The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 52 • August 2018
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Featured Builder:
Timofey Tkachev Interviews: Joe Perez Sean Kenney
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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®
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Issue 52 • August 2018
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People Mel Finelli’s Picnic in the City...........................3 David Aguilar Amphoux: Building a Hand-Solo!....................................8 Builder Profile: Joe Perez..............................10 The Many MOCs of Timofey Tkachev.....18 Sarah von Innerebner’s Beauty and the Beast Library..................22 Sean Kenney’s Back from the Market with Mom.............30
Building Luigi Priori’s Robot..........................................35 The T-800 Terminator.....................................38 BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art: The Thinker......................................................44 You Can Build It: MINI Giza Sculptural Diorama................52 Minifigure Customization 101: Sculpting a Display......................................60
Community The MINDSTORMS Archeological Dig....64 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80
From the Editor: Hi there! This issue is dedicated to one of the harder things to build: Sculpture. For many, sculpture is difficult because of size—most sculptures are not small. In fact, when using basic brick, a model can end up being large enough to fill a table quite easily.
August 2018 Issue 52 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: David Aguilar Amphoux, Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Mel Finelli, Jared Harkema, Calvin Hentley, Kevin Hinkle, Sean Kenney, Martin Latta, Joe Perez, Luigi Priori, Timofey Tkachev, Sarah von Innerebner, 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: A woman watches from her apartment in a diorama by Timofey Tkachev. Photo by Timofey Tkachev. About the Contents: A look at Sean Kenney’s recent sculpture. Photo provided by Sean Kenney.
Size also means quantity—it takes more than a few bricks to make something as simple as a life-sized bowling ball. Such a project would take hundreds of black bricks, which builders probably don’t have. This is why many of the larger models you see online are done by LEGO Certified Professionals, of which one is spotlighted in this issue. There’s also other builds in this issue that need to be seen to be believed, so I’ll let you get to reading! 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://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 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)
Subscriptions
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 of2 the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Mel Finelli’s Picnic in the City Article and Photography by Mel Finelli
It all started with a pair of old gray LEGO wheels from the Star Wars Hailfire Droid set...
Slowly trying to rid my collection of old gray, I had placed these wheels into a box of “Pieces to Donate to the LUG” where I knew a few of the old timers in ToroLUG would get more use from these than I would. They had been a part of my collection for over five years and always tossed aside when looking for pieces of a prettier coloured variety. It wasn’t until I was Skypeing with a friend that I had thought about those pieces for the first time in a while—we were talking about weird LEGO parts we own, and I held up the wheels, exclaiming “Well, do you want these? Cause they’re being given away!” and he then replied, “Do you know how much those are worth?!” I didn’t. With a quick search on Bricklink, I realized I was about to give away two LEGO parts that cost double the worth of the set they came in! Although they became quite the valued parts in my mind, they still were worthless to me in use: I wasn’t a Technic/ gears/motorized-type builder, and I was focusing on small-scale MOCs like vignettes or NPU highlighted microscale... there was no way I was going to use these wheels, no matter how expensive they were!
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People
Joe with his Titanic Belfast Museum replica.
Builder Spotlight:
Joe Perez Interview by Joe Meno Photography by Joe Perez
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Joe Perez works for Bright Bricks, the UK’s only LEGO Certified Professionals. He has worked there for about five years now, having great fun being able to combine work and a hobby. He started working in the workshop, building all sorts of things, but now manages large shows and exhibitions. As a result, he gets to travel all over the world setting up huge LEGO exhibitions. BrickJournal talked to Joe about building and his models. BrickJournal: How long have you been building? Joe Perez: I started building when I was about four or five, in the early 1980s. I remember my first LEGO set was 854—the blue Technic Go Cart with a number 9 sticker on the front; soon after came my all-time favorite set 8860. I was a bit too young for Technic sets, but I completed them with a little help from my older brother. From then on I was hooked on Technic and didn’t really play with other themes. I must have rebuilt them a hundred times over the years. I used to look longingly at the Classic Space sets, but I only ever bought Technic; I think I have my brother to thank for that. I guess I shouldn’t complain, as cutting my teeth on these technical sets prepared me nicely for working at Bright Bricks.
Did you ever have a Dark Age? By the time a reached my mid-teens, I must admit I starting to get interested in other activities, so I didn’t really play with LEGO—so everything was packed away into the loft. About ten years later, in 1999, the Star Wars range came out and I did buy a few of those sets, and I made a few MOCs with the pieces. However, this was short-lived and they were also put into storage for another ten years or so. I then concentrated on going to University, getting married and having children, so I was preoccupied until my kids started to play with LEGO, which must have been around 2010. Playing with them triggered my interest all over again and I haven’t looked back since. What got you into building sculpture? Once I started building again, I concentrated on building man-made objects such as cars and other vehicles. In time, I wanted to move on and branch out a little, so I decided to start to build humanoid figures and animals. At first I was building articulated figures that could be positioned in various different poses. However, they felt a bit robotic and static. I eventually settled on my current style of sculpture, where I am trying to portray dynamic movement; I enjoy the challenge of trying to transform what is traditionally perceived to be a square-edged motionless media into something with curves and motion. This demonstrates the endless possibilities of the brick.
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I enjoy the challenge of trying to transform what is traditionally perceived to be a square-edged motionless media into something with curves and motion.
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A stag (above) and ray (below) sculpture.
Joe’s rendition of Usain Bolt, record-breaking Olympic runner.
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People
The Many MOCs of
Timofey Tkachev Article by Joe Meno Photography by Timofey Tkachev
A pull toy replica.
Article and Art by Rod Gillies
Timofey Tkachev lives in Russia and is a cook, confectionist, and food production technician. He’s also now a student again. He started building very early in his childhood with LEGO Duplo. After having a Dark Age, he returned to building with a new, more serious attitude in 2012, when he registered on the forum RFFL (Russian LUG), and began to communicate with like-minded people. From there, he began to build and post his work online, where his work got the notice of blogs. BrickJournal talked to Timofey briefly about his building and hobby. BrickJournal: What is your favorite theme? Timofey Tkachev: It’s difficult to single out a favorite topic, because I mostly buy sets for parts, and more often buy parts in Pick-A-Brick. But of course I like big sets like Ultimate Collector Series, Creator Expert, and the Ideas sets—because of their individuality. And probably most of the sets from LEGO Architecture, because you can see many interesting solutions from the designers of these sets. What inspired you to start building sculptures? I don’t try to build only sculptures. I just have some ideas, some feelings, thoughts that I want to express, some images in my head. And then I try to visualize them using LEGO. Sometimes the most successful form seems to be a sculpture, but it can be anything else: A diorama, a picture... ...the idea can come from anywhere. A book, music, or my own reflections can inspire. How do you plan and design your sculptures? Sometimes I write down some ideas for buildings in notes. If in time this idea still seems interesting, it becomes overgrown with details, and a more or less solid image appears. Then I select some LEGO parts for the most complex elements of the sculpture, which are difficult to build any other way. Based on these parts, I select the scale. Sometimes I draw a sketch, sometimes I start to build right away, having an image only in my head. Through trial and error, something turns out.
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From DC Comics’ Watchmen graphic novel, the hero Rorschach.
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People
Sarah von Innerebner’s Beauty and the Beast ‘s Library 22
Interview by Joe Meno Photos by Sarah Von Innerebner and Alexandriamaija
One of the best scenes in Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast is when the Beast opens his library to Belle. As Belle is a reader, this gift from the Beast amazes and moves her, as she has never seen such a large collection of books, much less a library of such size. Since the film was animated, the
Madeleine.
Doctor Who’s TARDIS.
library only existed in a few drawings and backgrounds. This inevitably brings up the question: What would it look like if it was real? It would take a LEGO builder to find out. Sarah von Innerebner built the library to the scale of the Disney/Friends figures. The immense and beautiful model is the result of months of research, building, and rebuilding, and was displayed at BrickCan, a LEGO fan event in Canada. BrickJournal was able to interview her about how she started building and how she did the model.
The TARDIS interior.
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Building
The T-800 Terminator Article and Photography by Martin Latta
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I’ve been playing with LEGO almost my whole life. Around the year 2005, I joined our local LEGO forum, and since then we’ve organized many LEGO exhibitions mostly in the Czech Republic. I’m not really focused on a specific LEGO theme, but most of my models are sci-fi themed. Together with Star Wars, the Terminator series is one of my most favored sci-fi franchises.
Martin’s first head model.
This life-size statue is, in fact, my third rendition of the T-800 Terminator. The first “head” is from 2005, and to be honest, it was quite ugly. But at that time I was 14 years old and my LEGO collection was really small. A few years after, I came across one awesome Predator bust on some foreign LEGO forum. It inspired me so much that I created my second T-800 head, this time also with part of the torso. The scale was a little smaller than 1:1. With this bust I participated in few exhibitions organized by our LEGO club in the Czech Republic. It was quite popular so
Martin’s second head model.
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