The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 59 • October 2019
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LEGO Star Wars : ®
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The Builders Strike Back! Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm
Miro Dudas Jacob Neil Carpenter’s Death Star Instructions AND MORE!
The Photography of James Philippart
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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®
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Issue 59 • October 2019
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People
Justin Gates: Building Spaceships!......................................3 Amado Pinlac (AC Pin): Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of LEGO Star Wars............................................8 Evan Ridpath: Building Star Tours and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge............................11 Konrad Aksinowicz: Making a Scene!............................................16 Rui Miguel Anacleto: Making Astromechs and Microships!.............................................21
Building
Daryl Ng: Making Speeders and Blasters!.................25 Steve Peterson: Sith and Jedi Holocrons.............................28 James Philippart: Cooking up LEGO Photography!...........30 Jacob Neil Carpenter: That’s no Moon... ..........................................34 Simon Wild: Building Bridges (and other Star Wars Places)....................40 Miro Dudas: Star Wars Character Builder!....................47
You Can Build It: Midiscale Leia.................................................51 Mini TIE Echelon............................................60 Minifigure Customization 101: One Magical Hat...........................................66
Community
Mark Mancuso: Making an Iconic Mosaic!.........................70 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Classic AFOLs.....................................................80
From the Editor: A long time ago, in a galaxy far away... a great adventure took place.
October 2019 Issue 59 Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Contributors: Konrad Aksinowicz, Rui Miguel Anacleto, Jared Burks, Jacob Neil Carpenter, Christopher Deck, Miro Dudas, Justin Gates, Mark Mancuso, Daryl Ng, Steve Peterson, James Philippart, Amado Pinlac, Evan Ridpath, Simon Wild, and Greg Hyland.
So started Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. It took over two decades, but LEGO began selling LEGO Star Wars in 1999. It was a LEGO Star Wars set that got me back into building—the very first X-Wing set (7140). I built the set, and tore it down and made a different spaceship that I uploaded photos of to the newly-found website Brickshelf. I joined LUGNET and posted on the webpage... ...and 20 years later there have been many changes to the community. LUGNET has made way for other websites like Facebook, and Brickshelf became quaint when compared to Flickr. However, those old sites are a record of the beginnings of the LEGO Fan community. Many of the events that are now large, started small on LUGNET as an idea. Many of the expert builders started showing their work on Brickshelf and announced it on LUGNET. So if you have some free time online, check out LUGNET and see how the LEGO community started. It started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... And it’s still a great adventure! 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 www.twomorrows.com or scan below!
Website
Subscriptions
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: Luke’s homestead with his droids are perfectly captured in this photo by James Philippart. About the Contents: So who shot first? Photo provided by Miro Dudas. Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm.
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)
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 $62 Economy US, $74 Expedited US, $96 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, 9001 Barb Anne Court, Springfield, VA 22152, 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.
People
Justin’s version of the Lunar Lander.
Earlier this year, the LEGO Group released a set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing: the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle. Right before the set was released, a fan builder presented his own version that turned out to be as detailed as the LEGO Set! Justin Gates (known online as Akula Bricks) is the 22-year-old builder behind the model. He’s been a builder since earlier than he can remember, but remembers that LEGO was something that was always there in his life. Whether it was his own collection of parts or a friend’s, it was always fun to play around with it and create different things. Justin started LEGO building when he realized that he was fascinated with model-making and miniatures, but never really had the skills or resources to make any of his own. For him, LEGO was a media which wasn’t as intimidating to get into, had no painting or gluing, and if he didn’t like the way something turned out, he could easily change it.
Justin Gates:
Building Spaceships! Article and Photography by Justin Gates
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A close-up of the award ceremony.
Finally, I got invited fittingly on Saturday, May The Fourth to spice up the event at the Rockefeller LEGO Store for a Meet & Greet with the builder. It was so gratifying to see the feedback, comments, and reactions from the visitors, including their amazement meeting in person ACPin, the man who built this MOC. May The Force Be With You! An overall view of the diorama.
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People
Evan and his Star Tours layout.
Evan Ridpath is a Star Wars builder whose specialty is a niche in the Star Wars theme. He built a model based on the Star Tours ride at the Disney Resorts, and also built a microscale version of the new Galaxy’s Edge park at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He’s only 23, but has built for the past 20 years with no sign of stopping. His first set was a Duplo set when he was three years old. Since then, his parents have supported his creative endeavors, and LEGO was always seen as a good creative product to invest in for that. He also grew up down the street from LEGOLand California, which turned out to be a great place to visit and explore as a kid. As he grew older, he had a sort of Dark Age, as during his four years studying film at Chapman University, he built less since he left his LEGO bricks at home. He was still involved with the online LEGO community and was always brainstorming ideas for what he wanted to build as soon as he got home for break.
Evan Ridpath:
Building Star Tours and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Article and Photography by Evan Ridpath
Evan builds the most in the Star Wars theme, but he also enjoys Harry Potter, Disney, Castle, Lord of the Rings, and the Modular Creator buildings which line his family’s dining room. While this might be a throwback to some, the Adventurers series with Johnny Thunder was a favorite part of his childhood building as well! Evan got his first Star Wars set, the first AT-ST (7127) when he was five years old because he thought the Chewbacca minifigure looked cool. His parents had seen Star Wars:
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People
Konrad’s rendition of ILM during the production of The Empire Strikes Back.
Konrad Aksinowicz:
Making a Scene! Article and Photography by Konrad Aksinowicz 16
Konrad Aksinowicz has been building for a while—over thirty-five years, in fact. Considering he is a forty-year-old filmmaker, his building time has taken a majority of his life. It has always annoyed him that people compare the passion of LEGO building to playing with a children’s toy. He doesn’t agree with them and is convinced that LEGO building is an adult hobby such as snowboarding, cooking, painting, and composing music. For Konrad, building is yet another form of artistic expression that has not yet been accepted by the majority, but it’s only a matter of time.
He received his first LEGO set in 1983 from his grandmother. Living in communist Poland, Konrad was shocked because there were no such toys available. The set he received, the Black Falcon Castle (6073), changed his life. He was five years old and now could build anything he wanted. Over the many years that Konrad has built, LEGO building was a part of the day until he turned fifteen. Even after then, he built, though not as much. When he emigrated from Poland to Sydney, Australia, his LEGO sets went with him.
The scene he built here is as old as he is. Forty years ago, talented people from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) worked on the AT-AT sequence for the movie The Empire Strikes Back, part of the Star Wars trilogy of films created by George Lucas. The moviemakers introduced a special type of camera that could be controlled by computer and
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Building
A speeder biker aims a shot...
James Philippart:
Cooking up LEGO Photography! Article by Joe Meno Photos by James Philippart ...as does Han and Chewbacca.
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The photos all seen here were taken by a French chef. James Philippart creates these tableaus and photographs as a hobby, as well as photographing car races. He has been doing sports photography for five years, and LEGO photos for three years. His treatments on both subjects are dynamic and realistic. His LEGO scenes use minifigures and settings he has built. He’s a big fan of LEGO Star Wars and Harry Potter, and has been a lifelong builder. While he has made many Star Wars-inspired photos, he has also done a growing number of Harry Potter-based photos. A photograph may seem like an easy thing to do, but James plans and thinks about every element. When he watches a movie and is inspired by a particular scene, he imagines the picture he wants and how he’s going to do it. Technically, he uses a DSLR (digital singlelens reflex) camera—a Nikon D5200 set up to take macro photos. The macro setting gives him a small area of focus, which is good to give depth to the photo. To keep the camera stable, he uses a tripod at photo sessions and at events.
His LEGO room faces the sun during the day, so he doesn’t depend on flash photography, just a pleasant day. Photo sessions are set up and taken with natural lighting between noon and 3:00 pm. Most of the photos are done with practical effects—there is very little use of photo editing programs for enhancing. For his Indiana Jones photo, he used a match, and for his Star Wars Inferno Squad photo, he used real fireworks to create the flame effects. At a session, James takes hundreds of photos. For every 50 frames taken, only five are good photos. James’ old photo of Diagon Alley.
Taking the Shot For his Tatooine-based photo (seen on this issue’s cover) he used a monitor for the background and placed the other elements on a tabletop in front of a monitor with a desert background. With a macro lens to blur the background, the shot is taken!
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Building Jacob’s Death Star.
Jacob Neil Carpenter:
That’s no Moon... Article and Photos by Jacob Neil Carpenter The Orbital Battle Station, DS-1 Death Star project started in early summer of 2013, while I was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Since I was on a well-established Forward Operating Base (FOB), I was able to spend what free time I had building with LEGO. I acquired my sets from either ordering online or asking my wife Jennifer to send them to me. In this case I asked her to send me two of my 10188 Death Stars from home, with the intent to kit-bash the sets together. “Kit-bash” is a term used by some in which multiple sets are combined together to make one big one. When I received the two Death Stars, I started putting them together roughly using the instruction manual. During the early stages of the build I found I would need more pieces, which I requested through my wife. Due to job requirements, the 34 Death Star only got about a quarter of the way
done. So when it came time to redeploy back to the United States, I broke down what I had completed to ship everything back home. When I returned stateside in the early months of 2017, I knew I wanted to build a big MOC (My Own Creation), but did not know what to build. I initially entertained building another bigger and more detailed Imperial Star Destroyer than the last one I built, which was featured in the April 2013 BrickJournal issue #23. I also entertained the thought of building a Super Star Destroyer, but after some thought I decided my next MOC would be the Death Star. This was decided as I was not able to complete the kit-bashed Death Star I started in Afghanistan. I knew it would be a challenge since spheres are not an easy feat, especially a large one and one that would have a detailed mini-figured interior. I knew it would be a long journey and an expensive one, but figured the outcome would be worth the effort and the cost. I decided to build the first Death Star, from Star Wars: A New Hope, with the intent to create all of the major scenes from that movie. That being said, not everything on the Death Star was shown in the movie, so I knew a lot of it would be
open to imagination. During the course of the build I found a book called the Death Star Haynes Manual, which ended up providing an excellent source of information and pictures that were not in the movie. First, I had to decide how big I wanted to build it, which ended up being roughly 40 inches x 40 inches. So I built a 40-inch tower out of 1x16, 1x12, and other various sized LEGO Technic beams. Then using more Technic beams with Technic lift arms to act as a hinge and 6x16 plates, I created an outside shell in what was close to a circular shape. I did the shell from top to bottom on two of the four sides. I had to do two sides so the weight would be centered; if not, the tower would have fallen over with only one side being constructed. Once that was done I figured out how tall I wanted each level to be, and that was done by sketching it out on graph paper. I initially ended up with ten total levels: six levels being six bricks high, two levels being ten bricks high, and two levels being 14 bricks high. Once that was decided, I then used 2x2 and 2x3 brick slopes and inverted brick slopes to get as close to that outside shell as possible using the heights that I decided on for each level. The idea was if I could get close to that outside shell, it should represent a rounded shape of a sphere once complete.
The Death Star under construction, showing the tractor beam controls in the center.
Next, the floor planning began. That was done by drawing out various sized circles to represent each of the ten levels and then writing which bay/room I wanted to put on each of those ten levels. Once that was done I started with the base level and worked my way up. I designed it so each level was modular, meaning each level could be lifted off one another. This was achieved by using tile plates on the top of each of the levels, creating a smooth surface for the next level to sit on. Using the modular design was critical so I would be able to take it to shows and also move it around. A major obstacle I encountered was lighting. I knew when I took the MOC to shows I would need lighting so people could see into the Death Star; as the levels got bigger, so would the bays, and hallways would get longer—which meant everything would get darker. I knew I was going to use the brick light bar effect, but did not know if I wanted to use the white plates to simulate the light, or use clear plates and put a light source behind the light bar, just as they were in the movie. This approach was mastered by a very talented AFOL, Mark Borlase, aka Brickplumber. He used the latter approach on his Death Star layout, in which the end result was amazing! Due to the size constraints on my MOC and having to use one brick width walls, I realized that approach would not work. Additionally it would require soldering my own LEDs, and I lack solder skills. So now I had two issues: One, I had to come up with an alternate lighting design and two, where I would get the lights from. The first issue was resolved fairly easy as I decided to just install the lights in the ceiling, and run the wires in-between the floors, since the smaller levels would be three plates thick and the larger levels would be two plates and one brick thick. The second issue took some researching before being resolved. I knew the lights would have to be LEDs and in a strip configuration to provide adequate lighting in the bays. I also knew the wires would have to be small enough to route through the floors, but still be able to carry enough current to provide adequate brightness. I ended up finding a small, but well known company
Another construction view. Scout Trooper Speeder Bike Bay.
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Building Minifigure Customization 101:
One Magical Hat
Article and Photography by Jared K. Burks
Inspirational art for Mickey. Mickey Mouse TM & © Disney.
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A custom figure comes from many inspirations, but on occasion it is as simple as the correct accessory, in this case a magical hat. I was digging through the Build-A-Figure in the Houston Galleria LEGO store looking for rare hair pieces. Yes, most target the Pick-A-Brick (PAB) wall, but I target the Build-A-Figure. This is when I stumbled across several pieces in dark blue, specifically a wizard hat, torso, and the new lower body skirt. I knew instantly who this was supposed to be: “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” From my research, specifically Wiki, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was released in 1940, and represented Walt Disney’s boldest experiment to date, bringing to life Walt Disney’s vision of blending animated imagery with classical music. This film was designed to enhance Mickey Mouse, who had declined in popularity, and created a unique film in the history of animation. As Walt Disney settled on the film’s concept, production costs grew higher than what the film could earn. Thus Walt Disney decided to include the short in a feature-length film with other segments set to classical pieces. The soundtrack was recorded using multiple audio channels and reproduced with Fantasound, a pioneering sound reproduction
system that made Fantasia the first commercial film shown in stereophonic sound. We all remember the film Fantasia from the Fantasound, and each short feature title, specifically “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Fantasia is the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. when adjusted for inflation, according to Wikipedia. The Fantasia franchise has grown to include video games, Disneyland attractions, and a live concert. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, coproduced by Roy E. Disney, was released in 1999. Fantasia has grown in reputation over the years and is now widely acclaimed even though it was an initial financial failure. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 58th greatest American film in their 100 Years... 100 Movies list and the fifth greatest animated film in their Top 10 list.
Hat Cut study to determine the best fit for Mickey’s head.
As a child, I recall watching this movie multiple times, but this is where my memory failed me. Specifically, I was definitively sure Mickey’s Apprentice character wore a dark blue outfit in the film. While my memory was dead on for the hat, while researching for this figure I found his outfit was in fact red and the Sorcerer wore blue. This was something fairly easy to rectify, especially as the new lower body skirt has recently been added in red. So I had my Mickey, I merely needed to make the hat fit a mouse and I would have the foundation for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Fitting the hat to Mickey’s ears appears easy in concept, but I found it much harder than I initially thought. Luckily, Krystal of the Baybrook LEGO store just south of Houston was able to help me find several additional hats to practice on cutting them to fit Mickey. This is where I created a small parts study to understand how the hat should fit Mickey. When one starts a project by cutting LEGO parts, I always recommend safety and use of a saw or sandpaper over a knife when possible. In addition, I advise the use of a Kevlar cutting glove to protect your hand holding the LEGO element you are trying to cut. These can be found online or at carving stores inexpensively when compared to the price of stitches. I ended up cutting five hats to get the one I was after. Each are cut slightly differently and the best advice I can offer is to look at the part lines on the LEGO elements. LEGO most often places mold part lines right along the midpoint of most elements. This makes finding the center and making symmetrical cuts easier. Once I had the hat fitting Mickey, I had to develop the art for Mickey’s figure to make him resemble the film a bit closer. He is clearly wearing a wizards/apprentice robe and had a blue shirt, black pants, and brown shoes on under the robe. The robe gathers at the neck and is tied at the waist with a piece of brown rope. I opened up Corel Draw and quickly created a decal for Mickey and set to work bringing my fried decal printer back to life. Amazingly, I was able to get it up and running, but unable to get the computer that I have to use to send print commands fixed in time for this article. Therefore, for today I will apply the decal to the figure digitally and print the decal when my computer’s power supply is replaced.
Finding the part line for the Sorcerers’s Hat.
Digital decal application of art to Mickey.
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