The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 51 • June 2018
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Interviews: Guy Himber, Paul Hetherington Rob Gillies
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Issue 51 • June 2018
Contents
From the Editor...........................................................2
People
Steampunk Spotlight: Guy Himber................................................................4 Paul Hetherington’s Unchain My Heart.................................................10 Dominique Damerose and Lionel Martin Building Steampunk Paris................................15 Steampunk Spotlight: Rod Gillies.................................................................20 Steampunk Spotlight: Markus “Madstopper” Ronge........................22 Steampunk Spotlight: Austen Henry- Biskup and Pamela HenryBiskup’s Metalbeard’s Compound.............28 Steampunk Spotlight: Jonas Kramm..........................................................34 Vince Paver: Making Steampunk Figures..........................40 Steampunk Spotlight: Vincent Gachod...................................................44
Building
BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art: Steampunk Camera.......................................... 48 You Can Build It: LASERbot (Lantern Assisted Submarine Electronic Robot)..................................................58 Minifigure Customization 101: Steampunk and Designing Small Details............................................................62 You Can Build It: Jabba’s Palace MINI Diorama .......................66 Community Ads......................................................78 Last Word.....................................................................79 AFOLs.............................................................................80
From the Editor: Hi there!
June 2018 Issue 51 Publisher John Morrow Editor in Chief Joe Meno Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Contributors: Jared Burks, Dominique Damerose, Christopher Deck, Vincent Gachod, Rod Gillies, Paul Hetherington, Kevin Hinkle, Austen Henry-Biskup, Pamela Henry-Biskup, Guy Himber, Ellen Kooijman, Jonas Kramm, Lionel Martin, Vince Paver, Markus Ronge, Tommy Williamson, 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 About the Cover: Paul Hetherington’s remarkable Unchain My Heart. Photo by Joe Meno. About the Contents Page: A look at Vincent Gachod’s Cruise Airship. Photo by Vincent Gachod.
This issue is the second one we have themed to Steampunk, as it’s been a while since our first Steampunk issue, and that one is now sold out! A lot of new builders have come on to the scene since that last issue, so I called on the Guest Editor of the first Steampunk issue to return and helm this one. And Guy Himber did a great job in finding new builders and revisiting a couple of older AFOLs. There’s a lot to look for here, so I’ll let you get on to the rest of the mag. I hope that it will inspire you to take a look at this theme and build something... Build on! Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.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://bit.ly/BrickJournalSub or scan below! Website
Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female 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)
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SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
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 $60 Economy US, $72 Expedited US, $94 International, or $24 Digital Only 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 China. 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.
Welcome back brave adventurers! It was seven long years ago, November 2011, when I edited the first ever STEAMPUNK issue of BrickJournal (#16). The Steampunk issue proved to be one of BrickJournal’s most popular editions with its iconic Voyage to the Moon MOC cover and became the impetus to the publication of my book, Steampunk LEGO, by No Starch Press. The Moon MOC even made an appearance in The LEGO Movie and became part of Benny’s advertising campaign! In the years that followed I guest-edited another issue of BrickJournal featuring the Iron Builder Competition, and wrote several other feature articles focused on special topics of interest and feats of daring-do. So now the time has come for us to revisit the Steampunk muse! Not that much has changed in the theme (which is permanently stuck in Victorian times) but many creative and talented AFOLs have been smitten by the Siren’s call of brass goggles and top hats and have taken LEGO to even greater gaslight heights for our amusement. For you first-time travelers to the world of steam and whimsy, you may ask, “What is this Steam-thing, and who are these punks?” ‘Steampunk’ takes place in an alternate timeline during the period from the midto-late-1800s. In the UK, Queen Victoria is climbing to the greatest heights of her reign, and in the former Colonies, the Wild West is capturing the imaginations of the newly minted American States. This great age of exploration is filled with floating cities, steam-powered industrialization and numerous wooden contraptions sheathed in brass. Let us visit this fertile ground where the seeds of Steampunk take root and many an alternate and wonderful historical tale awaits the telling. It is time to grow some impressive facial hair and jump into our horseless buggy to see what wonders await!
Yours in Steamy goodness,
Guy Himber
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People
Paul Hetherington’s
Unchain My Heart!
Article and Photography by Paul Hetherington
As the sands of time erode the checkered past, the heart beats to emancipate itself from its chains to find true love....
After two months of building I wrote this quote to sum up the journey that I had just completed. Sometimes I find you don’t always know exactly what you are designing until you are able to see the finished product. Then the layers of meaning and symbolism reveal themselves to you as you reflect on what you have completed. Back in the summer of 2015 I embarked upon my most artistic creation to date. This is the story of how it came to be. I remember seeing my first chrome LEGO element in an old Model Team Hot Rod set back in 1995 and thinking at the time that the element didn’t look like LEGO. I soon became fascinated with collecting as many strange LEGO elements as I could. Bionicle sets were a particularly inspiring
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source of interesting shapes and textures. As the Bionicle line expanded over the years, the elements became more interesting, and in my mind, more useful. Many of the parts have gothic, art nouveau and futuristic styling which was hard to come by with regular system elements. Over the years I have enjoyed trying to seamlessly blend Bionicle and System together to create something new—the challenge of creating something that at first does not appear to be LEGO. This was the mindset for the beginning of Unchain My Heart. I wanted to approach creating my model as an art piece instead of a MOC. I like to have an overall concept behind my ideas so that my creations are multi-faceted and will hopefully encourage the viewer to think and see the world in a different light. I want to be able to relay a story and draw the viewer in. In the case of Unchain My Heart the vision for the robot and the heart came about right away. It was the finer details that manifested themselves slowly and took the course of the build to fully show themselves to me. Some of the symbolism came unconsciously while some was premeditated. The first vision I had for Unchain My Heart came when I was shopping for a calendar back in 2012. I came across a very interesting Steampunk calendar by digital artist Kazuhiko Nakamura. There were two pictures of robotic automata that immediately inspired me. At the time I didn’t think it was possible to build what I was seeing with LEGO. It would be another three years before I would
have the parts I would need to bring these visions to life. I spent several years collecting as many gold and chrome LEGO elements as I could. By the summer of 2015, LEGO had made a good number of gold and chrome elements and I had collected a decent amount of them. I knew it was time to create a large model with them. That is when the Steampunk robot concept popped into my head again and Unchain My Heart was started. Right from the start I knew I wanted to introduce some nontraditional colors into my Steampunk creation. I wanted to try something new and shake it up a bit. This was to be my first attempt at a Steampunk creation and I thought I would make up my own rules and approach it from an artistic perspective. For those familiar with my creations, checkers are my favorite pattern and have become a theme in many of my works. I even have the hallway in my house lined with checkers. In this case, as the concept began to develop, the checkers took on meaning. They would represent the past experiences and relationship history of the lover’s heart, likening past experiences to moves on a chess board. They would be partially covered with tan and dark tan sand. The sand represents the sands of time as the owner of this heart was approaching the midway point in his life. Basically, it was time for him to settle down; time to let go of some of his hang-ups and fears and to make himself available to find love. This would be done by severing the chains that surround his heart.
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On its journey to several Adult Fan LEGO Conventions, Unchain My Heart won “Best in Class Steampunk” and “Best in Show” at Brickcon 2015 as well as the “Steamy Goodness” award at Brickcan 2016. It has been featured in several books including LEGO Absolutely Everything You Need to Know by DK and The Greatest Brick Builds Amazing Creations in LEGO by Thunder Bay Press. It was also featured in an interview on Beyond the Brick that you can find on YouTube. Unchain My Heart has recently been on tour during 2017 and 2018 at Brick Universe, a travelling LEGO Convention in the US. It is the centerpiece of my gallery and it usually gets the most response from the public. Many people can’t believe it is all LEGO and usually ask where I had all the custom elements made. They are always surprised to find out that all the parts used were available in regular retail LEGO sets. It makes me feel happy when I see people taking pictures and selfies in front of it and when they return to spend time to pore over the details. For me, Unchain My Heart is the realization of my desire to create something unique that can reach out beyond the LEGO community and into the world of art. It has been a very satisfying experience to not only image and create this piece, but to present it to the world and see where its journey will go. Unchain My Heart, set me free!
Head and hat construction.
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People
Lionel Martin (left) and Dominique Damerose pose by their layout.
Dominique Damerose and Lionel Martin:
Building Steampunk Paris Article by Guy Himber Photography by Dominique Damerose and Lionel Martin Born in the Charleville-Mézières in the Ardennes region of France, Dominic Damerose now lives and works in Dole, a town in the Jura. A 49-year old (the same age as the DUPLO theme), he has trained apprentices in home automation and electronics. Lionel Martin is known by his avatar Castor Troy, but, as he says, “Everybody calls me Castor” (a beaver in English). 44 years old, he’s a Quality/Marketing and IT manager who lives in Nevers in the middle of France. Both worked together to make a layout of Steampunk Paris, and BrickJournal talked to them about their work.
BrickJournal: How long have you been building with LEGO? Dominique Damerose: I started building with LEGO when I was ten. (Police and Classic Space were my favorite.) I continued to build carousel and large cargo planes until I was 16, then fell into a long Dark Age. This ended with my last son, Tom, who loved to build. I bought him many city sets and loved the construction methods. Together we built a city together including my first MOC: a McDonald’s restaurant. Lionel Martin: I’ve been playing with LEGO since I was five years old. My first LEGO sets were City and old-school SF. What is your favorite theme and why? DD: My favorite theme is the modular building. I like Star Wars 4 5 6, Ideas and Super-Heroes, which I share with my son Tom. LM: I like big dioramas with a lot of details. My favorites are Medieval Fantasy (I love Derfel’s universe), PostApocalyptic, and Steampunk. What inspired you to start building your own models? DD: I like to build something that has not been done before like a building or vehicle. LM: I have always created my own models. When I decide to start a new MOC, I look first at some special pieces. I search for ideas in books (my wife is a bookseller) and
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Metalbeard’s Compound
Our story begins where The LEGO Movie leaves off. President Business is now working with all minifigures to defeat his former micro-managers and bots that have gone rogue. Since Cloud Cuckoo Land has been destroyed, MetalBeard’s castle “Sea Haus” has become a sanctuary for all Master Builders who strive to fight the evil that still lingers on.
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Sea Garden
Sea Garden was a Steampunk theme park consisting of a working roller coaster, a merry-go-round and Victorian style Monorail stop all run by seven power functions. The roller coaster was built using the original LEGO-compatible Coaster Dynamics track system with a small Technic chain to pull the cars up the lift hill. The coaster weaved in and out of a mountain much like The Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. The merry-go-round was innately detailed with golden dragon heads and Steampunk hot-air balloons that independently moved up and down. Rounding out the theme park were dancing and partying master builders.
Power Generator
The generator was a crazy Steampunk contraption heavily inspired by a large off-shore oil-rig. It had four Power Functions motors moving a power orb, exposed gears and fiery wind turbines. The generator was surrounded by the track of a Steampunk Monorail transporting guests from the castle to the theme park.
Sea Haus Castle
Sea Haus Castle is a three-level all LEGO brick castle made in a Steampunk style primarily of brown, gray and gold and silver bricks. It was built in a manner that imitated the awesome chaos of the Pirate Metalbeard’s ship in The LEGO Movie. The castle was placed on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean; hidden as any good pirate’s lair should be. The foundation had many exposed gears and parts that were driven by power functions motors to give the look of industrialized automation. It had three distinct levels with the top boasting a mast and helm complete with a ship’s wheel. The sides had many balconies with a spiral staircase, minifig-size chess board, and Emmet’s double-decker couch. Coming off two corners were a landing pad for the Chopper-Copter, a magical Steampunk vehicle, and an outcropping with a giant gatling gun. There were three more motorized parts such as a waterfall, an exhaust fan and a small windmill off to the side of the castle. Lastly, in homage to the man, the myth and legend himself, was a giant statue of Metalbeard.
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People
Vince Paver:
Making Steampunk Minifigures
Article and Photography by Vince Paver
My love affair with Steampunk began way back in the ’80s. I was a little lad at home watching the telly on a Saturday afternoon when a matinee screening of the classic 1969 movie Captain Nemo and the Underwater City began. The Underwater City of Meereen had me spellbound with its ornate golden structure and other worldly appearance. I didn’t know it at the time but this was my first introduction to Steampunk! Some readers may not really know what Steampunk is exactly, so I’ll try to explain. Steampunk is a subgenre of science-fiction combining the fashions and aesthestics of 19th century western civilization (most usually England but also the Wild West) with retro-futuristic inventions as people of the time might have thought to construct them. Usually these are steam-powered machines like helicopters or airships or perhaps clockwork automatons and devices such as robots or cars. Here’s an example of one such creation, a robot with his Mistress I made a while back:
The LEGO Group has made a quite a few forays into the world of Steampunk. In 2013 the LEGO Master Builder Academy (level 4) was the most direct, although you can see nods to them in the Monster Fighters series of 2012 and the rather wacky Time Cruisers sets way back in ’96…. check out the Flying Time Vessel, #6493! The traditional look and feel of Steampunk is to use quite muted colors; it’s most commonly associated with coppers, browns and golds. If you are looking to add a splash of color, then dark reds, greens and purple make excellent accents for the other earthy tones.
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Victorian English gents had a penchant for facial hair, so beards, sideburns, and short haircuts were the norm. Hats, and specifically top hats, were the mark of a man. Shirt collars, waist coats and neck ties of all descriptions make a solid base for any figbarf (custom minifigure group display) you might embark upon.
These folks are styled more towards the Wild West.
In general, ladies dress in a very conservative manner with longer dresses and tied-back hair or bonnets, as the time was one of quite proper behavior. Mixing prim fashion with industrial accessories can give you some quite pleasing results.
The beauty of making Steampunk minifigure combos is that you can find parts in almost any theme. In the two examples above we have Star Wars, Super-Hero, Castle, Space, City, Pirates, Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings to name a few. The only limitation of finding parts within a theme is your imagination!
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Building Minifig Customization 101
Steampunk and Designing Small Details Article and Photography by Jared K. Burks Random Steampunk inspirational photos collected from the Internet.
Hello everyone, I am happy to be back and writing about custom LEGO minifigures. Today’s topic, Steampunk, represents a unique tiny detail challenge. Gears, gauges, gadgets, and gizmos appear everywhere on the fashionfrenzied Steampunk figure, construct, accessory, clank, and airship. All of this detail complicates creating custom figures in this theme, as we want our custom figures well equipped in order to invent and/or destroy their crazy creations, giant death-rays, massive clanks, and finally so they can repair their massive airships as cannonballs graze the support structures. In this issue, I am going to visit the lower limits of detail, which can be successfully incorporated into minifigure design. I am going to pull in some of my successes and failures over the years of designing custom figures to address where I was able to design small, and other locations where there is simply a limit. I will visit the LEGO standard as a point of reference and attempt to push the limits, which is ultimately always the goal of creating something new.
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Art Formats: Raster vs. Vector
Before we begin talking about the detail levels, let us quickly review art formats. Essentially, there are two formats: Raster and Vector. Raster is based on the scale of a pixel. This is the format of photographs and it ultimately has a limiting value based on the number and size of the pixel(s) used to create it. There are ways to upscale images to include more pixels, but often these are computer algorithms guessing, and the results are variable in their success. The second format, vector, is based on mathematics. This means it has no limit on resolution. You can, in theory, infinitely zoom in and always see a space between closely adjacent objects. As we commonly design in Vector for better printing resolution, it also fools us into believing we can always print what we see. We can not— the technology employed to print our creations has limitations, typically based on the smallest drop size of ink that can be formed, but also on the spread of said ink on the substrate we are placing it on. We have to keep this in mind, which LEGO does well, as they have been creating figures for years, and thus starting with the LEGO standard is a wise review.
The LEGO Standard: The ID Badge
To begin, let us visit the LEGO standard. A common item in almost any mad scientist lab, be it in the Steampunk universe or reality, is the identification badge. Everyone needs to know who to shoot with the death rays and who belongs in the danger zone of creation. In the last few years, the LEGO ID badge has evolved slightly. LEGO has been watching our creations and has started to add additional levels of detail to their designs, which is a strong positive. I am including a version of the classic LEGO ID badge and images of several figures featuring these badges below. When we examine this badge, notice text is avoided at this scale. This is a rule I have broken many times, however normally to my detriment.
Overdesign
When designing we can be emotionally attached to an aesthetic or an original concept where we want our custom figure as accurate as possible. This can ultimately cause issues as we do not always use a critical eye and we end up adding detail that is not possible to capture. In the two examples above from the TV show Chuck, I actually used an official photo of the actor and fonts that were simply too small to be legible. We have to follow the LEGO example of scaling up and reducing detail to achieve better custom figures. Flo (right) is much more successful; even though the badge and button contain actual text, the badge and button are over-scaled to ensure the text is legible and prints well.
The LEGO standard ID badge with recent modernized versions. LEGO has started to add a touch of text, but generally only one line.
Above are examples of overdesign, compared to Flo at right.
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