Kenner Star Wars toys fan, with a really nice collection! I mean, in the ’90s it was a big collection, of MoC (Mint on Card figures, not My Own Creation) and MIB (Mint in Box) vehicles, 12” dolls, Micro Collection sets with their die-cast figures and many other accessories like the C-3PO carry case etc... Back in the day, Kenner was the company. Leia takes the laser cannon.
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People
Article by Joshua Kranenberg
Building the Settings to Star Wars! Article and Photography by Amado Canlas Pinlac
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Amado Canlas Pinlac (also known as AC Pin on Flickr and Facebook) has been building LEGO layouts for over 15 years. In that time he has been a prolific builder, with dozens of layouts built and displayed online and at events. Here are a few of his best models, with comments from the builder himself!
Fully rebuilt/reinforced after the book LSW—The Visual Dictionary came out last May 2014, it has already made the rounds of public shows in New Jersey including BrickFair, Brick Fest Live, Greenberg Train & Toy Show, and a private one-man show at my workplace, Verizon Wireless in Warren. Hopefully it will have a chance to go out of the Garden State for the other brick conventions/shows.
Theed Hangar Battle
More than three years ago this MOC was finally completed, after almost seven years when the first prototype was revealed. It might have taken a long time to get it done for various reasons of which some were more obvious than others (no budget/money, etc.), but I’ve always known that it was a project/idea worth pursuing/ building for.
As I’ve said countless times before to A/T/KFOLs during the public shows, “Build something out of your ideas; it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the correct parts, color or whatever reason it is. Just do something with that idea because if you don’t, you’ll never know when that idea comes along again.” I did something about it... A close-up of a Naboo starfighter.
A lot of firsts for myself were achieved when it was finally completed: • first SW modular design/build, first MOC built specifically for public display • first MOC shown in public with GardensLUG (a local LEGO Users Group) • my first MOC submitted for CUUSOO (now LEGO Ideas) • first SW MOC covered in various SW LEGO blogs • first SW MOC featured in LSW—The Visual Dictionary and • first MOC displayed at the LSW—The Visual Dictionary book signing (with author Jason Fry) in Maplewood NJ. Up to this day, it continues to be also the most popular signature MOC of mine and the main reason why the ACPin FB community page was started/created.
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Building
Designing Mid-scale Droids! Daniel Stoeffler first appeared in BrickJournal in issue #36 showcasing his cathedrals. It turns out he also built some other creations from a completely different source. Here, he talks a little about his Star Wars droid models, and shows us how to build the newest droid, BB-8!
Article by Daniel Stoeffler
Threepio and Artoo.
Building Mid-size Droids
The “mid-size” is an intermediate scale between minifigure scale and the UCS scale. The LEGO Group has explored a similar scale with the two midi-scale spaceships (the 7778 set Millennium Falcon and 8099 Imperial Star Destroyer), but they do not match to a common scale and can hardly be displayed together. I built R2-D2, my first mid-size droid, in spring 2012 for a contest with a 32x32 baseplate total size limitation. I displayed R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker. At that moment, I realized that the scale allowed one to build detailed MOCs (nearly as detailed as the UCS ones) which are not too large, which do not require too many parts and which are not too expensive. From my point of view, it is even more challenging to build MOCs at this size than UCS because the reduction in size requires me to be careful in choosing the right parts, much like the Architecture theme of sets uses a minimal parts palette. C-3PO was built three years later and was the most tricky because I wanted to get it at the same scale as R2-D2. BB-8 was built in September 2015 and was the easiest to build. R2-D2’s first appearance. You can see more pics at https://www.flickr.com/ photos/77709542@N06/albums/72157630758629342.
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During the summer of 2015, I also built WALL•E and EVE. As a result, I built five of the most famous droids that belong now to the Walt Disney Company and that fit nicely together.
Threepio broken down...
Mid-size C-3PO
C-3PO is a humanoid droid and is consequently more difficult to build at this scale than R2-D2 (to fit with R2D2 it is 29 cm high). The comparison with the original model shows that the body of the MOC is very well proportionate. The character is immediately recognizable even if the head is less accurate than the other parts of the body.
...and in gray.
More particularly, the shoulders can rotate over 360 degrees allowing it to move up it arms and, as a good protocol droid, to welcome people. According to the Star Wars 4 movie, the right leg can be built grey, and according to preview images of Star Wars 7, its left arm can be made red.
Some rigid and pneumatic hoses are used to enhance the final design. Most of the 562 LEGO parts used to build it being common, full yellow and full grey versions can easily be built. The model is fully articulated (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist, necks of femur, knees, and ankles) so that it can adopt various attitudes.
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Building
LEGO Ideas Spotlight:
Aaron Fiskum’s Landspeeder! Article by Joe Meno Photography by callsign51.com
An outstanding model that has been submitted to LEGO Ideas is Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, built in Ultimate Collector Scale. Built by Aaron Fiskum, the model was a response to his thoughts about what Luke Skywalker’s X34 Landspeeder might look like if it were brand new off the assembly line from the Sorosuub Corporation (via LEGO) in UCS scale. The result is a UCS Landspeeder model at 2854 pieces, including the stand. It measures 22.5 inches in length, 15.5 inches wide, and 12 inches high with the stand. Aaron reviewed pictures of Landspeeder toys, images on the web, watched snippets of Star Wars: A New Hope, and read over schematics on Star Wars wikis for vehicle statistics. In collaboration from those sources, here is the final build. He went through six different revisions in LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) looking for something acceptable and fairly accurate in proportion.
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A look at the rear of the speeder. An overhead view.
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Josh’s diorama is filled with many of the aliens and characters for Star Wars, but also other LEGO themes, including Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lone Ranger!
Building
Joshua Morris’
Mos Eisley Cantina
Interview by Joe Meno
“Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany. We must be cautious.” —Obi-Wan Kenobi
A couple of months ago, I spotted an extensive diorama of Mos Eisley Cantina built by Joshua Morris, a 40-year-old AFOL living in Australia. After contacting him, I found out he is married with two boys; Ethan (10) and Zac (7) who absolutely love LEGO, and a gorgeous, very tolerant wife, Kathleen, who has “allowed him to commandeer the double garage” for his LEGO building. Outside of the hobby, he works as an MRI Radiographer and enjoys the creativity that comes with the job. BrickJournal talked to him about this build and building. BrickJournal: Do you build with your boys? What do they build? Joshua Morris: I help my boys build their Ninjago and Star Wars bases, and they are often raiding my supplies as it’s easier than looking through their tubs of doom! Ethan is starting to pay more attention to what I build and has started helping me on creations. He loves building trains and has come up with some really detailed builds. Zac is more into building Mecha and spaceships at present and still likes working from instructions. How long have you been building, and did you have a Dark Age? If so, when did it start, and when did it end? I have been out of my 20-year Dark Age since 2007. I was looking for a hobby that could handle destruction via my 2-year-old son and stumbled into the LEGO aisle and spotted the Mars Mission sets. It all started with 7692 MX-71 Recon Dropship. The 7690 MB-01 Eagle Command Base was bought a week later. The plan was to avoid the large theme of Star Wars. That plan went out the window two weeks later when I tracked down the 7666 Hoth Rebel Base and I soon discovered Eurobricks and FBTB (From Bricks to Bothans, a LEGO Star Warscentered site), then Bricklink and Flickr. I began displaying in 2010 with a trip to Brickworld (a LEGO fan event in Chicago, Illinois). I was amazed by the scope of such a large fan show and met many great builders from all over the world. It wasn’t too long after this that I met local members of SydLUG (Sydney LEGO Users Group), of which I have been a member ever since, and am currently into my second year as Ambassador.
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What do you like to build in terms of theme? My favoured themes are Star Wars, Sci-Fi, Castle and Pirates. I enjoy the freedom of loose themes, it allows me to not be tied to specific details on
A nice subtle touch to the diorama is the gradual sloping of the ground by using plates to add height. Random 1x1 plates add rocks to the landscape.
Mos Eisley Information
Size: 2 X 3 small baseplates 64 studs by 96 studs Estimated Number of Elements: 5000 Number of Minifigures: 80 Hours to Construct: 20
While the cantina is a custom build, there are some parts from a LEGO set: the landspeeder from the LEGO Mos Eisley set (75052). The dewback also came from this set.
A diorama is a very effective way to make a setting for a model; however, in this case, the model is the setting. Minifigures in the cantina and outside make the cantina a center of activity.
Numerous details make the diorama come to life, such as the vaporator outside behind the landspeeder, and the scrap shop that is just outside the cantina entrance.
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Community
An overview of the model.
The ULTIMATE Millennium Falcon! Article by Freddy Tan Photography provided by Titans Creations A MOC that went viral this year was a minifigure scale model of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, built by Titans Creations. Measuring 110 cm by 85 cm, it was displayed at LEGOLand Malaysia for its May the Fourth event. Here, one of the builders, Freddy Tan, talks about building the model, which is larger than the LEGO-produced UCS Millennium Falcon!
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Back in February 2015, when we first heard about the LEGOLand Malaysia May the 4th Star Wars Event, we were thrilled that there would be a LEGO MOC competition on such a scale. It was a good opportunity to be able to meet with avid MOCers from the region. As for us, we had just submitted a Viking theme diorama for a local event and were ready for a new challenge. We rested for a week while brainstorming for ideas, and met for a group discussion. There were plenty of ideas, but we basically struck down all those that involved dioramas, because we foresaw that there would plenty of fantastic dioramas, and it would hard to compete. Initially, we headed toward the direction of creating an X-Wing assembly scene or repair bay with some exposed interiors. Then we upped the stakes by changing the ship from an X-Wing to the famed Millennium Falcon and going from a partially exposed interior to a fully exposed interior. There was the holy grail of all LEGO Star Wars sets, the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon, and we knew we had to top that. We started out looking through various online materials such as movie stills and artist illustrations as well as published books with reference to the Falcon’s interior. We realized then that different artists had different representations of the ship interior, though there was a few portions of the ship that was represented consistently. We were sure to get those parts correct. We printed out the blueprint of the ship and played around with the scale of it by trying to fit a Han Solo minifigure on the pilot seat, and settled on a scale where Han could sit comfortably.
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Touring the Millennium Falcon
Here’s a visual tour of the model, showing close-ups of the various sections. The floor layout shows the location of the close-up area on this and following pages in this article.
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Docking port and rear storage compartments
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Docking port detail.
Docking port and interior hallways.
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